The Lighthouse Song

Speaking of new things worth checking out on MySpace (and really, when are we not), Josh Pyke has posted the first new song from his forthcoming Chimney's Afire record: "The Lighthouse Song." The list of artists whose work I'll grant a preemptive endorsement is dwindling to say the least, but Mr. Pyke remains firmly entrenched there. Buy this record when it comes out. It will be good.

In the interest of not just posting a link to MySpace and calling it a day (not that there's anything wrong with that), here's a mostly forgotten interview I did with Josh Pyke back in 2005 on the now-defunct PulverRadio.com. The interview includes four fantastic live performances interspersed in between poorly worded, mundane questions and patiently delivered answers. I cringe to listen to the interview these days, but the songs are really marvelous.

Fun.

In a move surely designed to make me say "damn" and drink a beer, The Format announced months ago via MySpace that they will not be making any more records. I didn't write about it at the time because if you look back at February, I wasn't writing about much of anything. But it seriously sucked, sucks, and will suck.

That said, an announcement went up today about Nate's new band, fun. Stupid name perhaps, but it's exactly the word I'd use to describe the demo (download available with login) of "Benson Hedges," currently the only song available on the site. Which is a neat concept, really. Imagine if other bands followed suit. What a great day it would be when Animal Collective changed their name to WTF.

If you've got some time to kill and are interested, Nate also posted a long letter to his fans about what he's been up to so far in 2008 here. Make sure you go to the bathroom before you click if you want to get through it uninterrupted.

I'm missing Chairlift RIGHT NOW.

Photo by Ross Fraser

Chairlift, who might very well be on stage at the Knitting Factory as I type this at the end of a long night of sweating in my apartment, is today's swift-kick-to-the-ass for amassing such a backlog of to-be-listened-to songs that I never got to "Evident Utensil" (mp3) until it was too late.

Don't make the same mistake I did. Listen to this bizarre 80's-ish ode to pencils (other songs are about earwigs!) sooner rather than later, and don't waste the night languishing on your ass when they come through your town.

Chairlift's debut Does It Inspire You comes out 10/18/08 on Kanine Records, although it's apparently already available as a digital purchase at Amazon.

Update: an email from a BlackBerry confirms that yes, I am missing them right at this very moment.

The Confusions are still at it.

My favorite Swedish band, The Confusions, are in line to play the last set at this year's Storsjöyran Festival in their native land, hitting the stage at 1:30 AM on 8/2/08. What? You've never heard of the Storsjöyran Festival? Well turn in your Cool Dude Card right now, Buster, because the lineup features some of the raddest groups around, from Drive-By Truckers to Justice to Kris Kristofferson to Blondie!

Ok, I had never heard of it either.

If you like the song in the video above (it's called "Thin"), an email from the band assures me that for a limited time, an mp3 will be available here, although at the time of this posting, it doesn't seem to be working yet.

[theconfusions.com]

With new wave hairdos I want girls

There's a new(-ish) radio station in town here, WRXP - New York's Rock Experience, that has single-handedly renewed my interest in the art of radio programming. In fact, I've resisted more than once the urge just to post a set of 5 or 6 songs in a row they've played just to comment on how nicely done it was.

They do most of the things I like, such as not relying on big artists' crutch hits (they play a bunch of Zeppelin but I've yet to hear "Stairway to Heaven," tonight they played The Beatles' "Old Brown Shoe"), playing two songs in a row without even a dry sweeper in between (love that), and playing a palatable mix of good old stuff and decently cool new stuff. Forget that this is what every station says it does. RXP has actually been doing it. For example, they've been playing new My Morning Jacket and Rogue Wave, and they nearly made me crash my car the other night when they played Steve Forbert (mp3), who I haven't heard on the radio since...well since I programmed a station myself.

They've also invested in some talent, which I guess is ok. Matt Pinfield, despite an impressive and enviable CV, still feels the need to tell me during every one of his breaks that he'll be with me for about 42 minutes. This is the kind of shit that jocks do when they're brand new to the field (he's not) or when they're completely phoning it in (ahem). And his cheese-grater voice sounds totally forced. But really, it's fine.

What drives me fucking crazy, and honestly what I wouldn't have expected from a station that's otherwise programmed so brilliantly, is that just like every other station in the universe, I seem to hear a track from Licensed to Ill EVERY SINGLE TIME I listen for more than a few minutes. Who still wants to hear that so often?

