Australia’s Noise On The ABC hosted
a special remix project back in October, where kids (25 or under) could download different tracks from
various Aussie artists, then remix them as they wished. Here’s my favorite, the winner for the remix of
The Sleepy Jackson’s “Good Dancers” (from their latest, Lovers):

Guess what? Noise is a Federal Government initiative managed by the Australia Council.
Countries like Canada and Australia actually work to promote and nurture the Arts. In the U.S., we kick the Arts in the
nutsack.

JV’s keepin’ ‘em coming.

A little birdy told me that Cellar Door has leaked, but I don’t know what that means. I guess someone needs
to rainproof their basement or something.

Let’s get the horiday isht straight out of the way, and note (via Jinners)
that Pas/Cal have graciously posted their quasi-gay lo-fi
chamber-pop take on

Also, it’s my annual duty to refer you over to the Mommyheads site
for those old echs-muss ditties

Cory, when he’s not busy
laying down tracks for the upcoming Communique
full-length, has been listening to the “Shake Some Action” CD series, and has pulled a jangly pop nugget outta there
for ye:

Both Frank and murmur have both busted our their year-end lists. Get thee over to Frank’s straightaway to pick up tracks from the Shins, Pernice Bros., FOW, and more, while murmur offers up what appears to be this year’s only mention of the Lucksmiths album that came out in’03. Check out Sandringham Line.

And Gawkster has beaten me to the punch with the list of words to outlaw in ‘04. If I have to hear the word “snarky” one more time, I’m going to puke out my eyes.

Holiday cheerio, kids. I’m off to to try to avoid Columbus freeway snipers, treacherous icy mountain highways, orange-alert terrorist-commandeered aircraft crashes, and heavy cream sauces.

In continuing Swedish coverage, The Radio Dept,
who released a really good record earlier this year called Lesser Matters
(Where Damage Isn’t Already Done = my favorite) also released a new EP in November, on Labrador. Here’s
a track:

Now that’s two Swedish posts in a row. If I start posting Abba stuff by the end of the week, please know that it means
I’ve totally lost my shit.

Speaking of people who have totally lost their shit, here’s a little Ryan Adams nugget, courtesy of
Frank. It is, in my opinion, one of the
funniest quotes of the year, and comes courtesy of Mr. Paul Westerberg, on the topic of Mr.
Ryan Adams:

“I see his fuckin’ haircut, I hear his fuckin’ whine, I see his fake
clothes, and then he opens his fuckin’ mouth and all I want to do is smash the
fucker’s teeth down his throat.”

Check out Ryan Adams’ new video for “So Alive” here and
see if you find yourself identifying with Paul.

Feels like a good day for a pop song from a Swedish singer-songwriter that sounds
a little bit like Stephin Merritt, sings as alter-ego Rocky Dennis (yes, that
Rocky Dennis), and has a name that translates loosely into English as “Play Man”.

Jens Lekman’s Maple Leaves will be out February 3rd on Secretly Canadian.

There’s a number of decent limited vinyl editions
of stuff just out recently, por ejemplo, Squid Vs. Whale’s release
of Nada Surf’s most-excellent Let Go, Jealous Butcher’s re-release
of the thoroughly-decent Her Majesty the Decemberists, and of course, the Ace Fu limited clear-vinyl
of Pinback’s fucking-awesome Blue Screen Life. However, there still doesn’t seem to be a vinyl release slated at all for
The Postal Service’s Give Up, which, if you ask me, is fucking retarded. Subpop could make a shitload of dough on that. And it’d probably
make nick pretty happy, too.

So, being that December’s so slow new-music-wise, I elected to update
my list of records to look forward to in 2004.

