Gorillas Are Way Smart

Further proof that a gorilla would destroy a bear (hypothetically speaking, of course):

"AP-- For the first time, biologists have documented gorillas in the wild using simple tools, such as poking a stick in a swampy pool of water to check its depth.

Until now, scientists had seen gorillas use tools only in captivity. Among the great apes, tool use in the wild was thought to be a survival skill reserved for smaller chimpanzees and orangutans."

Read more about gorillas using tools here.

Speaking of tools, go visit Dodge's blog
(sorry man, i'm running out of ways to link you)

Related mp3s:


Minus the Bear Hooray mp3
Minus the Bear Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!! mp3

You Crashed Your Heart Into Mine

I initially checked out Biirdie only because I heard they covered a song ("We Can't Work It Out") by one of my favorite bands (Saturday Looks Good To Me). Well it turns out this is one of those bands you can fall in love with after hearing only a couple songs.

The band has garnered numerous Bright Eyes comparisons, apparently based solely on frontman Jared's voice, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Conor Oberst's. Maybe if Conor was a little less whiny and went on a major Beach Boys-listening binge, he would be capable of creating songs like these.

I can't stop listening to these two tracks, and I'm pretty confident you guys will like them too. PopMatters describes the band's sound as "trippy chamber pop", citing Jared Flamm's "classy song writing coupled with a strong Phil Spector/Brian Wilson-like production".

Highly recommended, to say the least. Buy the album here.

Biirdie Estelle mp3
Biirdie We Can't Work It Out (SLGTM cover) mp3

Be the band's Myspace friend.

Also:

Finest Dearest's debut EP, Pacemaker, is now available on their website (only $5.50!!). Buy it here.

Finest Dearest Sleep Until The Weekend mp3

Thumbsucker Premiere Party

I realize this is like my 8th post on this film, but I've heard great things about it and the soundtrack is amazing. The Dallas Premiere Party for Thumbsucker is tomorrow night at 9:30 at the Angelika Theater, and Tim DeLaughter and other members of The Polyphonic Spree will be on hand for a brief Q & A. Rumor has it they will also be performing a song or two from the film. Read more details here, and get tickets here.

Also:

Go to Dodge's blog. It doesn't suck.

Beat Radio

NYC's Beat Radio will be playing at Sin-e on Saturday night (Oct. 1). This song (from their upcoming The Ecstatic EP) has been growing on me all week. Check it out:

Beat Radio Treetops (EP Version) mp3

Download some Beat Radio demos:

Beat Radio Elegy mp3
Beat Radio Million Miles mp3

Also:

We have a rare dilemma for Dallas coming up on Oct. 12. Three shows we really want to see on the same night. Albums from all three artists will likely end up on my year-end Top 20. This never happens here, so obviously we are really confused and have no idea which one to attend. Please vote on the left side of the blog for which show you want to see pics and a review of. Since we are completely incapable of deciding for ourselves, we'll do whatever you guys want.

Bonus--the new Metric single (via Filter):


Metric Monster Hospital mp3

Tonight

We'll be at The Cavern tonight at 10 PM for the Fruit Bats and Ghosty show. If you're in Dallas I highly recommend you attend. Both of these bands are great, but if you need further convincing, here are some mp3s:


Fruit Bats Lives of Crime
Fruit Bats A Bit of Wind


Ghosty I Know What's Best
Ghosty Big Surrender
Ghosty (In A Big World) Little Dreams Count
Ghosty Clouds Solve It (feat. Wayne Coyne)

The Cobra Snake

The Cobra Snake was at ACL, and of course, he got pics (including the above photo of the Arcade Fire; click photo to enlarge). Dodge got to meet him and I remember him saying something about how he thought Cobra looked hot in his short shorts. Anyway, check out his photos from ACL here.

The Go! Team

Just a quick reminder that the U.S. version of The Go! Team's debut album, Thunder Lightning Strike, is released on October 4th. One difference is the inclusion of this track, one of my favorite from the band: (follow link)

The Go! Team We Just Won't Be Defeated mp3

Watch the video for The Go! Team's "Bottle Rocket" here (via Filter)

Go! see the Go! Team @ Trees on Oct. 15.


Buy the album too. It's good, and now you don't have to pay the import price.

Also:

Dodge has his first ACL recap up. Check it out.

Eisley

One band we saw at ACL that I forgot to mention was Eisley. Their sound has matured in the few years since I first saw them perform as MossEisley, and I'm always impressed by their incredible vocal harmonies. Plus, the new material they debuted at ACL was slightly darker than previous stuff and sounded really great. If you don't know these East Texas girls (and boys) yet, this fan site is a good place to start. Here are a couple of my favorite Eisley songs that cannot be found on their debut LP:

Over The Mountains mp3
Laughing City mp3
Pretender mp3

Get more rare live and unreleased Eisley tracks here

Elsewhere...

