New Junior Boys song!! : "No Kinda Man"

The electo-lucious sounds of Canada's brilliant Junior Boys are enough to make an announcement of a new song worth posting about. "No Kinda Man" is rewarding sonically and lyrically and that's all we need after the So This is Goodbye and Dead Horses EP bombshells. JB's lyrics are always wrapped in a sphere of sincere mystery, many times -like in this case- referring to some type of personal predicament. "No Kinda Man" is part of an album they are putting together for the Get Physical Mix series, titled Body Language Six. Listen...it won't disappoint.

New Smashing Pumpkins Video: "SuperChrist"

So the new album doesn't come close to any of their older albums, it's still fun to watch Billy Corgan, a lapsed genius, rock out. What's even cooler is that he remembered to capitalize the C in "Christ."

Glen Hansard of The Frames, and Marketa Irglova give stellar performance at the Oscars; win Oscar

OK so this did happen last weekend but since I am such a big fan of the movie and of the song, i have to post something about it. First, it's amazing that Hansard from long time Irish indie greats, The Frames of all things goes on to win an Oscar. Then, we have the darling, extremely talented Marketa Irglova who comes out of nowhere to make a great movie and a great song. To make the story even cooler, they are currently dating. They performed the Oscar-winning song, "Falling Slowly," to an extremely supportive crowd, who responded with thunderous applause after both the performance and the winning announcement.

Because of rights retained by The Oscars, it's not possible to get clips of the performance or acceptance speech. They should pop up shortly though at the Oscars site. You can go there now and read their speeches if you wanna.

La Blogotheque and Animal Collective

It was just a matter of time before Animal Collective did some off the cuff tunes for those French live-music fiends. The collective does does 2 tracks, "Taste" -an exclusive new track- and "Another White Singer."

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - Another White Singer

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - Taste

Album of the week

Grand Archives
The Grand Archives (Sub Pop)










The west coast strikes again! The best album of the year so far comes from Grand Archives from Seattle. What's that you say? Vampire Weekend? You're funny. Grand Archives' music is quite a departure from lead man Matt Brooke's old outfit, Carissas's Wierd- one of the best unknown bands ever. As opposed to the gray, melancholic, at times pseudo-suicidal music from CW, Grand Archives' sound resonates hope and cheerfulness -as well as a rustic vibe, native to their hometown.. So much so, that at times it's hard to tell that it's Brooke singing. Of course, another reason for this is because every other member of the band contributes vocals as well. Brooke is also one-half of the genius behind the original Band of Horses, leaving the band shortly after their classic debut album was released. But it's easy to tell that Grand Archives is a collective of talent whose sum is much greater than any of its parts. And it's easy to tell that universal praise cometh.

hear: Torn Blue Foam Couch, Miniature Birds, George Kaminski, Setting Sun, Sleepdriving, The Crime Window

Band of Horses @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple, 2/14/08

Is there a better gift on Valentines Day for your loved one -and yourself- than tickets to see Band of Horses? Probably not. Ben and company filled up the Brooklyn Masonic Temple with what seems as an ever increasing number of fans. This was my first time seeing a show at the temple. It's a decent size place for a show -not TOO big, with a 2nd floor full of seats. The best spot is definitely on the floor and it seemed as though the sound quality was the same in the back -if not better- than in the front. BOH started off the show strong, with "Is There a Ghost," "Islands on the Coasts," "The Great Salk Lake," "The First Song," and "Our Swords" in succession, thus setting an exciting vibe for the remainder of the show. Things got a little stale in the middle with mediocre covers and an anti-climatic version of "Funeral." But the encore was incredible, including awesome renditions of "Weed Song" and "No One's Gonna Love You." One of the highlights was the great "Cigarettes, Wedding Bands" which they didn't play during their last jaunt through NYC.







Recommended listening:

M83 touring the U.S. !!

If there is a time you may be able to get away with wearing sunglasses during a concert, it may be an M83 show. So for all you Cory Hart fans, your time my have come. Gonzalez and M83 will tour the U.S. almost relentlessly for 15 or so dates this coming May and June.

Dates:

5/20 Los Angeles - Echoplex
5/21 San Francisco - Great American Music Hall
5/23 Portland - Doug Fir Lounge
5/24 Vancouver - Richard's on Richards
5/25 Seattle - Neumos
5/28 Minneapolis - Triple Rock Social Club
5/29 Chicago - Empty Bottle
5/30 Toronto - The Mod Club
5/31 Montreal - Cabaret Music Hall
6/2 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
6/3 Brooklyn - Music Hall of Williamsburg
6/4 New York City - Bowery Ballroom
6/6 Philadelphia - First Unitarian Church
6/7 Washington, DC - Black Cat

Album of the week

Xiu Xiu
Women as Lovers (Kill Rock Stars)











