“Acoustic guitarist Ass does a barren cover of the Escape From New York theme.”

But it is, in fact, a pretty damn awesome cover. I want to hear selections from The Thing next please.

Thanks for that, 20 JazzFunkGreats.

“Live Albums Are Dead, and Music Is The Loser”, The Independent 6/27/08

It is time to say farewell to some of the greatest albums ever made, albums that made careers, defined genres, and celebrated the raw power of music. Because the live album, once a rite of passage for every act of substance, is dead.

While you’re at it, you’d might as well see if you can cram the “Compilation Album” into that coffin with it, because you’d have to be HIGH ON SOME AMAZING CRACK to that think anyone is going to plunk down money for a comp in the era of file-sharing and rabid personal playlist making.

On the other hand, the health of the “Remix Album” is reportedly stable.

The Donkeys, who released one of my favorite records of 2006*, have signed with Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar’s red-headed stepchild, Dead Oceans. We can expect the Donkey’s new slab of laid-back West Coast pop, Living On The Other Side, on September 9th.

(*Let me put it this way: how many “Favorite Albums Of The Year” do most sites pick? Fifty? A Hundred? I chose *FOUR* in 2006.)

I’m very happy to announce immediate availability of the newest Catbird Records release; it’s Brooklyn’s Forest Fire, returning with their full-length follow-up to last year’s sold-out Psychic Love Star EP.

CBR 015: Forest Fire – Survival
Forest Fire Survival Site | Catbird Records Page | Survival Online Player

Forest Fire have a number of new players on the album, including fellow Brooklynite Sharon Van Etten, and Portland’s Nathan Delffs (Castanets, Shaky Hands). FF still have that old ramshackle, carefree flavor, but the new blood has really helped enrich their sound. Here are my 3 favorite tracks from Survival; “I Make Windows” is a great example of their new, fuller sound, “Slow Motion” is one of their classic live staples, and “Fortune Teller,” which we’ll call ‘the single,’ is, uh, ‘different:’

I know 3 tracks seems like a lot to give away on a new release, but listen up: the release model for Survival is different from anything Catbird’s done before.

• You can buy the CD for $5 from Catbird Records
• You can buy the album digitally from:

• Amazon MP3
• eMusic
• iTunes (soon)
• Napster
• Rhapsody
• Lala
• Amie St

• You can stream and/or download the album from:

• Last.FM
• iMeem
• iLike
• Facebook
• Muxtape
• Myspace
• VIRB
• Bebo
• Fuzz
• Megaupload
• Rapidshare

• And of course, you can also stream and/or download the album in its entirety directly from this Catbird Records page. You can even “Pay What You Want” there (but we both know you’re not going to)

Oh, P.S.– there was one more format that Survival was available in: the newest Catbird creation, the “Giant-Size” CD:

This is a CD with 12″ sleeve and giclee print cover insert (archival inks on 310gsm German etching stock), in limited-edition of 20, for $15.

But don’t get too excited, because these sold out in a matter of minutes. This is exactly why you should sign up for the Mailing List, people.

[M]ore troubling even than the hypocrisy of a few rock stars is the narcissism at the heart of the phenomenon of home remixing–the notion that to take a work of creative expression and make it “ours” is to improve it. It is a colossal mistake to coerce an expression of others into an expression of ourselves. The premise of open-source remixing is that finally we can admire nobody so much as ourselves. But in music, as in all art and love and politics, there is usually more to gain in trying to understand what belongs, uniquely and idiosyncratically and serendipitously, to somebody else.

Boston Spaceships, Bob Pollard’s new band isn’t half bad, actually. Their upcoming album, Brown Submarine, is out 9/9 on Rockathon. Here’s the MP3:

Stream Wolf Parade’s At Mount Zoomer in its entirety, over at Spinner, which is where these streams practically always show up. Love that cover.

I know I’m not alone when I say that Sebadoh’s Bubble and Scrape is one of my favorite albums. Of ever. It was released by Subpop back in 1993, when most of today’s music fans were zygotes, but Domino has Deluxe Edition reissue all lined up for a July 8th release. 15 Bonus tracks(!):

18. Reject
19. Sister
20. Bouquet For a Siren
21. Emma Get Wild
22. Flood / Ken
23. Messin’ Around
24. Visibly Wasted II
25. You Are Going Down
26. Old Daze
27. Part 1 – Lou
28. Part 2 – Eric
29. Part 3 – Eric
30. Part 4 – Jason
31. Happily Divided
32. Soul and Fire (Acoustic Demo)

I listened to the Soul and Fire demo, and even though the lyrics on the demo version are painful teen-poetry-bad and gaggingly earnest*, it’s still worth hearing:

*Seriously, though; compare the final lyrics with the demo lyrics:

Final:
As you walk away
Think of all the joy we shared
If you decide you need me
I’ll be wondering if I care
Not there to soothe your soul
Friend to tender friend
I think our love is coming to an end

Demo:
If you walk away
We may never meet again
If you decide you need me
Make a wish and I’ll be there**
There to soothe your soul
friend to tender friend
Call me if you ever want to start again
Call me if you ever want to love again

(**that line made me throw up in my mouth a little bit)

States Rights‘ amazing 2005 comp, Bro Zone, was filled with great stuff (Dirty Projectors, White Rainbow, Yacht, Jib Kidder), but I always had a soft spot for Track #22. A pretty straightforward rock number with some Bolan-y warbling, it came from Nevada City, CA’s Golden Shoulders.

I never knew too much about the band, but Matt W. sent over a note recently, letting me know that a remastered version of Golden Shoulders’ Friendship Is Deep was just released on Welcome Home Records. “Let My Burden Be” is on there, plus this one:

…plus 12 other tracks. Sounds pretty good to my ears. You can grab the album over at iTunes.

Okay, so it’s not *technically* “new,” but: it’s time to upgrade your copy of Destroyer’s Record Store Day song “Madame Butterfiles” from vinyl-rip to 320k MP3 or lossless FLAC. Yes, Merge continues to be totally awesome.