A busy week this week with lots of good releases and some great shows as well happening in the area! Still recovering from last night’s Kurt Vile / Real Estate show up in Detroit, we’re ready and raring to go see the Heartless Bastards with Peter Wolf Crier(May 25th’s Record of the Week!) at Mickey Finns in town tonight. Two store favorites playing here in town doesn’t happen too often! After that we have Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti(June 8th’s Record of the Week!) on Wednesday in Pontiac, new favorites in Toledo’s own Fangs Out playing at the Ottawa Tavern on Friday and then more store favorites in the Black Atlantic playing at the Ottawa Tavern in town on Sunday!
So with all of this driving around, it’s a good time to get a couple great new albums ready for the car rides! This week definitely provided us with a couple. First and foremost is a brand new album from the Books! It’s only been, oh, five years since they graced us with their brand of indescribable folktronica, if we can even call it that.
The Way Out is fourteen tracks of a sample-laden euphoria. The album begins with nearly new age meditation speech samples before going into the shuffle of “I Didn’t Know That” which has a chorus that almost sounds like it could replace the theme of In the Heat of the Night. Quickly the band displays why they are who they are with “A Cold Freezin’ Night”. Filled with some absolutely hilarious samples from children, the song runs the gamut of some of the absolutely bizarre things that kids can say.
There are a couple songs in which the Books come to rely on their own singing instead of samples, which proves to be rather enjoyable as well. All in all, this was one of my most anticipated albums this year and it’s done nothing but impress with every listen. Totally essential.
Listen to “A Cold Freezin’ Night” from the Books’ The Way Out
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Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen,alongside Fred Nicolaus, returns with side project, Department of Eagles. This time around, we’re treated to sketches of what ultimately became their debut album, In Ear Park. There are songs on here that you aren’t exactly sure why they weren’t used as they sound like they would have been right at home on a Grizzly Bear album. All in all, it’s a great snapshot of a band that we unfortunately won’t hear much from as Grizzly Bear is full steam ahead for the time being.
Listen to “While We’re Young” from Department of Eagles’ Archive 2003 – 2006
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