What's New This Week?

BOOKS:
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton [Granta]
+ This book has gotten only positive buzz so far. Joshua Ferris called it "a glimpse into the future of the novel itself."

Behind My Eyes: Poems by Li-Young Lee [W.W. Norton & Co.] (reprint)
+ Lee's fourth collection is a beautiful book that is surprising and sometimes dark and funny.

MUSIC:
Bowerbirds - Upper Air [Dead Oceans]
+ Another full length from one of the best groups doing folk. Bowerbirds have managed to make folk beautiful and surprising again.

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns [Saddle Creek]
+ Saw these guys play a couple weeks ago in Minneapolis with InDigest founding editor Chris Koza, and they were fantastic. A revised Neutral Milk Hotel.

Oneida - Rated O [Jagjaguwar]
+ Oneida is releasing a three disc concept(ish) album, and if the preview tracks have been any indicator this may be the first three disc set you'll be able to sit through.

Tiny Vipers - Life On Earth [Subpop]
+ Tiny Vipers' gorgeous, haunting down-tempo tunes feel lost in time. They could have been written yesterday or a century ago.

DVD:
Stanley Cup 2008-2009 Champions: Pittsburgh Penguins [Warner]
+ No, I'm not kidding. This was the best Stanley Cup Playoffs in so long that I had to put this up as one of the best things going on this week. This was an amazing year in hockey. Whatever, forget it then.

THEATERS:
Humpday (Lynn Shelton) [Magnolia]
+ Two college buddies, an artist and a family man, decide to one up each other until they have decided to have sex together in a porno contest. Really.

Soul Power (Jeffrey Levy-Hinte) [Antidote]
+ A documentary about the legendary soul concert in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974.