NEWSLETTER #28!

LOTS OF NEW STUFF TO TELL YOU ABOUT!

NO HEADLINES - SAVING THE SNARKY STUFF FOR THE CD REVIEWS!

HERE WE GO!

OUT NEXT WEEK FOR YOUR PURCHASING PLEASURE...

BARENAKED LADIES - "ARE ME." Once upon a time, this Canadian band was an MTV favorite, thanks to their perfect pop singles like "One Week" and "It's All Been Done." It's been about five years since we've given them -- or Canada -- a passing thought, but for the faithful, here's their new album. It may even be as good as the early ones.

BLACK KEYS - "MAGIC POTION." The fourth album of their brand of stripped-down, raw and gritty blues. It's really amazing what you can do with just a guitar and drums. Just ask Jack and Meg, whom the Black Keys do NOT sound like.

JONATHA BROOKE - "LIVE IN NEW YORK (CD & DVD)." The great singer-songwriter, who kept getting better with each of her last few records, documents her recent Joe's Pub run on this new live CD/DVD combo. Features fan favorites from all of her records.

KASEY CHAMBERS - "CARNIVAL." The Australian country/something-or-other releases her fourth record with little to no fanfare. We've never been fans, but we do recognize that there's something more here than your typical hooey that gets released every week.

SHAWN COLVIN - "THESE FOUR WALLS." Colvin's first record since the criminally underrated 2001 release "A Whole New You" is her first on the Nonesuch label, which means a thicker booklet and a slipcase. Featuring the usual Colvin cohorts Marc Cohn, John Leventhal and more, "These Four Walls" has some songs that will no doubt become Colvin classics.

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - REISSUES: "On The Third Day," "Face The Music," and "A New World Record." One story about the long delay of these reissues was contractual disputes with some of the band members. Another story was Sony refusing to release them until Jeff Lynne cut off that big stupid Afro. Regardless, they're finally here -- three brilliant releases by the oft-maligned supergroup, all featuring amazing sound and unreleased bonus tracks.

EVERCLEAR - "WELCOME TO DRAMA CLUB." A new Everclear album is much like a new School Of Fish album, in that, when you see it, you say "Damn, they're still making records?" Apparently, they are.

PETER FRAMPTON - "FINGERPRINTS." Rock legend and career killer, Frampton, releases his first all-instrumental record, featuring members of the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam, and the Allman Brothers as special guests. Haven't heard it, but even if it's horrendous -- and it probably won't be -- it's got to be better than seeing him humiliate himself on "Celebrity Duets" singing with Cheech Marin.

AND SPEAKING OF "CELEBRITY DUETS"...

Is there anything sadder? Could Smokey Robinson, who just released a critically acclaimed album of standards, need the money so badly that he needs to perform a duet with Olga Korbut? Is hearing "You Really Haff Huld Un Me" and "Trecks Uff Tears" really that entertaining? Or necessary? How can we make this s**t go away? Makes the Singing Nun look like Stravinsky.

LOS LOBOS - "THE TOWN AND THE CITY." Maybe we just love this band too much, but any new Los Lobos release is a monumental occasion. True, recent releases really didn't break new ground, but they always sound great when they're on. On this new release, Los Lobos seem to go back to the slight experimentation that was so successful on "Kiko," without compromising their traditional blues-meets-East-L.A. cumbia rhythms. Woo hoo for The Wolves!

MARS VOLTA - "AMPUTECHTURE." We don't like them, but that doesn't mean you won't. Although it does mean you shouldn't.

JOHN MAYER - "CONTINUUM." His heart's in the right place. He's an excellent guitar player, he writes an amusing column in Esquire, and he seems to have pretty good taste in music. So why don't we like his records? His previous pop releases have produced monster hits such as "Daughters" and "Your Body Is A Wonderland," which we found to be unlistenable M.O.R. crap aimed towards teenage girls, and gullible ones at that. He threw that fan base a curve by releasing "Try!" a blues trio record which was basically Stevie Ray Vaughan Lite. Now comes "Continuum," recorded with that same trio, but going back to the M.O.R. ballads of his first few releases. So if treacly pop plus competent guitar work is your bag, this is for you.

MADELINE PEYROUX - "HALF THE PERFECT WORLD." Thankfully, we didn't have to wait ten years between "Careless Love" and this new album. Peyroux continues with her Billie Holiday-by-way-of Billie Holiday style on such songs as "Summer Wind" and Joni Mitchell's "River," which features k.d. lang.

R.E.M. - "THE BEST OF THE I.R.S. YEARS 1982-88." Available as a 21 track single disc or a 2 CD version with a disc of rare and unreleased tracks, this chronicles R.E.M.'s ascent from young indie band to budding superstars. Owning this doesn't mean you shouldn't have their greatest album, 1986's "Lifes Rich Pageant," but it's a great place to start, and most of the unreleased tracks are truly rare. Also out next week is the DVD companion, "The Light Is Mine," featuring all their artsy '80s videos plus a lot of rare TV appearances.

BOB SEGER - "FACE PROMISE." His first record since the unforgettable album... um, what was it called again?... in 1995, Seger has spent the bulk of the last decade playing with his kids. And that's sure to inspire some fantastic material. (See Eric Clapton's "Back Home.")

