In Case You Missed It: Ida Album Dropped Tuesday

I wish I could say more about this album, but I've only heard the one track with the same name, Lovers Prayers. I want to say, "Well, isn't this just such a cute album," but what do I know?

The album was released Tuesday and if the one song I've heard is any indication on what is in store then this should, in fact, be a cute album.

The complementary male and female vocals complimentary of Mitchell and Daniel Littleton are the selling point here. Mitchell and Daniel formed the group in 1992 and then married in 1999. Another reason to take a listen to Ida, there's a married couple at the heart of the band, which is always a great music-making experience. At least that is what Mates of State have taught me.

There's also something strangely familiar here. I can't pin in down quite yet. It sounds like something I've heard before, but I have no idea what. Check out their MySpace for the one song I've been blabbing about for this whole post or you can download it below thanks to Polyvinyl Records.

Ida - "Lovers Prayers"

The Little Ones New Single + U.S. Release Date

Wow, I need to go to bed or something. Or at least get off the Interweb. Before I call it a night I figured I should point you in the direction of The Little One's newest single off their newest album, Morning Tide. The album won't hit the States until April 15, but you do have a single to hold you over. It can be imported or purchased on iTunes. It contains "Ordinary Song" and two remixes of that track . The original and one remix can be found on their MySpace. "Boracay" and "O-A (There's a Sun)" are also on the single.

Definitely very The Shins-y stuff here. Even the voice. For fans of The Shins that certainly isn't a bad thing and hopefully the full-length offers even more than a Shins substitute.

Death Cab for Cutie Album Gets a Name + a Member with His Own Album Out Yesterday

Plenty of Death Cab news today actually. It has been announced that the band's seventh (!!!) full-length album will be titled Narrow Stairs. It's pretty weird/amazing to think that this band has been putting out records for 10 years now.

Narrow Stairs should drop in May of this year and is the follow-up to their 2005 album, Plans. I wasn't in love with Plans by any means (although I know some people were), but it was still good. I'm hoping the bands hits Transatlanticism-like gold with their next one though. Gold as in good, not record sales.

My second piece of news for you as to do with a much closer release. Today actually. Guitarist and producer for Death Cab for Cutie, Chris Walla, drops his album Field Manual today. Actually, make that yesterday, the 29th.

NME reported that two tracks that didn't make it onto Plans made it onto this one. Three tracks off the record can be found on his MySpace, while one of those songs, "Sing Again," can be downloaded for free! This is thanks to Walla's label Barsuk. Buying Field Manual before February 4th will get you three bonus tracks. So all the more reason to buy now.

More Characters/Details Revealed as Super Smash Bros. Brawl Hits Japan

Let the hype begin! Super Smash Bros. Brawl hits stores in Japan this Thursday, but it seems some advance copies are flooding message boards and YouTube with plenty of footage of the game. Below is footage of the introduction of the game. It is actually more epic than Cloverfield and runs about 80 minutes shorter. Impressive to say the least.

Many are speculating that there will be 35 playable characters in the game. All but one of those 35 have been revealed already by those leaking screen shots and videos. (With that said continue at your own risk. There will be unlockables revealed below). I'm assuming they haven't got far enough in the game to get the 35th and maybe even more so after that (Edit: the 35th was discovered as I wrote this. Check below). If you want to unlock the characters yourself without knowing who they will be, I suggest you skip the following screen shot and the video.


You should be able to figure out the 34 with that screen shot. You can always click to enlarge or watch the first few seconds on this video. You can continue watching for some Wind Waker Link (or "Toon Link") versus Ganondorf. Also shows off the awesome Wind Waker stage.

As I'm writing this Star Wolf (from the Star Fox series) has just been confirmed as the 35th and possibly last character. The only reason why some say he is the last is because the player grid fits nicely with Wolf added, but nothing is official yet. There are no screen shots of Wolf either, but I'll throw up an update when one becomes available.

Some quick impressions of the game are awe and excitement. Everyone will obviously have their complaints of characters that could have been included, but I recall people (myself included) dreaming of Sonic ever since the first Smash Bros. and now he's here. So wishes are being granted, just not all of them. I'm not going to complain about R.O.B. or Toon Link simply because every fighting game needs characters who aren't outright awesome, and they aren't that bad. March 9th couldn't come sooner.

In an attempt to get comments on this story: Despite never playing the game, who would you pick as your 'main' character? I would say first, but then everyone would pick a newcomer. Obviously it depends on game play, but I'm going with Meta Knight with Lucario closely behind.

Update: I added the newest and probably final screen shot of the character selection screen.

Odeluxe

They're calling it a classic on CMJ and apparently this album was meant to celebrate the original Odelay's 10th anniversary, however, it's being released today, Jan. 29, 2008.

After 12 years, Beck's 1996 album is being re-relased as the Odelay: Deluxe Edition, which is available in stores and online. I'd heard about the re-release for a little bit and am probably the only one on this blog to be remotely excited about it, but the album's got a lot to offer.

The original had 13 tracks including "Where It's At," "Devil's Haircut" and "Jack-Ass," but the new edition's added on three more tracks, two of which were never released. The Deluxe Edition is accompanied by a second disk with 16 more songs with remixes by UNKLE, Mickey P. and Aphex Twin and a bunch of international-only b-sides. There's also a different version of "Jack-Ass" in the b-side "Burro," which I'm looking forward to.

