Back when many hipsters were still being shuttled to soccer practice in
Mom’s Minivan (the pupal stage of the SUV), Dave Derby was in a band called
the Dambuilders. I haven’t heard many of their albums, but I know they
were responsible for at least one great song, “Shrine”, from 1994’s Encendedor.
Dave has a new record, Even Further Behind, out on Badman next month. Check it.

Now, IIRC, The Dambuilders were planning to, over the course of their career, record
50 songs, each one dedicated to a specific state in the union. I think they only hit on
15 to 20 before they disbanded. Well, I think they’re now being one-upped by
Mr. Sufjan Stevens, whose album,
Michigan, on Asthmatic Kitty,
marks the inaugural entry in his “50 States” project. That’s right, not a song for each state; it’s
an album for each state. And I don’t doubt that he can do it. Those Asthmatic Kitty/Sounds Familyre
guys can write 10 songs in the time it takes to toast a bagel.

Peefork (whose new animated-gif-ridden homepage almost induced an epileptic seizure on me) has
released the tracklist for the upcoming Shins
album. It’s called Chutes Too Narrow.

Tracklist:
01 Kissing The Lipless

02 Mine’s Not A High Horse
03 So Says I
04 Young Pilgrams
05 Saint Simon
06 Fighting in a Sack
07 Pink Bullets
08 Turn A Square
09 A Call To Apathy [tentative title]
10 Those To Come

And as to that previously-mentioned Neutral Milk Hotel release: Could it really be true? Could it
be that the new release is….a T-shirt? Frank
says yes, as does the Administrator (The
Late B.P. Helium, actually) of the the Elephant Six Message Board.

And from the Did-You-Know? file:
Stephin Merritt named a Pantone® color: Carolyn Eve Green, PANTONE® 7498. 
Stephin comments: ”I named this color for my friend, Carolyn Eve. She lives in
the pine-addled
Rocky Mountains. However dark things grow, she is still green. If vegetables
were Carolyn Eve Green, children would be happier to eat them. This is
a good color for camouflage, carpet, a wristwatch or the book jacket of
a collection of Russian writings, for example, Chekhov’s plays. It is not
advisable for lampshades, eyeshadow or milk cartons. Using it in stripes
on a field of pale salmon (PANTONE® 197@50%) could be quite shocking.
It would be great for biotech business cards.”
(from Stephinsongs)