I somehow missed the fact that Jason Zumpano had a
band after Zumpano, but a cursory googling turned up
evidence of a few discs by “Sparrow” (as well as the
standard ‘Fork
savaging (plus also Kempa’s Zumpano Rarities
page)). Anyway, Abs Kosh is
putting out the next Sparrow record, The Early
Years, and I’m digging on this mp3 (ostensibly the
title track, though curiously filenamed and sung as
“Show Me”):

I’m also liking those live Mason Dixon
tracks over at their MySpace
page. They’re opening for Superdrag’s John Davis
at the Mercury Lounge on April 5th. You New Yorkish
kids should swing by there.

I still haven’t been able to track down what the
b-side(s) will be for Spoon’s I
Turn My Camera On single. They’ve always been
really good about including nice non-album
b-sides…anyone got the scoop on this one? Update: The kindly Ms. Lisa C. informs me that the b-side is slated to be a song called “Good Too Long”. Update 2: Derek says the b-sides are “I Turn My Camera On (demo)” and “You Was It”.

The Russian Futurists‘ new record, Our Thickness, is out May 3rd. Here are mp3s (and if you’re only gonna listen to one, make it the “Paul Simon” one).

It appears that The National are utilizing that same oddball ordering system that 4ad uses, which is a shame since the single they’re selling, “Abel”, is pretty damn good. Oh well, at least you can stream the new album, Alligator, here.

Double-albums can be kind of irksome. Often, they can seem to be
a mark or extreme egotism, hubris, and sheer excess. But not always.
Sometimes it just takes 2 albums to say what you’ve gotta say. Case in point: the upcoming double (well, technically it’s 2 separate discs, but come on)
from Marty Anderson
aka Okay, titled Low Road/High Road, that is out
this week on Absolutely Kosher. If you
at all dig the mp3s below, then I do recommend picking these discs up. He sounds sort of like a combo of Destroyer and Devendra Banhart, filtered through Half-Handed Cloud:

One thing that should be mentioned - Anderson is a hometaper (pretty much) by necessity,
as he has a rare medical condition that keeps him confined to his home most of the time. Basically,
these 2 discs are a document of one year of Anderson’s life, as he sat confined to his room. That bit of knowledge adds quite a dose of intensity to what at first seems to be just a collection of simple and catchy indie-pop songs.

Also, due to his health, Okay will not be touring to support these discs, though there will be
a few special performances scheduled for New York, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco (the
“album release show” is April 6th at Bottom of the Hill).

And the SF Bay Guardian has a great piece on Marty Anderson/Okay here.

Months and months and months ago, My Morning Jacket came through town, and I deliberately (that’s “on-purpose”) missed the opening band. I figured that there was no way a band called “Dr. Dog” could be any good, and that it was probably some Allman Brothers type shit or something. But that was many moons ago. In the days since, lots and lots of different people have been telling me how they “just saw this great band” “that I’d love” “called Dr. Dog”. And still, I was reluctant to believe them. Ultimately, it is with massive thanks to Nick (who went so far as to track down a copy of the disc and physically place it in my hand) that I can now admit it: yes, Dr. Dog is actually quite awesome. There are indeed some quasi-jammy elements (MMJ style, not Phish style), and a sort of Beatlesy, Elephant-6ixy sound, and there’s even a twinge of a Mommyheads vibe. But enough blabbering, just give a listen. And if you like it, buy it here, from National Parking.

Also, on an unrelated note, if you can figure out the arcane ordering procedure, I really recommend getting that new “Download-Only” Mountain Goats EP, The Dilaudid. S’good.

I negected to mention that Tim and I kicked off our SXSW night-viewing by checking out Luke Temple. He did a great set, and seemed both somewhat Jeff Buckley-ish, and also, sort of like a Folk-version of Ted Leo. That Ted Leo thing’s actually pretty hard for me to explain, but maybe if you get the change to see Luke play, you’ll see what I mean. Or not. In any case, Mill Pond kind-of-recently added a new track up from his forthcoming Hold A Match To A Gasoline World:

I was seeing quite a bit of chatter about this Devin Davis pre-SXSW, and post-SXSW, it still seems to be going. Thoroughly decent poppy stuff:

More tracks here.

Youaintnopicasso has already covered both of the following recent Subpop signings, but I’ll regurge anyway…

Remember earlier this month, I mentioned Subpop’s signing of the band Horses? Well, now they’re called “Band Of Horses”, and there are mp3s out there now. If you were, for some reason, just aching for a voice that bridged the narrow, narrow gap between Jim James and James Mercer, then you’ll be thankful there’s Ben Bridwell of the Band Of Horses. Anyway, here’s my favorite track:

There are seven(!) other mp3s to check out here.

Another recent signing is Chad Van Gaalen, whose record Infiniheart is getting the re-release treatment. I’m-a go with “Traffic” as my favorite on this one:

Two other tracks right here.

The cover art for Vanderslice’s new record was done by SecretMath.Net and it’s really really awesome. Check it out right here.

SXSW 2005: Notes, Thoughts, Facts, Etc.

I apparently can’t walk down the street at SXSW
without seeing Eugene Mirman.

…or the Tepper brothers.

If the DJ spins Steely Dan, I will be happy.

That one pizza place is awful, but that other one’s
pretty good.

Tim almost got trampled by a life-size Meatwad.

John Roderick has a Sam Beam beard now.

