OPP

Nerdlitter relates the Teeth's teeth getting pulled as argument for universal health care

Muzzle of Bees has video of My Morning Jacket's Jim James performing on the Kids stage at Lollapalooza

Aquarium Drunkard offers mp3 and video from Thurston Moore's upcoming solo LP

Information Leafblower recounts highs and lows of this past weekend's Virgin Festival

Stereoactive NYC shares a unique setlist from The Secret Life of Sofia's show last night

TinyMixTapes reviews Mancino's Manners Matter

CMJ Marathon Announces First Round Of Performers

CMJ has announced the first round of performers slated to take the stage at the 2007 CMJ Music Marathon.

Confirmed To Appear At CMJ Marathon:

Spoon
UNKLE
Justice
British Sea Power
Mates Of State
Coheed And Cambria
Rodrido Y Gabriela
Xiu Xiu
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien
Dirtbombs
Mute Math
Jesu
Devin the Dude
The Ponys
Islands
Dan Deacon
Tiny Masters of Today
Eisley
Vietnam
Little Brother
Mickey Hart & Zakir Hussein
Brother Ali
Marnie Stern
No Age
Crystal Castles
MSTRKRFT
Chromeo
The Brunettes
1990s
Ruins
A-Trak
Foreign Islands
Kavinsky
Simian Mobile Disco
Deerhunter

Hot shit. I couldn't be more excited about British Sea Power and Islands. They're two of my most favorite current bands. Yay.

Eulogies

Eulogies. The name alone is enough to get me interested in listening to this band. Who hasn't spent some time reading through the eulogy section of their local newspaper? Taking in the final statement about lives nearby which have too recently come to an end... Morbid? Sometimes I can be. I just have to imagine that a band that decides to go with the name Eulogies probably has at least a thing or two up their sleeve that'll interest me and catch my ear, right?

Peter Walker talks a bit about the choice of band name in their bio:

“Euglogies are most commonly designated for those who have passed, but really they are just words of praise, and in this case they are for the living. The name, for me, represents the saying of the unsaid, the voicing of the unexpressed, to someone you care about.”

Eulogies is a new project that features the above quoted Peter Walker and his touring band, Tim Hutton and Chris Reynolds. They've just completed their self-titled debut album which is set to be released on Dangerbird Records on the 11th of September. Perhaps a fitting coincidence, that release date.

The one song that's available for download, "One Man", shows a band equally mature in their song-writing and sense of who they are/want to be as musicians. This is music that's completely ready for the masses (take note TV execs), yet not music made for the masses. That is to say, the songs appear to come from an honest source of inspiration. One that's driven Peter Walker and crew to share private stories painted on the canvas of well-honed pop rock. Their particular brand of songsmanship is nothing entirely new, but it's worth paying attention to because of how darn well they've been able to capture the exact sound they were going for. A sound that combines the reverby vocals-to-the-front nature of late '50s Sun Records tracks with the tried and true sound of late '90s/early '00s indie pop rock.

Listen:
"One Man"

Visit Eulogies on MySpace.

Three for Free - Jason Loewenstein

EAR FARM's Three for Free: three EF approved, free and legal MP3s posted each week. This week, three tracks from Jason Loewenstein from Sebadoh. How amazing is "Funerals"? Yep. Be sure to check out his official site for many more MP3s.

Listen:
"Emmitt Pig"
“But Yr. Gone"
"Funerals (Alt)"

Goes Cube to play Bowery Ballroom, seeking regional all-ages shows

Goes Cube fans take note: Goes Cube is playing Bowery Ballroom on August 24th! They will be sharing the bill with Stereo Total and The Octopus Project, you can buy tickets HERE.

In related news, the band is looking to play all-ages shows. They sent along the following note:

After doing a cross country tour of the United States, after signing an exclusive deal with Cordless Recordings (part of the Warner Music Group), and after recording new songs with producer Dean Baltulonis (who also produced the band's EP, "Beckon The Dagger God"), Goes Cube wants to do something comparatively simple. They want to play all-ages shows in the NY, NJ, CT, MD, DC, MA, NH, area. Basement shows, VFW halls, all ages clubs, etc.

Think you can help Goes Cube to get some all ages shows? Contact them on MySpace. You can also “demand” Goes Cube on Eventful.com.

