June 13, 2006

Rack And Opinion: Release Date 6.13.06

Meneguar -- I Was Born At NightSo here it is, perhaps the biggest release day of the spring. Not a lot of mystery left, given the ready availability of album streams for the major issues of the week. That said, we don't think that The Replacements best-of set Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? is a gimme. Serious music fans should already own all of The Replacements records, and if they don't they should concentrate on filling out their collections rather than spending cash on a best-of. Sure, the new songs are OK, but we don't think in the age of the Internet many fans are going to buy a collection just to get two new songs unless they are totally out-of-control completists.

What is a gimme this week is the Sonic Youth record, which is great. We're also hyping the Troubleman Unlimited reissue of the Meneguar record I Was Born At Night this week, because after talking about it for most of the spring we forgot to actually select it as a pick when it came out last week. Or at least we think we did. Anyway, those records and the rest of our picks for the week are listed below. Links go to relevant commercial opportunities with our former racquet stringers over at Insound.

Foundry Field Recordings -- Prompts/Miscues -- Emergency Umbrella
The Futureheads -- News and Tributes -- Vagrant
Meneguar -- I Was Born At Night -- Troubleman Unlimited
The Replacements -- Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? -- Rhino
Smog -- Rock Bottom Riser EP [video, other video] -- Drag City
Sonic Youth -- Rather Ripped -- UMG

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