To announce a dear new policy of mine. I’m sorry to have to tell y’all that I won’t be hosting downloads full time. I’ll be putting some albums up, but I will be taking them down a day or two after I put them up. So I’d recommend looking often. This is two-fold in reasoning. First of all, I really do want you to buy these records. Second of all, I don’t wish to make enemies with bands who I know have a problem with all of this. My morality aside, I’ll play safe. Anyway, back to tha’ music.

Hey everybody. Did’ja ever forget about a band you happened to stumble upon and fell totally in love with years ago only to remember them with the over-exuberant feeling of finding money in your old coat pockets years after you’ve outgrown it? Well, I’m going to share my latest one with you on this not-so-pretty day.

So, when I was fourteen years old I went to go see a few shitty hardcore bands, and I totally unexpectedly ran into this band Encrypt Manuscript who are the unbelievably bizarre and interesting blend of what I now know is something akin to jazzy-At The Drive In-Q and Not U-weird and sexy as all hell. And I remember back then, waiting patiently for a few years before they finally released a full length and as far as I know, they broke up immediately afterwards. It’s far too bad, because their first full lenth, Census, which finally came out in 2008 has steadily become one of my favorite records ever. It looks like this:

Encrypt Manuscript- Census

The vocals on this are something inbetween talking and singing and screaming, not completely unlike MewithoutYou in it’s way, except these lyrics are full of ten dollar words and definatly have a more avant-jazz feel to the rhythm and pattern of the vocals. But, for as not catchey of becoming as this sounds, it’ll be stuck in your head for days. Just don’t try and sing it in an elevator. The guitars are using lots of tap-tap-tapping, but I’d say it’s definatly the most interesting and melodic usage of it. It doesn’t exist without some obvious Kinsella-like feelings, but it’s really all it’s own beast. And the drummer of this band is just unbelievable, and the end result is a totally new, totally fascinating, and ultimately really likable record that’s true-to-form sexy as fuck. You’ll love it, I promise.

Okay, so here’s my big fucking gigantic fucking update. I’ve been in the midst of an emotional meltdown in between taking a five day trip to go see my crazy awesome aunt in Alexandria, Virginia. So, I’m not sure what happened to the water in the world in the last month, but some of the best records I’ve heard in a crazy long time have simultaneously come out. So I guess I have my work cut out for me this time.
OKAY, first let’s talk about The Album Leaf. Now, I’m not sure about your feelings on Jimmy LaValle, but in my most humble opinion, the man’s a total motherfucking genius. I mean, he must really shit happiness. Whatever. So, his new record, A Chorus of Storytellers, recorded with everyone’s favorite foreigners, Sigur Ros, takes his typical architype of songwriting (acoustic/electric drum work, light guitars, some strings and a whole lot of piano and rhodes) and really perfects it. I for one, am completely blown away in all ways by this album. It’s definatly a lot less minimal than his previous releases, but I really do think that he’s outdone himself in raw beauty that comes through. There’s a lot more strings on this album than any prior, and I beg and implore you to please buy this fucking record. It looks something like this:

On a live music note, The Album Leaf is coming to New York Shitty on May 1st, and I’d defiantly recommend grabbing yourself some tickets and joining me in seeing him on his tour supporting this album. It’ll be worth every hard-earned dollar on seeing him and purchasing this album, I promise.

Cool, now that I’ve blown my not so proverbial load on that album, here’s another one that I’ve been not patiently waiting for. The new Tallest Man On Earth record has finally come to me. Now, let me say that Kristian Mattson has been an unbelievable inspiration to me. Not to gush too much, but this man really opened my eyes to raw old time folk music, and I have to thank the man for all of the perfection he put into every song on his last record, Shallow Grave. But somefuckinghow, his new record The Wild Hunt  actually TOPS his last effort. He’s taken his raw, emotive and subtle songwriting and slowed it down and really turned up the hurt. I mean, you really FEEL this record. From moment one of me receiving the album, to this current moment I’m trying to fight the urge to listen to it AGAIN. The Wild Hunt really pushes the limits of explosive subtlety. Just one more proof that Kristian Mattson aka The Tallest Man on Earth has really inherited something wonderful and strange. Thanks for this one. The album looks like this, if you have a soul, you will buy it.

On yet another live music note, save your pennies because he will also be coming to New Yawk on April 20th. Don’t celebrate too hard, get off your lawn chairs, but away the bongs and come see him. He also happens to be one of my personal favorite live performers ever. Just watch video’s of him and you will definatly see what I’m talking about.

