Oneida - Rated O (Jagjaguwar/Brah) 3CD $12.25
Listen: The River • I Will Haunt You
Available Tuesday, July 7th: What seemeed overmuch at first, long listen has taught us what the turning worm hath wrought. This otherworldly three-CD juggernaut (the second installment in their 'Thank Your Parents' trilogy) has morphed into our brain-melter of choice in recent weeks; tribal and primal. A near-unclassifiable slab of sultry avant-rock, teeming with prog and psychedelic spectrums, epic in size and scope (100 minutes, and counting). [more detail]

Spoon - Got Nuffin CD5 $4.00
Wilco - (The Album) CD $13.75
Wilco - You Never Know 45 $6.25
Wilco - (The Album) LP+CD $21.00
Levon Helm - Electric Dirt CD $15.00
God Help The Girl - Self-Titled CD $13.50
Six Finger Satellite - Half Control CD $12.50
Pavement - Brighten The Corners: Nicean Creedence 4LP $75.00

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The Bats - The Guilty Office (Hidden Agenda) CD
$10.00 Sale: $9.00 Listen: Castle Lights • Countersign
Celebrating the official release of The Bats' 7th studio album, and first for Hidden Agenda Recorsds, with a special sale price and a free mp3. The album is out al over North America. Visit The Bats' release page for further details, more songs and see what the press is sayin' about The Guilty Office.

Love Is All – Last Choice EP CD5 $8.25
Deer Tick – Born On Flag Day CD $14.75
Sunset Rubdown – Dragon Slayer CD $11.50
Tortoise – Beacons of Ancestorship CD $14.00
Dinosaur Jr. – Farm [deluxe version] DCD $11.50
Yawning Sons – Ceremony to the Sunset CD $16.25
R.E.M. – Reckoning [expanded re-issue] DCD $28.50
Phenomenal Handclap Band – Self-Titled CD $12.00

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Captain Beyond - Self-Titled (Fontana/Island) CD $10.00
Listen: Myopic Void • Thousand Days of Yesterdays
Saturday Shift: First CD in the player today ain't new in any way, shape or form, but a proverbial blast from the past in the form of proggy, early-'70s supergroup Captain Beyond (featuring members of Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple), which has been totally frying our mynds in recent weeks. Maybe it's the heat (or the humidity) but we've been pleasantly overwhelmed by CB's baroque guitar-rock alchemies, symptoms include glassy eyes and shit-eating grins. [more detail]

Mary Onettes – Dare CD5 $6.50
Sleepy Sun – Embrace CD $12.75
Spectrum – War Sucks CD5 $9.00
Legends – Over & Over CD $12.25
The Clean – Mashed [live] CD $12.25
Ganglians – Monster Head Room CD $12.00
Among the Oak & Ash – Self-Titled CD $12.25

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David Kilgour & Sam Hunt - Falling Debris (Arch Hill)
CD $12.25 Listen: Chord • Every Time It Rains Like This
Our New Zealand shipment has arrived. New 2009 album by NZ Rock Godfather Dave Kilgour (The Clean, amongst others) find him paired up with Kiwi poet laureate Sam Hunt. Hunt supplies the lyrics and Kilgour the voice and tunes, backed breezily by his band, The Heavy Eights. There’s a hint of Dylan, of Lloyd Cole and even some Go-Betweens déjà vu. An excellent addition to Kilgour’s previous solo work, ie: effortlessly dreamy folk-pop. [more detail]

Died Pretty - Free Dirt [expanded re-issue] (Aztec Music)
DCD $25.00 Listen: Blue Sky Day • Ambergris
Finally restocked! One of the all time classic Australian indie albums. Sydney jangle-rockers Died Pretty's magnificent 1986 debut in deluxe, expanded form, adds three early singles, the Next To Nothing EP and ten unreleased demos/live tracks. Expect fiery, cinematic guitar-n-organ rock frosted in psychedelia; of the 80s, but as urgent and grand today as it was 20+ years ago. For fans and era explorers alike. [more detail]

