Also due Tuesday: Shelby Lynne, Bullet for My Valentine, Dispatch, Jeffrey Lewis, Willie Nelson, Xiu Xiu.
Hannah Montana and Beck top this week's releases, but fans of either shouldn't get too psyched just yet — they're not delivering new studio material per se. Also on tap are country superstars young and old, some hard-rockers and more indie-rock acts than you can shake a pair of Converse kicks at. Let's get the party started.Going the Extra Miley: Miley Cyrus fans are going to be doing some serious damage to their piggy banks this week. Just check out what the pop tart has in store: Her "Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" flick, which she recently spoke with MTV News about, hits theaters Friday; while Tuesday (January 29) sees the release of "One in a Million," a DVD with four episodes from her show, and her Hannah Montana 2: Non-Stop Dance Party CD. The last disc is a whole lot like the "High School Musical 2": Non-Stop Dance Party" set Disney put out in December — each reworked LP presents the original release as a continuous remix. Tucked inside the CD is a music video, a slide show and, best of all, printable party invitations!
An Ode to Odelay: Beck is also back this week, with his watershed '90s album Odelay getting the deluxe-edition treatment. The new edition of the nearly 12-year-old LP — the one with the shaggy-haired dog on the cover — has more than twice as many tracks as the original, including unreleased session tunes produced by the Dust Brothers; rare remixes by UNKLE, Aphex Twin and Mickey P.; and B-sides galore, including a Spanish-language version of "Jackass" recorded with a mariachi band. The deluxe reissue is a cause for celebration indeed.
Walla World: Death Cab for Cutie actually formed the year after Odelay came out, and this week guitarist/producer Chris Walla cranks out his much-talked-about second solo album, Field Manual. The project caused a bit of a stir last year, after the Department of Homeland Security seized files containing the album for still-unclear reasons. "It's a crazy, weird, heavy-rock record," Walla told MTV News while putting together the album. Giving fans an extra reason to buy the physical version of the effort, the limited edition comes in a cloth-bound hardcover, but those who went the digital route and pre-ordered the disc on label Barsuk's site got three non-album MP3 bonus tracks.
Good Mojo?: Walla's got a bit of a story behind his new one, but it's nothing compared to the trials and tribulations involving spirits, nervous breakdowns and love triangles that led up to the release of the Mars Volta's The Bedlam in Goliath. With Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante, new drummer Thomas Pridgen and a boatload of returning members in tow, the band's fourth album includes such typically head-scratching Volta titles as "Aberinkula," "Cavalettas" and "Conjugal Burns." Tech-savvy fans might want to hold off for a week until a different edition of the album drops. That version will come with a USB stick featuring the album, a video and artwork, and will be encased in a wooden Ouija board, which ties in with the album's kooky theme. Monthly content updates will also grant fans B-sides, more videos, a video game and beyond.
An Early Valentine: If you think the Mars Volta's USB stick approach is cool, check out what Bullet for My Valentine have in store for their new one, Scream Aim Fire. The deluxe iTunes version of the metalcore band's release comes with a PDF booklet featuring three- to five-page comic books for three of the album's 11 songs. A comic book for each song will eventually be made and located on SafTheComics.com. The band has also made 15-second animated trailers hyping the comics.
Voices of Protest: As far as sophomore metal releases go, Bullet are up against Protest the Hero this week. The Whitby, Ontario, quintet divided their Fortress into two movements, "On Conquest and Capture" and "Isosceles" — try to wrap your head around that while you're headbanging. "It's really a look at past, present and future, through the battles that have been fought and are being fought and supposedly will be fought," singer Rody Walker told Metal File last week.
Vintage Country: Lost Highway Records has a big week, with the release of Shelby Lynne's Just a Little Lovin' and Willie Nelson's Moment of Forever. Curiously, the veteran Nelson is going for younger appeal — Kenny Chesney produced the effort and sings with the Red-Headed Stranger on one track ("Worry B Gone"), and Nelson covers Dave Matthews' "Gravedigger" to boot. On the flipside, Lynne has her eyes set on the past — her effort mostly consists of songs the late Dusty Springfield had in her repertoire.
Song Title of the Week:
"Funishment" from Dub Trio's Another Sound Is Dying
Album Cover of the Week:
Quinn Walker's Laughter's an A--hole/ Lion Land
Other Notables:
Xiu Xiu's Women as Lovers
Fans of the experimental indie-rock band that currently resides in San Fran, keep your heads up for two special versions of the group's new release. The first 2,000 copies of Women as Lovers will have a bonus DVD housing 16 music videos, four tour films and 100 photos. Xiu Xiu have also littered the iTunes version of the album with five unreleased songs, but all editions will contain songs like "In Lust You Can Hear the Axe Fall" and "Master of the Bump (Kurt Stumbaugh, I Can Feel the Soil Falling Over My Head)."
Vampire Weekend's Vampire Weekend
Along with MGMT, these unlikely New York indie-rockers have somehow managed to propel themselves onto mainstream-rock radio in the matter of weeks — and Vampire Weekend haven't even needed major-label support to pull it off. The four guys met while going to school at Columbia University and less than two years ago formed the band, which fuses indie-rock and pop with African sounds. Don't miss "Mansard Roof," "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance."
Jeffrey Lewis' 12 Crass Songs
You might not know this other New York up-and-comer, anti-folk troubadour Lewis, but there's probably an even greater chance you're even less familiar with Crass, the anarchic punk band around which his new album revolves. For the project, Lewis updated the band's lyrics to reflect modern times and reimagined the crusty punk music as lush folk.
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