Today's Hotness: Sunny Day Real Estate, Max Tundra

>> In some ways, this song was pretty much the end of music. The video above is fabled second-wave emo foursome Sunny Day Real Estate captured live on MTV's "120 Minutes" in 1994. The clip was alluded to by MTV's Subterranean Blog, which recently has been going a long way toward making us not loathe the network. We'll, we expect we'll continue to loathe the network, but at least the online piece has been wiping away some of the tarnish. It appears that the embed code they offer is not a true embed, so if you click on the video above be prepared for a little trip over to MTV.com. It is well worth it, fortunately. Although fronter Jeremy Enigk's voice doesn't seem up to the challenge during this performance. But, even so, this song is amazing. Not quite as amazing as the devastating closer of Diary, "Sometimes," but pretty damn close. If you are one of those odd people that don't own Diary, you need to really take a hard look at your priorities.

>> We were thrilled to read at trusty DrownedInSound that plunderphonic-laptronic-electro-whosey-whatsis act Max Tundra will finally release a new record later this year. Max Tundra is a pseudonym for London-based electronic pop supergenius Ben Jacobs, who has titled his third full-length Parallax Error Beheads You. Mr. Jacobs has been promising a new record for more than two years. Parallax Error Beheads You will be issued by Domino in the U.K. Oct. 13. A single for the track "Will Get Fooled Again" will be issued Sept. 29. A quick spin around the Internets produced no release information for North America, but we'll keep you posted. The most recent Max Tundra longplayer, the sublime Mastered By Guy At The Exchange, was issued eons ago in 2002. However, it was simply the provocative title to 2000's Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be that first lured us into Jacobs' world. He is giving away the synthy banger "Cabasa" at the Max Tundra MySpace hacienda, but we'll save you the trip and post it below. Max Tundra will tour the UK with Hot Chip from mid-October.

Max Tundra -- "Cabasa" -- Mastered By Guy At The Exchange
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[buy Max Tundra records from Insound here]

>> A new School Of Seven Bells track premiered at Stereogum Thursday, and it is a wonderful piece of beat-driven dream pop. The track, "Half Asleep," will be released as a single (backed with the subdued electro-folk number "Caldo") Sept. 16; those who pre-order through the Ghostly Store or Insound will receive codes for free downloads on the day of the release. The songs will also appear on the full length Alpinisms. The full length and the single will be released by Ghostly. School Of Seven Bells is fronted by Alejandra and Claudia Deheza; the latter woman was formerly with the exemplary dream-pop act Daylight's For The Birds. School Of Seven Bells performs at The Middle East in Cambridge Nov. 18 with M83, making the bill easily the dreamiest of the year in Boston. You'd best buy tickets now, as M83 already sold out the club earlier this year.

Today's Hotness: Muxtape Numero Dos, Silver Jews, MySpace Music

>> New Muxtape "STEADY NOW DON'T FALL APART" up tonight here. Again, we were hugely frustrated by the amount of our digital collection that we ripped in AAC. We had really intended to start this mix off with "Cadali" by The Coctails, which is a truly unparalleled beauty of a pop song. But we didn't feel like re-ripping it. Well, now we're changing our mind, because it's really that good. Hold on. Sorry Bikini Kill's "For Tammy Rae," you just got bumped. Anyway, our notes are below.

1. The Coctails -- "Cadali" -- The Coctails
(makes us think of walking past the library and to WESU on a cold winter's day and realizing there's only so long you can ignore the elephant in the room)

2. California Snow Story -- "Suddenly Everything Happens" -- single
(immediately gripping, powerfully melancholy)

3. Barnabys -- "Gargamel" -- Jiffy Boy Records' 10 Cent Fix comp
(so many guitars, so much sitting with legs crossed knowing there's no real reason etc. etc. etc.)

