Artist: Rakim Album: The Archive: Live, Lost & Found Label: Koch Records Release Date: 03/04/08 There’s not much to say after mentioning that Rakim released a new album, The Archive Live, Lost & Found, which has live performances of some of Rakim’s biggest hits and new, unreleased tracks. Even the novice hip-hop fan will know that this album is a bona fide crowd pleaser, with nothing even coming close to being comparable, well, that is,......

Artist: Beck Album: Odelay Deluxe Edition Label: UMe Release Date: January 29th, 2008 I wish I could put a promo track up with this post but UMe won't let me so it's their loss. Just hum "Devil's Haircut" while you read. It's been a dozen years since Beck Hanson put out his best album, Odelay, and listening to this expanded reissue just confirms that this release was his peak (to date). This is not to......

Artist: Division Day Album: Beartrap Island Label: Eenie Meenie Records Release Date: 10/02/2007 Listen to "Ricky": We finally got our greasy little mitts on Beartrap Island from LA's own Division Day and have been enjoying it quite a bit. After the sort-of throwaway intro tune, the Beartrap Island kicks into what I think is my favorite tune on the entire album, "Ricky" (listen to it above) - it's rockin' and energetic and a great way......

Artist: Tuxedomoon Album: Vapour Trails Label: Crammed Discs Release Date: 02/05/2008 Listen to "Kubrick": It's hard to believe it's been thirty years since Tuxedomoon made their debut. They were part of San Francisco's weird music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. At a time when West Coast punk was in it's nascent stages, and there were plenty of hippie-era hangers-on, Tuxedomoon's mix of electronica, jazz, and rock found its place in both snobby......

Artist: Cheb i Sabbah Album: Devotion Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: 01/29/08 Listen to "Qalanderi": Devotion CD Release Party @ The Temple Bar - Saturday, February 2nd The incomparable Cheb i Sabbah has produced Devotion, his seventh release for Six Degrees Records, once again inviting us to enjoy his updated presentation of the timeless music of central Asia. San Francisco-based Cheb i Sabbah traveled to India to record the vocals for several tracks with......

Artist: Brownout Album: Homenaje Label: Freestyle Records Release Date: 01/29/2008 I'm really pleased to have a new favorite album and even more pleased to have it be from this year. Brownout is a side project of Grupo Fantasma but they are definitely not on the sidelines - they are an amazing hardcore funk phenomena from Austin and LA's in luck since they will be playing two gigs in town this week: Thursday @ the Rootdown......

Artist: The Deadly Syndrome Album: The Ortolan Label: Dim Mak Release Date: September 2007 Listen to "Eucalyptus": OK, so yeah I know Silver Lake's own The Deadly Syndrome came out with The Ortolan a couple months ago but I didn't know that it was hiding in a pile of CDs that was sent to me and I'd somehow missed it but I should get some credit for being a good boy and cleaning up after......

Artist: Cass McCombs Album: Dropping the Writ Label: Domino Records Release Date: 10/23/07 Listen to "That's That": Frequent tourer Cass McCombs came through LA this last fall but if you missed him you will have a chance to see him again in '08 as his tour schedule is posted and expanding. Dropping the Writ is inspired by a short stretch of time that McCombs spent living in Los Angeles from '05-'06 and it was recorded......

Artist:Da Cruz Album: Nova Estaçāo EP1&2 Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: Fall 2007 Listen to the track "Intro (Sao Jorge)": Nova Estaçāo EP1&2 is another release in the "Emerging Artists" series from the label Six Degrees Records. This series is part of Six Degrees' efforts to get new and innovative artists out in front of people as quickly as possible and inexpensively as well - these are electronic releases that you can pick and......

Artist: Raul Campos Album: Loteria Beats Mixtape - Volume 1 Label: Nacional Records Release Date: 10/23/07 Listen to "Olvidela Compa" by Nortec Collective: Regular listeners of KCRW know who Raul Campos is: the resident alterna-latino DJ for the lat seven years. From listening to his radio shows, you know he's a true DJ, a mixologist, with excellent beat matching and seamless theme weaving. Loteria Beats Mixtape, Vol. 1 is like a pumped up control-board tape......

