Eddie Vedder – Ukulele Songs CD (Universal)
A collection of original songs and covers performed by Vedder on ukulele. Featuring a number of songs that Vedder penned and first played live but never released nearly a decade ago, Ukulele Songs also includes a uke version of Pearl Jam’s 2002 track “Can’t Keep” and guest vocalists Glen Hansard and Cat Power on two tracks.

Seapony – Go With Me CD/LP (Hardly Art)
Debut full-length from this refreshingly simplistic Seattle dream-pop trio. Fuzz-drenched guitar playing with simple chord progressions, topped with concise melodic hooks and breathy vocals.

Kate Bush – Director’s Cut CD/LP (Fish People)
On Directors Cut, Kate Bush revisits a selection of tracks from her albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, a process that presents a fascinating portrait of an artist in a constant state of evolution. She has re-recorded some elements whilst keeping the best musical performances of each song — making it something of a director’s cut but in sound, not vision.

The Melvins – Sugar Daddy Live CD (Ipecac)
13-track live album was recorded at the Busta-Guts Club in Downey, CA and features songs that span the length of their influential career; from the doom metal favorite “Boris” (from 1991’s Bullhead) to “The Kicking Machine” (from 2008’s Nude With Boots).

My Morning Jacket – Circuital CD/2xLP (ATO)
Circuital was recorded in Louisville, KY and Nashville, TN, and was co-produced by frontman Jim James and Tucker Martine (R.E.M., Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists). The result is yet another reinvention of their sound that both forges new ground and maintains the distinct spirit of MMJ’s previous work.

Ocote Soul Sounds – Taurus CD (Eighteenth Street Lounge)
Like its bullish namesake, their latest album smashes through sonic barriers with a heavy and dynamic mix of pan-Latin flavor, conscious political attitude, Afrobeat and hip-hop rhythms.

Death Cab For Cutie – Codes And Keys CD/2xLP (Barsuk/Atlantic)
DCFC’s seventh album breaks away, though not completely, from the guitar-driven style they are known for, instead making use of piano and electronically centered songs.

Frank Fairfield – Out On The Open West CD (Tompkins Square)
California based fiddle, guitar, and banjo player makes his living by being a street musician in Los Angeles.

Flogging Molly – Speed Of Darkness CD/LP (Borstal Beat)
New album from the Celtic punk ensemble features more of their signature blend of rock, folk, punk, blues and traditional Irish music.
[Read more…] about New Releases for May 31, 2011

We’ve been a Kyle Field fan every sense he bounced around on stage, playing his bass shoeless. Or maybe since his exiting farewell persona, Doorbot, with a robotic voice and stiff limbs wishing departing customers goodbye. We’re treated with a last minute (seriously, 5pm yesterday) arranged in-store performance with Kyle Field backed up by Zebedee Zaitz of Sparrow’s Gate. Get here at 7pm. Zeb may even float some Dylan covers as well. Rumour is there may be a dress-up 9pm show on Terrance Hill. Springtime fun in SLO should never be missed.

Originally formed in the California seaside town of San Luis Obispo, the music of Little Wings completely imbibes the environment in which it was conceived. With a loosely assembled membership that revolves around Little Wings frontman and songwriter Kyle Field,  the band’s debut on Walking Records, Discover Worlds of Wonder, was a dreamy, balladic tribute to the surreal aspects of the contemporary Californian landscape. Filled with slightly off-key tales of skateboarding legends, freeway traffic jams, and the hidden beach canyons of the West Coast, Little Wings’ 1999 debut fused a postmodern Beach Boys ideology with warm alt-country. After collaborations with many regional artists, including Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Kyle Field left his California musical family for the greener pastures of Portland, OR, to let the new chapter of the Little Wings almanac be influenced by the fresh naturalism of the Pacific Northwest and to continue the bands exploration of non-traditional song structures. With their Internet-exclusive sophomore effort, Wonder City, Little Wings added to the their loosely conceptual “Wonder Trilogy” in 2000, featuring the efforts of Kyle Field and Whitney Moon. Wonderue completed the trilogy in 2002; later that year, Light Green Leaves arrived. The following year, Harvest Joy appeared, and Field continued his prolific streak with 2004’s Magic Wand. A year later, K Records released his next album of abstract bursts, titled Grow, and then he moved toward more traditional pastures with the sleepy Soft Pow’r in 2007.