By the way, Pitchfork was spot-on with that Sparklehorse review; those 2 opening tracks on Dreamt For Light Years are some of the most amazing moments of music I’ve heard in months.

Catbird Records‘ CBR 007: Pet Politics – The Spring EP marks the second CBR release from Gothenburg, Sweden’s Magnus Larsson, aka “Pet Politics.” 4 all new tracks of Magnus’ signature brand of Scandi-naïve popsongs, in a hand-screened, hand-numbered arigato sleeve, $3.50.

::: Pet Politics – Sunday Morning :::

And all you non-Mailing List members (and quite a few Mailing List members, frankly) missed out on the ultra-limited, ultra-awesome Hemstad Tee. A print run of only 15– what the hell was I thinking?

On the upside, there’s a very, very limited number of Tap Tap Tees left over, in sizes M and L only. Probably because that one was in a slightly larger edition, at 50.

Unless you already love Herman Dune like we do, it’s possible you might find the following a little bit precious for your tastes. But then again, maybe not. See, it’s the video for that song that got mp3-posted last week and that subsequently made their label freak out.

The video’s flagged as “in-progress,” and I’ll just bet you that the label’s gonna freak over this one too. Personally, I think the state that the video’s in right now is pretty much perfectly appropriate for Herman Dune.

[Thx Songs:Illinois for the tip-off.]

Holy cripes, did you know that a small English label quietly released a double-gatefold vinyl of The Wrens‘ Meadowlands back in June??? With bonus tracks???

Cory, you need to dust off the ol’ Abs Kosh news page, man! And also, try to sweet talk that Lomax label into also doing a double-vinyl of Okay’s High Road/Low Road.

I don’t even recall how I came across them, but I had an email from myself (I’m doing that a lot lately) telling me to check out Vancouver’s Great Aunt Ida (ostensibly two full generations better than regular Ida). It’s that nice quiet, softish, female singer-songwriter kind of thing, and the new album, How They Fly is out tomorrow. I was really enjoying the stream of the song, “Company You Keep,” over at their New Music Canada page, so I clicked over to their website to see if I could get an mp3 of it there, and lo and behold, there it was. Clicking on the track, though, revealed that it was only a partial mp3, which is just about the most annoying and frustrating thing I can think of.

In other Canuckian news, Owen Pallett was the winner of the first ever Polaris Music Prize, beating out a bunch of other really Canadian bands. He poo-ed a prize winning record, and for his effort receives $20,000 (CAD)! Best violindie rocker ever.

So weird. I heard from both Songs:Illinois and Said The Gramophone that they had been contacted by Herman Dune’s record company, Source Etc (EMI), and asked to take down their posted tracks from the upcoming Herman Dune record, Giant. And that wouldn’t be weird, except those mp3s came straight from the Herman Dune site! Even those are gone now, though– I suppose HD had posted them without getting the label’s blessing first.

But anyway, whatever. I believe that labels are fully entitled to do whatever they like, it *is* their time and money that goes into getting the discs out there into the world and everything. But man, that whole scenario there just seems like all kinds of ridiculous, from the bloggers getting in trouble for posting the mp3s to the band getting in trouble for posting the mp3s to the label being so deathly afraid of having the (2) mp3s out there.

But I’m gonna catch myself right here, because it would be very easy for me to get wrapped in some long screed, but I’m not gonna bother, because you can just go read Bob Lefsetz regularly and get the same effect.

(*Though I must point out that the irony here is that I know for a fact that my posting of those tracks led to *at least* one sale of back-catalog Herman Dune, because I spoke with a guy about it directly.)

Yes, it’s true. Somehow, and don’t ask me how, Tap Tap’s Lanzafame got a good review from Pitchfork, and on top of that, even got a “Recommended” (aka “Best New Music, Jr.”) rating! Go figure. And shame on all you publications what got a copy weeks ago, and just threw it on the pile of discs-you-never-intend-to-listen-to. Perhaps this will be the impetus for you to dig through the back-stacks and dust it off?