Kevin has his first ACL recap up (Thursday and Friday), complete w/ pics and review. I told you guys it would be better than mine.

ACL Recap

This weekend was amazing, and unfortunately I don't have time today to do a full review (coming back to work after a four day weekend sucks). So I'll spare you all the details and just give you some highlights:

• First of all, as you may have noticed from the pics, we had backstage V.I.P. passes to the Heineken stage. This made our entire weekend. Free beer and water, free food, and most importantly, free shade. Thank you so much Mel!
• Eating BBQ in Austin w/ the Arcade Fire and sushi in Dallas w/ the Walkmen. Okay not really with them, but at the tables right next to them. Members of both bands were really nice, in case you were wondering.
• Getting to hang out w/ Dodge and Kevin (and their wives) was awesome. All really great people. And you should check out their blogs because I'm sure their recaps and photos will be better than mine.
• The heat and dust were insane, even by Texas standards. Sunday was the hottest day of the year so far in Austin. I believe the official temperature was like 120 or something.
• Getting to see Melissa's favorite band for the first time, Mates of State. They were really energetic and fun, and their new songs sounded awesome.
• My boy Jesse spending most of the weekend watching football in our hotel room, yet still managing to make it out there to see almost all the bands he wanted to see, including Bloc Party, Oasis, The Black Keys, and Coldplay.
• Seeing the dude in Split Lip Rayfield play what appeared to be an old gas tank with weedeater strings, and actually making it sound good. (Angela got a great picture, so hopefully she'll hook me up so you can see what I'm talking about).
• Seeing Rilo Kiley from backstage. Jenny Lewis looked hot and seemed to be in a great mood despite playing at what was probably the hottest time of the day.
• The Black Keys. Wow. After seeing them twice this weekend, I'm still not exactly sure how two white boys from Akron, OH, make noise like that.
• Seeing the Arcade Fire two more times in three days. The Stubb's show was one of the best shows I've ever seen. They were great at ACL too, but the crowd was pretty lame. Just a bunch of people standing around.
• Coldplay's Chris Martin mentioning how great the Arcade Fire is at least 5 times during their set.
• Best sets of the festival (that I saw): Rilo Kiley, Kaiser Chiefs, The Walkmen, The Arcade Fire, and The motherfu**ing Black Keys, who are now one of my favorite bands. By the way you can download mp3s of their ACL set right here.

Now there's probably a ton of stuff I'm leaving out. But I'm sure Dodge and Kevin will fill you in when they get home.

My ACL Photos

I'm back from Austin, and I'm too exhausted to do a write-up/review of the festival today, so I'm just going to post some pics from the weekend. We had an awesome time, which I'll get into a little more tomorrow. Make sure to check Dodge and Kevin's blogs in the next couple of days, because they got some really amazing pics that are much better than mine. The Arcade Fire and Black Keys pics are from their show at Stubb's on Friday, which was one of the highlights of the weekend, and the rest of the pics are from the festival. Enjoy:

The Black Keys & Arcade Fire at Stubb's:








dios (malos):



Mates of State:


Kaiser Chiefs:



Rilo Kiley:




M83:


The Walkmen:

All These Days Just Melt Into Tomorrows

Okay one more post before I go:

I'm sure most of you heard about JetBlue Flight 292's emergency landing yesterday at LAX in which passengers watched the drama unfold via the satellite TV on their inflight TV screens. Luckily disaster was averted, but imagine watching your life unfold on live television and not knowing whether you were going to live or die. Pretty scary. Anyway, I thought this was pretty interesting:


From the CNN.com article:

Zachary Mastoon of New York said it was "surreal" to watch his plane's fate being discussed on live TV while it was in the air. At one point, he said, he tried to call his family, but his cell phone call wouldn't go through.

"I wanted to call my dad to tell him I'm alive so far," the 27-year-old musician said.

Well I Googled Zachary Mastoon and found out that he makes experimental hip hop (think Four Tet or Prefuse 73) under the name of Caural (check the Pitchfork review). Really cool stuff. Here's a couple mp3s:

Caural All These Days Just Melt Into Tomorrows mp3
Caural Lime Green Transfer mp3
Caural Aquarium mp3
Caural Dead Armies mp3

This is Not Good

Updated image as of 1 p.m. Eastern (looks like Austin is out of the direct path...still will likely see bad weather on Sat.):


Holy shit. The above image can't be good for our weekend plans. Now I realize our weekend plans are relatively inconsequential in the grand scheme of thangs, but it still sucks. Nevertheless, I'm leaving for Austin this afternoon and we are going to make the best of it. Should be a fun weekend, despite that dirty, dirty whore Rita. One good thing about all this hurricane coverage...you can never have too much Stephanie Abrams:


