Thursday, February 02, 2006

Seth Cohen will be proud

Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab For Cutie will be embarking on a North American tour together, making hipsters and OC fans incredibly happy. Pitchfork Media has released a slew of tour dates, including:

04-11 Washington, DC - Constitution Hall


Not that I'll be going. But whatever.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone


Fulfilling my New Year's resolution to never, ever do homework, here's another post. I sort of robotically downloaded this track from Said The Gramophone, my all-time favorite ever blog, but didn't get to listen to it until it came up on my iPod this afternoon moving down the painfully slow salad bar line. I would have stopped in my tracks right there in front of the chickpeas and garbanzo beans... if I hadn't been worried about the hypocrisy of doing something that pisses me off more than pretty much anything.

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone (great name, and a great website): "the musical alias of 28-year-old American film school drop-out Owen Ashworth. Ashworth began making music in 1997 after he realized that song-making was a far more cost-effective means of storytelling than film-making."

MP3: Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, "Cold White Christmas"
And here's another one from his website, off a split 7":
MP3: Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, "Lonesome New Mexico Nights"

Ryan Booth says....

hi.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The Bats

I first heard The Bats a little more than three days ago on SomaFM Indie Pop Rocks! radio, which is probably my favorite online radio station (except WGTB of course). I fell in head-over-heels in love with the Bats song they played, and proceeded to feverishly hunt down some tunes. They're from Christchurch, New Zealand, apparently part of the bustling "kiwi-rock" scene of which most Americans are probably unaware. "Bells Are Ringing," linked below, is from their label Magic Marker Record's website, and it's a great, sugary, quietly understated pop song. Do check out some other songs if you can get your hands on them (perhaps through eMusic's awesome 50 Free Songs offer).

MP3: The Bats, "Bells Are Ringing" (Off of 2005's At The National Grid, which Pitchfork gave a 7.6 and said it was "hard not to love.")
[Buy at Amazon]

Monday, January 30, 2006

The Raconteurs

The first songs from The Raconteurs debut album are available online at http://www.theraconteurs.com/.

If you haven't heard the buzz, the Raconteurs are a little band from Detriot featuring four nobodies named Jack White, Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence, and Patrick Keeler. The project was recorded over the last year or so and should be released sometime soon.

NME has dubbed it as "Detriot's answer to Nevermind," which is pretty heady praise even for the effusive British mag.

Anyway, head over to http://www.theraconteurs.com to check out "Steady, As She Goes" and "Store Bought Bones."

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Kanye Christ

Apparently Kanye will be (or is already) on the cover of the next issue of Rolling Stone Magazine. As Jesus. He has blood and scrapes on his face...creepy, no?

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Jose Gonzalez

José González
Surprising even myself, I've decided to take the initiative and make the first MP3 post on WGTB's newborn blog. I've decided to feature one of my favorite new artists, a Swede-Argentine mutt named José González, a fellow countryman and apparently a close friend of one of my personal heroes, Jens Lekman, who will most definitely be included in a later post.

Now picture yourself, the son of South American immigrants living continents away in frosty, foggy Scandinavia. You grow up listening to the likes of Nick Drake and, if your parents have gotten their way, whatever music gauchos make. Now see yourself getting hooked on early- and mid-90s pop (think Kylie Minogue, Madonna). And then, years later (it's 2005 now), you connect with obscure but great electro-pop bands like The Knife (also Scandinavians). The scene is set: here are the MP3s.

MP3: The Knife, "Heartbeats" (via Rock Insider)
MP3: José González, "Heartbeats" (via Bows + Arrows)

MP3: Kylie Minogue, "Hand On Your Heart"
MP3: José González, "Hand On Your Heart" (via Some Velvet Blog)

Monday, January 23, 2006

Deerhoof

anyone besides traviss and i going to Deerhoof at the black cat this saturday? (1/28)