Stereogum has video from Mr Mangum's performances last night. There's nothing from Avery Island or Aeroplane, but any news is good news.

O site Pitchfork fez uma lista daqueles considera os cem melhores álbuns dos anos 1990. Minha lista, com certeza, seria bem diferente. Mas, está valendo, até porque o site é ótimo e se deu o trabalho de comentar cada disco. Veja os dez primeiros lugares:

1. OK Computer - Radiohead
2. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
3. The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
4. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
5. Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement
6.Nevermind - Nirvana
7. ...Endtroducing - DJ Shadow
8. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement
9. I See a Darkness - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
10. Bee Thousand - Guided By Voices

Para ver a lista completa e com todos os comentários, clique aqui!

Here are the five tracks that would, at this point in time, best constitute the soundtrack of my life:

1. Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

I first heard this piece (in its six parts), as a freshman DJ at my college radio station. I’d always liked jazz, but in an informal, polite way. OK, I’ll confess—I thought it was good background music for a dinner party or an art gallery opening. “The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady” turned that assumption inside-out and upside-down. It got inside of my head and demanded I stop and listen. I would never hear jazz the same way again.

I will not attempt to beat the description of famed music critic Lester Bangs, who recalled listening to the piece as experiencing the divine cacophony of "babies being born, taxicabs honking, couples fighting, the cries of lonely anguish that no one else hears in solitary rooms, children laughing, insurgents and guerrillas clashing, people of all sorts crying, shouting and whooping for joy, stunned at the crossroads, and some of them dying."

2. Cat Stevens: If You Want to Sing Out

We played this song at my wedding. The wedding ceremony itself was the culmination of a frenetic, 6-month planning process, where everyone was scrambling around, trying to get everything accomplished on schedule. Our families are both huge, and we had no idea how we were going to pull everyone together for the big day. The night before the wedding, my (now) husband and I quietly confessed to each that we wished we had eloped and saved everyone the headache of such a massive undertaking.

The wedding itself turned out to be a beautiful, jubilant occasion, and I was so glad that we had plowed on through and shared the day with our families. My brother-in-law later shared that, when the Cat Stevens song came on the sound system just a few minutes into the reception, he really felt compelled to "sing out."

3. The Magnetic Fields: I Think I Need a New Heart

I was in my early 20s, working for a prestigious artist-in-residence program at a big museum, when my boss asked if I would like to curate an exhibition in the museum’s experimental project space. I put together a little show that focused on people’s mix tapes. If I recall correctly (it’s been awhile), the show was called “Magnetic Letters: The Lost Art of the Mix Tape.” A curator who happened to be in town asked me if I would be willing to install the show (as an artist) in a larger exhibition in Minneapolis. Oddly enough, I do remember that show’s title: “Your Heart is No Match for My Love.” It focused on the dizzying, gut-wrenching qualities of love. There were some pretty big artists in that show. For a mix CD that would accompany the exhibition, each artist was asked to pick a song that symbolized the show’s theme, and this was the one I chose, with "Oh Yoko" by John Lennon coming in a close 2nd. Toy Piano acoustic version here.

4. Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

It’s tough to explain why this song made the list, other than that I listened to the album of the same name on repeat for something akin to two years in college. It’s an amazing, noisy, complicated, epic album, and this song is its centerpiece.

5. Bob Marley: No Woman, No Cry

When faced with a seemingly impossible situation, I find solace in this song. Listening to it, I am reminded that even in the ugliest situations, the most desperate of times, there is beauty and hope to be found in life shared with our fellow humans.

What? Indie-folk, twee, indie indie indie!

Sounds Like? Neutral Milk Hotel, Mt. Eerie, These United States, The Robot Ate Me and other great lo-fi bands

Jeff Mangum made a masterpiece with his album 'In An Aeroplane over the Sea', I agree. It seems however that everyone is waiting for his ressurection. No need to do that, cause there is this other band, The Love Letter Band, that makes songs that are just that good!