Xiu Xiu offer up some more of their irreverent, eclectic indie pop on Women as Lovers. The Bay Areans are some of the more audacious bunch in the indie rock world -boldly covering Queens/David Bowie's "Under Pressure" and then releasing it on an LP album. This isn't just some B-side they conjured up to tease you into buying a single. And while it's no Bowie, it's still quite good, and kudos to XX for changing it up a little. Women as Lovers pleases sonically: the first 2 tracks reeling you in, excited to hear what else they've come up with -and their lyrics seem to get less crude with every album since the excellent Fabulous Muscles.




hear: I Do What I Want When I Want, In Lust You Can Hear the Axe Fall, No Friend oh!, Under Pressure, You Are Pregnant You You Are Dead,White Nerd


Cover of "Under Pressure":

Best Week Ever offer suggestions for Radiohead "Greatest Hits" album cover

I don't know if you've ever visited the Best Week Ever website. I love the show but was only prompted to visit their actual website when I heard they had come up with a few suggestions for the recently announced Greatest Hits album EMI will release from Radiohead. Just in case Pitchfork hasn't called you, they're coming on tour -and the Greatest Hits album wasn't their idea. Sure it wasn't, Thom.

Classic suggestions:



Visit Best Week Ever dot TV for even more possibilities

Band of Horses play Conan Obrien...again

The band played Conan this past Tuesday night and fittingly -for Thursday- played the solid "No One's Gonna Love You" from last year's epic release, Cease to Begin.

In case no one knocked on your door... Radiohead cometh

Radiohead has set a tour up and stuff. That's right- Get ready to sit at your computer, refresh the ticketmaster presale page, and after the 4th or 5th time read that they're sold out. Why do they sell out so fast you ask? Cause they're Radiohead. They could put out a record of kitchen sounds and Pitchfo- i mean everyone, would eat it up. Not that a Radiohead concert isn't swell. It is and if you haven't seen them live, it's definitely one thing you need to do before death. Then again, there are better concerts. They may have everyone in their little trance but they don't hold the baton for the concert just yet. Then again, I bet the awesome new songs would shred live. And the lover boys have suspiciously chosen Valentines Day as the kick-off to the mayhem. Then again...

Presale details according to their website: Pre-sale for the above dates will begin February 14 via W.A.S.T.E. with general on-sales following on February 16.

the dates (there are more to come, so don't get that plane ticket to Bristow just yet) :

5/5 Cruzan Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, FL
5/6 Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa, FL
5/8 Lakewood Amphitheatre, Atlanta, GA
5/9 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC
5/11 Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge, Bristow, VA
5/14 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, St. Louis, MO
5/17 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston, TX
5/18 Superpages.com Center, Dallas, TX

"House Of Cards"

2007 Best of film

Best Actor: Johnny Depp Sweeney Todd or Daniel Day Lewis There Will be Blood
-gotta give it to Johnny. Lewis was amazing but Depp proved he could be even more versatile as he sings -and does so quite well.

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard La Vie En Rose
also: Laura Linney The Savages

Best Director(s): Joel and Ethan Coen No Country For Old Men
also: Julian Schnabel The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Tim Burton Sweeney Todd

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem No Country For Old Men
also: Chris Cooper Breach, Paul Dano There Will be Blood, Casey Affleck The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Best supporting Actress: Taraji P Henson Talk to Me
also: Tilda Swinton Michael Clayton , Amy Adams Gone Baby Gone, Helena Bonham-Carter Sweeney Todd

Best Cast: No Country For Old Men and Juno

Cinematography: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
also: Zodiac, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Best Original Screenplay: Juno

Best adapted Screenplay: Sweeney Todd
also: There will be Blood

Score: There Will be Blood

Original Song: "Falling Slowly" Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from Once

Best Foreign Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Animated Film: Ratatouille

Art Direction(and all that): Sweeney Todd

Editing: No Country For Old Men


Best Picture: No Country For Old Men

Album of the week

Ida
Lovers Prayers (Polyvinyl)











There aren't too many vocalists that almost give me chills every time they change key, but Elizabeth Mitchell from Ida is one that has managed to do that. A part of me recognized her voice the first time I heard it. This is all good and well, but the person behind most of Ida's music is her husband, Daniel Littleton. He writes all the songs and sings on a third of them or so. Ida has proved their longevity. Formed in 1992, this is their eighth studio album. Not much changes musically on Lovers Prayers as Ida sticks to their formula of quasi-folk, down to earth, indie rock. But Ida's albums do tend to be distinct from each other in the end. Whereas the excellent Will You Find Me flirted a little with lo-fi sonic textures, a few of the songs on Lovers Prayers bare a more blues-y feeling. In the end, though, it's the warm melodies and Liz's heavenly voice complemented by her husband's that make an Ida album so enjoyable, and Lovers Prayers is no exception.

hear: Lovers Prayers, Worried Mind Blues, First Light, Surely Gone, The Killers 1964, First Take

2008 SXSW lineup set

Though I'm not one for festivals and probably won't ever attend a SXSW event, I do awe at the lineup of bands that come together for this mega commercial-festival. Which makes a catch 22 for me and why I tend to shy away from festivals...I don't want to see more than 3 bands play 1-hr. sets in a night. 4 at the most. Plus, invariably there will be many bands I like that I won't get to see because other favorites are up at the same time. And for SXSW, you can multiply that by 10. Curiosa, the small festival The Cure put on a few years ago, was perfect - it had only 2 stages and one was simply an hour of the Rapture, an hour of interpol, and 2 glorious hrs. of The Cure. Anyway enough about me.