Artist: DJ Bitman Album: Latin Bitman Label: Nacional Records Release Date: November 6, 2007 Listen to the track "My Computer Is Funk": DJ Bitman is Chilean Jose Antonio "Toto" Bravo who has also gone under the name of Bitman & Roban. Latin Bitman is his second release in the US following last year's Musica Para Despues de Almuerzo and while I didn't hear that debut I really like this "sophomore" effort. You may have heard......

Artist: The Real Tuesday Weld Album: The London Book of the Dead Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: Fall '07 Listen to the track "Last Words": The Real Tuesday Weld is the recording project of Stephen Coates and The London Book of the Dead is his third release under the name and his second with the Six Degrees label. The name itself is very interesting because at the Six Degrees website refers to "the late......

Artist: Dust Galaxy Album: Dust Galaxy Label: ESL Release Date: Fall '07 Listen to the track "River of Ever Changing Forms": If you missed Dust Galaxy at their Knitting Factory gig last Friday, have no fear, you can pick up their excellent self-titled CD. Dust Galaxy is the solo project of Rob Garza, co-founder of scenester label Eighteenth Street Lounge (ESL) but you won't be hearing any of the ESL's signature bossanova or other latin......

Artist: Tom Middleton Album: Lifetracks Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: 11/06/07 Listen to the track "Shinkansen": DJ, mixologist, and producer Tom Middleton has put out an album in his own name. You may have heard of some Middleton's other projects of the last 15 years: AMBA, COSMOS, Global Communication, and The Jedi Knights or his remixes of Prince, Coldplay, and Jamiroquai but this is his first release of his own tracks with his own......

Artist: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings Album: 100 Days, 100 Nights Label: Daptone Records Release Date: 10/02/07 Promo Track "100 Days, 100 Nights": When I first listened to this CD I thought it was a reissue of some '60s soul supergroup but no, this gem came out just last month! This album made me nostalgic for my first car, a '79 Honda Civic 4-door hatchback with an AM radio and the only music station that......

Artist: Beirut Album: The Flying Club Cup Label: Ba Da Bing Records Release Date: 10/09/07 Listen to the track "A Sunday Smile": Beirut is the brainshild of the oft-blogged travelling wunderkind 21-yr old Zach Condon. Whereas Beirut's debut release, Gulag Orkestar, was an obtuse and idealized interpretation of Balkan music, this new release is Zach's take on the music of Parisian street minstrels. With multiple vocal and string tracks, in addition to the expected accordion......

Artist: Foreign Born Album: On The Wing Now Label: Dim Mak Release Date: 8/21/07 Listen to the track "Letter of Inclusion" While all of Foreign Born's members may not be native sons of LA, they are emissaries of a Silver Lake music scene with their own, almost classic, West Coast flavor. "Almost classic" because the era of the Beach Boys, and the Mamas and the Poppas (and to a lesser extent the Eagles) is now......

Artist: Herbie Hancock Album: River: The Joni Letters Label: Verve Records Release Date: 9/25/07 I haven't had a chance to review a release from a "living legend" until this album arrived in my PO box. Herbie Hancock seems like someone who has done it all: a jazz icon unafraid of technology, a winner of multiple Grammy awards and an Oscar, and a virtuoso live performer - but he's never been a lyricist, and had never......

Artist: Neil Young Album: Chrome Dreams Two Label: Reprise Records Release Date: October 23, 2007 “An ambulance can only go so fast”, sang Neil Young thirty-three years ago in the stony career meditation “Ambulance Blues.” “It’s easy to get buried in the past/ When you try to make a good thing last.” It’s kind of funny to think about guys like Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton making records about the perils of aging at......

MGMT Oracular Spectacular Columbia Records Release Date: October 2nd, 2007 (digitally) When Vanwyngarden and Goldwasser, the visionaries at the helm of MGMT, met at Wesleyan University back in 2002, neither of them could have expected a four record, six figure deal from Columbia Records. Let alone being hand picked by Steve Lillywhite. Yet somehow they managed to keep those monstrous figures from tingeing their ingenuity. MGMT's Oracular Spectacular is a wondrous, synth-laden extravaganza that......