Pitchfork, where the album was rated an 8.5, actually did a decent recap of the success of the original Odelay, although they threw in some comparisons here and there between the musician and Nirvana's late frontman Kurt Cobain. While I'm disappointed that they called him the rebound boyfriend for music listeners after the grunge rocker's death, they salute Beck for his "genre-hopping ideas" and Odelay's lasting appeal.

I'll get some sample tracks on here a.s.a.p.

Beck's video for "Jack-Ass"
"Devil's Haircut" and
"Loser" for something older

In Anticipation of the Super Bowl

I almost titled this "Part I," but I don't want to go too sports happy leading up to Sunday. However, I thought this was rather amusing and one of the few Peyton Manning commercials I haven't seen. Eli Manning recently admitted that this was his favorite commercial that he has done with his brother.

Kanye + Lupe + Pharrell = CRS

You may have first caught the super group CRS on Kanye West's Can't Tell Me Nothing mixtape that preceded his recent album, Graduation. If not, we have the music video of the song that appeared on the mixtape below. The video for "US Placers" is unofficial, but the quality is still great. Since none of the three artists were actually involved with the making of the video, none of them appear. But child versions of all three take their place. Kid Kanye looks a wee but awkward, but Kid Pharrell is perfect. Kid Lupe is a bit in between the two.

No word yet if this trio plans on producing more than this one track, but various interviews with Lupe Fiasco revealed that they are trying and aiming for late 2008.

Another interesting subject for speculation is what exactly CRS stands for. The most common choice seems to be Child Rebel Solider. Lupe being the child, Kanye the rebel and Pharrell Williams the solider. However, GBH said it was Chicago Runs Shit. I prefer GBH's take on CRS, but the only problem with that is Pharrell isn't from Chicago. Who knows.

Don't forget Lupe will be at Yale this Friday. I was corrected and told it wasn't for their spring concert, but instead part of their Black Solidarity Conference.

New Gnarls Barkley!?

No one knows if this is even an official track off Gnarls Barkey's newest album, The Odd Couple, but I figured I should throw up a link or two for this highly anticipated album. It feels like a lot of artists who put out solid outings in 06 are coming back at us again in 08, and Gnarls Barkley may be the best example of that. Before I blab on about how good St. Elsewhere was, let me point you in the direction of "Run." It is good and picks up right where St. Elsewhere left off. I expect more diversions and detours on other tracks, but this works nicely so far.

Rolling Stone had some short impressions of the album last week. So there's obviously a copy of this album out there somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised if "Run" was real. The Odd Couple should hit stores sometime in April.

New James Bond Title Revealed

BBC News reported that the next James Bond film will be titled Quantum of Solace. The title may not scream action-packed spy film like From Russia with Love or even Casino Royale, but Quantum of Solace takes it's name from the Ian Fleming short story, however, it is said to be unrelated as far as plot goes. That of course is a good thing for anyone who has read Quantum and is looking for another action flick. From what I've read the original story is much more low key. Promises are already being made to stray from such a story. Producer Michael Wilson told BBC that this film would have twice as much action as 2006's Casino Royale.

Daniel Craig will be returning for his second try at James Bond. His first was well received by critics. The expected release date for the film is November 7. Below you can see BBC's Six O'Clock News, which provides some quick shots of the set and filming of Quantum of Solace.

The Story of Grunge Revealed...Ok Maybe Not.

In this week's episode of The Simpsons, Matt Groening and company continue to kill the once hilarious sitcom. This week, they give Homer and Marge a completely new history that doesn't work on any level because it contradicts anything the show has said in its previous 19 seasons.

This time around in what appears to be 1992, 3 years after the show started airing, Marge goes to college, leaving Homer behind to work a dead-end job. While Marge becomes infatuated with her left-wing professor, Homer starts a band called Sadgasm (think Nirvana but much worse than they actually are). The episode is complete with two songs, a Weird Al parody and a sad Back to the Future reference already used by Family Guy last year.

To be honest with you, this episode seems like a complete ripoff of Family Guy's travel back in time episode entitled "Meet the Quagmires."

Vampire Weekend in Store Tonight in NYC

I think that flyer explains it all, but in case the link dies I'll type some of the details. You can get Vampire Weekend's new album a day early by heading to Virgin Records on Union Square. You can buy the album at 10:30 p.m. and a live performance will start at 11:30 p.m. Finally followed by autograph signing at midnight.

For the less ambitious, you can find the band's self-titled debut in stores tomorrow. And don't forget Vampire Weekend will be on David Letterman this Friday.

Edit: Looks like Melissa beat me to this last week, but this post can serve as a reminder.

Former Test Icicles with New Album

Former member of the short-lived band Test Icicles released an impressive album last week. Devonte Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion brings to you Falling Off the Lavender Bridge. If I had to call it one thing, it would be folk, but there's a lot here. My first listen through I already liked it, but when I learned Lightspeed Champion was Hynes who was former Test Icicles I couldn't help but be more into it. For Screening Purposes Only was a fun album.

Hynes will be keeping busy over the next few months touring Europe with some short stints in the States. You can find him at two dates in March in New York.

I know you all enjoy free music, so while you're waiting for Falling Off the Lavender Bridge to come in the mail or whatever, you can find three free albums by Hynes. There is I Wrote and Recorder This in Less Than Five Hours, a complete album cover of Green Day's Nimrod, and more covers with the Bad Covers EP.

Edit: I almost forgot to mention. Take a look at our new People to See, Places to Go sidebar. We will be updating that often and will be much easier to track than our typical calendar posts. We will still be posting about new and upcoming shows of course, but that will be the place to go for reference.