Windows in Dutch

I'm in the Netherlands (Lisse?), just back from a sweet battle of the bands (championship round!) in Haarlem. We were supporting a friend-of-a-friend's band, Jurango. Good guitar rock that made me smile and move, a lot more fun than the two metal bands and the funk band and the big band. I'm glad I don't have pictures or sounds, because they wouldn't translate. It was a reaffirming live music experience: the building of atmosphere and tension, and a million little releases. It was a good show.

I look forward to writing about Regina Spektor's "Samson" for Heather. Why do I feel more pressure to write well now than I do when I write for the newspaper? "Eeep."

The Fretwell Ems

Vacation time, suckers! I'm off to the Netherlands and Italy, I'll be back... in the future.

I got my Stephen Fretwell album today, spun it while packing and ended up lying in bed, looking up. I think it's "Emily" that did it to me, a song I want to sing to a girl named Emily, sweet and sincere like the rom-com I wish my life were. Because I stay up all night thinking of this stuff, and Magpie can be my soundtrack. It's a type of music I'm just becoming aware of - nice to listen to on my own, somewhere in my head, but probably even nicer to listen to with somebody special (this hasn't been tested, but I'm 90% sure it's true).

Stephen Fretwell - Emily [mp3]

Visit Stephen online, where you can hear a few more tracks from the album. And buy Magpie here.

M83 - Farewell/Goodbye [mp3]

See you.

Results

Well, the tourney hasn't finished but the results are in. Not an impressive showing by yours truly.



The DIY Rockstar wins, because he has superpowers. Seriously, pickin' ain't easy and he did a fine job. So go check out his blog, pick up Neko Case's "That Teenage Feeling" (lovely!) and read his interview with the Subways. Also, did you catch the DIY Rockstar Music Fest 2006, which topped Pitchfork's extravaganza and Bonnaroachella combined?

A song of congratulations for the Rockstar Jeff:

Sufjan Stevens - A Winner Needs A Wand [mp3]

From A Sun Came, which you can and should purchase here.

Enjoy!

Reflecting the Sunlight

We're going to see the Secret Machines tonight!

The Secret Machines - Lightning Blue Eyes [mp3]

The first day I got this song, I played it continuously for a long, long time. After every few listens, I'd turn up the volume, sing along, turn up the volume, etc. Interestingly conclusion: it's impossible to play "Lightning Blue Eyes" loud enough. With each decibel gain it sounds better, more appropriate and more immediate, but good luck finding a happy medium. Hopefully tonight they'll blow out my eardrums when they play it how it should be.

Visit the Secret Machines online, and buy Ten Silver Drops early (now) in online stores! If you'd like something more tangible, it'll hit (real) stores April 25th.

Enjoy!

Kickdrums

I'm on vacation, family's here and soon we're off to (real) Europe! Maybe if you're lucky you'll get something from Dan or Tino.

We went to a club tonight, but it's Monday and I could count the people there on one hand. So no dancing. I'm with my sister, and we like all things DFA - here's what we wish we heard:

LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House [you already have this]

LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations (Tiga Remix) [mp3]

James Murphy & Munk - Kick Out The Chairs (Replayed by WhoMadeWho) [mp3]

Black Dice - Smiling Off (DFA Remix) [mp3]

Hot Chip - (Just Like We) Breakdown (DFA Remix) [mp3]

Wouldn't that be fun. I'd like to share the less indie-related dance music I'm quickly becoming fascinated and obsessed with, but it's not readily available at the moment. So get out, go dancing, have fun. We'll talk about it later.

Enjoy!

Coming Up Baseball

Spring's official now, meaning, among other things, that all things good and right in the world are on their way. Consider: the sun's finally making an effort, NCAA is already upon us (disappointed as we may be), and school's about to finish. And, perhaps best of all, baseball's gearing up to begin. In my head, baseball is more than the best sport, it's a pastime I love deeply, warts and all. Sure, I buy into all the romanticized, patriotic notions - I don't see the harm in that. Baseball's something I can be proud of and get excited over, something I can become engrossed in. I'm a baseball fan like I'm a music fan. You can imagine my delight, then, upon discovering that artists I love are also fans of the sport I love. Again, it's a testament to the game's oft-mythologized unifying power and appeal.

The Mountain Goats - Cubs in Five [mp3] [buy]

Baseball works as a metaphor!

Buck 65 - 50 Gallon Drum [mp3] [buy]

Rich Terfry, aka Buck 65, was drafted by the Yankees. THE Yankees. That is, hands-down, the best fact ever. Many of Buck's songs, understandably, incorporate baseball. Check out his video for 463 to see a bunch of Bucks playing ball, very cool.