Early Beastie Boys material must test extremely well, but on a well programmed station, it does nothing slap me right out of whatever groove a station has me in. It's just not cool anymore. It's like a throbbing growth on the face of rock radio that everyone politely ignores. Stop the madness.

If you're going to play the Beastie Boys (and really, I'd rather you just let them be), at least play "Sabotage."

Sounds like: happy.

I don't usually post things like this because as soon as music like this comes out of my speakers I'm reminded that I don't have cool enough clothes to ever be taken seriously at a show where music like this is played, but screw it.

Here's the first single from Ponytail's forthcoming release Ice Cream Spiritual!:

Ponytail - Celebrate The Body Electric (It Came From An Angel) (mp3)

I'm really at a loss to describe this, or what I like about it. Essentially, it's 7 minutes of...rapture. The guitars are loud and have the attention span of an overly sugared toddler. Once in a while they'll settle into a groove for a few bars, but they seem to get bored of it before I do every time. The vocals don't amount to much more than rock and roll googoogaga babytalk. It feels like it should be the soundtrack to one of those internet videos of grown adults that get together and have naptime on the floor and play with Tonka trucks. It's just about exactly what you'd expect from a band that calls their record Ice Cream Spiritual!

And if you're like me and you're reading this without having heard it, you're wondering why I would ever expect you to listen to this.

I don't know, maybe it's just that it's really beautiful in the city today after a number of spring's false starts, but I'm really into this song right now. Give it a shot. You might like it as much as I do.

Ponytail's Ice Cream Spiritual! comes out June 17.

Interview: The Rapt...err...The Sarah Pedinotti Band

Although they stole my heart during their short stint as The Raptors, The Artists Now Known Again As The Sarah Pedinotti Band ultimately decided not to stick with the daringly Cretaceous name. Read why below, and then find a way to be at one (or, preferably, both) of the following two shows to see first hand what all the fuss is about.

Saturday, 3/29/08, 9pm - Kenny's Castaways
Friday, 4/4/08, 8:45pm - The Living Room

One last thing. As you read the interview, play this. Over and over and over.

The Sarah Pedinotti Band - Julio (mp3)

Mike McClenathan: Who are The Raptors?

Sarah Pedinotti: We're now the Sarah Pedinotti Band. We're still looking around for the right name. We've looked under garbage cans and in newspapers; the boys come over regularly, pick up any book off my shelf and shout out random words. One day, we were talking about T.Rex and Chris (the drummer) said, half-joking "how about the Raptors." We all stopped what we were doing. It seemed familiar but good and we thought it had to be taken. And it is. "The Raptors" are a Canadian Basketball team that rarely wins... BUT we became The Raptors for a little over a week too. It felt good.

Now to answer your question: The group of keen-sighted, flesh-eating birds and ferocious dinosaurs known as The Sarah Pedinotti Band consist of: Tony Markellis (bass), Chris Kyle (guitar), Chris Carey (drums) Dave Payette (piano) and me.

MM: How long have you been playing together?

SP: Dave, Chris Carey and I have been playing together since high school.
Tony joined in the summer of 2006. We added Chris Kyle in the fall of 2007.

MM: How did the decision to change your name come about?

SP: Well, my last name is difficult for most people when they're sober. Something about four syllable names, they're too perplexing for the mind to handle. But since we're back to being The Sarah Pedinotti Band, for now, I just think of how much people love Luciano Pavarotti. It makes me feel better.

MM: Comparisons are all but necessary evils when it comes to getting the word out about great new music, but I hate making them too much to do it directly myself. So here's this: your bio mentions recent comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, Jacque Brel, Dr. John and Tom Waits. I'm sure there have been scores of other comparisons as well. Which do you find the most flattering?

SP: I find the ones you mentioned the most flattering. Especially Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits. And since this industry calls for braggarts, they're mentioned in my bio. What my bio doesn't mention is that I hate being compared to Pee-wee Herman. Actually that has never happened. But if it did, I'd be pissed.

MM: Because every conversation I have with anyone always ends up here and at least this time we have a reasonable transition to it, let's focus on the Springsteen comparison for just a minute. Your songs, like his, are full of vividly developed characters. Where does the inspiration for a character like Michael (from "Julio") come from?

SP: I met this man in the Albany bus station. I was in the cafeteria, sitting in an orange-colored booth between the jukebox and the video games. The air was sticky with the smell of hot dogs cooking on a dirty grill. I was reading Down and Out in Paris and London and he came walking up to me. He was a short, tough-looking Latino man. He wore all black, a black bandana on his head, faded black jeans, black leather boots. It was hard to tell his age because his skin was so rugged. He had many tattoos (including a teardrop on his left eye) and plenty of scars. He asked me for a pen and said he'd give it right back. I quickly rummaged for one and told him to keep it.

