Today's Hotness: Drop Nineteens, The Elevator Drops

>> The spoken-word bit in M83's swirling joy of a new single "Graveyard Girl" continues to remind us of a similar (but better) spoken-word section in the middle of Drop Nineteens' peerless droner "Kick The Tragedy," the dramatic centerpiece to the Boston quintet's amazing and out-of-print 1992 Caroline Records release Delaware. Feast your ears below; the bit we're talking about comes about five-and-a-half minutes in. M83's Saturdays=Youth came out earlier this month and the French act will tour selected North American markets between May 20 and June 7. At no point do we expect M83 will play any Drop Nineteens tracks, although that would be awesome. Particularly "Ease It Halen" [thanks for the copy edit, Good Doctor]. For those not familiar with Drop Nineteens, the chimp rock survivors-turned-shoegaze matinee idols-turned Pixies worshipers issued two records and two EPs between 1992 and 1994 before disbanding. Folks with a yen for more can likely track down BBC sessions and even the very, very good Mayfield demos if they look around long enough.

Drop Nineteens -- "Kick The Tragedy" -- Delaware
[right click and save as]
[buy -- for a stiff premium -- Delaware from MusicStack here]

>> Something that has been lost in the shuffle here in the last couple of weeks is a brief notice from the mysteriously there-and-then-not-there, possibly re-animated Boston power pop trio The Elevator Drops. According to a MySpace bulletin, the band had accidentally been selling at ITunes since Christmas the demo mixes for the recently issued fourth full-length OK Commuter instead of the finished recordings. The problem has since been rectified, and the band quips that anyone who mistakenly received the demos now are in possession of a collector's item. Those who mistakenly received the demo mixes are invited to write The Elevator Drops at the band's MySpace garage in order to receive satisfaction in the form of a password to a secret site that contains the correct version. The trio has yet to tour in support of OK Commuter, but we certainly look forward to seeing The Elevator Drops live when they do.

>> We've spent a substantial amount of our leisure time recently exploring the possibilities of ditching ITunes in favor of MediaMonkey as we look toward what software we will install on our new machine once it arrives. MediaMonkey -- recommended to us by the boundlessly wise Mr. Pixelnated -- does a lot of things, but one of those things that will have substantial amount of application for us is the ability to transcode files on the fly (such as the Drop Nineteens track above, incidentally). As we've bemoaned in our suddenly weekly Muxtape posts, we ripped a lot of our music to AAC files when we purchased our first laptop of the modern era in 2003. That's become more and more problematic in situations where MP3s are required. So there. Check out MediaMonkey yourself at the link supra if you are as much of a contrarian as we are.

Today's Hotness: The Halo Bit, Poole, Johnny Foreigner

>> The truth is that for the indie music fan the Internet provides solutions to most problems. Access to releases, or at least information about releases, is usually never more than a Google search away. That said, one problem that prevails -- and that we already discussed in last week's post about Silkworm -- is the lack of availability for sale proper digital versions of vinyl singles. In most cases when we've ripped vinyl the result has been less than satisfactory. But that problem presumes we own the record we're interested in. Alas, small labels that never really made any money in the first place might not see much point of going to the trouble of getting their releases digitized for sale online. And, alas, there are several instances in which we'd argue that an original mix for a vinyl single is superior to a subsequent mix or recording made available on CD. All of this is a long way of saying we sure wish someone would make available the singles issued by the now-defunct but once-crucial indie Spin-Art. Our own vinyl rips of the label's superlative singles from the Alex Kemp-fronted The Halo Bit ("Stay Away For A While" + 2, SPART 12) and Virginia's Poole ("Mary Shakes Her Hair" + 2, SPART 15) don't sound all that great. Maybe we need to get one of those USB turntables. Anyway, here are the aforementioned jams, as ripped by us, for what it's worth. Do you have a better-quality rip of these singles? Drop us an email, and secure our undying gratitude. Incidentally, the image above is a poorly rendered excerpt from the cover of The Halo Bit's nice full length -- we were too lazy to scan the sleeves for either of the singles tonight.

The Halo Bit -- "Stay Away For A While" -- "Stay Away For A While" b/w "Peggy + Helen" and "Dad's House"
Poole -- "Meredyth On A Monday" -- "Mary Shakes Her Hair" b/w "Meredyth On A Monday" and "Car"
[right click and save as]
[hunt for the singles at MusicStack here and here]

>> We had an inkling based on activity we were seeing in our hit logs and these posts at Death To Music and Keep Hope Inside confirm that Johnny Foreigner's Waited Up Til It Was Light has leaked. Considering promos were being offered a week or so ago -- which we're still crossing our fingers that we might receive -- the development is no surprise. DTM's Tom did the yeoman's work of doing a quick track-by-track assessment, but we've only scanned it, as we want to preserve the rush we'll surely get when we hear the full record for the first time.

