Ok, let’s try this. Site wonkiness should be under control now, but no promises. Let me know if anything explodes.

The May Mix is up. Steve from Unbunny graciously contributed the nice banner this month; many thanks, Steve.

Anybody else see that Hitchhiker’s Guide movie? Was it just me, or was that Neil Hannon singing the closing song? (Actually, guess it wasn’t just me).

…And speaking of The New Pornographers, Paul kindly points us to the newly posted artwork and whatnot posted over at Matador. And the title track mp3, even:

A track from the The Ponys‘ new one, Celebration Castle has been posted, and it actually sounds different from their last record. In terms all the kids can understand, it’s “more Interpol-y”.

And Fluxblog’s got The Two
Sides of Monseiur Valentine, complete with a comic strip. That’s from Gimme Fiction for those who live under rocks, and/or don’t give two shits about Spoon.

And actually, Gimme Fiction is now streaming over at Merge, which I think is a new development.

Update: Gramophone has Sister Jack up, too. I think all
the cooler kids were contacted and told to post Spoon songs today.

Ok. Server move complete, DNS wonkiness should clear up in
the next 12 hours or so. I’ll get regular siteage back online soon
as poss.

I got a copy of Brian Michael Roff & The Deer’s limited EP Pre-Inventory, and it’s quite good stuff. This EP, which acts as a teaser for BMR’s upcoming full-length Inventory on Keep Recordings, is limited to 100 copies and is free (while supplies last) with any order of 2 or more Keep titles at their store. DOA is giving one away, too, so there’s that. In any case, here’s the track that really got me; check it out:

From the “You Already Read It On Pitchfork Yesterday” File: The New Pornographers‘ s next one, Twin Cinema is out August 23rd.

Jens Lekman has a new EP out called The Opposite of Hallelujah. Jose Gonzalez guests (and note also that Hidden Agenda/Parasol’s doing a US release of Jose’s Veneer). The Opposite of Hallelujah vinyl is limited to 500, and is very easy to get if you’re extremely fluent in Swedish. The CD edition is out on Joel Gibb’s (aka The Hidden Cameras) Evil Evil label and is limited to 1000.

Finally, continuing my series of “Why are you paying $45 for that on eBay?”: Built To Spill’s Perfect From Now On 2xLP: $12 from UpDirect.

That’s it, this is ridiculous. New hosting service, here I come…

The Sunset Tree is
out today.
You should go out and pick it up. And Pitchfork is right about those 4 opening tracks. Amazing.

The Big Ticket and TTIKTDA both
have tracks from the freshly leaked Illinois, Sufjan’s new one.

Via Magpie and Frank: the very cool
new Paris Hilton-inspired video for Gentleman Reg’s “Boyfriend Song”, from last year’s
excellent Darby & Joan. And the Magpie is right; the
album is nigh on impossible to get, but is totally worth tracking down. Aaron described it as “fey as fuck”.

12xu has a new mp3 up from the poppy
new Sally Crewe record,
and
though it isn’t technically out for another month, you can order it online right now.

You can also still order the Girls Can Tell vinyl
from them for
$14; I don’t know who the idiots are that are paying $45 for it on ebay.

Worst. Server. Ever.

I know, I know.

Philly’s R5 Productions has a great reputation for bringing shows to the Philly area, but I think they’re also about to get a great reputation for having a swell page of downloadable mp3s by the artists they’ve booked. Go here and grab tracks by Feist, Caribou, Out Hud and others, plus even 3(!) tracks from the new Mountain Goats record, The Sunset Tree.

And Secretly Canadian is kindly offering up an unreleased Damien Jurado track, plus also another track (one of my favorites, btw) from his newest, On My Way To Absence.

Check out a track from Phosphorescent’s forthcoming Aw Come Aw Wry (out in June on Misra).

A few weeks ago, this guy at a bar told me that I should check out Cincinnati’s The Heartless Bastards. I had quite a bit to drink that night, so I quickly forgot, but then, this week, I stumbled across this Splendid Zine review, and it all came back to me. My point, I guess, is that that Heartless Bastards stuff is pretty decent; check it:

Berkeley CA’s Golden Birds have a newish record out called Carrier. Here’s an mp3:

Golden Birds are touring the West Coast in May with John Guilt, who will be out promoting their new EP, By Any Other Name.

Former Columbus-Weekly-Paper cover model Andy, aka Drew, aka Mr. Toothpastefordinner, recently released a new CD of music under the name “Dog Traders”. You can check out some mp3s right here.

Today, I’m listening to the title track from Lewis and Clarke’s Bare Bones and Branches:

The record originally came out in Europe in 2003, but a new US limited-edition is now available from Summersteps Records.

Dino Jr. dates announced.

New Spoon interview over at Popmatters.

New Shins video for Pink Bullets.

You know the kids go crazy for the Bloc Party,
so here’s a link that Grant sent over:
She’s Hearing Voices (live @ sxsw).

A few more tracks from The Early Years, the upcoming Sparrow (Jason Zumpano)
album:

If you missed it the first time around, here’s the so-excellent title track.

The Lame Drivers.

The new Oranges Band record, The World & Everything In It is out June 14th. You can
check out a new song, “Ride The Nuclear Wave”, over at the Lookout site.

At SXSW this year, I managed to catch the oddball pop stylings of John Ringhofer, aka Half-Handed Cloud.
The new record is called Thy Is A Word And Feet Need Lamps.

News from 3gut:

Royal City is putting together
a B-sides album that’ll be out later this year.

The new Constantines record will be out
in October.

Oneida’s got a freshly redesigned site,
and the Three Gut (Canadian) release of The Wedding will be May 3rd, the
same day as the Jagjaguwar (American) release. Here are mp3s, and note that the “Did I Die”
track is especially good in a sludgy 70’s kind of way.

I think it’s been years, literally, since my taste has synced up with Matthew
Fluxblog’s, owing mainly to the fact that
his tastes tend toward the more exotic, while mine stay more in the realm of lame-o
indie rock. But yesterday I was listening to the new
Herman Dune record, Not On Top, and thinking to myself that it was very good, and that I
should mention it, but lo and behold, Matthew
just beat me to it. It’s really worth checking out. It’s lo-fi (in Mono, even!) and
loose and a little bit sloppy and little bit folky and a little bit rocky. A
vaguely Velvets-y vibe, but sung in a Dylan-y vibe, and with one of those endearing Scandi-Naive
accents, to boot. It’s out on Track & Field,
but the American distributor is Darla, and you
can get the record from them right here.