Shearwater Album Out, In Danbury Next Week

Shearwater's latest, Rook, was released on June 3 to positive reviews (8 on Pitchfork, 4.5/5 stars on allmusic) and you can catch them shortly in Connecticut.

The band is composed of current Okkervil River member Will Sheff and former Okkervil River member Jonathan Meiburg, along with three others.

Rook is streaming now on the band's MySpace.

Shearwater will be playing the Heirloom Arts Theatre in Danbury, Conn. next Saturday, June 21. Frog Eyes and Evangelicals, who were around here recently, will be opening. $10, 7 p.m.

You may also be interested to hear that Okkervil River will be playing at the Pearl Street Nightclub in Northampton, Mass. on October 8.

Martha Wainwright Album Out Now, Coming to CT August

I'm almost surprised Melissa didn't post this yet (she's into Rufus, right?) but she's lazy. Martha Wainwright, sister of Rufus Wainwright, dropped her latest album titled I Know You're Married, But I Have Feelings Too a few days ago.

The album is not streaming thanks to AOL. You can find it here. It doesn't conveniently start playing for you though. There's a whole bunch of albums at the top you can flip through. So go find it.

Rufus appears on "The George Song." While Pete Townshend lays down guitar on "You Cheated Me" and "Comin' Tonight."

The reviews have been decent so far. 80s from Paste, Rolling Stone and The Guardian. "You Cheated Me" is a solid track to start off with if you're curious to see if you want to dive deeper into it.

Martha will be playing the Fairfield Theatre in Fairfield, Conn. on August 7 with KT Tunstall.

Oddly enough, I watched the amazing last episode of Without a Trace for Season 1 just tonight and they used Rufus Wainwright's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" to do the emotional ending they like to do for last episodes of seasons. It was really good. The Internet is really good too and it was the second thing to come up in my search for "Martha Wainwright myspace." So I'm throwing it below because it's great.

Rufus Wainwright Hallelujah + Martha Wainwright and Joan Wasser

The Muslims in NYC all Week. Songs for Download

I'm going to be in the city on the 16th for some job stuff, so as I was looking around for things to do I came across The Muslims show at the Mercury Lounge. Then I noticed they are playing everywhere in New York for the next week.

They had a self-titled 12-inch out, but they sold out of them. However, you can find them again come next month. So be on the look out. In the meantime you can read this description of the album, check out the tour dates below and finally head over to their MySpace and download some tracks from the stream. Enjoy.

"Recorded with Jon Greene and Andrew Miller in San Diego, this seven song 12" was mastered with Paul Gold and includes a CD copy of the album featuring bonus tracks 'Nighlitfe,' 'Bright Side,' and 'Extinction.' The vinyl jackets and sleeves were silk screened by us, inserts are hand typed, and the jackets were shot by a former New York City Police Officer."

No word yet if the next printing will be shot too.

6.13
@ Cakeshop
w/ The Browns, So So Glos, Air Waves

6.15
@ Dunderdon
w/ The Browns

6.16
@ Mercury Lounge

6.17
@ The Market Hotel
w/ The Browns, So So Glos

6.19
Vice Party
@ Santos Party House

6.20
@ Union Pool
w/ Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

6.21
House show
@ The Castle in Hell
w/ HTR

Stereogum/RAC Remix Album Available for Download

Just stumbled upon this one and it has some goodies. I would go into more details about which tracks I like the most, but my Internet it currently hating on streaming music and the download is just wrapping up now.

RAC, or Remix Artist Collective, is a "artist agency strictly devoted to remixing." Simple enough. What you need to know is that they've done some killer remixes (I recommend Ra Ra Riot's "Manner To Act" for starters, but I'm biased towards them) and recently teamed up with Stereogum to put together RAC Vol. 1.

I'd go on, but really you can just start streaming below. If you like it, head on over to the Stereogum post and check out some more details, like the liner notes, torrent and individual track downloads. We'll link to the zip file below. Neat artwork too.



