The incredibly great title track from Iron & Wine’s upcoming Woman King is now available for download, courtesy of The Crutch dot Net.

Also, I only just now found out about the new Vells record that came out back in September. It’s Flight From Echo Falls, and is out on Imputor Records. Judging from the MP3s, I’d say if you really dug the Vells first EP, you’ll probably dig this new one too.

The obligatory post wherein I list the upcoming 2005 albums that I’m looking
forward to:

Jan:
———-
Aqueduct - I Sold Gold
Black Lipstick - Sincerely, Black Lipstick
Black Mountain - s/t
Destroyer - Notorious Lightning and Other Works
The Fiery Furnaces - EP
Low - The Great Destroyer
Matt Pond PA - Winter Songs
The Radio Dept - This Past Week

Feb:
———-
Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production Of Eggs
Crooked Fingers - Dignity & Shame
Enon - Lost Marbles & Exploded Evidence
Jeff Hanson - s/t
Iron and Wine - Woman King
The Prosaics - tba
Robbers On High Street - Tree City
M Ward - Transistor Radio

Mar:
———-

Brendan Benson - Alternative To Love
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Pernice Brothers - tba

Apr:
———-

Damien Jurado - On My Way To Absence

“2005″:
———-

Built To Spill - tba
Sally Crewe & The Sudden Moves - Shortly After Take-Off
Get Him Eat Him - tba
The Long Winters - tba
The Mountain Goats - Sunset Tree
Nada Surf - tba
The Natural History - tba
Spoon - The Beast And The Dragon Are Adored
Teenage Fanclub - Man-Made
Luke Temple - Hold A Match For A Gasoline World
John Vanderslice - tba
Wolf Parade - tba

Matt Pond PA have put up their cover of Lindsay Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” over at MySpace. Yes, that’s the theme song to National Lampoon’s Vacation.

And speaking of vacation, I’m out of here.

Here’s a track from Brendan Benson’s new one, The Alternative To Love, out March 22nd on V2:

Matt Pond PA’s Winter Songs EP is still slated for January, but I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that they’re recording a cover of “Champagne Supernova” to be played on that one TV show. You know the one.

The Minus Story’s new EP Heaven and Hell, out March 1st, includes a cover of the Misfits’ “Hybrid Moments”. Cool.

Thanks to the liepaper for these next two items:

Summer At Shatter Creek’s new one, All The Answers should be out in the Spring:

And a new Ida record, Heart Like A River, will be out February 22nd. I’m almost positive they played this song, “Late Blues”, last December when I saw them. It’s a beauty.

Well, pretty much everyone has their top ten lists for 2004 out now. But what about 2005? Or 2009? (I can’t wait to hear Xiu Xiu’s I Want You In My Ass).

Note that #10 for 2005 is the Frames’ Burn The Maps. You can check out a track from it from Anti Records:

Server logs indicate someone came here looking for the tracklist for Crooked Fingers‘ Dignity and Shame. Here you go, bro:

1. Islero

2. Weary Arms

3. Call To Love

4. Twilight Creeps

5. Destroyer

6. You Must Build A Fire

7. Valerie

8. Andalucia

9. Sleep All Summer

10. Coldways

11. Wrecking Ball

12. Dignity And Shame

The vinyl version also has 2 bonus tracks, “The Ballad Of El Cuchillo” and “New Drink For The Old Drunk” (new version).

It’s December, so that means it’s time to take a look back at all the mixes from this year.

Can you still listen to them? Nope.

So what’s the point? I have no idea.

Work with me here, people.

A track from the Fiery Furnaces‘ upcoming EP:

Shearwater will have a new EP, Thieves, out on Misra on February 1st.

Also, out February 1st, hey, a new Jack Logan record! Nature’s Assembly Line will be Jack’s first album in over 5 years. See the Orange Twin site for details.

Damien Jurado fans, I assume you know about the This Fabulous Century LP that was released this week? 13 songs recorded by Damien between the time of album #1 and album #2. Limited edition of 600 - Damien has 300, and Burnt Toast has 300.

And RIP Dimebag Darrell. He was shot to death at point-blank range, on stage, apparently by a fan who was mad that Pantera broke up. Now that really sucks. And it also sucks that that bar is less than 5 minutes from my house, yikes.

If you’re like me, you’re probably rocking the sludgy groove of Black Mountain’s “Druganaut” right about now.

There’s also another track, Heart Of Snow, available over at Jagjaguwar.

The Robbers On High Street full-length has gotten a title and release date. It’s Tree City, and February 8th.

I just noticed that my pick for album of the year is the same pick made by the premier writer of super-gay snuff murder porno art novels.

And speaking of 2004 picks, kaleb pointed me to this page housing all the “best-of”s of all the sctas crew.

My boy Aaron, who’s been hometapin’ since back in the day has just posted up a batch of new stuff. My 2 favorites:

And, FYI, Keith just dropped me a line letting me know that Ted Leo will be on Morning Sedition this Friday, when they take the show to Boston.