One of America's greatest minds, Princeton professor Dr. Cornel West, returns next week with a new CD of intellectual hip-hop and R&B. Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations features an array of guests, highlighted by Prince in the scathing "Dear Mr. Man" and talk-show host Tavis Smiley and pundit Michael Eric Dyson in examination of the "N Word." Other front row students in class include Talib Kweli in "Bushanomics," Jill Scott in "What Time It Is," and Gerald Levert in "The Man's Gonna Getcha." Look for the thought-provoking disc on Hidden Beach Records' Hidden Beach Forum imprint.

Live at KEXP Volume IIIFrom over 400 live, in-studio performances from this past year alone, Seattle's KEXP-FM has selected 17 tracks for Live at KEXP Volume Three. The CD is released next week as part of the station's pledge drive, featuring The English Beat, Hot Chip, Frank Black, The Shins, Grizzly Bear, and Lady Sovereign. Highlights include Billy Bragg's classic "Waiting For the Great Leap Forward" and Cloud Cult's cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

Over the Rhine returns this coming Tuesday with the intoxicating new CD, The Trumpet Child, on the band's own Great Speckled Dog label. Featuring the clever "If a Song Could Be President," a daydream wish to "show us where our country went wrong / strum their guitars on the White House lawn," with nods to John Prine as head of the FBI, Neil Young as a Senator, Emmylou Harris as a foreign ambassador, and founding "fathers" Lightnin' Hopkins and Patsy Cline.

 

Television Alert:

 

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno hosts Mandy Moore tonight; The Late Show with David Letterman boasts Andrew Bird this evening and The New Pornographers on Monday; The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson presents Lifehouse this evening and Emerson Hart on Thursday overnight; Jimmy Kimmel Live welcomes Common Thursday, The Editors Friday, and Rooney on Tuesday overnight; Last Call with Last Call with Carson Daly features house band Satellite Party for the rest of this week; and The Henry Rollins Show on IFC features musical guest Manu Chao this weekend.

 

New Releases Coming Tuesday, August 21:

 

Aiden - Conviction (Victory) anticipated return of Seattle's tattooed sons, joining the international Taste of Chaos Tour in November

Akimbo - Navigating the Bronze (Alternative Tentacles) heavy, heavy tantrum rock featuring the drums-only track "Roman Coins"

Arthur Alexander - Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter (Hacktone) soul stirring reissue of his 1993 album produced by Ben Vaughn, packed with bonus "hotel room" rarities, NPR radio's Fresh Air sessions, and his participation in the IN Their Own Words songwriting showcase at The Bottom Line in 1991

Blue Cheer - What Doesn't Kill You (Rainman) all new since reforming in 1999

Boris - Believe II (Moist Music) spinning beats by Winx, Harrison Krump and Mastiksoul

chris and thomas - Land of Sea (Defend) my pick of the week is this perfect, passenger-window roadtrip Americana from a restrained Liverpool duo championed by KCRW's Nic Harcourt, sliding in softly between Simon & Garfunkel and Nick Drake

Omar Kent Dykes & Jimmie Vaughan - On the Jimmy Reed Highway (Ruf) blues heaven from the Omar & the Howlers vocalist and the Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist as they deftly burn down Jimmy Reed classics - featuring a duet of "Good Lover" with Lou Ann Barton - and special guests Kim Wilson, James Cotton, and Delbert McClinton

Jeremy Enigk - The Missing Link (Razor & Tie) from the Sunny Day Real Estate founder, the CD features acoustic versions of songs from his World Waits album

Ryan Ferguson - Only Trying To Help (Better Looking Records) new from the No Knife founder

Robert Francis - One By One (Aeronaut) featuring a signature guitar solo by guest Ry Cooder on "Good Hearted Man"

Full Blown Chaos - Heavy Lies the Crown (Ferret Music) produced by Billy Graziadei of Biohazard, and on tour next month with Obituary

