Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Tuesday tunes (part 2)

A ton more songs. Whatever you do, be sure to check out Fitzgerald -- never heard them before, but I'm ordering an album right now.

From the forthcoming Josh Ritter album The Animal Years on V2:

Girl In The War

Thin Blue Frame

The aforementioned Fitzgerald. The town of Minneapolis just won't stop giving. And god bless 'em for that. Minneapolis makes, the world takes.

How Far North

And check out their MySpace site

And finally, two songs from the forthcoming Calexico album.

Luckey Dime

Letter to Bowie Knife

(Many, many thanks to My Old Kentucky Blog for all of these links. You just made it onto my 'daily read' list!)

Go Blue!



Somewhere Bo is rolling over in his Craftmatic Adjustable Bed:

Michigan football players record derogatory rap song about female UM student.


I haven't been so proud since Amadou Ba put the smack down on that Michigan State fan.

Songs to Waste Your Tuesday To..

The Hold Steady playing a new song live in Baton Rouge. Melikes. (I forget where I found this, but thanks!)

Poised to be one of my favorite new bands? My copy of the new Two Gallants CD should be in my mailbox when I get home today. If the rest is as good as this song, I'll be a happy boy. (Thanks Daily Refill!)

You've probably heard it, but the new Raconteurs song (Jack White + Brendan Benson + Greenhornes = Raconteurs) Steady As She Goes is pretty dang good. (I forget where I found this, but thanks!)

Quality tune from Matt Suggs' new band, White Whale called The Admiral. (Thanks Music For Robots!)

And, finally, the new "it" band, Tapes n' Tapes, gives you more Cowbell.

I'm Not A Rapper, I'm A Punk-Ass!



Episode 7 of Yacht Rock has arrived! While it doesn't have the Hall and Oates quotient I usually prefer, kudos for working in Dr. Dre, Warren G and Nate Dogg.

The rhythm is the bass and the bass is the treble...

New Ted Leo demos




These have been popping up on a few of the big indie blogs recently, but in case you haven't seen them already:

Army Bound (demo)

Some Beginner's Mind (demo)

Flaming Lips @ Webster Hall 3/31 and 4/1



The good folks at Brooklyn Vegan have tipped that the Flaming Lips will be visiting our fair city to share a little bit of their quality midwestern acid. Tickets on sale tomorrow, Wednesday 3/1, at noon via Ticketweb.

Bowery Presents @ WEBSTER HALL
Two Very Special Nights With:
THE FLAMING LIPS
(with Pink Mountaintops)
March 31 (Fri) & April 1 (Sat) / 6:30pm doors
$35 advance - $40 day of show / 18+

And speaking of the Pink Mountaintops, why does every band right now either have the word "wolf" (Wolf Parade, Wolf Eyes, Wolfmother), or "mountain" (Pink Mountaintops, Black Mountain, Mountain Goats, Nine Black Alps [err, you get the idea]) in their name? Where did the originality in indie rock go?

Oh, that's right, it died right around the time Pavement put out Terror Twilight. My bad.

PS: For those of you planning on joining me at one of these shows, I'm leaning toward the Saturday show. This may literally be the 18th concert scheduled during the my trial (let alone that I have to cancel my SXSW trip). May 1st can't come soon enough.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Stream the New Centro-matic Album



I've been meaning to check out Centro-matic for a long time now. WOXY.com has been playing their new single, and it's great. Luckily for us, their label, Misra Records, is streaming their new album, Fort Recovery. It's highly recommended.

It's one of those albums that desperately makes me wish I had a cigarette, and I rarely smoke. To me, that's a hell of an album.

A Case of the Mondays




Yeah, sorry, I know it's the most over-quoted movie of all time, but sometimes it just fits. Anyway, without further ado, a short set of Monday links:

New Flaming Lips song from At War With the Mystics, "My Cosmic Autum Rebellion" (thanks A VC!) Not bad, not great.

Ryan Adams' great, unreleased Suicide Handbook album (thanks An Aquarium Drunk!) Over the years, I've managed to download and then lose this thing at least 4 times. If you mix about 1/2 the songs off of this with 1/2 the songs off his other unreleased album from the same 2000-2001 period, 48 Hours (also currently posted on An Aquarium Drunk), you've got yourself a spectacular disc.

Didn't he tell you he was too legit to quit?

Who Is Mike Jones?

Whoever he is, he's doing his best to keep me from listening to these new Built to Spill songs.. But he's failing.

I love these songs.

"Wherever You Go"

"Liar"

"Conventional Wisdom"

(From what may be one of my new favorite blogs, Moroccan Role. Cincy in the hizzie!)

Shove these MP3's up your ass, shake around, and smoke a cigarette

I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but I like it anyway. Here's three songs which mysteriously defy my general "I don't like female singers" rule. Never heard of either The Hussys or The Research before. Will have to check them out.

The Hussys, "Snowboard"

The Research, "Lonely"

(Thanks, Said the Gramophone!)

His Name is Alive, "Get Your Curse On"

And two more new Josh Rouse songs from Subtitulo.. I like the first one better.

"El Otro Lado"

"Summertime"

(Thanks, Six Eyes!)

