Sorry for the lack of updates the past few weeks, as I felt I needed a little break from the blog.  Considering it’s only March (seriously, it’s already March!), it may seem odd that I would already need some time away, but hey, it happens!

With that being said, the first thing to scratch off the list upon updating is catching up with the album releases from the past weeks, including this week as well. And as you notice, there’s a ridiculous amount of releases that made their way down the pipe — almost too many to mention. So in an attempt to get this out as quickly as possible, I’ll let you guys recommend what’s worthy of dropping down some cash for.

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Tags: A Weather, April Smith and the Great Picture Show, Arpline, Athlete, Balmorhea, Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore, Boy Eats Drum Machine, Charlie Alex March, Clogs, Efterklang, Eluvium, Emma Pollock, Field Music, Golden Triangle, Holly Miranda, Japanther, Joanna Newsom, Josiah Wolf, Lightspeed Champion, Local Natives, Moon Duo, Portugal. The Man, Rocky Votolato, Rogue Wave, Sambassadeur, Shearwater, Shout Out Louds, Son Lux, The Go Find, The Ruby Suns, The Weekly Graboid, These New Puritans, Twin Tigers

Lots of highly-anticipated albums this week, though, none that I’m too entirely excited about; with the likes of Hot Chip, Yeasayer leading the pack of new releases. I’ve listened to both albums, and while I like the singles from the two, the albums as a whole don’t really work for me. In regards to Hot Chip, the group seems to forgo any kind of dance tracks this time around in favor of focusing on songwriting. The results are a bit hit or miss, but the title track is definitely great. Yeasayer’s Odd Blood wasn’t what I was expecting at all, as at times they seem to be doing their best Vampire Weekend impersonation throughout most of the record. Their contribution to the Dark Was the Night compilation was stellar, and had me on the bandwagon. Now, I’m not so sure where I stand now.

Other notable releases this week include Panthu du Prince’s Black Noise, Phantogram’s Eyelid Movies, The Watson Twins’ Talking to You, Talking to Me, and the always reliable Massive Attack with Heligoland (with great guests to boot, including Hope Sandoval, Martina Topley-Bird, Guy Garvey of Elbow, Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio, Adrian Utley of Portishead and Damon Albarn).

What are you excited about this week? Feel free to recommend anything I may have missed.

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Tags: Ben + Vesper, Bluebrain, Drew Dansburry, Gil Scott-Heron, Hot Chip, Kath Bloom, Massive Attack, Pantha du Prince, Phantogram, Schooner, Shellshag, Smile Smile, The Watson Twins, The Weekly Graboid, Xiu Xiu, Yeasayer

Kicking off this week’s new album releases on Groundhog’s Day, we have Toro Y Moi’s Causers of This, which is a very worthy debut amongst the ever-growing amount of bands coming down the pipe of similar ilk.

Also garnering a lot of buzz is Midlake’s The Courage of Others, the follow-up to to 2006’s The Trials of Van Occupanther. I’ve yet to hear this one myself, but I did enjoy their previous album to some extent, so I’m definitely looking forward to checking it out soon.

The Soft Pack (formerly The Muslims) and The Album Leaf round out the rest of the recommended releases, with the surprise of the week coming in the form of The Brunettes and their latest titled Paper Dolls.  I only say this because I had no idea they were even working on a new record, let alone having it come out this week.  If you enjoy listening to some very sweet, sweet pop songs, than I’m sure you’ll find some enjoyment out of it.

Looking at these releases, you pretty much have a nice sampling of a wide arrange of different genres of music.  From post-rock to indiepop, it’s all here to be discovered.

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Tags: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, King of Prussia, Midlake, Mount Eerie, Salvador Santana, The Album Leaf, The Brunettes, The Heligoats, The Soft Pack, The Weekly Graboid, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls

Sorry for not having the Graboid up last week, but I’ve included those releases (Spoon, Surfer Blood, Editors) in with the already incredibly amount of great releases that are available this week. So much good amazing stuff to choose from, that one would be hard-pressed to decide where to spend their hard-earned cash.

Two albums that I’m extremely excited about and will surely be picking up at some point this week are Beach House’s awe-inspiring third album Teen Dream and The Magnetic Fields’ Realism.  I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of Realism yet (which many have dubbed the yin to Distortion’s (2008) yang, but Teen Dream is so good it hurts.  Early candidate for album of the year?  Too early for that kind of talk, but it is sure to be in the discussion when that time comes.  It is definitely that good, people.

Also worth mentioning are a number of great releases, too numerous to single out any one in particular, from the likes of Basia Bulat, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Boy Genius, and Four Tet.

As always, feel free to recommend anything I may have missed.  What releases are you most excited about?