Buck 65 - 463 [video]

Ladyhawk - The Dugout [mp3] [info]

Ladyhawk's new to me, but this song is on heavy rotation. Not just because it's titled "The Dugout," although that doesn't hurt. These dudes rock unironic, heavy without dragging in the least. It's not too far from pop, actually, the way it's so enjoyable. I'm digging these muscular Jagjag/Secretly Canadian bands, this is the sound I want to catch on. And no, they did not pay me to say that.

M. Ward - O'Brien/O'Brien's Nocturne [mp3] [buy]

"The old baseball diamond" is only casually mentioned in Ward's beautiful composition, but the warm and worn crackle make it a central image. This one sounds like the perfect mental picture of a ballgame, all hot yellow summer air and grass and dust. Nothing hurried, no, nothing hurried.

Enjoy!

Four Pieces for the Right Hand

One of my favorite stories from last year's Best American was called "Eight Pieces for the Left Hand," by J. Robert Lennon.

1. rbally has posted some songs Regina Spektor recorded for the BBC, including a rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel." Please, please check it out. I love Regina intensely, and this song is gorgeous.

2. m3 online, or Good Weather for Airstrikes (I'm not sure which - or both?) has compiled Bloc Party b-sides and remixes, available as two album downloads. Or, you can go pick and choose, but it's worth a look.

3. Mocking Music is a music blog with long posts (I like long posts).

4. An Aquarium Drunkard has an album of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash sessions (!). A fascinating listen.

So, what can I bring to the table? How about MySpace rips of the new Regina Spektor songs:

Regina Spektor - Better [mp3]

Regina Spektor - Fidelity [mp3]

When these first came out, I didn't know what to think. Certainly, "Better" didn't impress me, with bland anyguitar replacing Spektor's charismatic keys. "Fidelity" I liked better (ha), with its sweet swagger and in-love-with-nothing-in-particular feeling. Since then I've listened to each, back-to-back-to-back ad infinitum. It's what I want to hear when I'm walking around, whether I'm up, down, whatever - unapologetic pop songs that translate into a bounce in my step. Spektor's got a sweet voice, too sweet for some, but I've fallen head over heels for it. It's tantalizing, the way I swear she's talking to me one moment and the next she's so obviously in her own daydreamy world. I guess it doesn't matter so much if she's alone with a piano and a chair and a drumstick, or if she's approaching Kelly Clarkson on "Better," I'm still gonna dig it.

Visit Regina online, and make sure to get Begin to Hope when it comes out June 13th.

Enjoy!

Carissa's Wierd

With all the attention Band of Horses is getting, I thought you might be interested in Carissa's Wierd, Mat Brooke and Ben Bridwell's old band. It's dour, bedroom stuff; yet there's an odd stateliness to the intimacy of the whispers and (heart)strings. The solemn, processional pacing lends the august atmosphere to these essentially emo vignettes ("September Come Take This Heart Away" - need I say more?), the results less precious than, well, weird.

From Songs About Leaving:

Carissa's Wierd - You Should Be Hated Here [mp3]

Carissa's Wierd - September Come Take This Heart Away [mp3]

Carissa's Wierd - (March 19th 1983) It Was Probably Green [mp3]

Carissa's Wierd teamed up with Iron & Wine's Sam Beam for this Leonard Cohen cover:

Carissa's Wierd with Sam Beam - Chelsea Hotel no. 2 [mp3]

And finally, Beam released this song (tribute?) on the bonus 7" that came with The Creek Drank The Cradle:

Iron & Wine - Carissa's Wierd [mp3]

Buy Songs About Leaving

I haven't listened to Band of Horses yet (for shame!), I should probably get around to it.

***

The Rich Girls have the new Final Fantasy 7"!

The wonderful Free Darko, if you weren't aware, has become a contributor to McSweeney's. In his latest he discusses the NCAA (which, by the way, has kicked my ass) versus the NBA.

Enjoy!

The Story Of Them, featuring Van Morrison

The venerable Moistworks posted some classic video moments, a total why-didn't-I-think-of-that-first idea. I mean, what can't you find on YouTube? They gave us some Otis, some Who, some Velvets (as well as some Ali G.). I did some of my own sifting and came up with a favorite: Them featuring Van Morrison, playing an NME stage and a Ready Steady Go! television set. Van Morrison, simply put, is transcendent. His early work here with the group Them is top-notch as well, running through standards like "Baby Please Don't Go."

Them - Baby Please Don't Go [video - live on Ready Steady Go! 1966]

Them - Baby Please Don't Go [mp3]


Them - Here Comes the Night / Turn On Your Love Light [video - live on NME stage 1965]

Them - Here Comes the Night [mp3]

Them - Turn On Your Love Light [mp3]

I reccommend purchasing The Story of Them Featuring Van Morrison, the excellent two-disc set these tracks were lifted from.

