Humpday Randomnimity

Athens Popfest is going on in our little sister city all this week and it looks awesome, so check it out.

Times New Viking is playing with Deerhunter on their tour including the Variety Playhouse stop Halloween. I’ll be there.

Minus The Bear and Annuals will be at the Variety Playhouse November 1st.

Ted Leo and Against Me! will be at The Masquerade October 1st.

Weezer and Tokyo Police Club will be at Gwinnett Center Arena October 25th.

The Reverend Horton Heat will be at The Variety Playhouse November 2nd.

Tegan And Sara will be at The Tabernacle September 30th.

Check out some Snowden tour footage.

Stop what you are doing and go watch the 31 minute film Portishead In Portishead here.

MF Douche strikes again. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, MF Doom keeps having lip syncing fake MF Doom‘s do his over-priced live shows for him.

Issac Hayes died.

The Rosebuds have a new album coming out in October.

The new Mastodon album is looking like it comes out January 2009.

Be Your Own Pet have broken up.

Jason Lytle of Grandaddy has a solo album called Sew Low Owl Bum out this winter. I’m excited!

The Stooges got robbed.

Jesu keep releasing EPs.

Burial has revealed his identity.

Beach House have a new a new single 7″ coming out.

Wolfmother is having some drama.

Jay-Z and Oasis are in a cat fight.

CD Baby just got sold.

Criminal Records is about to do some expanding.

The East Atlanta Icehouse (formerly Echo Lounge) should be having shows now, but they’d do themselves a service to have a show listing somewhere online.

There is never enough Grizzly Bear coverage.

Yo La Tengo are releasing a compilation of soundtracks they have done.

The finest vids on the ‘net:

New Grizzly Bear song played at All Points West “Fine For Now”:

No Age “Keechie”:

Mogwai “BatCat”:

Bowerbirds “In Our Talons”:

What The Hell Am I Listening to?!?

While I have been gallivanting around for the last month, hott new albums just keep on dropping. I’m abridging an already succinct segment to keep up. Here’s three episodes of What The Hell shrink wrapped together. Since I am a big fan of the run-on sentence, I give you micro-reviews of my summer soundtrack so far:

First up, some artists whose sounds characterize the best and brightest of this decade:

Animal Collective (Baltimore, MD)

One of the greatest bands of this generation offer up 25 more minutes of bliss.

(BUY Water Curses)(Myspace) Animal Collective : Water Curses

No Age (Los Angeles, CA)

2008 hypelicious duo that lives up to its praises, so don’t miss out on one of the best albums of the year so far.

(BUY Nouns)(Myspace) No Age : Teen Creeps

Excepter (Brooklyn, NY)

Electronic noise stuff that is as fun as it is creative and weird.

(BUY Debt Dept.)(Myspace) Excepter : Kill People

Pyramids (Denton, TX)

Post-rock that actually lives up to that genre’s ethic of breaking down conventional song structures rather than sounding like everything else, so pick up a favourite album of mine so far this year and blast it.

(BUY Pyraminds)(Myspace) Pyramids : This House Is Like Any Other World

Russian Circles (Chicago, IL)

Think Pelican except tighter, more epic, and in power-trio form.

(BUY Station)(Myspace) Russian Circles : Campaign

Ok, now here’s some dance music for those long summer nights:

Health (Los Angeles, CA)

Health‘s debut full-length from last year gets remixed into a perfect dance-noise album.

(BUY Disco)(Myspace) Health : Triceratops (Acid Girls Remix A)

Crystal Castles (Toronto, ON)

These controversial Canadians are making dance songs that sound fresh and interesting.

(BUY Crystal Castles)(Myspace) Crystal Castles : Crime Wave (Crystal Castles v. Health)

Femme Fatality (St. Louis, MO)

These guys are like the Eminem of the dance-rock world, and while not all of this album is top-notch, when they hit it right it’s really fun.

(BUY One’s Not Enough)(Myspace) Femme Fatality : Still Alive

Girl Talk (Pittsburgh, PA)

The king of the ridiculous ADD party-mash-up album ups the ante again.

(BUY Feed The Animals)(Myspace) Girl Talk : In Step

And then some indie-rock with an alt-country twang:

Silver Jews (Nasheville, TN)

Brilliant songwriting that makes an ancient pop genre sound new and intriguing.

(BUY Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea)(Myspace) Silver Jews : Suffering Jukebox

Bowerbirds (Raleigh, NC)

I missed this 2007 gem, but it got a recent re-release with bonus tracks, so make sure you catch it too.

(BUY Hymns For A Dark Horse)(Myspace) Bowerbirds : Hooves

Rotary Downs (New Orleans, LA)

This album is like Mellow Gold era Beck meets Kerosene Hat era Cracker meets Pavement.

(BUY Long After The Thrill)(Myspace) Rotary Downs : C’mon, Take A Hit

Ok, all new heavy rotation list coming.

Photos: SXSW Day 3 – 3-13-08 in Austin, TX

Bowerbirds


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