Download:
Stereogum Presents... RAC Vol. 1

Oh, and if you like this stuff, definitely check out more of RAC's remixes on their site (Tegan and Sara's "Back In Your Head," anyone?) And Stereogum's Memorial Day mixtape.

The Onion Movie Out on DVD Now

I didn't see this coming. Although The Onion Movie started production in 2003, the film finally finished it's long, bumpy road to DVD on June 3. Wikipedia tells us:

"The plot revolves around an Onion television news anchorman, Norm Archer, who is forced to face the inevitability of a corporate takeover. This plot serves as a springboard for various satirical and ironic comedy skits."

Oddly enough the trailer appears on The Darjeeling Limited, which I actually just rented. I guess I was bound to eventually stumble across this. I definitely plan on picking this up. Has anyone seen it yet? I'm sort of wondering if the 2003 footage stands out from the more recent footage, as I believe they just tossed it together. Trailer below.

Monthly Mixtape: June

Hopefully you enjoyed May's mixtape. Well, here is June's. For those of you who missed the explanation the first time around. I take tracks from the previous month (in this case May) and pretty much tell you of albums I've been digging. I try to stay away from a weak album with just a couple standout tracks because the idea is to go check out the album further if you like the track on the mix.


1. Dosh - "Wolves"
Off 5/13 release, Wolves and Wishes.

2. Mates of State - "The Re-arranger"
Off the 5/20 release, Re-Arrange Us.

3. The Cool Kids - "88"
Off the Bake Sale EP, which hit iTunes in May. Physical release early June.

4. Islands - "Creeper"
Off the 5/20 release, Arm's Way.

5. Zeigeist - "Black Milk"
Off the 4/25 release (at least overseas), The Jade Motel.

6. Sam Roberts - "Them Kids"
Off the 5/20 release, Love At The End Of The World.

7. Sébastien Tellier - "Divine (Danger Remix)"
Off the Divine Vision EP. Tellier's album Sexuality, where the original track can be found, dropped 2/25.

8. The Explorers Club - "Last Kiss"
Off the 5/20 release, Freedom Wind.

9. The Last Shadow Puppets - "Separate And Ever Deadly"
Off the 5/6 release, Age of the Understatement.

10. Kidz in the Hall - "Drivin' Down The Block (Remix) feat. Pusha T, Bun B & The Cool Kids"
Off the 5/13 release, The In Crowd.

11. The Submarines - "Swimming Pool"
Off the 5/13 release, Honeysuckle Weeks.

12. Wale - "The Chicago Falcon (Remix) feat. The Budos Band"
Off the 5/30 release, The Mixtape About Nothing.

Two songs shorter than last month's, but May was clearly lacking when compared to April. June, however, is looking fantastic so far (as you can tell from the post below this one). Exciting.

Let me know what you think.

DOWNLOAD

Beats to Look Forward to: June, July + August

I'm pleased to put together this little list of upcoming or already released albums that are particularly dance worthy and in my opinion, should be a pleasurable listening experience.

The self-titled Jaguar Love EP is out now off the record label Matador! and considered experimental rock – it’s not super hard to hear why. I’m not sure of what to think yet, but they have some potential, especially with the track “My Organ Sounds Like…” It’s certainly an interesting direction for vocals; the lead singer imitates front man Bon Scott of early ACDC - on helium - or Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria.

A full-length album Take Me to the Sea is on its way for August 19 and most likely will contain the three tracks from the EP.


Tilly and the Wall's O: it feels like this album has been out for a while, but the actual release is set for June 17 via Team Love. The album was produced by Saddle Creek’s Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley). Apparently they didn’t really care or were being fairly generous when they decided to let their fans pick the album artwork - they ended up calling it “O” because that was the shape encasing the band name on the cover. “Pot Kettle Black” is a fairly fun track, a new style, whereas “Cacophony” is more traditional Tilly- style.