***

That new Walkmen track is blues, man! Do you hear him howl, "I got my hands full" like his hands are full?

Enjoy!

Stream A New Walkmen Song!

Fresh off their MySpace page, check it!

The Walkmen - Louisiana [follow to stream]

A Hundred Miles Off is out May 23rd.

Visit the Walkmen online.

Enjoy!!!

Twenty-Four Rubdowns

You know those songs - ones you've met but realize keep appearing more than a simple aquantaince should? The songs that slip you something seemingly innocuous when you listen - a certain line, that one sound, his voice there - and sit back and smile as you unwittingly come back for more. It took a while, but I caught some:

Assembly Now - Out On 24s [mp3]

"I woulda come up to the midlands/ Taken that boy and broken his back/ Showed your dad just what I think/ And lift you up and carry you out"

This one gets me off-guard, a sudden, lucid moment, as if for two seconds I know what Gavin Dwight is talking about. I want him to find that boy and steal that girl, I'm cheering for him through a window. And then it's gone, I've forgotten until next time.

Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums and Shrines II [mp3]

"There's a kid in there/ And he's big and dumb and he's/ Kinda scared and he's/ Well he's too old to be there/ He's just looking for a ride"

There's a ringing that lifts when Spencer Krug sings this bit, waves crash and I like that guitar squiggle in the background. And I see that big kid and I'm not sure if he's supposed to look that much like me. Again, it's gone before I'll know.

Visit Assembly Now online

Visit Sunset Rubdown online

Buy the Sunset Rubdown EP

Enjoy!

Laura Veirs Concert

Thank goodness for NPR. They've made multiple shows available to download, including sets by Belle and Sebastian and the New Pornographers, along with Iron & Wine and Calexico. A gem you might have missed: Laura Veirs opening for Colin Meloy in Alexandria, VA. The show was broadcast on January 28, only a few weeks before I would see Veirs put on a wonderful concert here in Edinburgh. Now, I don't know how to cut the 45-minute file up into segments but, honestly, it's better like this. Put it on while you do something quiet, you'll feel like beach-tides.

Laura Veirs, live from the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA [mp3]

January 28, 2006

Setlist:

1. Cool Water
2. Where Gravity is Dead
3. Magnetized
4. Lake Swimming
5. Spelunking
6. Song My Friends Taught Me
7. Snow Camping
8. Riptide
9. Parisian Dream
10. Ether Sings
11. Fire Snakes

Visit Laura Veirs online, and read her lyrics here.

"I like to have real images people can grab onto so they can put their own meanings onto the songs."

Veirs is indeed a masterful songwriter. Her songs imagine landscapes filled with blind fish in deep seas, volcanoes and ash, stings and tears.

Enjoy.

Your Friend The Internet

Here are things you can find on the Information Superhypeway:

1. The Late Greats has some Josh Ritter gems. Not just semi-precious either, these are the real deal. Links to a fascinating PASTE podcast (shooting vitamins into the sea? wtf?) with Josh, as well as individual mp3s of the songs he performs acoustic in his Idaho home. As if that's not enough, get this - one's a previously unreleased song called "Folk Mashup," and one's the majestic "Thin Blue Flame." I just got The Animal Years yesterday, and it's gorgeous.

2. Chromewaves has made me aware of Feist's upcoming Open Season, a disc of rarities and remixes. Without knowing it, I've amassed a relative embarrassment of Feist remixes:

Feist - Inside and Out (Ewan Pearson & Al Usher Extended Dub) [mp3]

Feist - When I was a Young Girl (MC DJ River Remix) [mp3]

Feist - Mushaboom (Postal Service Remix) [mp3]

Only the last of these will appear on Open Season (and likely be it's selling point), although it's not my favorite. Gibbard shows up in the middle of the game and doesn't know how to play, succeeding only in taking the float, skip, hop out of Feist's dream. Instead they end up inside, gazing at that fire, playing it safe.

If you haven't seen, MC DJ has a bunch of mixes at his site, putting his spin on all the indie-rock favs.

3. Four Tet has posted a live show from the Spanish Club in Melbourne. It's quality! I was lucky enough to see him live, an experience that brought about a new, more complete understanding of his music and made me a fervent fan. Listening to him build a song, and knowing that it's worked like magic because you're dancing with abandon... I'm glad PBS recorded this one.

Four Tet - Smile Around the Face (live in Melbourne) [mp3]

Check out the video for this track, and the one for "Mushaboom" while you're at it. Two of my favorites.

Enjoy!

