I’m imagining a scene: it’s years and years ago, and it’s Gothenburg Sweden. On one side of the street, the boys of Hemstad are growing up, blasting their punk rock records, air-skronking on tennis-racket guitars, and sneaking into the basement to sip Grandpa’s whisky. On the other side of the street is a nice, proper little house, and inside that house were some well-mannered, bookish, and quiet young boys faithfully practicing their music lessons. We know what happened to Hemstad, but what ever happened to those good boys from across the street? Apparently, they formed a band called Detektivbyrån, and they seem to be the perfect thing for if you’re making a mixtape and you need to segue from Hemstad to Beirut. It’s sort of like if you were imprisoned in a tiny snowglobe by a crotchety old Eastern European wizard, and discovered there was a street band trapped in that tiny city with you, and hell, they’re not half-bad!

::: Detektivbyrån – 01 :::

*Both* Hemstad and Detektivbyrån are playing the Emmaboda Festival tomorrow, in southern Sweden, along with Jose Gonzales, Band Of Horses, Camera Obscura, the Pipettes, and many, many other great bands.

And while we’re on the subject of festivals, since when are there exactly 9 billion “indie” music festivals going on at any given time in the US? I mean, don’t get me wrong, it sounds great: record heat, huge crowds of hipsters, $5 bottles of water… Okay, I confess: I really don’t understand the appeal, but apparently, that’s just me. Next year, I propose consolidation. ‘Cause I would *totally* lift my festival-ban for AustincitybonnalollapygdesdemidwestquatchMJsirenforktonationbysouthwestfest.

A few weeks ago, I saw a poster on my streetcorner advertising a dual-billed show featuring my friend Matt’s band, Teeth of the Hydra, and another band I’d never heard of, called Beaten Awake. Since Teeth (whose new disc, Greenland, is out on Teepee on 9/15) come from the ultraheavy Sabbath/Melvins school, I assumed that a band with a name like “Beaten Awake” would follow along a similar sound. Nope. Turns out that Beaten Awake would be more appropriately grouped with those modern Big Ol’ Beardy Rock bands like Catfish Haven and Ladyhawk. Their disc, Let’s Get Simplified, is out on Audio Eagle next month and I love this track:

And I don’t wanna turn the ‘Org here into the “CBR Announcement Board,” but I must announce that CBR 006: Maestro Echoplex – Last Night I Saw God On The Dancefloor is now shipping!

All of you who pre-ordered (both domestic *and* international) should be receiving your discs before the end of the week!

And on that note, the Maestro is doing a redux at Pete’s on October 13, w/ Katie Mullins and Sean McArdle, and they’re looking to do a Philly show the next night on the 14th. But they need some help hooking it up– even a house party would be cool. Drop a line to Maestro if you’re down.

Wow, you guys love the Tap Tap, don’t you? I knew that you would. And, whoa, so many of you saying it’s one of your favorite discs of the year? That’s awesome.

I confess, it’s one of my favorites too. But for some reason, it seems like it would be weird for me to add it to my Favorites sidebar over there. Which, in actuality, shouldn’t feel weird, because it’s not like I make money off these releases (though hopefully the artists do; which reminds me: the “Tip the Artist” concept I came up with? A definite success, I’d say. I was able to send a modest check over to Tap Tap after just 2 weeks of sales, and that is freaking AMAZING. Thank y’all so much.)

Also, I was “like whoa” when I saw that TT was as high as #3 or #4 on that Elbo.ws thingy. Crazy. That’s not bad for a disc with a $0 marketing and promotions budget.

Oh, and remember, last week, I suggested that it’s kind of interesting to listen to TT’s version of “Come On Feet,” and then to compare how different it is in style from the Pete & the Pirates version? Well, I just realized you can actually do that now: The TT version appears in this month’s mix, and the P & the P version is up on the Stolen Recordings Myspace. So, like, if you’re bored on a Friday afternoon, there you go: Go compare some songs.

I realize some of you might be getting sick of these Tap Tap posts, but all I can say is that it’s just terribly hard to contain my enthusiasm for Lanzafame. But do not despair: I’m sure I’ll be moving on to obsessive posting about Swan Lake before you know it.

Oh, and one more thing: if Johnny Marr is a member of Modest Mouse, then Rosie Thomas is pregnant with Sufjan’s baby.

CBR alums Get Him Eat Him are in the studio right now with Dismemberment Plan’s Jason Caddell, working on their as-yet-untitled second full-length. But starting tomorrow, in Columbus, Ohio, they’ll be off on their Summer Tour.

Get Him Eat Him Summer 2006 Dates:

8/4 – Columbus, OH – Andyman’s
8/5 – Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen
8/6 – Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock
8/8 – Denver, CO – Hi Dive*
8/9 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court*
8/10 – Boise, ID – Visual Arts Collective*
8/11 – Seattle, WA – The Paradox*
8/12 – Portland, OR – Towne Lounge*
8/14 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill*
8/15 – Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland*
8/16 – Phoenix, AZ – Modified*
8/18 – Denton, TX – Halley’s*
8/19 – Austin, TX – Emo’s*
8/20 – Lafayette, LA – Caffe Cottage
8/21 – Athens, GA – Caledonia Lounge
8/22 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
8/23 – Washington, DC – Warehouse Next Door#
8/24 – Philadelphia, PA – The Khyber#
8/25 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge#
8/26 – Cambridge, MA – Middle East Downstairs#

* w/ Evangelicals
# w/Beirut

And they have a sweet new CD-R EP, called “(Get Him Eat Him) Challenges You To A Game Of Basketball“. I can’t even explain it, just go look. The basketball game is apparently fully functional, crikey. Four all new tracks, including a cover of Sebadoh’s “The Freed Pig!” Here’s the lead-off track:

::: Get Him Eat Him – Get Down :::

I also noticed that they still have some of their CBR 004 stock left over; go grab that one too, if you missed out on it.

Matt from GHEH is a huge Destroyer fan (but wtf happened to his Streethawk review?), but I’ll have to ask him if he knows about the super-obscure Dan Bejar side-project from 1999 that just got re-released in a handmade edition of 100. 1777Rex put together the re-release, a collaboration between Bejar, Robert Dayton, and Julian Lawrence called “Points Gray” (but known, back in the day, as “A.I.D.S”). You can stream a track over at the Myspace page.

On a different Bejarian note, these are my guesses for which tracks are Bejar’s on the upcoming Swan Lake disc:

“The Freedom”
“City Calls”
“A Venue Called Rubella”
“Shooting Rockets”

We’ll see how I do come 11/21, when Beast Moans is released.

I must confess, I did come across a Swan Lake mp3, it’s one with Spencer singing, and it’s very good. But I’m not going to post it, b/c that would be a total dick move, since obviously, Jagjag doesn’t want it posted yet.
So note: if you post that track before Jagjaguwar puts it up, you’re a dick.

My bad, they sent out a huge mass email that okayed the track like 5 minutes after I wrote that. Figures.

::: Swan Lake – All Fires :::

New mix! Hip hop hooray! Ho. Hey. Ho. Etc.

Big thanks to Megan Whitmarsh of Tiny Industries for the banner!

Hey, did you guys all see this on the ‘Fork: Exploding Hearts Reissued, Compiled! Thank god. Dirt Nap is finally doing a re-release of Guitar Romantic on vinyl. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to talk myself out of dropping a hundy on one of those copies that pop up on eBay every so often. I’m glad I held out. Anyway, in addition to the vinyl, they’re also doing a compilation of singles, demos, and etc., called Shattered. Awesome.

Here’s an mp3 they’ve released, originally only available on 7-inch:

::: Exploding Hearts – Teenage Faces :::

Also from the ‘Fork: There’s apparently a big charity auction currently being held in support of Tyler Clark Burke, Canadian artist/personality extraodinaire (and co-founder of Three Gut, if you didn’t know). You can bid on stuff like, uh, Peaches’ thong. Peaches used thong.

Um. Yeah.

Hey, Justin of the Terribly Empty Pockets was kind enough to hook me up with their new EP, Get Wet, on both CD and vinyl. Why would I need both versions? Because the vinyl edition contains a total of 8 songs, over the CD’s 5. A bit Talking Headsy, and a bit New Zealandy Pop, def. worth checking out.

::: Terribly Empty Pockets – Boy’s Club :::

The album’s not *officially* out until next week, but you can order it right now through their label, Columbus Discount Records.

What? Did you say you wanted that Dan Bejar/Carey Mercer/Spencer Krug “Swan Lake – Beast Moans” album art in full, mega-enormo resolution? Well, here it is. I’m guessing that’s a Carey Mercer original? Art is by Shary Boyle.

The Slight Record has been working up some new stuff, including a new disc, The Megafauna Undermined, by bedroom-pop genius Dean Wells, aka The Capstan Shafts. There’s a new track in this month’s mix over there.

If all of the kind praise from the blogs is to be believed, then Tap Tap sounds like a cross between Wolf Parade, Beirut, CYHSY, and the Arcade Fire. Jeez, thanks a lot, guys! What are you trying to do, start a huge wave of backlash before anyone even hears the disc? Hee hee, I’m just kidding– a sincere thanks to everyone for their track reviews, disc reviews, and general blurbs thus far.

And special thanks to Said The Gramophone, who, of the record, said “MEN COME OUT OF THE BUSHES, WEARING THE BUSHES!,” and Largehearted Boy, who has already dubbed Lanzafame one of his favorite releases of the year.

Boy, those limited editions went quick! All sold out now.