Austinist Music Preview: New Release Tuesday

Vote y'all. Then go buy records. Here's what's new today:

Pavement Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition (Matador)

Pavement's 1995 masterpiece came on the heels of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, a decidedly more radio-friendly album. Pavement fans who dropped the needle on "We Dance" expecting some sort of answer to "Silence Kit" or 120 Minutes darling "Cut Your Hair" were probably surprised, but not disappointed (in time). Malkmus took a certain pride in alienating critics, allowing his crossword puzzle mind to lift its veil and bare the influences more explicitly. You'll often hear the word "experimental" used to describe the album, and at the end of the day it's almost unfair, considering Wowee is the most (and last, ahem) real Pavement album available. Sprawling, sure. Noisy and in need of absorption? Sure, but so was Marquee Moon. The reissue includes 64-page perfect-bound book, fifty tracks total; eighteen unreleased recordings, nine non-album b-sides, four compilation tracks, five BBC Evening Session tracks and much more -- not the least of which is a taste of the fabled "OLE 170" live set at the Palace. If you're not a Pavement fan already, flip through every over-hyped album of the last two years and read reviews of them (they'll undoubtedly mention either Pavement or Talking Heads), then listen to "Grounded", and feel that way.

Pavement Is Dead, Long Live Pavement
Stephen Malkmus
Pavement "Rattled by the Rush" (YouTube)
Pavement "Rattled by the Rush" (mp3)
Pavement "Heckler Spray / In the Mouth of a Desert" (Live)(mp3)

El Perro Del Mar El Perro Del Mar (Control Group)

Sarah Assbring's courtly image is almost description enough when it comes to discussing her self-titled debut. Looking at her is an invitation to tidy flashbacks of grainy 60's schoolteachers flickering through Nick at Night's airwaves, Twiggy's good-girl moments, and hazy afternoons full of Melanie records and 120 cigarettes. That being said, it's no surprise that the music behind Assbring's delicate visage is equally nostalgic and ethereal; defying her moniker's meaning - this is no sea dog. Swedish folk-pop tunes about love, loss, loneliness and darkness have never been so delicate and absorbing.

El Perro Del Mar Official
El Perro Del Mar MySpace
Sarah Assbring "God Knows (You Gotta Give to Get)" (YouTube)

Voxtrot Your Biggest Fan (Playlouder)

To tide us over until their full-length drops in Spring of '07, Ramesh Srivastava and Co. are releasing a cute little 3 song 7"/CD Single. The single, which is available for streaming entirely on their MySpace, includes the title track, "Sway", and our personal favorite, "Trouble"; a happy little tambourine-fused ditty featuring an sing-a-long-prone audience's dream chorus partnered with a frantic-but-tidy crescendo to its close.

Voxtrot Official
Voxtrot MySpace
Voxtrot "Trouble" (mp3)

The Slip Eisenhower (Bar/None)

In today's vast wasteland of hot new bands, it could be argued that the first and most effective method of whittling could be asking one question: "Are they from Canada?" If the answer is yes, you have to at least listen to one song before dismissing them. The Slip do indeed lay their heads in the Montreal area, tour with Lovely Feathers, and get referred to as "innovators of pop" quite frequently, but fear not music purist: despite all those things, Eisenhower is without a doubt one of the most interesting albums of the year for a Canadian band. It's not faux vintage melancholy, it's not a trick-or-treating version of the Unicorns, and it's not a collective. "Airplane Primitive" brightens the veneer nicely: it's not hard to hear Wilco, a Perfect From Now On-era Built to Spill and perhaps even a smidge of those classic rock tunes you only listen to when you're driving to work, because you love Allman brothers guitar solos when you're alone. Plus it's always nice to know that Canadians have harmonicas, too, and they aren't abusing them.

The Slip Official
The Slip MySpace