Let Me Princess Print This

Back from London, a wonderful city I think I'll need to revisit a few times before I can know it in even the slightest way. My flatmate and I favored Soho's lively streets, lined with record shops big and small, for obvious reasons. Now, the city's expensive, so I exercised self-control and picked up only what I wanted most: Soul Jazz Records' Tropicália: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound and the latest (last?) issue of Comes With A Smile.

Tropicália is everything I hoped it would be, and more, as I am the compilation's target audience: equally interested and uninformed. The songs are revelations, imminently listenable and fresh to these ears, as fascinating as they are fun. I'm still learning, thanks to the 50-page booklet that comes with Tropicália, outlining the year-long movement's history within the context of a tumultuous Brazil. Some choice cuts:

Gilberto Gil - Bat Macumba [mp3]

Caetano Veloso - Tropicália [mp3]

Visit Soul Jazz Records / Buy Tropicália: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound

I was delighted to have finally come across an issue of Comes With A Smile, an attractive magazine with an even more attractive CD. The print portion comprises interviews with the New Pornographers, Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon, the Constantines, the Silver Jews and the Drive-By Truckers. Pretty not bad! Ben Gibbard and the bassist with the stupid hair rubbed me the wrong way in their interview, but I can't say just why. They seemed much too eager to explain their genius, maybe that's it. And a guy called BC Camplight threw out this (incredibly pretentious) gem in his interview: "To tell you the truth, I don't particularly like music." I'm sure he's in it for... the money? Shut up, BC Camplight.

What the people want:

The New Pornographers - High Art, Local News [mp3]

This song is classic New Pornographers, superfluous evidence that A.C. Newman is a genius. Let me Princess print this!
Visit the New Pornographers online.

Spoon - The Beast And Dragon, Adored (new recording) [mp3]

This is, in fact, nothing more than a new recording of The Beast And Dragon, Adored. With minimal variation, but appreciated nevertheless.
Visit Spoon online.

Arab Strap - That's Where We've Left Our Love [mp3]

Funny, Said the Gramophone posted on this band just now, saying they didn't like Scotsman Adrian Moffat's voice. I wanted to share this track because I like the way he speaks here, and not just because he's got an accent. It's somewhere between Maximo Park's "Acrobat," which I wanted to like but couldn't, and the Clientele's "Losing Haringey," which is brilliant. Which, I guess, is a way of saying it's completely British.
Visit Arab Strap online.

Buy the current issue of Comes With A Smile!

***

So I leave for three days and this is what happens? Damnit, Kansas. I've only got one left in my Final Four (Duke).

I'm off to pick up Josh Ritter's The Animal Years, and the almost-last day of class.

Enjoy!

Josh Ritter, Part III

Josh Ritter - Thin Blue Flame [mp3]

Two chords, ten minutes, seven-hundred-fifty-three words - this shouldn't work. But, with the help of Brian Deck's thin, crashing production, Ritter's imposing and impassioned performance takes this song as high as it can go (somewhere near "Heroin") before reeling it back in for the clear-eye finale. The song doesn't pretend to be anything but immediate: all martial cadences, blue-hot guitars and breathless, hissing convictions - but thank God this isn't a rant. It's a reminder to hope; to hope now and to hope hard, lest the tragedy Ritter forsees might come to pass.

Read the lyrics here, play along: C - F and the occasional Am, capo 1

Visit Josh Ritter online. Song taken from the upcoming full length The Animal Years.

***

The NCAA pools at left are almost set! Somehow CYSTSFTS has two entries in the ESPN pool, the cheater.

Cracked examines "Who's Who in Your NCAA Office Pool."

Joe GetHimEatHim tells me there are more copies of the Do As I Tell You EP available at their website! Please go buy it until there are none left! I also suggest you get the Casual Sex demo, as mine came with googly-eye packaging (you cannot beat googly-eye packaging).

From the Casual Sex demo:
Get Him Eat Him - Not Not Nervous (demo) [mp3]

I'm off to London, back Sunday. Enjoy!

The Walkmen, More

The Walkmen's new site is up, and it's hilarious.

"We've created a website that we're all very proud of. It is dedicated to providing useless, accurate about the Walkmen. We hope you like it."

And how I do! Check out the page on the tour van's seating arrangements, as well as excerpts from their upcoming novel, John's Journey. Hopefully they'll have some songs from A Hundred Miles Off, now completed and in stores May 23rd. I want to be a Walkman.

Special for you, from the White 8 Songs EP:

The Walkmen - Don't Be Long [mp3]

The Walkmen - Pictures Of Us [mp3]

***

The Hold Steady has signed to Vagrant, and my tastes have apparently come full-circle.