Only one more album, stick with me friends. I promise these are all worth a long and word-full post. I know what country this is, but you can do it.  So now finally my favorite little lady put her new album out. Now, Joanna Newsom is quite the character, and after hearing her last effort Y’s I was both nervous and excited to see how this album would turn out. Have One On Me weighs in at a staggering two hours long, which once the LP’s are pressed are said to be a whopping 3 records long. Ignoring all of these facts, I really think she’s figured a lot of things out for this one, and I’m blown away by her honesty and heart in this one. She’s taken her bare-bones folk roots of The Milk-Eyed Mender and mixed it with the large scale and orchestration of Y’s, and what is born is a staggering mixture of unbearable feeling and unbelievable genius. I truly believe this will go down has her masterpiece, and I only hope she can live up to it next time. But so far, she shows no signs of slowing. Buy it, you schmuck. For syntax, here’s the cover again:

Just like everyone else it seems, she’s playing on the strange and famous island on Manhattan. She’s in town on the 18th, just next week. If it’s not sold out yet, buy yourself some tickets before it is. You won’t want to miss this.

Download these, tell your friends. Spread these works of love and please please please support these great people. No talent should go unrewarded.

So let’s talk about Pablo. A good and dear friend of mine showed me this dude, and gave me a 7″ to listen to. Which, as the lazy son of a bitch I am, I didn’t. Anyway, it’s just really nice, really lazy, really warm and western and soft and great folk rock stuff. Listen to it, download it down there, buy it from him because he deserves your money. Here’s the art:

Coming up this weekend, once it’s nice out finally I’ll post links and talk about new Joanna Newsom and other shit. Later friends.

So, a friend showed me this band, The Middle East from Australia. They only have one record out titled “The Recordings of The Middle East” and I graciously have it for free download below. I’m actually having a really hard time explaining to you, friends, what this exactly is. I hear the indie-folk roots, I hear a soft, sweet contemporary voice reminiscent of Horse Feathers with a larger backup band. But there’s also this wonderfull childlike quality to this stuff, lots of sing alongs and bells and brightness. Download it, love it, buy their shit and make them live forever.

So after heard the devastating news that Sigur Ros is on an indefinite hiatus, and after a few days of chest-burning sobbing, I finally got around to downloading Riceboy Sleeps, Jonsi’s solo debut with his long-term boyfriend Alex Somers. Here’s the cover-art:

To be honest, I wasn’t really hoping for a whole lot. My pessimism flag has been up about this record since the day I heard it existed. I’m constantly afraid of my favourite bands getting bad. It’s true. Now I know this isn’t a new record, and I told myself I was only going to recommend and go fan-boy for new releases on this blog, but fuck that and fuck you, imma’ jock this shit. This record is unbelievably beautiful, full of all of the light and great stuff that the latest (unpronounceable) Sigur Ros release was full of. Allthough, on some level, it has to feel pretty insulting to the band seeing as how unbelievably similar this is. It even has Amiina as a backup string section in it. But seriously, with Spring approaching and what-not, this record is a serious blow to the dank cave that is my emotional being in February. Get it.

Now, anyway. More good news. Jonsi has ANOTHER solo effort coming out on April 5th, entitled “Go”. He had released one Mp3, downloadable below (you’re welcome again), and so far, it actually tops ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ so long as the rest of the record holds up to this. However, it’s been said around that it’s supposed to feature more of a classical vibe, which this certainly does not. Whatever. The EVEN MORE important part is that he’s coming to New York Shittay! On March 8th and 9th he will be playing Terminal Five, and I again am urinating all over my only pair of pants over it. Get stoked, N’yawk. Here’s the Mp3:

Jonsi- Boy Lilikoi

And anyway, I’m going to go shovel my fucking car out and get out of this prison. Ok.

Short post cas’ I’ve got some shit to do today. I just stumbled upon Title Tracks, the new project from the very much beloved drummer of Q and Not U. Here’s the cover art:

So far, it’s really simplistic indie-pop with a really nice feel to it. It’s aimed at coming out on February 23′rd, which adds one more release onto the list of shit I’m popping constant chubbies over. But seriously, so far in the myspace tracks its sounding like a really mature and calm yet fun band. It’s the kind-of shit I should absolutely hate, yet I’m going to end up loving. Check it out, make up your own mind, buy the fucking record when it comes out so this doesn’t flop like every other Q and Not U post-band.

Title Tracks on Myspace

Also, they’re currently touring to support the release, and they’re playing on March 4th a short drive away at the Kung-Fu Necktie in Philly, and then two days on March 6th and 7th in Brooklyn, both 21+, so if you’re 6 months too young like I am, I’ll be trecking my lazy ass over to Philly to catch them before they break up and have a last show at the Knitting Factory that I missed and wanted to die over. Ok.

Enjoy it, and enjoy the snow tomorrow. I’m going to go look at gear.

Gear nerd-out #1

If gear isn’t an interest of yours, skip this.

So I just spent the entire “snowy” Saturday starting to build my pedalboard. I previously had this giant custom in-case board, but it was alittle too big, and too heavy for scrawny-ass me to carry around everywhere. So, I started looking into the “Ikea” pedalboards. Fourty bucks later, I have a really fucking sweet all-wood board that will be done by the end of the weekend. I just have to add a riser and grab two Voodooo labs power supplies and a few cables to make it nice and tidy.

In case anyone’s curious as to how to do it for themselves, I used a shelving unit from Ikea called the “gorm” unit, and then I grabbed an extra shelf riser off the as-is section. When it started, it looked just like this:

I ripped off all of the boards on the shelf because they were too narrow to fit cables through, and then spaced them better and screwed them back in with better and more sturdy screws. Then, I added a bottom brace for the center of the board to add some support. I took it outside and added a few coats of black paint, and then I went to Home Depot and got myself some sticky back industrial velcro and cut it up and applied it. So far, I’m really into it. It seems to be about the exact same size as the pedal train pro, and they make a few other sizes in the gorm shelves you could use too, I just happen to have a whole lot of pedals. And so far, from what I hear, you can put these in the Pedaltrain Pro hard shell case to protect it. Anyway, enough text, here’s an awfull iphone picture of what the complete board with my pedals and my amps look like:

So far, that was my day. Hope you enjoyed the gear porn like I enjoyed it. Enjoy the snow, haha.

First post

First post, hi internet. I’ll try my best to make this first one have some content. There’s a whole fuck-load of great things happening in the music world, and I for one am pissing my excited little pants over it.

I figure, I’ll try and break this thing down into a few parts. Part one being upcoming/new releases (and yes you scumfucks, there will be free uploads of leaked and new albums), part two being upcoming shows in the greater New York area, and part three being the occasional gear nerd-out. So here goes:

First thing’s first, following three unbelievably beautiful Why? records, multi-instrumentalist Josiah Wolf finally decided to flex his songwriting muscles and I have a serious chubby waiting for this god damned thing to come out. Not only is he one of the more impressive and interesting drummers in music right now, but if you pay attention to Alopecia or Eskimo Snow (particularly Alopecia) you can hear his unbelievable kalimba playing while he’s drumming. Definatly an a great touch. The offical release date for ‘Jet Lag’ is scheduled for March 02, and the opening track is available below. Get stoked, I know I am.

Josiah Wolf- The Trailor And The Truck

In a whopping 17 days time, that widely loved and even more widely hated maiden of Americana, Joanna Newsom, is releasing her newest epic titled “Have One On Me”. And if you people were anything like me and were thinking to yourself, “how could this bitch possibly one-up the absolute insanity of Y’s?!”, her last double LP. Well, the answer is direct and simple. She’s releasing a TRIPLE LP. Have One On Me might prove to be another quietly intense choking with a silk hand like her last record, as shown in the first available track, 81. Or it could be a totally differant beast, as shown in her newest track up on Drag City, entitled Good Intentions Paving Company, which is a strange foray into a more contemporary kind of ‘band’ outfit. Only the next three weeks will tell, I, can again say exactly how pants-shittingly, fan-boy on the street, 2012 to a fucking moron excited I am for this thing to come out. Here’s 81 and the link to her other track:

81

Good Intentions Paving Company

On the live music front for the next few days, tomorrow night unsung post-rock heroes Kayo Dot are playing two sets at The Stone in Manhattan. For the first set of the night they’re playing their album Choirs Of the Eye, with refreshingly no openers. And the second set they’re playing Coyote, with again, let me repeat, no. fucking. openers. Three beautiful words in the world of punk time and miserable hype acts. I digress. Also, across the bridge, folk darling AA Bondy is playing at Union Hall. But as far as I can tell, nothing of serious interest going on on Sunday. Pick your poison, leave your lofts and do something. Cool.

Thanks for reading, should be updating with lots more soon.

Enjoy your Saturday morning, fuck the fucking snow.