New Stuff To Look Out For:
If I’m anticipating a new release here, that’s sort of like the kiss of death…previous past anticipations include some spectacularly lousy records by Fountains Of Wayne, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, The New Pornographers, Grant Lee Phillips, and The Long Winters. I’ll never learn though, so here we go again.
August should see the first disc of new material since 2005 for Jeff Hanson. Who’s Jeff Hanson? As a teenager he was the member of a fondly-remembered Wisconsin emo/punk band called M.I.J. His first solo album was all-acoustic. His second, more fully-realized with a band, was one of my favorite discs of the year in ’05. Yes, he sings like a girl. He also sings in a way that should make any fan of Elliott Smith’s very happy. Here’s a Jeff Hanson song from 2005:
And here’s the first song to circulate from his upcoming disc, a tune called “If I Only Knew”. Record is due out the 19th.
Also in August, Prisonshake’s long-awaited double album followup to 1993′s (not a misprint) disc, The Roaring Third. As discussed elsewhere here, the new record is called Dirty Moons (yes it’s on Scat Records; I’ll quote Steve Scariano here, quoting Don Rickles: “Lady these are the jokes…”) Robert Griffin has reloaded the player on Prisonshake’s myspace page to give you the full-on glory of side one of the record, plus a two other songs as well.
Finally, after two years of silence causing me to think them defunct, word out of Manitoba is that September will bring a new Novillero album! These Winnipeg jets’ Aim Right For The Holes In Their Lives is maybe my favorite record of the last half-dozen years, so new music from them is great news.
