Happy New Year, everyone! We’ll have some pictures from the Circus Practice/Paper The Operator gig (which was fantastic, BTW) up in a couple of days…in the meantime, I thought I would share a few upcoming releases that I’m looking foward to in the beginning of this year.
Beach House
Teen Dream
-To Be Released January 26th-
I am a dream-pop nutcase. Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi, Mazzy Star, Cocteau Twins, M83 et al….love ’em all. So there was no doubt in my mind that I would adore these guys; girly vocals, a kaleidoscope of keyboard/organ sounds, dreamy slide-guitar….yes, please. Now they’re signed to Sub Pop, have a proper recording budget, and they still sound fantastic.
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Seven Fields in Aphelion
Periphery
-To Be Released February 16th-
Seven Fields of Aphelion – Mountain Mary (via XLR8R.com)
Other than the fact that Seven Fields is a member of the kooky Pittsburgh collective Black Moth Super Rainbow, I know absolutely nothing about her. However, a snippet from her debut album was enough to realize that it’s not going to be a bunch of between-album wankery.
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Serena Maneesh
S-M 2: Abyss In B Minor
-To Be Released March 23rd-
Perhaps the best thing I can say about this band is that their self-titled album, released in 06, was arguably the best shoegaze record of the past 10 years. (If you don’t know…now you know.) Then they toured, fell of the map, lost their label to corporate blah blah blah. Now they’re back with album they recorded underground in a cave. With some dude who had something to do with Can, no less!
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Other albums that I think are pretty noteworthy (January only, otherwise it would take forever and a day):
Vampire Weekend – Contra (January 12th, XL)
These New Puritans – Hidden (January 19th, Domino)
Four Tet – There Is Love In You (January 26th, Domino)
Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring (January 26th, Arts & Crafts)
Magnetic Fields – Realism (January 26th, Nonesuch)
Retribution Gospel Choir – 2 (January 26th, Sub Pop)
Spoon – Transference (January 26th, Merge)
(Special thanks to Insound.com for helping out with the release info!)
So, what’s everyone else waiting to hear?
-Lance