January
———-
dios – Los Arboles (Dim Mak)
Jason Molina – Pyramid Electric Co. (Secretly Canadian)
Preston School Of Industry – Monsoon (Matador)
Superchunk – Crowding Up Your Visual Field [DVD] (Merge)
John Vanderslice – Cellar Door (Barsuk)

February
———-
Beta Band – TBD (?)
Centro-Matic – Flashes And Cables (Misra)
Lambchop – Aw C’mon (Merge)
Lambchop – No You C’mon (Merge)
Liars – There’s Always Room On The Broom (Mute)
Liars – They Were Wrong, So We Drowned (Mute)
Liars – Who Needs $$ When We Got Feathers (Mute)
The Mountain Goats – We Shall All Be Healed (4ad)
Robbers On High Street – Fine Lines (Scratchie/New Line)
The Walkmen – Bows And Arrows (Record Collection)

March
———-
The Bigger Lovers – TBD (Yep Roc)
Destroyer – Your Blues (Merge)
dios – tbd (Startime)
Iron and Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days (Subpop)
Now It’s Overhead – Fall Back Open (Saddle Creek)
Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans (Sounds Familyre)
TV On The Radio – Deperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (Touch and Go)

April
———-
Calexico – TBD (Quarterstick)

May
———-
Royal City – Little Heart’s Ease (Three Gut/Rough Trade)

Exact Date TBA
———-
Badly Drawn Boy – TBD (XL)
Charles Allison – Some Queer Raincoat (?)
Communique – TBD (Lookout)
Home – XV (Arena Rock Recording Co.)
John Guilt – TBD – (?)
Magnetic Fields – TBD (Nonesuch)
Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News (Sony(?))
Moviola – East Of Eager (Anyway)
Spoon – The Beast And Dragon Are Adored (Merge)
Wilco – TBD (Nonesuch)

Vanderslice has posted a track from Cellar Door.

“Palmcorder Yajna”, the first single from the Mountain Goats forthcoming We Shall All Be Healed,
is now out (well, the UK version is, at least). Tracklist:

• Palmcorder Yajna
• Butter Teeth
• Snakeheads

We Shall All Be Healed drops February 3 on 4AD.

In other singles news, a new single from Azure Ray’s Hold On Love will
be out January 20th on Saddle Creek. Tracklist:

• New Resolution
• The Drinks We Drank Last Night (Live)
• New Resolution – Postal Service Remix by Jimmy Tamborello

In other singles news, remember that movie “Singles“? Every Bro-ham party
I ever walked past on campus was always blasting that soundtrack.

One of the biggest surprises for me this year was discovering how much I really dug the latest
Constantines record, Shine A Light.
I caught the tail-end of their set in Halifax last year, and really thought they
were sortakinda just ok. But I kept hearing different songs off the new record, and man,
they really stuck. I’m just sayin’…

There’s also a video for
“Nighttime/Anytime”. Note that it takes approximately one bazillion years to load, and is full of raccoons.

My Morning Jacket has a new single/ep out
for “Run Thru” (Realaudio). Tracks are:

• Run Thru
• Breathin’ (Jim James 4-track recording)
• Old September Blues (Virgin Radio live)

Insound offers their ever-popular
15%-off discount via code “runthru“.

Austin’s Peek-A-Boo Records is
having a holiday sale through January 1st. All Peek-A-Boo releases are 50% off. All other
(non Peek-A-Boo) items are 10% off. This might be a really good time to pick up those
latest albums by Black Lipstick or Palaxy Tracks ($5 each). Or the Spoon
30-Gallon Tank 7″ for $1.75. Even the new EP by
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness is available for $7 and change, which is as
cheap as you’ll find it.

If you’re stalking me, here’s your reference for the weekend:
12/5 – Ida w/His Name Is Alive – The Warhol, Pittsburgh
12/7 – Bishop Allen – Studio 35, Columbus

Finally, via Aeki Tuesday, I found this little
nugget:

Billboard: The soundtrack [CD] to…Queer Eye for the Straight Guy…will also include…a track mixing
music from Fischerspooner and Billy Squier.

Um.

Yeah.

That thounds reeeaaal goood.

Oy vey, two more mp3s are available from the forthcoming dios
record, which should be out just about any time now (since jinners already
has her copy). Plus also, Dim Mak also has a track.

I noticed yesterday that the California Recordings website (who were to be putting out the new
Moviola record) seemed to be dead. From what I gather, the website’s
dead because the company’s dead. Luckily, the stars got all aligned and shit, and the Moviola boys have hooked back up with Columbus’s
very own Anyway Records. The new record, East Of Eager should be
out in March. Also, grab this month’s track while you can: Hitched.mp3

And if you happen to find yourself in town on the 20th, you should definitely consider swinging by
Larry’s to welcome in the holiday season with
Parker Paul,
Moviola, and
The Ass Ponys.