Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin now have their first video for Pershing, “Think I Wanna Die,” all wrapped. Stereogum and Pitchfork, you guys can hold an arm-wrestling match to determine who gets to premiere it.

Jerry, my erstwhile Ohio drinking buddy, and his band of (not-so-merry) Black Swans are heading out on the road in support of their latest, Change! (”a worthy addition to the sad-bastard music canon” -The Onion AV Club). Of note in particular is this date, which should be an amazing show:

• 4/14 - Columbus, OH - Cafe Bourbon St. w/ Moviola and American Music Club

And that reminds me, Moviola’s Dead Knowledge, one of THE BEST records Catbird has ever put out, just got a fantastic review from Dusted. My favorite line, about the song “Rudy:”

“It’s as pure a representation of coping with small town life as has been rendered in this age, one that could send stylized ’70s carpetbaggers like Midlake home with asscheeks full of rock salt.”

It slays me that so few people have discovered this album, so I’m incredibly happy whenever I hear of folks coming across it and really “getting” it.

Video: Humility

Video: Truth & Devotion

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin fans are interesting people! They do things such as:

• Cover the song “House Fire” with their Minnesotan collegiate acapella group
• Paint far-out portraits of the band (note: looks like Will’s investment in that Bowflex machine really paid off)

Their new record Pershing is out 4/8, and they be at Union Hall on 4/21 and Mercury on 4/22.

People on the internet seem to be very excited that there is a new Shearwater album (Rook) due out on Matador on June 3rd.

Last summer, I got turned on to Seattle’s Kaz Nomura, aka PWRFL Power. Since that time, he’s:

1. Won the Seattle Capitol Hill “Block Star” contest
2. Played the Capitol Hill Block Party Main Stage
3. Thoroughly charmed most of Seattle (and a good portion of the US during his unending tour)
4. Starred in an eSurance commercial (WTF, I know)
5. Put together a full-length album that’s out soon on Slender Means/Aagoo
6. Gotten compliments from M.I.A., who came to his show in Baltimore last week(!)

And now we can add to that list:

7. Put out a limited-edition disc for Catbird Records.

I present Catbird Records’ CBR 013: the PWRFL Power EP. 5 song CD in hand-numbered Catbird Mini-7″ case, w/ 6 cover variations. $4.

I would do a big write-up for you to explain the charm of PWRFL Power, but there are already a gazillion glowing-with-praise writeups out there you can just check out. Perhaps The Stranger (who knows and loves him best) explains him best: “[PWRFL Power’s music is] an unconventional marriage of melodically rich, Fahey-styled acoustic virtuosity and conversational, knowingly naive lyrical abandon…[which] manages to transcend the potentially cloying confines of its subject matter.”

Just don’t call him “twee.” He’s not “twee,” he’s “kawaii as F*CK.”

Gerd Leonhard is, surprisingly, not a character from the latest Final Fantasy game, but rather, he’s a music/tech guy who’s just released a new collection of interesting essays called “Music 2.0.” I’ve been breezing through it (it’s a free PDF download (that is, unless you want to pony up $60(!) for a hard-copy (I doubt that you do))), and there’s definitely some worthwhile reading in there. Go check it out.

This ought to save the music industry completely: Perez Hilton gets his own record label.

Remember the Destroyer Trouble In Dreams refrigerator magnets? The giveaway I had? You never heard back from me, so you just thought you lost. You thought wrong.

After all the entries came in, I realized there were going to be a lot of disappointed, non-winning Destroyer fans out there, and that’s no good. So I wrote to Merge and pitched them the crazy idea of sending me enough of those Destroyer magnet sets to give one to *everyone* who entered. And you know Merge is, and always has been, completely awesome, right?

So, yes, every one of you who entered the drawing gets one of these things. I’ll contact y’all soon to solicit addresses.

I don’t think there will be much of a U.S. push, so I feel it my duty to let you know that Envelopes great new one, Here Comes The Wind is out today. Paying $30 to import it from Rough Trade isn’t that appealing, so I would recommend grabbing it on iTunes (or eMusic (thx Shane))… no vinyl for this one

Here again is the link for their downloadable full-album stream widget thing that I mentioned awhile back.

No Depression is not the only music magazine that will cease publication this year.

TVT is not the only label that will go under this year.