Joan as Policewoman - Real Life - mp3 review

It’s my last day here at Insound so the next time you get this it’ll be from my gmail account so make sure you check your spam folder after today for it.  Feels weird thinking about not coming here tomorrow.  I remember how excited I was when I got this job, how much I hated the first 2 weeks, and how I’ve met some of my closets friends here.  Not saying I don’t leave, just saying I’ll miss this place.

Joan Wasser (born July 26, 1970, in Biddeford, Maine) is a violinist and singer/songwriter in the indie rock world. Her best known album is titled Joan as Policewoman. In addition to her stints with The Dambuilders, Mind Science of the Mind, and Those Bastard Souls, Wasser’s resume includes live performances and studio work with Lou Reed, Tanya Donelly, Sheryl Crow, Dave Gahan, Elton John, the Scissor Sisters, Antony and the Johnsons, Joseph Arthur, Mary Timony, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley and Adam Green.  These tracks are from the album, Real Life, which was released in the UK in 2006, but will be released here in the states June 12th on Cheap Lullaby.

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/joanaspolicewoman/03%20Feed%20The%20Light.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/joanaspolicewoman/02%20Eternal%20Flame.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/joanaspolicewoman/09%20Anyone.mp3

-mark

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Queens Of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris - mp3 review

Stayed up late talking to my sis last night and writing.  I taxed a bottle of jack in the process somehow and passed out in the middle of typing a sentence.  Woke up from my couch at 7 AM this morning and felt better than I have in weeks though, go figure.  Not sure if anything I wrote will make any sense today, but I think my sis and I had a good conversation. 

QOTSA Formed in 1997, they rose from the ashes of Kyuss and began playing together during the now legendary Desert Sessions. Homme has drawn all of the members from that diverse group of musicians for QOTSA. The band originally formed under the name Gamma Ray, but almost faced a lawsuit from the European metal band of the same name.  Notable previous members include Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Nick Oliveri (Kyuss, Dwarves, Mondo Generator), Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden), and Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Mark Lanegan [Band]).  ALT.  These tracks are from the upcoming release, Era Vulgaris, due out June 12th on Interscope.

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/01%20Turning%20on%20the%20Screw.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/02%20Sick,%20Sick,%20Sick.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/07%20Make%20It%20Wit%20Chu.mp3

yeah, there a weird detuning thing going on in Make It Wit Chu and I’m not sure what that is, but its a bootleg copy so we gots what we gots.

-mark

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The Narrator - All That to the Wall - mp3 review

You ever see someone you think you recognize and start to approach them only to realize that its the dude you see every morning on the train, but have never spoken one word to him?  You feel like you know him, cuz you see him everyday, but the only thing you really know is that he takes the same train as you.  I don’t have any cute antidotal stories to go with that question and I know why I’m asking, just felt like it I guess.

Stole this description from Insound:

During the writing of their new album, All That to the Wall, The Narrator underwent some pretty heavy changes, which included the departure of their drummer. Maybe this slimming down further forced the boys in a direction they were already headed, or maybe it served to remind them of what they loved about being here in the first place. Regardless, the band hunkered down in the studio and brought along friends from the likes of Oxford Collapse, Russian Circles, Bound Stems, Sybris, Tight Phantomz and Lying In States to help make things right. Ultimately, the-new-look-Narrator has resurfaced with a record that they’re truly proud of and really want you to hear. Although they intended for it to be about weather, geography, religion, sex, nostalgia, hanging out, waiting, aging, quitting and leaving, it might actually be about the end of their band. Oops. This seems a little presumptuous or pretentious; we’re not entirely sure which one. In these post-modern times, though, interpretation is the best part.

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/04%20SurfJew.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/11%20Chocolate%20Windchimes.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/09%20Breaking%20the%20Turtle.mp3

NY’ers and DC’ers.  This Thursday is The Creature at the new Orchard bar and for all intents and purposes will also be my Insound retirement party.  Kinda funny since Creature started as Joe’s Insound retirement party and he still works here.  Anyway, just come out and drink some whiskey with me.  Then on Saturday I’m heading down to DC to spend my birthday with my friends and family.  I’m not sure what, but we should do something Saturday night.  You guys down?

-mark

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Art Brut - It’s A Bit Complicated - mp3 review

Got back from the Nashville the other day.  Had a great time hanging out with Casey and her friends.  I kept trying to make a good impression on her teachers and her friends parents.  I packed the closet thing I had to conservative clothes, I tried not to talk about touchy subjects, especially not politics or religion.  I was surprised to find that almost every teacher or parent I talked to wanted to know when the next chair boarding video was going to come out.  Damn, that thing gets around. 

Art Brut formed a band, they formed a band.  An indie rock band from London, fronted by the hyperactive Eddie Argos. Formed in 2003, they have a reputation as a great live act. Named after a post-WWI French art movement, the monicker translates as “Rough” or “Raw Art.”  These tracks are from their upcoming release, It’s A Bit Complicated, which is coming out on Downtown on 6/19th.

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/06%20I%20Will%20Survive.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/04%20People%20In%20Love.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/01%20Pump%20Up%20The%20Volume.mp3

BTW, congrats to Laura who’s band, Georgie James, just signed to Saddle Creek records.  Don’t let Conner convince you that Omaha is cooler then DC. 

-mark

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Shapes and Sizes - Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner - mp3 review

Its weird to think about all the guitars and amps I’ve owned throughout my life.  Gear comes and goes, but its always such an intimate relationship.  There’s the giddy feeling I get when I find something I simply fall in love with, that old piece of shit guitar that just sounds amazing.  There’s so many hopes and dreams twisted into its warm sound.  I instantly identify with a 40 year old hunk of wood with some magnets and metal strings on it.  It becomes an extension of me, it says what I want to say with such ease.  So I drop some cash and begin a destructive, co-dependant relationship with it.  Cut to 4 years later when I’m lugging that hunk of wood around trying to get as much cash as I can for it because I haven’t touched it in months and I cant remember why I thought I needed so many guitars in the first place.  That being said, anyone want to buy a Gibson LP?

