What I Got at the Post Office Today with Chuck P

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All of our DJs receive hundreds of CDs a month to consider for airplay. In this regular feature, KCRW DJ Chuck P catalogues his musical bounty from the Post Office each week.

Hello! I’m back! Yes! I’ve been madly purging music and some non essentials to get ready for a big move, but I hope to stay on schedule from here on out.

Cool days and crisp nights of late. Typical winter temps showing up in early spring. Hmm. Maybe the entire weather year is just moving forward. Spring will be the new Winter, Summer the new Spring, and so on. Maybe instead of dreaming of a white Christmas we’ll dream of a white Easter. Doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? At least the temps out at the Coachella festival would be tolerable.

Enough of this nonsense… on to the post office goodies.

1) Vinyl – just a couple of pieces this week. Great band Arts & Entertainment sent me their new 12″ featuring a white bearded woman on the cover. Really brings out her eyes, doncha think? The 12″ is called Just A Little Moore and features covers of several R. Stevie Moore songs. Also, new 7″ from American Royalty called Matchstick. Doesn’t come with a download card, but you can get the track on iTunes.

2) Screaming Females “Ugly” – … and we’re not just talking about the production here… ba-da bah! Brilliantly performed album gets dragged down a bit by Steve Albini‘s heavy handed, one size fits all recording job, but the songs are so good you’ll barely notice. The band who released one of my top ten albums of 2010 (Castle Talk) is on track to be one of the best of 2012.

3) Alice And Michi “Strange Bloom” – Interesting collaboration between a Brooklynite and an Angeleno. I think they reside in NYC now, but from the couple of tracks I’ve heard so far, there is some really nice mellow electronic based pop music here. Nothing too twee either, which is nice. Reminds me a bit of St. Vincent.

4) Starving Weirdos “Land Lines” – This awesome new album from the Weirdos is probably their most listenable yet, and I’m a fan of their previous work. Amish Records is usually spot on with their releases and they continue their streak here. No Neck Blues Band if they were on kranky records. MEV getting the remix treatment by Third Eye Foundation. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a mistake by trying to tie this albums’ sound to another, but it’s really interesting stuff.

Honorable mentions include the latest from Estrogen Highs (nice name), Bowerbirds & Wild Belle (OMG, they’re good), with the digital promo of the week going to Portland instrumentalists AU. Imagine (an even more experimental) Animal Collective without vocals and you’re close.

That’s all for this week. Thanks for checking in and I’ll be back next week with more musical bounty from Ye Olde Post Officino.

Hasta,

Chuck P.