Pelican – Ephemeral LP $13.50
Chocolat – Self-Titled CD $11.75
Sonic Youth – Eternal CD $13.25
Joan of Arc – Flowers CD $12.50
Love Is All – Covers EP 12” $9.50
Quest for Fire – Self-Titled CD $13.00
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca CD $12.50
Liechtenstein – Survival Strategy CD $10.00
Illinois - The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe CD
Deerhunter – Rainwater Cassette Exchange CD5 $7.50

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White Swan Black Swan - Self-Titled (Arch Hill)
DCD $12.25 Listen: Zona Rosa • Super 8 Movies
Our New Zealand shipment has arrived. First up, a pair of mini-albums from White Swan (Sonya Waters) and Black Swan (Arch Hill label honcho Ben Howe) that slink and sway through a slew of echoing neo-folk and lambent psychedelia, bringing to mind Mazzy Star, The Triffids (truly), Nick Cave and even our own Horse's Ha. Highly recommended. [more detail]

Surf City - Self-Titled (Morr Music) CD5 $7.00
Listen: Headin' Inside
Special offer: The debut EP from the hottest new band in New Zealand at a special price. Surf City's spectacularly solarized noise-pop-drone brings to mind Classic Kiwi Sounds like The Chills and The Clean, with nods to Animal Collective, Jesus & Mary Chain, even the Zombies! Six songs. Made of awesome. Highly recommended. [more detail]

Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound - When Sweet Sleep Returned
(Tee Pee) CD $15.00
Listen: Kolob Canyon • Two Stage Rocket
Mindbending: The latest album from San Fran's best psych band, which could be the best throwback psych album of the year. Friendlier and more peaceful-eyed than Austin's Black Angels, more expansive and retro-fit than Frisco brethren Wooden Shjips, with just a touch of Crystal Antlers ferocity (more ferocious on previous album, Ekranoplan). [more detail]

Deastro – Moondagger CD $11.00
Sounds – Crossing the Rubicon CD $12.25
Träd Gräs och Stenar – Homeless Cats CD $16.25
Acid Mothers Temple – Are We Experimental CD $16.25
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti – Can’t Hear My Eyes 45 $4.25
St. Christopher - Lost at Sea: The Sarah Recordings CD $18.75

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The Coral Sea - Firelight (Red Clover) CD $10.00
Listen: More Than You Know • I Know You'll Find A Way
The Coral Sea gets their DIY on and self-releases the follow-up to their righteous 2006 Hidden Agenda release, Volcano & Heart. Led by the silver-voiced Rey Villalobos, The Coral Sea continues to attain and explore a gorgeous shoegaze-guitar apogee that finds them in the same rarified atmospheres as Mercury Rev, Slowdive, Sigur Ros and The Verve, with a dash of Pixies-styled bombast. [more detail]

Wand – Hard Knox CD $10.00
Viva Voce – Rose City CD $12.50
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest CD $12.25
Blank Dogs – Under & Under CD $14.25
Bachelorette – My Electric Family CD $13.25
Sunn0))) – Monoliths & Dimensions CD $13.50
Telescopes – Singles Compilation #2 CD $13.25
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix CD $12.25
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us CD $13.00

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Clues – Self-Titled CD $16.25
Passion Pit – Manners CD $13.25
Iron & Wine – Around the Well DCD $12.50
White Rabbits - It's Frightening CD $12.25
Curious Mystery – Rotting Slowly CD $11.50
Apostle of Hustle – Eats Darkness CD $15.25
Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications CD $15.00
Bellini – The Precious Prize of Gravity CD+LP $12.25
Elfin Saddle – Ringing the Bell for the Begin Again CD $16.25
Various - The World's Lousy With Ideas Vol. 8 LP $17.00

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Comet Gain - Broken Record Prayers
(What's Your Rupture?) CD $12.75
Listen: Jack Nance Hair • Beautiful Despair
We’re not sure how we avoided falling in love with Comet Gain back in the day, when we really should have, but this collection of singles and odds-n-sods might be one of our favorite album of The Spring, The Year and then some; and makes us even more mortified that we’re jumping on this band’s wagon so very late. A collection of CG’s gloriously noisy pop recorded during the last decade, available on CD and now deluxe DLP vinyl in a gatefold Stoughton jacket. [more detail]

