Capitalist Pig Tuesdays - Week of 4/22

Once again, I'm back with my Capitalist Pig Tuesdays segment, where I break down the best buys being released on this very day, along with convenient links to where you can purchase it and stream the album if you so please! If there is anything that stands out to you that I missed, please let me know because I am always looking for new things.

This week is a week of a few very exciting purchases, namely on the music side. Without further ado, here it is!

Album of the week: Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell

Ho hum. Great album, one of the best of the year so far. Already wrote about it, so I won't waste your time - I'll simply link you to it here.

Also, feel free to stream it for yourself in its entirety here.

Best album this week not made by Tokyo Police Club: Flight of the Conchords - Self Titled

This week we see the debut release of New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo, also known as Flight of the Conchords. For those that are not familiar with their comedy or their superbly hilarious HBO show (that I wrote a bit about last August, clink link to read), they are also known as Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement (or by their rapping alter-egos the Rhymenocerous and the Hip-Hopopotamus) and they may have released the best indie album pretending to be a comedy album (or is it best comedy album pretending to be an indie album?) of the year.

This album does it all, from taking you through PG rated raps about having tea with your grandmother, to Barry White/Marvin Gaye inspired ditties about getting down with your old lady, to a bizarre track influenced by David Bowie which also happens to be about David Bowie, shockingly titled "Bowie." In the show, most of their songs were only acoustic guitar based, but here they bring in a slew of other instruments (including a beat laid down that is an electric mandolin - booyah!), and it makes their sound far more full.

I can't tell if I should be even trying to review this seriously, as I don't know if it's serious or not. Either way, it's awesome, and should be checked out (along with their show) immediately. I'm extremely excited to be seeing the deadly duo in May at Sasquatch. They will definitely rock my party.

Feel free to stream the album in its entirety here.

Hip Hop Album of the week: Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint that Shit Gold

Well Slug and Ant are back, but it hasn't really felt like they've gone anywhere as they just released a compilation of previously unreleased tracks called Strictly Leakage at the end of last year, along with three EP's just last year. So the Minneapolis duo is nothing if not prolific. However, does that dilute the quality?

Not one bit. This album is every bit as good as previous releases like Seven's Travels or You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having, but perhaps there has been a bit of maturation in their sound. Track "Guarantees" shows off this maturation quite a bit, as it is for the most part all soulful guitar combined with some light singing and rapping from Slug. It's stripped down rap at its best and something new for the duo. Atmosphere continues to produce some of the best hip hop in the industry today with this album. This comes very recommended.

The album is no longer stringing, but feel free to check out a couple tracks on their Myspace page.

DVD Release of the Week: Cloverfield, directed by Matt Reeves, written by Drew Goddard.

Although everyone thinks that there is a one man show behind this film (JJ Abrams, I'm looking at you), I think Reeves and Goddard deserve a lot of credit for putting together both a top notch monster movie and one where we actually care about the characters. A lot of the kudos I think have to go to Goddard on the latter subject, as his characters are developed quickly and are taken in consistently interesting and surprising directions. The key to a good monster movie is you have to want the people to survive, and they make that happen. If that didn't happen, all of the CGI in the world couldn't do anything to save this movie.

It is intense though, and it is very scary at times. It's a very riveting experience, and I fully recommend watching in darkness with a group of people who will take it seriously. It is a movie that really fits in theaters better than anywhere else, but considering that is no longer an option, do what you can to simulate it.

However, I'm unsure as to whether or not this is a "buy now" movie. It's very entertaining, and it's engrossing, but I'm unsure about how well it will work on repeat visits. I'm looking around for a good price, otherwise I may wait for Black Friday like I am with Juno, as this is assuredly going to be bargain basement on that glorious day. But it's a must rent for sure, and I recommend it to anyone in that regard. I'm just tentative to say it's a movie that deserves to be purchased.

The Year in Music to Date

There has been a bunch of great new music so far. Even better, I've been discovering a lot of music I missed from last year, such as Albert Hammond, Jr's solo debut Yours to Keep, Pinback's exemplary Autumn of the Seraphs, Ghostland Observatory's bizarrely genius Paparazzi Lightning, and White Rabbits' debut Fort Nightly. I definitely missed big time on all of them.

With that said, there are three albums this year that have stood out above the rest for me. Two I've raved about the bands already, with two self titled debuts coming out from Vampire Weekend and Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground respectively (review for Kay Kay may be coming...depending on something I'm looking to put together). But the other album is a bit of a surprise that I like it so much, especially when I say it is on par with the other two.

On April 22nd, Tokyo Police Club is releasing their first full length album titled Elephant Shell, and of course it is out there for the grabs if you so choose. I checked it out, mainly to decide if I will buy it when it comes out and the answer is an emphatic "yes!"

The guys in Tokyo Police Club are all very young (definitely younger than yours truly) but their music is remarkably technically solid and scatterbrained simultaneously. They had only released a pair of EP's before this, neither of which in my opinion really gave the idea that they were capable of an album so cohesive and consistently fantastic. I liked their material, but it really took seeing them at Bumbershoot last September for me to really get them. Well, that and the release of this album.

Elephant Shell maintains the kinetic nature of their previous material but manages to tighten it up into something that resembles a whole album. Instead of being disconnected two minute burn outs of songs, they now have pop sensibilities and the sense of connection that really makes their sound not only palatable, but addictive. Before they had all the elements of a delicious post-punk extravaganza, with their spacey keyboards, the hand claps, the gang vocals, but they didn't have the experience to tie it all together. Now? The whole is finally greater than the sum of the parts.

Take a look at single "Your English is Good." This track is a perfect example - I could legitimately see this becoming the feel good hit of the summer, as it is so toe tappingly great with the shoutalong background vocals and the repetitively genius keyboard lines, I can't imagine anyone not asking "who is this?" by the end of it (which is an incredible 3 minutes and 11 seconds after the beginning, quite possibly a new record for the band). If any track is representative of the step they've taken, that track is.

Want something that is catchy, driving, and a little bit off the beaten path? Pick up Tokyo Police Club's debut Elephant Shell April 22nd. It's a great album, albeit not exactly the world's longest one, clocking in at slightly less than half an hour. Also, if they come near you check them out for sure. Not only do they totally rule live, but they are really nice guys who seem to really care about putting on a good show.