New releases: Oct. 3, 2006

Hoooo lordy, hold on to your wallets, folks. October looks to be the new September. Lots of good CDs on the way. For starters this week, there's Beck. Dear sweet adorable Beck. I hope the music is great (a la "Guero," or "Sea Change"), but if not, there are some consolation prizes. For starters, the CD comes with a DVD containing homemade videos for each of the album's 15 songs, shot as the songs were being recorded. God, I hope there's puppets. And if that's not enough, your hard-earned CD dollar also gets you a do-it-yourself album cover. The CD packaging is blank, see, but inside the case is one of four sticker sheets you can use to make your own cover. If there's a more creative guy out there than Beck, I'd sure like to meet him.

Also this week comes "Sam's Town," the sophomore album from The Killers. Early reviews are mixed, but I loved "Hot Fuss," so I'm eager to see what's next from the beautifully eyelinered Brandon Flowers and the boys.

Without further ado, the HickoryWind.org list of notable new releases for the week of Oct. 3:
Beck -- The Information (Interscope)
The Killers -- Sam's Town (Island)
Trey Anastasio -- Bar 17 (Red Ink)
Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 -- Ole Tarantula (Yep Roc)
Hitchcock teams with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and The Minus Five's Scott McCaughey for his latest project.
Jet -- Shine On (Atlantic/WEA)
The Kennedys -- Songs of the Open Road (Appleseed)
The duo's favorite covers, mined from hours and miles logged on, well, the open road.
Amos Lee -- Supply and Demand (Blue Note)
The Decemberists -- The Crane Wife (Capitol)
Los Straitjackets -- Twist Party (Yep Roc)
I think they mean it, too. Almost every track on the album contains the word "twist" in the title.