He came back minutes later and asked me what I was reading. He said, "Oh, George Orwell, like 1984 and Animal Farm." I must have looked impressed because he sat down across from me and proceeded to tell me his whole life story. He said he was never interested in books until he escaped the law, riding solo on boxcars and hitchhiking to Mexico. Reading was the only entertainment he had back then. He didn't know anyone outside of New York City and he was only fourteen when he ran away.

Long story short, I missed my bus. I found myself simultaneously freaked out by the man who claimed to be a mass killer and enthralled with his story. It was like talking with a jungle cat. I felt frozen in time, watching his pitch-black eyes flash like lighting while he spoke. He was less a socio-path and more an emotional wreck with a tough-as-nails exterior, born into the wrong neighborhood.

Meeting him took awhile to process. But months later, during an earsplitting thunderstorm, I woke up out of a deep sleep and wrote down the song in 10 minutes. No joke. Maybe I was electrocuted.

MM: Saratoga Springs, NY looks like it's as close to Montreal as it is to NYC on a map. What's it like to be a band there?

SP: Saratoga is a strange and sometimes beautiful place. In the summer it turns into a touristy freak show. It actually is home to the oldest organized sporting venue of any kind in the US, the Saratoga Race Course. So every year when it gets warm, horses, gamblers, cigars and big hats follow. A lot of people like to get drunk here. That's sort of the underlying disorganized sport that takes place around these parts.

But there's beauty too. The mineral water is supposedly sacred, we're at the foothills of the Adirondacks, there's a community of artists and musicians, and a farmer's market. And that's why we're here. That and drunks seem love us and tip us more.

MM: What's the local beverage of choice?

SP: Most drinks are popular. All I know is the non-alcoholic beer doesn't sell. I drink whiskey from time to time. It's good for the voice.

MM: Being in a band is cool. What's the coolest thing about being in your band?

SP: We're good friends who share a passion. I can honestly say I love my band mates. Every single one of them is brilliant in their own strange way. Chris Carey has boundless amounts of energy. He can make the best and most realistic farting noises with his armpits. He has a talent for turning any inanimate object into a musical instrument and he actually makes everything sound good. Dave is nocturnal and sleeps in a cave like batman. He has perfect pitch and can probably read minds. Chris Kyle is a badass with a heart of gold. He’s got a scar on his lip from a pit bull that attacked him at a gas station and yet he can’t wait to have a dog of his own. He’s soulful and wild like a Buddhist monk on a motorcycle.

And Tony? I bet he’s played on every stage, stadium, theatre, basement, living room, bathroom and kitchen in the universe. With every famous, infamous and unknown person I can think of. He’s gotten fancy treatment on tour, sleeping in 5-star hotels, signing hundreds of autographs and he’s dealt with the shit, sleeping in vans after playing hole-in-the-wall bars. Now he’s playing with us. That shows dedication.

[Buy the album at CD Baby]
[sarahpedinotti.com]
[myspace.com/sarahpedinotti]

Colour Revolt - Plunder, Beg, and Curse

"It's pretty sometimes, sure, but it doesn't do to leave gorgeous alone, and sometimes you have to punch the blushing bride in the face, you the low-hearted puggish bridesmaid with nary a suitor."

- from (I swear to God) the official bio that came with the disc

Despite the recent infrequency with which I've been writing about music, I requested a review copy of Colour Revolt's soon-to-be-released Plunder, Beg, and Curse [edit: it's available now at eMusic!] because they really rocked when they opened for Brand New a year and a half ago. And despite the bio that greeted me when I opened the envelope (it's three paragraphs of that shit) and the supremely creepy cover art, I was quite determined to like what I heard before I even pressed play. I guess you should know that going into this.

As the CD ripped, and I wondered whether the bio indicated a band that takes itself too seriously* or one that doesn't take its audience seriously at all (maybe both), I tried to conjure up a recollection of exactly what I liked so much about Colour Revolt in the first place. It wasn't the lyrics, which is what usually enthralls me about a band; there was no making lyrics out that night above the din. It was the groove. Five guys on stage playing LOUD, but tight, and slow. If you're a New Yorker or a New Englander and you've ever been intrigued in conversation with a Southerner by the careful, relaxed cadence of her speech, well it's kinda like that...only with rock. You don't realize how fast everyone plays loud music until you hear a band slow down a bit when they get to the instrumental breaks, as CR does in opening track "Naked and Red." They hail, incidentally, from Mississippi. And they play music that's well suited to that full-body-head-nod that's (let's face it) the only dance you know.

