Earlier this month, in honor of their 100th show, namelessnumberheadman
put together a limited-edition-of-50 disc of cover songs and gave them away at the show. Lucky for us, they’ve also graciously
offered up the 4-song EP for download as well.
I love that “Joyless, Joyless” cover (and thank you, Nick, for the tip-off).

Please note, a server move/blackout/etc. is very likely imminent, and furthermore, I’m not sure how long it may last. My email may just go out too, so use catbirdseat.org@gmail.com if you need to get in touch.

The third and final installment in Elephant Micah’s latest CDR trilogy on Time-Lag is now available. It’s called Elephant Micah and the Agrarian Malaise, and if you want one, order it quickly- remember, they are *extremely* limited. From what I’ve heard, this sounds like the best one yet.

Hey, this is nice- an mp3 by Testface:

NYC-Blogger faves Mommy and Daddy’s new record, Fighting Style Killer Panda, came out this month, and I love the mp3:

Sorry, I had been meaning to mention that Goldkixx had an unreleased Black Mountain track, as well as a
track from a Wolf Parade-related side project called Sunset Rubdown. Alas,
the files have since been yanked.

A few days ago, I watched the Director’s Cut of Donnie Darko. I won’t be doing that again.

I don’t usually bother with a new releases list, being that jtb and
lhb do such a good job of covering everything, but damn,
this is a pretty big Tuesday:

Clem Snide - The End Of Love
Well, what can I say? It’s a new Clem Snide disc. The mp3, Fill Me With Your Light, sounds pretty good.

Crooked Fingers - Dignity and Shame
(See the Feb. 15th post). I’ve
heard some negative opinions come back on this one, but it’s starting to grow on me.

Enon - Lost Marbles & Exploded Evidence
A few weeks ago, I heard they were gonna play on SNL. I tuned in and it was fuckin’ Keane.

Ida - Heart Like A River
I saw them play some of these new songs at the Warhol a year or two ago. It was awesome.

Iron & Wine - Woman King
Nice, heavier stuff on this one.

Jeff Hanson - s/t
I’ve heard a few tracks from this, and it is goddam good. Sure, it’s kind of like
Elliott Smith on helium, but it’s also goddam good.

Ben Lee - Awake Is The New Sleep
Remember when Ben Lee was just a little kid with a guitar? He’s like, bigger now.

Robbers On High Street - Tree City
See last Friday’s post. I know a
number of people that have my back on this.

M Ward - Transistor Radio
(See the Feb. 15th post).
Sounds like another great record from M Ward. I saw him open for Lambchop a few
years back and was mesmerized by his cthuloid finger action.

Anyway, also, here are a few discs that might slip by unless you’re careful:

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness - 12″
They seem to have gone for a more stripped-down 80s sound on this one (stream
it over at Artikal).
Sounds pretty good to me.

Joel Plaskett - La De Da
There seem to be 2 kinds of people: those who love Joel Plaskett, and those who
have never heard of him. You can listen to 2 of the tracks from the new
record right here.
They’re in Windows Media format, but I think we can forgive him. Chances are, your
local record store is probably not stocking this one, check Maple Music.

Leeroy Stagger - Beautiful House
A young singer songwriter from Victoria BC, whose new record seems to balance a perfect
mix of power pop and alt-country. This one showed up on my desk as a promo, and I’m
glad it did. Good stuff, check out a track, Just In Case.

Robbers on High Street
Tree City

[New Line; 2005]

Rating: 6.0 8.0

I realize it’s a pointless exercise to take issue with any Pitchfork
review, but I just don’t feel like I can let today’s review of
Robbers On High
Street’s Tree City slide.

Now, I must confess that yes, when I
reviewed their demo back in ‘03, I said, and I quote, “[They come] off like an East Coast
version of Spoon”. My implication, though, was that ROHS sound reminiscent of Spoon;
not that they “stole the tapes from Britt’s house and scribbled their name over his”.
I was suggesting that ROHS were Northern cousins to Daniel’s Lone Star sound, *not* evil twins.

Tree City is a solid record, with a great combo of indie rock grit, hip-bumping groove,
and a surprising pop sensibility. And you’ll be doing yourself a disservice to write it off. Tree City is out
next Tuesday, and I can tell you this: it’s immediately going straight into my recommendations
list.

Dude, whoa. First of all, to everyone on teh internet:

That’s all I’m going to say about that.

So.