Oceans Never Listen To Us Anyway: Muxtape Numero Tres

Kids hip to the Twitter feed got the early word Thursday, but now the rest of you can spend an hour or so listening to and generally pondering our third Muxtape. The same caveat applies; that is, we were surprised and disappointed at how much of our music is encoded in the AAC format and therefore not eligible for uploading to Muxtape. That said, it has become another facet to the game of creating the mix. Looking over this one a couple days later, we're not sure of the order in a couple spots, and the Cherubino track might rock a little too much for this mix. But it is what it is. Here is a link to the Muxtape, and below are remarks for each track:

1. Galaxie 500 -- "Ceremony (Live)" -- Copenhagen
(Listened to this live record incessantly around the time we started dating the missus. Dean Wareham really takes things higher when he finishes out the lyric and goes to the solo to bring the song home. But isn't there a second guitar here all of a sudden, backing him up during the solo? Did Kramer step up on stage to fill out the sound there? Dunno. We'll have to go back to the liner notes. Incidentally, the interview segment Wareham did last month on WMBR to promote his recently issued memoire "Black Postcars: A Rock And Roll Romance" was very enjoyable, insightful, and we look forward to reading the book.)

2. Lilys -- "Salad Bar" -- The Station Tapes demos
(Rare, unreleased Lilys demo recorded in Gaithersburg, Maryland in 1991 in a basement studio. Really sublime stuff, sounds Ride-influenced. It is a shame the song didn't get a proper re-recording in Lancaster, PA where and when the sessions for In The Presence Of Nothing were done. It seems like Lilys-leader Kurt Heasley has been doing some cleaning out of the proverbial closets of late, what with the offer for sale of virgin copies of Eccsame The Photon Band recently. Perhaps he'll get together some odds and sods sets -- we're sure there's got to be acres of demos and outtakes.)

3. The Mendoza Line -- "Now Or Never Or Later" -- 30 Year Low
(Heart-stopping, slow burning demo version of a track that was featured on the Slow Dazzle record, which featured the now dissolved partnership of Mendoza Line fronters Tim Bracy and Shannon McArdle.)

4. David J. -- "I'll Be Your Chauffeur (Original Version)" -- Songs From Another Season
(No rhythm section on this version. Another classic mixtape track from a gentleman who know lives in parts unknown and who had ripped out the only working bathroom in his house around the last time we spoke. The other version of the track will always signal autumn for us, but this more subdued take seems more dreamy and optimistic. Very tasteful saxophone here.)

5. Girlfriend 2000 -- "Ladybug"
(Unreleased track from a former combo of our once and current bandmate Jeff Stern, whose songwriting prowess should be supported by copious grant funding so he can just do it full time. Although he'd probably use the grant money to make a movie. Even so, this track continually reveals itself in different shades of emotion every time we listen to it. Very tasteful organ here.)

6. Gravel -- "Yesterday" -- International Hipswing comp
(This song is pretty flat as far as structure and production goes, but it captures a cat-gray, flannel-shirted mood of isolated desperation common among indie boys of the age at the time.)

7. Cherubino -- Car Wreck -- Bird
(This record was treated poorly by Pitchfork when it was released about six years ago, and we think it deserved better based on the two very strong songs on the set. "Car Wreck" is one of these. The band featured Haywood drummer (and, truly, one of only two people you should ever call if you need a drummer, since he's tops) Rob V playing bass and hitting the backup vocals. Keep talkin' 'bout it, keep talkin' 'bout it.)

8. Destroyer -- "I Want This Cyclops" -- City Of Daughters
(We made this muxtape the day this very good Catbird Seat item was posted about Destroyer's large, but mostly new fanbase. The only reason we were cool enough to know about Destroyer early was because we know a guy who knows a guy, and that second guy was/is a partner in Misra Records, and that first guy one day gave us a handful of Misra CDs for free out of the trunk of his car. One of those records was Streethawk: A Seduction, which is a splendid recording and features some very compelling and Bowie-tastic tunes. "I Want This Cyclops" we got from some blog, perhaps the late, lamented Mystical Beast.)

9. Ambulance Ltd. -- "Stay Where You Are" -- Ambulance Ltd. EP
(This songs seems to be singular in the Ambulance Ltd. catalog, as if they wrote it, realized it was awesome, and then decided they didn't want to be pigeonholed by it. Which is a shame, because if Ambulance Ltd, which has undergone some lineup changes in recent years, created entire records of subdued pop gems such as this, they would be our favorite band. Sadly, the long introduction is excised for the video, which is otherwise a pretty nice piece. As it stands, "Stay Where You Are" is at the top or very near the top of the list of most-played songs in our ITunes. More recently the band issued a set that included a cover of Pink Floyd's "Fearless," if memory serves.)