Here's the thing: It only works loud. My first listen was on my computer speakers at low volume while I folded laundry. I was...unimpressed. My second listen was in my car, cranked. And when I heard this band slip into a hot, sticky groove as loudly as my little Yaris could play it, I was reminded, quite pleasantly, of why I was interested in the first place. When Colour Revolt is good, when they're indulging in their sound, they're very good. If grooves are what move you, you should listen to this record. Loud. I like it more and more every time I play through it.

If you're interested, the aforementioned "Naked and Red" is currently available for download at myspace.com/colourrevolt and it's as good a place to start as any. You can't download "A Siren," but that one's pretty rad too.

UPDATE - download "Naked and Red" here, and "A Siren" here. Sweet.

---

* The record ends with "What Will Come of Us," which itself ends with some backwards muttering. I couldn't resist re-reversing it to see what the whole thing was about. Turns out it's a comment on how "that end part's fucking tight" and how Len is "dropping that shit." Hear for yourself.

Nobody Writes About: Shootyz Groove

Brilliant sticker placement in High Fidelity* reminded me last night of a band that I haven't spent much time thinking about since high school. Like pretty much everyone that went to high school in Connecticut in the mid-late 90's, I had a brief and ill-advised love affair with rap rock at that time: my beloved Rage Against the Machine provided a gateway into winding, seemingly never-ending couloirs stacked high with ill-advised guitar/emcee combinations. Still, not all of it was bad, and there are a few bands that I still remember fondly, when I have occasion to remember.

Shootyz Groove had one semi-national semi-hit in the summer of '99 (I remember this because it was played on at least 3 different radio stations as I made my way up the Taconic State Parkway to Woodstock '99, a shitshow if there ever was one), but I knew and loved them prior to their short-lived radio fame because of an opening slot they tore apart at the Webster Theater in Hartford before 2 Skinnee J's, a band I'll continue to defend as long as I shall live.

High Definition (purchased at the show) was...fine. Okay, at the time I thought it was amazing. Not all of it sounds good still, but the aforementioned hit (download it or watch the video below) still sounds as good as it ever did, the live cut "Faithful" continues to satisfy, and when album opener "Mad For It" fades in, I'm taken right back to driving around town in the first car I ever owned, playing music louder than I ever could anywhere else. What a feeling.

But Shootyz Groove was a better band to see live than their records let on. I've seen a lot of bands since then, but they still have a special place in my heart as one of the greatest opening acts I've ever seen. Ironically, on the day that I decided to write about them, I checked around the web for them (figuring they'd long since broken up) to find they were playing the Highline Ballroom AS I WAS TYPING ABOUT THEM. I'm buried too deeply in Brooklyn to have been able to make it, but believe me when I tell you that I would've jumped right on a train if I'd had a chance to catch them.

So not only are they still together and performing occasionally (spent the summer on the road with 311, hitting The Living Room in Providence soon), they're putting out a new record, One, this year. I'd be lying if I said I expected to be blown away based on what I've streamed at their site, but I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't still going to check it out anyway.

If there's even a shred of fondness for well-done rap rock left behind the hardened indie rock husk in which you currently dwell, check out what Shootyz Groove has been up to at shootyzgroove.com, or at myspace.com/shootyzgroove.

Shootyz Groove - L Train (video below)



* The "WHAT FUCKING IAN GUY!?!?" scene: Rob goes into his back office and closes the door behind him so Marie DeSalle (Lisa Bonet) doesn't hear him flip out, and there's a Shootyz Groove sticker behind him on the right. I used to have the same sticker on my first car.

Prince - PFunk

I absolutely did not bother writing about it when Prince (or someone representing him) tried to stop the Internet from using his likeness, name, or symbol-as-name. Mostly because I like the guy, and I couldn't tell if the whole to-do was even real. Idolator did like Idolator does, so if you're totally in the dark re: the backstory, you should just read about it there.

The denoument, if you will, is Prince giving away^ this 7 minute ripper of a track. As mea culpa? Regardless, it rules.

Prince - PFunk

* Okay, so I can't actually find confirmation on 3121.com (Prince's site) that this song is free to download, but it's HOSTED there, so I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's cool.

