VAGUE SPACE

New Music for Friday

The new Editors album is being released on July 17th.  The first single - which I heard on Left of Center, so I'm hoping they don't mind me posting it - is pretty damn awesome.  Pre-order the new CD An End Has a Start here.

• Download Editors - "Smokers Outside Hospital Doors".mp3

My Morning Jacket has recently released an early demo version collection of tracks off their first two albums, At Dawn and The Tennessee Fire.  Here's a couple tracks from the new release, as well as an original version and a more recent MMJ track that I absolutely love.  The changes in the band's sound are pretty drastic through the years (The Tennessee Fire came out in 1999, Z in 2005), but the results are remarkably consistent.

• Download My Morning Jacket - "Picture of You (demo)".mp3
• Download My Morning Jacket - "The Bear (demo)".mp3
• Download My Morning Jacket - "The Bear".mp3
• Download My Morning Jacket - "Anytime".mp3

And that's all I have time to post.  Have a nice weekend.  See you in July, the month of your favorite friendly blogger's birthday (hint, hint).  I enjoy beer, mp3s, and gift certificates to Best Buy. 

A Whole New Kind of Crazy

Howard Stern has been having fun with this all week - the insane ramblings of former WWF wrestler The Iron Sheik.  He was on Ferrell's show on Sirius on Tuesday night, drinking five 40s and cursing up a storm, going off on everyone from fellow wrestlers to Jews.  I don't know where the hell he came from after all these years (I vaguely remember watching him in the early to mid 80s) or why Howard was on him this week (Artie does an incredible impersonation).  I assume it came out of the Chris Benoit wrestling talk, but in any case, here's some YouTube of the Sheik in action.  Enjoy.  But be careful.  Don't play this if you're not a fan of the F word.

Adventures in Travel

Everyone who knows me knows I don't enjoy traveling.  Why not?  Well, let's start with my hatred for flying, which involves a little bit of the fear of death, adds in a touch of nausea, and throws in some migraine headaches for good measure.  Then there's the airport and delays and security checks that you pretty much have to walk through naked at this point (my belt? you want me to remove my belt?  Okay.)  And the cramped seating that does wonders for my damaged knees.  And the smells emanating from the bathroom.  And the other passengers.  And the fact that I can't read during flights (see "headaches", above).  Or sleep.  Or even do a crossword puzzle (again, with the headaches).  Which, until the days of the iPod video, meant chatting nonstop with my flying companion, or when traveling alone, sitting an undersized, threadbare-cushioned chair, staring blankly ahead while wedged between two fat fucks slurping down the last of their drinks (Diet Coke, please), gasping for air in the stifling cabin for hours on end.  Long story short?  Not a fan of the flying.  If I'm not completely drunk (difficult to achieve at 7 in the morning) or flying to some great vacation destination (pretty rare), I'm not liking the flying.

Then there's the disruption to the normal routine - up early to catch a flight, home late after a flight.  Sleeping in a dirty hotel room (I don't care how "clean" or "upscale" the hotel is, did you see the 60 Minutes special with the black light?).  The bad eating.  The public bathrooms.  The cabs.  Getting lost in your destination city.  Pumping your own gas (go NJ!)  The annoying friendliness of hotel employees, rental car employees, airline employees (Okay, maybe not that last one).  Airport food.  Airports.  Planes.  Basically, if I can't drive there, I don't usually like to go.  And if I have to fly for work, add in the fact that I'm typically going to Central Bumfuck, Indiana, and my "destination" is a 100-degree warehouse with a bunch of yokels trying to explain why it takes them two hours to pack a "special order."  Not good times.

• Download Sun Kil Moon - "Carry Me Ohio".mp3

When We Were Younger & Better

Here's some somewhat new music from largely unknown bands that you may not have heard of yet.  Have a go.