Marathonpacks discusses covers. One of my favorite songs is a cover:

M. Ward - Let's Dance (David Bowie cover) [mp3]

Visit M. Ward online

Finally, Calexico has made availabe the acoustic version of "All Systems Red" (via CW). I posted about the original a while ago.

Calexico - All Systems Red (acoustic) [mp3]

Visit Calexico online

Enjoy!

Josh Ritter, Part II

Josh Ritter - Lilian, Egypt [mp3]

I like how this one starts out so unassuming, almost too bland: a hammer-on twang, something about Illinois. It's only after a few bars that we realize the persistence of that drum, the pride in Ritter's voice. "The daughter of the biggest big town banker/ He kept her like a princess I stole her like the Fort Knox gold." La-la-la-da-da! Everything about this song is sweetly tipsy, smiling, forgetting, crashing.

Visit Josh Ritter online

The Animal Years comes out March 20th in the UK and Europe, April 4th in Canada and April 11th in the US.

Enjoy!

Josh Ritter, Part I

Now that Fox Confessor is here, the upcoming release that preview mp3s have me most anticipating is Josh Ritter's The Animal Years.




Josh Ritter - Girl in the War [mp3]

Things begin at a standstill, Peter unsure how to begin to Paul: "You know all those words we wrote - are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go." (Cue landslide) "Now talking to God is Laurel begging Hardy for a gun. I got a girl in the war, man I wonder what it is we done." The melody picks up momentum, the line separating narrator and character is blurred as Peter pours out heartrendingly human and affecting sentiments, culminating with the brilliant "If they can't find a way to help her they can go to hell." A quick stop for breath before everything resumes, only this time it's just Peter talking to himself, seeing his compassion through to its true-love conclusion. "Her eyes are like champagne: they sparkle, bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain." Fade out like a daydream, and wouldn't you know it - Ritter's just told us the sweetest love story we've heard in ages.

Visit Josh Ritter online

***

So Much Silence, despite his reservations, has some nice J-Lew radio rips.

I will win everybody in my two NCAA pools, as seen at left.

Enjoy!

It's Only Money

"It's only money." It's a friend's oddly inspirational quote that is responsible for my upcoming weekend adventure to London (baby steps, mind), for which I couldn't be happier. It's great the way we begin planning travel so frugally, wading through a million combinations and permutations to find the absolute cheapest option, building frustration and losing patience as it's revealed to us that this option doesn't exist, or if it did it was last week. There's a point, we'll call it quarter to four in the morning, that marks a paradigm shift, and suddenly all is thrown to the wind. Last night was the first time I'd made it that far (it feels great).

Tenuously connected:

Page France - Million Man Money Hand [mp3]

From the Pear EP, please buy this wonderful album (along with Sister Pinecone!)

Marah - It's Only Money, Tyrone (live on VPRO) [mp3]

From Kids in Amsterdam: Live on VPRO. Buy it here.

Get Him Eat Him - One Word (Cash Hotel Version) [mp3]

From the Do As I Tell You EP, once available on Catbird Records. "The early bird gets the worm."

Page France / Marah / Get Him Eat Him

***

More importantly re: money

Said the Gramophone, as I'm sure you are aware, is a lovingly tended mp3 blog. One of the most respected, and certainly one of the finest daily reads. In light of an increasing readership and subsequent maintenance costs, the curators of StG have begun a funding drive to cover said expenses. This is a wonderful opportunity to support the most deserving of audioblog causes, please go here to donate.

Enjoy!

Peg and Awl

"Peg and Awl" speaks of the frightening and perhaps incomprehensible process of being supplanted, of threatened livelihood and the awful prospect of uselessness. When workers, in this case shoemakers, are replaced by a machine which "pegs a hundred pair to my one." The dismal necessity of progress is realized, interestingly and subtly, in the lyrics: "They invented a new machine/ Prettiest thing I ever seen/ Throw away my peg, my peg and awl." Despair, rather than anger, characterizes this song, giving it a heartbreaking gravitas. Here Parr forgoes this line, but gives it an otherwise appropriate reading.

Charlie Parr - Peg and Awl [mp3]

Taken from Hinah Records' ongoing compilation of American folk music covers.

Visit Charlie Parr online.

Enjoy.

Walkmen Shows Presale

Thanks to Ryan for the heads up on this one:

Be the first to get tickets for the Walkmen's upcoming tour! This presale just started, buy them now and save. Here are the tour dates announced this far, more to come:

May 24 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
May 25 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
May 30 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
May 31 - Detroit, MI @ St Andrew's Hall
June 1 - Chicago, IL @ Metro
June 3 - Minneapolis, MN @ 400 Bar
June 5 - Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre
June 6 - Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
June 8 - Portland, OR @ Berbati's Pan
June 9 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox
June 10 - Vancouver, BC @ Richards on Richards
June 12 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
June 13 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
June 16 - San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
June 17 - Tempe, AZ @ The Clubhouse
June 19 - Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa
June 20 - Houston, TX @ Numbers
June 21 - Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
June 23 - Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
June 24 - Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall
June 26 - Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
June 28 - Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe
June 29 - Boston, MA @ Avalon

Surely you live in one of those places. Go here for tickets.

