A Camp Drops Today!

Is there a more hotly anticipated album out so far this year than A Camp's Colonia?

I heard my grandma talking about it the other day.

Well wait no longer. It drops today.

And because I bring you the new ish first, you can check out our review from a few weeks ago.

Get A Camp's Colonia

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What We're Listening To - Death Cab For Cutie's The Open Door EP

I was so disappointed with DCFC last full length effort. Mostly because they launched that amazing single "I Will Possess Your Heart." and the rest of the album was such shit.

I felt ripped off a bit. Because I thought they were headed in this sort of new edgier than Coldplay, not quite as adventurous as Radiohead direction.

That was not the case. It was this kind of milquetoast interpretation of a formally very good band.

But I guess one starts dating Zooey Deschanel, and all of a sudden you're making some of the best music ever.

The Open Door EP is nothing short of brilliant. Five songs, each packing a pop wallop that makes you stand up and take notice. The first song, Little Bribes, is some sort of bizzare love story set in Las Vegas. It sets the tone because Diamond and A Tether might be some of the finest writing Gibbard has done. It just sort of hits you across the face.

It kicks up again with My Mirror Speaks, and I Was Once a Loyal Lover, that if not all together there lyrically, move sonically. And Talking Bird shows that Ben holds his own all by himself (and better than on Narrow Stairs).

The EP is worth it for the first song alone. The other four make it a necessary purchase.

Get DCFC's The Open Door EP

Buy from Amazon

What We're Listening To - The Veils "Sun Gangs"

I have been loving this album for all of April.

It came across as a suggestions from Amie Street, and geez it's good.

I'm told the lead singer is the son of someone famous who I don't know.

I don't care.

The album starts off with what might be my second favorite single of the year so far. "Sit Down By The Fire" is this U2-esque arena rock song, big and grand but lacking Bono's bullshit.

From there the album stays poppy and dark, channeling the best of Morrissey, The Cure, and Jeff Buckley.

Yeah, you're fucking intrigued now aren't you?

It's a bit heavy on the Jeff Buckley, so if you like that, you'll like this (I mean, who doesn't like Jeff Buckley?)

The album is scattershot sonically, but that sort of randomness is good. it makes you work a little bit more to really like this album. You need to give it repeated listens. "Three Sisters" is a fantastic song, but it's not going to grab you out the gate first. "The Letter" is another beauty, a pretty ballad. And ending the album with "Begin Again" is a good move.

New Zealand is really coming strong this year.

This is my third must buy of the 2009 so far. Get it now.

Download The Veils "Sit Down By The Fire"

Buy The Veils "Sun Gangs"

Amazon

Rough Trade

eMusic

Why I skipped out on Record Store Day

There are those that ewould have you believe that I boycotted or deliberately missed Record Store Day.

That is only half true.

While I support independent music stores, and find them to be worthwhile and even necessary enterprises, they are not for me.

I'm a grown ass man.

Gone are the days when I had hours to while away, having esoteric arguments about whether Flava Flav added something of value to Public enemy (He was indeed the yang to Chuck's ying).

But now I have kids. I have an entire digital music collection. And I shop online. I am a child who was born with both the knowledge of the preelectronic life, and an entirely digital one.

And I chose the one and zeros.

record Store is an important event, and I'm glad bands and customers turn out to syupport them. But like my beloved print newspapers, they are an anachronism, a relic of bygone era. i support you, but I'm not sure I can sustain you.

What We're Listening To - A Camp's 'Colonia'

You probably stopped listening to Nina Persson after The Cardigan's Love Fool.

And you've missed out. Because she's never stopped making great music, with one foot firmly stuck in the 70s.

And her new effort with supergroup(?) A Camp is the fucking real deal Holyfield. James Iha plays some guitar. You got some Sparklehorse.

It is good in all kinds of ways. The entire album sounds like it was produced by Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, which as I'm writing it, sounds like a bad idea.

But the songs are all beautiful. The lead single, "Stronger Than Jesus" is sweet and witty (Burning Like Belgians in the Congo). "Chinatown" rips a line repping Polanski's movie with "This is Chinatown/just a state of mind."

She even looks a little like Mia Farrow.

My favorite song might be the girl/boy harmonies of "Golden Teeth and Silver Medals." I'm not even sure why. It reminds me of dried roses.

This is another strong contender for Top 10. Check it out.

A Camp's Colonia will be available in the US on April 28.

Thanks to Sue and Stunt Company for an early album copy.

Remainders

Scrounging around the Remainder bin

- Zak and Shelby peeped me to the Record Store day thing. You know my feelings about digital music. But leave a comment if you'd be interested in me checking this out. Cos I will. I aim to please here. Give the people what they want.

- Big ups to the promotion people at Stunt. Wowzer. They are some kind of amazing. Especially Sue.

- Got a preview of the new A Camp album. That shit is good. GOOD! Like Bowie but better. I'll do a full write up later, but you need to download "Stronger Than Jesus." Like now.

- Do you follow me on Twitter? Seriously, that's where the magic happens. Sweet, < 140 character black magic.

- Last.fm is pretty amazing. You should be rocking that.

- Did you hear Ep #150 of the best damn podcast ever? Okay, you still can. Even after this week is up. So this is a note to people who stumble over this site in the future. Click that link and experience the sexiness that is my voice and the bourbon fueled ramblings of my brain.

- Also future people: do we have flying cars? What about Apple implants in brains?

This weekend was made for whole hogs.

Two Grand In the Bank!

Quietly, yet still resonatingly, our little site here has jumped the 2,000 page view mark.

I wish this meant something, but it really doesn't.

But here's a little simple math for you. It took 106 days for us to reach the first grand.

