Well, whattya know, the Futureheads have a US distributor now: Startime. The US release should be out October 26th.

The most platinum-blonde of all the Three Gut roster, Gentleman Reg, has a new record coming out in October, titled Darby & Joan. Check out the first single:

And the ever gracious My Mean Magpie offers up three live Gentleman Reg tracks, including a cover of the Blake Babies’ “Baby Gets High”.

The Arcade Fire’s new record will be out very soon now, and they’ll be a-tourin’ in support. They’ve only got a handful of dates at the moment:

9/30/04 - Guelph, ON - Club Vinyl
10/1/04 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace
10/2/04 - Hamilton, ON - The Underground
11/11/04 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom (w/Hidden Cams)
11/12/04 - Cambridge, MA - T.T the Bears (w/Hidden Cams)
11/14/04 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church

Seems like they need some more dates; get on it, people. They’re booked through Billions. As much as I’d like to see ‘em, I think Columbus is sadly lacking an appropriately-sized venue.

And Merge has (or is imminently planning to have) some tracks from the new album available on their site.

They do already have some new new Buckner stuff up there though.

And please note that those tracks on the Merge site are for stream, not download. And there’s absolutely no reason why you would want to right-click on the “stream” link, save the m3u file, open it in a text editor, and copy and paste the link contained therein into your browser. I really don’t know what that might accomplish.

On vacation. See you next week.

2 great albums came in the mail this week from Olympia: Kickball’s Huckleberry Eater, and The Strangers s/t disc. Both bands share the same drummer and bassist, but while Kickball just adds some keyboards and a singer, the Strangers also add accordion, violin, trombone, cornet, and lap steel. Kickball is a sparse kinda pop sound, while the Strangers come from a sort of countryfied angle, though it’s a jagged, sawtooth kinda country. Less “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, and more “The Cowboy got his throat slit while he was sleepin”. You can download some Strangers tracks from their site:

Also, this person’s site (”Boonsy”, ostensibly) has two other Strangers tracks up, “Down The Road”, and “Alright Tonight”, as well as two Kickball tracks, “Opposite”, and “Bird”. And don’t forget that there’s also a Kickball track on this month’s mix, “Stop (Infinity)”, which also appears on the recent Schapendoes Records compilation that Kaleb assures me is quite awesome.

I leave you with my new joke:

Q: How many mp3blogs does it take to completely fill up the internet?

A: I don’t know, but we’ll probably find out in about 2 or 3 more days.

Sheesh.

6ize noted that that Self-Starter mp3 page has been updated recently. Tracks up from Jens Lekman, Ambulance Ltd, Hidden Cameras, Sea Snakes, and more.

Hadn’t noticed this one before: Startime posted the Ambulance Ltd track from the Supercuts comp:

And Domino has a new mp3 from Franz Ferdinand, an alt-version of “Tell Her Tonight”:

Fucking. Awesome. Merge just posted that CBC Radio has a big Destroyer piece up right now, with a bunch of great Destroyer/Frog Eyes live tracks.

Now, who wants to figure out how to rip them to mp3 for me?

My Mean Magpie currently has an mp3 of “Korean Bird Paintings“, from the Mountain Goats‘ New Asian Cinema 12″ on Yo-Yo Records.

Alright, so there’s confirmation now. Sean has a Wolf (I pronounce it WOOF) Parade track up right now from the new EP. Go check it out, it’s “Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts“. Also, though, lo and behold, I discovered tracklists for both EPs:

EP 1:

Modern World
Wits Or A Dagger
Secret Knives
Dinner Bells

EP 2:
Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts
We Built Another World
Grounds For Divorce
It’s A Curse
The National Peoples Scare
Killing Armies

Happy Hunting.

Video for Postal Service’s “Against All Odds”. From Stereogum.

Graham Smith of Kleenexgirlwonder has a new record out, called Final Battle. I think I used to have an old Genesis game called that.

Absolutely Kosher has had some news and updates just put on their site, including a track from the upcoming upcoming Court and Spark record (Witch Season), a track from the upcoming Frog Eyes record (The Folded Palm), and a demo track from their new signing, Providence, RI’s Grumble Grumble.

I missed the Court and Spark show, yet again, last week. That’s 3 times now, but that’s nothing. I’ve missed Superchunk about 8 times. Sigh.

It’s become apparent to me that it’s nigh impossible to confirm or deny almost any news whatsoever regarding Wolf Parade, but I can say that they may or may not have a new 6-track EP for sale right now on their tour with Modest Mouse. The EP may or may not be called Totalosity. You may or may not be able to also buy it from local Montreal shops like Cheap Thrills. Also, they may or may not be releasing a 7″ some time soon in association with Pavilion Projects. Isaac’s going to be recording them in Chicago in a month or two, so basically the Subpop debut won’t be out til forever. So, meantime, we’ll just have to make do with those New Music Canada mp3s.

Gramophone has an mp3 of “At The Hop” from Devendra Banhart’s Nino Rojo; get it while you can. Let’s imagine that I had listened to Nino Rojo, ok? I would probably tell you that in my opinion, it’s twice as good as Rejoicing In The Hands, and that sure, there’s something to be said for sparse, simple, neo-folk, but there’s also something to be said for more fleshed-out, poppier stuff as well.

And here’s a somewhat-subdued track from the upcoming Black Keys record, Rubber Factory:

Viva Voce put out a great
record a while back called Lovers Lead The Way (Asthmatic Kitty
even did a re-release of it recently). They’ve got a new one
coming out on September 14th, called The Heat Can Melt Your Brain, and
judging from this mp3, it’s going to be another disc of poppy goodness.

For kicks, here’s also my favorite track from Lovers Lead The Way:

Everyone’s been so busy trying to pirate the new Ted Leo record (and
it’s apparently officially “Sheets“), that few noticed that Lookout actually
posted the final, mastered version of
“Me and Mia”.

Everyone’s busy trying to pirate the new Elliott Smith record now.