M. Ward

The release of M. Wards new album Post-War is soon approaching, (Aug 22 on Merge). The album features a cover of Texas' Daniel Johnston called To Go Home, featuring Neko Cases on backing vocals.

M. Ward - To Go Home (via Tripwire)

Right now I'm jamming his live album Live Music & the Voice of Strangers which itself features a great cover, Velvet Undergrounds Pale Blue Eyes. The album was self released and has been long out of print which is unfortunate because its my favorite thing to listen to by M. Ward.

M. Ward - Pale Blue Eyes

Bonus:

M. Ward - I'll Be Yr Bird
M. Ward - Vincent O'Brien
M. Ward - So Much Water (left click)

and

Daytrotter Chart featuring recent Daytrotter session songs, ranked in order of most downloads.

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Bet on Lindsay Lohan

I wanted to post this song about Lindsay Lohan but couldn't find a reason and today I finally found my in.

I was browsing Spine Magazine and saw a link about a feud between Lohan and Puff Daddy (I know... Diddy). Being a man who likes to follow pop culture I had to find out what was going on. Read the details here. What I found most hilarious:

...BetUs.com, which frequently posts odds on entertainment related bets, had posted a wager entitled, "Who will Lindsay Lohan fight with next?" They listed Sean "Diddy" Combs as a relative underdog at 30-1. A simple $10 bet would have paid out $300.

Read the whole article.

and finally....

This track has some very insightful lyrics:
Jhae - Lindsay Lohan

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Jenny Lewis video feat: Sarah Silverman and Dntel

The cameos by Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, Postal Service, Figurine) on Rise Up with Fists by Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, are really quick in the intro. Their placement in the video adds a Hee-Haw vibe to it... does anyone remember that show. I wouldn't of sought out the video if I hadn't heard that Jimmy Tamborello had a small role in it.



I'm a big fan of Jenny Lewis, especially with that voice and her great songwriting but I'm a greater fan of Jimmy Tamborello. Although I do think she looks way hotter.

I think I first got introduced to Jimmy Tamborello from his Dntel project. He had his album Life is Full of Possibilities (Plug Research) which had a song that featured Petra Haden. I was a fan of Petra Haden from her work with The Rentals and I was a fan of them by way of Weezer. Anyway, that's how Weezer got me listening to Dntel.

Dntel - Open The Window and Let Me In
Dntel - Anywhere Anyone
Dntel - This Is The Dream of Evan and Chan (Safety Scissors Mix)
Her Space Holiday - Japanese Gum (DNTEL remix)

Jenny Lewis w/ The Watson Twins - Melt Your Heart

Still getting over the mavs loss...

New Adult Swim EP (Chocolate Swim)

Adult Swim is on the ball with the new Dangerdoom EP and now the Chocolate Swim both as free download. Unfortunately only half of them are downloading right now but I'm sure that will be fixed soon. You can download the whole EP as seperate tracks or one long track if you like. Although I don't see the point of one long track.

Kovas - Up In Here
Lady Sovereign - Hoodies (Spank Rock remix)
Mos Def & Diverse - Wylin Out (Kut Masta Kurt Remix)
Ghislain Poirier - Mic Diplomat
Vast Aire f/ MF Doom - Super Friendz (Edan Remix)
Diverse - Ain't Right (Dj Mitsu Remix)

Download the whole EP

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Not this year

I guess it just wasn't our year...did anyone see that last second very obvious foul that wasn't called.