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE - "FUTURESEX/LOVE SOUNDS." Tony's wife is often afraid to ask us for Top 40 records she likes, thinking we'll make fun of her. That's a silly notion, since we're big fans of Kelly Clarkson. That said, we've found out by going through old iTunes receipts that she just used Tony's credit card to purchase Justin's new single, "Sexyback," which we guess is no better or worse than Sal purchasing the new Beyonce single, "Deja Vu." What this says about "Futuresex/Love Sounds" we have no idea. We just wanted to make fun of Tony's wife.

TV ON THE RADIO - "RETURN TO COOKIE MOUNTAIN." They're local, they're getting a lot of press, David Bowie's on track 3. All in all, not a bad reason to buy this record.

YO LA TENGO - "I'M NOT AFRAID OF YOU..." Somewhere along the way, Yo La Tengo went from being annoying, droning Velvet Underground wannabes to being annoying and droning Velvet Underground wannabes who could also write a nifty pop song. Their latest album promises to be both annoying and nifty.

MERLE HAGGARD - "HAG: THE BEST OF." The first ever career-spanning, multi-label best-of by one of country's alltime greats. 26 tracks!

DEFINITIVE COLLECTIONS:

AMERICA - The first two CD anthology by the sometimes cool ("Sister Golden Hair," "Ventura Highway"), sometimes douchey ("Muskrat Love," "Daisy Jane") combo covers all the hits as well as some really strong album tracks such as the lost classic "Amber Cascades." This is a good primer for the upcoming brand new studio record featuring such America supporters as Ryan Adams and the boys from Fountains Of Wayne.

DR. JOHN - Starting with the outstanding debut "Gris-Gris," right on through, um, later albums, this is an excellent anthology for those familiar and those unfamiliar with the New Orleans Night Tripper.

EVERLY BROTHERS - One of NYCD's alltime favorite groups, the Everly Brothers, while anthologized a few too many times, get compiled once again, and this time it's done right. Solid and inexpensive, and includes not only their early hits on the Cadence label, but their later Warner Bros. material as well.

TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS - More hits than you can remember, and a lot better than his reputation would have you believe. All your faves are here -- "I Think We're Alone Now," "Hanky Panky," "Crimson & Clover," "Draggin' The Line" -- and come on, the band is called the Shondells! How could it not be good?!

FRANKIE VALLI & THE FOUR SEASONS - If the two CD Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons anthology from Rhino was too much for you, then how about this one, which features... two CDs?


HEY JAZZ FANS! LOTS OF NEW STUFF JUST FOR YOU!


PAT METHENY/BRAD MEHLDAU - "METHENY MEHLDAU." On the aptly named first collaboration between these two top men, one plays guitar and the other plays piano. We wish we had more to say about it, but we haven't heard it yet. On the Nonesuch label, so think big booklet and a slipcase.

NEW ALBUMS FROM THE MARSALI!

Branford's "BRAGGTOWN" finds him with the same quartet as his last few releases (Joey Calderazzo, Jeff "Tain" Watts and Eric Revis), boppin' hard. And Delfeayo, the trombonist and usually the man behind the scenes, hands us his new platter, "MINION'S DOMINION," with such heavyweights as Mulgrew Miller, Donald Harrison, and the late great Elvin Jones on drums.

The latest batch of classic RVG Editions, remastered by the great Rudy Van Gelder, are here!

DONALD BYRD - "OFF TO THE RACES"
MILES DAVIS - "WORKIN'"
ERIC DOLPHY - "OUTWARD BOUND"
COLEMAN HAWKINS - "AT EASE"
FREDDIE HUBBARD - "HERE TO STAY"
BOBBY HUTCHERSON - "HAPPENINGS"
JACKIE McLEAN - DEMONS DANCE"
LEE MORGAN - "CITY LIGHTS"
SONNY ROLLINS - "TENOR MADNESS"
HORACE SILVER - "DOIN' THE THING"

ORDER ANY OR ALL OF THESE FROM US BY PHONE (212-244-3460) OR EMAIL (HEYNYCD@AOL.COM)! AND WE WELCOME THE BARTER SYSTEM, SO PLEASE BRING US YOUR OLD CDs AND DVDs, TICKETS TO EVENTS, BOTTLES OF FINE WINE AND TOP SHELF BOOZE, AND THE OCCASIONAL GOAT TO TRADE IN!

IF THERE'S SOMETHING WE DIDN'T MENTION THAT YOU WANT TO ORDER, WE CAN STILL GET IT FOR YOU! JUST LET US KNOW!

A QUICK THANK YOU to our readers. You have listened to our cries for help. We have been inundated with new stock and, thanks to you, NYCD will continue for at least a little while longer. PLEASE continue to send us your collections of CDs and DVDs, and we'll continue to thank you.

Two quick releases we didn't mention last week:

AUDIOSLAVE - "REVELATIONS." This is a fantastic followup to the fantastic followup to their fantastic debut album. Chris Cornell has quite possibly one of the best voices in rock today, and even though we never liked Rage Against The Machine, this supergroup of sorts has made three awesome CDs. Highly recommended.

BEYONCE - "B-DAY." There's actually some decent stuff on Miss Knowles' new release. If you want to fall for some hype, pick this up instead of Christina Aguilera's "jazz" album.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

Why did the chicken go to the Knicks game?

Because he heard the ref was blowing fouls.

Your friends,
Marv Albert & The Tijuana Brass