CD Releases For June 3rd, 2008

 06/02/2008 08:28:46  ♥ written by vu ()

There are a couple of CD releases on Tuesday, June 3^rd that I need to address.

Brendan James - Green Brendan James

Brendan James officially releases The Day Is Brave this Tuesday. I've previously talked about his new album and EP and judging from readers' comments, they really love this guy.

I'm looking at Amazon's "Customers who bought this also bought": Duffy, Death Cab for Cutie, and Jack Johnson, so you get the general idea just how popular James is.

So, just as a reminder, his album is finally almost here, for all the people that asked me about The Day is Brave and it looks like he'll be on tour this Summer:

Radiohead - Let Down

Radiohead is having their first ever Best Of collection out on their former EMI Records. Since I have all their albums and there's nothing new in this release, I probably won't pick up the album. There are two version: a single disc and a 2-disc set, the later disc containing such hits (with fans) as "You", "How To Disappear Completely", and "Let Down".

Radiohead apparently have been fighting against this release, and Thom Yorke is pretty unhappy about it, stating in the magazine Word:

We haven't really had any hits so what exactly is the purpose? There's nothing we can do about it. The work is really public property now anyway, in my head at least. It's a wasted opportunity in that if we'd been behind it, and we wanted to do it, then it might have been good.

That's not exactly true, Radiohead did have some chart success with "Creep" (their best-known work), "Paranoid Android", and "No Surprises".

Weezer - Pork and Beans Weezer - Pork and Beans

Radiohead's sound may have changed and evolved to their current experimental sound - but one band that doesn't want to evolve is Weezer. Their new album Weezer (The Red Album) is out on Geffen on Tuesday.

I'm sorry to say that I'm less than excited about their lack of a title (following their previously two releases of Weezer (the Blue Album) and Weezer (The Green Album)) and it seems to me that the band is just rehashing the album that made them famous: the Blue album.

Clearly the superior album that they need to imitate is Pinkerton, a commercial disaster, but much-loved by hardcore fans.

I do really respect Rivers and Patrick Wilson (I love this guy), but I just think the cover art and album title just doesn't ring excitment - at least for me anyway.

Admittedly, their video for "Pork & Beans" is actually pretty funny. It mixes a bunch of meme/viral videos together, so you'll recognize that dramatic prairie dog, to the "Will it Blend", to that Numa Numa kid, etc. Strangely it is missing the Rick Roll, because that would be awesome to see Rick Astley in a Weezer video.

Update: Apparently Weezer's had Tay Zonday to cover their "Pork & Beans" song.  The video was uploaded last night for promotion for today's release. I have a soft spot in my heart for Zonday because he is from Minneapolis (I just wish they'd put a mic there so he can pull his head away to breath).

Links: myspace.com/brendanjames www.radiohead.com www.weezer.com

W♥M wrote: Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 6:53 AM

There's also a Radiohead DVD being released today in the USA, but like the "best-of" album and the previously released box set, it's not endorsed by the band. It's being released by their former record label, no doubt in retaliation for dropping them in favor of XL Recordings.

-randy

Radiohead songs finally on iTunes

http://news.bbc.c...

Radiohead's back catalogue has appeared on iTunes, making them one of the last high-profile bands...

vu wrote: Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 11:31 AM

I think I'll pick up the DVD, even though I have some of their videos from 7 Television Commercials and various compilation such as the Director's Label. Like a lot of things, the packaging and pricing does factor in, so if it's too expensive, I may just skip out on it.

I also noticed that Radiohead's back catalogue is now available on iTunes, according to BBC news.

Jeff D wrote: Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 11:43 PM

After listening to the album, I couldn't disagree more about Weezer. The Red Album is absolutely nothing like the Blue or Green with the possible exception of Pork and Beans. The Greatest Man That Ever Lived would easily fit on Pinkerton. It's downright bizarre.

At their core, Weezer has always been about writing good solid rock and roll songs and has never made any apologies for it. Rivers Cuomo has talked about it interviews for years.