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	The Like Young "So Serious" CD $12.00 Out To Get Me • You're No Cheat Cut to 2004. One year after the release of debut album “Art Contest,” several national tours (including an opening stint for Mates Of State), and two day jobs later, The Like Young have unleashed "So Serious." Building on the base of their debut and kicking it up ten notches, the Ziembas rip through 12 songs in 24 minutes, producing their most focused and confident group of songs yet. With Barry Phipps (Cocktails) back at the boards and some lyrical brimstone on the mic, The Like Young loses the suits and lets it all hang out. 50s-80s-00s pop-rock-punk ."The Like Young write and play the best straightforward rock `n' roll songs you've ever heard." - New City Chicago
	The Blackouts "Living In Blue" CD $11.00 Something I Can't Say • No Tomorrow • Where It Begins • Let You Down If you're the kind of person who's buying rock records by the likes of The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Fiery Furnaces, or The Hives, then I want you to add The Blackouts to your list. This is a great record and if you're buying records from Parasol, then it's likely because you're willing to take a chance on something you've never heard of before because in taking that chance sometimes we find some real treasures. The Blackouts are a Champaign band who've been wooing audiences in town for the past few years and with this, their sophomore album, I believe they've come up with something special that should catch the ears of folks across the nation if this CD finds its way into the right hands, the right hearts. 200 proof, amp-cranking, Midwestern garage-rock sweatiness with seriously seductive vocals from local legends The Blackouts. Infused with the swaggering blue-collar coolness of Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke and worn-out Levis, but a lot louder! I’m not sure how this batch of East Central Illinois twenty-something winds up rocking-out like The Pretenders, The Gun Club, Eleventh Dream Day, and The Smiths in their respective heydays, but they do in much the same way as the current crop of rockers who've found ways of unifying elements from rock's past into an individual sound. Heck, when these songs remind me a various influences from MY past, things from the 80s' "college rock" years, for example, the smart money says The Blackouts have never even heard of the influences I'd cite. Never heard of bands like The Embarrasment, but the sound and the energy and the enthusiasm they embody bring it to the fore nonetheless. A great CD worthy of your taking a chance on it!! Lucid Records is run by Chris Broach (of Braid, L’Spaerow, The Firebird Band/The Firebird Suite/The Firebird Project)
	Nanook of the North "The Täby Tapes" CD $12.00 "Here are the recordings we made with an Eskimo boy named Nanook." So began the letter enclosed with a demo CD titled "The Täby Tapes" by Nanook Of The North. While hanging out at a party in the suburbs of Stockholm, friends Mattias Olsson and Olle Söderström heard Nanook playing songs about his travels from Alaska to Täby, Sweden. They convinced him to record the songs in Mattias' home studio, Roth Händle, providing an arsenal of gadgets and toys (guitars, organs, horns, Optigan, Omnichord, Stylophone, theremin, etc.) to flesh out the songs and luring some of Sweden's favorite female singers of the 80s to lend their voices to the project. (more info/sound samples)
	José González "Stay In the Shade EP" CDEP $5.00 Stay In the Shade • Hand On Your Heart New EP from Swedish/Argentine minstrel includes is a lovely (brilliant, really) cover of Kylie Minogue’s “Hand On Your Heart.” For fans of Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, Mark Kozelek, The Buckleys, the Badman Records roster, Neil Halstead, and the new school of folk music: Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Vetiver, Rachel Goswell, Faun Fables, P.G. Six, et. al.
	Rachel Goswell "Waves Are Universal" CD $12.25 Plucked • Warm Summer Sun • Hope Solo debut from Slodive/Mojave 3 gal. Great folky stuff for fans of Linda Perhacs and the more organic, hazy sounds from Dot Allison's debut and Folksongs For The Afterlife.
	Vetiver "Vetiver" CD $13.25 Angels Share • Amour Fou • Without A Song VETIVER grows in a "less is more" chaparral where simplicity offers ample room to wander. Strongly fertilized by traditional acoustic music, and more subtly cross-pollinated by the sparseness of "minimalism," with its bare suggestions of melodies that the listener fills in for himself, Vetiver gracefully navigates folk and pop savannas with ease. Features appearances from DEVENDRA BANHART, COLM O'CIOSOIG (MY BLOODY VALENTINE), HOPE SANDOVAL (MAZZY STAR), JOANNA NEWSOM, CRAIG KOOZER, and NICK HOLDZKOM. For fans of NEWSOM, BANHART, NICK DRAKE, and JOSE GONZALEZ.
