Today's Hotness: The Swimmers, The War On Drugs, Meneguar

>> [PHOTO CREDIT: Dawn Walsh] Philadelphia indie rock upstarts The Swimmers recently completed a small strand of tour dates, but the quartet is continuing the good vibes by sharing a cracking live recording of their March 22 show at The Hideout in Chicago. The audio is clear and punchy and the performances are sharp. The live set is largely comprised of tracks from the band's long-awaited and recently released full length Fighting Trees, which we reviewed here in early March. The Swimmers harness the rootsiness of Wilco and the economic pep of Spoon, and as such it is unclear to us why the foursome doesn't enjoy a higher profile outside of Philadelphia. Check out the live version of "Pocket Full Of Gold" posted below, and if you're jazzed also hit the link for a .zip file of the whole show, which closes out with a pleasantly ragged version of the Hall & Oates chestnut "Rich Girl." If you can't get enough of that live stuff and you are in Philadelphia Friday you can catch the band at Johnny Brenda's with BC Camplight and The Capitol Years.

The Swimmers -- "Pocket Full Of Gold (Live)" -- Live at The Hideout, Chicago, March 22, 2008
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[to get a .zip file of the whole show right click on this link]
[buy Fighting Trees from Newbury Comics right here]

>> Thanks to the Internet, we are more able now to consume Philly-reared musical victuals than we were when we lived there in the late '90s. It also helps that we have money now, we suppose. We're tempted to turn Today's Hotness into an all-Philly edition so we can talk about the new Windsor For The Derby tracks and the review of the Yah Mos Def record at PantsFork, but we see some other things we need to get to, so a little bit about the recently reissued -- and free -- 2006 EP from Philly quintet The War On Drugs will have to suffice. Incidentally, The War On Drugs likely hit our radar via coverage in the inimitable Philebrity.com. But it was when we saw this item at BrooklynVegan saying the act -- which recently signed with Secretly Canadian -- was giving away a free EP that we finally checked out the band. And you know what? The Barrel Of Batteries EP is dynamite. Mixing laid-back Byrds-ish strummery and vocals with some rich production flourishes and the occasional odd interstitial, the small stack of tunes is a promising harbinger of what a planned full-length Wagonwheel Blues will bring. To whet your whistle, we've posted below an MP3 of "Arms Like Boulders," a different version of which will appear on the full length, which is slated for release in June. If you dig that you can snatch a .zip file of the entire EP at the other link below.

The War On Drugs -- "Arms Like Boulders" -- Barrel Of Batteries EP
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[download the entire EP as a .zip file from Secretly Canadian here]

>> Brooklyn-based indie rockers Meneguar were responsible for our favorite record of 2007, and we've known for some time that more recordings are in the offing. And although we've stumbled across some things on the Internets over the last couple months -- and memorialized said things here and here -- we've been in the dark about what the band would be releasing when. Well, our RSS percolated up two items from the band yesterday. First, Meneguar has released via its own Rear House label the vinyl-only full-length The In Hour, which is available for mail order directly from the band [details here]. The record purportedly showcases the foursome switching up instruments and creating a spontaneous, self-recorded set. Meneguar itself characterizes The In Hour as "a serious departure," but contends the recordings "hold true to the band's undeniable pop sensibility." Needless to say we mail-ordered it straightaway. In other news, the band has uploaded to YouTube a video [linky linky] for the new track "Some Other Life." Frankly, we don't think the video is much to shout about, although once certain of the actors don full-body cat costumes things improve dramatically, in a creepy, "The Shining" sort of sense. If anything, the video is important because it is the only chance you have to hear the track without hunting down the band or ordering the vinyl or hanging out at its MySpace wigwam.

Today's Hotness: The Notwist, Mission Of Burma, Yah Mos Def

>> We knew the day would finally come when definitive news about German electropop geniuses The Notwist's new and seventh record would break. But we're never quite prepared for that tingle when you've first received the news and you hear the awesome and you're all "yeah!" So anyway, today is that day. The news is that The Notwist's long, long awaited follow-up to 2002's masterwork Neon Golden is titled The Devil, You + Me, and the set will be issued in North America by Domino in early June. Which according to our calendar means either June 3 or June 10. The Devil, You + Me took almost two years to record (there is a new clip posted at Notwist.com today that shows more of the recording sessions); the sessions also included contributions from a small orchestra called the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra, which we surmise is the name of the group of players we noted when we wrote about the recent bubbling-up of Notwist goings-on here. The new set touts eleven new tracks, and the lead-off cut "Good Lies" is already available for free download. "Good Lies" is very similar to the material on Neon Golden, although perhaps it is slightly more guitar-oriented and dense. The electronic flourishes and clicks remain, although they are muted on this track. In fact, there are places where the song almost rocks, in the Bavarian trio's (you'll recall that we reported here that founding drummer Martin Messerschmidt has left the band) typically understated manner. European and UK-based fans will have a number of chances to see the act when it tours in the last week of April and subsequently in small clutches of dates through the end of June. No U.S. tour dates have been disclosed yet.

