Yet another debt of gratitude out to David B. for giving me a new song to put on repeat all day– a song that’ll hopefully tide me over while I wait for the full-length to arrive.

It comes from Vancouver’s Apollo Ghosts, who just put out their debut LP, Hastings Sunrise, in an edition of 300 on vinyl. This is one of those I times when I innocently opened up my browser, and the next thing I knew, I was slapped across the face with something great that I immediately couldn’t stop listening to. I played this track 2 or 3 times, was immediately compelled to order the album, and am now streaming the tracks on the Apollo Ghosts Myspace like a mothereffer. I love this.

(Frontman Adrian Teacher’s solo work seems to be worth your time too; check out “St. Pierre and Miquelon” at CBC Radio 3.)

Our friends over at Nashville Cream just found some awesome footage of one of my favorite bands of ever, Brainiac. It’s from January 1993– the band was only a year old (Enon’s John Schmersel had yet to join the band), and this was just a few months before their debut LP, Smack Bunny Baby, came out. This video was shot at Lucy’s Record Store in Nashville, TN, but I gotta tell you, it brought back a flood of memories for me. Having spent the better part of the nineties in Columbus Ohio, I had the good fortune of seeing some amazing bands on a fairly regular basis — GBV, the Afghan Whigs, Gaunt — just to name a few. But I honestly think I must have gone to *every* Brainiac show that came through town. Every show was a “Must See.” It was devastating to hear the news when Brainiac frontman Tim Taylor was killed in a car crash in May of ‘97.

Brainiac’s records soundtracked a substantial portion of my 20s, but I haven’t really put them on in awhile. But I just spun Smack Bunny Baby this afternoon, and the feelings all came rushing back to me. I never missed a show because I always knew: this was great band. An important band. And though it’s hard for me to imagine them ever just “fading away,” I still can’t help but think that the “burn out” they experienced just came way too soon.

From their first album, side one, track one:

I’m sure I’m also speaking for the band when I give a huge thanks to La Blogotheque for choosing Forest Fire’s Survival as the Top Album of 2008 (above even Fleet Foxes, woohoo!)

Here’s my loose (i.e. poor) translation of Le Blogotheque’s éloge en français:

[Survival is] [a] rare album, released on a blog label, available only on the internet, that can be downloaded for free or for just a few dollars. An album that you can not find in a store, that hasn’t been criticized by Pitchfork, Mojo, or Inrocks, and that has had no advertising or publicity. An album that was intended to be forgotten at the end of the year. All the more reason to place this album at the top of the top.

It is an excellent album, and the one I listened to most this year. Raw, powerful songs, alternately nervous and hypnotic, like a drug-hazy stroll through the history of song.

I repeat today what I said 6 months ago: download Survival and you’ve made the best acquisition of the year.

Yes, the limited-edition CD (both “Giant-Size” and regular) is long sold-out, but as mentioned, you can still download the entire album, and I strongly urge you to do so.

…in case you hadn’t noticed. Go here, or just grab ‘em below.

The Catbirdseat Mix: January 2009

• Women – “Black Rice”
• Robert Pollard – “Imaginary Queen Anne”
• Lake – “Heaven”
• Graham Smith & KGW – “I Will Own You”
• The Tallest Man On Earth – “A Field of Birds”
• Jeff Hanson – “This Time It Will”
• The Clean – “Twist Top”
• Clear Tigers – “Boredom”
• Bom Bom -”Pop I Kras”
• Envelopes -”Free Jazz”
• East River Pipe – “Druglife”

[or subscribe to the podcast here.]