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yeah yeah yeahs - the peel session, 8/22/02
2007-09-24 14:46:00
in the course of doing research for another piece, i found a peel session the yeah yeah yeahs had recorded in 2002, one year after the release of their self-titled ep on touch & go, but before fever to tell. the four song session features three songs that would have then been new - "maps," "y control," and "tick," as well as "miles away."yeah yeah yeahs -"maps""y control""miles away""tick"yeah yeah yeahs peel session 8/22/02buy all the yeah yeah yeahs' albums at your finest local independent music retailer.
More About: Yeah Yeah Yeahs , The Peel , Yeah

the shepherd's dog
2007-09-24 12:01:00
the iron & wine sound has matured in the five years since our endless numbered days, and, honestly, how could we expect otherwise? forever restless, iron & wine continually reforge themselves in the crucible of sam beam's imagination, and even the two eps they have dangled before us since 2002 - woman king, their first foray with an electric guitar, and in the reins, an impressive, collaborative rethinking of some of iron & wine's oldest tunes - only began to hint at what was to come on the shepherd's dog, their third full-length. on this album, sam beam, the man who traffics under the iron & wine moniker, whose musical growth mimics that of his named medium, has matured beyond all expectations. as with wine, beam's flavors and sub-flavors have developed shades and tones, untasted at first blush. from the rough peasant red of the creek drank the cradle, burning the throat with its coarse beauty, to the marvelously aged shepherd's dog, striking the palate with a ...

my brightest diamond @ nice n' sleazy, 9/18/07
2007-09-20 13:46:00
as much as i love bringing you guys the finest concert footage my camera can take, i decided on a different tack for tuesday's my brightest diamond show. i've been feeling a little trapped behind the lens, a little too consumed by getting the best possible pictures and not concentrating enough on the performance. so, since i'd been looking forward to a full set from my brightest diamond since march and i knew exactly how good it was going to be, i decided to leave my camera at home and let nothing get between me and the show. so, even though this review might be lacking a bit visually, i had a great time (and, honestly, the space didn't allow for much in the way of exciting photography anyway).after my big hate-on of glasgow's abc, i was thrilled to not be going there for this show, and, luckily, nice n' sleazy turned out to not be that sleazy at all (just a little cramped). the show was in the basement, little more than a bar with a stage at the other end of the room, and the...
More About: Nice , Diamond , My Brightest Diamond

the go! team & caribou @ abc, 9/14/07
2007-09-18 17:17:00
well, this has just been the week for supercharged schoolyard funk and neo-psychedelic melodic effervescence, hasn't it? the week was bookended by two caribou sets, one as a headliner in a small club in glasgow, and the other as an opener in one of the biggest clubs in glasgow, and the release of the go! team's sophomore proof of youth, and a set as a headliner in one of the biggest clubs in glasgow. overkill much? ...perhaps.abc is not only one of glasgow's biggest clubs, but also one of its most prestigious. it has two spaces, abc 1 and abc 2, where some of the finest names in independent rock have played - i myself have been three times, and saw the decemberists w. two gallants, slint, and the go! team w. caribou. tearknee has has seen the decemberists, guillemots, and art brut. definitely a respectable list. but for all that, abc is a pretty shitty venue. abc 1, that is. abc 2 is great, a tiny little shack of a room with a short ceiling and comfortable stage, a space...
More About: Team , Go Team , The Go Team , The Go , Caribou

i wish ticketmaster was a person so i could track them down and hit them, v
2007-09-15 21:00:00
well, like lots of good people, i got screwed out of tickets to the premiere of heima, the sigur ros film, at the new yorker festival, by ticketmaster. i have never hated ticketmaster as much as i do now. simply, i had the tickets, and then they decided that i shouldn't have them anymore. why? it's beyond me. i cried (no joke). so (and i promise this is the only time i will ever ever do this), if you have an extra ticket and are planning on selling it, please sell it to me. i will give you a fair price for it. please get in touch via my email on the right.thanks in advance.sigur ros - "untitled # 1" (live in vienna, 2002)
More About: Track , Person , Mast , Ticketmaster , Tick

