I’m thrilled to announce that Vancouver’s Apollo Ghosts are a welcome new addition to the Catbird Records family. If you’ve been following things at all around here, I’m sure you recall my endless glowing praise for their debut LP, Hastings Sunrise (full Listen@MBV stream here). So, when they approached me with news that they had a new EP and wanted it on Catbird, what choice did I have but to jump at the chance?!?

The new Apollo Ghosts EP is called Forgotten Triangle, and it’s 5 brand-new (and totally awesome (obvs)) songs, recorded at the Catbird-revered JC/DC Studios. Comes in a Catbird Mini-7 sleeve, with artwork by yours truly. 25 randomly selected orders will get a special limited-edition version, with photo print insert. It’s $5 on CD, or a mere $3 for a 320kbps MP3 download.

MP3: Apollo Ghosts – “Palm of My Hand”

But that’s NOT ALL.

Being that they sold out of their initial pressing of Hastings Sunrise (300 LPs), I’m happy to tell you that the record has been repressed. And this time, in a beautiful 180-gram teal and white marbled vinyl. But there’s a caveat: this is a VERY limited pressing– just 100 copies (and we’ve only got 50 (our friends up north at Geographing have the other 50)). At the rate these things have gone in the last 18 hours, I don’t expect these LPs to last very long at all. So if you’re thinking about getting one, do it NOW. The LPs also feature a poster insert and a free download card, and will set you back just $15 (that’s practically a buck a song, considering Hastings‘ 14 tracks).

PLUS ALSO: being that Hastings Sunrise wasn’t even originally available on CD, we’ve taken care of that too. You can grab it on CD (in Catbird Mini-7 sleeve) for $7, or do the download thing for $5.

MP3: Apollo Ghosts – “Dobermans” / “Land of the Morning Calm”

I’m sure more details about it will be posted on the Merge site shortly…

It’s going to be “Bay of Pigs” b/w “Ravers” and I’m assuming this comes in *advance* of the new full-length that was previously mentioned for ‘09 (unless of course this 12″ is the sole “new release” he’s been working on). Whatever the case, I’ve already heard from my sources that the new material is amazing.

Although I first mentioned that Kill Rock Stars would be releasing an Explode Into Colors 7″ this summer (and later pointed out their new self-released tape), please allow me to spell out *exactly* what sort of good stuff we can expect from the Explode Into Colors camp in the immediate future. There are THREE 7-inches in the works; one on KRS (”Eyes, Hands, Mouth” + 1), one on M’Lady’s Records (”Coffin” b/w “Sharpen the Knife”), and one on Just For The Hell Of It. All will feature artwork by a different Portland artist, but they’ll share a consistent theme. Later, all of the 7-inches’ tracks will be collected into an EP (CD/vinyl), and that will be followed by EIC’s first full-length, which’ll come out on (you guessed it) Kill Rock Stars.

If, like me, you’re excited to hear stuff from Portland’s ‘Best New Band,’ then this is all very good news.

MP3: Explode Into Colors – “Sharpen The Knife”

It’s that time again– time for Catbird Records to fill out your earbuds with something new and wonderful. Our newest release, I’m proud to say, comes from England’s George Washington Brown, who some of you may remember from this brilliant video/song. Or perhaps you remember him from his former life, as “Johnny X” from ’90s punkers Kenickie? Of course, his music these days has less to do with the UK punk tradition, and much more to do with the UK indiepop tradition (he does live in Sunderland alongside Field Music, after all). In short– Catbird has been graced with a wonderful EP of golden honeyed English indiepop from GWB, and we’ve got them available now– just $5 for the CD (with the kick-ass sleeve by Patron Design Studio), or a mere $3 for a 320kbps MP3 download.

MP3: George Washington Brown – “A Guess, Rewind”

A beautiful, sunny Springtime day like this? This is exactly what you need to be listening to– Go grab it.

An unstoppable force of music in the Philadelphia scene, Mike Kennedy has at some point played with virtually any Philly band you can think of, but he’s also been releasing music with his project Audible for almost 10 years now. It’s some lovely, melodic pop, and they’ve just release a brand new album today. Sporting a beautiful watercolored cover, and hosted by the great new site-for-bands Bandcamp, you can download the whole thing for just $8. There are even 2 free tracks available. Here’s one of ‘em; give it a listen:

MP3: Audible – “Hours Ago (Sad Mac)”

MP3: Royal City – “Can’t You Hear Me Calling”

Another track off the forthcoming Asthmatic Kitty collection of one of my favorite bands of all time, Royal City.

Have you grasped yet that I’m really anxious for Sharon Van Etten’s upcoming record Because I Was In Love (out 5/26 on Language of Stone? Today, the official video for “For You” was unveiled; check it out.

There’s a new issue of the always-amazing Yeti out next week– and this one looks to be going over and above the already-high Yeti standards. Besides the 200-page perfect-bound book (with cover by Mingering Mike), this one’s companion CD features exclusive material from:

• Grouper
• Dum Dum Girls
• Wooden Shijps
• Dutchess and the Duke
• Nodzzz
• Crystal Stilts
• Fresh + Onlys
• Explode Into Colors
• Woods
• Christmas Island
• PLUS TONS MORE

They’re saying it’s the best CD they’ve ever done…

So go grab a copy already– it’s only $10!

By now, I’m sure that everyone reading this has already gotten in on the Catbird limited-edition Unbunny LP project, right? And if not, what are you waiting for?

‘Cause, well, here’s another great music project to join in on: Kind of Bloop: An 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis. It features chiptune artists Ast0r, Disaterpeace, Sergeeo, Shnabubula, and Virt, doing their own interpretations of Davis’ work. Andy is going above and beyond with this project, by following all of the arcane, antiquated, institionalized music royalty rules– so it’s going to take about $2000 to get the project going. Go get involved; this is a really awesome idea.

Raven Sings the Blues posted two new tracks from Sharon Van Etten’s sure-to-be-great upcoming full-length Because I Was In Love (Language of Stone, 5/26). Surely you already checked out the song “For You,” when I posted it back in March (and saw the lovely ‘Secret Garden’ video from last year)… these new songs are lovely too. Here’s one, grab the other one, “It’s Not Like” over at Raven Sings the Blues.

MP3: Sharon Van Etten – “Consolation Prize”

PS: this song is no relation to Julie Doiron’s “Consolation Prize” from earlier this year