The band is still selling their studio equipment, for those interested go here.

Enjoy.

The Black Dove: Christian Kiefer and Sharron Kraus

"Dearest" walks a bleary line between shades of consciousness, all cerebral activity and quiet, pulsing sleep-life. There's a dreamy wash somewhere (in front of us? behind?) and a voice right in our ears, everything strangely metastable and unclear. Amongst unsoothing whispers of crowns and iceblocks, resolution comes in a plaintive crescendo of dreamspeak, "Now the dreams they are thick about my head/ They come to me with the clouds when I sleep/ But they all have mouths like yours." Yours. Off-puttingly direct and uncannily implemented, this line moves the abstractions toward focus and leaves us feeling slightly intrusive, suddenly privy to a monologue never intended for our ears. But before we leave, we realize that this is more than a lamentation - a subtle tone of empowerment and defiance lies in the rolling banjo and drums, pulling the voice further and further from the crown and the mouths, and finally out of the dream.

Christian Kiefer and Sharron Kraus - Dearest [mp3]

Buy their newly released album, The Black Dove, at Tompkins Square.

Visit Christian Kiefer and Sharron Kraus online.

***

Ms. Hotpoint has a new Shearwater track! Well it looks like everybody has it now, but she had it first.

Enjoy!

The Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Fox Confessor doesn't yield an inch behind Case's brilliant, relentless pipes, which isn't so much a dig as the reason it leaves me feeling so overpowered. Add pretty-much-Calexico's dry, hard backing, and the resulting listen is a bit difficult when stretched over an entire album. But Case is a fine songwriter, able to harness her extraordinary power and transform it into sheer momentousness, as on "Star Witness" and "Maybe Sparrow," both stunners to raze buildings.

Lost amongst the immediacy of the eleven other tracks is "At Last," a blink-and-miss-it number which finds Case finally with her guard down. The guitars behind her strum sweetly introspective fourths, everything taking a breath. "And if death should smell my breathing/ As it passed beneath my window/ Let it lead me trembling, trembling" she sings with a resignation and uncertainty heretofore unheard, showing us that to touch is different than to move, although the latter is clearly her preference.

Neko Case - At Last [mp3]

Buy The Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, and visit Neko Case's homepage.

Enjoy.

How I Rediscovered Rock and Roll, Part I

So, for my first few Bows + Arrows posts (much love to Brian!!!) I'll be telling you about how I fell back in love with rock and roll. In this heartbreaking three part saga of epic proportions, I'll try to combine album reviews, concert reviews and band profiles with my own personal tale of musical love lost and rediscovered. So forgive me for being a little self indulgent, but hey, so was King Kong, and those Lord of the Rings movies, and those were pretty popular. Besides, this is an article about Destroyer.

In the past year or so, music and I haven't really shared the same steady, loving relationship we once had. Now, music has been my 'thing' since I was 10, listening to Matchbox 20 and, even better, Third Eye Blind (whose first album is a pop classic by the way), and it's been my lifelong aspiration to one day succeed, you know, even moderately, as a songwriter. (wink!)

So it's been a particularly heartbreaking lull. Granted, it'd be an outright lie to say that I lost interest in music; it's more like I'd changed from a loving husband (you know, metaphorically) to a shifty womanizer, picking up one beautiful album after another at the club that is indie rock, without even bothering to ask for a number the morning after or staying to talk over coffee. Overly long metaphors aside, it's been a long time since I'd developed lasting relationships with artists-- I was only interested in the next high, the next catchy chorus, the next big thing.



By now you've probably heard a thing or two about Destroyer's Rubies. You've heard that it's the most accessible and critically acclaimed album that Dan Bejar has made to date... (Read more + mp3!)

Quickly: new Regina Spektor

My girl Regina Spektor has two new tracks from her upcoming full-length, Begin to Hope, at her MySpace page. Something about my internet connection won't let me listen to MySpace streams... not easily anyway. So I've yet to hear these songs, but judging from the comments they sound quite interesting:

"WHAT have they done to your songs!?! Fidelity especially has been destroyed by cheap and tacky sounding beats, which actually manage the amazing feat of distracting you to the point that you miss the lyrics and voice behind them."

"Fidelity now sounds like someone trying to turn a Jon Brion song into a karaoke version. I've never thought this would happen. I've been such a huge fan for so long. I just really wish these new songs would have been kept simple."