they don't mention the black knight though...
2007-09-13 16:27:00
do you remember i'm from barcelona? they were this huge, sprawling band actually from sweden that played joyful, twee tunes that made you happy and want to skip around with flowers in your hair...i'm sure you must have heard of them, they were really popular like last month! well, you know how time flies in the blogosphere, here one minute, gone the next. here's the band that i guarantee will replace their swedish charms in your heart: tournaments. yup. they don't even have an album yet. that's how cutting edge mr. mammoth is. we bring you the unsigned shit.tournaments may only be a five-piece, but they give i'm from barcelona a run for their melodic money nonetheless (anyway, no one can actually hear all of the 29 instruments). fronted by acoustic guitarman gethin pearson, tournaments plays what can only be described as sweet-rock, gentle and repetitive melodies with violin embellishments that lift hearts and make faces smile. "boldest of colours," the best track streami...
More About: Black , Knight , Lack

worth spendin' money on, volume the fourth!
2007-09-13 15:43:00
in spite of the shockingly low rating it received from pitchfork earlier in the week, music is rallying this week around the mother of all pointless showdowns - 50 cent's curtis versus kanye west's graduation (apparently, kenny chesney is also a contender). i'm actually stunned at the extent that this has taken over, even making headlines in the associated press. what about the independent albums that have been released? even the usually reliable largehearted boy only gives a handful of 9/11 releases, completely skipping over figurines, simian mobile disco, and what is undoubtedly this week's best album, proof of youth by the go! team. here are my thoughts on the media's collective ignorance of this album: what. the. fuck. here's what they missed: the jump-kick-to-the-face return of the one of the most original bands around.as with their debut thunder, lightning, strike, the go! team's second album is packing heat - proof of youth is filled with roundhouse punches, car cha...
More About: Money , Worth , Volume , Wort

caribou @ the arches, 9/9/07
2007-09-11 05:00:00
i went to the caribou gig monday night with as much of an open mind as i could muster, but the evening seemed destined for disaster from the start. my worries were five-fold, from the mundane (are they going to play any old stuff?) to the practical (will it end in time for us to catch the last bus back to edinburgh?). in addition, try as i might, i hadn't been able to find out who the opener was (or how many there were), and the man who sold me the tickets that morning has cautioned that he had sold only ten others. i had nightmarish visions of caribou storming off the stage in disgust as the twenty person crowd looked on, dismayed. this lack of sales was no doubt compounded by caribou's epic tour odyssey, which brings them back to glasgow next friday to open for the go! team. so, when we arrived to learn that the opener (still unnamed) would be going on at either 8.30 or 9.15 and that the crowd, while more than twenty, wasn't all that much more than twenty, my fears for the wors...
More About: Caribou

straight reppin' agatha christie
2007-09-09 16:18:00
wielding a solid gold endorsement from stuart murdoch on a myspace page is a good way to get attention, especially when your music consists of articulate and endearing harmonies sung over crisp and focused guitar lines. nyc quartet murder mystery, however, isn't really interested in duplicating belle & sebastian's neo-folk charms eschewing winsome songs about young men with obscure sexual devices or recent catchers for the new york mets; instead, they write slick guitar pop anchored in a sound developed long before there was "neo-" anything. having already attracted a good deal of attention with their impressively titled debut album, are you ready for the heartache cause here it comes, murder mystery is getting ready to woo the world.the four-piece is fronted by jeremy coleman (his sister laura hits the sticks), whose axe-wielding skills are apparent from the first riff of album opener "who doesn't want to give me love?" indeed, murder mystery's melodies are their greatest asset...
More About: Christie , Agatha Christie , Straight , TRAI

the twilight sad @ cabaret voltaire, 9/4/07
2007-09-07 13:14:00
what could it possibly be about glasgow that leads to its musically inclined youth to wave the moody banner of post-rock gloom? who knows, but those glaswegians certainly love their post-rock. two of the greatest post-rock bands around hail from that rainy city on the west coast, and the twilight sad are making their bid to become the third. well-known in the united states, thanks to ever-diligent bloggers, the twilight sad are still mostly unknown at home, despite the critical success of their full length debut, fourteen autumns and fifteen winters. therefore, it was surprising that they sold cabaret voltaire nearly to capacity earlier this week, which prompted lead singer james graham to remark that he was shocked so many people had shown up. unfazed by the crowd, the twilight sad aurally assaulted us for nearly fifty minutes without an encore, and it says something that they didn't need one.if you've never been to cabaret voltaire (a fair bet), there are a few things you shou...
More About: Voltaire , Cabaret , Twilight , Volta

