October 5 Album Releases

We are not starting October with a substantial week in music, I must tell you. October 5 does not arrive with a babble of big releases to be severely dissected and critiqued. Instead, music-buyers have their pick of smaller interest bands that can be gladly approached with open ears and willing minds. What a relief—or a disappointment, depending on the breadth of your critical streak.

Enough stalling with flouncy words and introductory paragraphs. Let’s get to the few highlight-able releases on this week’s list of brand new albums. Shall we?

First and, I say, foremost, stellar independent label Kill Rock Stars is presenting two records from some of the industry’s most dynamic performers: Corin Tucker and Marnie Stern.

Sleater-Kinney parted ways in 2006, and since then the wall-buckling, ground-crumbling vocals of Corin Tucker have been left silent, sadly. But now Corin has her own band, The Corin Tucker Band with whom she has recorded her debut solo-ish record, 1,000 Years. Sure, it’s not as zingy as her Riot Grrrl days, but if you weren’t to compare her new sounds to those of her younger days, Corin would still have nearly boundless vigor in her approach to rock. Listen to “Doubt” and feel the burgeoning howl, ready to be unleashed.

After two previous full-length records released on Kill Rock Stars, Marnie Stern is releasing a self-titled album. Given the bombastic, bordering-on-violent-video-game frantic energy of the album’s opening number, “For Ash,” this album obviously does not fade away from the finger-tapping, guitar-playing neon fireworks Marnie displayed on her previous works. Face-melting chops she has in spades.

While busy speaking about commendable record labels, I may as well move on to London-based indie label Domino, which has a noteworthy album on their agenda: Clinic’s Bubblegum.

Clinic is not a new band. This band from Liverpool has been releasing albums biannually since 2000, making Bubblegum their sixth—count them, sixth—studio record. The album’s first single, “I’m Aware,” with its mumbled vocals and dreamy, twangy sounds, comes accompanied by a trippy video featuring caftan-clothed puppets with antlers submerged in a color-drenched environment fit for child-aimed, daytime entertainment. And that’s putting it simply.

Well, what else is there? Dustin Wong, guitar-playing member of the radical, sound-crashing Baltimore band Ponytail, has a solo album, Infinite Love, coming out on Thrill Jockey. Expect electric guitar loops, forceful and emotive, and do not expect any vocals to muddle the panorama. Never have cohesive vocals been associated with Dustin’s work in the past, and the future promises no surer sign of lyrics.

Now I’m meandering. How better to end this dragging post than to list off a few more albums coming out from peculiarly named bands. I have run out of productive ideas, so, alas, a short list: Wild Go by Dark Dark Dark, Meet Me at the Muster Station by PS I Love You, Litanies by Royal Baths, Soft Landing by Soft Landing.

I have been assured these are not false listings and these are real bands and real album names. So enjoy yourself, sorting through the abstract incoherence of words I have thrown at you and listen to something brand spanking new.

-Jessi Finn, Album Reviews Editor