Dinosaur Jr., "I Want You To Know"

I know, I know. This was streaming pretty much everywhere yesterday so anyone who is even remotely interested in hearing it has heard it. But Jagjaguwar made it an official free download on their site today, so that's probably worth noting.

"I Want You To Know" is the first we've heard off of the upcoming Farm. It certainly sounds like Dinosuar Jr. and that's just how it should be.

"I Want You To Know"

Farm is out on 06/23 and will be a double LP.

Repressed!: Pulp, This Is Hardcore

Was very excited this morning to see that Plain Recordings is repressing This Is Hardcore, Pulp's 1998 follow up to Different Class. Pulp vinyl is pretty hard to come by in my experience, unless you have enough bucks and patience to pay a pretty penny on eBay. The only two I have in my collection are Countdown and We Love Life, both being very lucky finds at Amoeba Hollywood quite some time ago. I'm ecstatic to add This Is Hardcore right in between those records in my collection.

This release is on 180 gram double vinyl with a gatefold sleeve. You can pre-order now over at Aural Exploits. Ship date is scheduled for May 5th.

Track listing:

1. The Fear
2. Dishes
3. Party Hard
4. Help The Aged
5. This Is Hardcore
6. TV Movie
7. A Little Soul
8. I'm A Man
9. Seductive Barry
10. Sylvia
11. Glory Days
12. The Day After The Revolution
13. Like A Friend
14. Tomorrow Never Lies
15. Laughing Boy
16. The Professional
17. This Is Hardcore (End Of The Line Remix)

"Help The Aged":

Sonic Youth, "What We Know" - Live on Later...With Jools Holland 04/28/09

Holy heck. As much as I loved Rather Ripped, based off of this song The Eternal will kick that records ass ten ways till Sunday.

The Eternal is out on June 9th via Matador. They have one helluva Buy Early Get Now going too.

Did you hear that they still make vinyl records?!

Vacation Vinyl in Los Feliz (image courtesy of www.eastsidelivingla.com)

No offense to the LA Times, because the more coverage about this the better, but it seems like there's a new article each week almost word for word like the one they ran on Monday. Every article marvels at the fact that vinyl records are the only area of the music buisness that is growing. It's still a small percentage of overall music sold, but it's growing.

Aside from the redundancy of the statistics and the fact that vinyl never really went away, articles like these are great and serve the bigger cause. The more people who read these for the first time and think about going out and dusting off the turntable and digging out the old collection (or better yet, buying a new turntable and STARTING a collection) is a step in the right direction. Except if you are looking for rare Britpop records. Stay the hell away from those- they're mine.

The nice thing about this article is it profiles the great new vinyl stores that are popping up around L.A. Vacation Vinyl, Origami and Little Radio's new downtown venture all get mentions. It sure is a great time to love vinyl and live in Los Angeles. Shit- there was even a press release sent out this week about a new vinyl / BBQ hybrid opening up in Silver Lake.

Check out the full L.A. Times article here.

John Vanderslice, Romanian Names

The always excellent (and super likable) John Vanderslice has made the switch from his longtime home at Barsuk to Dead Oceans for his upcoming new album Romanian Names. You can listen to two new songs from the album below.

"Fetal Horses"

"Too Much Time"

Romanian Names is out on May 19th, but if you pre-order now you'll get an instant download of the album PLUS a limited edition custom made wallet with a snippet of the unused master tape (if you are one of the first 100). It's not every day you get something like that with a pre-order.


He'll also be launching a North American tour around the same time the new album is released. Check out the dates over on his official site.

Best Buy To Carry More Vinyl In Additional Stores?

According to yesterday's New York Post article, they are strongly mulling it over:

The consumer-electronics giant, which happens also to be the third-largest music seller behind Apple's iTunes and Wal-Mart, is considering devoting eight square feet of merchandising space in all of its 1,020 stores solely to vinyl, which would equate to just under 200 albums, after a test in 100 of its stores around the country proved successful.

Though vinyl represents less than 5 percent of Best Buy's music sales, the format is growing while CD sales continue to shrink.

Read the rest of the article here.

Great news for current and future collectors around the country that don't have the luxury of living near independent boutique vinyl stores. Sounds like the selection will be fairly limited at first, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Wilco (The Album)

A few different places are confirming that Wilco have titled their upcoming release Wilco (The Album). Allegedly their publicist has confirmed this, but their official site still has the album listed as "still untitled". They do have a tracklisting up however:

Wilco The Song
Deeper Down
One Wing
Bull Black Nova
You And I
You Never Know
Country Disappeared
Solitaire
I'll Fight
Sunny Feeling
Everlasting

"Wilco, The Song" (Live on The Colbert Report)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Exclusive Wilco Song
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Gay Marriage Commercial

Whatever they call the album, it's currently scheduled to be out in late June on Nonesuch. The band kick off their U.S. tour starting in Cincinnati, OH on June 12th. You can check the dates here.