Let's face it, 2007 was a mediocre year for movies. Although there are still a couple months left for 2007 to prove it's cinema value, overall it was a disappointing year. Sure Hollywood gave us "300", "Zodiac", and "Once", but we also got "The Number 23", "Norbit", and "Code Name: The Cleaner". So I have my eyes set on 2008, which seems to have a wonderful slate of features for us to see at......

Our Classical Pick of the Week is tonight with the Pasadena Symphony and special guest and timpani rockstar, Jonathan Haas, playing American composer Philip Glass' "Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra." With that in mind, we decided to check out the album that features Haas with percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Also on the album, but not in tonight's concert is the "Concerto for Cello and Orchestra," an adventurously beautiful piece with some of Glass' trademark......

Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago Self-released Release Date: TBA So this is the phoenix which has risen from the ashes of DeYarmond Edison's demise. Emma, Forever Ago plays as though it was excavated from the depths of front man Justin Vernon's emotional quarry. Although initially it was not intended for release, each song is as painstakingly crafted as the next. The raw, experimental approach (lo-fi percussion and clap-along resolves) to conventional bluegrass infused......

Eulogies Eulogies Dangerbird Records Release Date: 09/11/07 Peter Walker did the right thing when he decided to ditch the solo career for his band Eulogies. For some reason or another, his solo career didn't interest me, but Eulogies' self-titled 2007 release has proven otherwise. The new album is a striking and addictive indie rock endeavor, the antithesis of Walker's previous Wilco-compared work. Eulogies is built upon deceivingly poppy premise. The band name, lyrical content,......

Artist: PJ Harvey Album: White Chalk Label: Island Release Date: October 2, 2007 A recent ad for White Chalk, the new PJ Harvey record, boasted – without quotes – that some people are calling it one of PJ’s greatest albums. The vagueness of the claim made me wary. For the last 15 years, PJ Harvey has always managed to sound relevant, while producing some of the most consistently challenging material. Despite her constant reinvention, each......

Artist: Colleen Album: Les Ondes Silencieuses Label: The Leaf Label Release Date: Summer 2007 Colleen - "Sun Against My Eyes" After an insanely hectic week this was the album to listen to. While I'm not a devotee of classical music, I've very much enjoyed this minimalist work by Colleen, aka Cecile Schott. While it is minimalist, it isn't austere as in the style of a Philip Glass or his ilk. Colleen boils the music......

José González In Our Nature Mute Records Release Date: 09/25/07 As contrived as it may be, there is a time and place for everything. My father always conveyed this notion to me with the "lightning in a jar" metaphor. When an artist is experiencing the heyday of their career, they have contained this so-called "lightning in a jar". I always thought the point of the whole metaphor was that the volatile lighting in this......

Artist: No Age Album: Weirdo Rippers Label: Fat Cat Records Release Date: 08/28/2007 Perhaps you had a chance to see No Age at one of their shows at the end of the August at the Troubador or perhaps the Fuck Yeah Fest. If you missed them you'll have a chance to see the LA-based duo of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall (frickin' love that name) again but until then you should consider giving their......

Devendra Banhart Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon Release Date: 09/25/07 XL Recordings A lot of people hate Devendra Banhart. He's definitely one of the most polarizing artists that I listen to. I've explored innumerable avenues of elucidating this matter and nothing has come close to sating me. Within the indie community there are splintering factions of naysayers who say, "That's where I draw the line!" The line, of course, divides the obscure from the......

Median Median's Relief Halftooth Records Release Date: 09/25/2007 Representing North Carolina and the group The Justus League, which also includes underground favorites like Little Brother, Median in jumping onto the scene with his debut album, Median’s Relief. The album embodies a variety of life experiences, with Median adding a personal touch through the usages of political and philosophical inferences. Median’s delivery style, which is somewhat reminiscent of Eminem’s, reiterates North Carolina’s contribution to the......