Head on over to the Lookout
page for Mary Timony, and you can check out the artwork for
Ex Hex (out in April), and also download a track (”Friend To J.C.”).

And wtf? I expected all the internet kids would be going gaga about this bleepy
cover of Arcade Fire’s “No Cars Go” because, well, that what the internet kids do: they go gaga about anything to do
with the Arcade Fire.

Well hey, a new Natural
History track has been posted!

The Fader Blog Guy really
seems to be digging their as-yet-unreleased new record.

My Mean Magpie is currently hosting
that Mountain Goats track from that last
issue of Comes With A Smile.

In addition to the slew of other stuff out next week, don’t forget about the
new I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness 12″ on
Artikal.

And finally, All Is Pipe:

May 17th.

Certainly there are plenty of releases out this week that are worth your hard-earned
bread, but everyone knows that next week is the big one. There is a ton of great
crap coming out on the 22nd, including 2 from Merge:
Crooked Fingers’s Dignity & Shame is
finally coming out, as is M Ward’s Transistor Radio.
Furthermore, Merge has them both up for streaming right now:

If, for some reason, streaming is unacceptable to you, and you absolutely must download some mp3s, then go hither:

(And note that that Salon Audiofile site I mentioned yesterday
has another M Ward track available, “Fuel For Fire”).

I was reminded by the (finally) fully-redesigned Touch and Go site that also out next week is Enon’s Lost Marbles and Exploded Evidence. The first Enon
stuff I ever heard was the Fly South 7″ (included on the disc, btw). I remember thinking, “Damn. This is really weird. I like it.” Mp3:

Last night, I went to the Verse Press Isn’t It Romantic reading, and
it was really good. Being that this is a music site, and not a poetry one, you may be wondering why I mention it.
The reason is because this new Isn’t It Romantic Collection comes bundled
with a 20-track disc, featuring Magnolia Electric Co, Nina Nastasia, Buckner, Jenny Toomey, Silver Jews, and many more.
And it’s a damn good disc. Well worth the $20 price tag.

Hey, The Decemberists just announced a slew of new tour dates.
You might want to check that out. Picaresque isn’t out til next month, but here’s an mp3:

And for die-hard Unbunny fans, you can now stream (in, ahem, Realaudio) an older Unbunny show
from the Black Strawberries era. Black Strawberries is one of my top 5 albums of the 21st Century.

The Bowl Of Fire has become
Andrew Bird Dot Net. Complete with a new mp3, to boot:

I expect to see Andrew Bird and Owen Pallett in an onstage musical super-sampled violin deathmatch cover
battle of “Dueling Banjos, I Mean Dueling Violins”. And I’m sure news of said battle would be announced on Owen’s new
*official* Final Fantasy site, FinalFantasyEternal Dot Com.

Because of the glaring need for yet another all-genre-encompassing, totally-linked-out mp3 and music
news blog, there’s now Salon’s Audiofile.
And be ready to sit through an ad first, cause I know you’re not payin’ for that shit.

Tipped off by Songs:Illinois, I now inform you that tracks
are up from the new Black Lipstick, Sincerely, Black Lipstick:

I think there were some other things I wanted to mention, but I left them in my other pants.

Cool, a track from Jeff Hanson’s upcoming s/t release (out 2/22), courtesy of Kill Rock Stars:

The Natural History has news/tracklist for their just-completed record tentatively titled People That I Meet. I’m still unclear on whether or not this new release will come out on Startime.

And over at Pitchfork, there’s news/tracklist for The Mountain Goats‘ upcoming record The Sunset Tree, out April 26th on 4ad.

Also on Pitchfork today: A positive review of my friend Jerry’s band The Black Swans. They’re on a brief West-Coast tour right now– if you get a chance, you should show up and buy Jerry a whiskey.

If you haven’t been able to track down the mp3s (or make ‘em yourself, for that matter) of that recent Wolf Parade CBC Session, then you can head over to Said The Gramophone today to pick up 2 of the tracks, “I’ll Believe In Anything, You’ll Believe In Anything”, plus “Unknown Title”. For the record, here’s the full tracklist of that session:

1. Lousy Pictures
2. I’ll Believe In Anything, You’ll Believe In Anything
3. Same Ghost Every Night
4. I Am My Father’s Son
5. (Unknown Title)

Also- Unrelated Thought For The Day: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is the Dark Side Of The Moon of Indie Rock.