Trespassers William - Having (Nettwerk)
Third full-length album from this L.A. band that sounds a bit like a cross between Mazzy Star and My Bloody Valentine. Having has some great tracks (especially at the beginning) and it socres huge hipster points for featuring production by Dave Fridmann, famous for his work with The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and Mogwai. However, the press release for the album also touts that the band has been successful in the "TV & film world" with tracks featured on "The OC," the WB's "One Tree Hill(?!?)," a John Travolta movie I've never heard of and a forthcoming Disney flick. I'd say that negates all of the hipster points gained from picking up Fridmann, but as I was reminded of last week, even The Flaming Lips had to stoop to promoting themselves on teen TV back in the day...remember their classic "live at The Peach Pit" performance on 90210?
Rhett Miller - The Believer (Verve Forecast)
Amazon.com sez:
Already widely-loved for his work as frontman and main songwriter of the hard-charging rock 'n' roll quartet the Old 97's (of which he is still a member), The Believer takes its predecessor's achievements several steps further, with a dozen deeply felt, craftily melodic tunes that demonstrate the Texas-bred artist's knack for using accessible songcraft to address complex emotional issues.
RFC.com sez:
Haven't heard the new record, but Rhett Miller is a complete spaz. We saw him play solo a couple of years back at Metro and it was almost unwatchable. Miller put on the singer/songwriter/rock star schtick way too heavy and his songs sounded terrible live.
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