	!!! "Louden Up Now" (with BONUS REMIX CD) CD $10.25 Hello, Is This Thing On • Pardon My Freedom The anticipated Louden Up Now album from punk-meets-dance post-alls !!! (CHIK CHIK CHIK). Ten tracks of groove-smoking disco punk magic, rocked with slithering bass lines, driving percussion, echo-drenched guitar, and call-and-response vocals. It's time to clear the wheels of steel for your next indie-rock dance party with this year's model for indie-dub-dance for last year's Electric Six and, before that, Playgroup. Now Sounds for the hip set who are too young to own The Pop Group's "Y" or The Clash's "Sandinista."
	Delta "Singularity" CD $12.00 Sugared-Up • Make It Right Culling tracks from rare-as-hell UK singles from 1993-1995, along with some choice unreleased gems, Singularity is Delta’s first U.S. release, a definitive glance at the group’s early days, and a perfect compliment to their more recent masterworks. Delta formed in 1993 from the ashes of cult Sarah Records indie band The Sea Urchins, the core lineup consisting of brothers James and Patrick Roberts on guitar and vocals. A 10" for Che and three singles for Dishy Records followed before the band signed to the Acid Jazz Records subsidiary Focus, which effectively put the band’s career on hold for almost five years, with no material being released. They eventually broke free of the contract and returned to Dishy, who put out a tremendously received compilation of B-sides and demos called Laughing Mostly in 1998. The Guardian proclaimed it to be a work of genius, describing it as "the last great album of the millennium. You can hear Delta’s imagination working overtime, imagining it’s The Byrds fronted by Randy California, but the result is always a song that tells the listener that convincing yourself you feel bad is the best way to feel good again." This momentum allowed them to forge ahead and release Slippin’ Out in 2000, which was lauded by the NME for its "songs of aching wonder" and named as one of that magazine’s Top-50 albums for the year (#22). It’s successor Hard Light (2002) was similarly championed, Q raving about the group’s "mariachi-laced punk-pop, widescreen orchestral sadness, and some smoldering, heroic West Brum soul" and the Sunday Times keenly observing that "in an era when Coldplay’s oops-I’ve-just-grazed-my-knee melancholy dominates, this kind of authentic, feverish hurt on display here is irresistible." Track Listing: 1. Sugared-Up 2. Dealt Out 3. Make It Right 4. Fall Apart 5. Cowboy Raga 6. Tonight 7. Low Flying 8. Here I Am 9. All My Life 10. Butterfly 11. In The Final End 12. Take Away My Pain 13. You’re Not Mine 14. She’s The One 15. Gun 16. Sugared-Up
	The Reputation "To Force A Fate" CD $14.75 Face It The second post-Sarge album from band led by ex-Champaign/current-Chicago singer/guitarist Elizabeth Elmore! "To Force A Fate" continues to draw upon Elizabeth's knack for packing a lyrical punch backed up by musical muscle (without sacrificing the all-important melody). The music is accented by delicate flourishes of piano, strings and horns. Elizabeth's sultry, captivating vocals serve as the album's focal point as they wed the instrumentation and songwriting. When asked about her lyrics, Elizabeth states, "The best way I can explain it is that as far as I can tell, I am too brutally honest and opinionated for most people. Generally, I think people wish I would shut up. I think with Sarge, I was usually trying to understand why people acted the way they did. These days, I don't even try to understand it."
	Jay Bennett "Bigger Than Blue" CD $13.00 My Little Wicked One Solo debut from former guitarist for Wilco and Steve Pride & His Blood Kin/leader of Titanic Love Affair. Follows the CD he released with Edward Burch in 2002, "The Palace At 4AM." After years of gaining a reputation for being a world class producer and multi-instrumentalist (see Woody Guthrie, Billy Bragg, Sheryl Crow, Steve Pride, Tim Easton, Allison Moorer, and Wilco), Jay Bennett shakes off the dust to mark his reinvention as one of America's truly great songwriters. "Bigger Than Blue" is ripe with beautiful melodies that unfold and take residence. The results are stark, honest, and above all, breathtaking. Compliments the more expansive music he's made with Edward Burch and as multi-instrumentalist, writer and engineer of Wilco, "Bigger Than Blue" is a beautifully spare, deeply personal record, and it is the first of a four-record cycle to be released by Jay in 2004!
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The Parasol 5-Star serves to highlight our favorite releases for the month. No money has been exchanged between Parasol and the bands or labels involved for this consideration. These releases are profiled because of the impact they've made upon our ears, hearts and minds - not Parasol's advertising revenue. Parasol Purity. Payola free since 1991. No additives. More real cheese flavor.