Here are the listings for our Toledo City Paper – Culture Clash Records

DIY Support Local free compilation. Thanks so much to Emily at TCP for such a great issue

Homeville Circle – Toledo
Frank & Jesse – Albuquerque
Polka Floyd Show – Fearless
Drawers – Opium Den
Daniel Strange – Dream Lord
OnceOver – Forever Hold Your Peace
Coosters – Bed
Fairly Handsome Band – Loney Hula Girl
Jason Quick – Curly Calypso
Great Lakes Crew – A Little Bit
AntiVilians – So Much For Romance
Homeville Circle – Interstate Trailerpark Headaches
Mighthaveben – Moving Again
Kentucky Chrome
Other Half – Smut

After taking a week off from Record of the Week last week due to Mother Nature putting a collective whooping on the greater 419 area,  and then THIS Record of the Week being delayed until a week later due to the Great Computer Crash of ‘10, we are back. There are a couple titles this week that we have been playing a bit and one in particular that we’ve really been digging on.

This was a hard choice this week as the debut album by Mumford & Sons is really a damn good album, but we’ll get to that in the honorable mentions.

Our Record of the Week is Moon Duo’s album Escape, which just came out on Woodsist today. The best way I could possibly describe Moon Duo would be this: Wooden Shjips in space. Now that could be an easy comparison as we found out later, Moon Duo shares a lead guitarist / singer with Wooden Shjips, but in all fairness, that comparison was made before we found that out. HA! At any rate, this album is four tracks of spaced out psych which will put you in a whole other world. Almost as if Wooden Shjips have been listening to Spacemen 3 a whole lot lately. Totally killer album.

The debut album from Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More, is our first honorable mention and boy is it good. Absolutely for fans of Fleet Foxes, Avett Brothers, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Mumford & Sons hail from London, England, which if you follow any British music press, is probably the worst thing it has going for it as they’ll hype this thing beyond proportion to the point where you might find yourself not liking it. But trust me, this album is definitely an album worth checking out.

Next honorable mention is another album by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, or whatever they might be called these days. Kollaps Tradixionales is their sixth album from these Godspeed You! Black Emperor veterans and they are continuing on with adding more vocals and moving almost back in time from a post-rock ensemble into a full fledged rock band. The last time I had seen them they were absolutely excellent, and played this album’s second track “I Built Myself a Metal Bird” which floored me at the show. Luckily, it translated rather well on record. Another notch in the belt for these Canadians.

Last but not least is the new album from Canadian(two in one week!?) noisey black-metalers, Wold. Their new album, Working Together for Our Privacy, might be looked at as an exercise in patience for most, but beyond the wall of noise is a sonic assault that has a nearly mantra-esque quality to it, with hints of song structure buried deep below. This album might possibly top their previous album, Screech Owl, which is a lofty statement for me as I loved that album.

All together it was a pretty decent week for new releases. As always, we’re stocking all of these right now and we’ll always be happy to play more of them if you’d like when you’re in!

"Motorcycle, I Love You" from Moon Duo's Escape

Honorable mentions for February 16th Record of the Week:

• Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More (Glassnote)
  "Sigh No More" from Mumford & Sons' 2010 album Sigh No More
• Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra – Kollaps Tradixionales (Constellation)
  "I Built Myself a Metal Bird" from Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra's 2010 album Kollaps Tradixionales
• Wold – Working Together For Our Privacy (Profound Lore)
  "The Secret" from Wold's 2010 album Working Together For Our Privacy

A smaller release week than we have seen in the past recent weeks but definitely not short on good albums. Now that January ‘10 is over though, I can honestly say, I don’t remember a year that had so many great new releases this early in the year. Definitely shaping up to be a great year in music.

Our record of the week comes from a very unlikely place considering the music. Columbia, South Carolina’s Toro Y Moi have released their debut album, Causers of This, and it’s gotten a whole lot of play around here. I say “their” debut album but Toro Y Moi is just one person actually. If you’ve been in the store the past couple months, odds are you’ve heard us playing the Washed Out Life of Leisure 12″. Well if you were one of the lucky ones to pick that up, or get into the Neon Indian record that came out a bit ago, this one is right up your alley.

The sound of this is probably best described as the sound of Don Johnson’s Miami romps circa 1986 while filming Miami Vice. It’s all very relaxed and laid back, essentially the sound  you’d probably hear in your head if you’re weaving in between Miami dance clubs, fueled by cocaine, millions of dollars and the fact that you just released Heartbeat.

