Not even two months after releasing ISOLATION, Spangle call Lilli line releases a new album titled PURPLE on Nov. 12, reports Bounce.com. Intended to be a counterpart work to ISOLATION, PURPLE goes the opposite route of its predecessor’s classical bent, focusing instead on a laid-back sound that involves the entire band. There’s a lot more description in the article and on the band’s web site, but essentially, the band is pulling a Use Your Illusion. Spangle call Lilli line will also embark on a 10th anniversary tour.
BONNIE PINK releases a Christmas-themed EP titled CHAIN on Nov. 26, reports Bounce.com. The six-track EP includes two originals, plus performances of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Wonderful Christmastime", "Let It Snow" and "The Christmas Song". Tomita Keiichi produced the titled track, while guitarist Watanabe Kizumi makes an appearance on "The Christmas Song". Details for a limited edition first pressing were not yet available.
Despite Best Buy low-balling independent music shops on CD prices, it still doesn’t stop me from going there when I need to pick up a new hard drive or blank media. I just tend not to buy music there. (Unless it’s something I don’t want my former record store co-workers to see me getting.) So my rampant bourgeois rockism is only slightly mitigated.
But you have to wonder about big-box retailer exclusives. Is your major label release so milquetoast that you need to keep it out of stores that would put it next to the likes of, say, Death Cab for Cutie and the Shins?
I must have started this entry at least three times, trying to cull release news of interest (to me.) So most of this entry contains releases already scooped in earlier posts. I included a few other potentially news worthy items, and of course, I have to mention the Shiina Ringo boxed set coming out Nov. 25. Mostly, this fall looks as bad as last year in terms of interesting releases. I didn’t think I could take "bored to death" so literally.
Instrumental rock band unkie is set to release their second album, too many secrets, on Oct. 22, reports Bounce.com. The band recorded the album in Chicago on analog equipment with Steve Albini, and the new tracks include more of a "hip-hop taste" (that’s how Bounce describes it. The article also throws around the adjective "jazzy".)
unkie includes AJICO/LOSALIOS bassist TOKIE, downy/VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE guitarist Aoki Yutaka and session drummer Kido Hiroshi. The band released the Price of Fame in July 2007.
Bounce.com follows up a previous report on new ART-SCHOOL releases with more details. The new mini-album, titled Illmatic Baby, contains six songs, while the best compliation, titled Ghosts and Angels, spans the band’s career on previous labels, including EMI. Both albums have an Oct. 15 release date. The title track of Illmatic Baby was produced by DOPING PANDA member YUTAKA FURUKAWA. ART-SCHOOL embarks on a tour with DOPING PANDA, OGRE YOU ASSHOLE, the telephones, THE NOVEMBERS, UNCHAIN and VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE as guests.
ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION releases its next studio album, Surfer Bungaku Kamakura, on Nov. 5, about eight months after the release of its most recent album, World World World, reports Bounce.com. A new single, "Fujisawa Loser", precedes the album on Oct. 15. For this album, the band is making some sort of wordplay on the Enoura station name with the song titles. (Or at least, that’s how I’m reading it. I may be translating that incorrectly.) The band will embark on a tour to promote the album in November.
Every once and a while, Pause and Play has an actual tidbit of information that’s remotely useful to me. Case in point: the upcoming new album by Wendy and Lisa. Pause and Play lists Sept. 9 2008 as the release date for White Flags on Winter Chimneys.
The duo has been working as composers for film and television since the early ’90s, working on such projects as Crossing Jordan, Something to Remember, Bionic Woman and, perhaps their highest-profile gig, Heroes. When the writer’s strike truncated the 2007-2008 television season, Wendy and Lisa used the time to write and record a new album, their first in a decade.
Back in 1998, the pair self-released Girls Bros., an album about which I wouldn’t have known had I not run into a vendor at the Austin Record Convention who mentioned its release. Today, keeping up with Wendy and Lisa is as easy as finding their Myspace page. Or Facebook. Or Twitter.
It’s kind of weird, really. I bought their self-titled debut album when I was 15 years old. Back then, the label served as gatekeeper, determining how much interaction a teenager in Honolulu could get with a pair of artists who have worked with Prince. The label has long since been out of the equation, and the Internet essentially lets them get their music to me directly.
How cool is that?
By the way, the songs made available for preview? Typical hard-to-classify alt-rock. Something good really did come out of the writer’s strike.
[UPDATE, 10/26/2008 17:32] Wendy and Lisa are eying a November release, probably Nov. 11 or Nov. 18, according to one of their Tweets on Twitter. The duo are working with Topspin on the release.
ART-SCHOOL gets the retrospective treatment on Oct. 15, reports Bounce.com. No particulars have been announced about the compilation, including its title. I’m guessing it’ll only cover the Pony Canyon albums, but it would be cool if the EMI years were to be included. The closest EMI got to releasing a best album was the live disc Boys Don’t Cry. Also arriving the same day is a new mini-album.
Band leader Kinoshita Riki has been focusing his efforts lately on KAREN, a project with former members of downy. The band’s first album, maggot in tears, is turning out to be one of the most listenable of the year.
So after 14 years, Guns N’ Roses’ long-gestating album Chinese Democracy may finally appear exclusively at … Wal-Mart? That’s what Billboard is reporting.
I haven’t listened to any of the other exclusives given to Wal-Mart, but really, I’m not the target market for them. Garth Brooks? The Eagles? Please. Those aren’t incentives for me to step into a Wal-Mart. I’ve got a Target around the corner anyway.
Besides, the rockist in me wants to assume that anything which needs to be targeted directly to a Wal-Mart shopper probably sucks enough to earn my scorn. The odds Chinese Democracy would sound remotely relevant — considering how long its taken for the musical landscape to shift in 10-plus years — were low to start, but a Wal-Mart exclusive, in my aforementioned rockist mind, is a clear indication of the level of suck.
In the meantime, Velvet Revolver is still looking for a new singer.