We’ve gone on a First Date, this past October they played one of our CMJ parties, and today we’re delighted to debut Sharkmuffin’s hard charger, “Soft Landing.”

Sharkmuffin’s latest EP, “1097,” was named after the Jersey Shore summer home bassist Natalie Kirch lost at sea during Hurricane Sandy. “1097”‘s final track, “Soft Landing” is the calm after the storm that “TEN TEN,” the song before it, embodies.

“1097” will be released on as a limited edition, multi-colored, oil-spillesque 7″ pressing courtesy of Dazzleships Records on December 11th at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn, NY.

You can pre-order the record here.

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“My first vinyl LPs were acquired the evening prior to my departure to the west coast for collage at my aunt’s second floor walk-up in the East Village of Manhattan.”

“Some years ago she disappeared into Europe and returned with an enigmatic English beau. Willowy, formidably learned, a voracious and excellent drinker, he was a charmingly appropriate counterpoint to my aunt’s city-bred free spirit. We three would commonly spend evenings drinking inexpensive Bourbon, smoking rollies, franticly discussing the state of culture in the city, and taunting the roving hordes of invading NYU students from the fire escape above, while the Brit played selector with an assortment of records across a variegated spectrum of genres.

http://youtu.be/GEyim9dg83k

Their shared album collection reflected an approach to lifestyle which I found attractive—manicured, minimal, essential. When the sun came up and evening concluded, they wished me well on my collegiate voyage and gifted me several albums, believing that records, like novels and motorcycle jackets, enjoy a second life in the possession of those for whom such things are new.

They’d both been listening to Sandinista! since the early 80’s, and perhaps took pleasure in knowing that decades later, someone else was to be similarly effected by its disorienting strangeness and ADD genre-hopping. London Calling off the Ritalin. My aunt told me a story about going out drinking in the village one night with Joe Strummer during his time with the Mescaleros. At the evening’s end, he signed her skateboard.

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In 2006 the Athens, GA band The New Sound of Numbers released their debut album Liberty Seeds, and those smitten with the well-built post-punk it offered have no doubt been champing at the bit for its follow-up. Well, the wait is over and Invisible Magnetic, freshly out via Cloud Recordings, is an excellent and highly distinctive second effort from a group of true vets led by Hannah Jones.

The bio of The New Sound of Numbers is loaded with connections. To begin, the band’s guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Hannah Jones was previously involved with Circulatory System, where she played alongside New Sound of Numbers-contributor and alumnus of The Olivia Tremor Control John Fernandes.

Also figuring in the scenario are Greg O’Connell and Jeff Tobias of the Athens unit Bubbly Mommy Gun. And NSoN’s status as a regional act with partial ties to the Elephant 6 scene is only enhanced by Jones also figuring as part of Supercluster, a Vanessa Hay-instigated venture that also happens to include her present New Sound of Numbers counterpart Kay Stanton.

If Hay’s name is triggering a few buzzers of recognition, it’s almost certainly due to her vital role in the shaping of Pylon, one of finest names in Athens’ musical back-story. And her participation in NSoN surely increases those geographical conditions as they chart a course that’s divergent from what’s commonly thought of as the Elephant 6 sound. Specifically, The New Sound of Numbers eschews a psychedelic orientation; instead they’re explorers and extenders of the post-punk genre.

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Press Play is our Monday morning recap of the new tracks received last week—provided here to inform your vinyl purchasing power. Click, listen, download.

Juniore – Dans Le Noir
Gildas Season’s Greeting Mix – MiniMix By Jerry Bouthier
Peter Walker – Pretty Bird
The Deltahorse feat. TJ Eckleberg – Hey Yuri
Jon and the Jones – Firebreather
AM Aesthetic – We Caught Fire
Jeremy and The Harlequins – Cam Girl
Lushlife – Toynbee Suite
Trentalange – Same Illusion
The Julie Ruin – Right Home (YACHT Remix)

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
The Casket Girls – Same Side

Shannon and the Clams – Into a Dream
Nyteowl – Get In It
Dutch Barn – Steal Your Jokes
U.S. Royalty – Into The Thicket
Ha Ha Tonka – Colorful Kids
Kristin Hoffmann – Let Go (Rise of Troy Remix)
Peter Frampton – Do You Feel Like We Do (Psymbionic Remix)
Jess Williamson – Native State
Blancmange – Feel Me (Remixed by Greg Wilson & Derek Kaye)
Bowerbirds – Seven Wonders

15 more FREE TRACKS after the jump!