A couple darn good albums as well that deserve honorable mentions. First is from the Soft Pack, releasing their debut album AS the Soft Pack. They were formerly known as the Muslims and released an album under that name. The Soft Pack’s self titled album is a damn good garage rock album with some killer catchy tunes. Check out the album opener, “Cmon” below for a taste of what they are doing.

Next is another debut album, this time from Bristol, UK’s Malachai. Their album, The Ugly Side of Love is one of the more bizarrely catchy albums you are bound to hear in a long time. If you could imagine Syd Barrett being born circa 1978 and becoming something that could be compared to the Streets, you’d be somewhat close. This is a psych infused, hip-hop/garagey/trip-hop album with songs that seep into your brain and you’ll find yourself humming them later without even knowing what it is. Excellent stuff.

Last but certainly not least comes from across the pond as well. Hailing from Berlin, Germany, Nils Frahm has been composing quite a bit in his short life, being only 27 years old, and was taught by a student of the last scholar of Tchaikovsky. His new album, Wintermusik, is one of the more fitting names for an album I’ve heard in awhile. A great winter companion made up of mostly solo piano with some celeste and reed organ thrown in for good measure. Recommended for fans of Peter Broderick, Max Richter, and Rachel’s.

"Blessa" from Toro y Moi's Causers of This

"Talamak" from Toro y Moi's Causers of This

Honorable mentions for February 2nd Record of the Week:

• The Soft Pack – The Soft Pack (Kemado)
  "C'mon" from The Soft Pack's 2010 album The Soft Pack
• Malachai – Ugly Side of Love (Domino)
  "Snowflake" from Malachai's 2010 album Ugly Side of Love
• Nils Frahm – Wintermusik (Erased Tapes)
  "Ambre" from Nils Frahm's 2010 album Wintermusik

This might be the toughest Record of the Week choice we have ever made, or will ever make. I might have said this before and hell, I’ll probably say it again. This release week though has brought so many phenomenal new releases that picking one was damn near impossible. So hard in fact, y’all have me swearing twice in the opening paragraph.

So instead of naming two Record of the Week’s like I have in past weeks, I am just going to put an abnormal amount of honorable mentions and I have to stress, do not look past these.

The new Retribution Gospel Choir(featuring Alan Sparhawk of Low!) is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. Glacial, anthemic indie rock from one of the pioneers of slowcore, Retribution Gospel Choir is Sparhawk’s time to cut loose and create one of the most bombastic albums you have heard in quite awhile.

The new Four Tet, There Is Love In You, explores a bit of new territory than he did on prior releases. Having a minimal, almost dub techno feel to it, these are undoubtedly some of the best songs Four Tet has crafted. And whatever you do, don’t let techno be a dirty word here as you’ll be doing yourself a great disservice if you dismiss it on that word alone. This is a truly great album that has found itself in high rotation around here.

The new Infinite Body has been a highly anticipated album for myself after picking up their 12″ CMBCMEINAPTD sometime last year. While I would love to call their new album, Carve Out the Face of My God, ambient, it certainly has a quality to it that speaks above and beyond that tag. Whereas Eno described ambient as something that should be “as ignorable as it is listenable,” Infinite Body’s sound falls somewhere between that of Belong and Growing. Mostly synth based, it can be very loud and very demanding, leaving you awash in sound.

Fucked Up’s Chemistry of Common Life was one of our favorite records of 2008. A straight up rocker of a hardcore punk album. Well on their new release, Couple Tracks, they take all of those singles from the beginning of their band all the way up until their last full length and compile it onto two CDs. It just goes to show how hard working this band is, to have this much music out apart from their full lengths. This is really some of their best stuff as well, some of it much better than anything found on Chemistry…

And our final honorable mention goes to the new Basia Bulat. This album really took me by surprise and is making me go back to listen to her older stuff. On Heart of My Own, this Canadian based singer songwriter writes songs that could easily be lumped together with artists such as Feist, My Brightest Diamond and so on, but they definitely stand apart from those comparisons as well. The music has an almost gaelic sound to it and is some really great instrumentation.