It took 72 for the next.

I'm not sure even Ron Jeremy or Peter North could sustain that kind of performance, but considering that I pretty much duffed March, I'm fairly amazed at the residual value that the site generates. If you listened to the epic episode #150 of Shifted Sound, you heard me briefly allude to the residual everlasting value of blogs, podcasts and other electronic media.

I digress.

Thank you all for reading the site regularly. I appreciate it a ton. I don't get ads or anything but personal satisfaction out this blog. So thanks for giving me that.

You can write it off on your taxes next year.

Soundtracks for novels?

When you're a semi-important music blogger, you get all kinds of crap in your email inbox. Mashups you don't care to hear, DJ remixes that was a good idea to someone apprently.

But amid the crap, there is often a little bit of gold.

Today's gold was the free sountrack to a novel.

That's right. A novel.

It's 'How to Break Bad News,' the debut work of Tim Molloy. According to Amazon, it's about a the collapse of the news industry and one mans struggle to... zzzzzzzz.

You didn't come here to read about a book.

The album is alright. You gotta set the bar lower for free stuff, and this sails over it. It's a collection of a bunch of RCRD LBL artists I have only mildly heard of (Coco B's...), and it's pretty good.

Eseentially you have a RCRD LBL sampler. But they call it an album. It's got a lot of energy.

The book got good reviews too. So maybe I'll give up this music thing and read a little bit.

Download "How To Break Bad News" Soundtrack from RCRD LBL

iTunes more expensive than Amazon?

It appears that way.

Engadget is reporting that variable pricing has gone into effect over at iTunes, and that its Top 10 songs, which are unsurprisingly similar to Amazon's, are more expensive than its competitors.

Noty sure if Jobsy poo was forced to charge more for music, or if Apple is greedy, or if amazon can just fuck up shit with prices.

But whatever it is, I like it. Keep the prices coming down boys.

Cymbals Eat Your Face

So, I talked to Zak C. yesterday, just a usual check in, and he starts raving about this band Cymbals Eat Guitars, which I had seen on Pitchfork a while back (to rave reviews, which is never a good sign).

I kind of remembered hearing them on their MyFace page and had been momentarily intrigued.

They're good. I'm getting the album today, we'll report out later. it's a lot of that loud/soft/loud crash guitar stuff that was popular way back when. For all you suckas praying for Pavement to get back together, this band kinda fills that bill.

Everyone wants to be fucking Nirvana.

No in all seriousness, the stuff I've heard on their page is pretty solid. So I'm going to pick this up. They have it at Amazon. Or Insound. or itunes. or wherever music is sold.

What We're Listening To - White Lies "To Lose My Life"

You've gotta love a band that is so openly and unapologetically bombastic, while shamelessly aping the sound of an 80's synth legend.

White Lies debut isn't incredibly deep. The lyrics aren't especially moving. There doesn't seem to be a great string of literary cohesion. And I feel that if this was your standard indie pop, I would've passed this over.

But from the first track to the last, it's clear that this band is trying to be the second coming of Duran Duran. It starts out big, and is remarkable for that sustained energy alone.

When the songs are good, they make you think, “Damn, I did love the 80's” The Opener, Fear, is a tremendously large happy romp about death and love (which is kind of the album's entire theme.)

The sound is what everyone is doing now. You had The Killers make it novel a few years back, and you had The Rosebuds make it perfect with “Night of The Furies.” But this album might be the last sip from that well.

It's all happening

This Sunday.

The fearless leader of this not so regular group blog.

Will bring his electronic written thoughts, musings and indefensible music reviews...

To LIFE. Well not to life, per se, but in an audible electronic format.

The best damn podcast ever, Shifted Sound.

And The DP will unite. For one episode only.

And it will be AWESOME. Epic doesn't do Shifted Sound Episode #150 any justice. You ever put your tongue on a 9volt battery? This will be the same thing, but by a bajillion.

Subscribe now (in iTunes.. click this link and it will pop up) so your lame ass doesn't forget and miss it.

What We're Listening To - Bishop Allen's Grrr

How can you not like Bishop Allen?

A week doesn't go by where I don't put on The Broken String, when I'm not humming a tune or quoting a song. It's my eldest son's favorite album (Click Click Click being his favorite song).

So I, like a lot of people I know, have been eagerly waiting for the follow up.

And it's here, amid a slew of other great albums, vying for attention on my iPod. And as much as I'm loving the new M. Ward, and finding out new songs to like on Dark Was the Night (New Pornographers, what?), this album has been a siren song, calling me back.

I heard a lot of these back at the concert in October, and it sounded good then, even if not totally fleshed out. I'm actually kind of sad I'm missing them this tour, because I can only imagine that after a few months of touring, these songs sound incredible live.

Essentially, Bishop Allen makes nerdy, sing-along college indie pop (that was an actual bin label at Coconuts). They use words like filibuster. They use Shanghai as a verb, and it's not racist. There's a guy playing a recorder. Lots of weird percussion shows up.

It is a fun record.

Yet, it doesn't hold on as well as Broken String. The past is prologue and all that jazz, but if you go in looking for the same kind of pop perfection, you'll be sorely disappointed. South China Moon seems oddly dark. The album opener doesn't really hook you like The Monitor.

But if you're patient, you'll be rewarded. Dirt On Your Shoes is pretty song about failure. Oklahoma makes me bounce whenever I hear it. And True or False is better song than Butterfly Nets (Heresay, I know).

The good outweighs the bit of bad, and this music is still sunny. And like a plenty of sunshine on a barely cloudy day, I think you'll enjoy this album

Get Bishop Allen's Grrr...

Buy from Amazon

Download from eMusic

Buy directly from Bishop Allen