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Greetings from the “L.E.S” in Lower Manhattan!

“Let’s go back to the classroom and start doing our alphabet all over.” —David Peel, 1978

I’m in my home town of New York City. After a long and deep, dreamy sleep I awoke to find myself high above the skyline of the “L.E.S.,” what we used to refer to as “Alphabet Town.” Nope, I was not making my way to rock ‘n roll heaven—thank god—way too soon for that! No, I had not taken an overdose. I was laying on a hard hotel bed with sheets of a high thread count.

This sleek and spartan room with black wooden floors and floor to ceiling windows looks out on Orchard Street. The interior was designed by Jim Walrod, a friend from the ’80s. Walrod’s rep back in the day was being the master of “fixing up” junk to sell to fancy people on Lafayette Street.

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True story: I recently made a date with a woman, and on the day of the date she casually informed me we’d be going to an S&M party, then also casually let drop she’d be bringing a fellow named Lunchbox who just happened to be her boyfriend, and at the S&M party there were naked fat guys walking around in Viking helmets eating blue frosted cupcakes like at an elementary school affair, who watched while I watched Lunchbox whip my date and his girlfriend, after which she produced a trio of very lethal-looking stainless steel knives and proceeded to carve interesting patterns on my torso.

It was easily the weirdest date I’ve ever gone on, and quite possibly the weirdest date anyone’s ever gone on, and I can hear you asking: What in God’s name does any of this have to do with country-folk songwriting genius John Prine?

Well I’ll tell you. I’ve given it some thought, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Prine, who has a voice like a stoned rodeo and a big old homely heart that pumps pure compassion, is the only person in the whole wide world who could somehow manage to capture both the absurdity and yes, the humanity and even the dignity of those naked guys in Viking helmets as they stood around eating blue frosted cupcakes watching other naked people get whipped.

The late Lou Reed, whom you’d think would be the man for the job, would have only made the whole scene seem decadent, which it most certainly wasn’t. Whereas someone with an eye for the absurd, say the late Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band, would have turned the whole thing into a Monty Python skit, which it most certainly wasn’t either. No, Prine is the only songwriter I can think of who could write a song poking fun at those naked Vikings while empathizing with them as well.

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“My first vinyl record was an original record of my grandma playing piano.”

“I found it along with an antique record player in my Grandpa’s garage after he passed away. It was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever heard. You could hear the crackle of years of wear along with this beautiful distant piano sound of my grandma playing. That is when my love of vinyl began.

http://youtu.be/8CRPnnSQCHE

When I moved to San Diego State to go to college for my music degree, I started collecting vinyl at garage sales. I took the most beat up ones and spray painted them into art pieces to hang on the wall of my room. After I moved out to start touring with my band The Material, I had to get rid of pretty much everything I owned, along with most of the records, but I still have a few from those days, including a beloved Frank Sinatra Ol’ Blue Eyes.

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BY JEFFREY LITTLE | It’s 1966. Well, maybe…maybe-probably…it’s as 1966 as we’re ever sure we are of anything when we are talking about the fourth dimension and its relation to Sun Ra, musical iconoclast. For a Space Age man from the Past, time is a mercury foosball, and Certainty is elusive. If you are familiar with the man with the outer space plan, then none of this is news, and you realize that, among other things, there is no such beast as a definitive recording of Sun Ra. There are clusters, and among the clusters, beautifully strange instances that for better or worse we call albums. Or CDs. Better, rebuses. Hiccups of Infinity. If you are not familiar with the Ra, then there about a thousand places to start, each as good as the other, indefinable as to consensus, but I’ve been asked to choose just one. Call me Quorum.

