Fresh off their keynote at Macworld*, Fischerspooner
have just announced additional tour dates:

9-14 Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR
9-15 Fillmore, SF, CA
9-16 Fillmore, SF, CA
9-17 4th and B, San Diego, CA
9-19 House of Blues, Las Vegas
9-20 House of Blues, Anaheim
9-21 House of Blues, Los Angeles
9-22 Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ
9-24 Boulder Theatre, Boulder, CO
9-26 Gypsy Tea Room, Dallas, TX
9-27 Stubbs BBQ, Austin, TX
9-28 Engine Room, Houston, TX
10-1 House of Blues, New Orleans, LA
10-2 Earthlink Live, Atlanta, GA
10-4 Majestic Theatre, Detroit, MI
10-5 House of Blues, Chicago, IL

(*everyone notice how the Apple G5 commercial is
an advertising staple of Bravo’s “Gay Tuesday Night”
(along with that “sexual” taste of DiSaronno
commercial))

Also of note: The Rapture Has A Posse. Note that if you join
the “Rapture Mailing List” on
their site, you’re now actually joining Univyrsal’s “Rapture Fan Club”, where you
can request to be spammed with promo emails hwarking other Univyrsal properties such
as Motown Reggae, Motown R&B, and Motown Country (?!). Where do I sign, baby?!!!

Also of note:

Prefix Mag interview with Spoon’s Jim Eno.

GloNo interview with The Rentals’ (now “solo”) Matt Sharp.

Guitar Mag interview with Teenage Fanclub.

(via Chromewaves.net)

Darnielle’s thoughtful look at the two sides of the Uncle Tupelo coin, over at LPTJ.

Tourdates for the Beulah / JV roadshow ‘03
have finally been posted.

10.03.03 - LA: Troubadour
10.04.03 - San Diego: Casbah
10.05.03 - Tucson: TBA
10.07.03 - Austin: Emo’s
10.08.03 - Dallas: Gypsy Tea Room
10.10.03 - Atlanta: The Earl
10.11.03 - Nashville: TBA
10.12.03 - Chapel Hill: Cat’s Cradle
10.13.03 - Washington, D.C.: Black Cat
10.15.03 - Philadelphia: First Unitarian Church
10.16.03 - NYC: Bowery Ballroom
10.17.03 - Brooklyn: TBA
10.18.03 - Boston: Middle East (Downstairs)
10.20.03 - Montreal: La Sala Rosa
10.21.03 - Toronto: Lee’s Palace
10.23.03 - Columbus, OH: Little Brother’s
10.24.03 - Cincinnati: Southgate House
10.25.03 - Chicago: The Abbey
10.27.03 - Minneapolis: 400 Bar
10.30.03 - Portland: Blackbird
10.31.03 - Vancouver, BC: The Royal
11.01.03 - Seattle: Graceland
11.06.03 - San Francisco: Great American Music Hall
11.07.03 - San Francisco: Great American Music Hall

Shit, mark your calendar for September 9th.

My Morning Jacket It Still Moves September 9th on ATO Records/Badman Recording Co. 1. Mahgeetah 2. Dancefloors 3. Golden 4. Masterplan 5. One Big Holiday 6. I Will Sing You Songs 7. Easy Morning Rebel 8. Run Thru 9. Rollin Back 10. Just One Thing 11. Steam Engine 12. One In The Same

The Joggers Solid Guild September 9th on Startime 1. Loosen Up 2. Hot Autism 3. Back to the Future 4. Little Kings 5. Neon Undercarriage 6. Natural Novice 7. Oriental Alarms 8. Every Other Word 9. I’m Not Convinced 10. The Trap 11. Blurred Digits 12. Same to You

Iron & Wine EP The Sea And The Rhythm September 9th on Subpop 1. The Sea And The Rhythm 2. Jesus The Mexican Boy 3. Red Dust 4. Someday the Waves 5. Overhead 6. Dead Man’s Will (thanks to Muddy Hymnal for the Iron & Wine tracklist. Also, we apologize for not having the cover art for this; we hope our artist’s interpretation is sufficient)

Also on 9/9? The Rapture -Echoes, Beulah -Yoko, Enon -Hocus Pocus, Pretty
Girls Make Graves -The New Romance, PLUS ALSO new albums by Adam Green, The Decemberists, East
River Pipe, Frank Black, Quasi, Spiritualized, The Wrens, and, wait for it…..wait for it…..a new Shins EP!

It’s like a fuckin’ indie-rock christmas.

I’m still waiting for someone to create Metrosexual Bingo.

I’ll even get you started:

1.) Deconstructed Blazer
2.) Driving Mocs
3.) copy of Dwell Magazine

Moviola’s *excellent* new album,
East Of Eager, the follow-up to 2001’s *excellent* Rumors Of The Faithful, drops early
next year on California Recordings.
The best part? They’re offering up a new mp3 from the record on the 1st of each month.

