Interesting CD Releases starts out this week with a local collection that is both splendid and FREE. Impeccably talented Chapel Hill producer and musician Jeff Crawford had quite a 2009. Producing new material for his bands The Tomahawks and Luego, in addition to great stuff from Brett Harris, Ryan Gustafson and Mandolin Orange, Crawford was involved in a large share of the town's prodigious pop output. The new 2009 Compilation brings together a sampling of the pristinely produced gems Crawford continues to polish up down at his Arbor Ridge Studios. A testament to a great talent and an excellent gateway to a good line-up of local artists, this is a must download. Check it out here.
Staying on our local bent, we've got the debut from Chapel Hill's Minor Stars. The Death of the Sun in the Silver Sea is built on big classically hard rock riffs and stretched out with soaring harmonies. The result is a streamline amalgam of the '70s AM dial and the more crushing riffs of indie rock heroes such as Dinosaur Jr. It's epic stuff, and it's used as the backdrop for eloquently oblique probes into uncertainty. All told it amounts to a booming yet cerebral experience, a record that plays as well blasting out of a car window as it does under bedroom headphone scrutiny. For a full review, check out Thursday's issue of Dive.
For all its success in the world of full length, Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up releases a lot of its best material in the form of singles, 7-inches and other obscure materials. Lucky for the people who don't try to track such things down, the band is releasing an excellent two disc collection of singles and rarities entitled Couple Tracks. With two discs and 24 songs worth of furiously hard rock, the collection is yet another example of just how wickedly talented this band is. It's full of all the genre-bending musicianship that's come to be expected from this outfit. For a full review of Couple Tracks, check out this week's issue of Dive.
Next on the agenda this week is Beach House's Teen Dream, a dreamy wash of reverb, guitars, and Victoria Legrand's husky vocals. Don't let the band's name fool you — Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally have penned a set of tracks that are more akin to a barren, snow-covered isle than the Jersey Shore. It's an album well worth picking up, not only because Pitchfork is hailing it as the next coming of God — alright, that's a little hyperbolic — but because it's the perfect accompaniment to gray January afternoons and days spent lazing around while a record spins. It's not necessarily straightforward, but once the last track winds down, Beach House has established a sonic landscape you'll want to return to again and again.
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