Smile Politely

Parasol’s top ten list for the week of Sept. 21

We’re still recovering from our Pygmalion weekends; spelling and punctuation may be affected…

Incoming!

Parasol Records welcomes the ‘debut’ record from You & Yourn (our neighbors Heather & Nic Dillon, formerly known as Casados), entitled It Would Make Things Worse. This album of lush, luminous folk is available on CD and very limited LP from Parasol and the band, digital downloads available when the album is officially released October 27th. You & Yourn are taking their guitars and harmonium on the road all this Fall and Winter and beyond, coast to coast and possibly overseas!

This week & last week we’re inundated with new quality sounds from J. Tillman (Fleet Foxes drummer’s solo album), Pains of Being Pure at Heart EP, Rose Melberg, Volcano Choir (Bon Iver guy with pals), Richard Hawley, Islands, Castanets, Owen, Times New Viking (treble goes to 11), Why?, Big Pink (sexy neo new wave), Early Day Miners, Mum, Twilight Sad, Forest Fire, Fresh & Onlys (lush, lo-fi loveliness), Grand Archives, Bunnygrunt (is back!), Parasol fave Mason Jennings, Vic Chesnut (you know Vic), Mystery Of Two, Elephants (sunny Danish pop), Vowels, SubArachnoid Space, Overmars, Yura Yura Teikoku, A Storm of Light, OMO (like Laurie Anderson meets Young Marble Giants)… Plus a new album from Alice Donut (???), a DCD soundtrack collection by Nick Cave/Warren Ellis, the Los Angeles ‘Nuggets’ boxset, a couple Ween reissues, a DCD reissue of Gary Numan’s The Pleasure Principle (Jim buys a copy each time it is re-released), that spectacular Big Star boxset, and scads of more for you to sift through.

Wax On

In addition to LPs for much of the full-length action above we’ve got Pains of Being Pure At Heart on 45 and 12″, a new Kurt Vile 45, Carter Family, Le Loupe, Mudhoney LP reissues, Sound, Julian Lynch ‘Orange You Glad’ LP (along with a buncha other Olde English Spelling Bee gear), Lisa Germano, Unrest Imperial ffrr 180g reissue, Ducktails/Julian Lynch 45, New Order 180g reissues, Simon Joyner, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Yo La Tengo, Religious To Damn, Mystery Of Two, Hi-God People/Zond (broadcasting dark ecstasy from a place far below outer space), Mum, Rale (In an edition of 400 12-inch EPs cut at 45rpm in pro-printed cardboard sleeves), James Ferraro, Pens (they do a cover of “Sex Beat” by The Gun Club that sounds like The Germs trying to be The Shangri-Las through a gauze of early K Records fuzz), Pigeons, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Sunny Day Real Estate and Fresh & Onlys. Stacks and stacks!

Rocking Our World

Big Star Keep An Eye on the Sky 4CD boxset, Maserati’s new Passages collection (they were incredible at Canopy Thursday), Low Drums & Guns, The Church Heyday, The Fresh & Onlys new dealio, the upcoming Kurt Vile album on Matador (jawdropping), and the latest trip from The Entrance Band have been monopolizing the CD carousel for the past week or so.

Girls 'Album'

Our Top 10

1. McGill, Cameron & What Army —  Warm Songs for Cold Shoulders (Parasol)
2. You & Yourn  — It Would Make Things Worse (Parasol)
3. Horse’s Ha, The —  Of The Cathmawr Yards (A Hidden Agenda Record)
4. Yo La Tengo —  Popular Songs (Matador)
5. Entrance Band —  S-T (Ecstatic Peace)
6. Teenage Cool Kids —  Foreign Lands (Protagonist Music)
7. Girls — Album (True Panther Sounds)
8. Ducktails —  Landscapes (Olde English Spelling Bee)
9. Motorpsycho — Child of the Future (Rune Grammofon)
10. Big Star —  Keep An Eye on the Sky [Remastered CD-BOX] (Rhino)

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