CY 2006 New Music Inventory

Here are the calendar year 2006 new music releases I've picked up so far:

Cat Power - The Greatest [I like it so much more than I expected. Can a (former) non-Cat Power-fan get away with calling it her best album?]

Robert Pollard - From a Compound Eye [Hell yes!]

The Plastic Constellations - Crusades [Really pretty OK anthemic guitar core on the French Kiss label]

Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit [Ranges from good to very good but still, somehow, not wholly satisfying]

The Minus 5 - s/t aka The Gun Album [: Skip it. Hardly worth commenting, so I'll stop here. Traded it in for The Life Pursuit]

I've got a lot to say about the Pollard, Cat Power, and Belle and Sebastian; and if it stays stuck in my craw long enough, I may regurgitate it here.

And last but not least . . . CY 2005 releases to be re-released on vinyl in 2006:

Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs ["Without question, one of the best of 2005," I declare in the direction of Pitchforkmedia.com with a wagging shame-on-you-finger on my right hand and extended middle-finger on my left]

The Deadly Snakes - Porcella -or- A Bird in the Hand is Worthless [Re-issue of 2005's Porcella, re-sequenced, +7 additional tracks in a vinyl-only release. Another overlooked album from last year.]

In honor of the Snakes' vinyl release, this week, here is the song "Gore Veil" for your listening pleasure. With it's 60's pop feel [flute-like melotron, trio of jangly acoustic guitars, and chorus of ba ba-da ba's] mixed with it's "gorey" lyrics, "Gore Veil" could have been the song Neil Diamond wrote after he killed a drifter to get an erection.