Over at MBV, I just posted a full-album stream of that Apollo Ghosts – Hastings Sunrise album that I’ve been going on and on about.

Listen@MBV: Apollo Ghosts – Hastings Sunrise

For some time now, We’ve watched as the music mags began giving up the ghost. We’ve even seen magazines squeeze out an extra 6 months of life by taking reader donations. But here’s a new one, a zombified magazine (of sorts): Folio reports that the founder of Harp (which folded last year) is planning to launch a print version/companion of his apres-Harp website Blurt.

Yes, it sounds very Bizarro world: instead of being a print mag with a companion website, they’re going to be a website with a companion print mag. It seems hard to wrap your brain around the logic, but then again, maybe it’s just the publishing variation on the “think digital first, physical second” philosophy. At any rate, it’s certainly a unique move– and I’m very interested to see how this one plays out.

A few MP3s have crept out from something I’ve been quite curious to hear: that forthcoming Of Montreal Eluardian Instance EP aka “the Jon Brion Remix EP.” Apparently, he took two cuts from Skeletal Lamping (”An Eluardian Instance” and “Gallery Piece”) and worked his studio magic on them. After hearing these, I’m kinda dumbfounded that it never really occurred to me just how well Brion & Of Montreal sort of “fit” together– it was a good match. If you like orchestral disco pop, I mean.

The album is out on Tuesday.

…is Hastings Sunrise, by Apollo Ghosts, who I wrote about last week. It pains me to use that old “perfect blend of” trope, but there’s no way around it: this record is a perfect blend of ’70s Punk/New Wave/Power Pop, ’80s College/Jangle, and ’90s Slack Mofo Indie/Twee. I’d post another mp3, but honestly, the songs vary so widely in styles, I don’t want to overstate any one in particular. Best bet: go to the Apollo Ghosts Myspace, where there are a crapload of different songs streaming. Another good bet would be to hurry up and grab this self-released, JC/DC-produced LP while you can; there are only 300 copies.

As with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s Broom in 2005, and Frightened Rabbit’s Sing The Greys in 2006, I’m just going to keep harping on about this record until someone with an audience larger than mine picks up on it. It’s a great record, and I really want people to hear it.

Earlier today, I posited on the Catbird Tumblr that the biggest internet traffic grab you could do right now would be to do a calculated remix, called

“Animal Collective – ‘My Girls’ (Special Obama Inaug Remix Edition) (dedicated to Sully the Airline Pilot)”

A scant 3 hours later, Topherchris delivers.

In the interest of the greater good, and to give you a chance to win 2 VIP Coachella tickets, I am posting the following:

Causecast.Org and Global Interitance have teamed to present a Global Inauguration Quiz. All you have to do to get a chance at the tickets is go to Causecast.Org, sign-up (quick, easy, free), and then post your answers to the quiz in your profile.

Every entry raises $1 for Global Inheritance, and, as I mentioned, you could win 2 VIP Coachella tickets. Could be the best thing you’ve done all day.

The new Catbird Records release is here. It’s the second music-slash-art collboration from Jason Zumpano, this time with Vancouver visual artist Shayne Ehman.

CSP006: Jason Zumpano – Roses $9.99 Dozen →

I will point out to you straight away that this is not a rock record– it’s an artifact, equal parts music and artwork. 12 solo piano instrumentals, composed by Jason, and inspired by — and “soundtracking” — artwork by Shayne Ehman. Here’s an MP3 to sample:

The CD comes in a unique, hand-colored Catbird Mini-7 sleeve, and includes 2 small giclee prints by Ehman (there are actually 5 different prints– 2 are inserted randomly). It’s an edition of 150, but 50 each went Jason and Shayne, and we’ve already sold almost all of our 50 through the Catbird Records Mailing List. So I urge you, as ever, act quickly if you’re gonna act at all.

Realizing, of course, that the entire publishing industry is cratering, still: it’s been awhile since we checked in on the health of music magazines.

Folio just summarized the latest Publishers Information Bureau statistics for 2008. Auto and Business magazines did worst overall, with Music mags just trailing.

Folio referred to Blender as “on life support,” and MediaBistro reported in late November that Alpha Media, publisher of Blender was going into “restructuring talks that are expected to turn over the company to creditors.”

And news came just a few days ago that Arthur was “hibernating” their print edition. This comes just 6 months after narrowly escaping the jaws of death by soliciting a $20,000 donation from readers.

I don’t have any news about any of the other, smaller, music mags, but I am very curious about them– I’ve seen a lot of steeply discounted ad rates being offered of late. And whether it’s preemptive or reactive is unknown, but you have to give credit to Paste for really pushing their thinking waaaay “outside the box.” In the last year, in addition to their Radiohead-modeled “Pay What You Want” offering and their “VIP Subscription,” they’ve also launched a Barack Obama traffic grabber, placed ads in the page-number areas of their magazine, and launched their own ad network.

I understand there are some caveats and exceptions, but I stand by my assertion that an on-demand system for in-store fabrication of CDs, DVDs, books, magazines, and newspapers is the way to move forward. And by that, I simply mean that if these industries could cut out the huge costs associated with the mass manufacturing, printing, and distribution of their product, their balance sheets could start looking a lot better a lot faster. And recognize that I’m not talking about downloading stuff and then printing it at home on your HP Deskjet– I mean that retailers should be equipped with the technology to fabricate these items, in high-quality form, on the spot, when a customer wants to buy it. Granted, maybe the technology’s not *quite* there just yet, but I think my point still stands. You don’t see the short-order cook go into the diner in the morning, fry 1,000 eggs, and then wait for 1,000 customers to order them. That would be rather inefficient, don’t you think?

The oft-mentioned Lifted Brow “Imaginary Bookshelf” issue is finally shipping, and they’ve got a big launch party lined up (on the other side of the world, down under in Melbourne) for this Friday 1/16 at the East Brunswick Club. The show features a ton of bands, including Catbird’s own Fulton Lights. FL’s actually doing three shows while he’s down there:

1/16 – Melbourne – Lifted Brow Launch Party @ East Brunswick Club
1/18 – Melbourne – @ Bar Open (w/ Eliza Hiscox of Royalchord)
1/23 – Sydney – @ Hopetoun Hotel (w/ The Curse of Company)

The big Lifted Brow release show also has a special top-secret surprise headliner (I know who it is, but I’m not telling). If the suspense is killing you, just have one more peek at that insanely long list of music contributors to TLB4, pick out the names that seem big enough to justify secrecy, then go check the Myspaces and see if any of ‘em gonna be in Australia this week. Sleuthery!

I somehow missed it when I first clicked around Popmatters Best Music Scribing Awards pages last week, but they gave me an award for my amazing Muxtape that turned out to be everybody’s favorite. Thanks Popmatters!