Oops, two more from the band Maritime. You may remember the old emo band The Promise Ring. Maritime is 2 guys from PR, as well as the bassist from The Dismemberment Plan. Though I hear he just left the band. Anyway, their 2nd album drops next month, and these MP3's have me very, very hopeful for the album. [For those still living in fear of the word emo, be assured, this ain't it.]

"Calm"

"Parade"

(Also from Six Eyes)

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Streaming New Albums -- The Delays and The Mystery Jets

Who says the NME is only good for overhyping mediocre British bands (and the Strokes) ?

Head over to NME now and be the first to hear the new Delays album "You See Colours" and the Mystery Jets album "Making Dens" on the NME media player. Here's hoping the Delays don't break up before they can come to the States. "You See Colours" comes out in the UK on March 7th, with no US date scheduled yet. I suggest you follow me over to Amazon UK for a little pre-order action.

Band I don't understand #1

I have never understood the fuss over this band. Everything about them annoys me. Dunno.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Another Secret Song

Another secret song.

This one's called "Purple Clouds, Dark Skies".

Album Roundup, 2/18-2/24

Assuming I keep this blog going, I'd like to do a weekly entry as to the music I've purchased each week. It keeps me on my toes, and forces me to listen to everything, and gives you (the presumptive reader/s) a chance to keep up with what's hip. :^) And, again assuming the existence of reader/s, I'd invite you to add your own in the comments. To the day I die, I will always be looking for the next great album that I don't have.

This week's purchases/acquisitions:

Arctic Monkeys - "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not"
Still going to need more listens. I like it, but don't love it. That might change, but first impressions tend to be right -- at least when it comes to music.

The Delgados - "The Great Eastern"
Bought this on iTunes a year or so ago while living in Japan. Much more cost effective to buy online than pay the Japanese import prices. Unfortunately for me, both my computer and iPod decided to crap out at precisely the same time, and I lost it. And while I like to consider myself somewhat tech savvy, I'm also lazy as shit, and spent 5 minutes trying to see if I could re-download the album without paying again. No dice. At least not in those 5 minutes. So I finally just bought the damn thing. At least that's another $1.42 (or thereabouts) in the band's pockets. Yippee.

Eugene Kelly - "Man Alive"
Have not listened to it yet. Think this came out abroad last year. Had no idea it was out here until I saw it at Virgin last weekend. Maybe it's an import, but it wasn't priced as an import. Suppose I should listen to it. I still listen to those Eugenius albums pretty regularly. Though I still don't own a single Vasilines or BMX Bandits disc.. I'm terrible with back catalogues of bands I get into late.

The Glass - "Hibernation"
I believe it was Scenestars, a Memphis-based blog that I discovered this week (they had GNR leak links), has a panel of "recommended" bands on the right-hand portion of their page. I'd like to figure out how to add that here. Anyway, the first band they recommended is Lucero, who may be my current favorite band. Them or the National. The second band was The Glass. Never heard of 'em. Both MP3's were great, so I bought the disc. Like it so far. Great atmospheric alt-countryish disc.

Guns n' Roses - Leaked songs "Better," "The Blues," "IRS," "T.W.A.T."
There are very likely few other people who've followed this week's saga as closely as I. GNR was probably the very first band that I considered to be "mine" -- as in, I worshipped them. Of course, I was 13 when Appetite broke, and that was to be expected. And while a lot of other bands have come and gone in my life since then, I've always had a soft spot for them. Maybe this isn't Guns as we used to know it, but it sure sounds good to me. All 4 songs still need work. I hope these are demos, and I hope that Axl currently has completed versions in the can and ready to drop. I don't feel like waiting any longer for a final album. If nothing else, these songs remind me what GNR used to mean to me, and hopefully what they might mean again. Except that part at the 4 minute or so mark in Better. That's just not necessary.

The Light Footwork - "One State Two State"
They've got two of the best songs I've heard this year. First heard these guys on the best radio station in the world, WOXY, and after the fifteenth time or so, I had to buy the disc. It's great. They get a lot of comparisons to Beulah (I believe the bandmembers played in/with Beulah at one point), but not owning any Beulah discs, I can't really comment. Jesus, for someone with a crapload of cd's (me), I keep amazing myself with how much I don't have.

The National - Bonus songs to "Alligator"
About 3 minutes before emailing my "top 10" list of 2005, I slid "Alligator" from No. 1 to No. 2, and moved Bloc Party into first place. I think I still stick with that decision. These bonus songs -- which I discovered this week can be found on the Beggar's Banquet website as long as you have your UPC handy from the CD case -- make me rethink it a bit though. Primarily alternate/live takes on songs on the album, it reminds you how great this band is. Speaking of back catalogues, this is one of the bands I actually have managed to go back and buy all of their earlier stuff. Now I just need to listen to it.
:^)

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Buzzcocks!

Sometimes I wish I had been born just a little bit earlier.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

When Cock Rock Ruled the Land

As hints and rumors of a Guns n' Roses resurgence (and even reunion?) fly around like crazy, this link should help remind you of the days gone by that made GNR possible. I'd love to have been at this show for the slutty lookin' chicks alone, let alone the cock rock on stage.