Unfortunately, they don't exist no more. Well, they are called Bad Weather California these days,  and make more of twang-oriented songs (according to their myspace).. Still very good (sounds a bit like These United States), but not as good as their album 'Fear not My Brothers, Fear not My Sisters. For I Have seen the Future'.

Anyway, all those good unkown indie-seeking people should listen to The Love Letter Band. And buy their albums at Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records.

The Love Letter Band - Fear Not My Brothers, Fear Not My Sisters

The Love Letter Band - College Kids

The Love Letter Band - Ain't No Grave Deep Enough (from the World is My Church EP which they released on slender means society

A bit like my recent discovery of Jeffrey Lewis, I get the impression there will be a collective howl of disbelief from my readership that it is only now, in 2008 and at age 32, that I have finally, for the first time, listened to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel.

Virtually every band I have ever liked cites them as a formative influence, Alela Diane put one of their songs on her session podcast, Julian from The Young Republic has waxed lyrical about them to me for about half an hour, and somehow I just never quite got around to listening to them. Don't ask me why. I think I tried it once ages ago and have some vague memories of music so hushed it was just a little bit featureless, which doesn't seem to correspond in the slightest to what I am listening to now. Not even close - it's odd.

More or less everyone I know not only knows but loves this album as well, and do you know the only reason that I finally got my shit together and listened to it? Because Neil from Meursault dowloaded it onto my computer without asking and then insisted.

And, of course, I'm loving it.  Of course I am - if half the bands I love are as influenced by Neutral Milk Hotel as they say they are then it's almost inevitable that I like them as well.  I don't know where I got the impression that they were boringly gentle, either.  It's weird how you get these weird impressions of bands - I've been hearing about them for so long that I kind of accidentally built up this little cluster of impressions around them, mostly, it seems, plucked from thin air.

It's funny to hear an album like this for the first time; ones which have inspired so many of my favourite artists.  I hear so many elements of groups I love drifting in and out of the music - Beirut, The Decemberists, all sorts.  Given the slightly nasal, pained vocal delivery and inflections of trumpet and violin embellishing a  good, direct guitar strum I suppose it is hardly surprising that this sounds so familiar.

Odd how things like this sometimes take so long to finally knock on the door and properly introduce themselves to you.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/InTheAeroplaneOverTheSea.mp3]
Neutral Milk Hotel - Communist Daughter[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/CommunistDaughter.mp3]
Neutral Milk Hotel - Ghost[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/Ghost.mp3]

Buy from Amazon

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 "Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song" - Plato

You hear a song that sparks a memory that ignites a hundred emotions all at once. Music is at its most powerful when you empathise. When its emotional resonance is vibrating all the chemical synapes in your brain.

This mixtape is dedicated to every boy and every girl that cannot be with the one they love. To every boy and every girl that feels real love.  When you feel like you need to dwell for just a moment. Close your eyes, put on your headphones, listen to these songs and indulge yourself in the beautiful turmoil. There are a thousand songs that make me think of her...

1. I love the way you love me by Neutral Milk Hotel
2. Air pollution by Page France
3. Year of the dog by The Lovely Sparrows
4. Honey won't you let me in by The Tallest Man On Earth
5. Missing Pieces by Voxtrot
6. When the sun falls on my feet by Starlet
7. Lets build a fire by +/-
8. Look up by Stars
9. Lovers spit by Broken Social Scene Featuring Feist
10. My backwards walk by Frightened Rabbit
11. Tessellate by Tokyo Police Club (Tom Campesinos remix)
12. Rock 'n' roll suicide by David Bowie

Click here to download.

"Absense is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great" - Comte DeBussy Rabutin

15. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - Both sides of the Brain [2000]: No me gusta nada el hip-hop, con sus ritmos machacones y su letra sobre tirarse a mujeres en la parte de atrás de un Hummer. El hip-hop es, como decía un amigo, la música para gente que está en la cárcel o debería de estarlo. Pero este disco es diferente. Tiene unas bases imaginativas, letras extrañas (sobre la necesidad de mantener la higiene personal o conducir con cuidado) y mucho sentido del humor. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien es considerado un virtuoso del Hip-Hop instrumental, y ha colaborado con Gorillaz.