OK. Ra plays jazz, yes, or world music, sure, or proto-rock big band Astro-Infinity noise-math, definitely, often in the same tune. There are hundreds of albums, and they span everything in the previous sentence, and more. Like the Sale signs say, “Everything Must Go!” Ra is everything all at once, and everyone has their preferred starting point, the logical entry. Well, what Sun Ra wanted above all else was to play the impossible. The possible had been tried, and failed, and this is what’s left us. So for me, I wanted to start from a point of impossibility, in the reverb-drenched high period Ra of the Saturn recordings that spanned the sixties. What he called his sub-undergound records, records he pressed himself in ridiculously small batches and peddled at concerts and record stores. Needless to say, Ebay fodder-cred for the Nouveau-Hip. And of these recordings, the one that stands out as the most Out, and yet the most indicative of the man’s methods, is Strange Strings. Quorum plays hardball.

So the recording quality sucks, but who gives a rat’s ass? Stick a microphone out into deep space and see if what comes back sounds like the Biebs. Or Black Flag. There’s hiss. The mic moves in, the mic moves out, often bumping into something (John Gilmore? Space Junk?) Songs just stop. There are effects, but there is no Production. No Product. Only sonic life, sonic death, and the man behind it all who believed that a wrong note could destroy the universe. As serious as your life? No fucking shit.

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“I’ve always listened to vinyl. My record collection’s early beginnings were started from paper route money—no purchase was ever taken for granted! The first LP I bought was Jimi Hendrix Greatest Hits, and I still own and play it. I have the free poster too.”

“Years later, when CDs invaded the market, despite some sonic improvements via remastering and availability, I felt vinyl seemed permanent and CDs temporary.

Before and during the recording of my tenth record, Dream Dictionary, I listened to a few records for inspiration and pleasure. Here goes . . .

http://youtu.be/5FA4EYr1VJ0

On the Corner, Miles Davis | This isn’t the first Miles record in my life. The first Miles record I loved is Tribute to Jack Johnson, but On the Corner has lately taken that first place spot that alternates constantly somehow mirroring my tastes, my ever-changing perspectives, and musical needs. Recorded in 1972, this record sounds as vital and contemporary as the day it was recorded.

The music grooves hard, regurgitating the sounds of New York while somehow simultaneously evoking something ancient and eternal. I absorbed this record through obsessively listening and feel we channeled some of its character on my new record. Most noticeably on the title track “Dream Dictionary” and certainly on “Manic Depression” (which coincidently is on the first record I ever bought.)

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Of all the marquee British Invasion acts, nobody typified the concept of “singles group” more than The Dave Clark Five. Of albums they had many, but the qualities that made them a special and enduring outfit are best served by the two brief sides of a 45. During the mid-‘60s their short-players stormed both the US and UK charts with a frequency that remains impressive, and “Try Too Hard” b/w “All Night Long” from 1966 is one of their finest efforts.

While they are well-remembered today, I also suspect that few people these days would rank the Dave Clark Five as one the tiptop exemplars of the Brit Invasion, and that’s an interesting scenario because during the phenomenon’s initial wave, only The Beatles achieved a higher level of popularity. Contemplating the subject for a bit leads me to a handful of reasons for the lessening of the DC5’s status over time.

Perhaps the biggest factor is that none of the Five’s non-compilations have landed in the rock ‘n’ roll canon. I tend to think that any well-rounded, historically focused record collection is incomplete without the inclusion of Clark and company, and no doubt many others feel the same way. But I also agree with those asserting that in the run of albums they made while extant, nothing represents them better than UK Columbia’s ’66 release of the 14-track The Dave Clark Five’s Greatest Hits.

This is not to infer that the original long-players are negligible. To the contrary, ‘64’s Glad All Over and the following year’s Coast to Coast, both issued in the US by Epic, are quite good. But starting in the mid-‘70s and continuing until 1993, none of the Dave Clark Five’s music was commercially available in any format, leaving the used bins and the radio dial as the only ways one could access their discography.

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