Super sampler Tuesday!

In celebration of Thanksgiving, we're posting several tracks by artists with recently released records. We got a loaded compliation from Force Field PR and are passing on the most interesting of those to you.

Matthew Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces) - Up the River
Chris Garneau - We Don't Try
Micah P. Hinson - Jackeyed
Metallic Falcons - Snakes and Tea
Benevento/Russo Duo - Echo Park
Nick Castro & the Young Elders - Winding Tree
Swan Lake (Dan Bejar, Spencer Krug, Carey Mercer) - All Fires
Bosque Brown - Tell Her

We've also included a few tracks from what will probably be our agreed-upon best pop record of the year, Writer's Block by Peter Bjorn and John.

Amsterdam
The Chills

Okay that's it for now. You kids enjoy getting fat by a warm fire. Be aware the dangers of intaking high levels of irritating family members, turkey, alcohol, and football. We don't want to be bailing any of you out of the jailhouse.

Happy Turkey Day!

The Hidden Cameras

The Hidden Cameras are playing Bottletree this Sunday and it will be interesting to see what shenanigans they pull during their stage show. Past antics include 30 go-go dancers and musicians on stage, videos, projected lyrics, and heavy audience participation. Their music is reminiscent of Belle & Sebastian and Magnetic Fields with a dash of the Flaming Lips and the Polyphonic Spree.

Here's a few songs from the Learning the Lie 7".

The Hidden Cameras - Learning the Lie
The Hidden Cameras - Death of a Tune
The Hidden Cameras - Lollipop

hehe...I just accidentally typed Lollipoop. Poop. hee. Yes, I'm 5. Happy weekend!

Xiu Xiu

Listening to Xiu Xiu is not like putting on a Gram Parsons CD and bellowing along to "In My Hour of Darkness" or "Cash on the Barrelhead." (As much as I love that ole' dope-smoking, faux-country bastard, one must admit that one can do one's hair up with poetry or write a paper or be otherwise engaged whilst listening to Gram 'n Emmylou.) Bands like Xiu Xiu are a bit less accessible, though no less beautiful, but one thing to be said about them is that they command attention.

For those of you unawares, it's experimental, sparsely-arranged pop in the vein of Deerhoof or Mount Eerie. Some of these tracks manage to be catchy and oddly memorable despite their lack of typical song structure and arrangements, especially "Hello from Eau Claire." Here's a few tracks from their recent release, The Air Force.

Buzz Saw
Hello from Eau Claire
Save Me

Califone!

Lately, Red Blondehead can't get enough of Califone. It turns out that Roots and Crowns is the perfect accompaniment/pick-me-up to our seasonal affective disorders (SAD). At least, we like to claim SAD as our reason for consuming too many chocolate bon-bons from Savage's whilst watching TMT's Home Alone marathon all day Sunday, this day of our Lord.

Some favorites from Roots and Crowns are the rhythmically catchy Pink and Sour and A Chinese Actor. My personal favorite, Spider's House, reminds me of Brian Wilson-y goodness with some lovely lazy horns, yum.

If you're in the Birmingham area, you must catch the Califone show at Bottletree 11.17.06. It's a Friday night, so everybody gets to play late!

muah.

BottleTree podcast #6 now available

Hi everyone,

Last night we recorded podcast #6 for BottleTree, and it's now available for download. This podcast, which we like to call the "mostly punk-rock edition," features Red Blondehead with special guest Jackson Willis. Bands on this edition include:

Be Your Own Pet
Irving
+/-
The Slits
The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower
Cursive
Jeremy Enigk
Les Georges Leningrad
Califone
So Many Dynamos

Have a listen for a preview of the bands along with show dates and a bunch of silliness from yours truly. We hope to see a lot of you out at these shows--it's a crazy and fun week!

Irving +/- Be Your Own PET

Tomorrow night Be Your Own PET will be playing Bottletree with Irving, +/-, and Awesome Color. I've considered posting mp3's of Irving and +/- before but I've never gotten around to it so it seems like a good time. And speaking of good times, this should be a fun show...4 bands equals more bang for your buck plus I've heard Be Your Own PET puts on an entertaining set. People are throwing around the "star" word when talking of singer Jemina Pearl, so you might want to catch her now before she's selling out much bigger venues and starting her own clothing label.

Irving - Jen Nothing Matters to Me
Irving - Situation
Irving - Turn of the Century

+/- (Plus/Minus) - Fadeout
+/- (Plus/Minus) - Steal the Blueprints

Be Your Own PET - Adventure
Be Your Own PET - Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle

David & the Citizens

Good news (we think) is that Red Blondehead survived Halloween. All fun was contained and appropriate in an adult manner, but not in an ADULT ADULT manner, if you know what I mean.

Now-the bad news. The bad news is that in all our Halloween revelry, we forgot to bring to you new tracks from David & the Citizens in a timely fashion. Their debut full-length, Until the Sadness is Gone, was unleashed upon the public October 31.

You may not have heard them, and I have debated for a long time--or at least for the past five minutes--over what to tell you they sound like. I've decided that if Rhett Miller was somehow able to procreate with Conor Oberst, a.k.a. Not the New Bob Dylan and Not Even Close but Somewhat Palatable in His Own Right, and the two were able to incorporate instruments like the Scandinavian whooping klezmer clarinet with their country-punk, raucous-but-moody, emo brooding, then, THEN they might approximate something like David & the Citizens.

And, horns in pop music? Wasn't exactly expecting that.

The End
Long Days

The Prix

Don't you hate it when you discover a new band that you like and they only have a few songs available for public consumption? That's the case with Los Angeles-based The Prix...I was only able to find a 3 song single although I think they have a full-length in progress. This is fun, jangly garage pop/rock with its fair share of handclaps (especially in the case of "Trip").

The Prix - (It's All in the Way That You) Trip
The Prix - Top Ten
The Prix - Shoot Out the Lights

The Prix at Myspace