New releases: April 18, 2006

According to the official Web site of the Drive-By Truckers, those who pre-order the band's new CD, "A Blessing and a Curse," from the site are registered to win a contest called "Win a Date with DBT." I guess to cover themselves in the event that a dude might win, the description of the contest actually lists the prize as four tickets to a show, backstage passes, autographs, rock-star treatment, etc., etc. But I hope a lady wins, because I like to try to picture an actual date with the Truckers. I think it would involve Natty Light, and I think it would probably end in getting stood up at the altar.

When I'm not picturing a date with the DBT, I like to picture how much ass "A Blessing and a Curse," out Tuesday from New West, is going to whup. Ah ...

New releases for Tuesday, April 18, 2006:
Drive-By Truckers -- A Blessing and a Curse (New West)
Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs -- Under the Covers, Vol.1 (Shout! Factory)
A collection of duets (yay!) on the artists' favorite songs from the 1960s, some you've probably heard of, but most are obscure.
Peter Mulvey -- The Knuckleball Suite (Signature Sounds)
Chuck Brodsky -- Tulips for Lunch (Chuck Brodsky)
Adrian Belew -- Side Three (Sanctuary)

And last but not least, this week's Best Band Name Ever of the Week award. This week it's a two-way tie with an animal theme. First we have West Coast popsters ALO, or Animal Liberation Orchestra. Never heard of 'em before today, but creepily a check of their Web site told me they are in Tokyo right exactly now, opening for Jack Johnson. They also plan tour dates with the Dave Matthews Band in June. So maybe everyone has heard of them by now and I'm just impossibly out of touch. Sue me. ALO proudly presents "Fly Between Falls" on college buddy Jack Johnson's Brushfire label on Tuesday.

Also earning our prestigious award this week is Be Your Own Pet, which seems like good, if vaguely dirty, advice. If I were my own pet I would get fed a lot and scritched often, so it sounds pretty good, really. I have to quote the BYOP Web site here, because nothing I will say will beat it:

If you took Karen O [Yeah Yeah Yeahs] and toddler-from-hell Anjelica out of Rugrats and put them in the gene-splicing machine in The Fly that turned Jeff Goldblum into an unconvinvcing prosthetic, the likely result would be [lead singer] Jemina Pearl, a 17-year-old from Nashville hitherto mostly famous for puking into towels and then throwing them into the audience at major UK festivals.

Alrighty then! Puke-soaked copies of BYOP's "Summer Sensation" EP, from Ecstatic Peace Records, available Tuesday.