The Mountain Goats did a Peel Session this
past Wednesday. They played 4 new songs written especially for the session:
   1. Dance Music
   2. Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod?
   3. Broom People
   4. Magpie
Mp3s of these songs do indeed exist. Resourceful people should probably be able to find ‘em. Download ‘em here (thx LHB).

The Kadane Bros., formerly known as Bedhead,
currently known as The New Year have a new record out
in a few weeks called The End Is Near. Here’s a track:

And there’s more of that dancy shit coming from ChkChkChk
on their new album Louden Up Now, out June 8th.

One could say that one is probably making it harder on oneself when
one decides to change their name every time one releases a new album. But
don’t tell that to Andy, er, I mean Andrew Spencer.
Lemme try to ’splain: Andy was first known as Johnny Fontaine, lead singer of
Maestro Echoplex, who released
a really great lil’ disc called Last Night I Saw God On The Dancefloor in 2001 (still available
from Fractured Discs, unless I’m mistaken).
Andy then moved into a more co-lab type deal with a coupla fine fellows, resulting a band called John Guilt.
The John Guilt record, released in 2003, was a fairly dark and serious affair, and was called The Mirrors and Uncle Sam (on Munich Records). So
now Andy’s back to writin’ sorta solo type stuff, and the nom du jour is
Andrew Spencer, and though he doesn’t have any mp3s up
yet, he do have a site now, and mp3s should be coming soon. Anyway, for those just joining us, here’s a recap of
some songs by the guy who can’t seem to pick a name and stick with it.

Hey, the next $3 CD in DIW’s “Builder” series is from San Francisco’s Rust Belt Music.
Their song, “Trip McNeely Syndrome” got reworked a bit and
eventually became the title track of that Maestro Echoplex disc I was just talkin’ about. Anyhow, there’s quite few nice tracks available over
at their website.

And according to Parasol, the new Unbunny record will be
called Snow Tires and will be out May 18th. You can even pre-order
that shit right now for only 10 grickles. Here’s some clips (in Windo Shmedia, sorry):

I preordered already. I *loved* that last record, Black Strawberries.

Matt Pond’s new record, Emblems, is out either May 4th or May 18th, depending on
who you steal your release date information from. In any case, you can check out one
of the new tracks over at Insound:

Every time I hear that Ratatat song, I feel like I just beat Strider on my Sega Genesis in 1990.

( poster by Lonny Unitus )

I know I’m really harping on the subject, but I can’t help it. I just noticed that the Destroyer/Frog Eyes Tour just got rollin’ again. I urge you to go to one of these shows if you can. Also, if you do go, please record the show. And if you record it, please send it to me! The live versions of Notorious Lightning and New Ways Of Living are particularly excellent.

Dates:
04.28 * Saskatoon, SK , @ Amigo’s
04.29 * Regina, SK , @ The State
04.30 * Winnipeg, MB , @ West End Cultural Center
05.01 * Moorhead , MN @ Ralph’s Corner
05.02 * Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
05.03 * Madison, WI @ Catacombs
05.04 * Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
05.05 * Detroit, MI @ Stormy Records
05.06 * Toronto, ON , @ Lee’s Palace
05.07 * Ottawa, ON , @ Babylon
05.08 * Montreal, QC , @ El Salon

05.09 * Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Upstairs
05.10 * New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
05.11 * Arlington, VA @ Iota
05.12 * Philadelphia, PA @ North Star Bar
05.13 * Chapel Hill, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
05.15 * Tallahassee, FL @ Beta Bar
05.16 * Nashville, TN @ The End
05.18 * Bloomington, IN @ Second Story

05.19 * St. Louis, MO @ Rocket Bar
05.20 * Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Saloon
05.21 * Denver, CO @ Lion’s Liar
05.23 * Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
05.24 * San Diego, CA @ Casbah
05.25 * Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland
05.26 * San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
05.27 * Redding, CA @ Serendipity Coffee House
05.28 * Portland, OR @ Berbati’s Pan
05.29 * Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Cafe
05.30 * Anacortes, WA @ Department of Safety

Trivia Factoid Of The Day: Some of the songs on Your Blues were written by Bejar for an as-yet-unstaged musical called “All Our Happy Days Are Stupid”, by Sheila Heti.

JV dropped some new stuff out on his site:

If you need to tide yourself over until the next Pinback disc
comes out (some time in the fall, IIRC), you can check out the new solo disc by Pinback’s
Zach Smith, recorded under the name Systems Officer.
There are a couple of song “clips” available on the site.

* There’s a full mp3 of “Forever This Cyanide” available over at Insound. Props to Andy for the heads-up.

Great article on Big Star over at Pop Culture Press.

There’s a new PSOI EP out on
Domino in the UK. Caught In The Rain features
that track, 2 new songs, “Fresh Fudge” and “At Kose”, the demo version of “Walk Of A Gurl”,
and a cover of the Fall’s “Mere Psued Mag Ed”.

Also out in the UK now is “The Rat” single from
The Walkmen, b/w “Clementine”.

Courtesy of the ever-generous Mr. stereogum.

Great new track from the upcoming Mirah record, C’mon Miracle, out next month:

And over at the One Two Ex You site, they’ve posted new tracks from both Joel RL Phelps and Chris Brokaw.

The links above were all swiped from jtb.

Gramophone has a few good tracks up by Wolf Parade. Grab ‘em while you can. “Dinner Bells” is definitely a keeper.

If those songs rub you the right way, you can also check out 3 more tracks
over at New Music Canada.

Also worth a listen: some tracks from Chicago’s Catfish Haven. Their latest, Good Friends,
is available thru Thrill Jockey.

And in case you missed it, Fugazi has
made available a selection of live shows, dating all the way back to ‘87.

If the line I saw back at SXSW is any indication, then I must say that people love Devendra Banhart.
Check out a track from Rejoicing In The Hands, out next week on Young God.

And folks should note that that limited edition Les Savy Fav singles comp, Inches, is
out today, with bonus DVD featuring videos, photos, and commentary by David Cross, Fred Armisen and others.

I don’t think I mentioned it before, but you can stream most Pedro The Lion’s new album, Achilles Heel,
over at achilles-heel.net. He’s still touring with Death Cab for
Kweller through the end of this month, and will hooking up (but not “hooking up”) with
Vanderslice in June.

Choire has posted 3 covers of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”: Cat Power, Devo, and Bjork/PJ Harvey.