New Album Releases 05/20/08: Two From Mudhoney, Foxboro Hot Tubs, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Petty, Kings X and More Hits Than You Can Shake A USB Stick At (Not!)

Welcome to yet another indescribably lame week of new album releases. It now seems like light years ago, when on a single week we got new music from R.E.M. and the Stones (it was actually about two months back). It even seems like a lifetime since the new albums from Mariah Carey and Mudcrutch, and those came out just earlier this month.

Speaking of Mudcrutch, this week brings a new Greatest Hits disc from lead mudcrutcher Tom Petty. And while we’re on the subject of “mud,” let’s not forget Mudhoney.

Back before the rest of the world discovered what we flannelheads out here in lumberjack country already knew as grunge, Mudhoney were Seattle’s favorite sons. I mean, where else but late eighties Seattle could you find a band that sounded like Blue Cheer fronted by a Stooges-era Iggy Pop? Yet that was exactly how Mudhoney sounded on the groundbreaking EP Superfuzz Bigmuff.

This week, those fine folks at SubPop are issuing a deluxe, expanded edition of that landmark EP, and expanding it from its original six songs to a whomping, stomping 32 tracks. Mudhoney also has a brand new full length album — their eighth, for those counting — out this week called The Lucky Ones.

The other big release this week is from a band that may or may not be otherwise known as Green Day, called the Foxboro Hot Tubs. From its trippy, old style album jacket artwork, to the music contained within, Stop Drop and Roll!!! screams sixties rock from it’s head, to, well, it’s head. But we mean that in a good way. You’ll find no American Idiot style Bush bashing here. Just plenty of punked up sixties style rock in the best Stones/Kinks/Who sort of tradition.

Scarlett Johannson’s album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head is getting terrible reviews pretty much across the board, including a good solid thrashing from BC’s own Donald Gibson. Actually, much to his credit, Gibson was his usual very polite, charming self, even as he pretty much ripped this CD a new one.

Now, here’s Tom Johnson with this week’s math lesson. Today’s class is on multiplication:

Tom Johnson’s Pick Of The Week: King’s X: XV

X equals 10 and V equals 5. So that’s 10 to the tenth power times 5…carry the 1… whatever. It’s higher math, but this is, believe it or not, the group’s fifteenth album. I’m going out on a limb here – I can’t imagine what the “15” means otherwise. Fourteen albums bearing the King’s X moniker and one by Sneak Preview, the early version of the band that simply bore a different name. Makes sense to me, in a weird way. Michael Wagener, who really tightened things up when he produced the band’s previous album, Ogre Tones, is back to crack the whip for XV. Expect more deep, driving grooves, catchy melodies, and the always incredible guitar work of Ty Tabor. Why this band has continually suffered from near anonymity is beyond me. Same old story, isn’t it? You know what to do about that, don’t you?

Mark Saleski did not contribute a pick this week.

Here are all of this week’s new album releases courtesy of All Music Guide:

James Carter
Present Tense
Emarcy
Progressive Jazz, Post-Bop

Foxboro Hot Tubs
Stop Drop and Roll!!!
Reprise
Garage Rock Revival, Alternative Pop/Rock, Rock & Roll

Scarlett Johansson
Anywhere I Lay My Head
Rhino
Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Dream Pop

Mudhoney
Superfuzz Bigmuff [Deluxe Edition]
Sub Pop
Grunge, American Underground, Alternative Pop/Rock

The Wedding Present
El Rey
Manifesto
Indie Rock

Amon Düül II
Hijack
SPV
Kraut Rock, Prog-Rock/Art Rock

Billy Boy Arnold
Billy Boy Sings Sonny Boy
Electro-Fi
Harmonica Blues, Electric Harmonica Blues, Electric Chicago Blues, Chicago Blues

