Out This Week 7/5

Welcome back from a celebratory if not explosive weekend. Count all of your fingers and toes and make sure they’re all there, as you’ll need ‘em to walk on over to your local record store today and pick up the latest releases. Out this week, you’ll find “Volume 2″ of The Grande Theatre by Old 97′s, who, according to our Music Director, Don Yates, sound like a “revitalized band, stretching out its galloping twang-punk with British invasion power pop, psych-tinged folk-rock and even a bit of Pogues-style Celtic punk.” Some fifteen years and ten albums, and the band is finding new ways to sound fresh and vital.

Maybe it’s the leftover haze of gunpower and smoke in the air, but there are a few other “psych-tinged” albums out this week, including the “psych-tinged electro-pop” of Memory Tapes, releasing their second album on Carpark, and the “atmospheric psych-pop” of Pure X, formerly known as Pure Ecstasy, who offer up “a hazy, reverbed sound reminiscent of Galaxie 500 and early My Morning Jacket, combining fuzzy, blown-out guitar textures, slow tempos, crooning, occasionally falsetto vocals and some gorgeous slow-rolling melodies.” Also, the once-local producer Yair Rubenstein, a.k.a. Big Spider’s Back, is releasing his debut LP of “dreamy, psychedelic sample-based pop.” Apparently, Summer of 2011 is really the Summer of 67!

While you’re digging your tie-dye or your paisley bellbottoms out of storage, you might also want to consider picking up more summery sounds from Santa Barbara’s Gardens & Villa, whose full-length debut lands Brit pop on the West Coast; from Digitalism and Teddybears, who both return with new platters of danceclub anthems; and Brian Eno, who sets is ambient melodies to the words of British poet Rick Holland in a unique collaboration.

You’ll find all of these and more in record shops today. Check out Largehearted Boy’s list for the full run-down and be sure to sample these songs first before you head out: