Cuppa podcast

Just in case none of you bother reading all that stuff on the left I've been doing DJ shifts under the Cuppa Joe moniker on KALX in Berkeley for a bunch of years now. Sadly my current shift (9:30 to midnight every Thursday) will expire in a couple of weeks but I'm hoping to get another spot soon. It's part of the station's mission to have Cal students on the air most of the time and while that makes it hard on us "community members" who love spinning records and running our mouths I have to applaud the policy.

While typing up the previous blurb about Vampire Weekend's limited edition 7" it occurred to me that posting this set from my show on March 13 would be a nice way to celebrate a timelsot I'll sorely miss (seeing as how it contains the song from the VW video and all).

Track list:
The Dodos - "Fools" (from Visiter on French Kiss)
DJ Paul V - "Tequila Lip Gloss (Lil Mama vs. The Champs)" (from the Best Of Bootie 2007 compilation discussed here)
The Coasters - "Charlie Brown" (from the Loud, Fast & Out of Control compilation on Rhino)
Vampire Weekend - "A-Punk" (from their self-titled record on XL)
Binky Griptite & The Mellomatics - "Mellomatic Mood" (from the 7” single on Daptone)

PODCAST (10 MB)

Limited Vampire Weekend 7" for Record Store Day

As previously mentioned, April 19 is the day to kick down some corn in your local indie record store. Not only has Metallica signed on to kick off the national event with their first in-store in a decade (go Mountain View) but indie rock sensation Vampire Weekend are getting in on the limited edition fun with a special 7" single available only at stores participating in Record Store Day. It'll feature the album version of "A-Punk" with an unreleased rehearsal version of "Oxford Camera" on the b-side.

The video for "A-Punk"

New music

Death To Los Campesinos! - Los Campesinos!

Hold On Now, Youngster..., the stellar full length debut from this Welsh septet will be released in North America April 1st on Canada's Arts & Crafts records. Their frenetic indie rock mixes Broken Social Scene’s “everyone we know who sings or plays is in the band” aesthetic, Art Brut’s snotty punk pop attitude, Arctic Monkey’s insanely wordy social observation and Architecture in Helsinki’s eclectic instrumentation with great male/female vocal interplay. Click on the cover to pre-order a deluxe edition from Insound.

KALX is co-announcing their show at Bimbo's June 6 so tune in towards the end of May for free tickets. Los Campesinos! on myspace


That Man I Shot - Drive-By Truckers

One of the more chilling songs about war I've ever heard, inspired by a backstage conversation between Patterson Hood and some Gulf war vets. Brighter Than Creation's Dark maintains the high octane rocking and quality songcraft we've come to expect from these Athens, GA folks despite the departure of guitarist and third songwriter Jason Isbell. The legendary Spooner Oldham sits in on keys throughout and bassist Shonna Tucker contributes some fine songs to fill the absence left by her now ex-husband Isbell.


Paper Switchblade - Tommy Guerrero

Record number eight from this Bay Area skate legend proves he's still an unstoppable groove machine. Return Of The Bastard is the perfect soundtrack to those slow summer cruises with the top down. These killer funk, deep soul and Latin instrumentals have kept my toes tapping for weeks.

I see frozen people

Got turned on to this very cool video on Maniac World by my mother-in-law, thanks Penny! Would love to try this after some big name headliner leaves the stage and the house lights go up...



alternate soundtracks:

Frozen Feet - Tacks, The Boy Disaster
Frozen Ones - Ultravox (thanks to Sailor Jerry for the vinyl rip from the 1977 single)
You're Not Moving The Way You're Supposed To - The Homosexuals (live from SXSW courtesy of WFMU's ever essential Beware Of The Blog. Get the whole set here)

I'll add a vinyl rip of Freeze Frame by J. Geils later

The Raconteurs at Bimbo's presale tomorrow

The Raconteurs are sidestepping hype by releasing their new album Consolers Of The Lonely this Tuesday, a mere two weeks after finishing it. Now that's what I call a rush release. No press reviews, no blog raves, no leaked tracks or videos, just straight up here it is and make up your own damn mind. Speaking of rush, they've also announced tour dates only days before tickets go on sale. They'll be playing Bimbo's 365 Club on April 23 and tickets go on presale tomorrow at 10 AM exclusively at ticketmaster.com. There's a 2 ticket per person limit and you need a password to get in on the presale folks. Drop me an email and I'll give you the skinny.

The rest of the tour dates:
4/20 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver
4/21 Neumo's, Seattle
4/22 Wonder Ballroom, Portland
4/25 Coachella Fest, Indio, CA
4/26 The Joint, Las Vegas
4/28 The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver
4/29 Uptown Theatre, Kansas City
5/01 House of Blues, Dallas
5/02 Stubb's BBQ, Austin
5/04 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
6/13 Bonnaroo Fest., Manchester, TN
6/26 Hove Fest.,Arendal, Norway
7/12 T in the Park, Kinross, Scotland
7/13 Oxegen Fest., Naas, Ireland

Consolers Of The Lonely tracklist:
1. Consoler Of The Lonely
2. Salute Your Solution
3. You Don’t Understand Me
4. Old Enough
5. The Switch And The Spur
6. Hold Up
7. Top Yourself
8. Many Shades Of Black
9. Five On The Five
10. Attention
11. Pull This Blanket Off
12. Rich Kid Blues
13. These Stones Will Shout
14. Carolina Drama

UPDATE: the show at Bimbo's apparently sold out during the pre-sale in just under an hour...

