toonies

ween - Shinola, Volume 1: Twelve songs from leftover studio sessions over the past several years. As most ween is timeless, this could very well have passed off as a brand new disc, had I not a heard few of these tunes already, such as 'Gabrielle' & 'The Rift' from the C&C demos, 'Someday', which was a discarded WP track, and 'Big Fat Fuck' which is a classic orginating from somewhere only brown knows. If you like wEEn at all, this is essential. But then again so are all their other works - they could shit on a plate and I'd prolly buy it.

elbow - Leaders of the Free World: Cookie cutter nu brit pop in the same veign as such non-visionaries as the Doves or Keane.

dandy warhols - Odditorium or Warlords From Mars: Named partly after their nifty new studio in Portland, Odditorium, this one furthers the issue that I don't really get what these guys are trying to achieve. These guys seem to want to be taken seriously, but it's really hard when they don't have much depth (I'm still a bit jaded from wathcing DIG! perhaps). This time around someone found a trumpet and learned how to play strangled goose noises and enjoyed it enough to include the cacaphony on almost every track.

broadcast - Tender Buttons: Just like with their first release, I have trouble getting into this oddball trip hop outfit from Birmingham, UK. The music sounds like it is trying to catch up with itself the whole way which makes for a rather unenchanting listen.

the new pornographers - Twin Cinema: Neko Case fronted band who occassionally sounds similar to, but not quite as good as the Shins. This band has lots of buzz, but no sting.

I Like It Vol. 2 - Four Music Lovers Present Their 3 Alltime Favourite Tracks: Exactly what the title describes. The "music lovers" in question are frequent Compost contributers Trevor Jackson, Pole, Richard Dorfmeister, and Trickski. It's always interesting, but not always as rewarding, to find out what inspires or influences certain artists. This comp, much like the recent Choice comp by john digweed, has both gems & throwaways.

-tossed, neph-