Odds are if you're in Austin this March, you can throw a stone and hit hit your favorite band, your 2nd favorite, and so on...there are over 1500 bands performing. Brooklyn, itself, will probably charter a few jets for their 90+ bands, 89 of which most likely aren't originally from NY.

SXSW lineup

Early Day Miners take time off for Daytrotter

Early Day Miners have been around for a while. They were part of the mid-slowcore days at the beginning of the century that had a quiet following. Some of those emo-indie-slowcore bands aren't around anymore, their longevity tucked away as the underground music scene gave way to the rise of hipster and glamour indie rock. Others had more success, some under a different moniker. In any case, it's awesome that Early Day Miners are still here and still relevant. Their music has a spacious, somber mood to it, though they have been known to add some rougher sonic edges to their otherwise rustic minimalist palette. It bares resemblance to bands such as Songs;Ohia(Jason Molina), Tortoise, and Ida, and it's definitely influenced in music -and name- by slowcore pioneers, Red House Painters. EDM laid down 4 unreleased tracks which apparently are all part of their upcoming album; the band noting that some of the songs have changed, and what a rewarding experience Daytrotter was during the album's developmental stages.

Punch the faces for "Spaces" and "Milking the Moon"

to hear and download the entire Daytrotter session and read the excellent essay written about the Indianans push this.

The Kills do another video: "Cheap and Cheerful"

The Kills' 3rd album doesn't come out till March but that's not keeping them from having fun with the video camera. This is the 2nd video for the new album, Midnight Boom, which is going to be a real treat if it's anything like it's siblings. The song here is "Cheap and Cheerful."

Album of the week

Evangelicals
The Evening Descends (Dead Oceans)










Evangelicals come back with a solid follow up to So Gone, which featured one of my favorite songs of 2006, "Hello Jenn I'm a Mess." Evangelicals remind me a lot of Grandaddy -not quite as polished and talented yet, but they have that same sound drenched in southern -and sometimes messy reverb. They're also a genuine band much like

Grandaddy...staying in their roots in Norman, Oklahoma -just as Grandaddy in Modesto, CA. The Evening Descends could be cleaner in production as it seems they favor an underlying distorted feel too much. But, overall, it's another album full of sweeping hooks and devastating lyrics. No one does dark pop-rock quite like Evangelicals.

hear: Midnight Vignette, Skeleton Man, Stoned Again, Party crashin', Bloodstream

Party Crashin'

Caldo Verde prep Retribution Gospel Choir, Sun Kil Moon albums; Gibbard, Oldham guest on "April"; Kozelek to tour!

The folk (singular, since as far as we know it's just Mark over there handling all the biz) over at Caldo Verde is busy these days. "Busy" being a relative term for Caldo Verde as Mark has only released one record other than his on the label. But not only will Caldo Verde release Sun Kil Moon's "April" on April 1st, it will also release Retribution Gospel Choir's self-titled debut on March 18th. RGC is headed by the indie luminary, Alan Sparhawk of Low -but Kozelek is also a member of the Choir.

Sun Kil Moon has released the track names for April as well as the album art. Early, acoustic versions of "Unlit Hallway" and "Moorestown" were released on Kozelek's solo 2006 double live CD, Little Drummer Boy. You can venture over to the Caldo Verde website here for the track listings and cover art for both the Retribution and Sun Kil albums and also listen to the beautiful, official version of "Moorestown," which will appear on April. Will Oldham, Ben Gibbard, and Eric Pollard guest spot on April, including Oldham backing the updated "Unlit Hallway." You can snatch an autographed copy of the album which includes the bonus disc featuring alternate versions of 4 of April's songs if you order the album directly from Caldo Verde. Naturally, there are 2,008 autographed copies available.

And the amazingly prolific Krazy Koz(see Mojave 3) will get even busier for a couple handfuls of live appearances, starting with the Caldo Verde showcase at SXSW. His 3 west coast shows will feature David Bazan as the opener. Oh to be so lucky!

Live dates:

3/13: Austin, SXSW - The Central Presbyterian Church
4/16: Seattle - Town Hall
4/17: Portland - Aladdin Theater
4/28: San Francisco - Palace of Fine Arts
6/6: Mineapolis - Varsity Theater
6/8: Chicago - Old Town School of Folk
6/9: Toronto - Lee's Palace
6/11 Boston - Remis Auditorium/Museum of Fine Arts
6/13 New York City - Highline Ballroom
6/15 Philadelphia - First Unitarian Church

"Moorestown" and "Unilt Hallway" from Little Drummer Boy:

"Moorestown"

"Unlit Hallway"