14. Lhasa de Sela - La Llorona [1998]: Lhasa de Sela es una canadiense con voz de Chavela Vargas, que tras sacar este álbum dejó la música y formó un grupo de circo con sus hermanas. Canta en varios idiomas, y vale la pena escuchar cómo renueva la canción mejicana, meclándola con... otras cosas.

13. Lift to Experience - The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads [2001]: Conocí a Josh T. Pearson, creador de esta banda tejana, en una comuna hippy de Berlín (dicho con una pipa en la mano y voz de catedrático de filosofía). Le he visto a veces paseando por el barrio de Friedrichsain, y es todo un espectáculo: debe medir 1,90 y viste como un cowboy. Sus canciones son obsesivas, oscuras y larguísimas, más que con Lift to Experience, donde eran simplemente más raras. Verle en directo vale la pena, y tomarse una cerveza con él, también.

12. Matt Elliott - Drinking Songs [2005]: Este disco está editado por la española Acuarela Discos, y su nombre le hace justicia. Véase como una reunión de marineros rusos sombríos. Los directos, que suele hacer con Manyfingers, no hay que perdérselos - junta música electrónica con instrumentos reales y los mezcla en capas de sonido que crean un ambiente desesperado. Por no decir envolvente, vamos.

11. Electrelane - The Power Out [2004]: Otro grupo inglés que ha acabado en Berlín, aunque una de sus componentes vive en Asturias. The Power Out es un disco que mezcla composiciones originales, música a capella y poemas de Juan Boscán y Nietzsche. Creo que con eso lo he dicho todo.

10. Decemberists - Picaresque [2005]: Aunque musicalmente esta banda a veces se acerca al sentimentalismo, sus letras son excelentes y el toque de banjo y acordeón me ha realmente conquistado, como si de Ferrero Rocher se trataran. La canción 'The Mariner's Revenge' es imprescindible.

9. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free [2004]: Este disco no debería de gustarme nada. Es un álbum conceptual sobre gente de clase media-baja en Inglaterra. Es de un género parecido al Hip-Hop. La historia es simple y poco imaginativa. Pero al final, me tengo que rendir ante el talento de Mike Skinner, AKA The Streets. Es un gran letrista (aunque no llegaría hasta el punto de compararle con Shekespeare, como hizo algún profesor de Oxford). Sólo con leer una entrevista, te haces una idea de cómo va a ser su disco: primero se ríe de la comparación con Shakespeare, luego dice que no sabe mucho de poesía y luego habla de pentámetros yámbicos. Un crack.

8. Adam Green - Gemstones [2005]: El músico más feo del panorama actual hace música de tres acordes, pero una letra absolutamente hilarante. Puedes pasarte días tarareando estas canciones, que, según un buen amigo, prueban que "alguien, en algún lugar del mundo, está golpeando un sacapuntas con un lápiz y llamándolo música".

7. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender [2004]: Su voz puede resultar infantil y chillona, pero esta mujer que toca el arpa (¿arpista?) y el clavicordio (¿clavicordista?) hizo un disco original y conmovedor.

6. Steve Reich - Triple Quartet [1998]: Este interesantísimo compositor minimalista mostró su buen estado de forma con esta pieza grabada por el cuarteto Kronos, con pregrabaciones y juegos de voces interesantísimos.

5. Micah P. Hinson - Micah P. Hinson & the Gospel of Progress [2004]: Otro músico tejano, con una exótica biografía que incluye drogas, cárcel y mujeres malvadas. Todo ello aparece en este álbum introspectivo y novedoso.

4. Wim Mertens - Un Respiro [2005]: Sí, confieso que me gustan los compositores minimalistas, Wim Mertens es un belga que hizo esta maravilla de disco con piano y dos voces. Recuperando el gusto por la melodía, resulta muy cercano e íntimo (aunque no entiendas la letra!).

3. Marc Ribot & los Cubanos Postizos - Muy Divertido [2000]: El guitarrista de Tom Waits, tiene, aparte de su carrera en solitario, otra banda de latin jazz eléctrico. Un disco excéntrico y como su propio nombre indica, muy divertido. Si a eso le unimos instrumentistas tan buenos como estos, tenemos asegurado uno de los mejores discos de la última década.

