Flaming Bohemian Lips

Thanks to Stereogum for pointing to this sweet bit of Flaming Lips madness from the BBC party at SXSW.....

The Lips new record is out April 4th!

Sonic Reissues

Sonic Youth will be giving the super-deluxe re-release edition treatment to their debut, the self-titled "Blue" album, the classic house noize of their alter-ego Ciccone Youth's excellent 'the Whitey Album' as well as Thurston Moore's bold solo slab from 1995 'Psychic Hearts' on March 14th. The records will be re-mastered and updated with rare and live unreleased tracks. Sadly the eponymous "Blue" album won't feature in reverse as the original cassette release had! Thurston's 'Psychic Hearts' will feature a bunch of new unheard tracks on side four of the vinyl re-issue replacing the coolest vinyl scrawl you've never seen by NY hipster Rita Ackerman (who also does the albums fine cover art). The band is currently wrapping a new record for release this year (the last they'll record at their Echo Canyon/Murray Street Studio as the building has been sold). They'll also appear at Bonnaroo on June 18th.

Song list for the re-issue of 'Sonic Youth' is:

The Remastered Original Record:

1. Burning Spear
2. I Dreamed I Dream
3. She Is Not Alone
4. I Don't Want To Push It
5. The Good and the Bad

Early Live (September 18, 1981):

6. Hard Work
7. Where The Red Fern Grows
8. Burning Spear
9. Cosmopolitan Girl
10. Loud and Soft
11. Destroyer
12. She Is Not Alone

Early Studio (October, 1981):

13. Where the Red Fern Grows

Tom Vek: OC (you set the tivo on me)

Low-Fi hook meister Tom Vek will bring his wares to the oh-so "last year, or was it the year before) fashionable Fox serial 'the OC' for tonight's episode. Vek's garage rock, analog buzz is infectious at the very least and worth checking out as he's sure to be a "big" thang (who can deny the power of the OC?) sooner than later. He'll be rocking his hit "I Ain't Saying my Goodbyes" tonight. You can check that vidvid and more over here.

Strange Strange Fruit

The seminal 4AD outfit Cocteau Twins were always a band that had few peers. The guitar wizardry of Robin Guthrie played like some New Age Kevin Shields. And Elizabeth Frasier simply created a new language instead of settling with the old ways. It was all quite lovely, a little trippy and completely their own. The band has a slew of rare and unreleased tracks available for download on the media page of their site. Included are demo tracks of "In Our Angelhood", "Pearly-Dewdrops Drop" and "Perhaps Some Other Aeon" (the b-side track to "Speak No Evil", the first Cocteau Twins single) as well as alternate versions of "Ivo" and "Pink Orange Red". There's also two tracks the Cocteaus recorded in the mid-90s for use in Frutopia commercials (yep, that's right Frutopia) one of which was later remixed by DJ Spooky for his 'Found Sound' release. Perhaps the strangest fare in the lot though is the John Peel administered version of the 1939 Lewis Allan classic made famous by Billy Holiday and Josephine Baker, "Strange Fruit".

Belle & Sebastian live!

You can download the whole Belle & Sebastian/New Pornographers concert that NPR's Live Concert Series recently broadcast live from the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. There's also an interview with the rather reclusive leader of the band, Stuart Murdoch.

While yoo're at the NPR site, be sure to check out All Songs Considered which boasts an archive of live concerts from the Shins, the White Stripes, Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes, Interpol and many many more.

Pearl Jam tour with My Morning Jacket

Pearl Jam return with a new (free!) single "World Wide Suicide" and announce the first leg of tour in support of their self-titled, eigth studio album. The album was produced and mixed by Adam Kasper and Pearl Jam at Studio X in Seattle. The gigs kick-off in Toronto on My 9th and continue through June with stops in Hartford, Boston, DC, Phillie and more. All dates feature My Morning Jacket in support.

Tracklisting for "Pearl Jam":

Life Wasted
World Wide Suicide
Comatose
Severed Hand
Marker In The Sand
Parachutes
Unemployable
Big Wave
Gone
Wasted Reprise
Army Reserve
Come Back
Inside Job


WORLDWIDE SUICIDE
(lyrics: Vedder, music: Gossard)

I felt the earth on Monday. It moved beneath my feet.
In the form of a morning paper. Laid out for me to see.