"It seems like there's no heart in these songs. It breaks my heart."

See what I mean? What could it possibly sound like! I can't wait to hear for myself. Begin to Hope comes out May 16th.

Go stream "Fidelity" and "Better" at her MySpace.

UPDATE: I'm listening to "Better," and this is most definitely not what I expected. There's hardly a trace of keys, just incredibly bland guitars and drums... it sounds phoned-in... Is there still time to go back? Is it too late?

And now "Fidelity." Again, no piano, but some pizzicato strings (I think) and an atmosphere machine or synthesizer or whatever. It's better than the other song, but still not as good as the live version, which I've posted already:

Regina Spektor - Fidelity (live)

Regina Spektor - Better (live)

Enjoy?

Side Aches: A Pain in the Ass.

*** Everybody, welcome Tino to the B + A family. Tino is an expert on most things, music and otherwise. Enjoy! -Brian ***

Some of you may remember them, others of you probably have never had one. You know, you people out there who attended a private school in grade school, or whatever. I'm not really sure what you guys do at those private schools, well that is another topic, maybe I will come back to it in the future. Right now, as the title and opening sentence suggests, I am going to talk a little bit about side aches, apparently also known as “Side Stitches”, that is probably a European term or something because I've never heard it before.

Side Aches are a topic that most all of us have wondered about, I remember asking my mom what it was, and I was told that it was caused by drinking too much water before running around. But now that I think about it I was probably dehydrated 95% of the time when I was young, I liked to drink sodas, Capri Sun and Treetop Apple Juices. Heck I probably still am dehydrated 95% of the time. Now a decade or so later I get to thinking. How could it have been caused by drinking too much water” if I hardly drank water at all?

And so the research began, and now I am quite the expert on Side Aches.

A side ache is caused when the ligaments that attach your liver to your diaphragm are stretched. Your liver filters alcohol, hence the slang, “YOUR LIVER'S SMOKIN”, meaning you are drunk. I don't know what your Diaphragm is. While running, more than 70 percent of humans breath out when their left foot hits the ground, while 30 percent breathe out when their right foot hits the ground.¹ And us 30 percent sure do feel it, because that right there is enough to stretch those ligaments right out! My mom (and probably yours too) was semi correct in saying that it was because you “drank too much water” the added weight in your stomach can sometimes play a part in stretching that old ligament out. But it does not necessarily have to be water, it can be an excess of any food or liquid in your stomach.
So the next time you go for a run, be sure to notice when you are breathing out, if you keep this under control, you will do just fine.

If you happen to get a side ache STOP! Do not exercise any more! My advice to you is quickly try one or more of the fallowing Side-Ache-Party-Crashers before the side ache gets any worse:

• Breathe slowly out of your mouth with pursed lips.
  
• Do not fully exhale while breathing for a few paces.
  
• Bend forward and tighten your stomach muscles.
  
• Bend forward and poke out your stomach as far as you can.
  
• Wear a wide belt tightly around your waist (like weight lifters wear).
  
• Put pressure on the painful site.
  

Or take it out with the good ol One-Two punch technique that I have created:
Slouch your shoulders and push out your stomach so that it looks like you are very fat and lazy, Purse your lips and breathe slowly while drinking a beer. I find that drinking a beer while doing this helps a lot because it makes you not want to exercise and cures the side ache in a more long-term way, unlike any of these other techniques that I stole from this website.

-Tino

1 http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/8128.htm

Black Sheep Boy: Tim Hardin

The apparent depth of Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy still finds me diving amongst the wrecks of castles and stones and darkly horned figures, uncovering new images and connections with every listen. It's a fascinating, often terrifying world centered around Will Sheff's Black Sheep Boy, a defiant and destructively unsettled figure wanting only to be left alone. "If you love me let me live in peace, please understand/ That the black sheep can wear the golden fleece and hold the winning hand," pleads the Boy directly in the faces of his tormentors and lovers, all hot and violent breath. What was this harrowing, magnificent, fascinating figure? It seemed to have quite a grasp on its creator (which in turn enthralled me), driving Sheff to write an album and a half's worth of material centered around his tormented Boy.

I was aware of the Tim Hardin connection only vaguely before, foolishly regarding Sheff's Black Sheep Boy as nothing more than a character based on another fantastical character, nothing more than a masterful storyteller's device. Finally I listened to Hardin's "Black Sheep Boy" and read up on the man's history, and uncovered the thing most fundamental to Sheff's story.