• 65daysofstatic
  • This guitar-driven post-rock band from Sheffield, England, is poised to garner greater acclaim after a supposedly scorching performance at SXSW that earned them a slot opening for alternative stalwarts The Cure on their fall tour.  Their third album, The Destruction of  Small Ideas, was released this spring.  Buy it here.  Oh, and they blog too.  So you gotta love them, although the background on their Wordpress page could use a little lightening.

• Download 65daysofstatic - "When We Were Younger & Better".mp3
• Download 65daysofstatic - "Don't Go Down to Sorrow".mp3

• Maserati
  • Another relatively unknown group of post-rockers, this one from Athens, GA and signed to the home of post-rock, Temporary Residence Records, featuring somewhat more psychedelic rhythms than are typically heard in this genre.  Their first album for the awesome label is titled Inventions for the New Season and was released last week.

• Download Maserati - "The World Outside".mp3
• Download Maserati - "12/16".mp3

• Dog Day
  • Taken from their myspace page, because I don't know anything about them and they don't even have a wikipedia entry, this Canadian quartet of two girls and two boys are known for their energetic pop songs, like the great single below.  I think Night Group is their debut full-length.
  • Download Dog Day - "Oh Dead Life".mp3

• You Say Party! We Say Die!
  • Cool name for this Canadian five-piece dance punk band out of British Columbia.  Their sophomore album, Lose All Time, was released this spring on Paper Bag Records.  Um, did I ever tell you how great Canadian music is this decade?  Check out this track.
  •  Download You Say Party! We Say Die! - "Monster".mp3

2007 Half Year Awards

Record of the Year (as of June 25, 2007)

1. Sunset Rubdown - "Apistat Commander (orig. by Xiu Xiu)"
   • Download Sunset Rubdown - "Apistat Commander (Xiu Xiu)".mp3
2. LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
3. Modest Mouse - "Spitting Venom"
   • Download Modest Mouse - "Spitting Venom".mp3
4. Explosions in the Sky - "Catastrophe and the Cure"
5. Handsome Furs - "Dead + Rural"
6. Do Make Say Think - "In Mind"
7. The Arcade Fire - "Intervention"
8. Bright Eyes - "Reinvent the Wheel"
9. Dntel - "Dumb Luck"
10. Explosions in the Sky - "The Birth and Death of the Day"
11. Handsome Furs - "Sing! Captain"
    • Download Handsome Furs - "Sing! Captain".mp3
12. The Arcade Fire - "No Cars Go"
13. Caspian - "Some are White Light"
14. Beirut - "Elephant Gun"
    • Download Beirut - "Elephant Gun".mp3
15. Eluvium - "Prelude for Time Feelers"
16. Handsome Furs - "The Radio's Hot Sun"
    • Download Handsome Furs - "The Radio's Hot Sun"
17. Modest Mouse - "Parting of the Sensory"
18. Explosions in the Sky - "Welcome, Ghosts"
19. The Arcade Fire - "The Well and the Lighthouse"
20. Bright Eyes - "Hot Knives"
    • Download Bright Eyes - "Hot Knives"
21. Loney, Dear - "I Am John"
22. Okkervil River - "The Next Four Months"
23. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - "Yankee Go Home"
24. The National - "Fake Empire"
25. Low - "Violent Past"
26. Handsome Furs - "Cannot Get, Started"
27. Modest Mouse - "Little Motel"
28. Modest Mouse  - "March into the Sea"
29. Bright Eyes - "Four Winds"
30. Do Make Say Think - "The Universe!"
31. The National - "Slow Show"
    • Download The National - "Slow Show".mp3
32. Okkervil River - "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe"
    • Download Okkervil River - "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe"
33. Bright Eyes - "No One Would Riot for Less"
34. Frog Eyes - "Bushels"
35. Caspian - "Brombie"
36. The National - "Apartment Story"
37. Andrew Bird - "Plasticities"
38. Peter Bjorn & John - "Young Folks"
39. Apostle of Hustle - "Cheap Like Sebastien"
40. The Arcade Fire - "Keep the Car Running"

New Music Friday

Happy Weekend.  Enjoy these new tracks from some pretty great albums.

• Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army

• Download  The Polyphonic Spree - "Section 22: Running Away".mp3

• Art Brut - It's a Bit Complicated

• Download Art Brut - "Direct Hit".mp3
• (Removed by request)

• Frank Black - Best Of (93-03)

• Download Frank Black - "Dog Gone (live)".mp3

• Kevin Drew's first single off the new "Broken Social Scene Presents" album "Spirit If..."

• Download Kevin Drew - "Tbtf".mp3
  
  • (it stands for "You're too beautiful to fuck", I think.  sorry if you're offended.)

State of the Phillies

Bottom of the 8th inning, Tuesday night.  Phillies clinging to a 1-run lead with runners on the corners after Ryan Madson gave up 3 hits and a walk with 2 outs to cut the margin to 6-5 with the tying run on third and pinch-hitter Casey Blake coming to the plate.  One of the worst managers in modern baseball history - Charlie Manuel - comes lumbering out of the dugout with a befuddled expression on his face and nearly reaches the mound before remembering to signal for a reliever to enter the game to replace the struggling Madson.  And to cheers of delight and jeers of laughter, the Jacobs Field crowd in Cleveland greets Jose Mesa - yes THE Jose Mesa - as he enters the contest to try to get an out and preserve the Phillies victory.  Jose Mesa - sporting an ERA over 10 in stints with Detroit and Philly this year.  Jose Mesa - who gave up 4 runs in 1 inning against Cleveland earlier this season.  Jose Mesa - who had a 6.52 ERA in 61 games in his last stint in a Phillies uniform... back in 2003.  Jose Mesa - who had a 4.76 ERA in Pittsburgh in 2005, with 7 blown saves.  Jose Mesa - whose blown save in the 1997 World Series cost Cleveland its first title since 1948.  That Jose Mesa. 

Mesa started Blake off with a very nice curve ball for a called strike and followed with a well-placed 91 mph fastball that Blake swung late on.  0-2, 2 outs, game on the line.  And Mesa throws a meatball that Blake smokes on a line up the middle.  BUT - Chase Utley is playing him up the middle and stabs at the ball, which shockingly (to Chase especially) finds its way into his glove on one hop.  He makes the throw to first, inning over.  After Roberto Hernandez - yes THE Roberto Hernandez, with his 6.23 ERA (I guess the Phillies aren't the only idiot team in the league) - gives up 3 runs in the top of the 9th thanks to a crushed Ryan Howard double - Philadelphia hangs on for the victory and pulls to within 2 games of the first place Mets.  The state of the Phillies:  desperate, frightening, horrendously managed throughout the organization, but somehow - some way - in the pennant race.

It's Not TV. It's HBOver.

If you are one of the 20 million subscribers to HBO who spent the last two weeks dissecting the Sopranos finale and wondering whether it was truly brilliant cinema or a David Chase mindfuck, you're probably also wondering whether or not to cancel your subscription to HBO -- unless you already have.  And if you're not, what exactly are you paying $13.95 a month for?  Entourage?  And.... Entourage?  Did you watch this week's episode?  Did you really pay $13.95 to see Billy Walsh go psycho crazy and hit on an extra while Ari and Drama and Turtle were relegated to bit parts and Vince was unrecognizable under 20 pounds of makeup and a Spanish accent and language?  I'm sorry, but Entourage is a decent little pseudo-comedy that isn't often all that funny and is mostly just amusing.  It's certainly not worth $13.95 a month (or whatever I'm paying for HBO... it might be more than that).  So what else is there?  I made it through about 15 minutes of John from Cincinnati, which has to be longer than anyone else besides relatives of the producers lasted.  I mean, you're asking a lot by putting a rapidly aging Luke Perry in the opening scene and expecting people to stick with the show.   Combine that with the decaying remains of Rebecca De Mornay as the grandmother of a family of surfers whose husband starts floating inexplicably in the second scene of the show and who enters her 13-year-old grandson in a surfing competition, which apparently is the most audacious possible thing she could ever do, given the rest of the characters' reactions.  Except for the grandson's, whose reactions ranged from blank stare to blank stare while flubbing his lines.  Nice choice of actors there, producers.  Oh, and there's this strange guy "John" who repeats the line "Some things I know, and some things I don't," apropos of absolutely nothing, at least seventeen times too many in the parts of the show I watched.  Does it get better?  Who the fuck knows?  I stopped watching.