Roderick brought out the guy from Harvey Danger to
sing with him. He used to be in the Long Winters, so
that kind of makes sense. Robyn Hitchcock also brought
out that guy later that same night. That doesn’t seem
to make sense.

Nick Catchdubs is a fine chap.

No, you cannot just walk straight through the bar to
the stage area, didn’t you see that line around the
back of the building? (by the way: FUCK YOU, RED-EYED FLY).

The Wrens were still good. Both times.

Spoon: ditto.

The Robbers: um, yeah. 3 times.

If Frank‘d had a cell phone, we coulda hooked up. If Amanda’d had a cell phone, we could’ve seen the Spoon ACL taping. Moral of the story? Get cell phones.

That’s Eleanor Friedberger on the back of the
30-Gallon Tank disc. (or was it Soft Effects? Whichever one has the chick sitting on the floor on the back of it)

Pearls will melt in vinegar.

Sometimes, party-events are held at the Elks
Lodge.

Sometimes, they’re held at American-Legion-type Halls.
With bowling alleys in the back.
Where you can bowl while drinking free beer provided
by Diesel.

Free beer beats four dollar Shiners any day of the
week.

If you really want that tattoo, you’re going to have
come back when you’re sober.

The Go Team are bastards for cancelling due to
hangovers, but Feist is 100 percent class– she continued
to play even in the midst of
a typhoon.

Stars were(was?) unexpectedly amazing.

Emo’s indoors is absolutely disgusting in 98 degree
afternoon heat. But Communique was throwing out some
ass-shaking shit in there, what was I supposed to do?

Jeff Hanson, under the worst circumstances, you really
did deliver a great set. You didn’t blow your top,
and really, you had every right to. And for that, I consider you a big
man. With a woman’s voice.

You may have payed 150 bucks for that bracelet, but
dammit, you’re gonna wait in line.

And if Chuck Fucking Klosterman wants to walk right up
and get in the door immediately, he will.

And yes, you’d be pissed off when you found out that
the reason you had to wait in line for an hour was
because the Real World Austin was taping in there.
Furthermore, they were taping, inexplicably, during an
Enon set?!?!

Hey, you can’t get a free pair of Converse in the back
room at Flatstock unless you’re in a band, you nimrod.

But anyway.

Regular programming to resume…

Tech Note: all my email from the 16th - 20th is mysteriously vanished. If you
sent me something I need to see, send it again.

What I’ve got on repeat today:

And in the vein of that whole “indie rock cover songs” thing from yesterday, there’s this one.

via prayersandtears.com, natch.

Holy Shit! Merge is releasing the next Teenage Fanclub record! They too would make a hell of a good “Special Guest” at the SXSW showcase, you know…

Anyway, yes, you could spend your time chasing down recent
“ironic” cover songs by indie-rockers, or you could do
like me and invest those 10 minutes in watching the Promotional
Video for the Wrens Documentary.
(via Kathryn,
who, coincidentally, offered $10 for Ted Leo’s Kelly
Clarkson cover.)

Ida’s planning
to get their tour going later this month, and I heard
they may be planning to have a couple of new ltd. ed.
discs with them: a solo record from Dan, and a live
show recording from 2000 (probably similar to their
Angel Hall disc).

Pinchworm
pointed out that Bars &
Guitars was hosting a
few tracks from The National
’s Alligator, which comes out April 12th.

No updates for most of next week, as I’ll be at the
Spring-Break-For-Geeks-Of-All-Types called SXSW. Why
am I saying this now? To allow time for people to send me
passes to some of that “Invite Only” shiz.

Kids who learned from the O.C. about this thing called “indie rock” probably
haven’t heard of Elk City. Their last
record, Hold Tight The Ropes, came out way back in 2002, and I really dug it (Track
4 was my favorite, but this one’s pretty
good too). They’ve got this nifty ability to switch between quiet and loud/slow and
fast/sparse and full, whilst maintaining a real cohesion, and a great ear for a solid pop hook.
Now, I think I had read on their website at some point that guitarist
Peter Langland-Hassan had left, and I wondered if they would indeed continue after
his departure. Well, they did, and Renee LoBue + Ray Ketchem enlisted
the help of Brother JT, The Mendoza Line, and others to help ‘em craft the new
record they’ve got in the can, called New Believers. I just got the
promo last week, and it’s pretty damn good. No word yet on specific release
details, other than it should be out “Summer ‘05″. In the meantime, here are
2 tracks, including my favorite, “Cherries In The Snow”.

I almost forgot to mention that The Minus Story’s
Heaven and Hell EP came out this week. It’s very good, and yes, the cover of
“Hybrid Moments” is quite nice. They kick off their
Bill Berry’s Aneurysm Tour on the 14th. (And note that Parasol’s
currently got the EP available for only 7 bucks)

Subpop has signed the band Horses (ex-Carissa’s Weird). Touring
begins in April w/ Iron & Wine and Eric Johnson of the Fruit Bats, so that should give you
some indication as to what Horses sounds like.

The Televangelist + The Architect is
a real mouthful, innit? Weirder, I think it’s just one guy. But anyway, The T + The A have a
newish album out, called The Mass Exodus From California, and the tracks I’ve heard
sound pretty good:

The album’s currently only available here, at the
Undetected Plagiarism Shop.

Just to clarify, my Dino Jr. tidbit in the previous post was purely speculation. Of course, I don’t know for sure who the “Special Guest” is, but maybe it does, um, merit further investigation?