Lead the way, and we'll all go home

There was once a band named Curbside Service. They put out a record called I Packed My Bags a Year in Advance with a few great songs on it (notably the title track) which I stumbled upon one day whilst poking about the Internet. One day they emailed their mailing list announcing a name change and a move from Alabama to California. I've had my eye on The Snake The Cross The Crown ever since.

The band's first EP, Like a Moth Before a Flame, got them signed to Equal Vision Records with a decidedly emo sound. It was the logical progression from the band's Curbside Service days, and if you're into that kind of thing (as I definitely was and still sometimes am) you'd probably like it. TSTCTC's first full-length was called Mander Salis, and it just felt uneven; it showcased a band with serious chops but an even more serious identity crisis. Did they want to be folk rock, emo, psychedelic? All of the above?

I wasn't surprised when the band announced a hiatus after a shortened tour supporting Mander Salis. The record telegraphed individual differences between the members. I expected it to turn into a permanent breakup, and I prematurely mourned the loss of a potentially great band.

I was wrong. The Snake The Cross The Crown are back (sorta) with the decidedly folky Cotton Teeth, and they've been slowly putting themselves back out there (minus bass player Carl Marshall, probably the emo guy) in recent months. Back in March I went to see a performance at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn that had been billed as a performance by the full band, but which ended up being a short set by singer Kevin Jones, who occasionally summoned keyboardist William Sammons and drummer Mark Fate to the stage to help him with songs (pictured above). William's brother Franklin was nowhere to be seen. It was at the same time extremely cool (it kinda felt like a booze-fueled singalong in a college dorm room) and disappointing.

**Update: One of the other 15 or so people at that show took a bit of grainy video. The sound quality is pretty ok. Check it out:

Truthfully, I'm ambivalent about the band's most recent work. Some of their stuff is Great with a capital G, and some of it is...ok. It's the name thing, really. How many folky sounding names can you squeeze into a song? You'd still sound folky without all the names, guys. Not every song needs to mention a Jack or a Jim or a Sue or a Margaret.

Regardless, the band recently did a session for the legendary Daytrotter that's worth checking out. One note: although the Daytrotter site says all the songs are from Cotton Teeth, "A Brief Intermission" is in fact found on Mander Salis.

Interview: The Confusions

Many moons ago, when I was first figuring out what PulverRadio was going to sound like, I spent hours and hours in contact with great indie bands, finding places for them in playlists, trying to help them out any way I could. One of my favorites from that time was a Swedish band called The Confusions.

Lately I've been back in touch with Mikael Andersson-Knut, singer, songwriter, and guitarist for The Confusions. I asked him if he'd do an interview with me over email, and after a few letters back and forth, I think we've put together a decent introduction to the band, who have enjoyed a number of European successes over the years.

The interview follows after this video for "The Pilot."

Mike McClenathan: Easy stuff out of the way first: who's in the band, what do they play, and how long have The Confusions been making music together?

Mikael Andersson-Knut: Mikael Andersson-Knut, songwriter, singer and guitarist
Zarah Edström, keyboards and vocals
Mattias Löfström, drums and percussion
Henrik Svensson, guitars
Magnus Thorsell, bass

The Confusions started up in the early 90's and we released our first record (a split single) back in 1993. Our first ep "Forever" 1994 and our first album "Being Young" 1995. But the line-up of the band was a bit different back then, the new guys :-) in the band are Henrik who joined the band in 1998 (after being our guitar tech.) and Magnus who joined us during the summer 1999.

MM: And where are you from?

MAK: We're all from Sundsvall, Sweden. A town at the east coast, exactly in the middle of the country, about 400 km north of Stockholm.

MM: I spent a week in Stockholm a few years ago and couldn't find anything I liked on the radio. Every station seemed to be an amalgamation of American pop songs I was already sick of and Swedish pop songs that I didn't think were very good. The Confusions are one of many examples of great music being produced in Sweden. Can you comment on the state of music radio and television in Sweden, and on the ways Swedish artists that don't fit that mold are getting their music out there?

MAK: Most of the commercial radio stations have only made the situation worse when it regards playing "good" music on the air. What happened during the last couple of years is that you get this feeling that the public service stations are trying to beat the commercial stations playing the same crap music... which is horrible! The public service stations should be all about special programs and people trying to find out about new and interesting stuff. There are some shows that are good on P3 (public service) and on their Internet channels...but we need more.