connect - sunday, 9/2/07
2007-09-06 18:21:00
i needed four cups of tea to feel even remotely human sunday morning, as the mud and the stench of inveraray irrevocably became part of me, and i realized the cuffs of my carhartts weighed more than the rest of the fabric put together, just from the mud that was wetly wedged inside. previously, i had made the foolhardy decision to go without rubber boots (or "wellies," as the brits affectionately call them), and my shoes are still caked with mud, sitting in my hallway. fields that had been lush and green on friday were muddy minefields, and, bereft of insulating rubber goodness, i had to carefully pick my way through millions of boot treads en route to every stage. final numbers for connect show that over 16,000 tickets were sold, and at least three-quarters of that were to campers, so the festival was pretty damn packed. and while connect did have some pitfalls and blunders, for a first year festival, it was pleasantly arranged, well-apportioned (especially in the food department),...
More About: Sunday , Connect

some great things are going down
2007-09-05 01:43:00
actually, just a few, but they're so good i need to tell you about them asap.1. pitchfork has a brand spanking new mix from diplo. the 68-minute mix features tracks by a ton of artists i've never heard of, but some familiar names, like yeah yeah yeahs, m.i.a., bat for lashes, dj shadow, spoon, justice, and bart simpson. diplo has an upcoming north american tour with switch, which runs through nyc on october 5 at hiro ballroom. find the tracklisting and more info at the mad decent site.2. the good, the bad, and the unknown have an impressive collection of iron & wine b-sides, rare tracks, and other songs in "his specific alphabetical nights." seventeen tracks that range from "peng! 33" from beam's itunes exclusive ep to a cover of the flaming lips' "waiting for a superman" that i didn't even know existed. totally worth checking out.3. warped reality has five live sonic youth tracks from 1981, four years before i was born. the quality leaves something to be desired, but the ...
More About: Great , Things , Going , Some , Goin

it's official!
2007-09-04 23:19:00
the nationwide mercury prize winner of 2007 is...KLAXONS.the nu-rave foursome walked away with the best album of the year award, along with £20,000, as amy winehouse slunk away, disappointed. they had not been tipped for the award (bat for lashes was the sleeper favorite), and they themselves are as shocked as all of the presenters. drunk as skunks, the ex-three piece (now performing as a four-piece) had regaled the mercury audience with "golden skans" earlier in the evening, and will no doubt be partying like rock stars for the rest of the evening. they deserve it.congratulations, klaxons!klaxons - "gravity's rainbow"
More About: Official

connect - saturday, 9/1/07
2007-09-03 23:30:00
disclaimer: i would've had this published yesterday, but we lost internet in the media tent. many apologies. i hope to have sunday's review up by tomorrow, or wednesday at the latest.saturday dawned wet and cold - at least, i assume it did, because i was sleeping at dawn. it was wet and cold when i woke up in what i've come to (not-so) affectionately think of as the smallest tent in the world, but the weather did little more than threaten until the end of the night, a glorious and climactic end to a disappointing day.it started well, with a short set from 1990s ("no 'the' and no apostrophe!"), a glasgow band with ties to franz ferdinand. their sound is different, however, with a greater emphasis on pop melodies and wild guitar solos, and far less of a post-punk aesthetic. they enjoyed a large following in the crowd, especially considering their early time slot, and worked (and played) hard for their fans.next up was the highly-touted bat for lashes. it was my first time s...
More About: Saturday , Connect

connect - friday, 8/31/07
2007-09-01 17:05:00
well, today has been fucking packed. tearknee and i woke early to catch the citylink bus to the festival (which wound its way through many twists and turns, upsetting more than one stomach), fought through a bitch of a crowd to get our press passes, before reaching the campsite, only to realize our borrowed tent was minuscule. but we are nothing if not resourceful, and managed to fit everything in. that was a lengthy process, so we missed the festival's first act, the up-and-coming amy macdonald. she has garnered a lot of press around these parts on the strength of her first single, "poison prince," which you can stream here. homo eclectic also has some mp3s available for download, though she's not really my cup o' tea, so missing her was no heartbreak. we heard a bit of make model on our way to the press tent, and the glasgow-based band sounded pretty good, nice and perky, a great way to open the guitars & other machines stage. we caught a few songs from trashcan sinatras b...
More About: Friday , Connect

