Parasol this week released the Jose Gonzalez Crosses EP as a download-only release. Check the iTunes store or Audio Lunchbox or whatever. Parasol’s U.S. release of Jose’s full-length, Veneer, will be out August 23rd.

Thanks to Woody Whatever for sending me their new disc, The Great Pop. You can download tons of their catchy, lo-fi, bedroom pop right here.

And congrats to Tiny Showcase on the occasion of their first 1-day sellout, Penelope Dullaghan’s “Caged Bird”.

Here’s the Mountain Goats Tour Photo Diary

Italian label Awful Bliss will be putting out a comp in October called Songs For Another Place Vol. 1. It features unreleased tracks from Phosphorescent, Great Lake Swimmers, Dolorean, Unbunny, and many others, and is a limited-to-1000 edition in handmade packaging.

Hey, Songs:Illinois has tracks up from the latest Mark Mulcahy record.

Stream the Chk Chk Chk cover of the Magnetic Fields’ “Take Ecstasy with Me”.

Frank alerts us that Jim “Three Gut” Guthrie finally has his own website. Check out the mp3 page for a slew of downloads, including unreleased tracks, demos, and my perennial Royal City favorite, Bad Luck.

Also, I suspect that Goldkixx and Jagjaguwar are in cahoots, trying to take the piss out of all of us, when they say: “Black Mountain opening for Coldplay.” Thanks, but no thanks; I’m gonna hold out for the Slayer/Carly Simon Tour.

And BMR points out that you can stream the new Teenage Fanclub record (as well as many other new albums) over here at VPRO.

So, iTunes was on random and this song came on, and I thought it
must be Stephen Malkmus covering a Velvets song. Turns out
it was “Dirty Lives”, from Love as Laughter’s new one, Laughter’s Fifth.

Even though they scored an 8 from Pitchfork for Our Land Brains back in 2002, I guess I just kinda figured we’d heard the last from Snowglobe. I suppose not putting out a record for 3 years tends to make you think that way. But lo and behold, they do indeed have a new disc out, called Doing The Distance, on Makeshift Music. Mp3s:

Starting tomorrow, Pas/Cal will be offering up a free download of their new split 12″ w/ NYC’s La Laque, titled Summer Is Almost Here. Pre-orders for the actual physical disc will also start tomorrow.

Speaking of vinyl, Tomlab is releasing the vinyl edition of Final Fantasy’s Has A Good Home next month.

I couldn’t dig up any further info on it, but Darla is listing an upcoming 6-track EP from Herman Dune called Jackson Heights. The copy says it’s “the perfect partner” to Not On Top, and the title track comes from those same sessions. Also, Julie Doiron guests on it.

Darla’s also listing upcoming re-releases of a ton of New Radiant Storm King discs (plus a new one in October), a new June Panic EP in July, and the release of MMJ’s At Dawn & Tennessee Fire demos disc, in….February,2006.

The extremely prolific Will Thunderegg sent me a disc of his band’s catchy poppy ditties, and you can pick up any one of their eight discs here. You can also download about 35 tracks here, and there’s also the “Song Of The Week” page here, which is currently up to Week 20.

MTV Cribs: Joe Pernice Edition

11:11, the solo disc from Azure Ray’s Maria Taylor
comes out next week, and Saddle Creek has a couple tracks up:

It’s out already in the UK, but Teenage Fanclub’s Man-Made
won’t be out stateside for a few more weeks (June 7th on Merge). An
mp3 to tide us over:

Also on June 7th is the CD release of the Black Mountain Druganaut EP.
Did I mention before that it will also feature “Bicycle Man” from their split 7″ w/Destroyer, and also “No Satisfaction
(Campfire Version)”? You can watch them playing “Druganaut” over here at Zed TV.
I mean, at least in theory you can. I can’t get that shit to work no matter what browser I use.

I received a care package from Summersteps Records last week, and I gotta
tell you, I’m really digging this new record by Kid Icarus, called The Metal West. It’s not officially out until
July, but pre-orders are shipping now from the Summersteps Store. Mp3:

Hey, do you actually love Wolf Parade so much that you need to know exactly what the cover of their new EP looks
like? Well, Ok, then.

I keep forgetting to mention that Get Him Eat Him’s full-length, Geography
Cones, is all wrapped up and slated for a July release on Absolutely Kosher.
GHEH have recently reviewed Moe’s Steak and Cheese Sandwich and also posted
an mp3 from the new record:

I’m doing my best to dig up info on Dan Bejar’s new project, Bonaparte, but I’m coming up empty. Someone fill me in, please…

Oh, and also, don’t forget that the Pete and Pete Season 1 DVDs are out today…

Pre-orders are now being taken for the Pernice Brothers upcoming Discover A Lovelier You. The disc is officially out on June 14th, but if you do this pre-order deal, you’ll get a bonus autographed digipack insert: a four-page, 2 color portfolio of comics about the band by graphic novelist Robert Ullman, with text by Joe Pernice.

Merge announced that they’ll be releasing, in August, a new record by “Tenement Halls”, which is the new project of the Rock*A*Teens’ Chris Lopez.

And, um, hello? Was anyone going to bother to tell me that Holopaw has a new record, Quit +/or Fight!, and it’s out on August 9th on Subpop? You can listen to a “primitive” version of the title track here, on this page from Found Magazine.

Well, Sufjan is definitely in “Can Do No Wrong” phase if you ask me. The interweb is already all abuzz about Illinois, which is out July 5th on Asthmatic Kitty (June 3rd if you pre-order from them), and I too think a new Sufjan album is something worth getting all abuzz about. I would re-type the tracklist here, but my fingers might fall off by the time I’m done typing. Here are mp3s of two of the tracks with shorter names:

Olympia’s Kickball, who released the amazing HuckleberryEater last year, are planning their August tour. The tentative schedule is posted here; give them a holler if you can help ‘em book a show in your neck of the woods.

And more Portastatic news: Merge is reporting that the new Portastatic full-length, Bright Ideas, is done and will be out in August.

J’you see that thing on Pitchfork about the new Believer comp? Looks good.

New shit from the ‘Slice:

Pixel Revolt is due out August 23rd (on Barsuk, of course). John’ll be kicking off his solo promo tour right about that same time; check local listings.

Aw crap. I forgot to mention the show at Trash (formerly Luxx) last night, but I’ll tell you today that John Guilt’s new EP, By Any Other Name is now available for purchase. It’s pretty cool, and the disc even features a nice video for the title track. And speaking of the title track, go ahead and download that one:

The John Guilt West Coast Tour kicks off next week in Tucson. They’re playing with Golden Birds and the Lonely Hearts. You should go check ‘em out.

It slipped by me, so it might have slipped by you: last week a new Portastatic EP, Looking For A Power Supply, came out last week on Spain’s Houston Party Records. Darla seems to have the best price on it at $9.85.

And one last bit of good news: dios are in the studio now with Phil Ek. New album expected in September.