I’ve been out of town for most of the last three months (first attending the weddings of some friends, then attending a few academic meetings and now contributing five weeks of lectures to a class), but upon returning I had a welcome and wonderful first installment of Social Music’s subscription series (curated and put together by Mike from Yeti Magazine) in my mailbox.

Although I have barely had a chance to listen to them over the last week, the first round of records in the series are Richard Bishop’s (of Sun City Girls fame) Graviton Polarity Generator, a compilation of Jamaican Gospel music, the self-titled Cloudcraft album (featuring The Clean’s Hamish Kilgour) and a split 7-inch single (with awesome artwork by Portland artist and musician E*Rock) featuring a side each from New Zealand’s The Bats (always a personal favorite of mine) and Chicago’s Califone.

I also picked up two other records from Social Music that weren’t part of the subscription series: a retrospective of The June Brides, one of my most favorite bands ever (got all this stuff but it’s nice to have it all on one record), and Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies, a great white-gospel compilation.

Check out the Social Music website for more information.