Limited edition Jicks 10" available at Record Store Day

Stephen Malkmus & Co. are putting out a 10" single of "Cold Son" (off the brand spanking new Real Emotional Trash) in support of Record Store Day. The b-side will feature 3 unreleased tracks including fan favorite "Carl The Clod". The event is a national celebration of that most endangered of species: the local indie record store. 100's of stores are participating by holding special events, in-store appearances and offering special schwag like the above mentioned 10" which, BTW, will also be available at the Jick's long list of live dates. Organizers of this physical record store relief effort have gotten verbal support from some huge names including Macca and The Boss and video testimonials from folks like Moby and Regina Spektor. So go rummage the dusty dollar bins on April 19 and keep your local music shop from doing the Tower Records Tumble.

Cold Son - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

Record Store Day 10" tracklist:
1 Cold Son
2 Walk Into the Mirror
3 Pennywhistle Thunder
4 Carl the Clod

The Jicks will be at The Fillmore April 27th

New music

Geez, the mailbox has been pretty twangy lately...

Drinking Dark Whiskey - The SteelDrivers

A bunch of seasoned, road tested Nashville studio vets with a shared love of bluegrass, The SteelDrivers have an interesting take on a pretty traditional genre: eschewing the high lonesome cliche in favor of a bluesy Muscle Shoals soul vocal sound. The playing is stellar and the songwriting is not your standard "pig in a pen" fare. Their self titled debut is out on Rounder Records.

The SteelDrviers on MySpace

Don't Send Me Roses - Chris Unck And The Black Roses

Sticking with the firewater theme, Chris Unck wants to continue imbibing the amber fluid in the afterlife, imploring his successors to "make sure that you bury me with my mouth wide open/you can pour that whiskey down on my grave". Country Roads And Love, the debut by these folky Southern rockers from Atlanta, came out on Lower 40 a couple weeks ago.

The War - The Whipsaws

Speaking of Southern rock, a big reason I'm sorry I'm not headed down to Austin for SXSW (unlike seemingly every other blogger on the planet) is that I'll miss The Whipsaws. The second record from these youthful Anchorage roots rockers is called 60 Watt Avenue and it's on Shut Eye. Killer crunchy guitars with thought provoking lyrics like the track above that addresses the current conflict from a poignant, personal point of view. Imagine The Drive By Truckers were from Alaska instead of Athens, GA and listened to early Neil Young instead of Lynyrd Skynyrd and you get the idea...

Guitar face

While trolling WFMU's fabulous Beware of the Blog I came across Monday night DJ Scott Willaims' photo collection depicting the affliction that is guitar face. A hilarious set with some infamous sufferers like Carlos Santana included but there are some glaring omissions. No Jimi Hendrix? Where's Eddy Van Halen? I'm sure with VH touring again it wouldn't take much effort to compose a study of how his current lack of hair effects frame composition when photographing the obligatory open mouth solo.

A little google searching for this six and four stringed malady revealed (among over 23,000 items) this creepy comparison between rockers and porn stars courtesy of Details magazine and an Urban Dictionary definition. The real find, however, was the glorious and extensive Guitar Face group photo pool over at Flickr.com. The Flickr pool is pretty damn cool with 200+ members and over 900 pictures. It's been going for over a year now and really appeals to the retentive rock geek in me what with its rules and moderators. I'm signing up!

Kimmel vs Silverman

Apparently over 8 million people have seen this video. In case you haven't check out how Sarah Silverman breaks some bad news to her boy friend Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy fights back the best way he knows how

Winter's Fall + Win Gary Louris' new CD

I've got a promo copy of Vagabonds, the solo debut from Jayhawks front fella Gary Louris, to give to some lucky Now Hear This reader. But more on that later.

First I wanna tout another debut that recently slid through the ol' mail slot: the Muddy & White EP (click the picture to purchase) from Berkeley band Winter's Fall. It's a nifty blend of folk, pop noir and country with enough indie rock and glitchy laptop noise to push it to the front of a crowded alt. folk pack. Bandleader Peter Stanley's a great story teller with a fresh, arresting voice. They're in the studio recording their first full-length so get ready to hear a lot more from them soon.
The Hollowing.
Winter's Fall on myspace for more music and tour dates.


Now about that giveaway. The much anticipated solo debut from Jayhawks frontman and Golden Smog member Gary Louris has only been out a couple weeks but it's doing pretty well, climbing both the Americana and Billboard charts. More philosophical and introspective than his work in either of his previous projects, Vagabonds finds Louris on a rootsy search for something to believe in. I'm particularly enjoying the gorgeous backing vocals from the Laurel Canyon Family Choir which includes Chris Robinson (who also produces), Susanna Hoffs and Jenny Lewis, among others. To win a copy email me at mlubenow@gmail.com with your address and the answer to this question: which member of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers appears on the Jayhawks breakthrough Hollywood Town Hall?

Vagabonds
Gary's homepage.