Bricolage – Self-Titled CD $14.25
Wooden Birds – Magnolia CD $12.00
The Church – Untitled #23 CD $13.75
Meat Puppets – Sewn Together CD $15.00
Mark Kozelek – Lost Verses Live CD $13.50
Wildbirds & Peacedrums – The Snake LP $17.75
Cats On Fire – Our Temperance Movement CD $12.25
The Projects – Word Of Love Broadcast In Code CD $13.25

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Frank Lenz - Strictly Background [OST] (Velvet Blue)
CD $13.75 Listen: God I Need a Map • Childhood Dreams
New This Week: Frank Lenz (Pedro the Lion, Starflyer 59, The Headphones, Richard Swift, Lassie Foundation, and esteemed solo artist) has out done himself this time! He wrote and performed the entire soundtrack to a feature film called Strictly Background. It's indie rock heart and soul and even funk with a glossy, polished production. Plenty of songs and loads of gorgeous filmscore-noir exotica. For fans of ELO, Flaming Lips, Elliot Smith, Stereolab... [more detail]

St. Vincent – Actor CD $13.25
Fleet Foxes – Mykonos 45 $4.75
Double Dagger – More CD $13.00
Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love CD $11.50
Hopewell – Good, Good Desperation CD $12.50
Vaselines – Enter the Vaselines [retrospective] DCD $15.00
Connor Oberst & Mystic Valley Band – Outer South CD $14.00
Nick Cave+Bad Seeds [expanded re-issues] CD+DVD $16.25

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Akron Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free (Dead Oceans)
CD $11.50 Listen: Everyone Is Guilty • They Will Appear
Mega- and meta- indie-prog fancifulness that somehow manages to evoke questions like “Primus?”, "Fela Kuti?", "Tortoise?" and “Queen?” while retaining good ol’ American guitar rock grit-n-bluster and a Sly hipswinging funk…all in the first song! We could fill the page with name-dropping but suffice it to say the genre-defying Family has filled the proverbial kitchen sink with proverbial kitchen sinks. [more detail]

Thee Oh Sees – Help CD $14.25
Bardo Pond – Peri LP+CD $21.50
Ape School – Self-Titled CD $15.25
Woods – Songs of Shame CD $12.00
Crocodiles – Summer of Hate CD $15.00
The Disciplines – Smoking Kills CD $13.00
Sweet Trip – You Will Never Know Why CD $12.25

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The Horse's Ha - Of The Cathmawr Yards (Hidden Agenda)
CD $10.00 On Sale: $9.00 LP $11.00 On Sale: $10.00
CD+LP+POSTER $20.00 On Sale: $17.50
Listen: The Piss Choir • Wilds Empty Bedroom
Parasol Label Group Presents: Debut album from Chicago slowburn-folk troupe The Horse’s Ha, led by Janet Beveridge Bean (Eleventh Dream Day, Freakwater) and James Elkington (The Zincs), who are backed by stellar Chicago musos Fred Lonberg-Holm, Nick Macri and Charles Rumback. A sophisticated and compelling hybrid of jazz and folk, their sound is infused with echoes of the English folk revival. Think Fairport Convention, Pentangle and a little Astral Weeks, if you catch their drift. Visit The Horse's Ha release page for further details, more songs and a free mp3.

Okkervil River – Pop Lie CD5 $3.50
Pterodactyl – Worldwild CD $11.50
Black Kids – Wizard of Ahhhs 10” $6.75
Radiohead - vinyl re-issues… 12" $12.75
Andrew Bird & Loney Dear – Split 45 $4.75
Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career CD $11.50
Kurt Vile & The Violators – Hunchback EP CD5 $12.25
Dukes Of Stratosphear – 25 O'Clock [expanded] CD $16.25
Dukes Of Stratosphear – Psonic Psunspot [expanded] CD $16.25

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Wooden Shjips - Dos (Holy Mountain)
CD $13.50 Listen: For So Long • Motorbike
Frisco psych-juggernaut Wooden Shjips (the j is there to smoke, I gather) for gets their mezmer on and their mantra ohm; infusing their quasi-terrestrial zoom- trance- kraut- drone-rock with a groove as oiled and coiled as cobras. Dos maybe ain't as heavy as their slew of singles previous, but the whole cosmic trip is evolved to a point where your glad the songs are so stark and serrated. [more detail]

