Today's Hotness: Destroyer, Islands, Chris Walla

>> Fear not, Boston-based Destroyer fans. We were dismayed that the tour dates Merge distributed this afternoon lacked completely a Boston engagement for Mr. Bejar's flagship ensemble, so we dashed off an email to Merge HQ. Merge HQ responded that booking agents were still trying to get a local date that works for everybody, and that it was not an oversight. So there. Destroyer's forthcoming set Trouble In Dreams will be released by Merge in March.

>> We expect the closing of the major rock clubs on Boston's Lansdowne Street can't be helping matters, and there was new news relating to what heretofore was supposed to be a project combining all the Lansdowne clubs and real estate into some sort of crappy "lifestyle center" or something. Bostonist reported here yesterday that The Boston Globe reported that House Of Blues is "taking over" Avalon and Axis. Somewhere House Of Blues investor Dan Akroyd is twirling a villain's mustache he's grown and waxed lovingly just for occasions such as these, all the while murmuring "eggsellent." Anyway, House Of Blues won't own the clubs, but instead will hold a long-term lease with the property owner, real estate developer Patrick Lyons, who co-founded House Of Blues... wait, what? Speaking of blues, here is the long-gone, Boston-based indie rock juggernaut Come covering The Rolling Stones downer "I Got The Blues." The track closed the quartet's superlative 1992 release 11:11.

Come -- "I've Got The Blues" -- 11:11
[right click and save as]
[buy Come records from Newbury Comics here]

>> Speaking of Boston, hit this link and bow down before the awesomeness that is Mission Of Burma, captured to video by the good people at The Phoenix while performing live at Great Scott earlier this month. The clip for "2wice" is particularly ferocious.

>> The opening of the new Islands track "The Arm" is very promising, and then the disco strings swarm. Man, we hate the disco strings. Otherwise, the song isn't a large departure from the quirky, scruffy indie rock on Islands' 2006 debut, Return To The Sea, which we reviewed here. But we're getting that sneaking feeling that this band is about to pass us by, and we're going to let it. We mean, come on, disco strings? If your name is not Jeff Lynne or if your band is not ELO, you shouldn't be getting mixed up with any of that. Nonetheless, Islands' sophomore set Arm's Way will be released by Rough Trade April 21.

>> At the opposite end of the spectrum, we love the new Chris Walla jam "Sing Again," and think the video posted at Stereogum here is quite entertaining. And some of the noisier production stuff going on in the midst of the catchy track gives us much encouragement that Mr. Walla's comments earlier this month about the forthcoming Death Cab For Cutie set being "polarizing," "dissonant" and "abrasive" weren't just lip service. Incidentally, The Cab Of Death disclosed this week that the title to its forthcoming set is titled Narrow Stairs. You can watch a little video clip hyping the record, which will be released in May, at the band's web site linked supra. It all sounds very promising. You can watch the video for Walla's "Sing Again" via the e-card for his record Field Manual posted here. The set was released this week.

>> More tomorrow about Paul McGuinness' speech at Midem and Say Hi's nice new track "Zero To Love," assuming we can squeeze it in before LOST is broadcast on the television.

Today's Hotness: Benge, Superman Revenge Squad, The A-Sides

>> As we loaded up the disc changer this morning with birthday brunch-appropriate Belle & Sebastian, our eyes wandered to the right in the row of CDs and noticed Benge's sublime platter of understated electronic music, Meme Tunes. It's a very fitting record for a quiet morning with a surprise inch or two of snow. Benge -- recommended if you like ISAN or the more bleepy Morr Music acts -- is the nom de clicks of British electronic music veteran and Expanding Records principal Ben Edwards. Meme Tunes was released in 2002 -- some four years after Benge issued a Very Best Of... set -- and we reviewed it for Junkmedia right here. Listening to and enjoying immensely the set this morning inspired us to check in at the Expanding Records web site and it appears Mr. Edwards' output slowed substantially after the release of Meme Tunes. After releasing nine records in six years or so, Benge has only issued one more; a tenth called I Am Nine was released in 2004 (the Expanding site refers to this a Benge's ninth record -- we guess the label doesn't count the Very Best Of... set). Last.FM has maddeningly short samples of the tracks on I Am Nine here. In case it is snowing where you are, here is an MP3 of "Adam-Age Loneliness" from Meme Tunes.

