New CD/DVD Releases for this Week ~ BrooklynRocks: NYC Music Blog

Sunday, August 26, 2007

New CD/DVD Releases for this Week

There are a couple of interesting releases this week:

Angels of Light - We Are Him
The latest release from Michael Gira's post-Swans band. I've loved all of the past Angels releases and the early press on the release has given it great reviews.

"We Are Him is the most assured and relaxed Angels of Light album since the debut, and deserves to be considered alongside Gira's highest peaks. The frightening rage of old Swans surfaces several times, albeit in more bucolic clothing; the contrast is bracing. Lyrically Gira's constantly in-pocket, addressing his subjects with renewed agility, but also in a very relaxed voice; if De Sade had lived long enough to tell folk tales around a campfire, some of them might have sounded like this. The genuinely playful orchestration - banjos? horns? chimes? slide? check – is by turns charming and perverse, and has a band-of-brethren feel to it that's both ominous and exiting. The title track is like a pure shot of adrenaline. An intimate, unexpected masterpiece." - John Darnielle/The Mountain Goats
Blue Cheer - What Doesn't Kill You (CD)
Who would have thought that Blue Cheer would still be touring and recording after 40 years? I believe this to be the band's first studio recording since 1991's Dining With Sharks. The band put on a great live show at NorthSix about a year or so ago so I would expect this to be a great disc.

Cro-Mags: The Final Quarrel - Live at CBGB (DVD)
MVD has put out some pretty interesting stuff documenting the NYHC scene and this is no exception. This DVD captures the final Cro-Mags show (with both John Joseph and Harley Flanagan) at CBGB in 2001. As a bonus features, Amazon says that the disc includes a full set from Harley's War, Harley Flannigan's post Cro-Mags band.

Heaven & Hell - Live from Radio City Music Hall
Dio-era Sabbath captured live on March 30, 2007 at Radio City Music Hall. This has been released as a 2-CD set and a (separately sold) DVD. Both this tour and this particular show got stellar reviews -- 'nuff said.

Killswitch Engage - "As Daylight Dies" (CD/DVD)
The CD came out a month ago and is now being reissued with a bonus DVD and four bonus audio tracks. (I'd be p*ssed if I bought this a month ago). The DVD contains:
"My Curse" video
Making of "My Curse" video
"The Arms of Sorrow" video
Making of the "The Arms of Sorrow" video
"Holy Diver" video (Dio Cover)

and the bonus tracks on the CD are:
Be One
Let the Bridges Burn
This Fire
Holy Diver

Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn (CD)
There is both a 2-disc and a 3-disc version of the 40th anniversary edition of the first Pink Floyd release (w/ Syd Barrett).

The two disc version contains both the stereo and mono versions of Piper. The three disc version contains the same stereo/mono Piper discs plus a third disc of bonus tracks. The bonus track include all the Pink Floyd singles from 1967, ('Arnold Layne', 'See Emily Play', and 'Apples And Oranges'), plus the B sides 'Candy And A Current Bun' and 'Paintbox'. Other tracks are a version of 'Interstellar Overdrive' - previously only available on an EP in France - and the 1967 stereo version of 'Apples And Oranges'.