Last but not least is the Record of the Week itself, Teen Dream by Beach House. I always notice when talking about music with people a common saying is “Oh I like their older stuff better.”  While this is true in quite a few cases, this is the last thing a band wants to hear. They want to think they are growing and maturing with each new song they put out. But, with some, the new ideas and passion they put into those first songs end up being some of their finest input. This is certainly not the case with Beach House, who not only have gotten better with each new release, they’ve nearly rendered the prior release unusable with each new album. Not to discredit those albums as they are still really good but what Beach House have done on Teen Dream is definitely the culmination of all the ideas they have put forth so far paired down to a concise and nearly perfect album. Right from the opening track “Zebra,” you can tell this is going to be a special album. “Norway” is one of the best tracks this year, on any album. There is something for everyone on this album and is one of the better dream pop albums in a long, long, long time.

It’s a big list this week and we still left off a lot of really good stuff. New albums from Los Campesinos, Mondo Drag, Cave In, as well as the long lost album from Harvey Milk. All really great stuff but the list can only be so long!

"Norway" from Beach House's 2010 album Teen Dream

"Used to Be" from Beach House's 2010 album Teen Dream

Honorable mentions for January 26th Record of the Week:

• Retribution Gospel Choir - 2 (Sub Pop)
  "Hide It Away" from Retribution Gospel Choir's 2010 album 2
• Four Tet - There Is Love In You (Domino)
  "Love Cry" from Four Tet's 2010 album There Is Love In You
• Infinite Body - Carve Out the Face of My God (PPM)
  "Dive" from Infinite Body's 2010 album Carve Out the Face of My God
• Fucked Up - Couple Tracks (Matador)
  "Triumph of Life" from Fucked Up's 2010 album Couple Tracks
• Basia Bulat - Heart of My Own (Rough Trade)
  "Gold Rush" from Basia Bulat's 2010 album Heart of My Own

I am not sure what it is with this Winter and bringing us killer beach records but I certainly don’t have a problem with it. Earlier this winter we had the Real Estate record that gets listened to non-stop still around here and now we have Surfer Blood’s Astro Coast, which is hands down, this week’s Record of the Week.

That’s not to say there isn’t much good in terms of new releases this week. Au contraire my good friends. This week has brought us the long awaited new Spoon album, Transference($9.97 in the store for the remainder of January and February!), the surprising debut album by the Hotrats, Turn Ons, as well as new releases by Cold War Kids, RJD2, and Eels.

The new Spoon is one of the best things they have put out. After the Got Nuffin’ single, I was actually a bit excited about Transference coming out, whereas before, I never really put much stock in the band. I might have to go and re-listen to their back catalog a bit more as there are some really great pop songs on this album in “The Mystery Zone,” “Written in Reverse,” and “Trouble Comes Running”. Not only are they great pop songs but these guys can hit some tight, nearly krauty, grooves sometimes!

The second honorable mention this week is from The Hotrats. Seriously everything about this album says we shouldn’t like it. An entire album of covers? Members of Supergrass(no offense Supergrass fans!)? Well this album manages to buck all conventions as it’s seriously one of the more fun albums we have come across this year. The two piece consisting of a singer/guitarist and drummer manage to make a lot of these songs sound very full as well. Their version of “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)” is nearly unrecognizable until the chorus and is one of the more chill songs on the album. Their play on Squeeze’s “Up the Junction” is a seriously killer late 70’s jam turned seriously killer mid 90’s slow jam. Plus the great covers of Bowie’s “Queen Bitch,” the Doors “the Crystal Ship,” Roxy Music’s “Love Is the Drug,” and Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up,” well you get the point now that I’ve named half the tracklisting.

Last but not least, the Record of the Week itself, Surfer Blood’s Astro Coast. Hailing from Florida, this band plays beach friendly indie pop that is seriously infectious. Like a more refined Real Estate, Surfer Blood’s music has a certain level of reverb as evidenced on their song “Swim” below. I have read a lot of people compare it to early Weezer although I suppose I’m not really an authority on that as I didn’t ever dig Weezer so much. But I do love Surfer Blood! A strange thing does happen on this album right around track six, “Twin Peaks,” where the singer seems to get a bit of a Morrissey accent out of nowhere, which totally makes the song.

All in all, it’s a pretty great week for new releases and I highly suggest you check out the songs we posted from these albums below. And if you find yourself making a trip to the store this week, odds are you’ll hear one of these three albums being played as we haven’t really been able to stop!

"Swim" from Surfer Blood's 2010 album Astro Coast

"Twin Peaks" from Surfer Blood's 2010 album Astro Coast

Honorable mentions for January 19th Record of the Week:

• Spoon – Transference (Merge)
  "Written in Reverse" from Spoon's 2010 album Transference
• The Hotrats – Turn Ons (Fat Possum)
  "Queen Bitch" from The Hotrats' 2010 album Turn Ons

The first major release date of the year brought some pretty big heavy hitters in terms or releases.