Spoon - Dont let it get you down

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Mavericks

Today is a must win for the Mavericks. I want to see the Mavericks of game 1 and game 2 of the finals and that might happen by bringing it back to Dallas. Its so hard to watch them lose, especially with these close ones. This is my Mavs mix, what does it have to do with the Mavs, I'm making it real fast so I can catch them on tv. Yup

7L & Esoteric [ft. Kool Keith] - Daisycutta
The Shout out louds - The Comeback
Birdmonster- Resurrection Song
Cold War Kids - Hospital Beds
Evangelicals - Here Comes Trouble
The Octopus Project: - Music Is Happiness
Ladyhawk - The Dugout
Shearwater - Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five

New Mountain Goats track

Pitchfork is doing some advertising for their Chicago music festival by putting out a music comp called the 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival Sampler. The good news, its a free to download. The highlights are a new track from Yo La Tengos soon to released album Im Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass and a new track from the Mountain Goats. There are 24 other tracks from other bands including The National, Aesop Rock, Mr. Lif, Tapes N Tapes, The Walkmen, Destroyer, Ted Leo etc.

The Mountain Goats - Woke Up New

Download the 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival Sampler

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The Album Leaf / Into the Blue Again

The Album Leaf recently completed the follow up to In A Safe Place, titled Into the Blue Again out in September on Sub Pop. If you liked In A Safe Place you will most likely like Into the Blue Again, its very similar in nature. It has 3 tracks with vocals and the rest are that brand of instrumental sweetness that only The Album Leaf can bring. Couple of the vocal tracks sort of annoyed me at first but after a few listens I started to come around. Look for it on September 12, on Sub Pop. Its a while to wait, there isn't even any cover art released yet.



The Album Leaf - Red-Eyed

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Cursive / Happy Hollow

I've had a weekend to listen to the new Cursive album Happy Hollow (Aug 22). Although it doesn't top their last album The Ugly Organ, my favorite by them, it does have its moments. The album is horn heavy laced and is a concept album as the majority of Cursive albums are. Initially I was looking for something else, I had my hopes in another direction before I heard the album. Part of me thought that this was going to be overwhelmed by horns after they mentioned the addition of horns but part of me also thought that they were going to top themselves. Still a quality release. They have a new single coming out Dorothy at 40 which comes with 2 non-album tracks. Happy Hollow's first single "Dorothy at Forty" is another typically atypical Cursive romp, catapulted by incisive guitars, punctuated by horns and jerking to a stop before mightily spiraling away into the song's rousing coda. (SC)

Cursive - Dorothy At Forty

Tomorrow, new Album Leaf LP.

The Paper Chase / Now You Are One of Us

There is something in the way that John Congleton sings that just doesn't sit straight with me. Maybe its the drama behind his voice. That really doesn't matter though because his talent for songwriting and melody makes up for it. The Paper Chase are always oozing with drama just take a glance at the song titles from their new album Now Your Are One of Us (We Know Where You Sleep, It's Out There And It's Gonna Get You) and look at the album cover with a picture of a naked guy hanging himself.

I'm not really familiar with previous Paper Chase albums, I've done some minor browsing of few of their releases and this seems to be the Paper Chase at their most accessible. Its a step in the right direction, they seem to be not as popular as I would of thought they'd be. Aside from the vocals, the piano and strings contributed to my favorite portions of the album (You Will Never Take Me Alive). They also make good use of creepy sounding samples (wailing woman on Wait Until I Get My Hands On You). Generally I think this is a really exciting release from this local Dallas band, maybe their best album to date. Although its kind of weird to listen to at night, you start to think that you are hearing things. I had to turn down the volume couple of times to regain my sanity.

From Now You Are One of Us

The Paper Chase - We know where you sleep
The Paper Chase - You Will Never Take Me Alive

From God Bless Your Black Heart

The Paper Chase - Said the Spider to the Fly

Also get few other tracks from this album at Obscure Sound

Say Hi To Your Mom

It seems like just couple months ago that Say Hi To Your Mom released Ferocious Mopes (actually a little more than a year ago). July 25 will see them release their 4th album Impeccable Blahs also their 4th on their own record label Euphobia. According to their website, "We've heard reports that a bunch of Say Hi To Your Mom posters make an appearance in the new Lindsay Lohan film." That's a good thing, right?

From Impeccable Blahs

Say Hi To Your Mom - These Fangs

Can't forget to mention the loads of songs they have on their website to download. Three from each album.

Ferocious Mopes (2005):

Dimensions And Verticals
The Forest Scares The Hell Out Of Me
Yeah, I'm In Love With An Android

Numbers & Mumbles (2004):

Hooplas Involving Circus Tricks
Let's Talk About Spaceships
Super

Discosadness (2002):

The Fritz
Blizzard
Laundry

Of course you can stream all the albums at their site.

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MSTRKRFT

The debut MSTRKRFT album is coming out really soon (July 18), they already have a single out for Easy Love and a sexual innuendo soaked music video that is apparently tearing it up in Europe. The Canadian duo that make up MSTRKRFT are Jesse Keeler (half of Death from Above 1979) and Al-P (Girls Are Short) and have been churning out remixes for likes of Metric to Bloc Party and even Keelers own band DFA 1979. I wasn't that hyped about the album after hearing the first single, it had too much of that cheesy 80's vibe but I decided to give the album a chance. Work On You, which is set to be released next month as a single, is more my cup of tea. It features that robot voice also, but it has more modern feel to it.



MSTRKRFT - Easy Love
MSTRKRFT - Work On You

MSTRKRFT - Easy Love (video on Youtube)

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Don't forget to catch the Mavs vs Heat, game 1 of the NBA finals. My prediction, Mavs in 6.

The Robot Ate Me

The Robot Ate Me has changed their sound on every album, not a dramatic change usually but a fairly noticeable one. The new album Good World is the least accessible of there's, I knew this would be the case after I got a glimse of the whole from the track Djien. Their last album, Carousel Waltz had Ryland Bouchard doing more straight forward compositions and the songwriting was at my personal favorite. The first album They Ate Themselves however had them sounding the most interesting. So one album had my favorite songwriting and another had my favorite sound, not to be confused. The new album features frequent clarinet, a higher voice, an out of tune 1800's piano and drum machineering. Its hard to get into at first, maybe I'm just not that open minded or maybe I just wanted Carousel Waltz II: Waltz Harder. Few of the tracks are pretty great but sometimes the short lenghts of the songs hold them back.

Among my favorite tracks from the album the one I enjoy most has to be Bloody Knife #3

The Robot Ate Me - Bloody Knife #3

of course there is also Djien

The Robot Ate Me - Djien

and from previous albums

The Robot Ate Me - Our Bones Were Chalk
The Robot Ate Me - They Ate Themselves
The Robot Ate Me - The Genocide Ball
The Robot Ate Me - On Vacation
The Robot Ate Me - Bad Feelings
The Robot Ate Me - A hole in the plane (unreleased)

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Couple of music videos worth checking out on Youtube:

Spank Rock - Rick Rubin
Centro-matic - Triggers and Trash Heaps
Centro-matic - Janitorial On Channel Fail (with bad audio/video sync)
Lily Allen - LDN

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Future

I realized that I haven't mentioned the NBA finals since both teams secured their spot. My boys the Dallas Mavericks finally made it, after years of watching them not making it through the playoffs. I don't think they're better than they were in the last few years player wise but something changed though (better defense?). Maybe the NBA coach of year the at the helm? Its still pretty surreal. First game is this Thursday vs the Miami Heat. I know we're going to win, we just have to contain the duo of Shaq and Wade. In my opinion Wade is the 2006 playoff MVP so thats a task. All we need is a healthly Dirk and all he needs is Hasselhoff playing in his head.

David Hasselhoff - Looking for freedom

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With their debut album I wasn't a big fan of the Futureheads then while flipping channels one day I saw a video on Fuse and thought that the band sounded pretty good. When the video ended I realized it was the Futureheads. After that I lifted my Futureheads embargo and gave their new album a listen and figured out what the hype was all about. I'm still not a big fan of their debut but News and Tributes is growing on me fairly quickly.

