Staff Picks for June 2012
June 30, 2012
Country Blues Troubadours contains 125 tracks spread out over five CDs, tracing blind harpist Sonny Terry and guitarist Brownie McGhee's earliest recordings between 1938 and 1948. JSP does an admirable job remastering the tracks, providing recording dates, personnel, and a bit of history, easily accessible in individual jewel cases rather than a bulky booklet.
June 29, 2012
Drawing upon such influences as Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth, ST Deluxe carry on the indie rock tradition of anthemic slacker guitar heroism and superlatively catchy pop songwriting. The band’s 2008 debut is a fuzz and feedback-drenched mix of melodic noise rock that gets your fist pumping and heart swooning.
June 28, 2012
Half-Paradise Garage, half-frat house, Armand Van Helden is always in the sweet spot for me. Here, he's combining Gary Numan riffs with naughty lyrics, going Goth with the help of a Scorpions riff, and hiring Common to sing on a track that's certifiably disco. Delicious!
June 26, 2012
2003 debut from Ville Kiviniemi (aka the Mattoid), a Nashville-based, Finland-bred enigma who invented his own guitar technique (sango), dabbles in Scandinavian throat singing, and crafts simple, infectious anti-pop songs about partying, Soviet cosmonauts and consuming rat poison.
June 25, 2012
Ten years after the hardcore blast of Gorilla Biscuits, Walter Schreifels was making power pop with the same guts and glory, but with more hooks and less screaming. This was Walking Concert's only album and it's a lost rock & roll classic.
June 24, 2012
Easily a definitive album of the hardcore genre, Start Today was the jumping off point for the straightedge scene as well the New York hardcore scene that was still forming at the time of it's 1989 release. With boundless energy, humor and drive, Gorilla Biscuits wound chugging guitar lines and lightning fast drums around singer Civ's endlessly positive and often political lyrics. This would be the band's only full length and stands as a pillar of forward-thinking punk sounds.
June 23, 2012
Leading a band featuring such talents as Roswell Rudd and Charlie Haden and exploring sounds from fiery jazz freedom to post-bop swinging to Eastern-tinged modal grooves, this 1966 recording was Shepp's most freewheeling Impulse-era release.
June 22, 2012
On her second solo album, Sun Midnight Sun, former Nickel Creek leader Sara Watkins opens up her sonic horizons, giving the poppiest elements of her music a clean, smooth polish but never abandoning her core folky Americana.
June 21, 2012
This incredibly atmospheric, remarkably vivid and detailed 2003 solo outing from Justin Sullivan was inspired by the New Model Army frontman's voyage across the Atlantic on a cargo freighter.
June 20, 2012
Library of Congress field recordings done by Alan Lomax from 1941-1942, featuring Muddy with Percy Thomas on guitar, Louis Ford on mandolin, and Henry Sims on violin. Hearing Muddy in a string-band context playing his earliest repertoire is a major find for blues fanatics.
June 19, 2012
Various Artists
Despite limited commercial success, Perception & Today released a large quantity of material during the early '70s that does not require a digger's mentality to appreciate. This BBE overview features selections from Dizzy Gillespie and Astrud Gilberto, as well as funk stalwarts Fatback and overlooked soul serenaders Black Ivory.
June 18, 2012
This album of the music of Manuel de Falla amply demonstrates why his tuneful works have found popularity in the concert hall. Featured are the complete ballet The Three-Cornered Hat, Nights in the Gardens of Spain, and Homenajes, performed with exotic flair by Juanjo Mena and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
June 17, 2012
With his dreadlocks, Snidley Whiplash mustache, and frilly Adam Ant-inspired pirate blouses, London pop singer Charles Costa (aka King Charles) liberally pillages the ‘70s glitter-synth of Sparks, the indie-Afro pop of Vampire Weekend, and the folk-pop of Mumford & Sons on his silly, melodically infectious 2012 debut, Loveblood.