Benge -- "Adam-Age Loneliness" -- Meme Tunes
[right click and save as]
[buy Meme Tunes from Expanding Records here]

>> UK-based online music 'zine God Is In The TV will release a re-recorded version of Superman Revenge Squad's "Idiot Food" Feb. 18 as the fourth installment a free digital singles club, according to this blurb. The track is backed with new versions of "The Angriest Dog In The World" and "When Everyone's Dead." The boundlessly bitter and remarkably verbose Superman Revenue Squad's "Idiot Food" has to be our favorite song with the word "diarrhea" in it. Readers may recall we devoted a fair amount of digital ink to the Croydon, England act and its stellar pre-cursors Tempertwig and Nosferatu D2 last fall here, here and here. God Is In The TV pronounces that the new versions of the tracks sound ace, so we are eager to have a listen when the appointed date rolls around.

>> Philadelphia-based indie rocker The A-Sides launch another strand of tour dates at the end of February in support of their 2007 release Silver Storms, according to this item at Pun Canoes. We still haven't seen the band perform, despite following their trajectory for the last few years. As the dates posted below attest, this tour will not change that -- the band is heading due west from Philly. But one day... Silver Storms was one of a bunch of records we discussed in this post concerning 2007 releases we wish we'd had more time to write about.

02/20 -- State College, PA -- Bar Bleu
02/21 -- Cleveland, OH -- Grog Shop
02/22 -- Bloomington, IN -- Bear's Place
02/2 -- Chicago, IL -- Subterranean
02/24 -- Ames, IA -- Maintenance Shop
02/25 -- Milwaukee, W -- Mad Planet
02/26 -- Minneapolis, MN -- 7th Street Entry
02/27 -- Omaha, NE -- Slowdown
02/28 -- Lawrence, KS -- Replay Lounge
02/29 -- Denver, CO -- Hi Dive
03/01 -- Salt Lake City, UT -- Kilby Court
03/04 -- Portland, OR -- Holocene
03/05 -- San Francisco, CA -- Bottom of the Hill
03/06 -- Costa Mesa, CA -- Detroit Bar
03/07 -- Los Angeles, CA -- Spaceland
03/08 -- Upland, CA -- The Wire
03/10 -- Tucson, AZ -- Plush

>> We'll be back Wednesday.

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, Varsity Drag, Frightened Rabbit

>> Superlative Birmingham, England indie rock trio Johnny Foreigner is now streaming its explosive forthcoming single at the band's MySpace dojo here. As we've noted previously, "Our Bipolar Friends" b/w "The Houseparty Scene Is Killing You" will be released by Best Before Records March 10. You can already pre-order the single from HMV.com right here, which we did the other day despite the abysmal exchange rate and air mail charges. Careful reading of the recent flurry of MySpace bulletins come from the band and label yields other tidbits of information. The forthcoming full-length is as-yet untitled, although the most recent message from the label suggests the set might be self-titled -- or maybe the author just likes to put single quotes around the band name for some reason. We could certainly come up with several title suggestions (One More Failed Suicide Attempt, or Tape The Letterbox Shut, and so on). More importantly, the band reports just finishing the recording and mixing this week, which would certainly seem an important step in getting the thing released and into our stereo. The very good news is the band is coming back to America; the bad news for us is that the "several" dates are at South By Southwest, which is decidedly not driving distance from Boston. Maybe they can squeeze a Boston or New York date in on their way back from SXSW? Check out all the band's tour dates with Los Campesinos! and Young Knives here. Lastly, we love this ad slick at left that the band is using right now that is a variation of sorts on the art for the single. The disgruntled ghost in the foreground is our favorite.