Stephen Malkmus: The Soft Focus interview

Ian Svenonius hosts a show on VBS.tv called Soft Focus. The latest installment of the show is an interview with Stephen Malkmus. Watch the first clip above. To watch parts 2 through 4 click over to the site.

Mono, Hymn To The Immortal Wind

As a post-rock fan I sometimes find myself slightly concerned with the genre and, more specifically, it's front runners. It's easy to imagine these bands all together in a medium sized room where they each pick a corner and start painting the floor backwards towards the middle. It feels like at some point they are going to end up bumping into each other, effectively running out of creative space.

As much as I love, love, love listening to post-rock I have to be honest with myself. Not everyone can do it well. Far less bands can do it great. And those that can do it great I want them to do it great forever and I'm always afraid there's going to come a day when they can't but they keep going anyway.

I can't really say I've consciously thought this about Mono, but I guess in a way I'll always sub-consciously think about it whenever someone like them puts out a new record. That's why I think I put off picking this one up until now, a few weeks after it's release. What if this was it? What if this is the one where they run out of steam?

Me of little faith.

As it turns out, this record is everything that is right about Mono and everything that's right about the music they choose to make. Sweeping, cinematic, breathtaking...all of the adjectives that have already been heaped upon them so many times before...they all apply here. But at the same time this album feels different than the last. And that's the key part for a post-rock band. With Hymn To The Immortal Wind not only have Mono possibly made their best record in their ten year career, they also manage to ease all anxiety that they could possibly stop making the most epic music you've ever heard anytime in the near (or far) future.

"Ashes In The Snow"

"Follow The Map", directed by Dimitri Galuret:



Hymn To The Immortal Wind is a double LP and is out now on Temporary Residence Limited.

Fleet Foxes "Mykonos" 7"

What a gem of a song "Mykonos" is. Originally included on the Sun Giant EP it's now getting it's very own 7" release.

Sporting the beautiful cover shown above, the b-side is a cover of "False Knight on the Road".

You can pre-order this now from Sub Pop.

Fleet Foxes are on a much deserved touring break and are back on the road in June with some European dates.

"Mykonos":

Now Available On Wax: Tweak Bird Reservations EP

He took his sweet ass time, but I Hate Rock N Roll finally has that Tweak Bird Reservations EP pressed on green vinyl and ready for order. This is a co-release with White Noise.

If you aren't familiar with Tweak Bird take a peek at this live video. It pretty much tells you what you need to know. Yes- they are playing in a mall!



Go ahead and order this bad boy before they are all gone.

Tweak Bird are currently out on a hefty tour with Big Business. Check out the dates over on their MySpace and if they are playing anywhere near you, you really need to get your ass out to the show.

Morrissey, "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" Live Video

Morrissey -Something Is Squeezing My Skull


Morrissey and company perform the opening track from Years of Refusal.

Pink Mountaintops, Outside Love: pre-order, get the digital download now

It's not news to any collector that labels have been very rewarding to their consumers who support their vinyl releases. Digital download cards included in the record sleeve have been increasing at an amazing rate over the last two years. Pretty much everyone is doing it these days.

Jagjaguwar is doing you one better when you pre-order the new Pink Mountaintops, Outside Love, by giving you immediate access to the mp3's. You can also preview the entire album now over at their MySpace page. Suffice it to say, if you liked the previous offerings from PM or you're a Black Mountain fan you're probably going to want to pick this up.

You can also preview / download two songs from Outside Love over at the Jagjag site:

"Vampire"

"While We Were Dreaming"

Outside Love is out on May 5th.

Blitzen Trapper a capella / The Soft Pack preview unreleased song

Not sure what this Ahead of the Curve over at mtvU is exactly, or why their videos are so darn short. Must be a show on their college station that they want you to tune into. Anyways- they have two 45 second long videos that caught my attention.

First is Blitzen Trapper performing "Sleepytime in the Western World" with just their voices. I think their label buddies Fleet Foxes seem to get the most attention for their harmonies, but this video shows that BT is great at it as well:




Secondly, they have a preview of The Soft Pack performing an 'unreleased' song. I've pretty much loved anything I've ever heard from these guys, but I'm not so sure about this one. I know it's hard to form an opinion on less than a minute of music, so we should all reserve judgement for now:

Vinyl Steal!: Iron & Wine, Around the Well

When was the last time you picked up a brand new triple LP for $19, plus a couple bucks shipping? Let me answer that for you: probably never.

