Andrew Bird & St. Vincent
Diana Sudyka, 2009

Yes! Tampa’s beloved cult favorites Home are back! On January 26th, Jagjaguwar (or, more specifically, their Brah imprint) will be releasing the band’s new LP, Seventeen. This is their first new material since 2006’s magnficient Sexteen, so 2010 is looking up for me already. Here’s a track from the new record:

MP3: Home – “Photographed With Ease”

But the news doesn’t end there!

The Home Box Set: I – VIII, which collects ALL of the super-rare original Home cassette releases (their CD discography starts with IX, after all) is out TODAY. Now, I know it’s called a “box set,” and the art shows a picture of a cassette, but this is a digital-only release. Hell, I’m not complaining– I’ve wanted to get my hands on this material for a long time now, I’ll take what I can get. You can check out samples and dig up more on these old cassettes on the Home Boxset Website.

The Clean – “In The Dreamlife You Need A Rubber Soul”
MP3: The Clean – “In The Dreamlife, You Need a Rubber Soul”

From the celebrated kiwi-popsters’ latest effort, Mister Pop, out now on Merge.

Mister Pop is actually the band’s third release on Merge– they also released the full-length Getaway in 2001, and the Anthology collection in 2003. And know what? We’ve got a set of all 3 to give away! You know the drill: just enter your email address below, and we’ll pick a winner at the end of the week.

Matias Aguayo - “Rollerskate”The impressive thing about “Rollerskate” is that it doesn’t immediately announce itself as being basically an a cappella number, even if nearly all the sounds are in fact chopped-up bits of the human voice. Matias Aguayo’s arrangement is a slippery, bouncy thing that builds up a nice pile of hooks without getting heavy or over-done. I don’t really connect the sound of the song with actual rollerskating, though. Yes, there’s a nice glide to the piece, but the skip in the beat is more evocative in my mind of jumping rope.

Buy it from Amazon.

Fan Death – “Reunited”

Ray Concepcion’s 14-Part CMJ Series, Part I