The biggest of them is the sophomore release from Vampire Weekend, Contra. If you liked the first album, you are sure to like the follow-up as well. As an aside, we have the indie-exclusive version that features a second disc at no extra cost, in stock right now. This is very limited so if you want this second disc, you’ll want to come pick it up ASAP.

Next we have the new album by Owen Pallett, formerly known as Final Fantasy. You might best know his work from both Arcade Fire albums as he wrote and arranged all the strings for those albums. His new album,Heartland, is an adventurous album of orchestral bombast under pop music structures that brings to mind the last album by Psapp, which was excellent.

Last but not least though is our first Record of the Week in 2010. Having worked previously on the score of The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, amongst many others, the duo of Nick Cave & Warren Ellis are back again scoring the soundtrack for the post-apocalyptic, Cormac McCarthy film-adaption of The Road.

While I personally haven’t seen the film yet, listening to the score that Cave & Ellis have put together has certainly piqued my interest. The score is constantly walking the line of modern “indie-classical” compositions by artists such as Max Richter, Rachels, and Peter Broderick to tracks that bring about a looming sense of doom that bring the mind the soundtrack to the television show Lost.

While, The Road: Original Score might not be something you would put on all the time, or even listen to as much as the honorable mentions this week, it stands above as an excellent album and certainly deserving of your attention.

"Home" from Nick Cave & Warren Ellis' 2010 album The Road: Original Score

"The Road" from Nick Cave & Warren Ellis' 2010 album The Road: Original Score

"The Cannibals" from Nick Cave & Warren Ellis' 2010 album The Road: Original Score

Honorable mentions for January 12th Record of the Week:

• Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)
  "Lewis Takes Action" from Owen Pallett's 2010 album Heartland
• Vampire Weekend - Contra (XL)
  "Cousins" from Vampire Weekend's 2010 album Contra

Running from this Tuesday, December 29th to Tuesday, January 12th, we have put hundreds of CDs on sale at $9.97, most of these being releases from 2009!

This is the perfect time as we always run into the lull of nothing big being released right away in 2010 and once the sale is over, we see releases like the new Vampire Weekend, Final Fantasy, and OK Go come out on January 12th!

Some select titles for this sale include(but are certainly not limited to):

•AFI – Crash Love
•Alexisonfire – Old Crows / Young Cardinals
•Amesoeurs – Amesoeurs
•Anathallo – Canopy Glow
•Blues Control – Local Flavor (Record of the Week on July 14th!)
•Boy Least Likely To – Law of the Playground
•Cage – Depart From Me
•Jeremy Enigk – OK Bear
•Ganglians – Monster Head Room
•Horse the Band – Desperate Living
•Job For a Cowboy – Ruination
•Mewithoutyou – It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright

Not to mention the hundreds of great titles we already had at $9.97 including(but again, not limited to):

•Califone – All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
•Converge – Axe to Fall
•Dinosaur Jr. – Farm (Record of the Week on June 23rd!)
•Felice Brothers – Yonder Is the Clock
•Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine (Record of the Week on July 23rd!)
•Oneida – Rated O (Record of the Week on July 7th!)
•J. Tillman – A Year in the Kingdom
•Volcano Choir – Unmap

33 1/3 % off all used records, used CDs & used cassettes!!

20% off all other regular priced items (CDs LPs Turntables, Books Etc)

10% off on sale goods! We will even give 10% off gift certificates!

We also have 3 great instore shows.

Friday Dec 4 @7:00 The Great Lakes Crew (Preceded by DJ @6:00) Toledo’s foremost Hip Hop crew stops by

Saturday Dec 5 @4:00 Frank & Jesse – Toledo’s newest teen heart throbs!!!

Sunday Dec 6 @2:00 The Coosters Feat Steve A. Toledo’s oldest teen heart throbs!

A bit of a slower release week certainly doesn’t lessen the killer releases out this week. A bit of a surprise with the Fool’s Gold album that features members of Foreign Born, the Fall, and We Are Scientists that is great little afro-pop album. Frank Fairfield’s debut album on Tompkins Square is also a great album. Fairfield is on tour with Fleet Foxes right now with his impressive fiddle and banjo playing. The proper release of Cymbals Eat Guitars album Why There Are Mountains is out this week as well and is a great genuine indie rock record.