Anyway, I hope to make a few updates from Austin, complete with photos from ACL and the numerous other shows we'll be attending. But we'll see. I may just end up doing a huge recap on Monday. I'll leave you with a few tracks I've been rocking a lot lately...follow them links:

Devendra Banhart Lazy Butterfly mp3
(Probably the creepiest of many creepy tracks by Devendra, and one of my favorite from Cripple Crow)

Wolf Parade This Heart's On Fire mp3
(one of the best tracks off their upcoming album...sounds a little like Beck fronting Modest Mouse)

Metric Empty mp3
(opening track from Live It Out; such a good song)

Detroit Cobras Last Nite (The Strokes cover) mp3
(count me as one of those who like The Strokes' new single. Here my Detroit players cover The Strokes' first single)

The Black Angels

ACL (or Mudfest 2005, thanks to Hurricane Rita, which is now a Category 4 storm) is only two days away. Here's the last in my installment of Austin bands you should check out. Coincidentally (or maybe not so much) these guys will also be playing a few ACL After parties that I will try to coerce Dodge and Kevin into attending:


The Black Angels are from Austin, TX. And they will be opening for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and The Hourly Radio at their Dallas show @ Gypsy on Oct. 12. These guys (and girls) have a healthy obsession with the Velvet Underground and Nico, and the obsession manifests itself in their droning, drugged out brand of psych rock. And that's a good thing. Plus it makes for some ill concert posters. Here are some mp3s, courtesy of the band's website:

black grease
bloodhounds on my trail
doves
syd barrett blues

Buy the EP and other assorted merch here.

Stubbs the Zombie + Rza & MF Doom

So this game called Stubbs the Zombie is coming out for Xbox on October 18th. The premise of the game as I understand it: you're a zombie named Stubbs who goes around killing humans. And it's the 1950's.

Why should I care about some video game, you ask? The soundtrack kicks ass, that's why. '50's tunes covered by some of today's best indie bands. I will be buying both the game and the soundtrack. Check the entire tracklist here.

Here are a couple of my favorite songs from the soundtrack (follow link):

The Raveonettes My Boyfriends Back mp3
Rogue Wave Everyday mp3

Links removed @ request of Shout Factory.

Go here to view a preview video and hear more tracks from the album, including Ben Kweller's great cover of "Lollipop" and Death Cab's "Earth Angel".

Preorder the soundtrack here.
Preorder the game here.

Super bonus:


I posted about this the other day, and here it is, courtesy of Spine Magazine:

MF Doom and Rza Biochemical Equation mp3

Creativity Now

I received an email about Tokion Magazine's (which I love) 3rd Annual Creativity Now Conference in NYC on Oct. 15-16. I highly recommend attending if you have the chance. This year's diverse line-up of speakers includes notable names such as Todd Haynes, Ondi Timoner (Dig!), David Cross, Neal Brennan (Chappelle's Show), and of special interest to the blogosphere, Antony from Antony & the Johnsons. Check out the whole lineup and ticket info here.

Also...


Run DMC has re-issued 4 of their classic albums, complete with unreleased bonus tracks such as demos, live performances, single B-sides, and remixes. Check out the re-issues here. Here are a couple unreleased remixes, courtesy of Wiredset.

Run DMC Run DMC (Pete Rock megamix) mp3
Run DMC King of Rock (Charlie Chan megamix) mp3

The Kingsbury Manx

Thanks to Kevin for the heads up on these guys. Think The Shins, Calexico, Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, etc. Yeah these guys are awesome.

Oh yeah, and they're opening for Wilco this Saturday at their sold-out show at Stubb's in Austin. Can anybody hook a blogger up w/ tickets?

The Kingsbury Manx's The Fast Rise and Fall of the South comes out today (buy it). Here are a couple tracks from the new album: (follow link)

The Kingsbury Manx What A Shame mp3 (this one comes w/ Kevin's highest recommendation...great song)

The Kingsbury Manx Harness and Wheel mp3

Bonus (from previous efforts, via the band's website):

The Kingsbury Manx Pelz Komet mp3
The Kingsbury Manx Grape To Grain mp3
The Kingsbury Manx Over The Waves mp3

In ACL news...

If you're going to ACL (or even if you're not) you need to check out Janet's ACL previews. She did a great job previewing every single band that's going to be playing ACL this year.

Nastradoomus

I know a lot of y'all have been looking for this, and I finally copped it, so here are a couple of tracks. MF Doom remixes of Nas tracks. Should be enough description for you.

(follow link)

Nastradoomus Street Dreams mp3
Nastradoomus Hate Me Now mp3
Nastradoomus One Love mp3

nice and nicely done

Your boy (and mine) Dodge posted on these dudes the other day, so this post may or may not be necessary, but god damn if The Spinto Band doesn't make some of the most instantly likeable and unescapably infectious songs in recent memory. Seriously. I love these guys. Buy this record.