Perhaps it's saddest that Hardin seemed aware of his ill-omened path, the way he sings of his eventual destructor with a subtle, heartbreaking abandon: "We met as friends and you were so easy to get to know/ But will we ever see each other again? Oh... I hope so," sings Hardin of heroin on "Red Balloon." This is him, your most treacherous friend you don't dare imagine what will become of, for it's all too real, too possible. This is the black sheep boy, not a storybook character but a man with a beautiful voice and problems difficult to fathom. Hence Sheff's fascination taking him beyond fandom and simple homage, his Black Sheep Boy taking on a life of its own and allowing his concern and captivation to come to the forefront in all its vitriolic fervor.

Tim Hardin - Black Sheep Boy [mp3]

Tim Hardin - Red Balloon [mp3]

Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy [mp3]

Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (demo) [mp3]

I highly suggest picking up Tim Hardin's Hang On To A Dream: The Verve Recordings and Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy + Appendix

Also, read Will Sheff's Said the Guests feature at Said the Gramophone for a wonderfully thorough and fascinating look at Tim Hardin and his relation to Okkervil River's album.

***

I got the new Neko Case album today, and it's everything I hoped for.


I also got Jenny Lewis' new single for "Rise Up With Fists!!!" and it's hot.

Enjoy.

Assembly, Now

Is it because Silent Alarm was so good that it wasn't labeled as an emo album? The lazy and unfortunate bandying-about of the term has rendered it all but meaningless, which is unfortunate when it could be such an appropriate descriptor. Consider: Kele Okereke, I don't think, has ever smiled once. He's that sincere. Every syllable is sung with a serious passion that turns the simple - "you" and "me" - into the most important, urgent thing in the world. Everything, it seems, is what he's striving to capture; to present to us. Sung on top of guitars like lumps in the throat, what he's created is emo through and through. Heart-on-sleeve, blown out of proportion but with the best intentions.

So, when Assembly Now ape Bloc Party so honestly, I can't fault them. "It's Magnetic" is the sound of overexplaining, to the point where Gavin Dwight is dealing in abstractions just-this-side of laughable: "facing the great unknown," and "these are the untold sacred moments," etc. Whatever he's talking about, however stilted through lonely analysis his judgment may be, he means every word. No, happily for us, this isn't any kind of posturing, familiar as it sounds.

From Assembly Now's Apollo Control demo:

Assembly Now - It's Magnetic

***

Preemptive response to any asinine comments, such as the ones seen on Dodge's Friday post on AssNow (ha): I realize this band can be seen as a fabrication or an attempt to cash in on hotnewsound a la Bloc Party. It's true that they've only had a name for a week and they're already being publicized. But for all the information there is on this band, to subscribe to that thought is just plain cynical. Let's not be assumptive, and give it an open listen.

Enjoy!

Staring at Your Books

It snowed today! The novelty has not yet worn off.


Regina Spektor - Twenty Years of Snow (live) [info]

Could you play a snow flurry on your guitar? On your drumset or your didgeridoo? Regina sits at her piano and shows us how she would do it: swirling it dizzy, slowing it down, swirling again.

Fiery Furnaces - Winter (Fall cover) [buy]

The Friedbergers do it different, still discordant but without the easy grace. It sounds like a warning, a paranoid second glance expecting a calamitous incident, courtesy of winter.

Death Cab for Cutie - Blacking Out the Friction [buy]

Alas, there's nothing to fear when we've got our sweater. Ben Gibbard always has his sweater.

***

Eagle-eyes among you may have noticed that I've been joined by one Dan DeMaria in the production of b+a! Hooray! Keep 'em peeled for his first contribution soon.

Catbird Records has made Hemstad's new full-length available for purchase. It may be too late to get the bonus disc, but don't let that stop you from trying!

Enjoy!

Skateboard Songs

Sorry no post yesterday, I had a minor crisis. Ryan posted a new Grandaddy song, "Skateboarding Saves Me Twice," which provoked a regression into my formative parking-lot-loitering, Thrasher-subscribing self. I threw a fit, wouldn't listen to anything on my iPod because I would never have recognized it at 15, it had no associations and it wasn't important.

Since then I've calmed down and found a few favorites from the skate video days. Make sure you grab "Skateboarding Saves Me Twice" as well.

From Transworld's Modus Operandi:

Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen, We are Floating in Space [buy]

From Real's Real to Reel:

Modest Mouse - Never Ending Math Equation [buy]

And I swear this one's from a video, but now I'm second-guessing:

Superchunk - Tiny Bombs [buy]

Skateboard Music has archived skate video soundtracks.

***

Matt at You Ain't No Picasso has an interview with Page France! Pear and Sister Pinecone ship soon!

Cokemachineglow interviewed Craig Finn of Hold Steady fame.

The Fossil Record has a little poem by John Darnielle called "Sin Tax." Clever.

Enjoy.