One of my favorite bands of all-time haven't released an album of new material since 2001's great Here's to Shutting Up, and although there was no formal announcement, I'd assumed they were no longer recording new material. Mac McCoughan's side project, Portastatic, has released several albums since then, so I figured the machinations of getting the old band back together to record an album were too difficult (I think some of the band members have families now). But they still played together occasionally, usually for charity, and had released several albums of older material in the Clambake Series, so I still had some faint hope that something new might come along. And lo and behold, this spring -- which has already seen so many amazing and surprising releases I can hardly keep track -- Superchunk are returning with their first album of new music in 8 years, a 5-song EP titled Leaves in the Gutter. Yeah. Freaking awesome.
Leaves in the Gutter will be released next Tuesday, April 7, but you can pre-order it now. The album is a definite throwback to early, pre-1995 era Superchunk, with swirling guitars and Mac's wonderful falsetto, and the two standout tracks at the start of the EP, "Learned to Surf" and "Mistakes & Misfits" rank up there with the best of classic Chunk. Just a wonderful, refreshing return. Here's Mac's take on the new album, from his own blog...
April 15th at the Cats Cradle in Chapel Hill
April 18th at Coachella in Indio, CA
And here's a bunch of singles from upcoming albums that should interest you:
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
- Releasing Today
- Buy at Amazon
- Download Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Zero".mp3
Peter Bjorn & John - Living Thing
- Releasing Today
- Buy at Amazon
- Download Peter Bjorn and John - "It Don't Move Me".mp3
- Bill Callahan (of Smog) - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
- Releasing April 14
- Pre-order at Amazon
- Download Bill Callahan - "Eid Ma Clack Shaw".mp3
- NOTE: this is an absolutely wonderful track from a really wonderful album; check it out
- Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
- Releasing Today
- Buy at Amazon
- Download Great Lake Swimmers - "Everything Is Moving So Fast".mp3
- St. Vincent - Actor
- Releasing May 5
- Pre-order at Amazon
- Download St. Vincent - "The Strangers".mp3
- Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
- Available Now
- Buy at Amazon
- Download Neko Case - "This Tornado Loves You".mp3
- This album's been out for a couple weeks, but I think I've been lax in promoting it -- it is one of the better albums of the year.
- Metric - Fantasies
- Releasing April 14
- Pre-order at Amazon
- Download Metric - "Sick Muse".mp3
And sticking with the female singers theme of the last three records...
- Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
- Releasing April 7
- Pre-order at Amazon
- Download Bat for Lashes - "Daniel".mp3
- Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
- Releasing May 25
- Website
- Download Phoenix - "1901".mp3
- And in case you haven't heard it yet, Modest Mouse played a new song on David Letterman recently...
- Download Modest Mouse - "Satellite Skin (live)".mp3
And finally, to close this suddenly massive post (there's just so much good music coming out right now!), here's a video off last year's Sigur Ros album, for "Vid Spilum Endalaust", shot in a fancy restaurant in France (I believe). Enjoy.
Sigur Ros - Við spilum endalaust - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
One of their recent live shows (a benefit) is available online at http://www.cytunes.org/album/20/
All proceeds go to brain cancer research - I'm a volunteer for CyTunes.
Posted by: Jeff Stern | April 01, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Thanks Jeff. The Superchunk show he's referencing was at the Cat's Cradle in NC on 8/29/08. Go to the above link to purchase tracks for this great band and support brain cancer research.
Posted by: Bill | April 01, 2009 at 02:31 PM
Is there an MP3 of that Sigur Ros performance anywhere?
Posted by: Nick | April 01, 2009 at 09:34 PM
I don't have one. Check Elbo.ws maybe.
Posted by: Bill | April 01, 2009 at 10:11 PM