SAShepherd

Strokes - Is This It
Kathleen Edwards - Failer
Alison Krauss - Forget About It
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
Pete Yorn - musicforthemorningafter
Neko Case - Blacklisted
U2 - The Unforgettable Fire

General QOTD: Let's go back to the "comment on the previous person's selections" QOTD. Positive, negative, indifferent, just keep it clean.

Specific QOTD for me: The Rapture's Echoes is $6.99 at Best Buy tomorrow. I hear generally good things -- worth the trip to pick it up? What do they sound like?

Gdrlv

Cracker - Countrysides
Cafe Tacuba - Cuatro Caminos
Handsome Family - Singing Bones
Phish - Live Phish 20
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People
Hieroglyphics - Third Eye Vision
Baldwin Brothers - Cooking with Lasers

AOTD: I usually like what SAShepherd listens to, so it's no surprise that I like what's on his list today...my second favorite U2 album (for some reason, I'll always have a Rattle & Hum weakness), the excellent Broken Social Scene album, Pete Yorn's one good cd (so far, anyway). The only disc I don't care for that you've listed is the Strokes.

By the way, in case anyone's interested, the new Cracker record is excellent...8 country cover songs and one original...and I haven't liked a Cracker album since The Golden Age. The original, "Ain't Gonna Suck Itself," was written right after the band got dropped by Virgin Records. It's the funniest record company kiss-off I've ever heard. The covers are also excellent (particularly "Reasons to Quit," "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mothers," "Family Tradition" and "Truckload of Art").

fallow

The Rapture, Echoes (weird, huh?)
Tim Hecker, Radio Amor
British Sea Power, The Decline of British Sea Power

I really like that Strokes album (though I enjoy Room on Fire more) and really love the Broken Social Scene disc. That Neko Case album is one I mean to check out - not so much for the country-chanteuse gig, but I like the New Pornographers.

The Rapture has put out what I think is the best album I've heard this year. It's a bit of an odd bag; as Yancey said a long time, a couple tracks are heavily influenced by Gang of Four (Heaven, The Coming of Spring), a couple are straight up house tunes (Olio, I Need Your Love), and some are acoustic ballads (Open Up Your Heart, Love Is All, and Infatuation [Open Up Your Heart reminds of The Beatles' sleepier moments]). The bulk of the CD is upbeat but many consider the slower tracks to be speed bumps - I just think it makes for a great level of variability. Whether or not you'll like it...I'm not sure? If you like some of the late 70s British post-punk bands (Gang of Four, Au Pairs), then you'll probably enjoy this one. But if you don't really dig the whole dance-y guitar slashing, bass driving, disco-thumping scene, then you probably won't like Echoes

-edit-

And the singer sounds a bit like Robert Smith or a more controlled Cedric Bixler (At the Drive In and The Mars Volta) - so if you think their voices are annoying (many do), you probably won't like The Rapture.

Alyoshka

Stellastarr - S/T
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Spoon - Kill the Moonlight
Howie Day - Stop All the World Now

QOTD - I like most of what fallow normally puts down in these threads, however, I only have heard The Rapture. I haven't heard this album (I don't think), but overall, I think that I like their sound. If you think it's the best album you've heard this year (being that it's October!) I'll be sure to check it out.

stevevt

Rooney - ST
Dressy Bessy - ST
Wrens - The Meadowlands
Lisa Marr Experiment - American Jitters
Lucksmiths - A Little Distraction
Yo La Tengo - The Sounds of the Sounds of Science

QOTD
I always like at least something on Alyoshka's list. Today, that something is the Interpol CD. Nice stuff -- I should probably listen to it again some time soon.

QOTD from last week
I didn't go to Death Cab for Cutie. Not worth bumping the old thread to mention it, but there ya go.

Obligatory Rapture Comment
I'll be picking up this CD at Best Buy. Anyone know the details of this sale... tomorrow only or the whole week?

mike1978

I imagine the sale runs all week. I ordered my copy of "Echoes" online for the 6.99 price, and shipping was free.

I have never heard Dressy Bessy, Lisa Marr Experiment, or Lucksmiths, so I won't comment on those. A co-worker told me I would "love" that Rooney album, but it didn't do much for me. I hate that Wrens album, but the Yo La Tengo disc is quite enjoyable. What I've heard from the upcoming YLT EP sounds like a step back in the right direction after the snoozer "Summer Sun."

Recently:
Elvis Costello - "All This Useless Beauty"
Retisonic - "Lean Beat" EP
Tindersticks - "Waiting For the Moon"
John Cale - "Fear"
Outkast - "Speakboxxx/The Love Below"

jonnyrocks

Beat Happening - You Turn Me On
Grant Lee Buffalo - Jubilee
Lambchop - Is a Woman
Mojave 3 - Spoon & Rafter
Spoon - Series of Snakes
Ken Stringfellow - Touched
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore
Yo La Tengo - Today is the Day EP

AOTD - I'm always amazed at how people on these posts are usually listening to just about similar things. I mean, every time I post on these, I'm always listening to at least a previously posted artist, if not the exact same album...so it keeps me happy that people are listening to cool music.

mike1978 - I love that new Tindersticks album...perfect for the beginning of the week! As for the new YLT EP, it's actually quite a rocking piece of EP! Aside for a mellowed down version of "Cherry Chapstick," they pretty much return to trademark YLT rock form--fuzzy guitars and fun melodies.

fallow - How do you dig that British Sea Power CD? It took me a couple of listens to get into it, but I'm starting to like it so far...the first half sounds like a Pixies album and the second half sounds like a Suede album.

I'm looking to pick up the new Rapture CD tomorrow at Best Buy, mainly because $6.99 is a tough price to turn down for a very talked about album. I snoozed on picking it up as an import, so I guess that paid off.

stevevt

At some point a few months ago, in some context, I read a Rooney review or saw them mentioned in one. Put the CD on my wanted list (filed under "buy this used") and promptly forgot all about it. Found it used at a local store on Saturday. Now that I've heard it a couple times, here's my impression: Of all the bands out there that sound like Weezer, including, at times, Weezer, Rooney sounds the most like Weezer. They're the Weezeriest band I could imagine. Bands don't get more Weezer-like. 2 thumbs up.

SAShepherd

(Since I started the whole thing without commenting...) I haven't heard any of jonnyrocks' albums, though I think our tastes are not too dissimilar.... I still listen to Grant Lee Buffalo's Mighty Joe Moon... is Jubilee as good? (I also have the Grant Lee Phillips solo album unlistened to on my shelf...) Spoon is on my list of bands to check out their back catalog (just got Kill The Moonlight recently, and it's really grown on me).

Although I like seeing similar tastes (helps me to form opinions on what to file in my "to buy later" file), I also like to see really broad playlists posted -- it was interesting to see people post in the "what are you listening to now" thread last week who don't normally post in the "today's CDs" threads...

Edited to add: thanks, mike1978, for the heads up on the bestbuy.com free shipping -- I thought that had stopped. As a result, I've ordered the Rapture album. Worth $7.50 (including tax) to take a flyer on the album.

fallow

I like this British Sea Power disc pretty well, but I don't feel a desire to listen to it frequently. Kinda like The Hidden Cameras, my appreciation for it comes from the occasional times I actually pop it in the disc changer. Yr description of the disc is pretty spot-on as far as I can tell. I am tired as hell of the Joy Division comparisons, though. It was pinned on Interpol succesfully - now BSP gets the treatment.

Dr_Evil

The albums I've listened to this week:

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Joseph Arthur - Redemption's Son
Travis - 12 Memories
Idlewild - 100 Broken Windows
Fuel - Natural Selection
Old 97's - Too far to Care
Big Ass Truck - Who Let You in Here?
Jawbreaker - 24 Hour Revenge Therapy

lostatmidnight

This week while getting deep down and dirty into my writing (anyone know any literary agents? )

Counting Crows: Hard Candy (in the car cd player)
Wallflowers: Red Letter Days
The Twilight Singers: Blackberry Belle....

My God did Greg Dulli create a masterpiece, Blackberry Belle is simply beautiful...I cannot wait to see the band in Philly next month.

Poink

The Deadly Snakes- Ode To Joy
The Books- Thought For Food
Lilliput/Kleenex- s/t

AOTD- Fallow sometimes comes off as some kinda twin of mine, although it seems like nearly everyone here lists something I like/own.

I should be getting Echoes in the mail tomorrow, but I woulda picked it up at Best Buy if i knew it were gonna be $7.

jonnyrocks

While I enjoy Mighty Joe Moon much more than Jubilee, Jubille does have its share of choice Grant Lee Phillips material. In comparison to Mighty Joe Moon, Jubilee does turn things up a bit...there are more uptempo rockers and a glossier production on Jubilee, but the flow of MJM seems a bit tighter. But Fuzzy would be my GLB album of choice. Which Grant Lee Phillips album do you have? If it's Ladies Love Oracle, I highly recommend that you give it a listen...it's GLP's acoustic masterpiece!

The other two Spoon albums on Merge are totally worth picking up at some point. There's something about their minimal-but-polished arrangements and production that's so intense to listen to.

SAShepherd

Yeah, I've got Ladies Love Oracle and Girls Can Tell unopened on my shelf. I'll get around to them eventually, but I've got to parcel out my new (old) music slowly...

fallow

For those of you that bought Echoes today, what do you think?

DJLinus

Barenaked Ladies - Everything to Everyone
David Sedaris - Live at Carnegie Hall
David Sedaris - Naked (audiobook)
The High & Mighty - The Highlite Zone
Del tha Funkee Homosapian - Both Sides of the Brain
Hieroglyphics - Full Circle
Mandy Moore - Coverage
Gerald Collier - Low Tar Taste
v/a - "Road to Perdition" score
Rat Pack - Live and Swingin'
Big Al Carson - Take Your Drunken Ass Home

QOTD: Never heard of anything Poink listed, but I just may check some of it out later to make a comment.

Commenting on my own stuff, I never thought that I'd buy a Mandy Moore disc, but damn if it isn't good for $8. I really like her XTC cover. I fely kinda creepy buying it, though.

Penny Lane

What do you think about the Handsome Family record? One of my friends said a CD with a song about haunted Wal-Marts deserves to be bought on principle.

jonnyrocks

I'm not diggin this album at all. Maybe it'll grow on me...but some of the songs just make me angry! Had I set up strobe lights and fog machines in my office, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more. Nonetheless, it seems worth, at most, the $7 that I paid for it. Let's see what I think of this album after a few more spins...

Yancey

for those wanting to know more about the rapture, pick up the november issue of cmj for a feature by yours truly! (also check out the voice's review of that disc alongside basement jaxx -- tres good)