Today's NEW releases

Here are a few of this week's releases I can recommend:

• Billie Holiday - Remixed & Reimagined
• Grace Potter & the Nocturnals - This Is Somewhere
• John Coltrane - Stardust[ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
• Magnolia Electric Co - Sojourner
• Marissa Nadler - Song 3: Bird on the Water
• Miles Davis Quintet - Steamin'[ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
• Mirah And Spectratone International - Share This Place
• Okkervil River - The Stage Names
• Schooner - Hold on Too Tight

What have I missed?

After The Jump Fest Update: Spectrum, Teenage Prayers added to FREE day show line-up - chance to win CMJ passes

We united music bloggers who are putting together the After The Jump Fest (happening on the 25th of August inside/outside of Studio B) couldn't be more excited to announce that Spectrum will be headlining the FREE day show portion of After The Jump.

Spectrum is the most high-profile and straightforward of the projects undertaken by Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember after the demise of the legendairly influential trance-rock band Spacemen 3. The Spectrum bio continues to explain: "As his work as a member of the Experimental Audio Research coterie allowed Kember the opportunity to explore ambient textures and tonal constructs, Spectrum satisfied the singer/guitarist's more conventional pop leanings, while never losing sight of the hypnotic otherworldliness which became his music's trademark and legacy."

Needless to say, it will be quite an honor to have Spectrum be a part of After The Jump.

In addition, we're also happy to announce that Teenage Prayers have been added to After the Jump’s FREE day show line-up. Expect to see more here on EAR FARM about all of the bands playing After the Jump very soon.

***Purchase tickets to the night portion of the event HERE - all proceeds from the festival will help fund grants written by New York music teachers for their classroom via the Bloggers Choose chapter of DonorsChoose.org***

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Chris over at Music Snobbery is keeping a running tally of all the awesome prizes we have to raffle off at After the Jump, including TWO passes to the CMJ Music Marathon worth nearly $500 each (thanks CMJ)! We also have a ton of CD prize packs, signed posters, t-shirts, and much more - so come and donate for your chance to win!

Don't You (Forget About Me)

Once again, this list is long overdue. What you'll see below covers all of the artists/bands featured on EAR FARM (since the last time one of these was posted) through the end of July 2007. This excludes the weekly features (such as Three For Free, 8+) and is more about bands that have gotten a band-specific write-up on EF. The quotes are from EAR FARM write-ups about the band and should help give you a mini-notion of what each artist is all about and should also clue you in as to why they've been featured on this site. Click the (+) to visit a previous EF posting about any of these bands and click the band name to go to their site.

New York based bands:
Beat the Devil (+) - sultry dark dirgey folk rock that climbs into your mind and never lets go
Frauke (+) - 100% music... sounding of a garage band, very much Frauke for Frauke's sake, and better than the music that you've heard elsewhere that made you think "yuck"
Michael Higbee (+) - an extremely talented singer-songwriter originally from Paris... currently making a name for himself playing gigs around New York showcasing his adept one man, two guitar parts playing style and excellent voice
La Laque (+) - a French infused band from New York who create music full of lofty atmospheric melodies and breathy vocals
Gabriel Miller-Phillips (+) - a gentle folk strum and wandering picking style (a bit Jerry Garcia if I might) perfectly complement his softly soaring voice
The Shondes (+) - a perfect blend of punk and gypsy folk music that comes across as both beautiful and enlivening
Alina Simone (+) - magical combination of tone, content, and composition... the vocals are bloody amazing
Umami (+) - a guitar-less happy place... an in between zone where they've combined the low end growl of Death From Above 1979 (I also hear a certain Trans Am-itude at work, and, to be frank, quite a bit of Peter Hook in the bass playing) with the understated rhythmic vocal grace of Pinback

