Record Store Day is great for any number of reasons — supporting record stores and the music community, hearing DJ sets from the likes of Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning. But in the end it’s all about the exclusive and new releases. Here are 10 picks from the many releases coming out April 21. (Read a more comprehensive list here, and download the full list here.)
 
Animal Collective – Transverse Temporal Gyrus
 
Ripped from elsewhere on the Amoeblog: In March 2010, Animal Collective and visual artist Danny Perez put on an installation called "Transverse Temporal Gyrus" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. For the audio, each member of the band made individual sounds and songs. Over the course of two 3-hour performances, the basic tracks were fed into a computer program that randomized the track order, and sometimes randomly combined stems from one track with stems from another. The program also panned the music in various directions around a 36 channel surround sound system that ran through 36 speakers set up from the top of the Guggenheim's ramp to the bottom. The music on this 12" is a collage made consisting of the original tracks, as well as live recordings made inside the Guggenheim before the doors were opened to the public. It will be the only physical format on which any of the music will be released.
 
Plus it’s new Animal Collective!
 
Arcade Fire – Sprawl II
 
Arcade Fire’s Blondie-ish “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” was undoubtedly the highlight of The Suburbs and showed the band still has some tricks up its sleeve. The Soulwax remix included here tastefully gives it the dancefloor feel it calls for without just throwing a house beat over the song and calling it a day.
 

Ohhh yeah! Get your paws on these vinyl reissues of two Ariel Pink albums, The Doldrums and House Arrest, via Animal Collective's Paw Tracks label, out on March 8! It's been a long while since I've seen a used copy of The Doldrums on wax floating around on the salesfloor and I've been disappointed that I didn't snag it ever since I had the chance. You know, that old story. Well, no friggin' worries, mate! And I'll be picking up a copy of House Arrest too!

"Every Night I Die at Miyagi's" from House Arrest:


"Good Kids Make Bad Grown Ups" from The Doldrums:


On a personal note: The Doldrums, with that signature home recording sound (consisting of a keyboard, guitar and 8-track as well as all those unbelievable vocally-generated drum sounds) is the shit, real talk. That side A packed with non-stop hits, including "For Kate I Wait," has long been a beloved summer jam and I can't wait to plop it on the platter of ye old hi-fi and kick back some cold ones, open all the windows and picture myself rollin' down this road come August:

In recently trying to fill in a friend on what I'd spent the last year or two listening to, I realized that my personal taste tends to gravitate towards some element of either Folk form (any hint of hill-folk finger-pickin' or Ozark/Appalachian melancholy and I'm in), Psychedelia or the tendency to extend a theme for a good long jam (a category in which I include a lot of the Jazz that I like), or just a great, funky groove.

With those qualifiers in place, the following is a year by year review of the last decade which somehow got past me with out noticing it. I mean, really?!! 2010?!!!  I didn't see it coming: 

2000: Album of the Year

Air's enjoyable and wacky Moon Safari had been on the decks for a couple years before they contracted for the soundtrack to Sofia Coppolla's Virgin Suicides. The resultant score is absolutely sublime and marked the French electronauts as contenders to watch.

For myself, it was the defining sound of the millennium's new year.
















Shelby Lynne released a killer country-soul gem, I Am Shelby Lynne, that echoed early material from the likes of Bonnie Raitt. Thinking that it was a brilliant debut from a talented 32yo unknown, I was eventually shocked to find that it was her 6th album. I listened to it for months.

There are not a ton of new releases in December, but there have been a few worth checking out. I have been too busy getting my "best of" lists ready for the end of the year and the end of the decade, so I have not had much time to talk about these new releases, but here is a quick list for you. There's not really much out this week, December 29th, just a couple of DVDs. Come pick up your copy of Paranormal Activity and Jennifer's Body on DVD!

You will have to wait until January for more music new releases. I will get back to my normal new release reviews next year, I promise, and in the next day or so I will be posting my top 100 albums of the decade! It has not been an easy list to compile. It is hard to compare albums from 2001 with albums that just came out last month. But it has been a lot of fun going back and listening to all my old favorites. I only gave myself a couple of rules in compiling the list: I had to really love the album. It had to be an album that I still like or at least look back on fondly. I also only picked one album for each artist, so I didn't let myself pick 3 Radiohead albums and 3 PJ Harvey albums. The list would have been too boring. Or, if I was Rolling Stone, I would have had 2 albums by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, and the White Stripes in my top 25. There are just too many great albums in the decade to let those bigger artists dominate my list, so I picked my favorite album from each artist for the whole decade. I had so much fun making this list that I am also going to go ahead and make a list of my top 100 albums of the 90's. And I also have a list of my top movies of the 90's and the current decade as well! So check out my lists soon! They will be posted any day now....

  vs.






          "Graduation" by Kanye West                                                                            "Curtis" by 50 Cent

9/11 is sort of a ridiculous street date. There is so much coming out today. I really didn't even know where to start. This week will be the battle between two giants of hip hop, Kanye West and 50 Cent. I have not heard either album yet but I am really betting on Kanye coming ahead of 50. I love the artwork for his new album and the song "Stronger" is fantastic. I was a bit confused about Kanye collaborating with Daft Punk, but it works out so perfectly. I was also sort of sick of 50 Cent after "In Da Club." I would be fine with never having to hear him or that song again. But I know a lot of people still love him. So I am a bit biased in my pick for Kanye. But he was awesome at the VMA's if not a bit over dramatic. He has claimed he will never have anything to do with the VMA's again after not winning again. I don't think he really needs to worry. He was all over the show and I don't think the fact that he didn't win a VMA is going to effect the sales of his album one bit.