Summer is the slow time for new music releases and August saw a number of great new releases, with even more coming later this fall.

Here’s some of the new releases I picked up on vinyl in August:

  • Superchunk – I Hate Music:  The alt rockers have been around since 1989(!) and I Hate Music is their tenth album.  The album is short and sweet, clocking in at just over 37 minutes.  If you’re a fan of Superchunk there isn’t anything new here, and that’s a good thing.  (I also picked up the Divine Fits 12″ at the same time featured in the picture below).
  • Volcano Choir – Repave: Justin Vernon of Bon Iver joins up with Wisconsin’s Collection of a Colony of Bees for their second album.  Mr. Vernon says he didn’t write any of the music – the one chord he wrote the band didn’t use.  But to me, this could easily be a 3rd Bon Iver album.  Barb Abney of The Current wrote a fantastic review a couple weeks back when it was The Current’s Album of the Week.  Highly recommended.
  • Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, The More I Love You:  Neko Case released her 6th solo album and it’s fantastic.  The alt-country darling follows up 2009’s Middle Cyclone with an album that works through her recent depression after recently losing her grandmother and both parents – and it works.  The pacing of the album is fantastic and she clearly opens her soul and bares it all.  The vinyl release is stunning – both the artwork and Side D of the vinyl release, which doesn’t have any music, features a stunning etching that covers the album.  Middle Cyclone was the first new vinyl album I bought on Record Store Day 2010 in clear vinyl and holds a special place in my heart.

  1. Superchunk – I Hate Music, 2. Volcano Choir – Repave, 3. Volcano Choir – Repave, 4. Now Now – Threads, 5. Superchunk – I Hate Music, 6. Superchunk – I Hate Music, 7. Superchunk – I Hate Music, 8. Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, 9. Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, The More I Love You