What to Buy : August 12, 2008

New releases are pretty slim this week for some reason, but luckily for you we slacked off last week due to hosting issues, giving us a few picks from last week and an incredibly awesome re-issue to recommend for your consumption this week. Let’s do it to it.

1.) M. Ward – Transfiguration of Vincent (Deluxe Vinyl Re-issue – Jealous Butcher)
[mp3] M. Ward – Vincent O’brien (Non-album Demo)
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Portland’s wonderful Jealous Butcher is offering, for the first time on vinyl, Matt Ward’s wonderful 2003 release Transfiguration of Vincent on super-deluxe 180 gram vinyl. The vinyl nerdery doesn’t stop there, though. You can pick this baby up at your local record store on normal old black vinyl, or order one right from Jealus Butcher on seriously sweet Sky Blue, translucent 180g vinyl. But hurry if you want the latter, there are only 500 in existance, and people are already trying to eBay them. Buy it here.

2.) Oxford Collapse – Bits (Sub Pop)
[mp3] Oxford Collapse – Featherbeds
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Dancable Indie Rock from Brooklyn is nothing new or exciting by now. Oxford Collapse realizes that and thus makes a much more intelligent, simplistic, and tightly-sew version brand of such. They even use the word filibuster in a song! Buy it here.

3.) Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst (Merge)
[mp3] Conor Oberst – Moab
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As I mentioned earlier this week, Conor Oberst’s solo album is a welcome departure for those who hated Casadaga. There’s a lot of Wildflowers-era Tom Petty influence on tracks like Moab and a lot of golden-era The Band influence on….well, the whole record. Admittedly, there are 3 or 4 skippers, but it’s still a solid investment for the other 7 tracks. Buy it here.