Shapes and Sizes are from Montreal.  They have some weird intro on their last.fm page, but I like what CMJ wrote about them: “Pop songs can often feel like variations on the same pattern…Shapes And Sizes are able to remix that formula, creating pop tunes that feel just slightly off, and thus become infinitely more interesting”  Anyway, these tracks are from their upcoming release, ‘Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner’, which is coming out May 22nd on Asthmatic Kitty.

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/02%20Head%20Movin’.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/08%20Can’t%20Stop%20That%20(Sinking)%20Feeling.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/04%20The%20Taste%20In%20My%20Mouth.mp3

-mark

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Birds Of Avalon - Bazaar Bazaar - mp3 review

I feel like a perpetual drink spiller.  An incessant shit talker.  An unintentional head-butter.  Don’t ask me to explain.  I just wanna find a cool dark place to lay down and die.

Since their inception, Birds Of Avalon have recorded a self titled e.p., toured up and down the east coast, throughout the Midwest and eventually around the entire US earlier this summer. Sharing the stage with luminaries such as Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Fucking Champs, Big Business, Oneida, Mudhoney, Valient Thorr, Destroyer, Federation X and Drunk Horse.  These tracks are from their upcoming release, Bazaar Bazaar.  Now you know as much about them as I do.

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/07%20Superpower.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/02%20Horse%20Called%20Dust.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/09%20Turn%20Gold.mp3

Is anyone else psych-rocked out? 

-mark

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Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - mp3 review

Did you ever think about how every molecule in your body adheres to a strict set of natural laws to bring your physical being into existence.  Think about if just one molecule decided to be rebellious.  You’d explode into mushroom cloud the size of manhattan.  Makes you think that real rules can never actually be broken, and everything else is just bullshit.  Jeez, my life must seem really boring after reading that, eh? 

I’m sure you guys all know who Spoon is, right?  Anyway, these tracks just leaked today!  They are from the upcoming album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.  It will be released the 10th of July

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/03%20You%20Got%20Yr.%20Cherry%20Bomb.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/01%20Don’t%20Make%20Me%20A%20Target.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/09%20Finer%20Feelings.mp3

BTW, did I loan a book called ‘The History Of God’ to anyone on this list.  I was drunk when I loaned it out and now I forgot who I gave it to.

Creepture party tonight.  Get some free PBR, checkout Big Bang TV and Square Wave Punch, then checkout the Panthers later.

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Tokyo Police Club - Smith - mp3 review

So, what’s new, eh?  I just got PWND for wearing new jeans to work.  Also, had this weird dream last night about a battle between giant evil teddy bears with riffles and toy soldiers.  The battle was gruesome, mortar fire everywhere, limbs flying through the air, a blood drenched landscape.  It was intensive, and yet laughable at the same time.  All these children’s play toys bloated to ridiculously massive sizes wearing evil blood stained war faces, ripping each other to shreds.

Tokyo Police Club is an indie/art rock band from Newmarket, Canada. The band consists of Dave Monks (Vocals, Bass), Josh Hook (Guitar, Percussion), Graham Wright (Keyboards, Vocals) and Greg Alsop (Drums, Percussion). On April 27 2006, they released their first EP ‘A Lesson In Crime’. They are signed with Toronto label Paperbag Records.  These tracks are from a digital only release of b sides found on two UK 7″ singles.  The release is called Smith and is available as a digital download from Insound.

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/02%20Cut%20Cut%20Paste.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/01%20Box.mp3

If you live in NY you should come out to Andy and Joe’s Creature party tomorrow night at Annex.  Matt (Big Bang TV) and Sean’s (Square Wave Punch) respective bands are playing and your mom will be there too, so you should totally go. 

-mark

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Dungen - Tio Bitar - mp3 review

Hey guys.  Remember me?  I used to fill your mailboxes with useless shit and bitch about stupid things pretty much everyday because I thought none of you would actually read any of it anyway.  Most of you guys already know this, but I’ve decided to dump Insound for another lover.  We talked about it, and its cool and all, I told her how I wasn’t really ready for that ‘next step’ in our relationship and how I didn’t want to hold her back and all.  At first she was upset, and you know, talking about all the hopes she had, all the memories.  We cried together and all, but then she realized that we just want different things in life.  It’s a bitter sweet separation, but a necessary one.  Anyway, I’m going try to continue this email thingy we got going on here.  I’m going to be relying more Andy and Joe (guys?) a lot as I won’t have those stacks of promos to dig through anymore, but I think it’ll still be worth it if you guys are still into it.

Dungen are a Swedish band headed by Gustav Ejstes, who plays most of the instruments on their recordings. Dungen’s eclectic, melodic neo-classicism incorporates aspects of guitar-heavy classic rock, free jazz, swedish folk music, and melodic indie pop. Their third album, Ta det lugnt, was lauded by a somewhat underground audience after its release in 2004 before gaining widespread critical acclaim in “mainstream” press such as the NME, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork Media.   These tracks are from his upcoming release, Tio Bitar, on Kemado (5/15/05).

WARNING: This is some serious pysch rock with extended guitar solos, wah pedals, and busy noel redding style bass lines.  wait, what year is this again.

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/09%20Svart%20%c4r%20Himlen.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/07%20S%e5%20Blev%20Det%20Best%e4mt.mp3

http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/06%20Mon%20Amour.mp3

-mark

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