Last but not least though is the Record of the Week itself, Om’s newest album God is Good. Om’s fourth album sees a bit of a departure as long time drummer and former Sleep member, Chris Haikus, left the band before the album was recorded. Stepping in to his place is the drummer of one of our favorite bands around here, Emil Amos of Grails. It seems that Emil has had a bit of influence on where Om is going as well as a lot of the Eastern sounds that have been found on the more recent Grails albums are showcased here on God is Good.

God is Good is four tracks long but these are 3 minute songs. The first track, “Thebes,” is nearly 20 minutes long and very trancing. On the second track “Mediation is the Practice of Death,” Amos shows that he is very apt at taking Haikus place behind the kit. The final two songs is a two parter and mostly instrumental.

Om also brings in a bit of new instrumentation to the mix on this record with flute being played on “Meditation…” and tamboura on several tracks as well. All of it makes for a pretty great “stoner spiritual” album. This is one of Om’s finest efforts and it makes you think, with the little amount of time Amos and Al Cisneros had together before this album came out, we’re just seeing the beginning of what is going to turn out to be a great pairing.

"Meditation is the Practice of Death" from Om's 2009 album God is Good

Honorable mentions for September 29th Record of the Week:

• Fool’s Gold - Fool’s Gold (Iamsound)
  "Surprise Hotel" from Fool's Gold's 2009 album Fool's Gold
• Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains (Sister’s Den)
  "Wind Phoenix(Proper Name)" from Cymbals Eat Guitars' 2009 album Why There Are Mountains
• Frank Fairfield – Frank Fairfield (Tompkins Square)
  "Nine Pound Hammer" from Frank Fairfield's 2009 album Frank Fairfield

I’ve mulled over this for like a week and a half now. I’ve put it off as long as I possibly could. It’s finally time to name a Record of the Week for September 22nd. It’s just that, there are so many records that should have that honor. First off, how could a collaboration between Bon Iver and Collections of Colonies of Bees, aptly named Volcano Choir, NOT be Record of the Week? How could the new Castanets record, which coincidentally is THE BEST Castanets record, not be Record of the Week. Then there is the new EP from Pains of Being Pure at Heart which is just excellent. Le Loup threw us for quite the loop(HA) and put out an absolutely outstanding album that brings forth the best moments from recent Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective and Fleet Foxes discs. New albums from Owen, Girls, Múm, Twilight Sad, Times New Viking. These are allllllll excellent albums. Maybe the obvious choice would be Monsters of Folk where Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Jim James of My Morning Jacket have teamed up to make an album. The choice after all was said and done though was…

J. Tillman’s A Year in the Kingdom is a testament that you can be as prolific as you want to be and still release killer album after killer album. Better known as the drummer of Fleet Foxes and one of their best backing vocalists, J. Tillman’s albums always stand on their own without bringing his pedigree up.

J Tillman’s solo stuff would appeal to the fan of Iron & Wine, Bon Iver, or Nick Drake. Hushed vocals over acoustic guitar but the backing instrumentation helps this release even more. Hammered dulcimer, banjo, recorder and very great string arrangements. There is a bit of that Fleet Foxes vocal harmonies as evidenced early on in the record with “Crosswinds.”

“Crosswinds” is definitely an album highlight along with “Earthly Bodies,” which has a very early Iron & Wine feel to it. Sort of around that Our Endless Numbered Days material where it was still stripped down but had some interesting instrumentation to it.

In short, if you liked Fleet Foxes, you’ll love this. If you like Iron & Wine, Nick Drake, Bon Iver, chances are you’ll like this as well. It takes a damn good record to stand out over the rest of the other records this week, and that’s just what this is. It’s also $9.97 at the store for the next month!

"Crosswinds" from J. Tillman's 2009 album Year in the Kingdom

"Earthly Bodies" from J. Tillman's 2009 album Year in the Kingdom

Honorable mentions for September 22nd Record of the Week:

• Castanets - Texas Rose, the Thaw & the Beasts (Asthmatic Kitty)
  "Down the Line, Love" from Castanets's 2009 album Texas Rose, the Thaw & the Beasts
• Volcano Choir – Unmap (Jagjaguwar)
  "Island, IS" from Volcano Choir's 2009 album Unmap
• Le Loup – Family (Hardly Art)
  "Forgive Me" from Le Loup's 2009 album Family