One day in the not too distant future some kid will ask his smartphone for an explanation of the term “New Release Tuesdays.”
This soon to be extinct ritual of releasing new CDs in stores and online vendors on Tuesdays becomes more antiquated with each album leak, not to mention a buying public moving towards single-track purchases rather than traditional full-album song cycles.
A current report has a bunch of coloured charts predicting digital music sales to eclipse CDs by next year in North America, so whether the New Release Tuesday model will still exist two years from now is pretty uncertain.
But for the sake of those increasingly-desolate music stores, let’s take a look at what’s being stocked on the shelves this week, starting today:
Memphis tantrum-throwing punk Jay Reatard has been receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews for his new joint Watch Me Fall. Even the always-late-to-the-game (at least music-wise) New York Times is fawning over the prodigal garage rocker.
Torontonians have a special bond with Mr. Reatard ever since his news-making dust-up at the Silver Dollar last year was caught on video for our YouTube pleasure.
An artist with a less dubious Toronto connection releasing a new jam today would be the once red-hot dance hall crossover Sean Paul, who recorded most of his breakthrough Dutty Rock in our city. Imperial Blaze (Atlantic), which is Paul’s first in four years, has been leaking in drips and drabs since spring with an onslaught of music videos, the newest of which you can check out here.
Dan Bajar, aka Destroyer, is a Vancouver-based singer/songwriter who gets no shortage of critical love with each release in his rapidly-expanding catalogue but remains somewhat of an unknown amongst the mainstream.
Bajar’s new two-song EP Bay of Pigs (Merge) isn’t likely to change that considering it is a vinyl-only release and being described as a concept album about the titular historical event, as well as Bajar’s “first foray into the ambient disco market.” He’s also calling it music for “ravers,” which feels just a little too hipster ironic to be coming from a guy as notably cerebral as Destroyer.
Also out today, Brendan Benson of the Reconteurs puts out his first solo outing since 2005 60s folkie Arlo Guthrie with the aptly-titled Arlo Guthrie: Tales of ’69 and LA-based producer/songwriter Joe Henry drops Blood From Stars. [rssbreak]
