Well that was a surprise! The new Okay record, Huggable Dust, is available (digitally) RIGHT NOW (the CD version is due out on May 20, FWIW). I am, as many of you know, a very big fan of the work of Marty Anderson (aka Okay) (good luck shutting me up about Okay’s great High Road/Low Road double-album from 2005).

Of course, because of Marty’s chronic health issues, there won’t be a tour (as such) with this release. HOWEVER, in support of Huggable Dust, Marty Anderson’s art and music will be going “on tour” without him: unique filmed performances of Okay will be shown at galleries and alternative art spaces across the US and Europe; check your local listings. And if you happen to live around the Bay Area, you may even be lucky enough to catch an actual “live” live performance (for instance, there’s an Okay date with the Mountain Goats coming up on 2/29 at Bimbo’s).

But for now, just go buy the album!

A second MP3 from Destroyer’s forthcoming Trouble In Dreams has been released:

If you missed it, you can grab “Foam Hands,” the first mp3 from Trouble In Dreams here.

I’ve been meaning to thank everyone who was nice enough to send along their compliments about he artist portraits / art I did for Idolator’s Pop ‘07, you are too kind, dang.

And for all of you guys that were asking about prints? Well, I tell you what: there were so many of you, I’m actually considering doing a limited pressing of these now– I got a few sample prints, and if I do say so myself, they look pretty FANTASTIC. We’re talking about 11×17 high-quality giclee prints on acid-free, archival-grade 310gsm German etching paper here. The price would run probably $25 per print, and you could either pick and choose individual prints, or if you wanted to get the whole set, I could probably discount the overall cost to some degree.

What I’m trying to do right at the moment, though, is just get a final gauge of interest in this… Sooooo: are you interested? If so, please drop me a note at popprints [AT] catbirdseat.org (and let me know which prints you might be interested in, too). And I’ll let you know soon if the project’ll be a go.

Deer Tick* has covered that awful “Beautiful Girls” song by Sean Kingston:

I will give a crisp, new 5-dollar bill to the first fairly well-known indie rock band who covers the IO Digital Cable Reggaeton song.

(*You remember Deer Tick! We wrote about Deer Tick’s War Elephant back in July)

Happy Valentine’s Day; share these Indie Rock Valentines with your favorite Pitchfork loving/hating sweetheart.

Here’s Vampire Weekend:

Dear Momus,
We’re really big fans of yours. And we have a new album out and would love to send you a copy to check out.

Now, you’re Momus, ok? Do you:

a.) Respond politely, thank them, and send them your address

b.) Scoff and ignore them

c.) Write publicly on your blog (ahem, livejournal) about them writing to you, explaining how you don’t really like their music (whilst grouping them with the Arcade Fire, Sufjan, and the Arctic Monkeys), then go on further to detail how you blew off a circa ‘89 Pulp, a Pre-Tigermilk Belle & Sebastian, and Of Montreal before they became bare-penised Australian steak barons

For the answer, check out this ILM thread.

Watch a danimated Bejar freak* (but not “freak” as in “Girl I’ma Freak You”) his way through this video for the best song off that last New Pornographers album. Cool.

The Stranger reports that Seattle indie-mega-station KEXP is partnering with NY’s Radio New York for a joint venture called Radio Liberation. That will mean 14 million new listeners for KEXP in the New York area. Great news for people out there who have radios.

Watching the Grammys because you love music is like watching NASCAR because you love French Impressionism.

I don’t have any mega-limited edition indie-rock baseball caps or running-shoes to give away, but I’ll tell you what I do have: Destroyer refrigerator magnets (more fun that the hit-refresh pleasures of The Bejar Family Circus!”). Merge sent along three sets of these Destroyer magnetic poetry sets, and obvs I only need one, so I’ll be happy to get these other 2 sets out to other folks. Just drop a blank e-mail to REDACTED, and I’ll pick a few names out in a few days. Thanks all, will pick some winners out very soon.

A 12-minute mashup using only the intros to songs, “Intro-Spection.”

There’s an interesting piece on the new book, Against The Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob by Lee Siegel, over at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. As you read it, just replace “literary bloggers” with “music bloggers.”

With all its various centers of power and checks and balances, [old media] is a lot less biased — for all its commercial pressures — and a lot less susceptible to hostile influences than the unchecked ego and will of a single blogger… Bloggers have no responsibility or obligation, except their own personal integrity, to [fact-check, correct mistakes, remain impartial in the face of perquisites, etc.]

(bracketed paraphrasing mine.)

There’s some joke to be made about Brooklyn and this artist’s name in relation to this blog-adored band’s name but frankly, I’m too lazy to think up a funny right now.

An Advertising Age guy on Vampire Weekend:

In certain circles these days, liking or hating is less and less about liking or hating a specific phenomenon (e.g., a band or a movie or a politician) but about whether or not you like or hate the people who like or hate that phenomenon.

Kind of similar to this old gem of an internal conflict: If douchebags all love Band X, and I love Band X, then won’t I be perceived as a douchebag, simply by association?

The key to getting around this, of course, is to stop giving a shit what other people think.