Metric – Fantasies CD $13.75
Fire On Fire – Orchard CD $13.50
Silversun Pickups – Swoon CD $13.75
The Life & Times – Tragic Boogie CD $13.50
Life On Earth – Space Water Loop CD $16.25
The Handsome Family – Honey Moon CD $11.50
Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want CD $14.25
Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle CD $12.50
Sun City Girls - Napoleon & Josephine: Singles Vol. 2 CD $15.00

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Shogun Kunitoki - Vinonaamakasio (Fonal)
CD $15.00 Listen: Mulberg • Riddarholmen
Jim's Scandinavian Pick: The follow-up to their kaleidoscopic debut... Helsinki's Shogun Kunitoki do instrumental strobe-prog and lambent psychedelia on antique synths, electronics and a classic drum set (or two). A sound by which all other instrumental strobe-prog-psych-rock shall be judged. A searing shower of cosmic rays, an icy drift of diamonds, a mystical kraut of rock. [more detail] Vinyl version is a picture disc that when played and viewed under a 10 hertz strobelight offers multiple animation loops.

Grails – Acid Rain DVD $14.25
Doves – Kingdom of Rust CD $15.25
Bat for Lashes – Two Suns CD $15.00
Thermals – Now We Can See CD $14.25
Richard Swift – The Atlantic Ocean CD $11.50
Superchunk – Leaves in the Gutter CD5 $7.25
Arcade Fire – Mirror Noir [deluxe 2 disc] DVD $24.00
Antony & The Johnsons – Epilepsy Is Dancing CD5 $5.50

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Crystal Antlers - Tentacles (Touch & Go) CD $12.50
Listen: Andrew
After a brilliant debut EP Crystal Antlers return with another potent dose of high-energy psych-soul squall, fuzz pedals set to stun, Sexual Chocolate in full-effect. Echoing soul-psych epiphanies, where every measure is crescendo and climax; favoring acid-fried melodies over outright noise-for-noise-sake. A righteous kicking-out-of-the-jams going on here; think Stooges, Union Carbide Productions, Les Savy Fav, Comets On Fire, Wooden Shjips and A Place To Bury Strangers. [more detail]

Crystal Stilts – Love Is A Wave 45 $4.25
Adam Franklin – Spent Bullets CD $16.25
Pansy Division – That’s So Gay CD $15.25
Peter Bjorn & John – Living Thing CD $15.25
Interbellum - Over All of Spain the Sky is Clear CD $5.50
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Young Adult Friction 45 $4.25
PJ Harvey & John Parish – A Woman A Man Walked By CD $15.00

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Fever Ray - Self-Titled (Mute) CD $15.25 Sale: $14.00
Listen: If I Had A Heart • When I Grow Up
Solo opus from Karin Dreijer of acclaimed Swedish sibling duo The Knife (and prior to that indie-rockers Honey Is Cool). Minus brother Olaf, Karin’s Fever Ray has excised The Knife’s campy, dance vibes and stitched up those incisions with the eeriest, most alluring/repellant electro-psych intimacies this side of Xiu Xiu, with her trademark androgynous and schizophrenic vocals as spectral and otherworldly as anything in her career. [more detail]

The Green Pajamas - Hidden Minutes
(Camera Obscura) LP-only $10.00
A compilation of odds'n'sods that seemed to beg to be brought together into neat package for fans of Jeff Kelly's fertile song-writing imagination & psych-pop recording stylings. [more detail] While you're at it, grab The Green Pajamas' new 2009 album, Poison In The Russian Room, while it's still on sale.

