Quick reminder!!! Jenny & Johnny

You can buy the album starting today!

Kanye West et al.

If you haven't heard, Kanye's been pretty busy on Twitter.  Back on the 22nd he posted...

I know yall need the music so I'm dropping 1 new song every weekend until Xmas.

So far, he hasn't let us down.  The first track out was "Monster," featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, Nicki Minaj, and of course Kanye West.  You can get to it at his blog.  It's really more funny than anything else hahaha.  But it has some good parts.

This weekend's track was "Runaway Love," featuring Raekwon and Justin Bieber.  Here it is.  I've never listened to the little kid before, but I don't mind him on this track at all.  Pretty good stuff.  Now all I wanna do is kick back for the day and listen to Wu-Tang though!

Jenny and Johnny streaming @ NPR

Head over to NPR to hear Jenny and Johnny's debut album, I'm Having Fun Now.

It'll be there until August 31, and then you can go buy it!

Mark your calendar... Coachella sets dates...

April 15, 16, & 17.

FINALLY. Animal Collective's ODDSAC, tomorrow!

If you didn't catch the screenings of ODDSAC earlier this year you completely missed out.  But, lucky for everyone, Animal Collective are releasing the video-album in dvd form.  And it comes out tomorrow!


Check out the film's official site for details, but also check out pitchfork to hear two tracks from the movie (they say they aren't confirmed to be from the movie yet, but I can vouch, and they are).

Do Broken Social Scene make you wanna dance!?

If they didn't before, they will now...


This is the first of seven remix tracks that will be released every Monday for the next seven Mondays.


LOVE IT.




-once again, from the mighty Pitchfork.

U.S. Open of Surfing, Weezer

I am JUST learning about this and I live about 10 minutes away...

Since Tuesday, a number of sweet bands have been performing out at Huntington Beach following days full of professional surfing, skating, and biking. While the sports continue into Sunday, the final band performance is from Weezer (Hot Hot Heat opens, music scheduled for 4:30pm-6:30pm) on Saturday. Oh yeah, it's free too.

Since the festival includes other fun stuff, fashion and art, etc., it might not be a bad idea to head out there if you're in SoCal. It'll surely be busy, so be prepared for a completely packed beach.

Bruise Cruise Festival

Cruisin' for a bruisin'?

If you happen to be in Miami in February 2011 and also happen to have several hundred $'s lying around, DO NOT miss this trip to the Bahamas.

Capped at 400 people, the cruise doubles as exotic seafaring vacation AND garage rock festival. The artist list?

The Black Lips

Vivian Girls

The Strange Boys

Thee Oh Sees

Ty Segall

Turbo Fruits

DJ Mr Jonathan Toubin

along with "Special guests being announced soon!!"

***How has this type of cruise not been done before?!??!?***

-from Pitchfork.

LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, & Sleigh Bells

GREAT NEWS!!!!

LCD Soundsystem's fall tour just got 1,000,000 times better.

They've announced, via their website, that they will be accompanied by Hot Chip and Sleigh Bells. Sleigh Bells temporarily, but officially, rule the world. So this is frikkin fantastic news.

The L.A. area show is at the Hollywood Bowl, October 15.

For more dates, check out the above link.

New Broken Social Scene Video

Straight from the BSS newsletter a few minutes ago...

Forced To Love Hello friends! We are excited to share our brand new video for "Forced To Love" from Forgiveness Rock Record. It was directed by MAKAPOON (Adam Makarenko & Alan Poon) and produced by Geoff McLean (Vision Entertainment). Share! Enjoy! YOUTUBE VIMEO

Damien Jurado - Saint Bartlett

I still can't tell if Damien Jurado is good music for sad, rainy days. On the one hand, his songs tend to impose upon listeners an immense sense of sorrow and heartbreak... but on the other hand, he convinces you that he has it worse. It's folky blues meets emo. I don't know why I enjoy this quality of his music; it's likely just my appreciation for his ability to so forcefully express sadness in his music.

That said, Jurado remains effective in expressing these emotions with Saint Bartlett. However, impressively, he does so without making me want to die. :D

The new album takes the rough, lonely sounding music of Jurado and nestles it into a bed of well orchestrated pillows. You still get plenty of the acoustic tracks like "Rachel & Cali," "Pear," "Kansas City," and "With Lightning In Your Hands." But you also get the thick, softening sounds from compositions like "Throwing Your Voice" and "The Falling Snow."

I particularly enjoy the way that Jurado ushers you into the album. The opening track, "Cloudy Shoes," is a dreamy, reverberant song that sounds like it marks the rolling of the credits to a bittersweet drama. You are just finishing a touching and heartbreaking story and this is what you're left with.

As I write this, I'm listening to track 2, "Arkansas." I was simply going to comment on the similarity between this song and the famous "Stand by Me" (seriously, check this out). But then, I swear to God, 1 minute in, he sings "Fade out, this is where the credits roll." I DON'T MAKE THESE THINGS UP, PEOPLE. I wrote the previous paragraph and then realized that the "Fade out, this if where the credits roll" line is the CHORUS OF TRACK 2. Awesome.

All in all, this album takes the genius of Jurado to another level and it's organized perfectly to get you through. And where does it leave you at the end? Wanting more.

Well done, Mr. Jurado, well done.

Music for the week...

I started up last.fm again and will probably keep using it now since it runs oh so smoothly with XBOX 360. Check that out for all of your "what did I listen to earlier???" and "what should I listen to next???" type questions.

For these types of posts, I'll basically be running off of what last.fm tells me.

Tool: Of course. And their show a couple weeks ago was otherworldly as usual. There is NO SUBSTITUTE for what Tool does live. I know that NIN is a more exciting show, and that Niklas Sundin from Dark Tranquillity can play Adam Jones into his grave, but Tool harmonizes sound and visual art in such a way that you are almost forced to step outside of your frame of reference for a couple hours. Maynard generally asks you in some way to join them for the evening, this time saying, "Whatever's happening outside these walls has nothing to do with what we're doing here. So for the next two hours it's all about us." But, even if you don't listen, you get wrapped up in the experience a few songs in.

France Gall: I've basically been a housewife for the last few weeks, and nothing sets the cooking and cleaning mood for me like French pop. Check out France Gall or Carla Bruni for a sampling.

Trip Hop: This typically brooding genre sprouts from Bristol's underground art scene. The big faces are Portishead, Tricky, and Massive Attack. All deserve a thorough listening to.

Dubstep: Lots of samples. Lots of bass. Lots of repetition. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. I was a little bit worried after a few days of testing the waters here. I guess I didn't realize the spectrum of music that would fall under this category. In the end, it seems like dubstep is a broad enough genre that, if persistent, you can find your little niche of what you like. But you'll likely have to sift through a decent amount of stuff you don't like in the process. It took me finding Scuba and DJ Mary Anne Hobbs before I liked anything.

Blues: Between Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, and Son House, YOU are having a good day. No one has ever had the blues like these poor gentlemen.