The Walkmen’s sophomore
record, Bows and Arrows, will get its proper-official-on-cd release on
February 3rd on Record Collection.
There’ll also be a limited-edition vinyl version available, as well as “very special, and extremely rare” 7-inch
featuring “No Christmas While I’m Talking” Live at Brixton Academy, which coincidentally, you can
also download right here.

And The Robbers On High Street will
be out in about a week for a mini-tour. Check ‘em out if you get the chance.

12-11 Washington, D.C. - Velvet Lounge

12-15 Cambridge, MA - TT The Bears
12-16 Philadelphia, PA - The Fire
12-17 New York, NY - Sin-e

Fluxblog has (temporarily, of course) a few alternate songs from
the Fiery Furnaces’ Gallowsbird’s Bark. There’s “Tropical Iceland”
and “Bright Blue Tie”, and there’s also “Lost Dog”.
Insound has Inca Rag/Name Game. And I could have sworn that
Rough Trade used have “Crystal Clear”, “Asthma Attack”, and “Two Fat Feet” all available as mp3s. It appears now that
all of Rough Trade’s audio links take you to Real(Shitty)Player “samples”. Lame.

And, cover art for the new ROHS:

Robbers On High Street
Fine Lines
Feb 17th

The Bigger Lovers have wrapped up their third album, which
should be out March 9 on Yep Roc. Hot damn. Here’s the
tracklist, which, incidentally, includes a cover (”You’ve Got
To Pay”) by the great, if oft-overlooked, Only Ones:

1. You (You, You)
2. I Resign
3. Blowtorch
4. Ninja Suit
5. Slice of Life
6. No Heroics
7. You Don’t Feel Anything at All
8. Peel it Away
9. Hollywood
10. You’ve Got to Pay
11. For Christ’s Sake

Also of note, Bigger Lovers labelmates Dolorean, who seems
to be makin’ some damn lurvely music. I gotta check that
album out. (*thanks to murmur for the tip-off)

Recap:

• Moved servers. Broke MovableType.
• My next-door neighbor, Parker Paul,
  was the guest on No Love For Ned last week.
• New Bro. Danielson 7″ coming in time for the holidays.
• Unbunny have posted a
  loud version of “Water and the Spanish Tongue”.
• New Shins video.
• the new Preston School of Industry mp3.
• Cat Power will be doing a performance (or not, if she freaks out
  like usual) on World Cafe on December 3rd.
• Fluxblog has a track (for awhile) from the upcoming Liars album They Were Wrong So We Drowned.

New old Ted Leo is just
out. This EP was previously released as a split 7-inch back in 1999.

Matthew Sweet demos, b-sides, etc. via LHB. I believe Girlfriend to be one of the greatest albums of the 90s.

Elliott Smith live at the Black Cat 1998.

Startime has some new puppies, and they’re called dios.
The Startime site says:

It is kind of like Buddy Holly meets Dark Side of the Moon-sort of.
There is also a lot of Neil Young and a lot of just simple pop. And some genuine weirdness.

In any case, I like what I’m hearin’ here.

You can grab a few more mp3s over at the dios mp3com page.

The New Pornographers have just
launched their newly-redesigned website. You can check out the new video for “All For Swinging
You Around” (Hipster Jumprope!), and also MP3s for “Your Daddy Don’t Know, and
“When I Was A Baby”. Also, Matador recently released the remastered version of Mass Romantic. (via ToT)

Also worth checking out are a couple of the Pornies’ Mint Records colleagues:

Back down here in the states, TMT are
reporting that TV On The Radio’s debut
full-length will likely be out very early next year. Their EP had some really good songs, so
I’m pretty anxious for this one. Also, I think I can safely say that TVOTR can lay claim to the best afro in indie rock.

God bless you, Three Gut. You posted an mp3 of
Royal City’s incredible cover of The Str*kes’ “Is This It”, and

for that, I am grateful.

Boston’s Emergency Music have
an all-new site, a new write-up in the Weekly Dig,
and a show Saturday night at the Plan
with TTWS. They also
have 4 great tracks for you to download, woo-hoo!

Unbunny, who released one
of my favorite records of last year, also have a new website.
There will apparently be a new record in early ‘04 on Hidden Agenda. In
the meantime, you can still buy Black Strawberries here at the Two-Ton Santa store.
Here’s my 75 or Less review. I really can’t recommend it highly enough.

A reminder for you if happen to find yourself in Europe in the next month: John Guilt’s

tour w/ Scout Niblett kicks off tomorrow in Belguim.

John Guilt Euro Dates-
01/11/03 : Botanique - Brussel (B)
02/11/03 : Patronaat - Haarlem (NL)
03/11/03 : Krawietelke - Gent (B)
04/11/03 : Studio Desmet radiosession - Amsterdam (NL)
05/11/03 : JJ Records - Hasselt (B) (instore)
06/11/03 : Den Hemel - Zichem (B)

07/11/03 : Mistery gig - Dordrecht (NL)
08/11/03 : Astrastube - Hamburg (D) (Andy’s 25th Birthday)
09/11/03 : A-Hoy - Frankfurt (D)
10/11/03 : Nato - Leipzig (D)

11/11/03 : K4 - Nurnberg (D) (+90 Day Men)
12/11/03 : Harry Klein - Munich (D) (+Mano Nelson)
13/11/03 : Star Club - Dresden (D) (+Him)
14/11/03 : Magnet Club - Berlin (D) (+Enon, Sodastream)
15/11/03 : VEB - L?obeck (D)
16/11/03 : Kulturbunker Molheim - Koln (D)
17/11/03: Off
18/11/03: Off
19/11/03: Off
20/11/03 : Bad Bonn - Dodingen (CH)
21/11/03 : La Guinguette Pirate - Paris (F)
22/11/03 : Le PV - Toulouse(F)

Finally, thanks to murmur, I
found out about the new
Six Parts Seven record that features vocal performances and remixes from David Bazan (Pedro the Lion),
Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), Sam Beam (Iron and Wine), and more. And whattya know, here’s
the Iron and Wine track right here:

You can buy the album
right here at the Suicide Squeeze store.

Happy Halloweenie, kids. Be good, and don’t do crack. It’s a ghetto drug.

Robbers On High Street have wrapped up the recording of their (proper)
debut EP, which should be out on Scratchie Records in January.
It’ll be six songs, only one of which had a version previously available on their demo. I’m stoked.

And not to belittle any artists who still have records coming out this year, but for
me, 2003 is pretty much DUN, music-wise. I’m ready for 2004 already. Aside from the Robbers new disc, there’s
also gonna be, just in the first quarter alone:

Magnetic Fields TBD (1st Qtr.)
Modest Mouse Good News For People Who Love Bad News (1st Qtr.)
Mountain Goats We Shall All Be Healed (1st Qtr.)
Spoon The Beast And Dragon Are Adored (1st Qtr.)
Vanderslice Cellar Door (Jan. 5)
Walkmen Bows And Arrows (Feb.)

I think I gotta save the rest of my ‘03 budget for some insanely great DVD releases
coming out over the next few months anyway:

Aqua Teen Hunger Force v1
The Ben Stiller Show
Schizopolis - Criterion Edition
Spike Jonze Videos
Strangers With Candy v2
Tenacious D
Upright Citizens Brigade v1