June 16, 2012
Betty Davis huffed, puffed, then kicked down the door of the musical boys' club with her scorching full-length debut, shouting and slinking her way through irresistibly funky, freaky songs like "If I'm in Luck I Might Get Picked Up," unknowingly paving the way for like-minded artists from Madonna to Kelis.
June 15, 2012
The second solo outing by one of the forefathers of electronic music, this 1970 double album is a cinematic marvel of constantly unwinding textures and pulses. The earlier works by Schulze were more raw and searching, and Cyborg stands as the pinnacle of his sprawling quest for illumination.
June 14, 2012
Hauschka's latest album, Silfra, takes Volker Bertelmann back to his classical roots, but last year's Salon des Amateurs is a thrilling collision of electronic rhythms and Bertelmann's delicate prepared piano.
June 13, 2012
Various Artists
The Bombay Connection is a funky, funky connection for real. This collection is nasty funk Indian-style presented in a beautiful package that is as fun to read as it is to listen to.
June 12, 2012
An excellent, pastoral-but-funky guitar pop debut that bridges the gap between early R.E.M. and Haircut 100. Smart lyrics and clever songwriting to boot.
June 11, 2012
The young and charismatic conductor Robin Ticciati leads the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in an astonishing performance of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. In this performance, details jump out with startling clarity, and the vivid sound of the orchestra is quite close to what Berlioz would have heard in his time.
![Small Faces [1967]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0001666728/front/400/z1J7oYcwDihqnBnBv1rSsw4Q1ghY8VaPylnm7PwcKNY=.jpg)
June 10, 2012
Another in a batch of Small Faces Deluxe Editions, their terrific third album is vibrant, soulful, nervy, colorful and possibly their best.
June 9, 2012
The unjustly forgotten (by most) Jasmine Minks made some fine '80s British indie back in their day, and virtually all of the best is right here: "Think!," "Cut Me Deep," and "Cry for a Man."
June 8, 2012
Working under his Horseback moniker, Mount Moriah's Jenks Miller melds Americana and black metal on his latest experimental epic, Half Blood.
June 7, 2012
The Sunshine State metal quartet's third studio outing sounds like Mastodon covering Sugar-era Bob Mould, while Sugar-era Bob Mould simultaneously plays the Melvins through Queens of the Stone Age's backline.
June 6, 2012
At times the Wood Brothers sound like a stripped-down alt-folk version of the Band, or maybe the perfect opening act for Tom Waits, and captured live, Chris Wood's stunning basslines and Oliver Wood's quietly brilliant songs take everything into some pretty interesting and refreshing territory.
June 5, 2012
Funky, elegant, and innovative, Sterolab's fourth full-length is perfect listening for when spring gives way to summer.
June 4, 2012
The Gryphon Trio is one of the best piano trio ensembles around, so anyone looking to learn a little something about this corner of the chamber music realm should try this set. It's an excellent overview, with examples from several different composers and periods.
June 3, 2012
If you're a strict rootsman, this heavily synthesized effort might be indefensible, but this is one of those rare all-male Uhuru releases, and it gets more interesting from there. There's a War cover, something borrowed from Robert Palmer (compare "Bassline" to Palmer's "Deadline"), plus the sweet sound of Uhuru eulogizing poet Anne Sexton on their cover of "Mercy Street."
June 2, 2012
The long-running bliss-fest of Jason Spaceman's Spiritualized based its existence on the drugged-out religion of rock & roll or at least channeling the patron saints thereof. This seventh album by the band is a wash of extreme brightness and terrific darkness, bookended by epic monuments to each with the transcendent "Hey Jane" and the heartbreaking "So Long You Pretty Thing."
June 1, 2012
Flip, Flop and Fly is a comprehensive compilation of Big Joe Turner's Atlantic material recorded between 1951 and 1955, which produced 12 Top Ten R&B hits and two chart toppers, "Honey Hush" and "Shake, Rattle & Roll." Rev-Ola did a great job with both remastering and packaging.