Saw his face in a corner picture. I recognized the name.
Could not stop staring at the. Face I'd never see again.

It's a shame to awake in a world of pain
What does it mean when a war has taken over

It's the same everyday in a hell manmade
What can be saved, and who will be left to hold her?

The whole world...World over.
It's a worldwide suicide.

Medals on a wooden mantle. Next to a handsome face.
That the president took for granted.
Writing checks that others pay.

And in all the madness. Thought becomes numb and naive.
So much to talk about. Nothing for to say.

It's the same everyday and the wave won't break
Tell you to pray, while the devils on their shoulder

Laying claim to the take that our soldiers save
Does not equate, and the truth's already out there

The whole world,... World over.
It's a worldwide suicide.

The whole world,... World over.
It's a worldwide suicide.

Looking in the eyes of the fallen
You got to know there's another, another, another, another
Another way

It's a shame to awake in a world of pain
What does it mean when a war has taken over

It's the same everyday and the wave won't break
Tell you to pray, while the devils on their shoulder

The whole world,... World over.
It's a worldwide suicide.

The whole world,... World over.
It's a worldwide suicide.

You get the car, I'll get the night off.....

The ever-wonderful Built to Spill is back in action after a five year hiatus since the release of 'Ancient Melodies of the Future' in 2001 (and the two plus years of touring that followed) with a new song "Goin' Against Your Mind" available on iTunes and a new record 'You in Reverse' dropping on April 11th. From the sound of this one track (and a second called "Traces" that leaked a few weeks back) the boys are back to 'Perfect from Now On' form taking their time to build riffs and melodies over 7 to 8 minute spans. There's word that they band even dabbles with a little reggae on one of the tracks. Here's the track listing:

Built to Spill : You In Reverse
01. Goin' Against Your Mind
02. Traces
03. Liar
04. Saturday
05. Wherever You Go
06. Conventional Wisdom
07. Gone
08. Mess With Time
09. Just A Habit
10. The Wait


They've also announced a slew of new tour dates, get tix while you can....

11-Apr Minneapolis First Ave
12-Apr Minneapolis First Ave
13-Apr Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre
14-Apr Chicago Metro
15-Apr Chicago Metro
16-Apr St. Louis Mississippi Nights
17-Apr Columbia, MO Blue Note
19-Apr Lawrence, KS The Bottleneck
20-Apr Tulsa, OK Cain's Ballroom
21-Apr Little Rock, AR Vino's
22-Apr Memphis Young Ave. Deli
23-Apr Nashville City Hall
24-Apr Urbana, IL Foellinger Auditorium
24-Apr Urbana, IL Foellinger Auditorium
25-Apr Indianapolis, IN The Vogue
26-Apr Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
27-Apr Detroit St. Andrews Hall
28-Apr Millvale, PA Mr. Smalls
29-Apr Buffalo, NY Town Ballroom
30-Apr So. Burlington, VT Higher Ground
1-May Boston The Roxy
3-May NYC Irving Plaza
4-May NYC Irving Plaza
5-May NYC Irving Plaza
6-May Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
7-May Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
8-May Washington D.C. 9:30 Club
9-May Washington D.C. 9:30 Club
10-May Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
11-May Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
12-May Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
13-May Athens, GA 40 Watt Club
14-May Birmingham, AL Zydeco
16-May New Orleans, LA House of Blues
17-May Houston, TX Warehouse Live
18-May San Antonio, TX White Rabbit
19-May Dallas, TX Gypsy Tea Room
20-May Austin, TX Stubb's BBQ

Tea at the Palaz of Hoon

Not less because in purple I descended
The western day through what you called
The loneliest air, not less was I myself.

What was the ointment sprinkled on my beard?
What were the hymns that buzzed beside my ears?
What was the sea whose tide swept through me there?

Out of my mind the golden ointment rained,
And my ears made the blowing hymns they heard.
I was myself the compass of that sea:

I was the world in which I walked, and what I saw
Or heard or felt came not but from myself;
And there I found myself more truly and more strange.

– Wallace Stevens