Okkervil River’s newest record, The Stand Ins, is due from Jagjag just shy of a month from now. Remember: their last few records (Black Sheep Boy, The Stage Names) have been pretty damn great. So it probably stands to reason that this new one should be fairly amazing too, dunnit? What’s that? You need “evidence?” Then try out the mp3, which takes the standard Okkervil flavor, and throws in one of those jangly, bouncy, Smiths-y beats that I always imagine Molly Ringwald dancing to.

I pointed this out yesterday on The Catbird Tumblr, but in case you missed it: the advance MP3, “Strange Overtones,” that was just released from the new David Byrne/Brian collaboration is pretty great, but it’s hard for me to NOT imagine Herbert, the elderly perv from Family Guy, when Byrne sings the verse parts.

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I know I have mentioned the Amazon Vinyl Store before, but I mention it again because I was looking through it the other day and got my mind semi-blown. Did you know that there is a slew of great records now available that were once non-existent, super-rare and expensive, and/or impossible to get? Seriously, my eyes just about bugged outta my head when I saw that Blueberry Boat had FINALLY been released on vinyl. Mrs. Catbird’s eyes DID bug out of her head when she saw.

As a public service, I have gone through the recent releases and compiled this list of Stuff You Should Drain Your Wallet On™:

Liz Phair Exile In Guyville		My Morning Jacket At Dawn		Fiery Furnaces Blueberry Boat
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot		Radiohead OK Computer		Radiohead Kid A
Radiohead The Bends		Metallica Master Of Puppets		Metallica Ride The Lightning

You can call the project Blues: Yours, Mine, and Ours.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin stopped by AOL’s “The Interface” and regaled them with a set of tunes, namely “Half Awake (Deb),” “You Could Write A Book,” “Dead Right,” and “Think I Wanna Die.” You can grab the performance as an MP3 here, or a really high-quality video here.

Starting in September, the boys are off to the UK and points European for about a month and a half; check their website for dates (and someone let me know if, somehow, an impromptu Catbird Records night comes together in Stockholm or Malmo, ft. Yeltsin, Pet Politics, and Hemstad (er, I mean “Thailand)).

The Catbirdseat August Mix/Podcast has been posted. As ever, to hell with “the jump,” here’s the tracklist right here:

• TOPPS - Boat
• 10 Fingers, 11 Toes - The Ponys
• Grounds For Divorce - Wolf Parade
• The Devil Wears Earplugs - The Joggers
• Inside The Cinema - Culture Reject
• Slipped Dissolved and Loosed - Lambchop
• Mockingbird Diet - Karl Blau
• Walk Through A Cloud - The Donkeys
• Willow Tree - Chad VanGaalen
• The Gift Of Song In The Lion’s Den - The Lord Dog Bird

Yeah, that’s right, I’ve put the Lord Dog Bird’s “Gift Of Song” in two consecutive podcasts now, I love it so much.

The Walkmen lost me after 2002’s Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone. I liked Bows & Arrows well enough, but it was definitely lacking that certain je ne sais quoi, and so my interest in the band tapered off pretty rapidly. But do I like what I’ve heard thus far from their new one, You & Me (full album stream here), and you have to appreciate their gesture of offering a special $5 Amie St. download of the album, with all proceeds going to benefit the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

This has been kinda hush-hush, but my friend Hunter, he of SF’s Gold Robot Records, just put out (as in, today) a brand-spanking-new limited edition Bonnie Prince Billy 7-inch. Notes For Future Lovers b/w Donde Esta Prufrock is a limited-edition of 500 on translucent blue vinyl. It’s $5. And it’s gonna sell out fast once word spreads, so get on it.

The Lord Dog Bird’s s/t disc is out next week. It’s the solo side project of Wilderness guitarist Colin McCann, and the album’s closer has the honor of being my on-repeat-all-afternoon-song today.

The scene: My friend Avi is in Stockholm, in a record shop, flipping through the dusty old vinyl. He pulls out a mysterious record and his face lights up. Avi, as many people know, is wild about Scandinavian music (he runs the website ItsATrap.Com, after all). But what most people don’t know is that Avi is also nuts for Trucker Country from the ’70s. So when he found this record — Viking Truckers’ Love On The Road, you know his life suddenly felt complete.

It really is insane, btw. It’s like “Eastbound and Down” covered by Abba, while a kidnapped Scotsman nervously plays along on his bagpipes because a wild-eyed faux-hillbilly Nordic in a satin cowboy shirt has a Winchester pointed at his temple.

(See also: Hummin’ Cummins)