I’ll be honest here, usually my Tuesday mornings start with a 7am wake-up call so I can start listening to records and find the best new ones for these features, but today I wasn’t able to preview a lot of these albums because somebody hasn’t updated the New Releases section yet! (I’m calling out Rdio on this one; seriously guys you dropped the ball).
Regardless, the fine folks at NPR, SoundCloud, and AOTY have supplied what is another great edition of Release Day!
Ty Segall | Manipulator
Being hailed as the rock album of the summer, Ty Segall has been getting a lot of indie buzz for this, his second full length LP. As Marc Maron, from the WTF podcast put it on Monday, “the production has finally caught up with this kid’s talent”. I could not have said it better myself. This guy is already revered for his ability as a guitarist and a songwriter – but for some reason the lo-fi garage sound never really popped out the stereo when you threw on his record. This may had been due to the fact that he usually bangs out new records in a day or two – but not this time – being forced into the studio for almost a month by producer Chris Woodhouse (Thee Oh Sees, !!!, Wild Flag) someone finally got this guy in the studio long enough for him to get it right. And man, it sounds so right.
Bahamas | Bahamas is Afie
The title pretty much sums up this one: it was never a mystery that Afie Jurvanen has always been the driving creative voice behind the indie four-piece Bahamas – this record just makes one wonder how long it is until the by-line on subsequent records changes completely. There are points on this record where he’s playing all parts himself, clearly taking the lead on most tracks. Maybe it’s a Brian Wilson complex, but who knows, it’s still a great record and if the other 3 are fine with it – so be it. They’re still making great records.
Benjamin Booker | Self Titled
Take Alabama Shakes, throw it in a bag with punk rockers and R&B musicians from the southern-US, shake it up for a while and get the raw energy expressed in Benjamin Booker’s self-titled release. Blues, Americana, Chuck Berry-esque guitar work, and a weird mix of noise-rock – it’s everything at the same time. It’s excellent.
