Here's what I've been listening to out of my recent purchases (there's a few others, but I don't have as much to say about them just yet) :

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts - The Executioner's Last Songs, Vol. 1 : This finally showed up at Greville Records, early in the week. I'd heard Brett Sparks' Knoxville Girl cover, and Dean Schlabowske's take on Gary Gilmore's Eyes (yes, done in a country style !) on 3RRR not too long ago, purely by accident. The Neko Case track is particularly, uh, "nice", though that's probably the wrong word for songs about murder and execution - the compilation's a treatise against the death penalty, with some nice Jon Langford artwork, including a rendition of Uncle Sam holding some skulls above a sign saying "we grow these in Texas"...

Mark Eitzel - 60 Watt Silver Lining : Am I one of those AMC fans ? I'm not sure. It's nice, it's got a different sound, a bit of a groove running through it, almost. I wasn't expecting Mark Isham to be showing up on a Mark Eitzel album, though.

Boredoms - Super ae : This had been languishing in a shop for a while, so I gave in and rescued it. I've only given it one listen through, so far - like vision creation newsun it has to be experienced as a whole rather than in parts, so it's a little time-consuming but you don't really notice the time passing once it gets going.

Cinerama - Torino : Despite my excitement at finally finding a copy it took me until this morning to listen to this all the way through rather than sampling one or two tracks, 'cause I hadn't been in a "loud" mood for most of the week. As mentioned elsewhere, this brings back some of the noise that old Wedding Present fans might've found lacking in the new band's earlier releases. Dave Gedge treads the well-worn path of writing songs about burgeoning or breaking relationships - unlike people who take the easy way out by sticking to writing songs about being the victim of infidelity, you'll find him writing one song about "and I'm so glad you didn't / until you got that call you didn't mention him at all" to "how could you not think that I'd realise?!" (though the latter goes on to suggest that "that's a price that I'll pay to stop you going away", which is a bit of a different tack to his usual "aha ! i caught you out !" songs). Still, the crowning track's the final one, health and efficiency, which sounds almost mogwai-like - the sampled conversation over quiet but brooding guitar, which builds up to a cacophonic chorus. Yes, Eugenie (the only person I know to get into Cinerama rather than the Wedding Present), this might be a bit hard on your delicate ears.

Next in the in-tray : Damien Jurado, Add N to (X), and I've gotta sit down and listen to the Rough Trade Rock 'n' Roll vol. 1 compilation and the John Parish album (I just noticed his the the cover, this time around) properly, too. Also, I've got a ticket for that Grand Salvo farewell gig on Tuesday night.