>> We question whether we'll have the energy after a late night last night, but Ben Deily's Varsity Drag performs at Midway Cafe in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston tonight. Deily, readers may recall, co-fronted the early, punker iteration of The Lemonheads with Evan Dando, and in our opinion contributed some of the strongest material to the classic sets Hate Your Friends, Lick and Creator. Varsity Drag performs a lot of this early Lemonheads material [YouTube clip from a recent European date here], and we are determined to see the act live at some point. Varsity Drag released For Crying Out Loud in 2006. Based on the absurdly high prices for used copies we've found online ($17-$50), it would seem the record is out of print, which explains why we can never find it at Newbury Comics. Damn it. Fortunately you can stream a lot of the tunes at Varsity Drag's MySpace wigwam here.

>> Not sure if we've reported this before: Glaswegian powerfolk trio Frightened Rabbit's sophomore set The Midnight Organ Fight will be released on Fat Cat April 1. The title comes from a line in the dramatic number "Fast Blood," which fans may recall was first released digitally via EMusic as part of a stellar, powerful live collection of recordings made at last year's SXSW. Angry Ape has a full run-down here on the run-up to the release, which includes the release March 3 of a single for the fantastic number "Heads Roll Off." The surprisingly danceable number will be backed with a tune we've yet to hear, "Set You Free." The Ape also has a track listing, and we're pleased to see "The Twist" and "My Backwards Walk" making the cut. The cataclysmic shouter "The Modern Leper" leads off the record, and the good people of IODA PromoNet are hosting an MP3 of the track that we link to below.

Frightened Rabbit
"The Modern Leper" (mp3)
from "The Midnight Organ Fight"
(Fat Cat Records)

More On This Album

>> Shape-shifting pop genius Kurt Heasley makes another rare appearance with his band Lilys tonight in Joshua Tree, California. We'll be scouring YouTube for clips tomorrow.

Review: "Inside The Smiths" DVD

Nearly as legendary as the music of The Smiths itself is the acrimonious relations between the principal members of the Manchester quartet. Particularly germane here is the discord between the rhythm section, comprised of drummer Mike Joyce and bassist Andy Rourke, and the chief songwriters, the enigmatic fronter Stephen Patrick Morrissey and guitar hero (and now Modest Mouse sideman) Johnny Marr. For a primer on the State of All Things Legal Regarding The Smiths read this 2005 missive that Morrissey posted to superlative fan site True To You. The relations between the factions of the defunct group, which fractured 21 years ago, is paramount in contextualizing "Inside The Smiths," released today by MVD.

The documentary is presented from the vantage point of Mssrs. Joyce and Rourke, a point emphasized repeatedly by odd interstitials of a weathered bass guitar flying through cityscapes. It only takes seven minutes for Mr. Rourke to raise the issue of the lawsuit. And the lawsuit, we expect, is a primary reason why there are no actual Smiths songs used in the documentary. The legal hurdle must be responsible for the curious spectacle of Mr. Rourke playing the bass part to "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" halfway through the film while he listens to the song on headphones, so that all the viewer hears is his live bass playing, and not the full composition. And so the soundtrack to "Inside The Smiths" is comprised of quasi-Smiths musical wallpaper from the "fifth Smith," Aztec Camera guitarist -- and Smiths second guitarist on the The Queen Is Dead tour -- Craig Gannon, with additional contributions from The Doves and New Order bassist Peter Hook's act Monaco.

All that aside, Joyce and Rourke's willingness to share details and take viewers on tour of the places where important events transpired makes "Inside The Smiths" immensely watchable. For those of us hardly of an age to have much firsthand experience of the rapid rise and fall of The Smiths between 1982 and 1987, eyewitness accounts of incidents such as Rourke's heroin problem and ejection from the band; Marr's surprise departure from the band and Morrissey and Joyce's efforts in its wake; Joyce's tales of ingesting psychotropic mushrooms just prior to auditioning for the band; and a brief, tantalizing look into a cardboard box of Joyce's at 56 cassettes of never released material and other such fodder is really quite interesting.