4. Chapterhouse -- "Breather" -- Whirlpool
(sleeper track for us from one of the most important mix tapes we ever received, given to us by a guy who now owns sheep and doesn't really follow music anymore)

5. Daylight's For The Birds -- "To No One" -- Trouble Everyday
(pretty, cinematic, captivating singer)

6. Mobius Band -- "Frozen Lake In Unison" -- Three EP
(those early self-released EPs from Mobius Band are no joke. this song always makes our ears perk up when it shuffles into the mix)

7. Happy Mondays -- "Bob's Yer Uncle" -- Thrills, Pills and Bellyaches
(another classic mix tape cut from a tape received from a different guy who now lives in the middle of nowhere and doesn't really follow music anymore. this song distinguishes itself as being the only Happy Mondays track we enjoy. it occurs to us that the secret theme of this mix might be flute)

8. Jawbreaker -- "Rich" -- Hardcore Breakout USA
(we came to this band late, despite everyone raving in the '90s. we came to this song even later, but it is certainly one of Jawbreaker's best, right up there with "Chesterfield Kings")

9. Finger -- "Ship Full Of Holes" -- Jettison 18 single
(North Carolina act whose single we bought probably because of an ad in the back of Spin or maybe in a hard copy catalog from Alias or Merge or Jettison or Antenna or one of those Carolina labels. All of which reminds us we don't have any Connells in CD or digital form. We'll have to remedy that. This one's a pretty straight rocker, enjoyable nonetheless)

10. Portastatic -- "Look, Honey, Peaches" -- A Day In The Park compilation
(the epitome of sad, lovestruck Mac, in our opinion. Portastatic is too band-y and glossy for us nowadays, and whenever a new set comes out we long for more numbers like this and the stuff on Slow Note From A Sinking Ship)

>> Example of the commutative property of mathematics: we love Babar the Elephant; the cover of the forthcoming Silver Jews record has Babar on it; therefore we love the cover of the forthcoming Silver Jews record, which is titled Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea. Pantsfork has all the details here.

>> This Wired.com piece contains all the details about the planned MySpace Music service. And you know what? It all sounds boring. Perhaps if MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe offered more than the sort of boasts that a more critical reporter would not accept at face value. Wired touts the interview as "in-depth," but the piece reads more like an email interview conducted by an inexperienced blogger without the chutzpah to challenge DeWolfe's marketing-speak.

Finding Diagram: Ambient Act Dissipates, New Projects Materialize

Between its web hacienda and MySpace dojo exemplary but sadly defunct abstract dreamers Diagram are giving away a motherlode of music, including all of its excellent three-song History Of The White Flag (Figure 2) EP, released in late 2005. Like many great Philadelphia acts, we first learned of Diagram via the also sadly defunct WhyMe? podcast. Our fandom for the band was rekindled upon hearing a track from their first EP, Fig. 1, bitcast as part of the latest Local Support podcast. The most-recent missive from the trio of Joe Patitucci, David Bohl and Alex Tyson at the Diagram web site indicates the band was to spend the first few months of 2006 writing and recording a new collection of songs.

As that was some time ago, we emailed Mr. Patitucci for an update and learned that the band is done and its principals have splintered into other projects. Mr. Tyson plays with the hotly tipped '70s SoCal rock-influenced act Brown Recluse Sings; Patitucci helms the very promising ambient electronic project Tadoma (link; think Boards Of Canada meets More-era Pink Floyd); and Mr. Bohl charts bleepier, more Kraftwerk-informed electronic territory with Map Of The World At Night operating out of Brooklyn. Fans of Boston's Charlene or New York's Daylight's For The Birds should make a concerted effort at collecting all of the Diagram material they can get their hands on. We'll post one track from each EP and a nice Map Of The World At Night cut below. Local fans will be interested to note that Brown Recluse Sings is slated to play PA's Lounge in Somerville, Mass. May 24.

Diagram -- "I Am Not Invincible" -- Fig. 1
Diagram -- "Surrender To Time" -- History Of The White Flag (Fig. 2)
Map Of The World At Night -- "Arp Rhodes Lullabye Rendered 2" -- MySpace download
[right click and save as]
[buy Diagram EPs, well, nowhere -- they're simply not for sale anywhere]

Diagram: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr