Walkmen Release New Single, "In the New Year"

The Walkmen's new single, "In the New Year," is streaming right now, at their MySpace. But more importantly, it has been on the receiving end of praise claiming that the song embodies the same as "The Rat" from 2004 off the band's second album Bows and Arrows. Is it really so unusual that a band sounds like itself?

The Walkmen are pushing their new LP, You & Me, slated for release Sept. 16. Tell All Your Friends wants you to know this (but they can't spell "buses").

"Writing and recording of You and Me happened over a vibrant and rigorous 2-year period, during which the members of The Walkmen were split between Philadelphia and New York. The band rode China Town busses five days a week to work in two small rehearsal spaces (an old nightclub in Chelsea, New York and a warehouse in Fish Town, Philadelphia) to freeze by the kerosene heater in the winter, and sweat it out in the summer. By the time of the record’s pressing there were over four hundred cast-off 8-track tapes littering both spaces."

Also, they apparently really like their producers:

"The album was recorded in two installments - the first at Sweet Tea studios in Oxford, Mississippi (where they had worked on Bows and Arrows) with engineer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Hold Steady, Sonic Youth) and in a couple of sessions in New York's Gigantic Studios (built by Phillip Glass) with engineer Chris Zane (who the boys consider "the best fucking engineer in the world" and a "fucking god-send")."

Sorry I didn't use the #$@^& symbols, TAYF.

Beats Behind the Man

What makes Girl Talk amazing? Other than the sweaty-awesome and potentially life-threatening stage performances, the whole illegal, yet sustainable nature of his music and his free or pay-your-own-price album? It's probably just the shows, but I want to think it's a lot of the ridiculous combinations of good, bad, weird or legendary material he mashes together.

Someone thought it was a good idea to take Girl Talk and un-mash his albums. They started with Feed the Animals. There has been a somewhat ridiculous wave of people trying to discern the correct order and song titles and artist throughout the week, some corrected by Gregg Gillis himself, but un-mashing (and making them available for download)? I think it's a good idea. Certainly not all the songs are a good idea, but some.

A random blog called Time to Get Glamorous and two random people are posting each song as if it were an entire album. For example, 24 tracks are displayed under the greater umbrella of "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)."

Apparently they're going to begin work on Girl Talk's Night Ripper next. And they're asking for contributions.

P.S. In conversations with Ed, we've realized that "he's so popular that people are actively wasting their time by deconstructing his albums."

In other news, regular mashups/remixes can be heard at thetreehouseparty.com. Vice would like Kid Color because he's trendy and not white. I kind of want to be his friend.

'Modern Guilt' Scheduled for July 8 Release

Beck's latest album, engineered by D.J. Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, The Gray Album), is available for pre-order now. Modern Guilt is:

"... a tightly assembled group of songs that range in lyrical tone from introspection and social commentary to off the cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor. Musically, the album’s ten tracks vacillate between economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism, while consistently manifesting Beck and Danger Mouse’s shared interest in psych-rock, folk, electronic minimalism and orchestration." - Interscope

... Which is essentially the summary of every description given to Beck's music ever.

Tracklist:

Orphans
Gamma Ray
Chemtrails
Modern Guilt
Youthless
Walls
Replica
Soul of A Man
Profanity Prayers
Volcano

The single "Chemtrails" from the album has a spot on his MySpace.

UPDATE: Here's the promo video. The title track, if it is indeed the one playing here, sounds pretty nice.

The Next Two Weeks in Shows

To get a good idea of what’s going on in Connecticut over the next week (month) or so, you can always rely on out calendar to the right, or you can just find out here, for now.

Mark Nussbaum over at Manic Productions is in the middle of a busy week with shows over at the Cherry Street Station in Wallingford. Tomorrow might they’ve got local band Cable and Boston’s Irepress. Something interesting: Wikipedia tells me that Cable’s “lineup changes and delays between recordings may have hindered their notoriety over the years.” It sounds a little more complicated than that – they’ve been around for 14 years… Apparently they are preparing to release their come-back album Variable Speed Drive.

Another show tomorrow night will be Tippy Canoe (and the Paddlemen?) at Cafe Nine (see calendar).

On Saturday, June 28th, the Cherry Street Station is hosting Grails and Nadja, who have been touring together for a little while now. Also present will be duo Lady Lovelace and the Calculator Death Machine. They are interesting.

Saturday is also the date of the Times New Viking show at the Living Room in Providence, R.I. if you feel like spending a little extra cash for the drive, or finding chauffeur friends. Listen to their recent Daytrotter session. Also, they’re playing with Deer Tick, a band that found us at the Not Brooklyn Festival.

Kicking off July on Manic’s calendar will be gothic, country punks (this is accurate) O’Death at New Haven People’s Center on the 11th. There isn’t much more I can say without Mark Rowan getting all flustered and embarrassed that I write for this blog.

For July 12, Elf Power is playing The Space in Hamden, CT. tThey’re another band hailing from Athens, Ga. and they're on tour supporting the March 25th release In a Cave. If I find myself home that weekend, I’d be down for spending less than $10 on this show.

Lil Wayne Mashed Up with Lil Kids Cartoons

We'll after a week or so, Mark's initial response wasn't too far off. Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III sold over a million records in the first week and to be completely honest, it's pretty damn good. We'll since I'm a nerd, I have found Lil Wayne's single "Got Money" ft. T-Pain mashed up with assorted clips from the Smurfs. Props to whoever put this together as a lot of the lyrics match up well with the characters on screen.

I am going to give Tha Carter III another listen through, but it's on my Top 10 of 2008 as of right now, which is pretty good for hip-hop of this caliber.

Black Kids' (New?) Single Out

"Hurricane Jane" has definitely been around for some time, well the idea at least. The version off Black Kids' debut album, Partie Traumatic, came out as a single yesterday, June 23, on CD and vinyl.

Props to gmail alerts and correct punctuation for song titles:

Black Kids here. Just wanted to drop in and let you know that we're super stoked because our second single, "Hurricane Jane," is out now! We're quite proud of it. Not only is "Hurricane Jane" one of our favorite tunes on our upcoming debut album, Partie Traumatic, but we've included a couple of our favorite new songs as B-sides.

They also outlined the previous and next single to come:

The first one, "You Only Call Me When You're Crying," has a much different, laid-back vibe than most of our songs. There's even an acoustic guitar on it. It's a bit of a tear-jerker, really. The other B-side, "Power in the Blood," has a more intense, driving beat and a big, sing-along chorus about sucking blood. It's destined to be in a vampire movie one day, we're sure of it.

One added bonus that we're especially excited about is The Cansecos' remix of "Hurricane Jane". It's perfect for both the dancefloor and the bedroom, if you know what we mean. Yes please.

So there you have it. "Hurricane Jane" + added treats = in the shops now!
xox.
Black Kids

And the video for "Hurricane Jane":

'Rascalize' Available for Preview, Drops Tomorrow

I may have lied about the preview part because NME makes you sign in to hear anything on its media player. Although, six tracks off The Rascals' (not "The Young Rascals") debut album Rascalize are available for listening on their MySpace. The album will be released tomorrow, June 23, in CD and vinyl formats.

The Rascals' Miles Kane and Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner recently combined their efforts The Last Shadow Puppets for their (other?) debut album back in April with Domino Records (perhaps Tuner's influence explains the heartache and fuzzy guitars all over Rascalize).

Singles "Freakbeat Phantom" and "Suspicious Wit" have reached their own sold-out status as the band promised 30 limited edition signed copies of each in 10" vinyl.

Video: "Freakbeat Phantom"
Web site: TheRascals.co.uk