I have a hard time describing Moviola’s sound exactly, but
Joey Sweeney did a damn good job of it in this TimeOut NY article.

And speaking of Mr. Sweeney, lest I haven’t mentioned it before, be sure to check out
The Trouble With Sweeney’s latest, I Know You Destroy, which features at least two of my
favorite songs of the year, including this one:

TTWS Tour Dates

Jul 22 Philadelphia, PA - Silk City (w/ ASTEROID #4 + HER JAZZ DJs)
Jul 25 Chicago, IL - The Empty Bottle (w/ OKGO + Bang!Bang!)
Jul 26 Cincinnati, OH - TBA
Jul 28 Brooklyn, NY - Pete’s Candy Store (w/ Jocko Weyland + Tom Coyne and Bootleg Remedy)
Jul 29 Philadelphia, PA - Silk City (TTWS plays VU’s Loaded(!) + TimAndEric.com)
Aug 14 Baltimore, MD - TBA
Aug 15 Richmond, VA - TBA (w/ Val Emmich)
Aug 16 Arlington, VA -Galaxy Hut (w/ Val Emmich)

Exploding Hearts Lose Three Members in Crash

Sleeping Aids & Razor Blades, my favorite
song from Guitar Romantic.

As I mentioned before, the local radio station somehow took
a liking to Hot Hot Heat’s “Bandages”. Carrying that further,
they booked them for a show last night. Bizarrely (or perhaps *not* bizarrely), it was at a
suburban sports bar. It was a tad surreal to look up at the stage to see
Steve Heat warbling at the crowd, and then
look to my left, out the window, to see shirtless Bro-hams spiking volleyballs
at one another. The crowd mix, too, was very odd (I would have been
hard-pressed to get a bingo (though the guy with the cabbie hat *was* there).
There was actually one girl who seemed to have tanned herself to the color of yam-meat.
Let me summarize the overall experiece by quoting the singer of openers The Vue: “Hey everybody, what’s up!!! I guess we’re
eatin’ good in the neighborhood tonight, this is an Appleby’s isn’t it?”

And somebody, pleeeeaasse, buy Steve Heat a new t-shirt. I don’t think he ever removes that “Odd Fellows” one.

They play Conan tonight.

P.S. am I the only one that sees this:

?

Tidbits:

Check out “Last Call” from Sushirobo’s upcoming album, The Light-fingered Feeling Of Sushirobo.

Please stop selling promo copies of Beulah’s Yoko on eBay.

Excellent Columbus Alive article about the last-minute meltdown of the More Than Music Fest

And from 12XU:

The Spoon EP that Pitchfork reported on in March is
now ready for release, on September 1st as a matter of
fact. Though technically there’s not to be an “official”
U.S. release, these here new-fangled interweb music stores
should make it fairly easy to obtain, even if you live
under an overpass in Secaucus (which reminds me, Hi Toothless Manny!)

Tracklist:

The Way We Get By (album version)
Metal Detektor (from Music Choice, previously unreleased)
I Am The Key (from Music Choice, previously unreleased)
Anticipation (from WFMU, previously unreleased)
Someone Something (from KCRW, previously unreleased)
Me & The Bean (from KCRW, previously unreleased)
Advance Cassette (from WNYU, previously unreleased)

Videos:

1) The Way We Get By
2) Small Stakes
3) Jonathan Fisk

If you can’t wait for the videos, MTV’s got ‘em all, including the
hot-off-the-presses ‘Jonathan Fisk’.

Plus, I wonder if Spoon’s being all like, “Yo, your bird’s a pussy. He got his ass all tangled up in twine and shit. Our bird’s fucking tough. He’s got motherfucking Laser-Eyes“.

(Since I know you’ve been wondering What’s-New-In-Omaha?)

Well, Lil’ Conor Obizzy is putting out a fuckin’ 7 LP vinyl box-set.

A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997
(2 LPs, previously unavailable material)
…..
Letting off the Happiness
(Original vinyl cover art plus Japanese Import track)
…..
Every Day and Every Night EP

…..
Fevers and Mirrors
(With two Japanese Import tracks remastered on 2 LPs)
…..
Don’t Be Frightened of Turning the Page
(All 4 Bright Eyes tracks from Oh Holy Fools - The Music of Son, Ambulance and Bright Eyes plus two bonus tracks)
…..

S’thirty-two bucks at the Saddle Creek Online Store.

Also, the luuurvely Azure Ray have finally finished up their new long-player, Hold On Love,
which will drop on October 7th. On the new record, they apparently “[take] the ethereal aspects of [their] past work
and [mix] them with a more upbeat and enlivened technique”, which I guess means that
the songs are probably louder or faster. Loud, soft, doesn’t matter, I don’t think this record can miss.