Anyway, here’s a lil’ non-album track for all y’all:

::: Tap Tap – Don’t Buy Her Things You Can’t Afford :::

Now, on a similar note, those very limited Tap Tap T-shirts will be here pretty much any second now, though I must let you know, almost every single one is already spoken for via pre-order. If you absolutely *must* have one, I’ll admit that buying a copy of the disc does, in fact, still grant you the secret pre-order link.

Also imminent is CBR 007. And it’s not Sean Connery Sings ‘A View To A Kill’ azh the catalog number may shugghest. I will say this, though: it rhymes with “Shmet Shmolitics,” it’s the second in a CBR series, and it’s gonna cost less than a bran muffin and a grande soy latte at your local coffee megacorp. Go join the Catbird Records Mailing List, you slacker, and you won’t miss out.

I didn’t even know it was in the cards for this year, but Songs:Illionis recently pointed out that there was a new Herman Dune record coming out next month. Giant, the follow-up to last year’s splendid Not On Top, is out Oct. 15th on French label Source-Etc. I’m not sure that my mind can yet process a slickly-produced Herman Dune, but I’ma keep these mp3s on repeat, so I can start getting used to it.

::: Herman Dune – I Wish That I Could See You Soon :::
::: Herman Dune – Nickel Chrome :::

Alright, that’s it. I solemnly swear to you now that I will not utter the name S _ _ _ _ _ again for the rest of the year. Furthermore, I don’t want to see another album come out of him before *at least* 2008. ‘Cause this is getting ridiculous.

Hey, Zoilus has an update on all things Bejar, including news about a Hello Blue Roses show next week in Vancouver. And from the “Certainly Not Unexpected” Department comes news that production of All Our Happy Days Are Stupid is cancelled, indefinitely.

The one thing Carl didn’t address, though, is the one Destroyer-related question on my mind: where the hell is that 4-sided Destroyer’s Rubies vinyl?

Stereogum has an amazingly cleaned-up, remastered version of SSLYBY’s “Let’s Get Tired,” from the old Two People/Gwyn and Grace EP that CBR was once used to supposed to re-release. This remastered version will appear as a bonus track on the upcoming Broom vinyl.

You know, based on what I’ve observed in the past, I think that music bloggers are gonna be falling all over themselves trying to be the first out of the gate with their “Best of 2006″ Lists. It wouldn’t even surprise me to see them start showing up as early as, say, October this year.

But I say why even wait ’til October? You could do it right now! Just refer to the Catbirdseat Handy Music-Blogger ‘Best Of 2006′ List Cheat Sheet, and you can quickly and easily have all your favorites categorized for you, and you don’t even have to think about it!

People, is it really that bad out there? So bad that Sufjan Stevens’ facial hair is a News Item?

Anyway, yes, it’s new mix time. Banner’s from the great Tyler Stout, who does some really amazing work, like, for example, this limited edition poster he just recently completed for the End of the Road Festival.

Also, pretty much just as an experiment because I was interested, this month’s mix is also available as an “Enhanced Podcast,” which means a few different things, though mostly, it means you can only play it in iTunes or on your iPod. Enhanced podcasts have pictures and web links and stuff, and in all likelihood, this is probably the only one I’ll ever do this way, because pictures and web links are hardly worth the extra time it takes to put these things together. But anyway, there you go– enjoy!

Speaking of iTunes, if that’s your preferred method of getting your music, note that we’ve finally got Tap Tap’s Lanzafame available there (as well as on the eMusic*, the Rhapsody, the MusicNet, the Napster, and the Sony Connect).

(*apparently, not up on eMusic yet, thx Kathryn)

And finally, a prediction: I predict that a hearty percentage critics and/or bloggers will not be able to resist trying to draw some comparsion between that new Joanna Newsom record and Final Fantasy’s He Poos Clouds. Because of, like, the D & D and stuff.