Out This Week 11 16

Yesterday, to everyone’s surprise, Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, released his fifth album of cut-up songs, All Day, on the label Illegal Art. The album, featuring 373 samples in just over 70 minutes, is like his last album… free! But this time, further flaunting a recording system has become more about rights ownership than anything else, Gillis isn’t even giving downloaders the option to pay, offering only that the album be downloaded either as separate tracks, or, better yet, as one seamless file. Most likely, if you’ve already tried to download All Day, that’s exactly how long you’ve been waiting due to site crashes and massive traffic. But keep at it — Gillis has the site up and running again now with alternate links — ’cause this is a mind-blowing, two-year labor of love.

More legitimately(?) out this week are a handful of solid releases mixed in with a few holiday albums to get your properly lifted. Topping the list the latest from The Russian Futurists, which our Music Director, Don Yates, calls “stunning set of psych-tinged electro-pop featuring a variety of extravagant, well-crafted songs with smart lyrics, confident vocals and an abundance of bright melodic hooks.” Of interest to Springsteen fans new and old is the release this week of The Promise, collecting two CD’s worth of outtakes recorded for Bruce’s ’78 album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. Springsteen himself says of the 21 previously unreleased songs that they “perhaps could have/should have been released after Born To Run and before the collection of songs that Darkness on the Edge of Town became.” While that’s intriguing enough, the box set also contains a remastered edition of the original album and over four hours of live video footage.

Other new releases worth checking out include the official domestic release of the debut by L.A. disco duo Kisses, a recent Song of the Day artist featuring Princeton’s Jesse Kivel; Stereolab‘s Not Music, which is not exactly a new album in the midst of the band’s current hiatus but is rather a collection culled from experimental sessions anticipating their 2008 release, Chemical Chords; an interesting new EP from Oxford, England, trio Jonquil; and the latest from long-lived New Hampshire punk band The Queers.

On the holiday tip, check out Pink Martini‘s hipstamatic Joy to the World, South Street Seaport musician Martin Clancy’s holiday band The Elves Of Heaven, or a bit more earnestly, Annie Lennox‘s A Christmas Cornucopia, which also includes a new original single, “Universal Child,” the proceeds of which will benefit women and children in Africa with HIV/AIDS through The Annie Lennox Foundation.

You can find all of these and more (listed by Largehearted Boy) awaiting you at record stores today.

Crushed Stars – Black Umbrellas (MP3)
from Convalescing in Braille on Simulacra Records

The Details – The Original Mark (MP3)
from The Original Mark on Parliament of Trees

The Elves of Heaven – This Christmas (MP3)
from This Christmas EP on Seaport Music Records

Faun Fables – Parade (MP3)
from Light of a Vaster Dark on Drag City

Fredrik – White on White (MP3)
from Origami EP on The Kora Records

The Glass – Four Four Letter (MP3)
from At Swim Two Birds on Plant Music

Home Video – Smoke (MP3)
from The Automatic Process on Defend Music Inc.

Jonquil – Fighting Smiles (MP3)
from One Hundred Suns EP on Dovecote Records

Kisses ‒ Bermuda (MP3)
from The Heart of the Nightlife on I Am Sound

La Sera – Never Come Around (MP3)
from Never Come Around 7″ on Hardly Art

Lavinia – A Damning Cofession (MP3)
from There Is Light Between Us on The Mylene Sheath

Le Switch – Call Out (MP3)
from The Rest of Me Is Space (self-released)

Annie Lennox – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
from A Christmas Cornucopia on Decca Records

Mariage Blanc – Whatever You Say I Am (MP3)
from Mariage Blanc (self-released)

The Notes – Sheltered (MP3)
from Wishing Well on Bleeding Gold Records

Pigeons – Race (MP3)
from Liasons on Soft Abuse

Pink Martini – We Three Kings (MP3)
from Joy To The World on Heinz Records

The Pipettes – Stop The Music
from Earth Vs the Pipettes on Fortuna Pop

The Queers – Don’t Touch My Hat (MP3)
from Back to the Basement on Asian Man Records

Radical Face – Doorways (MP3)
from Touch the Sky EP on Morr Music

The Russian Futurists – Hoeing Weeds Sowing Seeds (MP3)
from The Weight’s On The Wheels on Upper Class Recordings

The Shondes – Lines and Hooks (MP3)
from Lines & Hooks + 3 EP on Fanatic Records LTD

Shuteye Unison – Our Future Selves (MP3)
from Our Future Selves on Parks and Records

Bruce Springsteen – City of Night (free download)
from The Promise on Columbia Records

Stereolab – Sun Demon (MP3)
from Not Music on Drag City