2. Jolie Holland - Escondida [2004]: Más gente de Tejas. Que Tom Waits diga que esta chica es una de sus cantantes favoritas ya nos debería dar confianza. Este disco es tan bueno que no hablaré de él, simplemente os dejo un video con una canción suya, Old-Fashioned Morphine.

1. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Airplane Over the Sea [1998]: Sin duda, uno de mis discos favoritos. Jeff Magnum, ahora desaparecido (que no muerto), hizo un álbum sobre Anna Frank porque tenía sueños recurrentes sobre ella. Afortunadamente, nos dejó algo bastante mejor que el musical de Anna Frank - un disco sincero, bien arreglado y salvaje.

i am listening to hear where you are.

yes! i am back. i didn't lie to you in that last post, i'll be posting regularly once more.

you might notice that the colors look a lot different. this is not because i'm using a different toned set of prismacolors, but because i'm using a different scanner and editing program. this is not a choice, but out of pure necessity. i am back in a committed relationship with kit's scanner and i'm using arc photostudio (aka shitty mcshitterson) rather than legitimate adobe photoshop. i kind of like this look better, though ... maybe because i actually put some detail into the panel.

here is ahmed, who will stand in for pete for a little bit until jimmy and pete stop being such babies. ahmed is one of my favorite characters (next to alice), so i'm really glad i get to use/draw him. liam asked, "why would a tattoo artist know about mondrian?" and that is the beauty of ahmed. complex back stoooorryyyyy

i made the sweetest mix ever and i think you all should listen to it. here's the playlist:
1. "the power of love" - huey lewis and the news
2. "where you'll find me now" - neutral milk hotel
3. "extradition" - pavement
4. "i believe" - the real tuesday weld
5. "g-man hoover" - van dyke parks
6. "where i'm from (remix)" - digable planets
7. "slow down" - bowerbirds
8. "gene autry" - beulah
9. "just because" - elvis presley
10. "why sting is such an idiot" - allen clapp and his orchestra
11. "cars can't escape (rhythm)" - wilco
12. "earth angel" - buddy holly

i call it the "back to the future mix" because of the first and last song. if you don't get that reference, shame on you.

By cranking up the iPod, of course.

When I think of great music for fall, I tend to look for some combination of these qualities:

• unusual instrumentation, typically acoustic and/or with some form of experimentation with sound
• lyrics that suggest or attempt profundity (results may vary)
• general mood that invites moderately depressive introspection
• optional: previous association with autumn, such as time of first exposure or significant live event

Runners-up:
Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot | Elvis Costello, When I Was Cruel | Arcade Fire, Funeral | The Delgados, Universal Audio | Sufjan Stevens, Seven Swans | Sweeney Todd, 2005 revival cast | Betty Buckley, Heart to Heart | Jose Gonzales, Veneer | The Decemberists, any.

A tie for first- Daniel Johnston or the Mountain Goats.  Couple of lo fi and mid fi  artists (they did a documentary about DJ that could've been on yesterdays post).  Seriously, google these performers, both are singer songwriters and both crazy in their own awesome ways.  I've seen both of them live and its always an "ever to be cherished-never to be forgotten" event.  Get their early stuff, get their later stuff, it's all great.  I am for serious when I say their shit(ake mushroom) changed my life.  Especially good tracks for danny are "walking the cow, ain't no woman gonna make a george jones outta me, impossible love, and funeral home", but it's ALL better than anything the RIAA has to offer.  But first you gotta watch "the devil and daniel johnston" to appreciate him even more (this film was not out when I first fell in love with his music but I wish it had been).  Besides appreciating him better, if you pay attention it will give you other places to search for cool tunage, just a hint: Kathy McCarthy.  As for "The Mountain Goats", it really just used to be one guy with occasional assistance-but currently its a two man piece with John Darnielle (original MG) still the grand high poobah.  John also is a talented writer online and a gifted photographer...check him out on flickr.com, he's great.  Once again, to much to list but I'm gonna try.  "Going to Georgia, Alpha Incipiens, Going to Maine, This Year, and of course No Children" are on the playlist of songs for listening to while I die.

