What a coincidence! Just as digital sales are slowing, illegal downloads are rising, who’d a-thunk it?

Things I haven’t necessarily listened to yet, but am posting nonetheless:

New Travis Morrison album coming soon, called All Y’all. If Pitchfork gives this one a 0.0, it’ll be a huge internet drama. If they give it a 10.0, it’ll be an even bigger drama. In the end, they’ll give it about a 6.8, so probably no drama.

The Gandalf of the Nu Beardie movement, Devendra Banhart, released some streams from his upcoming album, Smokin’ Bowls With Smokey Joe and the Wizzard of Doob Canyon Down In Ganjatown. You can stream them here on Myspace, or download them from this blog, assuming you can get over there and grab them in the next 19 seconds before XL shuts their ass down.

I always thought that Paper Thin Walls was just another nice lil’ music site, a-sittin’ there in my feedreader, but jeezum crow, there’s a lot going on over there! For instance, did you know that their recent redesign was more than just a lovely facelift– they’ve apparently got some cool new Web 2.0/music/social/band/label/community features being unveiled soon. And did ye know they were bought by Getty Images? Crazy! I heard Clipart.com has been eyeing Pitchfork.

The Daily Swarm: Getty Images Is Listening Through Paper Thin Walls

But man, can I just say: that article had my head spinning– I had to map it all out to make sense of it:

Folks over at the Nashville Cream blog are currently debating about whether or not Spoon deliberately lifted the full-on intro of “You Got Yr Cherry Bomb” (best song on the record) from Nashville band How I Became The Bomb’s song, “Killing Machine.” They have mp3s posted for comparison, go check it.

So, what do you guys think- coincidence? Oh wait, durr: you can’t answer that, I don’t have comments on this site. Go voice your opinion over there on the Nashville Cream blog with all them other Creamers.

(thx for the tip-off Steve!)

I’ve been urged to check out Deer Tick for awhile now, but only just now finally got around to it. Lots of people have been saying good things, but that doesn’t seem to mean much anymore, considering that on the internet, *every* band is constantly described with a ZOMG TEH BEST BAND EVAR intensity.

So actually, in the end, what finally made me go ahead and give Deer Tick a listen was noticing the company he keeps– Viking Moses and Jason Anderson, to name a few. Note to bands: choose your Top Myspace friends wisely. It really does make a difference.

Deer Tick is Providence, RI’s John McCauley. He lists his influences as including John Lennon, Jim Croce, Warren Zevon, and Townes Van Zandt (did he just say Townes Van Zandt? Sold.). Deer Tick’s record, War Elephant, is coming out on Jana Hunter’s Feow Records on September 4th. I’m listening to it right now. It’s good.

::: Deer Tick - Art Isn’t Real (City Of Sin) :::

I’ve been checking out the indie sales figures charts over Indie HQ fairly regularly. Copyright issues and bitching/complaining about said issues prevent them from posting the full charts, but they always post at least a partial one. Here are a few tidbits, to give you an idea about what sort of numbers some of the “bloggier” bands do (digital is included in these numbers, btw):

Interpol - Our Love To Admire - 73,000 units
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - 47,000 units
Justice - Cross - 5,000 units (50% digital)
M Ward - Duet For Guitars #2 - 1,600 units
Buffalo Tom - Three Easy Pieces - 1,600 units
St. Vincent - Marry Me - 1,300 units

Les Savy Fav are just about to release a new disc, Let’s Stay Friends, on 9/18 — their first album of new material since 2001’s Go Forth (although everyone loved on 2004’s Inches so much, I think it practically qualifies as an album of new material, even though it wasn’t an album of new material (that doesn’t make sense, does it? Forget it.)) The album features guest spots from Enon, Eleanor Friedberger, Islands, Metric, and the Black Heart Procession and if you go see the band live, one of the guys will probably have a baby hanging off him (you’ll have to just trust me on that one).

Chances are, you’ll probably be spinning their debut full-length over and over and over before the year’s over, so you might as well get started listening to them now:

Clear Tigers, from Brooklyn NY.

Tracks I especially recommend: Igloo, Boredom, Spook House, and Vacation. Yes, I’m recommending *every* track they have posted.

Clear Tigers’ full-length will (hopefully) be out this fall.

Good news: all-around good chap Avi over at It’s A Trap has imported a handful of the Hemstad / Detektivbyrån split 7″ that was recently put out by Italy’s Black*Kitten Records. Avi’s good deed means that North American customers can pick up the record for $7, which is just about exactly half the price of having one shipped to you from Italy.

It’s A Trap: Detektivbyrån / Hemstad - Split (7″)

The Music Industry Is Saved!

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