Iron and Wine's new rarities album, Around the Well, is up for pre-order over at SubPop.com for just that amount.

If you haven't been paying attention, Around the Well collects harder to find songs from Sam Beam's career and spans from the very beginning (The Creek Drank The Cradle) all the way up to his most recent (The Shepherd's Dog). And it's probably going to be awesome.

My co-worker said the other day that Iron and Wine bores him now and he makes music for indie rock parents and their kids. I think my co-worker is full of shit about a lot of things, including this statement. I say Sam Beam could very easily be a snoozer at this point in his career but hasn't had a single misstep yet as far as I am concerned and continues to crank out increasingly interesting music. Dude's got an ear for melody.

Around the Well is available May 19th. You can listen to one of the less rare rarities, "The Trapeze Singer" at the below link:

"The Trapeze Singer"

Holy Fuck confirms U.S. Tour Dates, Listen to new song "Jungles"

Well holy heck. Holy Fuck have announced a U.S. tour. Here are the dates (chronologically backwards, just like they appear on their official site):

06.16.09 Pilot Light · Knoxville TN · w/ Crocodiles

06.15.09 Drunken Unicorn · Atlanta GA · w/ Crocodiles

06.14.09 Bottletree · Birmingham AL · w/ Crocodiles

06.13.09 Spanish Moon · Baton Rouge LA · w/ Crocodiles

06.12.09 Walter's · Houston TX · w/ Crocodiles

06.11.09 Mohawk · Austin TX · w/ Crocodiles

06.10.09 Lounge On Elm · Dallas TX · w/ Crocodiles

06.08.09 Plush · Tucson AZ · w/ Crocodiles

06.07.09 Casbah · San Diego CA · w/ Crocodiles

06.06.09 Troubadour · Los Angeles CA · w/ Crocodiles

06.05.09 Bottom of the Hill · San Francisco CA · w/ Crocodiles

06.04.09 Doug Fir · Portland OR · w/ Crocodiles

06.03.09 Nightlight Lounge · Bellingham WA · w/ Crocodiles

05.31.09 7th Street Entry · Minneapolis MN · w/ Crocodiles

05.30.09 Empty Bottle · Chicago IL · w/ Crocodiles

05.29.09 Magic Stick · Detroit MI · w/ Crocodiles

05.28.09 Grog Shop · Cleveland OH · w/ Crocodiles

05.27.09 RNR Hotel · Washington DC · w/ Crocodiles

05.25.09 Church · Philadelphia PA · w/ Crocodiles

05.24.09 Ottobar · Baltimore MD · w/ Crocodiles

05.23.09 Bowery · New York NY · w/ Crocodiles

05.22.09 Music Hall · Brooklyn NY · w/ Crocodiles

05.21.09 Middle East Upstairs · Boston MA · w/ Crocodiles

I hear a lot about these Crocodiles, but you can bet that Holy Fuck will bring it for sure. I've actually never caught them live but I hear good things and I still love the shit out of LP. I mean, they've toured with Super Furry Animals, Mouse on Mars and Battles. There's no way any of those bands would play with a band that didn't own live.

Also- they have a "previously unreleased song" called "Jungles" and you can hear it here:

"Jungles"

I haven't listened to it yet, but I will tomorrow!

"Milkshake" from LP (video by Chad VanGaalen)



New album allegedly this fall.

Depeche Mode, "Wrong" and "Personal Jesus" on Jimmy Kimmel

"Wrong":



"Personal Jesus":

Depeche Mode mini-set in Hollywood - 04.23.09

Depeche Mode pleased thousands of fans and pissed off hundreds of commuters by shutting down Hollywood Boulevard tonight for their Jimmy Kimmel taping.

Here's the set list:

"Wrong" (full song aired)
"Personal Jesus" (rolled during credits)

Extra songs for live audience only:

"Walking In My Shoes"
"Come Back To Me"
"Peace"
"Enjoy The Silence"
"Never Let Me Down Again"

The new songs sounded pretty flat and not really road tested yet. Dave almost even sounded like he was singing a different melody during "Come Back To Me" than he does on the album. Or maybe it was just out of tune.

The old songs though were spot-fucking on. "Never Let me Down Again" was the perfect set closer and really clinched the decision to try to go see them when they play Anaheim (editors note: there's no chance in hell I'm going to go see them at the Hollywood Bowl).

Also- apparently they need a few corporate sponsors to shut down a street in Hollywood and build a huge stage. One of these sponsors was this new movie called Fighting. I just want to say that this looks like the shittiest movie I have ever known and I felt bad that The Mode had to play in front of posters of that.

Record Store Day 2009, Part II: Vacation

Record Store Day 2009, Part I: Amoeba Hollywood