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The Arcade Fire set up, “Intervention,” a song from their upcoming album as an answering machine message at 1-866-636-6242 ext. 7777. This is said to be toll-free within North America (sorry Cambodia). They had played it live previously, but one would infer that this is the version that got their producer, Scott Colburn, so excited […]
After finishing a tour in support of their latest record earlier this year, members of Hood informed fans via their website of a self imposed hiatus to take time off and explore other projects. Bracken is the first fruit borne of this break for the band. Lead singer Chris Adams and a self proclaimed, yet anonymous ‘collective of like minded individuals’ have released a 12″ single, Heathens, with a full length due at the end of January. Adams is releasing the records on Anticon, through which Hood has already collaborated with via artists Dose-One and Why? on their stunning Cold House LP.
Ever since I heard their fantastic, seemingly out-of-nowhere set on WOXY, I’ve been looking for Prompts/Miscues. Yes, I could have bought it online, but I sort of was wondering just how obscure these guys were. Foundry Field Recordings is a pretty long-winded name, so I feel pretty dorky whenever I inevitably have to ask someone if they have their album. Sea Level Todd looked bewildered when I asked him… and he’s usually on top of most everything. I was almost embarrassed. But I found one copy hiding away at Amoeba a while back and was so excited that I let it sit for over a month before writing about it.
There’s something about dated electronic instruments that immediately conjure weird associations for me. Whether it is a flashback to the Revenge of the Nerds musical showcase where they embarrassed the jocks by showing that computers can make some pretty badass music of the future, or if it is that robot arm cousin of Johnny 5 that could play the keyboards in a way that you just knew would soon make people like Emanuel Ax and Schroeder obsolete. Whatever it is, the sounds that 80s electro-pop churned out have the distinct ability to quickly put a smile on my face.
For the holidays, I’ve always liked appropriating songs that aren’t actually Christmas songs, but fit the mood well. It’s probably just part of my radical left-wing War on Christmas. In your face, Christmas ! Watch as I enjoy you but with songs that weren’t specifically designed for you! Oh, snap! Well anyway, here’s some ideas for your Christmas mixes.
I posted back at the beginning of the year about a D.C. band, Cedars, that seemed mighty promising. Well they released their first EP recently and I wanted to follow up because its quite good.
Chapel Hill is a small city to produce so many good bands. I know it’s a college town, but seriously. I mean it’s 1/10th as big as Austin. Sure, there’s Carrboro next door which makes it a bit bigger, but what does that make it, like 2/19ths? Who even talks in 19ths? And from when I worked down there, Raleigh certainly wasn’t adding in much of anything near as cool. I can’t say I ever stopped paying attention to Chapel Hill, before I found Little Brother and then went crazy for The Rosebuds, it didn’t seem like there was that much new going on besides for one of the best record labels in the country (if not the world). Then this year I was introduced to Annuals (maybe they are from Raleigh, okay), and now Can Joann.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah just announced that they will have a new album out January 30th. Included are a bunch of songs that they’ve been playing live, including “Some Loud Thunder” and “Satan Said Dance”, which is available on their myspace page. I saw them play those and wasn’t really crazy about them (I do like the crazy blippity-bloppy intro to “Satan Said Dance”), but I am excited that they’ve included “Underwater (You and Me)”, a song that was once featured on Alec’s now dead Flashy Python website. My first reaction is that it sounds awfully different from the first album. But it still sounds like CYHSY, so we’ll see.
I’ve made it pretty clear that, in this post-Pavement world we live in, I’m a sucker for anything that will fill the deep, dark void that remains since their breakup. Thankfully, The Broken Remotes are another source I can turn to for help. They are an L.A. band that Octavius from KXLU turned me on to recently. I’ve only heard stuff off of their 2004 album, Throw Me The Keys, but I’m eagerly anticipating their new one, Tonight’s Last Stand, that is due out December 16th.
Here are the new songs, including the coda I mentioned at then end of “World At Large” from the show at the Avalon (11/5/2006). It is much better quality than the Wiltern recordings, both in the sound and in the lack of running jackass commentary. I’ve normalized the volume and removed crowd noise and pauses at the end of each song. Make sure to listen to “World At Large” and its coda back-to-back. And don’t forget, these are the songs that Rolling Stone labeled “sloppy.” Right… Thanks go out to crcunnin for recording and posting these.