Bands from elsewhere:
Bat For Lashes (+) - songs full of haunting sexual imagery highlighted by gorgeous ethereal vocals
Bowerbirds (+) - a world of beauty and harmony and mother nature and creation, but also of melancholy and darkness and pain
Ben Clarke (+) - an artist with a sense of honesty in his songs and a grasp of musical influence from the past as well as the present
Clint (+) - unique blend of Bloc Party meets Queens of the Stone Age meets Placebo
In Miniature (+) - sound like aimless cross-country wandering brought on by heartbreak, but in a friendly sense... the wandering is friendly I mean, not the heartbreak
Mono in VCF (+) - magical cinematic pop sound... the sound of lonely romantic yearnings played out through the camera lens of your mind
The Rosebuds (+) - rousing and irresistible pop
Sister Vanilla (+) - along the lines of what we all know and love about the legendary music from the brothers Reid (except this time there's wonderfully ethereal vocals from Linda that blend perfectly with the music) and is every bit as interesting and listenable as you might expect
So! (+) - melancholic distorted dissonance and chugging steam locomotive riffs
The Swimmers (+) - there's something irresistibly personal in this music and I'd highly suggest keeping an eye on this band if you're a fan of music along the lines of The Shins or The New Pornographers
The Ting Tings (+) - not your run of the mill male/female duo, The Ting Tings sound much more like Gwen Stefani mixed with M.I.A. and CSS than they do The White Stripes, or Matt and Kim

To see the entire list of over 150 bands/artists that have been featured on EAR FARM click HERE.

snip·pets

Time Out Chicago on Lollapalooza

Samsung, AT&T Partner For Summer Concert Series

Madonna's adoption hits new snag

Stylus: 50 Greatest Rock Drummers (the complete list)

Spears accused of making death threats to photographers

Average Computer Harbors Huge MP3 Collection (huge, apparently, is anything over 800)

N.C. Symphony's Bruce Ridge preaches optimism to orchestras across the country

NY Times: Selling a Concept With a Song

5+5=10: 5 bands, 5 songs, 10 words about each

American Catastrophe - haunting open-road gothic in the vein of Cohen/Cave.

Listen:
"The Well"

Visit American Catastrophe on MySpace.


For Her and the Snow - bouncy, catchy Americana pop similar to certain Imperial Teen songs.

Listen:
"Waiting for You"

Visit For Her and the Snow on MySpace.


Lycaon Pictus - so simple, so raw, so groovy - I fucking love it.

Listen:
"Death Disco"

Visit Lycaon Pictus on MySpace.


The Main Drag - crisp, glitch infused pop-rock clearly influenced by Depeche Mode.

Listen:
"Love During Wartime"

Visit The Main Drag on MySpace.


Mothfight - Austin's Animal Collective deserves more words than this. Seriously fantastic.

Listen:
"Hopscotch"

Visit Mothfight on MySpace.

After The Jump Fest Update: Tickets on Sale, Be a Volunteer

The night portion of After The Jump Fest, featuring Soulico, Riot In Belgium and The Virgins with special guest DJs: Finger On The Pulse & Slap You In Public (with even more acts TBA) are currently on sale via Ticketweb!

Purchase a pair HERE! All proceeds from the festival will help fund grants written by New York music teachers for their classroom via the Bloggers Choose chapter of DonorsChoose.org!

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If you’d like to be a volunteer at the After The Jump Fest, we’d love to have you. Please enter your name and email address on THIS FORM and we’ll get back to you a little closer to the date of the show.

8+

"Guitar Space/Summertime" by Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, and Tony Rice which clocks in at 8:41

Recently I found myself in what has come to be a fairly normal scenario throughout my musical life. A question: "why do you like metal so much? I mean, you actually honestly enjoy it! Why?"

I think this question is probably asked more often of fans of metal than of any other style of music. Perhaps because it is the one genre of music which absolutely alienates fans of each and every other genre. But to be fair, I've had the question asked of almost all of the various kinds of music I listen to, at one time or another. The answer for metal (for any music I enjoy) is more or less a very basic and primal one. Something within the music connects with something within me. MASTER. MASTER. Wheres the dreams that I've been after? In addition, the music injects a certain energy, confidence, and fuck-the-world-itude to any situation. MASTER. MASTER. You promised only lies... Working out while listening to music? What a great combo! But have you tried working out ON METAL man?? Walking around the streets of New York and listening to music? Have you ever walked around the streets of New York while listening TO METAL?! Throwing an old busted television off the back deck of one of the houses you lived in while in college - only to find out that the fall alone wasn't enough to break the TV so you end up having to go down with a baseball bat to finish off the job by smashing the screen over and over until it finally gives in? Find yourself in scenarios like that often? Well then, the only music for times like those is METAL. But you know this.

