New Margot Material Surfaces

Indiana's Margot and the Nuclear So and So's have been keeping themselves busy with a new album despite splitting from their record label. Even though they're running out of money, the band is trying to forge ahead by playing shows and hopefully finishing the new record to shop around. They've said that they were getting offers at SXSW from labels but wanted to wait to finish the album. They have a gig booked in August opening for The Fray so hopefully they'll be getting some cash out of that. My Old Kentucky Blog just posted some live studio cuts of their new material and it's different from I've heard out of them before. They are stripped down, slow, and contain mostly sad lyrical content - but I have a feeling the songs will be more flushed out with the rest of the band on the actual record. Take a listen:
1. Children's Crusade On Acid
2. Untitled
3. The Ocean

Stars - "The Night Starts Here"

Arts & Crafts are at it again with another Stars release. The new album is called In Our Bedroom After the War and is set for a September 25th release. A new song from the album was posted today called "The Night Starts Here." From what I can hear in this song, the band isn't straying too far from their sound on the last record Set Yourself on Fire - and I like it. I feel that they do the vocal-trading airy synth thing better than anyone else and I'm glad they're sticking to what they do best. Although it may tread the line of being a tad repetitive, I think it shows promise for what the rest of the record may hold. Check it out for yourself:

Coming Attractions: The DeathSet

The DeathSet is another awesome punk duo that I've been getting into lately. They run around with Best Fwends, Dan Deacon, Japanther, No Age, and are one of the bands getting attention from promoter extraordinaire Todd P. They play a guitar frenzy to preprogrammed iPod beats, and before you know it the song is over. The part about this duo that I really latch onto, is that amongst all of this racket and noise that they are creating, the songs remain very pop-sensitive. All it took was one listen to their song "Paranoia"'s chorus and I was wide-eyed. They're set to come to town to play The Smell with Baltimore friends Ponytail on Friday July 6th. Here's a video shot for the song "Negative Thinking" off their new 7''.
And check out the song Paranoia from one of their older EP's To:

June Mix - 13. The Allman Brothers Band - Blue Sky

This song has been part of my consciousness since I can remember. Everything from the guitar tone, to the key it's in, to Dickey Betts' down on the farm vocals makes this song perfect for driving around in nice weather with the windows open. The song comes off of The Allmans' Eat A Peach LP and was the first song that Betts ever sang lead on. A cool FYI about the bridge solo in the song is that Betts and Duane Allman both play it. If you listen closely you can hear the switch about halfway through the solo @ the 2:30 mark of the song. The two guitarists sync up on a riff - signaling the trade-off. Here's a video of the ABB doing it live in 1981, except without Duane unfortunately. Check out that dude in the red pants playing tambourine!

The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium

A video of The Polyphonic Spree doing a Nirvana cover from their homecoming Dallas show the other night. I love this song, and it's a good choice for them - I just wish they would have made it their own and put a little more of a twist on it. But those shows look like a lot of fun. This makes me want to go buy tickets for their L.A. date.

June Mix - 12. Bananarama - Cruel Summer

This song is perfect for the mix for a slew of reasons. First off, it provides a nice contrast to the happy-go-lucky summer tunes like The Barracudas' "Summer Fun" and Blink's "Rock Show." Secondly, (and more importantly) this song is featured in one of my favorite films, The Karate Kid. It's played during the scene that Daniel is riding his bike to the first day of school. This 1983 release was a breakout song for Bananarama in native Britain, but didn't become a U.S. hit until the Karate Kid inclusion. It's a good track to set us off on the homestretch for the June mix. Here's the crappy Dukes of Hazard influenced music video for "Cruel Summer":

Artist Spotlight: Meneguar

This Brooklyn four piece formed in 2004 and has put out a full length, an EP, and has another full length in the works for September. Their style of indie punk is pretty cool - it contains some edge but they aren't trying to be something that they aren't. They've played with Matt and Kim, Dan Deacon, and No Age to name a few and they're hitting the road this fall in both Europe and the U.S. to support the new record. Here's a cut of their 2005 full length I Was Born At Night called "The Temp":

New Kanye Video - Stronger

Kanye West has released his second video already from the forthcoming album, Graduation - and it's not a minute too soon after how poorly the first single was received. This time around Kanye and director Hype Williams approach the Daft Punk-sampled song with robots and Japanese subtitles (instead of over-glamorized shots of Kanye in the desert.) With such lofty expectations placed on Ye's shoulders for this song, a lot of people are starting to voice their disappointment for the song and the new album in general. I like this song. Yeah, the Daft sample probably could have been used a tad more creatively, but overall I think the song shows the classic Kanye flow and as always - an interesting beat.

Coming Attractions: Two Gallants

Two Gallants, the San Francisco duo bring their brand of twangy alt. country rock to L.A. tomorrow night. They're opening for Les Claypool at the Henry Fonda and it's sort of a shame they aren't doing a second night in town with headlining duties. They're latest record, The Scenery of Farewell just came out earlier this month on Saddle Creek. Hopefully when they're done with this opportunity to play with Claypool they will come back around to do some smaller shows and be able to showcase more of their material. You gotta check this song out... it's called "Las Cruces Jail" and it displays their dynamic song structures and urgent vocal lines. It takes a melody you've heard a million times and somehow makes it more interesting than any other time you've heard it. The fact that this band is on Saddle Creek and aren't from Omaha says they're something special. Check out their MySpace for some more songs and tour dates.

June Mix - 11. Bryan Adams - Summer of '69

No summer mix is complete without a touch of some classic summer cheese. For me, it was a toss up between this song or Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" but this one won out due to Lottes' and Whitney's persuasion. More proof that Canadiens know what's up: In 2006, they voted "Summer of '69" as the #1 song to drive to - 22 years after it was released. It's also a song that has spawned some great covers. I can remember playing the MxPx cover over and over in high school. For a good laugh, check out the music video:

John Vanderslice - White Dove

John Vanderslice's new record, Emerald City is due out July 24th on Barsuk Records. Upon my first listen to the song "White Dove" I've become pretty excited for this release. I've lost track of Vanderslice over the years but his 2001 release Time Travel is Lonely is one of my all time favorites. This song sounds a little more straight laced and poppier than anything off of that, but I like it. It definitely makes me want to go out and buy all the stuff in between. Click Here if you want to be notified of when you can preorder and whatnot. Check it!:

Sort-of-New Radiohead Material

This is old news by now, but I'm still really excited about it so I figured I'd post it anyways. Nigel Godich posted this on Radiohead's deadairspace blog a couple weekends ago. It's material from the mixes of their upcoming new album that aren't going to make the final cut. They are parts of songs that got chopped out of the edit during mixdown and spliced together for your listening pleasure. Here's the version displaying possible song titles, but there is the original version floating around that just has a camera fixed on the reel-to-reel spinning. I cannot wait for this record to be released.

Coming Attractions: The National

Music blog darlings, The National, are rolling into L.A. tomorrow for a sold out show at the El Rey. The quintet claim Brooklyn, but everyone knows they're from Cincinnati (Hey if I were from Cincinnati, I wouldn't claim it either - but it is kind of a shame to rob Ohio from some music notoriety.) If you don't have tickets to tomorrow's show, NPR is offering the next best thing - last week's stream of their entire set in Washington D.C. Their latest release, Boxer, has been receiving overwhelming reviews from everywhere. I have yet to jump on this bandwagon, but I've always really liked their first album, Alligator, so maybe someday I'll finally get around to hearing what all the hype is about. You can check out the NPR stream by clicking here.