A highly anticipated album lately on this end has been Partie Traumatic by Black Kids. It comes out July 22 and we’ll certainly be scouring the Internets for leaks soon. The new version of “Hurricane Jane” (which can be heard on their MySpace) as a single comes out June 23, though the previous version of the song came out previously on the EP Wizard of Ahhhs. The album will be out via Almost Gold Recordings (UK) and Columbia Records (U.S.) For a quick preview of tracks on Partie Traumatic, you can hear a radio show Black Kids played back on May 16th on WXPN (NPR’s music) World Café Live with labelmates Does It Offend You, Yeah?- you can stream the whole session ( skip to the second half for Black Kids) on the NPR site at the link above the article. I recommend “Look at Me (When I Rock Wichoo)" - it has a pretty sexy bass line and really lives up to accounts that they capture a Motown groove. Props to background singers.


New York, N.Y.'s The Virgins' self-titled album just came out and it feels like the same Turkey hype as when White Williams creation Smoke came out in December– we all like it (I think), but we’re waiting for it to get big. The best track and single by far, “Rich Girls,” is also fairly groovy. There isn't that much more to say other than I’m pretty sure some of this material is going to end up on Mark’s July mixtape.

P.S. You can find The Virgins' Daytrotter session here and download four tracks off the album plus one bonus.


Look at how happy/dazed he is.

Girl Talk's Feed the Animals - not much is really known about this album yet, other than that a bunch of fake “leaks” are floating around the Internet, but there have been bits information here and there that indicate it will be in what we can now call “In Rainbows” or pay-what-you-want format off Gregg Gillis’ label Illegal Art. Gillis has also said that he plans for more over-the-top hits than usual with more “in your face” songs. Feed the Animals is expected to be released digitally in the next few weeks and he’s in the process of planning a fall tour. We’re looking forward to a show if he comes around these parts.

New The Hold Steady Out July, Streaming Now

I never really understood the hype and love surrounding The Hold Steady's 2006 release Boys and Girls in America, but many of you loved it. At least those of you who write reviews did (91 AV Club, 90 Paste, 100 The Guardian).

Well, the band is back again with Stay Positive, their fourth studio release due out July. Before you have the choice to drop some money on the album though you can listen to the whole thing on their MySpace. I'm actually going to give this a real try, but only a couple songs in and I'm still left unimpressed.

The Hold Steady will be playing at the McCarren Pool for a free show as part of JELLYNYC's Pool Parties on June 29 (site doesn't look like it's been updated since last year). You can find a schedule of events (free and otherwise) for the summer at the McCarren Pool site. Death Cab is actually playing today, but for $42.

Wii Fit: Weighing In One Week In

In my review for Wii Fit I weighed in for my first time and set my goal. And I'm well on my way. Before I get to the results, I have to admit that I originally weighed myself right after a big meal and now I typically weigh myself before my big meal (usually dinner). So the 2nd day there's a bit of a drop off, but from there on out it's consistent.

Day 7, June 9
BMI: 22.16
I'm sitting .16 away from my goal of 22 and a 1.35 difference from when I weighed in a week ago. My day two and three BMI were 22.6 and 22.79. And then moved down from there.

Weight: 154.8 lbs
My weight dropped from 164 to 158 in a day and like I said previously, that's just because that's when I was weighing myself. So I would say 158-160 would be a more realistic starting point. Either way, I'm down about 3-4 lbs and 1.1 lbs away from my initial goal.

Wii Fit Age: 21
This seems to depend more on what balance tests I'm given. There is one where you control a small dot and the object is to shift your weight to hit boxes. If that test is given to me I get a high age, but the other ones I seem to do just fine at. My first age was 36, so that's a 15 year improvement in a week. I've received 24, 31, 20, 27, and 21 (in that order) this week. So it's staying lower.