10. Boys Life -- "Two Wheeled Train" -- Boys Life/Christie Front Drive split 10"
(Another song with a long introduction, and a song with a huge payoff. This one cataclysmic in scope. At the climax, about two minutes in, hair on our arms stands up. Every time. And then this song has a weird outro, as if the storm has passed and the clouds are breaking up.)

11. Sunset Rubdown -- "Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of Places Where Lovers Have Wings" -- Shut Up I Am Dreaming
(We used to see the word "restraint" bandied about a lot in relation to one of our favorite bands back in the day. This is not that band, but even so this song epitomizes restraint. Which is why "Shut Up..." has such a huge payoff when it finally gets to the second go-round of "oceans never listen to us anyway." It's a musical journey, and when you get there, it is immensely enjoyable.)

12. Adrian Crowley -- Trilogy -- A Strange Kind
(If not the perfect mixtape beginner, then certainly the perfect mixtape ender. Ambient washes. Sad/creepy piano.)

Today's Hotness: Jim Guthrie, Carrie Brownstein, Mystery Jets

>> We received two separate email blasts today regarding the new act Human Highway, both of which, we might add, arrived after we already saw the "news" in our RSS reader. We put the word news in quotations because it was apparent from reading the item and the emails that the former was rather lazily cribbed from the latter. Normally we don't let this sort of writing get to us, but we found this particularly offensive because the press releases and the "news" both failed to mention what Human Highway principal Jim Guthrie accomplished prior to his 2004 solo set Now More Than Ever. In addition to releasing other very fine solo sets, Guthrie was one of the main fellows in the exceptional alt.country act Royal City [pictured above]. It's all at Wikipedia here; how quickly people forget. We had the pleasure of seeing Royal City topline a bill that also featured The Trouble With Sweeney in, oh, 2001 or so. We're posting a starkly beautiful Royal City track and a sublime Guthrie solo joint below, in case you are not familiar with the gentleman's work. Back to today's news: Guthrie has reunited with former Islands bandmate Nick Thorburn to form Human Highway, which will issue Moody Motorcyle Aug. 19 on Suicide Squeeze.

Royal City -- "And Miriam Took A Timbrel In Her Hand" -- Alone At The Microphone
[right click and save as]
[buy Royal City records from Insound here]

Jim Guthrie -- "3 AM" -- Morning Noon Night
[right click and save as]
[buy Morning Noon Night from Insound here]

>> Brief Remarks: 1) We only just yesterday added Carrie Brownstein's Monitor Mix NPR blog to our RSS reader, but the decision has already paid off. Revel in the following quote from this item: "Yesterday was Earth Day and I celebrated it by letting my dog sh*t on a lawn that is full of chemicals. When the owner came out to yell at me, I pointed to the excrement and said, "That is the only natural thing in your yard, Happy Earth Day." 2) We don't know what this is, but it is awesome. 3) Trivia: this woman was in our Music, Recording and Sound Design class at university in the mid-'90s. She was -- and likely still is -- very nice. 4) All your metadata are belong to Sony, according to Coolfer. 5) ExitFare has posted here a recent video from London-based quintet Mystery Jets, and the clip is an excellently absurd send-up of all the amazing new wave videos we watched incessantly on MTV in our youth.

Comedy Minus One Hits Refresh On Out-Of-Print Silkworm, Rarities

One of our major concerns about indie rock -- and particularly the beloved early '90s indie rock we were reared on -- is all the music that goes out of print and/or never makes the leap to digital availability. Case in point: right now superlative indie act Lilys are selling the last virgin CD copies of the 1994 masterpiece Eccsame The Photon Band right now via its MySpace yert. According to a MySpace bulletin, the implosion of Spin Art Records "has somehow managed to take the rights and masters for the first 3 Lilys albums down with it." Incidentally, the fall of Spin Art, whose early catalog we hold particularly dear, is perhaps one of the most under-reported and unexplained occurrences in indie music in the last couple of years.

But we're straying far from our point, which is that some people are doing their best to make sure that the exemplary sounds of days and labels gone by continue to be available. One such person is Jon Solomon and his recently launched label enterprise Comedy Minus One. You may recall we reported here in October that CMO was issuing digitally certain records from the fabulous Karl Hendricks catalog, in addition to issuing the CD version of Bottomless Pit's solemn debut Hammer Of The Gods. Well, we received news today that the label is once again stepping into the breach to rescue from undeserved obsolescence a number of fantastic titles related to well-known, tragically scuttled Bottomless Pit-precursor Silkworm. The renowned indie act -- whose drummer was senselessly killed by a suicidal driver in 2006 -- released some records in the early '90s on labels that were not suited for the long haul. Among these is one that Mr. Solomon deems "the best record of the 1990s," Silkworm's black celebration Libertine. Originally issued by El Recordo in 1994, Comedy Minus One has shouldered the responsibility of digitally issuing the set for the first time. The wonderfully written and recorded Libertine contains much top-shelf indie rock music, not the least of which is the unparalleled album opener "There Is A Party Tonight In Warsaw," as well as the tracks "Wild In My Day," "Couldn't You Wait?," "Grotto Of Miracles" and "Cotton Girl."

