Weekend Music Roundup

The weekend is upon us and so I'm back once again to ramble on about my music listening habits of the week. This week features a wealth of new discoveries for me as well as a few artists whose new work I checked out. It's heavy on psych rock and garage rock, with a little outlaw country just to round things out. The summer is coming, so expect a lot more new releases in the coming weeks. Hopefully there will be something on here that you'll want to check out. Enjoy.

Church of Sun - Golden Ram: The third album from the heavy psych band out of Southern Cali. This album is a pretty dynamic and original. It's very uptempo and very heavy. I was entranced from the very beginning and my enthusiasm never faded. This sounds like a Flaming Lips record that has discovered the power of metal and punk. "Sad Sad Days," "Monkey See Monkey Do," "Yellow Rose," "Satanic Panic" and the brilliant cover of The Stooges "I Wanna Be Your Dog" are standouts. 

Thurston Moore - Rock n Roll Consciousness: The newest solo record from the Sonic Youth frontman. The title of this seems ironic, because it's more like a subconsciousness of Rock 'N Roll, as Thurston's guitar work has always been. Consisting of five lengthy tracks, this is vintage Moore. It starts a little slow, but finishes with genius. "Turn On," "Smoke of Dreams," and "Aphrodite" are perfect noisy tracks that are right at home with the artist's best work.

Waylon Jennings - Dreaming My Dreams: Released in '75, and the height of Waylon's outlaw country image, this album channels the ghost of Hank and is inspired by Cash. This is old time country, the kind that I like. Considered one of his finest, I found a copy of this for $5 at the local store and have been digging it ever since. "Waymore's Blues," "I Recall a Gypsy Woman" "Let's All Help the Cowboys (Sing the Blues)," and "She's Looking Good" are my personal favorites.

Dead Moon - What a Way to See the Old Girl Go: Recorded in 1994, right in the middle of the Portland garage rock band's career, this newly released live album captures the band at their peek. Years ahead of the great garage rock revival, this trio brings an intense punk vibe to the genre that wasn't included in the revival a decade later. "It's OK," "Walking on My Grave," "Demona," "Killing Me," and "Running Out of Time" are standouts on this great live set.

Electric Moon - Stardust Rituals: The seventh album from the German space rock band is clearly inspired by the transition period of Pink Floyd in the late '60s. Lengthy songs of psychedelic sound conjuring up the mysteries of space, this is one of those moody albums that I really like on rainy days. There's only four songs on here, but they they are all very decent. One of those perfect headphone albums that can take you to a transportive soundscape.

Goldfrapp - Silver Eye: It's been four years since the British electro-pop artist's last album, but nothing has really changed with her style. I've had mixed reactions to her previous records. I've always found them to be uneven, and always found myself hoping there would be more trip-hop elements mixed into the the dream pop.