Certainly there are plenty of releases out this week that are worth your hard-earned
bread, but everyone knows that next week is the big one. There is a ton of great
crap coming out on the 22nd, including 2 from Merge:
Crooked Fingers’s Dignity & Shame is
finally coming out, as is M Ward’s Transistor Radio.
Furthermore, Merge has them both up for streaming right now:

If, for some reason, streaming is unacceptable to you, and you absolutely must download some mp3s, then go hither:

(And note that that Salon Audiofile site I mentioned yesterday
has another M Ward track available, “Fuel For Fire”).

I was reminded by the (finally) fully-redesigned Touch and Go site that also out next week is Enon’s Lost Marbles and Exploded Evidence. The first Enon
stuff I ever heard was the Fly South 7″ (included on the disc, btw). I remember thinking, “Damn. This is really weird. I like it.” Mp3:

Last night, I went to the Verse Press Isn’t It Romantic reading, and
it was really good. Being that this is a music site, and not a poetry one, you may be wondering why I mention it.
The reason is because this new Isn’t It Romantic Collection comes bundled
with a 20-track disc, featuring Magnolia Electric Co, Nina Nastasia, Buckner, Jenny Toomey, Silver Jews, and many more.
And it’s a damn good disc. Well worth the $20 price tag.

Hey, The Decemberists just announced a slew of new tour dates.
You might want to check that out. Picaresque isn’t out til next month, but here’s an mp3:

And for die-hard Unbunny fans, you can now stream (in, ahem, Realaudio) an older Unbunny show
from the Black Strawberries era. Black Strawberries is one of my top 5 albums of the 21st Century.