Galactic - From the Corner To the Block (Anti / Epitaph) with guests Lyrics Born, Boots Riley, Ladybug Mecca, Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, and Boots Riley of The Coup

Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge (Mute) import only

Darren Hayes - This Delicate Thing We've Made (Powdered Sugar) all new two-CD set from the Savage Garden co-founder

Imperial Teen - The Hair, the TV, the Baby and the Band (Merge) featuring the single "Shim Sham"

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters - original motion picture soundtrack (Lakeshore) featuring dialogue from this Donkey Kong championship quest

Kinski - Down Below It's Chaos (Sub Pop) also available on two-LP vinyl

Talib Kweli - Ear Drum (Blacksmith / Warner Bros) with guest Norah Jones

Ladybirds - Regional Community Theater (Creep Records) new side project from Gym Class Heroes' Tyler Pursel, with guests Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids and Max Bemis of Say Anything

M.I.A. - Kala (Interscope) with guests Timbaland and Diplo

Mekons - Natural (Quarterstick)

The Mendoza Line - 30 Year Low & Final Remarks of the Legendary Malcontent (Glurp) haunting swan song CD of both their marriage and band, with a bonus rarities disc featuring covers of Bob Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry," Richard Thompson's "Withered and Died," Bruce Springsteen's "Tougher Than the Rest," and Cole Porter's "Anything Goes"

Milton & the Devils Party - How Wicked We've Become (Transit of Venus) ten witty, slicing songs from two professors of literature at Widener University, nodding wickedly to William Shakespeare in "I've Had Your Wife" with the opening line, "we're relaxed, as a beast with two backs"

Minus the Bear - Planet of Ice (Suicide Squeeze) performing across the country in a handful of indie record shops next week, a bonus four-track CD single comes in the first pressing

Travis Morrison Hellfighters - All Y'All (Barsuk) new from former vocalist of The Dismemberment Plan

New Model Army - High (Attack Attack) their tenth studio album

The New Pornographers - Challengers (Matador) with guest Neko Case

The Panic Division - Songs From the Glasshouse (Militia Group) percolating grooves from this synthesized quintet, shamelessly wearing Duran Duran, U2 and Spandau Ballet on their sleeve

The Pointed Sticks - "My Japanese Fan" (Sudden Death) all new 7" single from the Canadian punk poppers

Rilo Kelly - Under the Black Light (Warner Bros)

The Section Quartet - Fuzzbox (Decca) all-covers project with producer Linda Perry, putting a cello and violin sophistication to songs by Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin, Queens of the Stone Age, and Radiohead

Shock Cinema - Our Way Is Revenge (Kanine) featuring members of Dragons of Zynth and Trail of Dead

Michelle Shocked - ToHeavenURide (Mighty Sound) smoking hot, grinding soul recorded in 2003 at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, featuring pedal steel guitarist Nick Forster of Hot Rize and members of L.A.'s New Greater Circle Mission Church; covering The Band's "The Weight" and two thunderstorms by Sister Rosetta Tharpe - "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" and "Strange Things Happening Every Day"

Nikki Sixx - The Heroin Diaries (Eleven Seven) CD companion to his new autobiography

S.O.D. - Rise of the Infidels (Megaforce) featuring a live concert and four previously unreleased songs

Stuporhero - Last Star Shining (Basement Tape) dig it! This is basement/bedroom power pop bliss from the boy/girl duo of Will Troy and Jen Garrett, backed live by drummer/mannequin "Chuckles"

Luke Temple - Snowbeast (Mill Pond) a fantastic, cinematic carpet ride of coolly fragile, tinkling bedroom vamp-folk, bridging Jeff Buckley, Everything But the Girl, acoustic Queen and old 78 RPM records

Twinemen - Twinetime (Hi-N-Dry) third album from the Morphine drummer and saxophonist with vocalist Laurie Sargent

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