The Notwist -- "Good Lies" -- The Devil, You + Me
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[watch the Slang Store here for pre-order info on the import]

>> Have you been watching the Matablog YouTube clips about the mastering of the reissues of the Mission of Burma catalogue? Shizz is fascinating. We guess if you don't believe that the conversion of sound waves to grooves of varying widths in vinyl using archaic analog machines is magic, then perhaps these clips aren't for you. But this is the sort of gearhead stuff we know too little about yet have an insatiable curiosity about. Clip one concerns vinyl mastering; clip two concerns physically cutting the master. If gearhead stuff is not up your alley, why not check out this newly posted video clip of Mission Of Burma performing "Eyes Of Men" in 1979 or 1980 over at KinoDV? Incidentally, it's really amazing how similar young Clint Conley and young, short-haired Robert Smith look. Anyway, the reissues of Signals, Calls & Marches, Vs. and The Horrible Truth About Burma will be released by Matador March 18; you can pre-order the whole lot for $33 from the label right here. We just did, and it felt good.

>> The Swimmers' release isn't the only news out of Philadelphia these days. Post-hardcore rhymers The Yah Mos Def have finally issued their full-length debut Excuse Me, This Is The Yah Mos Def. New Jersey's own My Pal God Records issued the platter Feb. 12, and you can get it from the label here or you can get the radio-ready clean version from EMusic here. We're listening to the seven-song set right now, and it is entirely bananas. It seems like the band has taken to calling itself The YMD, likely for the same reasons that its MySpace page used to keep getting deleted. So folks searching for Excuse Me at EMusic need to search for "The YMD." Exuse Me contains a new version of the simply amazing song "The Beat That Makes The Native Nod;" we've posted a demo version of the track before, and it is so stirring we are posting it again. The version on the album is a little slicker and one of the rappers' delivery has gone pretty heavily in an Adrock direction, which is not entirely unwelcome.

Yah Mos Def -- "The Beat That Makes The Natives Nod" -- 2005 Demo
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[buy Excuse Me, This Is The Yah Mos Def from My Pal God here]

>> Speaking of EMusic, did you know you could download Welsh twee terrorists Los Campesinos!'s Hold On Now, Youngster... over there already, despite the fact the record doesn't street until April 1? Speaking of, Insound.com totally has the hook-up on this record, which is why we just pre-ordered it from them. The online music store is selling for $17 an exclusive double-CD version of Hold On Now, Youngster... that includes on the second disc the The International Tweexcore Underound! EP. And as icing on the cake you'll get an 11x17 poster and some stickers. There are limited quantities of the double-disc version, but Insound isn't saying how limited, so take that for what it is worth. If you hit this link and enter the coupon code "loscampblog10" you'll get the set for 10% off. That 10% doesn't cover more than about half of the shipping charge, but hey, you love Los Campesinos!, right? Fortunately for you the band plays Boston's Paradise Rock Club May 21; tickets go on sale this Saturday at noon.

Today's Hotness: Timothy Bracy's Collection Agency, Yah Mos Def

>> News of former Mendoza Line fronter Tim Bracy's new project almost slipped by us earlier this week. Mr. Bracy has re-christened his combo -- which features many of his former Mendoza Line cohorts with one obvious exception -- Timothy Bracy's Collection Agency. You can check in on the Agency's goings-on at this recently commissioned MySpace vessel. Bracy apparently played an acoustic show this weekend as part of the popular College Music Journal music seminar, or whatever they call it now, and we hear talk from informed-sounding talkers that there may be some tour dates to speak of soon. In the meantime, jump back in the wayback machine with us and have a listen to the first Mendoza Line "hit," the original version of "Dollars To Donuts" from the band's debut long-player Poems To A Pawnshop, released on KinderCore 10 years ago. We reviewed a Mendoza Line show in May here; we reviewed the final Mendoza Line release 30 Year Low/Final Reflections Of The Legendary Malcontent here.

The Mendoza Line -- "Dollars To Donuts" -- Poems To A Pawnshop
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[buy Mendoza Line records from Newbury Comics here]

>> Cops shut down their shows. Rupert Murdoch deletes their web pages. Still, it occurred to us after we referenced Yah Mos Def's excellent "The Beat That Make The Natives Nod" last week that it may have moved under the radar for some when it crossed our Internets-enabled transom a couple years ago. We post it for your edification below. My Pal God Records will issue YMD's debut full-length recording Excuse Me, This Is Yah Mos Def sometime before the end of the year, if all goes according to plan. One of the best things about "The Beat That Makes The Natives Nod" is when one of the emcees exhorts you to "Be awesome!" between the rhymes of the chorus. What makes that even bester is that we just learned from the band's bio at My Pal God that Be Awesome is in fact the name of one of the emcees.

Yah Mos Def -- "The Beat That Makes The Natives Nod" -- Demo '05
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