Incoming: The Duke Spirit, the Raveonettes, British Sea Power

[In a decade long ago and far, far away, the 1990s, I used to shell out import prices for British bands I'd get excited about. Their releases always predated the U.S. distribution of their albums, and on many occasions I Just Couldn't Wait. Now that I receive music in advance, those mail-order companies don't get as much of my paycheck. But this installment of from-the-hip blurbs about new albums features three bands I'd have opened the wallet for (even at $23.49 on Amazon):]

     

The Duke Spirit, "Neptune" (April 8, Shangri-La; Feb. 12 in the U.K.): Talk about a voice -- I'll see your Feist and two photogenic MySpace songstresses and raise you Liela Moss. Her foreboding delivery seems to come from down here, imploring you care very deeply about her slightly bent diary entries. Take the pluck from the best couple tracks of quintet's nice debut, "Cuts Across the Land," and imagine that over a full album, and you have a band U.S. audiences ought to heed. The Duke Spirit haven't had much luck in America, but a strong tour and a little support for "Neptune" (which was recorded in Joshua Tree) could change that.

||| Live: The Duke Spirit play the Echo on March 5.

||| Stream the album here.

Watch: Video for "The Step and the Walk":

The Raveonettes, "Lust, Lust, Lust" (Feb. 19, Vice; Nov. 12, 2007, in the U.K.): It's as if everything Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo tried to align on their first to albums has suddenly coalesced. Fuzzy, dark, simmering, shimmering and nodding to decades-ago girl groups and surf guitar outfits, "Lust(x3)" is like a churning ocean in the waning light. When they played as a duo last summer at the Little Radio warehouse downtown, I had no inkling some these songs would end up so fully formed.

||| Live: The Raveonettes have dates March 1 at the Glass House, March 2 at the Detroit Bar and March 4 at the El Rey Theatre.

||| Download: "Dead Sound."

British Sea Power, "Do You Like Rock Music?" (Feb. 12, Rough Trade): You hear the Brighton quartet wrestling with the big issues on this album, and the title's question feels almost like a challenge. Listening is like riding a beast; BSP's unvarnished, delightfully meandering anthems sound larger than life. Bring on foliage and military uniforms, lads, we're prepared to salute.

||| Live: British Sea Power plays Feb. 27 at the Echo and Feb. 28 at Spaceland.

"No Lucifer" by British Sea Power

Comments

[scott]

I couldn't agree more with this post.

[Brian]

PUSA hit it big with "Peaches" and "Lump." Tons of college kids, I promise, remember smiling to these songs growing up. Not saying the band's great or anything, but those were major tunes, check them out.

[The Riverboat Captain]

How much do I have to pay you to do a Brighton show on Little Radio? :)