picks
The First 3 Albums of 2012 You Must Get

January 31, 2012

The first half of this year is loaded with great music releases. Here’s a look at the first three albums you need to pick up.

Area 52, Rodrigo y Gabriella

Rodrigo y Gabriella have lived what you might call the American Dream except that their story really has nothing to do with America. To be more accurate, it’s the Mexico-Ireland-Europe-then-the-rest-of-the-world-including-America Dream. But for brevity’s sake, let’s just call it “the dream.”

For those who don’t know, Rodrigo and Gabriella met on the thrash metal scene in Mexico City. After playing around in bands for a while, they started to feel limited by their options. They’d heard Ireland was particularly welcoming to artists, and an acquaintance in Mexico told them they could live at her house in Dublin. Rod and Gab saved up a small amount of cash, bought some tickets, packed their guitars, and landed in the Emerald Isle.

Here’s where it kind of fell to shit. When the cabbie dropped them off at their new home, there was a note on the door that basically said, “Yeah, um, my bad. You can’t live here.” Did I mention their tickets were one-way? Yup. Crap.

So, with only the change in their pockets and the guitars on their backs, Rodrigo y Gabriella started busking on the streets. From there, they climbed their way up to clubs, theaters, and festivals, and now worldwide fame, all with just their two guitars.

The sound assault the two of them achieve is unbelievable. They drench massive crowds in kerosene and set them ablaze with less equipment then your average trust fund kid has before he’s put his indie band together.

However, on Area 52 Rod and Gab have re-recorded some of their old songs with a 13 piece Cuban orchestra. The resulting album is a joyful sound of no singular, discernible origin. We’ll call it the boiling over of a global melting pot lit in Cuba. It’s badass. Get it.

Nothing Here Seems Strange, Buxton

Buxton is the latest Houston-based addition to indie label New West. Their debut bounces between the pan-roots revival sound you hear above and the early sound of My Morning Jacket, only a bit more banjo-y. (Sure that’s a word). Good stuff. Get it here.

Soul Time!, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

The album title pretty much says it all. This is a collection of unreleased staples from Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings live show along with a few 7 inches, b-sides and rarities. Unless you’ve spent the past 8 years collecting limited vinyl single releases, well-recorded live bootlegs and random movie soundtracks, you probably don’t have these songs, but if you do, well, that’s been quite a bit of work–bravo. For the rest of you, get them all right here.

(Btw, the song title above should say “Longer and Stronger” not “Longer and Stranger,” but, hey, whatever you’re into, I guess…)

Peter Grumbine is a writer, producer, and talker who has covered music, pop culture, and the apocalypse for CNN, Current TV, and Maxim Magazine, among others, online, on-air and in print.

Image: Yuliya Libkina