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Tags: Aziz Ansari, Barton Carroll, Basia Bulat, Beach House, Boy Genius, Cars & Trains, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Citay, Dinowalrus, Editors, EELS, Four Tet, Fucked Up, Gigi, Home, Los Campesinos!, Major Stars, Oh No Ono, Pit Er Pat, Retribution Gospel Choir, Robert A.A. Lowe & Rose Lazar, Slow Six, Spoon, Surfer Blood, The Happy Hollows, The Magnetic Fields, The Weekly Graboid

Kicking off the first big week of album releases in 2010, we have Vampire Weekend’s highly anticipated sophomore record, Contra. From my few listens, the band still retains that signature African sound from their debut. But, I’ve never been too high on these guys in the first place, so maybe a more keen listener will notice any new flourishes with this one.

Also out this week is Owen Pallett’s Heartland, which sees the singer/songwriter disposing of his long-time Final Fantasy moniker. I think this change should have happened much earlier, as that name never sat well with me in the first place. The album has been described by Pallett as “a fully orchestral record, designed to exist simultaneously as an album, a 45-minute piece of orchestral music and a set of songs for looped violin and voice.”

Another release worth mentioning is also my recommendation this week: Laura Veirs’ July Flame. In my opinion, it’s the first great release of 2010. Rounding out this week is Athens, GA’s Nana Grizol and their sophomore release, Ruth. If you’re not familiar, the band includes Laura Carter and Robbie Cucchiaro — both formerly of Neutral Milk Hotel.

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Tags: Adam Green, Blockhead, Jason Boesel, Laura Veirs, Nana Grizol, OK Go, Owen Pallett, Shlohmo, The Paperbacks, The Scruffs, The Weekly Graboid, Vampire Weekend, Woodpigeon

After a short hiatus to end the year (I needed a break! I’m not Largehearted Boy!), the Graboid is back to kick off 2010 properly. My hope is to be as consistent with this as possible, with updates every Tuesday. We’ll see if that holds up, but I’m known to be a bit lazy every so often.

Being the first week and all, one wouldn’t expect an abundance of releases — and as you can see here it’s slim pickings. Don’t fret, as this month is going to be huge as many high-profile releases are set to to drop down the pipe in the coming weeks.

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Tags: Dustin O'Halloran, Findlay Brown, JEFF The Brotherhood, New Releases, The Octagon, The Weekly Graboid

Not quite the stellar lineup of releases this week, but there are still some great records to be had with The Flaming Lips’ latest, Embryonic leading the pack.  Also not to be completely overshadowed are releases from Thao Nguyen, Neon Indian, Imaad Wasif, Grant-Lee Phillips, and Fanfarlo who’s debut finally get a proper US release after being available digitally for what feels like forever.

As always, feel free to recommend anything I may have missed.

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Tags: Ah Holly Fam'ly, Bear In Heaven, Beaten Awake, Erin McKeown, Finn Riggins, Grant-Lee Phillips, Har Mar Superstar, I Was Totally Destroying It, Imaad Wasif, MV & EE, Neon Indian, Shelley Short, Thao With the Get Down Stay Down, The Parlour Steps, The Weekly Graboid, Thomas Function, We All Have Hooks For Hands

After quite a long absence, the Graboid is back and this time around with a proper title. As much as I liked the original ‘The Daily Graboid’ title, in the grand scheme of things it just never really made much sense considering it had always been a weekly post. I’ve always meant to have the change eventually, but considering how long it’s been since I’ve last put this up, it just felt right to start back anew with this different title.

So with that being said, you can expect to see this every Tuesday since I know a lot of you actually do your music shopping on the actual day of releases. I know that I probably will now since I actually live near some record shops.

This week brings an abundance of excellent releases from the likes of Air, The Clientele, Kurt Vile, The Dutchess & The Duke, Mission to Burma, The Mountain Goats, The Raveonettes, and current blogger favorites The XX (my opinion on them has soften a bit, but I still don’t think they’re that great).

As always, if there is anything I may have missed, feel free to recommend it to us.

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Tags: A Place to Bury Strangers, Air, Alela Diane featuring Alina Hardin, Betty Davis, Built to Spill, Califone, Daniel Johnston, Glorytellers, Gossip, Harmonia, Headlights, Kurt Vile, Lou Barlow, Mike Doughty, Mission of Burma, Music Go Music, No Age, Noah and the Whale, Octoberman, Orenda FInk, Osso, Sufjan Stevens, Supercluster, The Black Heart Procession, The Black Hollies, The Cinematics, The Clientele, The Dutchess & the Duke, The Mountain Goats, The Very Best, The Weekly Graboid, The XX, Vic Chesnutt