After these 2, there are many honorable mentions- Fungobat's Chart Toppers On Venus (only purchaseable on tape, unless I find and post the MP3s I made from said tape), any Tom Waits album,  Phillip Glass (especially the quatsi trilogy soundtrack), K. McCarthy's- dead dogs eyeball, and Neutralal Milk Hotel's "Airplane Over the Sea" are all standouts and get played all the time by moi.  Once again, some big blanks have been left for you all to fill so fill them all ready.  Seriously, try some of this on for size (sonically speaking) and leave your comments.  Email me your thoughts.  Flipping contribute your list uh...contributions.   If I get enough of a response than I'll finish with part number c.... Books.  If I don't get  feedback, than I'll be forced to turn this into a blog about whatever pablum Oprah was talking about on her freak show today.   BUUWAHAHAHAHA.  Just kidding, I'd never stoop so low.

November seems odd..... you're my firing squad

Brian

p.s. what's amatter baby?  chicks usually dig this.

Simple, sometimes unknown, pleasures.

People, I have some bad news. This will not be another of my misanthropic rants. There are no eff or c words here. I've just experienced something very unfamiliar; an epiphany, if you will.

Let me explain. Through a series of SNAFUs too tedious to explain here, I have found myself temporarily music player-less, so have resorted to using my partner's only half jiggered old one, which has no display. Now, whilst we obviously have some stuff in common, I am happy to say we are not one of those sick-making couples who regard themselves as "one mind", and we are happy to keep our musical proclivities very separate. We approach our players in very different ways – I fill mine with my favourite bands' back catalogues, whilst he is much happier to pick only his very favourite tunes, from anywhere, old or new.

Hence the epiphany. I have just spent the last hour being in turn surprised, delighted, puzzled and intrigued by some of the stuff I've found on the old player. And the beauty of it is there is no screen, so I have no idea what or who some of this stuff is. Now, in this age of information overload this is not a normal experience, and I have to say I was beginning to find it more than a little frustrating. But I decided to surrender myself to the fates, enjoy the liberating feeling of not being blasted with information about every-little-bloody-thing, and try very hard not to judge (I did marry him, after all).

And so it has come to pass, in the past hour, I have listened to:

• The Bloodhound Gang (don't know the name of the song, but it's got a lot of shouting on it, and is not crap)
• Stars  - My Favourite Book (This was the highlight of the last album for me – simple, and a little bit sugary, just like Amy Millan's voice)
• Bruce Springsteen - Hungry Heart (You have got to love the boss. If you don't, you have no soul)
• Heart – Alone (This needs no explanation or justification)
• The Hold Steady - Banging Camp (Predictable, but good)
• My Morning Jacket - the one that starts "a ree rum rum rum, a ree rum rum" (What a great tune – why didn't they do more of this on the new album?)
• A nice indie type tune, chorus goes "I can't find these easy pieces" or "I can't find this easy peasy"?
• Neutral Milk Hotel – the one with the kazoo at the end, and something about holy water (Achingly hip, for those in the know, apparently. Listening to this, I can't figure out why they weren't huge)
• Bright Eyes – a song I've never heard, with loads of fiddles, and something about satan and whores of Babylon (I probably should have heard this before, but I haven't. Glad I have now though, it's very good)
• The Ramones – Beat on the brat (See Heart, above)
• The theme tune from Scrubs (which, in its entirety, is a lovely lickle tune)
• The Lemonheads – Tenderfoot (What a tune! I had completely forgot how great this is)
• The Little Ones – Lovers Undercover (Now, when he discovered this he played it. A lot. So I never have, but it really is a top tune – In a Jilly Goolden stylee, I'm getting hand claps, shouts, and some lovely percussion – all the factors needed for a top pop song)
• PiL – Rise (This really is a very good song, which, when you think about it, is a bit of a surprise.  A wee cockney shouting shouldn't be this good.)
• The Postal Service – The District Sleeps Tonight (I take full responsibility for this one. It is a great album, get it if you don't have it already)
• Paul McCartney – Ever Present Past (From the starbucks album, which I do think is a bit overlooked. Losing the legless bint obviously did his songwriting the power of good)

