The Interface with Spoon (Brit Daniel)

AOLs The Interface had Spoons Brit Daniel in for their latest podcast, he played 3 songs with his ipod backing him up. I sliced up the podcast and seperated the 3 musical tracks, I'm a cool like that. Here is the result of the 4 mins of work I put in with Audacity.



Brit Daniel on The Interface (podcast)

or just the tunes

Britt Daniel - Spoon - Metal Detektor (Live on Aols The Interface)
Britt Daniel - Chips and Dip (Live on Aols The Interface)
Britt Daniel - They Never Got You (Live on Aols The Interface)

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Stillness Breathes (Essential Mercury Rev)

It is very odd to me that Mercury Rev doesn't enjoy as much success as some of their contemporaries especially at their home country of the United States. They are often compared to one of my favorite bands The Flaming Lips in sound, you can call it a mix of dream pop and psychedelic rock in a modern sense. The Flaming Lips had actually shared Jonathan Donahue who appeared as guitarist on two Flaming Lips albums, In a Priest Driven Ambulance and Hit to Death in the Future Head. More importantly the Flaming Lips' long time producer David Fridmann played bass for Mercury Rev and still has a hand on producing their albums.

Mercury Rev have a new best of compilation coming out on V2 compiling songs from 1991-2006 titled Essential Mercury Rev: The Weird Years 1991-2006. Its a great intro to a band that has a great collection of under appreciated songs. I'll have to admit that I'm only familiar with two Mercury Rev albums and this album really helps tie together some of the loose ends and missed tracks that would of been a crime if I hadn't heard. There were some tracks that I was surprise that was not on this "best of" like Vermilion from last years Secret Migration. I recommend this album for fans of the Flaming Lips, Polyphonic Spree and Sparklehorse.


Mercury Rev - Good Times Ahead
Mercury Rev - Opus 40

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Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller third solo album Ben Kweller was released this week on ATO. At first listen I thought it was his weakest but still something pretty special. After some more listens I have grown quite fond of it. I'm kind of strapped for time so I will keep it short. Ben Kweller on making this album, "A bonus for me, and you, is I think I might have written my best song while I was in the studio. It's called Thirteen. It's very personal and almost hard for me to listen to." I like the song very much and I think it is worth a listen to anyone who is curious regarding the best song BK has written statement. I don't know about best though, its good none the less.



Ben Kweller - Thirteen

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover the Rentals

This is such a great song, I don't know why there are so few covers of The Love I'm Searching for albeit any of the songs from the 1995 album Return Of the Rentals by the recently regrouped Rentals. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are featured on AOLs The Interface this week doing three songs; Cheated Hearts, Turn Into and the cover of The Rentals The Love I'm Searching For. I'm still kind of down that I didn't see the Rentals when they came by Dallas recently, I was just feeling so lazy (that month). I'm still hyped up to hear future material from one of my favorite bands of the 90s, The Rentals. Oh yeah, the YYYs are great too.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - The Love I'm Searching For
(Thanks to Culture Bully for the track)

Download the entire podcast

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Bright Eyes' Noise Floor

If EPs hold about half the weight of an LP, rarities and b-sides albums holds probably a quarter of the weight of a newly recorded LP. Another musician on the Fall rarities boat is Bright Eyes with Noise Floor, a collection of rare tracks spanning 1998-2005 to be release on Saddle Creek on October 24th. I highly recommend it for Bright Eyes fans, their are some gems in there.



From the Saddle Creek website:

On October 24th, Saddle Creek will release Noise Floor, a collection of Bright Eyes singles, one-offs, unreleased tracks, collaborations and covers recorded between 1998 and 2005. Variously recorded to cassette four-track, minidisc, reel-to-reel tape machine, ADAT and computer, these songs trace Bright Eyes' evolution from basement project to band of international repute. Many of these gems previously lost to out-of-print obscurity are hereby resurrected.

One of his finest rarities that will appear on this release is the two tracks from the Sub Pop Singles Club March 2001 release.



Bright Eyes - I Will Be Grateful for This Day
Bright Eyes - When the Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass Again

Look for an EP of new material to be released this winter.
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Anyone catch the NFL games on Sunday? My team, the Dallas Cowboys offense needs to step their game up. Damn those turnovers.

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Pinbacks Nautical Antiques

At the end of August Pinback quiety released a rarities collection Nautical Antiques on Ace Fu. According to the Pinback fansite, Pinbackfreak the tracks on the new release consists of tracks unreleased in the states, appearing on demos and various b-sides on european-only releases. All these were pretty much available online if you looked for them, the only ones that I didn't have were the 3 alternate takes.



From Nautical Antiques
Pinback - Messenger

Random Pinback tracks

Pinback - AFK
Pinback - Fortress
Pinback - Microtonic Waves
Pinback - B
Pinback - Offline PK
Pinback - Manchuria
Pinback - Chaos Engine
Pinback - Lyon

thanks to pinbackfreak for the mp3 links

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Lucero - Rebels, Rogues and Sworn Brothers

I was meaning to write about Luceros new album for a while. It was all setup perfectly, I got to hear to the album more than a month before its release, I thoroughly enjoyed their last release and on top of it all they have hosted few songs from the album on their website. Luceros latest dose of southern rock, Rebels, Rogues and Sworn Brothers is set to be released on September 26th on Liberty & Lament which is Lucero's own record label. Look for this album to feature more piano and organ than you are used to from a Lucero release and I'd say stronger Springstein vibe also.



Lucero - I can get us out of here tonight
Lucero - San Francisco
Lucero - Nineteen Seventy Nine
Lucero - She's just that kind of girl

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Bonnie Prince Billy on Daytrotter

Illustration by Johnnie Cluney

One of my favorite indie-folk musicians Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy) is the featured artist this week on Daytrotter doing a recording session (4 songs) for the online magazine. I love the descriptions that the artist give on each of the song they perform, it always gives me a new insight into the subject of the songs especially with Will Oldham. On a related note; Mindbrain, I'm going to have to start using that word more often. The only thing that I wish I could experience with some of these recordings is to see video footage of the sessions. It would put this on a new plateau.

Get a piece of this action

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