There's so much great stuff around here in Sweden, we should be allowed to hear it!

MM: Can you name some other great Swedish artists being ignored by radio?

MAK: There's a lot of them, hard for me to pick out a special one. But I can tell you that there is some weird thing about discovering the "new" band and dropping the old ones. I get a feeling that is different in the US. Maybe because of your live situation is better, you can go on playing live gigs and creating more fans that way in the US.

I think a great older band like The Wannadies [link] are considered in Sweden as "has been" which is awful because they´re just a great band.

A young band like Eskju Divine [link] released their second album in the fall 2006 and got totally ignored in Sweden (it seemed to me anyway)... but they've got things going in Japan etc.

MM: Despite the difficulty of getting traditional airplay, you've had some success with MTV Europe. Is it easier to get on TV than radio?

MAK: We've been lucky with this in a way, being close friends with great young video directors that like to work with us.

We've done great videos with small budgets, it's often all about ideas and locations. So yes, in a way it's been easier for us to get on TV with videos than on the larger radio stations.

MM: Clearly you're promoting yourselves heavily on the Internet, or we wouldn't be having this conversation. What sites/communities have you found to be receptive to what The Confusions are all about?

MAK: Myspace, YouTube, PulverRadio [RIP -ed.], IndieMusic.com some smaller sites...there are a lot of great sites for sure, that's the thing now, the net.

MM: What does the future hold for The Confusions? Are there new releases in the near future? Can we have a sneak preview?

MAK: We released a new acoustic album in May (you'll find it on iTunes [link]) called "It Sure Looks Like The Confusions But It Sounds More Acoustic" in a limited edition of a 1000 copies. This record is only sold at shows and at Internet shops.

But at the same time we're working on a new studio album which will be released in the fall, maybe in October. We have been recording in our own studio Yellow and have been mixing 9 tracks so far in different studios. We're really excited about this new record because we're producing it ourselves... which means freedom and you´ll find different sides of the band on these songs.

A sneak preview could be the video clip Henrik put up on You Tube a few days ago, where we´re mixing a new song called "There Ain´t No Easy Way Out Of Here", check it out. [Video is below -ed.]

You can also download some acoustic (and other songs as well) songs for free at
www.theconfusions.com



Bonus mp3: The Confusions - Artificial

Triangle Forest playing NYC, new song.

Triangle Forest, who I've said before would already be blog-huge if they lived and played in New York instead of Providence, will be playing a few dates in the city this summer:

Jul 27 2007 | 8:00P Galapagos | Brooklyn
Jul 30 2007 | 8:00P Cake Shop (w/ Mixel Pixel) | New York
Aug 9 2007 | 9:00P Club NME New York | New York

I'm out of town for both the July ones, which blows, but you can count on seeing me 8/9 @ NME.

Details on these dates and a bunch of Providence dates at Triangle Forest's MySpace page, where you will also find this new song:

Triangle Forest - Robot Sings for the Master (mp3, right click --> save as)

UNKLE - War Stories (now with mp3)

When UNKLE's Psyence Fiction was released in 1998, I was a senior in high school, and deeply concerned with collecting everything Radiohead-related I could get my hands on. At one out of the two keg parties I ever got invited to in my entire high school career, (if you can remember that far back, party soundtracks were CDs, or -- if the host was truly enterprising -- mix CDs), someone put on Psyence Fiction, which even at background music level perked my ears up when I heard Thom Yorke's unmistakable guest vocal on "Rabbit In Your Headlights."

In college, long after my Radiohead obsession had subsided to a much more reasonable appreciation, Psyence Fiction remained a frequent go-to soundtrack for it's-due-tomorrow late night paper writing. And still, with only a vague awareness of their existence, I let subsequent UNKLE releases pass me by for the better part of a decade.

I never spent much time thinking about why then, but reflecting on it now I realize that I probably never went looking for more UNKLE for the same reason Psyence Fiction ended up playing on the stereo that night in 1998: it played like a really good mix CD. With different guest lineups on the newer records, and nobody playing them at parties, there was just too little to grab me again.

It wasn't until I saw the video for "Burn My Shadow" off UNKLE's War Stories that my interest was renewed -- in a big way.

War Stories doesn't play like a good mix CD. It plays like a record. UNKLE mastermind James Lavelle, almost 10 years after his first commercial success and after numerous label and lineup changes, has really hit his stride. Despite the fact that the record still boasts an all-star cast (Josh Homme and Ian Astbury headlining, see production videos here and here), there is a steadfast captain steering the ship, and it shows.