pitchfork strikes out again!
2007-08-26 18:42:00
since starting mr. mammoth, i've made an effort to keep my public relationship with pitchfork cordial. i mean, they were really important a few years ago, and i know i got introduced to some seriously good artists because of them (even though it took me a little while to take their opinions with more than one grain of salt). however, i really can't stay silent any longer. i think the sluts' practice of referring to them as bitchfork is more than a little puerile, but pitchfork (pitchdork?) has become so unbearably intoxicated with their self-ordained position as preacher of indiedom that the only reason to look at the site nowadays is for news. still, i do get suckered in by their reviews and the best new music section - after all, they are fucking iconic. but as of two days ago, i decided i'd had enough.pitchfork has always taken a rather odd approach towards classifying what is the "best" of new music, arbitrarily awarding the "best" label to albums that tend to be more c...

countdown to connect!
2007-08-24 16:02:00
well well well - only one week until connect, and i haven't said a single thing about it! how remiss i've been. i hope this makes up for it, and whets your appetite for what will surely be the most attractive festival of the summer. located in inveraray, on the shores of loch fyne, connect has secured a lineup even more appealing than its location for its inaugural year. i'm really fucking excited for the show, as i haven't been lucky enough to see most of these bands even once. also, i'm a festival virgin.so, here's a list of the acts i'm most excited for, in no particular order. the set times haven't been released yet, so i don't know what conflicts there will be, but if i have to decide between two gallants and the hold steady, i won't be a happy camper.friday:the aliens - "setting sun"king creosote - "grace" (jeff buckley cover)super furry animals - "tradewinds"the go! team - "keys to the city"the jesus and mary chain - "just like honey"saturday:two gallants - "y...
More About: Countdown , Connect

heima
2007-08-23 14:37:00
certain artists make great news: for new dirt on amy winehouse, pete doherty, or bradford cox you certainly won't have to work too hard, and the results are always amusing. but some bands never make news. when was the last time you saw jón Þór birgisson in the news for boozing, cocaine, or questionable revelations about poo? right. that was never. that's because birgisson, frontman of the simply lovely icelandic quartet known as sigur ros, is a delicate and restrained person (not that you'd ever guess from their songs). in fact, i'd lay a handsome wager that, when the 'ros boys say they want to get together for a drink, they're talking about soda pop. why all this fiddlefaddle about the drinking habits of sigur ros? because i couldn't think of a better way to open this post.here's the real deal: the world's favorite icelanders (yeah, bjork, i said it) have been busy boys (though you'd never guess it from the torrent of press releases we've seen). the music slu...

slint performing "spiderland," glasgow, 8/20/07
2007-08-21 15:44:00
from the start of david pajo's bewitching riff in "breadcrumb trail," it is instantly obvious that spiderland is no ordinary album - that's why i went to go see slint perform it last night in glasgow. i'd never before been to a don't look back concert, and i had never really thought about how odd it would be; after all, even when you see a band with only an EP, they don't play the songs in order - a live show deliberately disrupts the order and regularity of an album, injecting a new sense of vitality into songs heard a thousand times through headphones. but the point of don't look back is to consciously reject the traditional live concert, an idea that i didn't even consider before going to this show. as a result, it was weird, mostly because slint isn't a band anymore - all they play is this album, basically. as isn't even forty minutes long, slint tacked on some extra songs at the end, giving us a little more punch for our pounds, but fundamentally, slint only exist...
More About: Glasgow , Perform

best concert of the year (projected):
2007-08-20 16:18:00
final fantasy and cadence weapon at bowery ballroom on november 11.i've never had the opportunity to see either one, and seeing them together - it boggles the mind. what makes this SO very exciting is their collaboration on CBC earlier this year, each playing three songs. i would be VERY surprised if we don't get some crossover action at this show, and you best recognize that doing anything else on that night is pure folly. unfortunately, the bowery presents has sold out to the devil, so you'll have to pay fees for corporate bitches, unless you can get down to mercury lounge.final fantasy - "the lamb sells condos" buy he poos clouds here.cadence weapon - "black hand" buy breaking kayfabe here.final fantasy & cadence weapon - "this is the dream of win and regine" (live on CBC)
More About: Concert , Year , Cert