The Spinto Band Oh Mandy mp3
The Spinto Band Crack the Whip mp3
The Spinto Band Brown Boxes mp3

Also...

Check out Stranded In Stereo, a pretty cool new website (that I will be contributing to) featuring music/film reviews and more. While you're there, check out my first published review. Of course they spelled my name wrong, but I ain't complaining.

Bosque Brown

Bosque Brown is Texas singer-songwriter Lara Lee Miller. Discovered by Damien Jurado, who says Miller's voice combines "...the heartache of Kitty Wells and the lonesome howl of Robert Johnson", Miller's music is perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Here's what Junkmedia had to say:

"Like contemporaries Scout Niblett and Joanna Newsom, her songs are paragons of slow-dance pith: beautifully simple, and simply beautiful."

Listen:

Bosque Brown Still Afraid mp3
Bosque Brown Red Roses mp3
Bosque Brown Went Walking mp3
Bosque Brown You Said mp3

Buy it here.

M.I.A. Live in Austin

Continuing in my long line of subpar Saturday posts, here are my photos from last night's M.I.A. show in Austin. Since the venue didn't allow cameras, however, I had to make due with Melissa's camera phone. And although you'd never know it from these pics, the show was actually really great. The crowd was into it, and M.I.A. was awesome.

My only problem was with the venue: no cameras allowed (what the fu**?), bright lights shining directly into M.I.A.'s and the crowds faces, which she repeatedly asked to be turned off (to no avail), and busted mics and other assorted technical difficulties. Still, we had fun. And we were practically on stage, which was cool. Anyway, here are my crappy pics. Of course the ones of Spank Rock and the other chick turned out great, only the ones of M.I.A. turned out like shit.

Biochemical Equation

One more hip hop post before I take off for the weekend:


Just a quick heads up to check this out...Hip hop dream team MF Doom and RZA release the track Biochemical Equation (produced by RZA) from Think Differently Music via iTunes on Sept. 20. Should be good.

Also:

A lot of people hate The Streets, but Mike Skinner is my boy. And this kicks ass:

The Streets & Bloc Party Banquet Remix mp3

New Fiddy track taken from his upcoming film, Get Rich Or Die Tryin'. I guess this track is supposed to be his Lose Yourself

(via Spinemagazine.com):

50 cent Hustler's Ambition mp3

Some White Boy Sure To Imitate That

We will be making the trip to Austin this evening to see M.I.A. (check her new website) and Spankrock at La Zona Rosa. Who is Spankrock, you ask?



Spankrock, who started as a solo MC from B-more, but is now flanked by his DJ and a female MC named Amanda, has been described as "part MF Doom, part 2 Live Crew" A typical Spankrock live show is allegedly a little, ummm, sexually charged. What do you expect from a group whose hit song is called "Put That Pu**y On Me"?

Spankrock Put That Pu**y On Me mp3 (follow link)

Bonus:

Go to M.I.A.'s website to download acapella versions of her songs.

Extra Bonus--New Ghostface:

Ghostface Killah Be Easy mp3

Empty Rooms

I posted on Finest Dearest the other day, and it's nice to see them getting love around the other blogs...although the increased traffic to their website killed their bandwidth for a minute there. They even made it onto elbo.ws' "Top 10 Artists" list. Couldn't happen to a nicer band. Coincidentally, their song, "Sleep Until The Weekend" remains in heavy rotation on the Nano. In case you missed it the first time:

Finest Dearest Sleep Until The Weekend mp3


In related band news, if you liked Finest Dearest (which I know you did), check out Empty Rooms. These guys are from San Francisco, and they show much promise for a band that just released their debut EP. Aquarius Records says:

"The band oozes with composure as they unfurl their solemnly brooding, verging on goth style of rock. They'll undoubtably draw plenty comparisons to the moody likes of Interpol..."

Carly from Finest Dearest contributed vocals on "Form Has Two Faces", and both of these tracks are really good:

Empty Rooms Form Has Two Faces mp3
Empty RoomsTry Again mp3

Buy Empty Rooms' self-titled Ep here.
Check out the band's Myspace page.

The Roots + Deerhoof + TV On The Radio

How kickass would this show be, and it's for an important cause...if you're in Philly Friday night I suggest you go:


The Roots Clones mp3 (follow link--highly recommended)

Deerhoof Wrong Time Capsule mp3 (via Dreams of Horses)

TVOTR Dry Drunk Emporer mp3

Bonus:

Blackalicious Your Move mp3

Sufjan B-Sides and way more megapost

Katrina Kerns (best photo ever by Brooklyn Vegan)

Dude how bad does it suck that Sufjan's current tour isn't coming within 500