But that is not all. Comedy Minus One will also issue digitally: the Chokes! EP [link], the final studio recordings from Silkworm tracked during 2005 with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago (the set was previously made available on CD by 12XU); Tim Midgett's It Goes Like This [link], originally released in 2002 as part of Three Lobed Recordings' "Purposeful Availment" CD subscription series; Ein Heit's 1997 set The Lightning & The Sun [link] which reunited Silkworm with Joel Phelps; and, finally, The Crust Brothers' Marquee Mark [link], a December 1997 performance at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle by a band comprising popular solo artists and former Pavement-fronter Stephen Malkmus and the three members of Silkworm.

Comedy Minus One's next physical release will be the Oxford Collapse Hann-Byrd 12." The digital releases noted above will arrive the same month. In the meantime, however, feast your ears on an MP3 from each of the sets.

Silkworm -- "Couldn't You Wait" -- Libertine
Silkworm -- "Bar Ice" -- Chokes!
Tim Midgett -- "Portable Life" -- It Goes Like This
Ein Heit -- "Summer" -- The Lightning & The Sun
The Crust Brothers -- "You Ain't Going Nowhere" -- Marquee Mark
[right click and save as]
[keep checking back at the CMO web sites linked above to see when the buy links go live]

Today's Hotness: Judas Priest, Ringo Deathstarr, Johnny Foreigner

>> The first cassette we ever bought was Judas Priest's amazing 1982 fireball Screaming For Vengeance (not to be confused with this). We recall already being familiar with the storied British heavy metal act from our early and incessant exposure to MTV back when it was good and played music videos all day (and sometimes entire live concerts! Really! Its true!). But the truth is that at the ripe old age of eight we probably bought this tape because we thought the cover art was AWESOME (see left). According to Wired, the record is about to endure a more modern first: it will be the first full-length album sold through the online store associated with the video game rock band. Next up will be The Cars' self-titled set and The Pixies' Doolittle. The kids don't know what is about to hit them. The Wired piece downplays the distinction of Screaming For Vengeance being first, saying it was just how the proverbial cookie crumbled. But even so, we take a fair amount of pleasure imagining folks including our young cousins having their minds blown by the opening salvos "The Hellion" and "Electric Eye." Buy the whole enchilada from AmazonMP3 here. Anybody who has been paying attention will realize that the issuance of Screaming via "Rock Band" makes for a pretty canny promotion for the recently announced sixteenth Priest record, the double-album set Nostradamus, which Billboard reports will be released by SonyEpicMegaConglomMusicWidgetReplicatorAndMarketer June 17.

>> Texas shoegaze dynamos Ringo Deathstarr perform "Sweet Girl" live in a YouTube clip you can access here. We forgot to toggle down the volume on the video before commencing playback, but we imagine the bassy explosion that jumped through our headphones and caused our ears to ring just now was not unlike the onslaught the audience experienced during whatever show this was. Readers may recall that we reported last month here on the quartet's plans to record new material. We are hopeful that the planned sessions will yield a proper recording of "Your Town," a demo of which the band posted to its MySpace dojo at some point last year. Fortunately for you, we downloaded it while the getting was good. Check it out below.

Ringo Deathstarr -- "Your Town (demo)" -- MySpace download 2007
[right click and save as]
[buy Ringo Deathstarr's self-titled EP from SVC Records here]

>> The Johnny Foreigner-obsessed among you will note two interesting things about the virtual ad slick recreated in this recent MySpace bulletin from the Birmingham, England-based indie rock trio. One, there is a tiny rendering of what is clearly Lewes Herriot-crafted album art for the forthcoming set Waited Up 'til It Was Light. Two, and this is the particularly interesting item, the ad refers to the band's planned debut long-player as featuring the singles "Our Bipolar Friends," "Eyes Wide Terrified"... AND "Salt, Pepa and Spindarella." Don't think that third single has been disclosed elsewhere yet. The single for "Eyes Wide Terrified" streets at the end of May, and the album follows not long after in early June. When will the third single be released? We'll keep our eyes peeled.

>> Seriously, is there anything better than a Philly sports blog that interviews dudes from old hardcore bands about the City's teams? Choketown interviews here David Wagenschutz (Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, every band ever) about his love of the Flyers.

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.