• The Futurehead - Skip to the end
• The Futurehead - Worry about it later

Heed the Omen

Apparently Jamie Kennedy has a new show for MTV, this song has something to do with it:
Rollin with Bob Saget (featuring Bob Saget)

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Bishop Allen / Butterfly Nets

It looks like its time to tear another page from the calendar because June has come to us, rather quickly it seems. What does that mean in the grand picture, nothing much, just that the year is almost halfway through. I learned something really useful this weekend, a stiff drink (Dewars) is very appropriate when your nose is congested and you really don't have the full sense of taste. It makes that kick insignificant.



So every month this year, as I have noted earlier if you have been keeping track, Bishop Allen has an EP out. Every month they feature one track from the monthly release as a download on their website, they are nice like that.

Bishop Allen - Butterfly Nets

The thing about Bishop Allen is that they write quality tunes, their album Charm School is always on rotation at the Think Tank head quaters and probably will be till I get tired of good songs. If that isn't a recommendation, I don't know what is. Their monthly EPs are $5 each, and you can still pick them up at their store front along with Charm School.

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Louis Logic / Misery Loves Comedy

I've been battling this very mild cold for the past couple of days. I was at a hotel where the A/C unit was blowning right at my face all night. That's all it took, I wash my hands more than anyone I know, I avoid people who are sick but alas it got me. So here is my battle plan: Orange Juice, Raspberry Green Tea and Mega dose on Vitamin C. Any other recommendations?



NYC's Louis Logic, formerly of the Demigodz drops his newest album with his producer J.J. Brown called Misery Loves Comedy. Actually this album is the first of their collaboration credited to Louis Logic & J.J. Brown. The album features no cameos by other rappers and JJ Brown producing on all the tracks. I think Atmosphere when I listen to Louis Logic, with his lyrical content and his delivery.

Louis Logic & J.J. Brown - Captain Lou El Wino
Logic & J.J. Brown - Morning After Pill


The new Clipse, We Got the Remix is pretty hot right now, I'll probably write few words on that as soon as I get through the 28 tracks. I'm a fan of the previous, We Got it for Cheap vol. 2 but when are these guys gonna put out a real new release.

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Destroyer / In Session at CBC Studio 2, Vancouver, 10 Apr 2006

The version of It's Gonna Take an Airplane is insanely good, too bad its a stream. But its worth staying on the website and listening.

Stream the CBC Session

If anyone knows how to capture that stream into mp3 form or knows where I can get it in mp3 form, give me a heads up. I will be most grateful.

Props to one of my favorite music blogs, The Catbirdseat for the low down on this session.

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Whilst I'm here I should point out these gems

Couple Whitest Boy Alive tracks at Good Hodgkins

Mars Needs Guitars has couple songs from their Nada Surf KEXP Acoustic Sessions

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Xiu Xiu / The Air Force

Did I mention the new Xiu Xiu album titled Air Force previously, yes I did. The album is to be released on September 15th and is produced by Greg Saunier of Deerhoof. I like this track a lot. Check it...

Xiu Xiu - Boy Soprano

and from previous releases

I Broke Up [mp3]
Sad Pony Guerrilla Girl [mp3]
Clowne Towne [mp3]
Bog People [mp3]

Also as requested, the Wilco, More Like the Moon EP reuploaded.

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Dangerdoom, Occult Hymn EP

I'm back from my little excursion and I had lots of fun. I saw the city (Chicago is a lot bigger than I thought) and I attended a wedding (3rd this month). Lots happend in the music world in my time away, the Thom Yorke album leak, Dangerdoom EP released, Xiu Xiu leaked and probably some other shenanigans.

Adultswim released the whole Dangerdoom Occult Hymn EP as a download mostly featuring remixes. Right now my opinion is that the Korn Dogs track is a must have Dangerdoom track, the rest is worth the download but nothing essential.


Pretty nice album cover.

1. Skit 1
2. El Chupa Nibre Remix
3. Perfect Hair II
4. Korn Dogz
5. Skit 2
6. Sofa King Remix
7. Space Ho's (Madlib Remix)

Full Album

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