Destructive frolicking aside, there's another main reason I always cite if someone questions why I enjoy heavy metal. Namely, I've spent the better part of the last two decades listening to indie rock songwriters fumble their way through four chord songs as if their hands were all thumbs and sometimes I find myself thirsty for the highest level of proficiency on guitar, drums, bass guitar, piano, etc. Too many musicians I've loved for most of my life get by by playing off shoddy chops as if it were a style choice to be fairly average on their chosen instrument. Sometimes, you just need to hear someone SHRED. Metal is great for that, and so too is bluegrass. No really.

Bluegrass was (according to my parents) the very first kind of music I was really into. Stories are told about a time, before I could even walk, when I'd struggle to pull myself up on the edge of the coffee table (which, by the way, happens to be the very same coffee table sitting in my apartment right now) and bop and dip along to whatever Three on a String record my parents happened to be listening to at the time. This was while my family was living in Alabama, where I was born. I was a little hillbilly dancing outlaw toddler. Ever since then, bluegrass and I have had a special connection. A very basic and primal connection, and any time I listen to bluegrass it feels familiar and comforting. Feels like home.

Here you've got a chance to listen to two giants of bluegrass (David Grisman and Tony Rice) playing alongside an American music legend. Jerry Garcia will definitely be most remembered for his work with The Grateful Dead but I've always enjoyed hearing his music come through in the realm of bluegrass. From the aforementioned band Three on a String's take on "Friend of a Devil" to The Pizza Tapes album that this track is from and beyond. It's a joy to be able to listen to three string instrument masters sit down and "noodle" in the studio; and if you find yourself enjoying the noodling, then I highly recommend you buy the rest of the album and/or anything you can find from Grisman, Garica, and Rice.

Buy The Pizza Tapes HERE on Amazon, HERE on eMusic, and HERE on iTunes.

EAR FARM's 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. In the recent past these songs were featured on EF's 8+:
Boris - "Flood"
Vieux Farka Touré - "Diabaté"
Morrissey - "Southpaw"
Mastodon - "Hearts Alive"
Frog Eyes - "Bushels"
Slint - "Washer"
Martin Eagle Trio - "The Hipster"
Battles - "Rainbow"

To see a full list of every song featured in EAR FARM's 8+ click HERE.

OPP

The Rawking Refuses To Stop: The Top 10 Break-Up Albums

Gridskipper revises their incomplete look at New York Record Stores, result - still incomplete (but I'll stop bitching because this time they did a much better job hitting up some favorites...I smell a future EF feature)

Merry Swankster: Retrohump Night - Pet Sounds Sounds

Nerd Litter: M.I.A. at Studio B pics and videos

NYC Taper: Sonic Youth - Denied Entry with Equipment

The Punk Guy posted one of my very favorite covers of a Black Sabbath song

Deerhunter robbed at gunpoint

UPDATE: Largehearted Boy: Note Books - Mike Grimes (Mancino)

What What Where

Do you remember the good old days when things were more simple, a heady dance song was a heady dance song, and EAR FARM wanted nothing more than to buy as many black jelly bracelets as possible? Well, much like The Knife and Annie before them, What What Where remembers times such as those and they aren't afraid to show it.

The very first few notes of "Break Your Heart" start out all "Eye of the Tiger" before quickly giving way to dance rock the likes of which will please fans of Cansei De Ser Sexy and, well to be repetitive but frank, Annie. What What Where displays a knack for borrowing the synth sounds of the 1980s Sheffield scene and combining them with the airy vocals of Ruthy Mirsky to create songs that will please your mind, your body, and your soul. Okay, I'm not 100% sure about the last bit - I'm listening to a lot of Ice Cube lately and sometimes I find myself quoting him involuntarily - but their song "Ransom" shows enough potential to think they're just getting started with making people move and groove to their tunes. Dance! Sing! What What Where - music music right here!

Listen:
"Break Your Heart"
"Ransom"

Visit What What Where on MySpace.

Three for Free - Throw Me The Statue

EAR FARM's Three for Free: three EF approved, free and legal MP3s posted each week. This week, three tracks from the band Throw Me The Statue.

