25. Leggy – Nice Try EP [self]
24. Library Voices – Lovish [nevado]
23. Faith No More – Sol Invictus [reclamation]
22. Say Hi – Bleeders Digest [barsuk]
21. Giggly Boys – Bastards of Young [self]
20. The Diamond Center – Crystals of the Brass Empire [funny / not funny]
19. Gun Outfit – Dream All Over [paradise of bachelors]
18. Woolen Men – Temporary Monument [woodsist]
17. Expert Alterations – You Can’t Always Be Liked [kanine]
15. Albino Father – II [self]
14. Mikal Cronin – MCIII [merge]
13. Kurt Vile – b’lieve i’m goin down… [matador]
12. King Gizzard and the Lizzard Wizard – Paper Mâché Dream Balloon [ato]
11. L’Orange & Kool Keith – Time? Astonishing! [mello music]
10. Ultimate Painting – Green Lanes [trouble in mind]
9. Wand – Golem [in the red]
8. Young Guv – Ripe 4 Luv [slumberland]
7. Moon Duo – Shadow of the Sun [sacred bones]
6. Lazy Knuckles – Bucolic [gold robot]
5. Thee Oh Sees – Mutilator Defeted At Last [castle face]
4. Danny James Etc. – Pear [burger]
3. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear [sub pop]
2. Destroyer – Poison Season [merge]
1. The Butterscotch Cathedral – S/T [trouble in mind]
Times New Viking sure make a whole lotta racket for only three people. The fuzz, the pounding, the screeching organ; it’s like The Velvets on speed, the Velvets how they sounded in the earphones of the young, impressionable future members of Times New Viking.
Jay Reatard is a crazy man from Memphis. He’s prolific, playing with seemingly a dozen bands over the years, notably the Reatards and 
There used to be a bunch of MP3’s available for Stephen Malkmus so that you could get a great sense of what the erstwhile Pavement frontman has been up to for most of the last decade — and if you haven’t been keeping up, you’re missing out. We’re down to one: the sprawling, guitarilicious Randy Newman cover (!) “Baltimore,” all 6 minutes and 37 seconds of it. The new album is called Real Emotional Trash and as far as I can tell there is no release date yet, so don’t wear out this stocking stuffer too soon because it may be all you get for Christmas.
Somehow, this holiday season snuck up on me. No more pigs in blankets! No more cheap red wine! I revolt. I can’t listen to DJ’s play the greatest hits of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s anymore! I revolt! I am deeply desirous of a comfortable pair of pajamas, a cup of tea, some only-me-and-no-one-else time and the piece de resistance… new Dead Meadow playing on repeat. Shan called it way back in ’05—“blissful rock and roll melancholyâ€. I couldn’t agree more. What better place to escape to in the midst of small talk, velvet dresses, candles and fake snow? These guys had it right when they took their fifth-album making selves to rural Indiana to create these tunes—there is something deliciously escapist about them.
The New Pornographers were one of the earliest posts on 3hive, back three and a half years ago when Sam and I tossed up a handful of MP3s from some of our favorite albums from the year previous. We didn’t offer much in the way of commentary back then (not that we do presently either), so for those who’ve been hiding under a rock for the last three years, and have missed out on The New Pornographers, here’s a bit more to chew on. The sequence to their new album Challengers threw me off on first listen. It starts off with “My Rights Versus Yours” a familiar, subdued type of Carl Newman tune, complete with a french horn (used, surprisingly, for the first time in a New Pornographers’ song). It builds like a rock opera opener and sets up me up to bounce around to a frantic track like “All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth” or “Mutiny, I Promise You.” But my patience is tried and I have to wait through three more songs, including Dan Bejar’s “Myriad Harbor,” before my expectations are rewarded. Dont’ get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Each song is great! It’s just going to take repeated listens before I can appreciate the album as a whole, unlike the first listen ecstacy I experienced hearing Electric Version. Considering today’s song-based attention span, I must sound like an old man, talking about spending time with a whole album! Well, this codger appreciates the fact that Newman, Case, Bejar & Co. continue to create whole albums worth those repeated listens.
Where’s the “Easy Listening” genre when you need one? I remember seeing Lavender Diamond once on The Lawrence Welk Show in 1977, when I snuck out of bed to hide behind the couch and see what my parents were watching. Then again, Becky Stark almost certainly wasn’t alive in ’77, so maybe it’s just the big yellow smiley-face sound that’s taking me back. These tracks are from the band’s 2005 EP The Cavalry of Light; a full-length album, Imagine Our Love, was released by Matador in May of this year.