Of course with all band members still living the discussion of a reunion is inevitable. The filmmakers let much of the pro-reunion sentiment come out of the mouths out of incidental commentators, some wide-eyed scribe and a San Francisco street busker, although Joyce and Rourke aren't above mentioning that such an occurrence isn't out of the question. Even so, the yearning for a reformed Smiths comes off alternately as very naive or coldly calculated, depending on who's talking about it. Certainly Joyce and Rourke have much to gain from simply the possibility having currency among fans. Rourke sums up at one point, "I'm still kind of picking up the pieces, now, do you know what I mean? You know, I've been in a lot of different bands, but I suppose I'm still picking up the pieces from that day when The Smiths split up." Given reports that Morrissey turned down millions of dollars to participate in a reunion last year, the safe money is on no reunion. And with Morrissey turning out the best music of his post-Smiths life on his most recent set, The Ringleader Of The Tormentors, who can blame him?

Purchase "Inside The Smiths" from MVD right here.

Today's Hotness: David & The Citizens, Small Factory, Silkworm

>> Friendly Fire Records brings news that Swedish indie pop luminaries David & The Citizens have returned with a free four-song digital EP entitled I Saw My Reflection And I Didn't Recognize MySelf. The set -- self-released about a month ago in tandem with fronter David Fridlund's birthday -- contains four piano-anchored winners whose strongest tracks are the dark, cinematic ballad "Anything" and the opener "With Every New Day." Both tracks are certainly worth a lot more than free, but who are we to refuse the largesse of the prolific Mr. Fridlund? The former song reminds us obliquely of Shout Out Louds' epic album closer "Hard Rain," at least in tone. According to a jpg'd letter in the .zip file that contains the songs [1, 2, 3], David & The Citizens at this point is simply Fridlund, as his band members quit en masse last February. But Fridlund is adamant that David & The Citizens is still an entity until he himself quits the band, an action he strongly considered but ultimately rejected last year.

We most recently wrote here about David & The Citizens on the occasion of Friendly Fire's U.S. release of Until The Sadness Is Gone in late 2006. Well, in the interest of accuracy and now that we've actually looked, we most recently wrote here about the availability of the band's Stop The Tape! Stop The Tape! at EMusic around the same time. The entirety of I Saw My Reflection And I Didn't Recognize Myself is available as a zip file. The link is posted below, along with an MP3 of "Anything" to whet your appetite. David & The Citizens' web site contains a bounty of music you can stream and download; hit this link and be prepared to lose the better part of an hour.

David & The Citizens -- "Anything" -- I Saw My Reflection And I Didn't Recognize Myself
[right click and save as]
[download the entire EP as a .zip here]
[buy David & The Citizens records from Adrian Recordings here]

>> In the wake of our referencing Small Factory and The Godrays last week we've come across a couple things of interest. First, our friend Matt has posted streams of the two Small Factory full-lengths I Do Not Love You and For If You Cannot Fly here and here respectively. So if you are trapped at your computo and need some exemplary indie rock, there you go. Another thing: while we linked to the Sit-N-Spin label page for The Godrays last week, we made no mention that there are three MP3s posted there from the Godrays final EP Well Composed Death Notice, including the powerful closer "Shark Shaped Ship." We'll post that track below, but hit the link supra to grab MP3s for "Hope This Makes Sheryl Crow Happy" and "Poor Grace" from the EP. And finally, we were able to track via New Jersey's Greatest Living DJ a copy of the "Small Factory Live!" VHS a year or two ago. After some delay, H-Dawg From Accounts Receivable was able to get the VHS converted to DVD for us, and we're thinking that some time soon we'll try to get the thing ripped and posted to YouTube. We've never ripped video before, so if anybody can bullet point it for us in an email, that'd be hot.