Listen:
"Lolita"
“Yucatan Gold"
"Conquering Kids"

Today's NEW releases

This week, I deem these releases worth considering:

• 1990s - Cookies
• Bat For Lashes - Fur & Gold
• Polly Paulusma - Fingers & Thumbs
• Shivaree - Tainted Love: Mating Calls & Fight Songs

What have I missed?

snip·pets

OK! magazine editor-in-chief: Day with Britney Spears was 'shock'

Led Zeppelin Readies Fall Reissue Bonanza

Ozzy Osbourne treated in hospital

Stylus: 50 Greatest Rock Drummers

RollingStone: 20 Best Live Bands Playing Right Now

University of Colorado at Denver's Advocate lists their top 5 music blogs (and in the process shows they have no idea what a "blog" actually is)

Recent Morrissey concert reviews: NY Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, phillyburbs.com, Village Voice

Bat For Lashes

Bat For Lashes is the work of British singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Natasha Khan and the project has won her many celebrity musician fans (such as Bjork, Brett Anderson, Devendra Banhart, Jarvis Cocker and Thom Yorke) as well as a nomination for this year's Mercury Prize (for her soon-to-be released in the US album Fur and Gold - can't wait for Tuesday).

There's a good reason for all of this heaping praise - her music is out of this world. Or, from another world. They are songs full of haunting sexual imagery highlighted by gorgeous ethereal vocals. "Horse & I" pulls together sparse harpsichord and theremin work with results that fall someplace in between Cat Power and Bjork. "What's A Girl To Do?" is a combination of Erotica era Madonna, Portishead, and soundtracks to countless David Lynch films. In other words, this music is just what I needed and I'm fairly upset that I wasn't able to catch her recent show at the Knitting Factory. Add to all of this the fact that the US release of Fur and Gold is set to include a cover version of Bruce Springsteen's “I’m On Fire” and you can see (perhaps) why I'm so excited for this record to finally be released here in the States.

Listen:
"Horse & I"
"What's A Girl To Do?"

Watch:
"Prescilla"
"What's A Girl To Do"

Visit Bat For Lashes on MySpace.

*image from the Bat For Lashes artwork page HERE.

8+

"Flood" by Boris which clocks in at 14:42

From time to time EAR FARM enjoys featuring guest posts in the long-running 8+ feature. To that end, I'd like to once again invite any and all of you to get in touch if you're interested in writing your own 8+ to be featured here (see previous 8+ guest posts HERE). The only guidelines: you must write about a song longer than eight minutes and the song you're writing about can not be a recording of a live performance. Other than that, it's a wide open format where anything goes.

This week I'm happy to welcome a guest post from my friend Taylor. Her blog T-Sides is a site you've no doubt seen linked to before on EAR FARM and I'm pleased to have her be a part of the 8+ canon with a post about the song "Flood" by Boris.

As the only child of a widow, I had to accompany my mother everywhere. Beginning at a very young age, I spent a lot of time in cars, which resulted in a love for staring out of windows and a knack for noticing detail. One of my favorite things to watch was turn signals, particularly when we were stopped at lights. If you've ever been bored and stared out the window at a series of blinking turn signal lights, no doubt you've noticed the timing. They start out of sync, fall in a pattern together - then lose it - then regroup, ad infinitum.

This is the musical version of that - two guitar lines instead of two blinking lights. Even though the pattern lasts for nearly 15 minutes, it never gets boring, because you keep wondering... will they meet up again? what's that noise? I'm sure there's some sort of scientific/mathematic explanation for all of this, but why ruin the mystery?

Buy Flood HERE on Amazon.

EAR FARM's 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. In the recent past these songs were featured on EF's 8+:
Vieux Farka Touré - "Diabaté"
Morrissey - "Southpaw"
Mastodon - "Hearts Alive"
Frog Eyes - "Bushels"
Slint - "Washer"
Martin Eagle Trio - "The Hipster"
Battles - "Rainbow"
Nirvana - "Scentless Apprentice"

To see a full list of every song featured in EAR FARM's 8+ click HERE.

OPP

Aquarium Drunkard: Pink Floyd - Live @ Pompeii 1971 (Echoes)

Catbirdseat: Paper Thin Walls bought by Getty Images

Crackers United has some nice pics from Siren '07

Earvolution: The Ten Best Bands That Never Existed

Fluxblog: Early Impressions Of The Fiery Furnaces' Widow City

Gridskipper offers an incomplete look at New York Record Stores for Vinyl Zealots (yeah, incomplete)

I Hate Peas points us to a PC Easy Bake Oven

Limewire blog: Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Goes Crazy on Rare Hendrix Tracks

Motel de Moka: Doppelleben

Productshop: White Stripes Live at MSG - The Verdict? (NYCTaper has the show to download in lossless format)

Thepunkguy: Some Grizzly Bear B-Sides