Next week Fatboy Records releases Sticks & Stones from moe, but devoted fans have been pre-ordering the disc online for an interesting bonus adventure. Co-produced with jam-band star-maker John Siket, the album features the song "Raise a Glass" - set to fade out the night in the encore set of the band's current tour through May. Pre-orders through the band's Web site feature a special "backstage" laminate that gains the buyer access to be part of the live show, joining the band as the chorus for the song.
Former supermodel Carla Bruni is turning heads in a whole new way with her new No Promises album, due next week on the Downtown Recordings imprint. Her first new music in five years, the enhanced CD is an ambitious effort, born of an immersion in 19th- and 20th-century poets and a creative prescription suggested by Marianne Faithful to read a Shakespeare sonnet before bed each night. Crafted as warm folk blues and slippery chansons, the 11 tracks are interpretations of work by W.H. Auden, Dorothy Parker, and Walter de la Mare, and you'll never think of W.B. Yeats' "Those Dancing Days Are Gone" or Emily Dickinson's "I Felt My Life with Both Hands" the same way again.
Television Alert
The Late Show with David Letterman is back live with Wyclef Jean tonight and The Mars Volta on Thursday; The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson presents Blake Lewis tonight and Trace Adkins on Thursday overnight; Matchbox 20 visits The View on Thursday morning; and Larry King Live interviews Queen Latifah on Thursday evening.
New Releases Coming Tuesday, January 22:
Ben Allison & Man Size Safe - Little Things Run the World (Palmetto) featuring the jazz bassist's slick, deconstructed interpretation of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy"
Amplification of Self Gratification - Win Us Over (Volcom) CD or two-LP set with guest vocalist Blag Dahlia on "Palm Springs"
Nicole Atkins - Neptune City (Red Ink/Columbia) gatefold vinyl LP edition of this critics' favorite
The Audition - Champion (Victory) with new guitarist Seth Johnson
Baby Dee - Safe Inside the Day (Drag City) with guests Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Andrew WK, James Lo of Chavez, and John Contreras of Current 93, my pick of the week is this magnificent new collection of confessional hymns, mournful parlor dirges, and bawdy ragtime roar in the spirit of Tom Waits, Van Morrison, and Ethel Merman
Natasha Bedingfield - Pocket Full of Sunshine (Epic) altered, domestic version of her UK smash from last year, featuring Sean Kingston on the new single "Love Like This"
Birds of Prey - Sulfur & Semen (Relapse) featuring members of Alabama Thunderpussy and Beaten Back to Pure
Ray Bonneville - Goin' by Feel (Red House) smooth, mature, hardwood blues from this master storyteller and Juno Award winner
Buzzcocks - 30 (Cooking Vinyl) live album recorded in 2006 at the London Forum
The Cartridge Family - Shine Like a Bottle (Doublenaught) North Carolina basement pub boogie with a lot of Memphis in their soul
Holly Cole - Holly Cole (Koch) featuring a jazz-piano reworking of Bent Fabric's "Alley Cat Song" and standards by Henry Mancini, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin
Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark (New West) 19 new songs with Muscle Shoals keyboardist Spooner Oldham
The Emerson Letters - See This Through (Torque) new from Matt Goud of Means
Evangelicals - The Evening Descends (Dead Oceans) psychedelic, funky freak-flag waving from Norman, Oklahoma
Fair Weather - Beginning from an End (Esoteric) expanded CD reissue of this rare 1971 release on RCA's short-lived Neon Records imprint, featuring Andy Fairweather Low and guest guitarist Dave Edmunds on "I Hear You Knockin'"
Liam Finn - I'll Be Lightning (Yep Roc) following his father's perfect pop genetics, the 23-year-old Australian's stateside debut is a real gem of laid-back melodies and mental images
The Fleshtones - Take a Good Look (Yep Roc) magnificent return of the garage-rock power-poppers, recently the focus of Joe Bonomo's tell-all biography, Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones
Foxy Shazam - Introducing (New Weatherman)
Heaven - Brass Rock 1 (Esoteric) remastered reissue from 1971, from the jazz-rock band that shared the stage of the legendary Isle of Wight Festival
Hello, Blue Roses - The Portrait Is Finished & I Have Failed to Capture Your Beauty ... (Locust Music) new girlfriend-boyfriend jams from visual artist Sydney Vermont and Destroyers' Dan Bejar
Hey Willpower - P.D.A. (Tomlab) domestic edition featuring a bonus cover of Architecture in Helsinki's "Heart It Races"
The Kennedys - Better Dreams (Appleseed) the husband-and-wife pair explore the roots of each song in the liner notes
Lisa Loeb - The Purple Tape (Furious Rose) expanded two-CD reissue from 1992, boasting a new interview and an acoustic version of "Stay (I Missed You)"
Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song (Parlophone) import-only debut with bonus remixes by Maps, Hot Chip, and Optimo
Eric Matthews - The Imagination Stage (Empyrean) smart new pop from the multi-instrumentalist
North Mississippi Allstars - Hernando (Songs of the South Records) all new on the band's own label
Photon Band - Back Down to Earth (Empyrean) new from Art DiFuria of the Lilys
Steve Poltz - Traveling (98 Pounder/Thirty Tigers) hit repeat for this witty, pleasing new solo album from The Rugburns frontman - getting quizzical in "What Would Gandhi Do?", lovingly weird in "Serve My Food," and deadly serious in the Iraq-war themed "Street Fighter's Face"
Cat Power - Jukebox (Matador) all-covers album backed by her Dirty Delta Blues Band, with an additional five covers included as a bonus disc in a limited edition
Rafter - Sex Death Cassette (Asthmatic Kitty) greasy, funky, mad-hatter romp from this playful one-man band, plucking instruments from his kitchen-sink sized Pandora's box - and giving the middle finger to the sky in the naughty "Breathing Room"
Jason Ringenberg - Best Tracks & Side Tracks 1979-2007 (Yep Roc) two-CD set from the big-hoss pit boss of Jason & the Scorchers, featuring a rarity from his early days in Shakespeare's Riot
Smash Palace - Everybody Comes & Goes (Zip Records) featuring a cover of George Harrison's "I Want to Tell You"
Steve Smith - This Town (G.A.S. Records) produced by Anthony Saffery of Cornershop, this new solo album from the former Dirty Vegas frontman shimmers in terrific pop songwriting, a spooky spoken-word sample from actor John Savage, and a bonus acoustic take on the Grammy Award-winning "Days Go by"
Super Furry Animals - Hey Venus! (Rough Trade) rock opera of sorts, about a girl named Venus who moves from bucolic to chaotic
Thieves & Liars - When Dreams Become Reality (Facedown) featuring a beautiful 24-page book of artwork by Dave Quiggle, this thunderous, explosive three-piece brings back the glory of the classic-rock power trio
The Whigs - Mission Control (ATO) featuring Julian Dorio, recently named "drummer of the year" by Esquire magazine
James Wilsey - El Dorado (Lakeshore) formerly of the punk icon Avengers, he's best known for his guitar work on Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game"
The Whitsundays - The Whitsundays (Friendly Fire) smart, creepy, catchy, organ-driven psychedelic grooves in the vein of The Zombies and The Stranglers
