ZOMG! Apologies! I’m, like, over a month late posting this up this year! Thankfully, I was reminded by a thread over at the elbo.ws board.

(DECEMEBER, 2007: For all of you only just now discovering the list, take note that it was created back on OCTOBER 16, 2007. Feel free to stop sending me emails saying “B-BUT YEASAYER HAS BEEN RELEASED”)

…Er, I Mean, Radiohead In Rainbows Review!

Deftly mixing the best elements from The Bends and Kid A/Amnesiac, In Rainbows proves that Radiohead have still got it. A truly beautiful, enjoyable (and surprsingly accessible) album. From the lead-off track “15 Step” (the perfect opener, setting the tone for the masterful mixing of the organic and electronic to come) to the closing track, “Videotape,” Radiohead does not disappoint; it’s all here: soaring anthems, lovely ballads, blips and bleeps, and myriad other postmodern electronic flourishes. 3.5 stars.

PLEASE NOTE: I have not downloaded or listened to In Rainbows.

Oh, and PS: the downloading process? Smooth and painless! A+++++ WOULD DEAL WITH AGAIN!!!!

I haven’t checked in on Pretty Goes With Pretty for awhile, but looks like I swung back by just in time. They’ve just posted a great 4-parter called “Can’t Talk; Hyping,” which covers a topic near and dear to my heart (”currently, music, and the industry, and most of all, the online music scene(industry?), are all pretty sucky”), and which I think should make for a great discussion starter– so go read all 4 parts and then pipe in over there with your thoughts.

Pt. I: First On The Scene, To What End?
Pt. II: Check My Stats
Pt. III: The Perpetual Debut Album
Pt. IV: Coalescence

Select quotes:

“There was a time when it seemed like most blogs were digging for new music. More recently, the passion seems to have been replaced by some kind of faux professionalism.”

“You forget that half these blogs are outsiders in shitty apartments in Pensacola or Indianapolis, who likely started their little blogs because they loved music. Worse, they forget.”

Were there not videos, photos, and eyewitness testimony, I doubt that anyone would believe this, but Dean Wells (aka The Capstan Shafts), after 3 or 4 years and 20 or 30 releases, finally appeared in public this weekend and played a show. This is an OMG moment for the underground bedroom pop set, not unlike the first Jandek show was for ILM member or WIRE magazine readers.

Anyway, False 45th has full coverage, go check it out.

This is all terribly exciting because this also means that the odds of Wells actually showing up for his CMJ show have gotten better. I’d put the odds at about 2:1 now.

Last Friday, Matt told me he was driving up to Vermont for the show, and I scoffed at him, certain that he would drive all that way only to have Wells decide not to show at the last minute. But I was wrong. So Matt was a lucky bastard.

And speaking of Matt, the other band he’s in with his Get Him Eat Him-mates, Lame Drivers, not only have some new songs in the can, but they’re also playing a show tonight at the Knitting Factory Tap Room, 9pm.

Lame Drivers have always sounded to me like 1980 and 1996 slapping each other around in drunken argument. Live though, I’d say 1980 wins out a little over ‘96, so be sure to wear your skinny new-wave pants to the show tonight. Oh wait, this is New York, I don’t need to tell you to do that.

It may rub Morrissey the wrong way when his friends do well for themselves, but I’m (thankfully) not like that– I love it. You see, *two* of my old Columbus comrades are indeed becoming successful, and have new albums due out soon. The Black Swans‘ new record, Change!, is coming out on La Societe Expeditionnaire next month. The vinyl edition is limited to 500, and sports hand-painted covers by Columbus’ Arc North Workshop. Stereogum, the 94th most popular blog on the internet, premiered a new track from the record this week, which I regurgitate here for you:

::: The Black Swans – Shake :::

In a slightly different vein, my friend Brian (Brian Harnetty, that is) is putting out his first large-scale release next week. American Winter is a sound work woven from Appalachian holler music, archival/field recordings, and newly composed instrumentation. It comes out October 9th on Atavistic.

::: Brian Harnetty – Soon We’ll Reach The Starry Sky :::

Don’t forget that Beirut’s new one, The Flying Club Cup comes out on the 9th too. And that Flying Club Cup video site, put together by the brilliant Takeaway Shows crew, is almost fully complete now. Chryde offered to buy me a drink if I’d write an intro for my favorite Flying Club Cup track, so I did.

Sigh, am I really that much of an alky that I can be swayed to do things simply from the promise of free drinks? I suppose it’s true, because it’s my friend Nathan’s habit of plying me with beers that keeps me doing interviews (Anthony (Hype Machine), Jennifer (Music Slut)) for his Limewire Music Blog.

That reminds me, the CMJ Schedule has been released, but that’s the last thing I’m gonna say about them until they ok a press pass for me. Or at least offer to buy me some drinks.

The RIAA won their “We’re Going To Make An Example Of You” lawsuit against a file-sharer. Digital Music News weighs in on why this ruling is actually bad for the majors.

Jupiter Research’s David Card gets his panties in a bit of a twist re: Radiohead’s In Rainbows and the “armchair economists” making proclamations about it. Card says,

“By this remarkably oversimplified analysis, software, filmed entertainment, soda at McDonalds, and the classic example, high-end perfume, should all be free.”

Well, you can’t download soda or high-end perfume, but those other things you mention? Software, filmed entertainment? Um, file-sharing, open-sourcing, Youtube… believe me, there are plenty of people out there suggesting software and film/video are being devalued to zero, too.

Remember, I’m not saying that *I* think music should be free, I’m just saying that I think it’s pretty clear which way the wind is blowing.

(…continuing in my now ongoing “let’s see what happens to the old referrer logs if I post this” experiment.)

ZOMG, TODAY ARCADE FIRE UNVEILED THERE’S A SECRET HAPPENING ON OCTOBER 6TH, AND ZOMG, THAT SECRET IS THAT LCD SOUNDSYSTEM HAVE REMIXED ARCADE FIRE’S NEON BIBLE AND IT WILL BE AVAILABLE AS A FREE DOWNLOAD FROM BEONLINEB.COM ON OCTOBER 6TH, ZOMG.

(…at least, that’s what the faceless anon commenters over at brooklyvegan.com say, so it must be true.)

(but in reality, the announcement is for an _________________, ______ tells me.)

(Update 9/6: Yep, “interactive video,” as the 17 blanks above indicated, is indeed what I was told it was. Tho’ I’m still not saying who told me.)

In case you didn’t catch it, the new mix is up. Thanks go to Kyle Fletcher for doing the banner for us again this month, though again, I will point out that if any others of you out there are artistically inclined and want to design one of these mix banners (and get yourself a link) we welcome you with open arms. Just drop us a line.

I know that “Igloo,” the “single” from the Clear Tigers EP was only streamable there for awhile, but as I put it into this month’s mix, we’ve made it downloadable now. Let it go forth and multiply across 1,000 mp3 blogs.

And I know the release is sold out and all, but if you really want to hear it, I’ve noticed that it’s been OINK’d, plus it’s on like 20 different RAR blogs. No need to download and feel guilty as long as you buy their self-released full-length when it comes out in a few weeks.

And if you’re curious about my “post about Radiohead’s In Rainbows as a referrer log experiment” thing, the results were something like this, times a gazillion.