Now, these may not be obscurities, or rarities, or even forgotten classics, but to my ears I've heard them anew, and I've remembered all of the reasons I love music so much. And for that I thank a crappy MP3 player with a faulty screen. Oh, right, and my other half. I urge you to try it – I'm not suggesting you deliberately damage your shiny ipod or whatever, just steal someone else's (or, for the less larcenous among us, borrow) cover your screen, don't touch "skip" and listen.

Now, I'm going to have to go and find someone to call a c**t, before people think I've gone soft.

(To clear up a few points; The Bloodhound Gang song was the immense 'Going Nowhere Slow' from the One Fierce Beer Coaster. A touring song containing the great line 'if you were not entertained, you didn't drink enough booze'. Quite. The My Morning Jacket song is 'The Way That He Sings' from At Dawn. The nice indie toon was 'Three Easy Pieces', the title track from the criminally underrated last Buffalo Tom album. The Bright Eyes song is the fabulous 'Four Winds'. Mr Scant Regard.)

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Speaking of Frightened Rabbit, they'll be at Lee's Palace on October 21 as support for some band I've never heard of.  Concert calendar: UPDATED.  (via Chromewaves).

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We went out to see The Dark Knight (in IMAX, natch) on Saturday night.  Loved it.  There was a significant lineup to get into the theater even though it's been in theaters for a month.  I won't rehash what I liked and didn't like as all those points have been done to death in a million reviews.  Except I will point out that the score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard is fantastic, and I don't think it's been mentioned by enough critics.  Between Gladiator, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Zimmer now the composer to go to if you want your movie to feel big.  Not bad for a former Buggle.

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Hip-hop lyric of the day:

"You said your girl looked like Drew Barrymore.
I met her, she looks like Drew Carey more."

First time I've ever decided to buy an album from hearing the first two lines of a song.  If you like your hip-hop old school, with playful lyrics full of pop culture references (many Canada-specific), check out Burglaritis from Wordburglar [MySpace].

And your mom would stick a fork right into daddy's shoulder
And dad would throw the garbage all across the floor
As we would lay and learn what each other's bodies were for

And this is the room
One afternoon I knew I could love you
And from above you how I sank into your soul
Into that secret place where no one dares to go

And your mom would drink until she was no longer speaking
And dad would dream of all the different ways to die
Each one a little more than he could dare to try

+++ Guitar Chords = G C G D C

Don’t get me wrong—I am thoroughly excited to experience my first NYC autumn. My entire life, I have daydreamed of gallivanting like a J.Crew model in a cornucopia of East Coast leaves. I have imagined colonial streets awash in fall color. I have longed for a real reason to wear my cable knit cardigans and fleece-lined Uggs. But no matter how spin it, I am still not ready to trade in my sandals and sundresses for the inevitable cashmere mafia.

I have therefore decided to grab hold of summer’s udders and milk it for all it’s worth. With my optimism in tact and lady friends in tow, I have frolicked, feted, lunched, and brunched across the city this past week. I have exhausted the evenings as if the next work day would never come. And if music be the food of love, I have gorged myself like a piggy prepping for the spit.

As the main course of my musical feeding frenzy, I had the pleasure of sampling two bands that now have permanent homes on my (highly discriminatory) iTunes playlist. They have been around for a while, but they still deserve honorable mention. If you haven’t been introduced already, please meet my new favorite dishes: Noah and the Whale and The Swell Season.

Fresh off the plane from London, 21 year-old front man/barely legal mancandy Charlie Fink and his anti-folk folk band Noah and the Whale have begun their North American tour. Named for their favorite movie and its director, Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, the sweet-faced quartet rose to U.K. stardom this summer with the debut of their single “Five Years Time,” and rode the subsequent tidal wave straight into our backyard.