The Godrays -- "Shark Shaped Ship" -- Well Composed Death Notice
[right click and save as]
[buy Godrays recordings from Sit-N-Spin here]

>> Habitual readers know that we here at Clicky Clicky keep one eagle eye steadily on Bradley's Almanac, for obvious reasons. We're here to remind you to maintain a zen-quality focus on the site for a post relating to some outstanding acoustic -- and at least for us hard to find -- Silkworm recordings that Mr. 'Nac and we had occasion to discuss over the weekend after said songs popped into our head. We had had the four songs on a tape back in the day, but found ourselves coming up short when perusing our two beer boxes full of cassettes.

Today's Hotness: Ringo Deathstarr, The Notwist, Daytrotter

>> Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you above the new Ringo Deathstarr video for the Jesus And Mary Chain-arific track "Some Kind Of Sad." It's quirky, in kind of a "Lovecats" vein. Scroll down to our earlier item listing The Deathstarr's upcoming tour dates. The other really good video we encountered today is for the new Morrissey jam, "That's How People Grow Up," which will be included on a forthcoming hits package from the fabled former Smiths fronter. The clip makes us want to see him perform even more than when we posted (and unposted) "The First Of The Gang To Die" here. Watch "That's How People Grow Up" at Pantsfork here.

>> Bradley's Almanac's excellent 2008 preview contains some particularly exciting news for us: there will be a new Notwist record this spring. At least according to the Notwist-Ultras.com blog, which we had never encountered before. A post there in late November reported that the recording was completed and that the set was being mastered in November and December 2007. The name of the new set, which will be The Notwist's sixth, has not yet been disclosed, but it will likely be released by City Slang in April or May. Longtime fans will be interested to note that founding drummer Martin Messerschmidt has left The Notwist, and that drumming in the new record was executed by Masha Qrella and Saroos timekeeper Andreas Haberl. Mr. Haberl will also drum on planned German tour dates. We reviewed the excellent DVD "On | Off The Record," which memorialized the making of Notwist's superlative 2002 set Neon Golden, right here last February. The Notwist contributed to the excellent Morr compilation Putting The Morr Back In Morrissey, which was released in 2000. We're posting their selection, a clicktronic instrumental called "Scoop," below.

The Notwist -- "Scoop" -- Putting The Morr Back In Morrissey
[right click and save as]
[buy Notwist recordings from Newbury Comics here]

>> We think the sidebar to this Des Moines Register piece about Wolfgang's Vault's purchase of a majority stake in Daytrotter.com has the most interesting information. Daytrotter plans to record more well-known artists (Death Cab For Cutie and Stephen Malkmus are offered as examples); remove older recordings from the web site and sell them as high-quality MP3s; and press certain recording sessions to limited edition (500-1,000 copies) vinyl LPs. Which all sound like excellent ideas to us. Kudos to you, Daytrotter.

Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Evangelicals, Ringo Deathstarr

>> [photo credit: Ringo Deathstarr live by Fred Holten]

>> So remember the other day when we were noting that conspicuously absent from the press info surrounding the impending release of Evangelicals' sophomore set was any tour dates? For a reminder, scroll down. It turns out we were just slightly ahead of our time, as a ridiculously thorough tour has just been announced. Evangelicals will bring their traveling circus of psych rock to the Middle East in Cambridge Feb. 27; the full itinerary is below. As we stated in our review of a 2006 show, "the difference between Evangelicals and the rest of the bands that you see in the middle of a bill on a Wednesday night at an established rock club in a major American city (besides the fact that Evangelicals are awesome), is that the band brings its own smoke machine. And red and green lights and piles of plastic flowers."