The Obits – I Blame You CD $12.50
Condo Fucks – Fuckbook CD $13.25
Swan Lake – Enemy Mine CD $11.50
Valet – False Face Society LP $15.00
Marissa Nadler – Little Hells LP $12.25
Gregor Samsa – Over Air CD+DVD $11.25
Lotus Plaza – Floodlight Collective CD $12.25
Mono – Hymn to the Immortal Wind CD $11.50

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Wavves - Wavvves (Fat Possum) CD $13.00
Listen: Beach Demon • Weed Demon
Hip-hop blogga, 40-oz enthusiast and psych-pop-noise-surfer, Wavves' Nathan Daniel William leaves no middle-to-high-end frequency unsaturated. Lo-fi beach-punk anthems slathered in fuzz, beautiful timeless melodies buried in trashcan guitars and blown-out drums. Thirteen spastic, treble-to-11 rockers and one spaced-out ballad, all in 35 minutes. Pull that carb and go... [more detail]

Green Pajamas - Poison In the Russian Room (Hidden Agenda)
CD $10.00 Listen: Any Way the Wind Blows • Fairy Queen I
Parasol Label Group Presents: Veteran Seattle psych-pop combo The Green Pajamas’ new album is a conceptual piece split into two distinct parts. While their trademark psychedelia has gone through many moon phases on the last 25 years, here in 2009 the band might rock harder than ever (they’re from Seattle after all, grunge finds a way), but also invert all expectations with a mystical Pentangle/Zeppelin-styled acid-folkiness that will charm and enchant. Visit the PITRR release page for a free mp3, more songs, etc.

Bonnie Prince Billy - Chijimi (Drag City) 10"+DL $20.00
In addition to the Beware CD and vinyl LP Drag City and The Bonnie Prince have concocted this lovely scheme, the Chijimi ULTRALOAD package featuring even more of BPB's harrowing folk. A limited vinyl 10" featuring four exclusive, non-album tracks, plus download codes for the entire Beware album. Now or never. [more detail]

Mirah - (A)spera CD $11.50
Bishop Allen - Grrr CD $11.50
Cursive – Mama, I’m Swollen CD $12.50
Xiu Xiu – You Can’t Hear Me DVD $15.75
Handsome Furs – Face Control CD $12.50
Tim Hecker – Imaginary Country CD $12.25
David Bowie – Live in Santa Monica ’72 CD $17.75
Julie Doiron - I Can Wonder What You Did... CD $11.50
Wheat - Medeiros/Hope & Adams [expanded] 3CD $17.75

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Existensminimum - OK Boys (Novoton) CD $13.00
Listen: Mirrors • Fuglesang • 1993
JIM's SWEDISH PICK: Darkly elegant electronica (think 70s krautrock) and retro-dayglo chamber-pop (think 80s haircuts) drenched in harmonies from über-producer Magnus Henriksson, who's also a member of Moneybrother. Between minimalist synthesizering and truly baroque arrangements a graceful balance is achieved. Adventures in modern recording, with a mantric pulse and surrealist pallette. [more detail]

Cameron McGill & What Army - Warm Songs for Cold Shoulders
(Parasol Records) CD $10.00
Listen: Low Ways • Dark Times, Dark Times
Parasol Label Group Presents: New album from Chicago f olk-pop troubador is exactly the kind of record we hoped for from our soft-spoken latest signing; songs stripped down and stories laid bare. McGill is aided and abetted by members of Those Transatlantics, Elanors, Wandering Sons, Judah Johnson and Andreas Kapsalis Trio. Visit the Warm Songs for Cold Shoulders release page for free mp3, more sounds, video...

Drones – Havilah CD $15.50
Neko Case – Middle Cyclone CD $15.50
Marissa Nadler – Little Hells CD $13.75
The Low Frequency In Stereo – Futuro CD $16.25
Boston Spaceships – Planets Are Blasted CD $15.25
Bitter Tears - Jam Tarts in the Jake House CD $11.50
M. Ward – End of Amnesia [vinyl re-issue] DLP $17.50
Died Pretty – Free Dirt [expanded re-issue] DCD $25.00

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The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Communion
(Yep Roc) DCD $17.50
Listen: Ra 88 • Flipside • Universal Stalker • TOUR DATES!
Domestic release for TSOOL's new double-album. You give TSOOL an inch, they'll make a mile, and here they've had three years to conjure up 24 sprawling rock tracks, inluding an incredible cover of Nick Drake's "Fly". These are the kind of songs that made them icons in the first place in our book. Been a long time...glad to have you back. [more detail]

New Ruins - We Make Our Own Bad Luck (Hidden Agenda)
CD $10.00 LP $10.00 CD+LP Package $18.00
Listen: Lake • Symptoms
Parasol Label Group Presents: New album from Illinois paranormal act New Ruins, the follow-up to their first release, The Sound They Make, from 2007. Droning acoustic/electric rock haunted by rural spectres, songs rendered in sepia-tone, but updated with DIY studio machinations. New Ruins is a band as comfortable in a stage-shaking three-guitar line-up as it is in a more stripped-down acoustic setting. Visit the WMOOBL release page for a free mp3, more songs, etc.

