New Releases: My Chemical Romance Lead The Parade

10/23/06 6:00pm

Record companies are officially moving into the Christmas rush, so beyond greatest hits packages there are few big releases on the horizon.

Chief among them is My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade, which comes out on Tuesday. All we can really say about this is, what the hell is up with Gerard Way's bleached hair? Who thought that was a good idea? Remember, if you will, that bleached hair on men became extremely unpopular about seven years ago. I don't think Way's bringing it back, but it probably won't stunt album sales. At least Reprise hopes it won't.

Bright Eyes is one busy little guy. Conor Oberst released two records last year and did three tours to support them. Now he's back with a collection of B-sides from the past seven years called Noise Floor. Surprisingly, the collection is better than I'm Wide Awake It's Morning and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn combined. It's in stores this week.

Sparta are still the lesser half of what used to be At The Drive-In, and that's saying a lot when you consider that the greater half is The Mars Volta. Still, you gotta pay the bills, and Sparta will try with this week's release of Threes.

Ben Folds hasn't put out a palatable record in years, but he's friends with William Shatner and "Weird" Al Yankovic, so that's worth a few points. His newest attempt at solo success is the terribly titled Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP. It's out on Tuesday.

Here are some of this week's other releases:

THE BLOW Paper Television (K/Sonic Unyon)
THE CURTAINS Calamity (Asthmatic Kitty/Sonic Unyon)
DE LA SOUL Impossible: Mission TV Series Pt. 1 (CT Media/Fontana North)
TANYA DONNELLY This Hungry Life (Yep Roc/Outside)
JOHANN JOHANSSON IBM 1401-A User S Manual (4AD/Beggars)
KITARO The Essential Kitaro (Domo/Fontana North)
BOB LANOIS Snake Road (Cordova Bay/Fontana North)
NASSAU Machines To Paradise (Outside)
PLUS/MINUS Let's Build A Fire (Absolutely Kosher)
SIRENS SISTER Echoes From The Ocean Floor (The Control Group/Outside)
SQUAREPUSHER Hello Everything (Warp/Outside)
THE UNCUT Modern Currencies (Paper Bag/Universal)
THE WALKMEN Pussy Cats Starring The Walkmen (Record Collection/Warner)