It looks like we are in the middle of November. I hope you all are ready. The releases keep coming throughout this month. But will soon be slowing down a bit. It has been a busy couple of months. We now need to all take some time and cherish these music releases and give them the time that they deserve. You might need to go back a couple of months and catch up on some new releases you have missed. Or spend some more time with some of the albums that you just didn't have time to listen to. I know that is how I feel. I am in the middle of compiling my top 50 albums of the year. And probably more than half the list will be filled with albums out the last couple of months.

I finally broke open my This Mortal Coil Box set today and I couldn't be happier. I still think it is a bit too expensive for what you get. But it is almost worth it. I guess. I do love This Mortal Coil. I have loved them for so long and spent so much time with these three albums over the last 20 years or so. I guess they deserve me spending some money on them after all they have done for me. I can't really imagine getting through the 90's without This Mortal Coil. They were really not like much else that I listened to. But I needed them. These albums helped me go to sleep at night. They helped me get through the rough times and heartache. The albums are all dark and dreamy. But I never looked at these albums as depressing. There are actually some pop songs on these albums too. They are just all beautiful pieces of art. The artwork is amazing and perfect. And the songs flow great on the albums. I think I actually picked up my first This Mortal Coil album based solely on the artwork. And I may have actually gotten into This Mortal Coil before The Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance. This Mortal Coil was sort of like my gateway drug to 4AD. It was all over at that point. I was hooked for life on 4AD. I posted some info on preordering the box set last month. Here is the info on the This Mortal Coil box set preorder. However, It is of course out now. And I am proud to be in the same company of those of you who preordered the box. I did give you a chance to get it early! We are currently sold out of the box at Amoeba Hollywood. But hopefully will be getting more stock in the next couple of weeks. The albums sound fantastic. Just as great as you remember but better.

Real Estate – Days
 
Real Estate have helped usher in a contemporary appreciation of bands with clean guitars and hushed vocals, perfect for a summer day or autumn night. But Real Estate still do it better than anyone, as they prove on Days. From opener “Easy” and on, Days floats on breezy simplicity of melody and atmosphere that you could explain away as through line of Byrds by way of R.E.M. jangle pop informed by reverbed-out, dream pop aesthetics, but that would paint Real Estate as a throwback band when really their sound is their own. Country hues underpin even the spaciest of tracks, like the way winsome sliding guitars sway beneath the shivering, tremoloed star-shooting guitar lines of “Green Aisles,” and more obviously so on tracks like the springy, Smithsy “It’s Real,” which works some clever chord changes into a straightforward guitar-pop setting. Singer Martin Courtney’s voice is always plaintive but never intrusive, and the whole thing moves with subtle evocation, like a sepia-toned suburban home movie reel. It’s no coincidence a great, sunlit song on the album is titled “Wonder Years.”
 
Twin Sister – In Heaven
 
Twin Sister’s debut full-length delivers a band still emerging from chrysalis (their average age is now about 23, so says Wikipedia) but born with some pretty impressive power already. Roughly, Twin Sister are an indie pop band fronted by some froggish, androgynous vocals (singer vocalist Andrea Estella and guitarist-singer Eric Cardona both sound a little like the spawn of Sigur Ros’ Jonsi and St. Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell, the latter band of which they also sound a bit like on the lite-jazzy “Stop”). They touch on chillwave (the shimmering and strange chords of “Kimmi in a Rice Field” is the album’s absolute highlight) without committing to it, seemingly more interested in vibing late ’80s indie and video game music — the gentle “Luna’s Theme” has Sega Genesis written all over it, something that might be playing in some anime space station. But whatever Twin Sister ends up doing —be it cool Britpop, neo-futuristic electro or something else entirely — it ends up sounding great, if not entirely unified.
 
