The pace picks up a little in new music releases this week. Top cool pick for the week: Now That Sounds Kosher!. It surveys the history of Jewish comedy music, going back to good ol' Allan Sherman and Tom Lehrer, and forward through Weird Al. I'm curious about "Man Of Constant Tsuris" by The Soggy Matzoh Boys. That sounds VERY wrong. It also, naturally, includes "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore" by Kinky Friedman. If you don't own this classic song, that alone would constitute a good reason to get up on this.
Also, I see a new Ladysmith Black Mambazo album (No Boundaries) which might be worth a listen.
Marianne Faithfull generally rates a spin. Her new album Before the Poison features collaborations with PJ Harvey and Nick Cave among others.
Lee Ann Rimes has a new album out, This Woman, which is said to be an actual country album (whatever that means today) rather than the dance pop whatever that she has indulged in the last couple of years.
Kenny Chesney has never made any impression on me, but he's considered big stuff among the country audience. If that's you, you may want to get up on his new Be as You Are (Songs From an Old Blue Chair). I, however, disapprove on grounds that the album cover is not quite gay enough.
Here's the complete list of this week's major new releases, courtesy AMG:
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead Worlds Apart Interscope
Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning Saddle Creek
Indie Rock
Kenny Chesney Be as You Are (Songs From an Old Blue Chair) BNA
Neo-Traditionalist Country, Contemporary Country
Low The Great Destroyer Sub Pop
Dream Pop, Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Lou Barlow Emoh Merge
Lo-Fi, Alternative Pop/Rock, Singer/Songwriter
Bettie Serveert Attagirl Minty Fresh
Indie Pop, Indie Rock
Bonnie "Prince" Billy/Matthew Sweeney Superwolf Drag City
Indie Rock, Singer/Songwriter
Bright Eyes Digital Ash in a Digital Urn Saddle Creek
Indie Pop, Indie Rock
Buck Sixty Five This Right Here Is Buck 65 V2
Underground Rap, Alternative Rap
Emma Bunton Free Me 19/Universal
Adult Contemporary, Dance-Pop
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Aaman
Lovely covers - the Marianne Faithful, the Lou Barlow and the Bright Eyes particularly. They left the Channukah song off "Now..Kosher"? Hmmm...
2 - Al Barger
That does seem like a pretty glaring omission, now that you mention it.
3 - Tom Johnson
Adrian Belew's new solo album, Side One, with Les Claypool on bass and Tool's Danny Carey on drums, is out today as well. Sound clips at Amazon make it sound like a must have for guitar fans.
4 - JR
Also a new solo album by Sylvain Luc, Ambre.
5 - Mark
Yes! Chemical Brothers! I have been longing for a new album from them. =)
6 - mark caputo
Al, love your writing.
Please email me off list. I have a question for you.
Tanks in advance
7 - Aaman
Al - a real fan!
8 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
those two bright eyes albums should be top of folks lists.
9 - Mark Saleski
hmmm, weird day...all sorts of "i don't get it" discs being mentioned.
first Elliot Smith, now Bright Eyes.
i've been trying to narrow down what exactly it is about some of these singers that leaves me cold....they're often described as "downcast", "moody", etc. i get absolutely no emotion out of any of it.
weird.
10 - The Theory
Bright Eyes is fucking terrible. I mean, seriously...
That said, "I'm Awake It's Morning" will probably end up in my collection because Emmylou Harris sings on three of the tracks. I LOVE Emmylou.
I sampled the Marianne Faithfull album yesterday at B&N... sounded pretty good. Some of the reviews seemed so-so on it, but it'll probably be a good one to check out.
I'm listening to the Trail of Dead album now... good. Not as epic, perhaps, as past albums, but worth the listen.
11 - Eric Olsen
I highly recommend the Nat King Cole collection. MuzikMan liked it too. If all you know is "The Christmas Song," this is a great place to start.
12 - Eric Olsen
great line: "I, however, disapprove on grounds that the album cover is not quite gay enough"
these country hats can get away with the most questionable shit because, you know, they're country
13 - Al Barger
Hard telling what Chesney and Toby Keith are doing up in the hayloft, but I'm sure it's good clean Republican fun.
14 - Bill Lamb
Eric,
Just curious what is so great about the line "not quite gay enough"...because my expectation is a line "not quite straight enough" wouldn't be such a great line.
15 - Al Barger
Mr Lamb, is this some PC rebuke? Big tough gay cowboys are funny. Run of the mill hetero cowboys are not particularly.
In fairness, however, the specific phrase "not gay enough" comes somehow from SNL. I forget where exactly.
16 - Bill Lamb
Al,
The question wasn't directed to you...but I will make this comment...
I find it interesting that the primary people who I've seen or heard make comments about "gayness" of Kenny Chesney are straight men.
The gay community doesn't claim him.
Straight women drool over him.
So..what do some straight men see in him?
How would they know he's appealing to someone of their gender? I don't think gay men or straight women put it in their head.
17 - Eric Olsen
Bill, it isn't nearly that insidious or sociological: I was merely responding to the wording of Al's comment, which struck me as humorous. It was droll.
18 - Bill Lamb
Eric,
I wasn't trying to be either insidious or sociological when I asked you the question...which you still didn't answer.
I didn't read it as funny, so I didn't get the joke. I was asking to find out.
I made my own response to Al...some straight men seem to know an awful lot about what makes some men homoerotically appealing in the same way that Dr. Dobson seems to know an awful lot about it being hard work to resist having sex with other men. That's just an observation in the same general territory as this topic.
Not PC at all...I'll defend Al's right all day to make the comment. It's just I didn't see it as funny, and I wanted someone to talk about what makes it funny instead of assuming the blogcritics audience all see the world the way he does...and then deflecting by bringing up a tired old PC line..or "I just saw it as funny, that's all." It doesn't answer the question.
19 - Eric Olsen
as I said, the WORDING is what was funny, not any of the real world implications. The wording in conjunction with the picture of a good looking country star sitting in front of his blue chair in a cowboy hat and some kind of odd sleeveless shirt struck me as funny. It's that simple: funny either is or it isn't, and it's prefectly fine if it doesn't strike you as funny.
20 - JR
I thought it was funny. Whether or not Keeny Chesney is gay or straight or talented or not doesn't really matter, it's just an amusing comment on the album cover.
21 - Shark
Big AL on Chesney: "I, however, disapprove on grounds that the album cover is not quite gay enough"
Al, you must understand that not everyone can meet the high standards set by Prince.
========
heh. Just hadda.
BTW: I thought it was a great, funny line.
22 - Eric Olsen
great one Shark!
23 - William Lamb
Such an odd comment shark...can anyone define what you mean by "gay"? Since Prince is most definitely not gay, does nothing to appeal to a gay audience and has never been embraced in a significant sense by gay audiences?
Dumb, uniformed attempts at humor are just that...dumb, uninformed attempts at humor.
24 - Mark Saleski
i think yer sarcasm detector is busted.
25 - Eric Olsen
Bill, you are coming at this from an entirely different place. I'm sure you can see this. None of this has anything to do with actual "gayness" or gay people or appealing to gay people or not appealing to gay people or gay constituencies: it has to do with perception and image and the contradictions inherent in them both