The aforementioned "Burn My Shadow" featuring Ian Astbury is a highlight, as is the Josh Homme track "Restless," and "Mayday," which features The Duke Spirit. But the record holds up best when taken in all at once, and I encourage you to hear for yourself. It's streaming in full at MySpace.

Try it. I bet you'll like it.

**UPDATE**
Get "Burn My Shadow" ft. Ian Astbury at zSHARE.

Not About The Buildings benefit

The long-beleaguered Providence Public Library System is getting support from a bunch of local musicians who hope that their contributions to the appropriately named "The Library Album" might raise awareness and a bit of coin to keep the doors open at some endangered branches of the public library system in New England's 2nd largest city.

At the very least, it's a neat look at some of the more book-friendly musicians to be found in Providence, and who doesn't like a cross-sectional view of a city's music scene? If you dig, maybe you'll toss a buck or two their way. If not, no hard feelings.

[Providence Public Library]
[Not About The Buildings]

Stereogum likes OK Computer...a lot.

Stereogum just announced the completion of the previously unannounced OK X: A Tribute to OK Computer. Basically, when Stereogum says "Jump," bands ask "how high?" And when Stereogum says "cover Radiohead to commemorate the 10th anniversary of OK Computer," bands say "OK! (heh.)"

The compilation is, of course, a free download and cool from start to finish. Go to Stereogum for the whole deal, but here are direct links to the covers of my two OK Computer favorites:

The Twilight Sad - Climbing Up The Walls
My Brightest Diamond - Lucky

Wonder if any record label folks are panicking that a blog managed to do such a good job putting something like this together, and is now giving it away for free, no strings attached. Wonder if this makes anyone rethink their business model.

Drew & The Medicinal Pen - Dream, Dream, Fail, Repeat

Drew is a day-dreamer and late-sleeper. He is a doodler and entrepreneur. He also makes music, lots of music: cigarette-butts-in-Chinese-food, insomniac, vodka-breathed, bedroom-pop music. Late at night, he draws graffiti of dead TV's. He is scrappy and young, and moved to NYC from Philadelphia. He currently resides on the Lower East Side where he plays shows regularly and survives on a diet of tuna and spaghetti.
-myspace.com/drewhawthorne

I've been meaning to write about this record for some time, but lately I've had trouble finding the right words to talk about things that I really like. I want to write about Dream, Dream, Fail, Repeat in such a way that you're going to listen to the mp3 below, and then need to hear more and head to Drew's myspace, and then, safe in the knowledge that I have not led you astray, maybe even buy the CD. Not because I have any stake in it. Just because it's good and when I think about all the good music that goes largely unheard in our modern-day Tower of Babel, it just breaks my heart.

Drew & The Medicinal Pen, as I've said before, is really a one-man operation. Which I mention because it makes the recording all the more impressive. There's a passage in Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet (which is great, duh) in which a character enters a studio and sends all the studio musicians home so that he can record the entire song in his head by himself. I'm attracted to over-the-top flowery prose, and that passage sticks in my mind as a wonderful description of just how hard it is to sit down and do what Drew has admirably done. But I digress.

While the arrangements on this EP are fun (There's a thank you in the liner notes to Sam Ash for unknowingly allowing Drew to buy a $400 xylophone, record it, and return it the next day), Drew doesn't let them get in the way of his true strength: his songwriting. All the hand clap beats and whistle choruses are well and good, but they're purely ornamental. I'm not sure I'm making my point as well as I could be, but the crux of it is that even though this record with all its instrumentation is a lot of fun to listen to, when Drew gets up on stage alone with his acoustic guitar, he doesn't lose that energy. Again I digress.

These songs are clever, earnest, well performed, and worthy of your time. I haven't stopped listening since I bought the EP from Drew at Goodbye Blue Monday two weeks ago.

He said I could give you a song here and I've been having a hell of a time deciding which one because they all have their strengths. But I've decided on "A City Was Born." That said, you need to go to his myspace right now and also listen to "Merry-Go-Round" while you wait for this one to download, because every time hear that song I think to myself at 2:43 that everyone I know needs to hear this.

Drew & The Medicinal Pen - A City Was Born (mp3, right click to download)

But there's still more. Drew's got a twitchy creative energy about him. I don't want to say something as cliché as "you can see it in his eyes," but you almost can. And you can definitely see it on his myspace page. There's not just music there, there are music videos. There are boastful shots of dead television graffiti. And drawings, cool drawings. I don't want to make this post any longer than it's already going to be, though. So here's what I'm going to do. Below is a cool stop-motion music video, a cool drawing, and one cool photo of some graffiti. There's lots more at his myspace. If this stuff seems cool to you, go there and see more of it.