Weekly Summary
This sounds like a really good game/exercise routine from the results so far and that is about half correct. I logged in about 9 hours of exercise (anywhere between 35-65 mins dedicated to Wii Fit a day, besides one day off) according to the game over the course of the week. I probably plugged in half of those hours due to activity I did outside of the game (basketball, dancing). Some of those were normal activities I would do weekly anyways, but some were definitely spurred on by the game.

The results above may not have been accomplished using just the game, but it was the game that gets you in the mindset and makes you more aware of exercising, as I said in my review. Wii Fit does offer plenty of exercises that will challenge you though. Some of them I still cannot complete due to lack of flexibility and general out of shapeness. So after Week 1 there's plenty left to still unlock in the game and plenty of exercises that have been unlocked that I have yet to master. With every exercise program goes the question, will it continue to work if it works initially? That's what I hope to find out. Wii Fit has me hooked now, but will it translate long-term or will it wear out it's welcome?

Have Wii Fit? How are you doing?

The Incredible Hulk: Latest TV Spot, Pretty Much Spoilers

When I reviewed Iron Man here, I stumbled upon Robert Downey Jr.'s name in the credits for The Incredible Hulk. So I knew Tony Stark aka Iron Man was going to make his way into the film. I didn't expect, however, for him to make his way into a TV spot. Anything for money, I guess.

Not a huge plot spoiler by any means, but certainly a surprise to the casual movie-goer. The TV spot running this week (below) starts off with Stark wondering about an "unusual problem" (Hulk). It's sort of interesting that the other character replies, "You should talk" when Stark asked about the problem. Are we already alluding to his alcoholism? And is "unusual" the proper adjective for that?

Either way, it's good to see that The Incredible Hulk will at least won't be a complete failure simply by piggybacking on Iron Man's success. From what I've seen through trailers and taking a look at the cast, it definitely seems decent. Although, for the record, I didn't think the last one was bad at all. One could even argue Edward Norton > Eric Bana = Jennifer Connelly > Liv Tyler, but I guess we'll get into that once I actually see the new one on Friday.

Today: Everthus the Deadbeats @ Cafe Nine

I don't know if you realized this, but there is really nothing going on this week. We regretfully missed Inspector Owl last week and now we're left with nothing. There is a show tonight, however. Everthus the Deadbeats (mentioned on the podcast) will be playing at Cafe Nine in New Haven tonight. Ed liked them. He might even be there if he wasn't still touching himself over the new, cheaper iPhone.

The New Frontiers will be in Northampton on Friday. If there's anything good we missed, please let us know.

New Nas Mixtape Out Now

You should know by now how much we love mixtapes and Obama. So it's no surprise that we're here talking about Nas' latest and the prelude to his controversially titled album, which is due out July 15.

The mixtape, which technically dropped yesterday, with DJ Green Lantern (who does most of the producing) features a couple tracks that will be on the full-length. A highlight though is the track "Black President," which is sort of a hesitant tribute to Obama as it echos Tupac's lines from the song "Changes" ("Although it seems heaven sent / We ain't ready to see a black President"). While Obama's "Yes We Can" ala will.i.am fights the skepticism. All-around good track and just in time for the nomination.

CNN took a look at the track a couple days ago.

For a full track listing and a download of the mixtape, check out Nah Right.

Download:
Nas + DJ Green Lantern - The Nigger Tape

Foals and Their Daytrotter Session

Foals have kind of become a mysterious band with a smart aloofness and only one U.S. date in the next five months, but the latest Daytrotter session makes them sound kind of creepy, but in a good way.

With a set of "Heavy Water," "Red Socks Pugie" and "Electric Bloom," alongside four previously unreleased and un-named jams, the tracks are long and drowning, whereas on their March release Antidotes, they take to dance-rock with a upbeat disposition.

If it's a preview of what they're like live, the contrast between studio and on stage might be a bit too much for the unexpecting listener. I'm still in, if we ever get Foals to come to CT for the More Like A Six-Foot Turkey show of our dreams, because "Elecric Bloom" grows on me with every new listen.

As usual for Daytrotter, al songs are available to be streamed live and downloaded.