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New Music – Week of 05/04/2009

Image from Flickr user Simply Heaven Food
It may be the week of Cinco de Mayo, but since that celebration’s been all but shut down due to swine flu, I think I’ll stay indoors and focus on music (or maybe, according to a friend, I should enjoy some great deals on carne asada… hmm…).

Lots of really strong releases this week. Luckily I’ve been saving up the eMusic downloads.

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South: I still haven’t figured out why Oberst dropped the Bright Eyes moniker, but whatever. I enjoy the direction of the last album, and from the fleeting sounds I heard on NPR I think I’ll enjoy this one too.

St. Vincent – Actor: “So Marry Me, John – I’ll be so good to you…” The honeyed sarcasm of the title track to 2007′s Marry Me lingered in my head all that summer. I haven’t heard anything from this yet, but I’m still going to pick it up basically the moment I can tomorrow.

Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms: Yet another Montreal musician. It’s almost to the point where I automatically pick up any albums recorded there.

Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love: Lead singer looks like a dirty hippie. Music is fuzzy. I like.

Electric Owls – Ain’t Too Bright: Solo album from Andy Herod of The Comas, with some help from some other Comas and a member of Band of Horses. I really dug the Magic Show EP from last year. Really looking forward to this.

Starfucker – Jupiter: This one kind of snuck up on me. I didn’t discover the band’s debut until several months after it came out, when it was starting to really make the rounds on the blogs. The samples I’ve heard sound really dancey, so this may be hit or miss. And yes, this band always makes me giggle about the Nine Inch Nails reference.

Shout Out Out Out Out – Reintegration Time: This has been sitting in my notes for a long time, but I can’t remember where I found it or why I flagged it. It”s not bad, just…not really exciting. I might give it a longer listen this week, since it’s available on Spinner.com

Ed Harcourt – Russian Roulette EP: I can’t hep but be in a playful mood when I listen to songs like Sour Milk, Motheaten Silk.

British Sea Power – Man of Aran: This is apparently a soundtrack to the 1934 film Man of Aran, which is a documentary about life on the sparse Aran islands off of Ireland. I haven’t heard anything off of it, but BSP’s usually decent, if not extraordinary.