The Snake The Cross The Crown are back, baby

Following the release of Mander Salis in 2004 and subsequent tour, the band quietly put a note up on snakecrosscrown.com that they were taking a "hiatus" (if I remember correctly). Usually, that's what bands say when they don't want to deal with the full fallout of a breakup publicly (see Blink-182). Kinda like Hollywood couples separating but remaining great friends who call each other every night.

Not the case for TSTCTC though, apparently. Just as quietly as they stepped aside two years ago, The Snake The Cross The Crown started playing shows again recently. And last week while I was away, they posted "Behold The River" on the web, from their new record Cotton Teeth, out March 20.

The Snake The Cross The Crown - Behold The River (mp3, right click to download.)

There has been little fanfare to date. I expect that to change soon. This is really good. Really really good. I love this band, I was sad when I thought they were gone, and now that they're back, I'm just tickled pink.

At the moment, it would seem there's only one planned concert, about a week before the album's release, March 11 at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn. Which is a tiny little place (see this pic i took of The Beagle Club there for reference). I'm planning on being there.

(TSTCTC @ purevolume)

This is pretty cool

Not nearly as cool as having been there (the frustration of the ticketless hoi polloi is well-documented) but this is a very thoughtful consolation prize. The Arcade Fire have very kindly made one of their 5 NYC shows at the Judson Memorial Church available for download via NPR.

Arcade Fire - Live at Judson Memorial Church 2/17/07 (mp3, right click to download)

The Hold Steady, Northsix, 1/18/07

Seriously, why do I even bother with the camera?

If 2006 was a good year for The Hold Steady (and it was), 2007 is shaping up to be even better. A week after Craig Finn and company made their late-night TV debut on Letterman (youtube), and only a few days before embarking on a sold-out UK tour, The Hold Steady descended on Northsix for the most concert-like party I've ever been to.

It didn't hurt that The Hold Steady's first show ever had been on the very same stage 3 years prior. And Northsix's imminent demise (kinda) was certainly lost on no one in the (very full) house either, with numerous thanks from the band throughout the set to a venue that was "always good for a show," even if a band might not be able to draw a full house.

But it was more than all this that made last Thursday night one to remember. It was the palpable energy of a band at its finest, a deserving band finally getting its due. It was a bar band about to go big-time, playing a hometown show to warm up for the impending firestorm of hype that surely awaits across the Atlantic.

They seemed to play everything the crowd wanted to hear. Old stuff from Almost Killed Me (amazon) like opener "Positive Jam" and "Knuckles," and obviously all the new stuff (with the disappointing-but-I'll-get-over-it exception of "Chillout Tent"). And at the end of the second encore they pulled half the crowd onstage (even though the FAQ over at northsix.com strictly forbids such disregard for personal safety) for "Killer Parties."

There a lot of different reasons that I like going to concerts. Sometimes I go to try to discover great new bands (NYC-based Looker opened, now that I'm thinking of it), for example. The Hold Steady at Northsix was a band living up to the hype in a big, sweaty, happy-drunken way. I'll be talking about it for weeks.

BTW, here's a neat remix of "Killer Parties" that they've got posted over at theholdsteady.com:
The Hold Steady - Killer Parties (remix) (mp3, right click to download.)

A late holiday present for you

God, I've been wanting to post this forever. If you've been paying attention you're quite aware of the heaping helpings of praise I'm always sending Endless Mike and The Beagle Club's way. Maybe you've muttered to yourself, consumed by frustration, "shut up and DANCE, Mikey!" not actually desiring me to cut rug, but simply exclaiming the first thing that came into your head immediately following the awareness of a dull ache that can only be eased by a groundbreakingly good track from The Husky Tenor. Well today, for you, I dance.

Endless Mike and The Beagle Club - Mr. Miller's Opus (mp3, right click to download)

This is the last track on The Husky Tenor and what I've found to be the one the people I play the record for latch onto most immediately. Imagine, as you listen, Mike playing an electric piano onstage while his 8-or-so person band mills about the stage, some sitting calmly, some pumping fists, all singing along un-mic'ed. And enjoy.

(Here are the lyrics on purevolume, where you can also stream the entire record.)

(Here is where you can buy it.)