Bobby Bare
Singin’ in the Kitchen
RCA
Country-Folk, Progressive Country

Beatallica
All You Need Is Blood
Oglio
Tribute Albums, Song Parody, Heavy Metal

Bun B
II Trill
Rap-A-Lot
Dirty South, Southern Rap, Hardcore Rap, Gangsta Rap

Bobby Charles
Homemade Songs
Rice N Gravy
New Orleans R&B, Rock & Roll, Traditional Cajun, Americana

The Dresden Dolls
No, Virginia…
Roadrunner
Cabaret, Alternative Pop/Rock, Punk Revival

The Explorers Club
Freedom Wind
Dead Oceans
Indie Pop

Felix da Housecat
Global Underground: Milan
Global Underground
Post-Disco, Club/Dance, Techno, House

Flobots
Fight with Tools
Republic
Alternative Rap

Judy Garland
Judy Takes Broadway! With Friends
Savoy
Traditional Pop, Vocal Pop

General Echo
Teacher Fe di Class 1979-1980
Blood and Fire
DJ, Dancehall

Good Shoes
Think Before You Speak
Brille
New Wave/Post-Punk Revival, Indie Rock

Julianne Hough
Julianne Hough
Mercury Nashville
Contemporary Country, Country-Pop

Islands
Arm’s Way
Anti
Neo-Psychedelia, Indie Rock, Indie Pop

Jeremy Jay
A Place Where We Could Go
K Records
Indie Pop

Joan of Arc
Boo! Human
Polyvinyl
Indie Rock, Experimental Rock, Post-Rock/Experimental, Math Rock

George Jones
George Jones: The Hits – Then Till Now
Time Life
Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan, Honky Tonk, Country-Pop, Traditional Country

King’s X
XV
Inside/Out
Progressive Metal, Heavy Metal, Prog-Rock/Art Rock, Hard Rock, Christian Rock

David Lloyd-Jones
Alan Rawsthorne: Practical Cats; Street Corner Overture; Madame Chrysanthème Ballet Suite
Dutton Digital
Modern Orchestral Music

Mates of State
Re-Arrange Us
Barsuk
Indie Pop, Indie Rock

Jesse McCartney
Departure
Hollywood
Adult Alternative Pop/Rock

Pat Metheny
Day Trip Live
Nonesuch
Post-Bop, Contemporary Jazz, Folk-Jazz

Mudhoney
The Lucky Ones
Sub Pop
Grunge, American Underground, Alternative Pop/Rock

Seattle Trumpet Consort
After Baroque: Music for the Natural Trumpet
Origin Classical
Trumpet Selections

Spano, Robert
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem
Telarc
Romantic Choral Music

Stevenson, Ronald
Ronald Stevenson: Passacaglia on DSCH
Appian
Contemporary Piano Music

Original Score
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [Score]
Concord
Original Score, Film Music, Soundtracks

Rosa Passos
Romance
Telarc
Bossa Nova, Vocal Pop, Samba

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Greatest Hits [Bonus Track]
Geffen
Heartland Rock, Album Rock, Rock & Roll, Bar Band, Pop/Rock, Hard Rock

Michael Rose/Admiral Tibet
Fire Fire Burning
Heartbeat
Contemporary Reggae, Dancehall

Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza
Heads Up
Afro-Cuban Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Jazz-Pop, Post-Bop, Latin Jazz

Donna Summer
Crayons
Burgundy
Club/Dance, Dance-Pop, Contemporary R&B, Adult Contemporary

3 Doors Down
3 Doors Down
Republic
Post-Grunge, Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative Metal

Various Artists
Arthur Honegger: Rugby
Alpha
Modern Orchestral and Vocal Music

Abigail Washburn
Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet
Nettwerk
Neo-Traditional Folk, Chinese Folk

Windsor for the Derby
How We Lost
Secretly Canadian
Indie Rock, Post-Rock/Experimental

The Yellowjackets
Lifecycle
Heads Up
Crossover Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Jazz-Pop, Fusion