Sunday, November 13, 2005

In shops tomorrow : 14/11

Singles

  • Vinyl first - Annie seems to accept that she won't sell records and so The Wedding is 12" only, while Arcade Fire's spectacular year ends with Wake Up, on 7" and special live version with David Bowie on iTunes download only. Or just watch the video.

  • Yes, you might well be suspicious of The Like and their debut What I Say And What I Mean - they're a female pop-punkish three piece on a major label, plus they're the daughters of A&R bigwig and sometime producer Tony Berg, producer Mitchell Froom (mention Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson and Suzanne Vega rather than Sheryl Crow, the Corrs and Daniel Powter) and Attractions drummer Pete Thomas. But sod it, it's great.

  • If there's any suspicion around The Pipettes, debuting properly with Dirty Mind, it's all self-perpetuating from a band whose mission statement is to "turn back the clock to a time before The Beatles ruined everything", which we won't counter with the fact that stated main influence the Shangri-Las emerged in 1964. We're right in thinking bandleader Monster Bobby has a connection to the Add N To (X) song of that name, yes?

  • The White Stripes' Denial Twist seems to be a single released because Michel Gondry made a video that doesn't quite work for it. Readers from the future may prefer the download live versions.

    Albums

  • Conor Oberst live shows are notoriously inconsistent, but Bright Eyes' Motion Sickness seems to have caught him on a good night. It's a good week for live albums by American acts whose image is radically different here from in their native land, as Wilco issue Kicking Television. Alt-country or Chicago Radiohead? The Pogues' Streams Of Whiskey is back out while we're about it, and public opinion of them depends on how much you know about Shane McGowan.

  • Oh look, a 'New Edition' version of Martha Wainwright's album. Drowned In Sound must owe their website redesigner a lot of money.

  • Another feature of the week is slightly bizarre compilations. The OC Mix 5 compilation mentioned last week got moved forward to tomorrow, someone called Patrick Doyle prepares to accept the royalties boosted by Jarvis and some of Radiohead's contributions to the soundtrack album of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, while even Top Gear - The Ultimate Driving Experience seems to go mad on CD2 with Nightmares On Wax, a Primal Scream dub mix and Dusted. You still wouldn't want to put it in a place where it's too visible, mind.

  • Which isn't something you can say for the 3CD Benicassim festival tie-in, which heads from the Kaisers to Tarwater via bands with unlikely names (Love Of Lesbian), reputations (Mouse On Mars) and likelihood of actually being asked to do Benicassim (Daniel Johnston).

    DVD

  • Not before time Dig! makes it to DVD, albeit with not a lot of extras. Dammit, we wanted Anton Newcombe on commentary!

  • Someone should tell the Hives that Tussels in Brussels isn't spelt correctly. Part-surreal documentary, part-live concert and a few TV appearances, it's as linear as Howlin' Pelle's attitude.
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