No Time to Post

Let's see.  This weekend, there was golf, Greeks, ghettos, poker, graduations, more poker, Phillies, Father's Day, cheesesteaks, beer, more beer, Switsky's "don't be a father" manifesto, my full house on the turn that got beat by a better full house on the river (a 2 in 40 chance), my 6/7 diamonds all-in with a 7-5-3 (the 5 and 3 were diamonds) flop, only to get called by a 7 with a higher kicker, hitting a 4 on the turn, giving me approximately 87 outs to get a straight or flush or straight flush, but falling short and going home in 3rd.  Which is still way better than I did against the Greeks.  Those motherfucker Greek magic bullshit bastards.  But I digress.  Long story short, I had no time to post again this weekend, so you're getting a little music today and probably much of the week.  On the bright side, I can finally walk without a limp after the Thursday doubleheader in softball followed by 18 holes of golf that left my increasingly seriously injured left knee in bad shape.  I may even try to run today. 

• Download The National - "Blank Slate".mp3
• Download Shout Out Louds - "Don't Get Yourself Involved".mp3
• Download The New Pornographers - "The Bleeding Heart Show".mp3
• Download The New Pornographers - "Chump Change".mp3
• And thanks to Sand is Overrated for these clips of Bright Eyes on late night shows two weeks ago.  Go to Sand for the video captures.
  • Download Bright Eyes - "Hot Knives (live on Letterman)".mp3
  • And I love how Conor switches:  "I've made love, yeah, I've been fucked. So what?" to "I've made love in handcuffs. So what?" Gotta love network censorship after midnight.  Yes, the word "fuck" is a signal of the end of civilization.  Keep the kids away!!!
  • Download Bright Eyes - "Classic Cars (live on Craig Ferguson)".mp3

A Look Ahead

2007 has proven to be an incredible year in the world of indie rock music as nearly every week has seen an amazing new release.  I've probably bought more albums this year than any year well, maybe ever, and have seen some wonderful surprises (Armchair Apocrypha, You, You're a History in Rust, Tears of the Valedictorian), some expected delights (We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, Neon Bible, Boxer), some mild disappointments (Some Loud Thunder,  Cassadaga, Dumb Luck, Drums and Guns), some major disappointments (A Weekend in the City, Sound of Silver, Do You Trust Your Friends?) and some outright brilliance (Plague Park).  A full summary of my favorite albums and songs of the year to date will be presented in the coming week, but I just wanted to discuss how many more amazing albums are expected in the 2nd half of this year.  Here they are, in expected release date order.

• Feist -  The Reminder
  • Okay, this one's out already, but I was never a Feist fan so I only bought the album this week and I have to say I'm surprisingly impressed.  The following is my favorite track.
    • Download Feist - "I've Seen it All".mp3
• Art Brut - It's a Bit Complicated
  • Releasing next week (June 19th)
    • Download Art Brut - "People in Love".mp3
• Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
  • Releasing on July 10th
    
    • Download Spoon - "The Ghost of You Lingers".mp3
• Interpol - Our Love to Admire
  • Releasing on July 10th
    • Download Interpol - "The Heinrich Maneuver".mp3
  • Here's the tracklist

  • 1. Pioneer To The Falls

    2. No I In Threesome

    3. Scale

    4. Heinrich Maneuver

    5. Mammoth

    6. Pace Is the Trick

    7. All Fired Up

    8. Rest My Chemistry

    9. Who Do You Think?

    10. Wrecking Ball

    11. Lighthouse