M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
 
After a decade’s worth of brilliant albums that have been increasingly epic in scope, Anthony Gonzalez of M83 has delivered the masterpiece he has hinted at for years. Gonzalez builds off the life-embracing yet ’80s nostalgic pop of 2008’s Saturdays=Youth across this double-album. Taking a hint from the Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Gonzalez sweeps through childlike wonder (the children’s story as Kraftwerkian computer-pop of “Raconte-Moi Une Histoire”), adolescent angst (the two and a half minutes of skyscraper-sized orchestral rock in “My Tears Are Becoming a Sea”) and young adult excitement (Gonzalez cries “The city is my church!” in the neon-backlit “Midnight City”) to capture the wide-eyed energy and naiveté of youth. There’s newly an emphasis on the kind of shuffling ‘80s funk-pop of the likes of Huey Lewis & the News and Hall & Oates in songs like “Claudia Lewis,” but it actually feels less throwback-ish than some of his previous work, perhaps in part due to contemporaries like Toro y Moi and Neon Indian similarly fusing such sounds with shoegazer aesthetics. Indeed, with the kinds of sonic dreamscapes of albums like Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts and Before the Dawn Heals Us also in tow on songs like “This Bright Flash,” Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming presents us with all of Gonzaelz’s best tendencies, all at once, and at their utmost potential.

2010 In-store Favorites:

This year in San Francisco, Amoeba Music was host to 48 live music performances! Here are some of my favorite photos that I edited for Amoeba.com's "In-store photos" section. While I did not take all of these images, I had the pleasure of editing them and they are some of the most fun photos I've edited this year.

TsuShiMaMiRe

This Japanese female rock trio was loud and got the crowd into it.

Die Antwoord

Whew! We're still recovering from a very successful and exhausting Record Store Day 2010 here at Amoeba San Francisco!


The day started off with a bang right at 10:30, with throngs of customers who had been lined up outside anxiously busting through the doors and rushing to find the special RSD treats. Within minutes there were hundreds of frenzied, music-seeking people flooding into the store!


The first items to go this year were the Beastie Boys' Mystery White Label, Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs Box Set, Wilco's Kicking Television Live in Chicago and The Hold Steady's Heaven is Wherever LP. The quick-moving line wrapped around the rock vinyl section, with happy customers eagerly chattering about their scores. On their way out the door, they received free goodie bags full of swag as a thank you!


The morning flew by and before we knew it, Charlotte Gainsbourg was stepping into the store, looking fresh and fashion forward in her goat fur lined coat and perfectly weathered brown boots, ready for her signing. The fans were already lined up, anxiously awaiting their turn to speak to rock/fashion/film royalty. She walked out to strains of Blonde on Blonde; along with Dylan, for her signing, Charlotte had requested we play Dark Side of the Moon and The White Album, all together three of the more popular rock records in the canon. We got the chance to interview Miss Charlotte post-signing for an upcoming website feature, and throughout the interview she was calm and even, despite the frenzy downstairs on our floor.

It seems like a recent trend for singers of big huge bands to want to go off and make a solo album! I guess it always happens at some point but it seems like there have been more than normal the last couple of years. Thom Yorke from Radiohead went off and made a solo album called The Eraser in 2006. Julian Casablancas from The Strokes put out Phrazes For the Young last year. Sometimes is a just a new collaboration that ends up coming out. James Mercer from The Shins just put out an album as The Broken Bells with Dangermouse. Alex Turner from The Arctic Monkeys also went this direction and started a new band called The Last Shadow Puppets. Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley has put out two solo albums. Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes has put out solo albums and is a member of the super group Monsters of Folk. Singers need breaks from their bands. Or maybe the bands actually need breaks from their singers! Maybe the singers just have big egos and want to go off on their own and show their fans that they can be just as good as a solo artist. Billy Corgan should just really be going by BIlly Corgan now. As far as I am concerned, Smashing Pumpkins broke up a long time ago! It is basically just him and a bunch of teenagers in the band now! Doug Martsch from Built To Spill even went solo in 2002 with Now You Know. Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Star has put out a couple of solo albums as well. Even Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl is getting in on the solo action with a new album out next month on Merge. And Kele from Bloc Party also has a new solo album around the corner! I am sure we will soon see solo albums from Beth Ditto, Karen O, Brian Molko, and Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon. It's just the way the industry goes, I guess.