Friday, December 1st, 2000
New Palace Records in the Hopper
Take that, forces of evil!
Dany Sloan reports:
According to the latter label's website, Palace Records will be distributed by
Chicago's Drag City in the new year, a move which means better Palace
availability to the consumer, and as much Oldham as your stomach can handle.
The imprints' first co-release will be the self-titled third full-length from
The Anomoanon, the creative outlet for the eldest Oldham, Ned. It also
features younger brothers Paul and Will. Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Will's
willfully odd moniker, is also on the schedule of new releases with Ease
Down the Road, the full-length follow-up to the hugely awesome I See
a Darkness, the title track of which was recently covered by every
convict's favorite singer (besides Britney), Johnny Cash. Expect these
records to be out in February or March, just before little Donny and Marie
Oldham sign a contract with ABC for their own talk show.
Pitchfork Review: Bonnie "Prince" Billy: I See a Darkness
Palace: http://www.palacerecords.com
New Old David Grubbs Music to be Released
Starving classical guitarists quiver with envy
Brian Roberts reports:
In other Drag City news, the label announced that, early next year, it will
reissue a couple of domestically unavailable David Grubbs pieces as a single
record: The Coxcomb/Avacado Orange. The former was an LP-only French
release, and a musical interpretation of a story by Stephen Cranes, while the
latter is both a reworking of a song from Grubbs' solo debut and a leftover
from the sessions for his most recent full-length, The Spectrum Between.
Just so if you actually did pay the outrageous import price for The
Coxcomb, you'll now have to crack open your wallet again to hear this
"new" track. You Grubbs-aholic freak.
Pitchfork Review: David Grubbs: The Spectrum Between
Drug City: http://www.dragcity.com
Japancakes Flip New Record
Eggs, bacon run in terror
Kurt Towncar reports:
Kindercore Records will present the world with a new Japancakes full-length
in February. Entitled The Sleepy Strange, the album treads the same
path as the Athens, Georgia band's debut, If I Could See Dallas;
namely, the musicians go into the studio unrehearsed and simply repeat
musical phrases over and over, and then assemble the most "interesting" parts
into whole "songs." It's a technique that one of the band members even goes
so far as to call "boring to a lot of people." Bald-faced honesty will get
you everywhere in our book. The producer was Andy Baker, who, having
previously worked with Macha, knows his numbing instrumental drones when he
hears them.
Pitchfork Review: Japancakes: Down the Elements EP
Pitchfork Review: Japancakes: If I Could See Dallas
Kindercore: http://www.kindercore.com
|
|
|
|
|
10.0: Indispensable, classic
9.5-9.9: Spectacular
9.0-9.4: Amazing
8.5-8.9: Exceptional; will likely rank among writer's top ten albums of the year
8.0-8.4: Very good
7.5-7.9: Above average; enjoyable
7.0-7.4: Not brilliant, but nice enough
6.0-6.9: Has its moments, but isn't strong
5.0-5.9: Mediocre; not good, but not awful
4.0-4.9: Just below average; bad outweighs good by just a little bit
3.0-3.9: Definitely below average, but a few redeeming qualities
2.0-2.9: Heard worse, but still pretty bad
1.0-1.9: Awful; not a single pleasant track
0.0-0.9: Breaks new ground for terrible
|
|
|
|
All material is copyright
2001, Pitchforkmedia.com.
|
|
|
|