This past Tuesday night, I saw them live at the Union Pool in Brooklyn. Framed by a bare bulb-lined proscenium arch, Charlie, Doug, Tom, and Urby channeled one part Beirut, one part The Magic Numbers, a dollop of The National, and a splash of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. They even threw in a smidgen of Neutral Milk Hotel for good measure. But in the end, the sound was uniquely their own.

Although I was slightly disappointed that there was neither a band member named Noah nor a mascot in a whale suit (and that the blonde chick behind me was smelling up the place with her stink eye), I was thoroughly impressed by their super hyphie energy and the cohesiveness of their sound. Their debut album, Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down, was just released Tuesday on iTunes, and they have one more performance here in New York before they hit the road. My guess is they’ll be packing them in like sardines in no time.

Strap on a snorkel and take the plunge. I promise you’ll have a whale of a time.

Selected tour dates:

New York, NY -- 9/19/08 -- Mercury Lounge 8 p.m.
Boston, MA -- 9/20/08 -- Toad
Chicago, IL -- 9/26/08 -- Empty Bottle
San Francisco, CA -- 10/2/08 -- Pop Scene at 330 Ritch
Los Angeles, CA -- 10/4/08 -- Detour Festival
Los Angeles, CA -- 10/6/08 -- Spaceland

Also off a plane from Europe is The Swell Season -- otherwise known as Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova of Once Academy Award fame. My friend Goldie Coins had an extra ticket to their summer series concert at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park Wednesday night, and I, accepting her offer, gladly hopped aboard the band wagon.

Also named after a favored artistic work (the band shares its name with Josef Škvorecký’s 1975 novel), The Swell Season waxes philosophical through lucid aural poetry. Glen and Marketa, who are purportedly dating in real life, share a unique onstage chemistry – at one point he even stopped playing at center stage and moved to sit with her at the piano, stating that he “felt too far away from her.” Although I sighed, “Aaaaaw” with about a thousand other women, I also wanted to barf all over our picnic blanket. That’s how lovely they were.

Sure, we were a small pod of singletons in a sea of marrieds and bedfellows, but at the end of the night, our fleeting battle with solitude was well worth it. The music is both simple and complex-- fraught with messages about the human condition at large. They have moved out of New York City, but will be playing the states for a while longer.

Selected tour dates:

Boston, MA -- 9/19/08 -- Agganis Arena
Austin, TX -- 9/26/08 -- ACL Festival
San Diego, CA -- 10/3/08 -- Open Air Theatre
Los Angeles, CA -- 10/04/08 -- The Greek Theatre

With music like this on the radar, fall might just be a swell season after all.

Neutral Milk Hotel was an American indie folk band. The band's chief songwriter, Jeff Mangum, played with a number of other musicians on the band's two full-length albums. Notable contributors to the band's oeuvre include Jeremy Barnes (drums), Scott Spillane (horns), Julian Koster (banjo/bass guitar/saw), and producer-instrumentalist Robert Schneider. Neutral Milk Hotel was a part of The Elephant 6 Recording Company, based in Athens, Georgia.

I used the time to work up some book designs to print on the Indigo. On Friday night I stitched up two books and made my first posting to Etsy.

The first design is one my friend Dave drew for t-shirt purposes. It is an interpretation of the Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

If you don't own it - get it immediately.
If you are listening and you don't like it - turn it up some.
[audio http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/8/28/2070901/03%20In%20The%20Aeroplane%20Over%20The%20Sea.mp3]
Here is the link to my Etsy Store

Here are the two books I made:

regards..

Unwahrscheinlich, recht unwahrscheinlich. Das von rechts gebrüllte „Klappe, du kleiner Entenmann!“ überzeugte mich, das meine Schädelinnereien wieder im Clinch lagen. Rechts mein kleinkindliches Gemüt, links meine psychoanarchistische Natur.

Ich mag sie beide nicht. Aber eine Lobotomie ist viel zu teuer, und sie einfach durch Silikon-Implantate zu ersetzen, bringe ich nicht übers Herz. Deswegen sollte ich vielleicht zuerst ein Herz-Implantant einsetzen lassen. Zeit mit dem Sparen anzufangen.