02/15 -- Columbia, MO -- Mojo's
02/16 -- Lexington, KY -- The Icehouse
02/17 -- Nashville, TN -- The End
02/18 -- Athens, GA -- The Caledonia Lounge
02/19 -- Mt. Pleasant, SC -- Village Tavern
02/20 -- Norfolk, VA -- The Boot
02/21 -- Arlington, VA -- Iota
02/24 -- New York, NY -- Mercury Lounge
02/25 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Johnny Brenda's
02/26 -- Hamden, CT -- The Space
02/27 -- Cambridge, MA -- Middle East
02/28 -- Princeton, NJ -- Terrace Club
02/29 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Union Hall
03/01 -- Buffalo, NY -- Mohawk Place
03/02 -- Toronto, ON -- El Mocambo
03/03 -- Cleveland, OH -- Beachland
03/04 -- Bloomington, IN -- Waldron Arts Center
03/06 -- Urbana, IL -- Canopy Club
03/07 -- Chicao, IL -- Schuba's
03/08 -- St. Louis, MO -- Bilken Club
03/09 -- Springfield, MO -- Randy Beacon Gallery
03/10 -- Norman, OK -- Opolis
03/11 -- Dallas, TX -- The Cavern
03/12 -- Austin, TX -- SXSW
03/13 -- Austin, TX -- SXSW
03/14 -- Austin, TX -- SXSW
03/15 -- Austin, TX -- SXSW
03/17 -- Tucson, AZ -- Plush
03/19 -- Los Angeles, CA -- Silver Lake Lounge
03/20 -- Visalia, CA -- Howie & Sons
03/21 -- San Francisco, CA -- Hemlock Tavern
03/23 -- Seattle, WA -- Nectar Lounge
03/24 -- Missoula, MT -- Badlander
03/26 -- Salt Lake City, UT -- Kilby Court
03/27 -- Denver, CO -- Hi Dive
03/28 -- Omaha, NE -- Waiting Room
03/29 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Nomad
03/30 -- Milwaukee, WI -- Cactus Club
04/01 -- Dekalb, IL -- House Cafe
04/02 -- Madison, WI -- Club 770
04/03 -- Iowa City, IA -- The Mill
04/04 -- Lake Forest, IL -- The Chapel
04/05 -- Beloit, WI -- Beloit College

>> That Evangelicals date in Cambridge we note supra sounded dangerously close to the date of shoegaze dynamos Ringo Deathstarr's area appearance, so we surfed over to the band's MySpace tent to make sure we weren't heading for a conflict. Fortunately, we're not. As you can see below, Ringo Deathstarr will be blowing the walls down at the Abbey Lounge in Cambridge Feb. 25. It seems the end of February will be quite a busy time for :: clicky clicky :: live show reportage. When it rains, it reports (Colbert pronunciation, please). The Deathstarr will be hopscotching here and back to Texas via Brooklyn at the end of next month, and all current live commitments are listed at the bottom of this item. The band's eponymous EP was among our favorite records of 2007. One tune you won't find on that excellent EP is the demo for "Your Town," which the band is once again giving away at MySpace. We'll save you the trip and post it below. We're not sure how many Small Factory/Godrays fans we have out there, but the breathy vocal of "Your Town" reminds us very much of the odd and beautiful Godrays song sketch "Carkeys, Ponytail and Gum" that closed out the Providence, RI-spawned act's enjoyable Songs For T.V. Stars. Oh how we miss the combined efforts of Alex Kemp and Phoebe Summersqash. To prove it, we're posting that Godrays song below as well.

Ringo Deathstarr -- "Your Town (Demo)"
The Godrays -- "Carkeys, Ponytail And Gum" -- Songs For T.V. Stars
[right click and save as]
[buy the Ringo Deathstarr EP here]
[buy Godrays records from Sit-N-Spin here]

01/22 -- Emo’s Lounge -- Austin, Texas
02/09 -- Vortex -- Beaumont, Texas
02/10 -- Emo’s Inside -- Austin, Texas
02/22 -- Brillo Box -- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
02/23 -- The Tank -- New York, New York
02/25 -- Abbey Lounge -- Cambridge, Massachusetts
02/26 -- Glasslands -- Brooklyn, New York