Pan-American - White Bird Release (Kranky) CD $12.25
Listen: For Aiming At the Stars
Dreamy new quaaludery from Mark Nelson, minimalist dubster, ambienteering glitch-impressionist and former vocalist/guitarist for Kranky flagship Labradford. With WBR Nelson balances the soothing and sensual lilt with the splintered and serrated omni-ominousness. Weightless, boundry-less, infused with acoustic instrumentation, yum. [more detail]

Quad – Self-Titled CD $10.25
Drones – Havilah DLP $18.00
Mi Ami – Watersports CD $12.00
Clem Snide - Hungry Bird CD $13.75
Gentleman Reg – Jet Black CD $15.00
Robin Hitchcock – Goodnight Olso CD $14.50
Outrageous Cherry – Universal Malcontents CD $13.50
Barn Owl - From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light CD $11.00

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Vetiver - Tight Knit (Sub Pop) CD $12.50
Listen: Rolling Sea • Everyday
Their fourth full-length and first for Sub Pop, Tight Knits finds Vetiver honcho Andy Cabic in an expansive and luminous mood; indeed the the George Harrison name-dropping is not without merit! His guitar weeps gently deep within a hazy redwood forest and methinks you can smell the ocean, even from here. Folksier and more focused, Tight Knit is just that. [more detail]

Sholi – Self-Titled CD $12.00
M. Ward – Hold Time CD $13.25
Tommy Keene – In the Late Bright CD $14.50
Death - For The Whole World To See CD $13.25
Weird Owl – Ever The Silver Cord Be Loosed CD $13.25
Beirut – March of the Zapotec & Realpeople Holland DCD $14.25

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Lincoln: Prelude to the Presidency (WILL-TV) DVD $24.95
Handling fulfillment for local PBS affiliate, WILL-TV...
DVD documentary tells the story of Lincoln's journeys as a lawyer traveling Illinois’ Eighth Judicial Circuit. DVD features re-enactments of Lincoln as you’ve never seen him before. Watch a preview video, and see interviews and stories. Features interviews with experts, including Doris Kearns Goodwin, Edna Greene Medford and Orville Vernon Burton, who describe how the circuit built the skills Lincoln used as president. [more detail]

Asobi Seksu – Hush CD $13.25
Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid CD $15.25
Khan Of Finland – Self-Titled CD $15.00
Cotton Jones – Paranoid Cocoon CD $13.25
Hot Panda – Volcano…Bloody Volcano CD $16.75
Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - #4 CD5 $9.50
Diplo – Decent Work for Decent Pay Vol. 1 DCD $17.25

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Antennas - Feeling Feline Tonight (Novoton) CD $13.00
Listen: (You Feed Me) Lies • Youngbloods
JIM'S PICK: New album from Swedish soul-pop instigators, not so retro anymore with their songcraft pushed to even more brilliant and dancey extremes. Their stylized soul-pop futurismo is in full effect, manic and sultry at turns, high-glossy with a newfound appreciation for electronica, and again produced by Existensminimum's Magnus Henriksson. Initial orders come with a bonus "Lies" remix EP, while supplies last! [more detail] Check out Novoton's killer roster.

Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Self-Titled
(Slumberland) CD $12.00 Listen: Contender • Gentle Sons
All hail new shoegaze overlords and overlady POBPAH who have taken the genre's (and chiefly Rocketship's) twee-froth to dramatic and harmony-laden turns. Pink and sensual at one moment, primal and squalling the next, minimalist and acoustic in-between; it's the careful balance of youthful exhuberance and a carefully mined vein of collective unconscious that make POBPAH so monumental. And, duh, it's on Slumberland... [more detail]

Ladyfinger [NE] – Dusk CD $12.50
Magnetic Morning – A.M. CD $11.00
Phosphorescent – To Willie CD $11.50
Heartless Bastards – Mountain CD $15.50
Eluvium – Life Through Bombardment 7LP-BOX $150.00
Strings Of Consciousness & Angel – Self-Titled CD $13.00
Windy & Carl/Heavy Winged – Monolith: Earth LP+CD $21.50

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Mazes - Mazes (Parasol) CD $10.00
Listen: I Have Laid In the Darkness of Doubt • Love To Lay
Parasol Label Group Presents: Mazes is the first album from a band called Mazes. The band includes Caroline Donovan and songwriter Edward Anderson of the Chicago band The 1900s, their peculiar friend Charles D’Autremont and guest stars from some of Chicago’s best bands. The 11 songs on this debut are not so much departure from The 1900s’ hitherto verdant psych-pop meadow, but more a sojourn for Edward and friends to explore further musical flora and fauna, sweet popsongs influenced by classic New Zealand pop and Guided By Voices. Visit the Mazes release page for a free mp3, etc.

Slipstream - Mantra (Enraptured) CD $16.25
Listen: Rock 'n' Roll (Burns Your Soul) • Psycho Paul
Fans since Slipstream’s pair of early Che singles the 2008 album from Mark Refoy & Co caught us unawares. Catching up we find his Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized pedigree serving him well in this collection of luminous electro-folk dronescapes, with a healthy dose of Brit Pop to keep things electric, all backlit by a gently strobing psychedelia. It’s gorgeous and we’re biased; we released Slipstream’s Transcendental on Hidden Agenda in 2003. [more detail]

Spirits of the Dead - Self-Titled (White Elephant) CD $14.00
Listen: The Waves of Our Ocean • My Wild Dream
JIM'S PICK: Norwegian retro-prog-rock combo balances classic stoner heaviosity with some sweetly nodding tripscapes, not as much fellow guitar-vikings Motorpsycho as it is early Elope, or Black Belt or Black Bonzo. While the riffs are mighty and majestic on the discs opener and closer, it is within the album's soft chewy center, a slew of sensual psych-prog suites, where things get cosmic and glammy. [more detail]

Lithops – Ye Viols! CD $13.00
Loney Dear – Dear John CD $12.50
Emeralds – What Happened CD $12.25
Of Montreal – Jon Brion Remix EP CD5 $6.75
Dakota Suite – The End of Trying CD $15.00
The Bodies Obtained - From the Top of My Tree CD $10.00
Volcano Suns – Bright Orange Years [expanded] CD $11.50
Volcano Suns – All Night Lotus Party [expanded] CD $11.50

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Matthew Robert Cooper - Miniatures
(Gaarden Records) LP $13.75 Listen: 2 • 6 • 8
Pitchfork-approved, vinyl-only, Kranky-esque ambienteering from Eluvium druid Cooper, carefully balanced with some dulcet piano interludes. Think classic ambient like Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Gavin Bryars (especially his ghostly Sinking of the Titanic), all the way back to Chopin. A haunting DIY symphony. Set the controls for the sun of your heart. [more detail]

Bon Iver – Blood Bank CD5 $7.50
A.C. Newman – Get Guilty CD $13.25
Robert Pollard – Crawling Distance CD $15.25
Swervedriver – Raise [expanded] CD $13.75
Six Organs of Admittance – RTZ DCD $15.50
Swervedriver – Mezcal Head [expanded] CD $13.75
MV & EE w/Bummer Road – Drone Trailer CD $14.25
Antony & The Johnsons – The Crying Light CD $11.50
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion CD $13.00
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast/Useless Creatures DCD $27.25

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Joe Pug - Nation of Heat EP (self-released) CD5 $5.50
Listen: Hymn #101
First song I heard by Chicago DIY-singer-songwriter Joe Pug was on our cool local radio station on a bitter cold morning. It transfixed me, immobilized me in the drivers seat with the sun blazing through the icy window, the defroster doing it's damnedest. Like The Tallest Man On Earth this dude's gonna get the "Dylan-esque" tag, and like TTMOE Joe completely surpasses easy comparison. [more detail]

Bats - Don’t You Rise 45 $3.75
Howlin’ Rain - Wild Life LP $22.00
Honeychurch - Early Times CD $10.25
Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel CD $15.25
22-Pistepirkko - Sleep Good-Rock Well DVD $15.00
Patti Smith - Dream of Life [documentary] DVD $24.50

Complete Weekly New Release Details...

The Errors - It's Not Something But It Is Like Whatever
(Rock Action) CD $18.25 Listen: Salut France
New Glaswegian "buzz band" on Mogwai’s Rock Action label has got the Mogwai gents happily mortified and Creation/Poptones honcho Alan McGee’s pick as a Top Tip for 2009. Instrumental indie-electronica that somehow references Explosions In The Sky (chiming guitar filigree) and LCD Sound System (beat- and glitch-happy sonic environs) and The Notwist, Fuck Buttons, Justice, etc...along with a heady dose of the starkly groovy, earliest New Order. [more detail]

Majesty Crush - I Love You In Other Cities: Best... CD $15.00
Various - Art of Field Recording Volume Two Boxset $61.00
Marissa Nadler - Ballads of Living & Dying LP $17.75
Boredoms - 77 Boa Drum [deluxe] DCD+DVD $110.00
Susanna – Flower of Evil CD $16.25
Gourds - Haymaker! CD $14.25

Complete New Release Details...

Mattias Hellberg & The White Moose - Out of the Frying Pan...
(Playground Music) CD $16.25
Listen: Why is it so? • Final Call
Jim's Pick: New album from Mattias Hellberg (Hederos & Hellberg, Nymphet Noodlers, Hellacopters, etc) with a retrofit rhythm section setting an throwback tone. From spliff-fueled sixties garage-rock period pieces (think Dungen, TSOOL, Hipwhips, The Works) to a handful of sweltering, sun-baked, seventies-styled psychedelic jams, laced with some Maximum White Moose Jazz. Unwind, uncork, undress and yes, light that candle. [more detail]

Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave (Mexican Summer)
LP+45 $17.50 Listen: Pistol Dreams
Limited domestic vinyl version of righteous Swedish acoustic folk troubador's debut album includes a 7" with the 4 songs from his debut CD5. "Dylanesque" sure, but TMOE really gives it a primal, elemental twist, channeling the spirits of Son House, Charlie Patton and occasionally Nick Drake. Those of you waiting for the import CD version...we appreciate your patience, not sure if/when we'll see it at this point. [more detail]

Roy : Unbunny, Swervedriver, The Band, Meneguar...
Paul : Notwist, Dr. Dog, Matthew Sweet, Bon Iver...
Angie : Beaujolais, Toadies, Neilson Hubbard, Montys Loco...
Jim : Motorpsycho, TSOOL, The Twilight Sad, Paper...
Geoff : The 1900s, Fleet Foxes, Ric Menck, Three Hour Tour...
Intern Jim : Why?, Beck, Okkervil River, The New Year...

Check out all of our favorite 2008 releases & re-issues here.

Various - Fading Yellow Vol. 8 (Flower Machine) CD $15.00
Various - Fading Yellow Vol. 9 (Flower Machine) CD $15.00
Listen V.8: Raw "What To Do" • Harvey Andrew "England..."
Listen V.9: Christian "She" • Pussyfoot "Hasty Words"
Essential Obscurities: These legendary pop-psyke comps are much $ought after by collectors, but we are able to obtain the two most recent volumes (along with restock on Vol. 6) direct from the label. Think Nuggets, Rubble and Psychic Circle, but all 60s and 70s Psych-Pop and Pop-Sike, all the time! [more detail]

The 1900s - Medium High EP (Parasol) MCD $6.00
Listen: Collections • Age of Metals
Parasol Label Group Presents: Our beloved Chicago psych-pop troupe's sneaky, new, rush-released limited edition, seven-song mini-album features nu, alt, instr and unrel. The sprightly yet melancholy "Collections" and and the mood-ring darkening "Age of Metals" from their recent 7" vinyl single, a couple radical reworkings of known tracks, plus a couple unknown, but now known gems. Limited to 750 copies, don't hibernate on this! Visit the Medium High release page for a free mp3.