Blog: The Catbirdseat

My friends Chris, Dave, Paul, and Keith, aka Orchestraville have finished their first new album in 3 years. They've always had a XTC-y sort of vibe, but this new one, Poison Berries , is said to have a British Invasion-y feel. Poison Berries is out in June on Anyway , and here are mp3s: ::: Phil Ochs' Flag ::: ::: Half and Half ::: Though I missed her performance in Austin, I did smoke [...]

Ok, let's try this. Site wonkiness should be under control now, but no promises. Let me know if anything explodes. The May Mix is up. Steve from Unbunny graciously contributed the nice banner this month; many thanks, Steve. Anybody else see that Hitchhiker's Guide movie? Was it just me, or was that Neil Hannon singing the closing song? (Actually, guess it wasn't just me ).

That's it, this is ridiculous. New hosting service, here I come... The Sunset Tree is out today. You should go out and pick it up. And Pitchfork is right about those 4 opening tracks. Amazing. The Big Ticket and TTIKTDA...

Worst. Server. Ever. I know, I know. Philly's R5 Productions has a great reputation for bringing shows to the Philly area, but I think they're also about to get a great reputation for having a swell page of downloadable mp3s...

Check out a track from Phosphorescent's forthcoming Aw Come Aw Wry (out in June on Misra). ::: Joe Tex, These Taming Blues ::: A few weeks ago, this guy at a bar told me that I should check out Cincinnati's...

Today, I'm listening to the title track from Lewis and Clarke's Bare Bones and Branches: ::: Bare Bones and Branches ::: The record originally came out in Europe in 2003, but a new US limited-edition is now available from Summersteps...

Dino Jr. dates announced. New Spoon interview over at Popmatters. New Shins video for Pink Bullets. You know the kids go crazy for the Bloc Party, so here's a link that Grant sent over: She's Hearing Voices (live @ sxsw)....

A few more tracks from The Early Years, the upcoming Sparrow (Jason Zumpano) album: ::: This Is How It's Done ::: ::: Gone ::: If you missed it the first time around, here's the so-excellent title track. The Lame Drivers....

I think it's been years, literally, since my taste has synced up with Matthew Fluxblog's, owing mainly to the fact that his tastes tend toward the more exotic, while mine stay more in the realm of lame-o indie rock. But...

Pre-order Spoon's Gimme Fiction and you'll get a bonus disc featuring the tracks "Carryout Kids", "You Was It", "I Summon You (demo)", and "Sister Jack (demo)". That Black Mountain Druganaut single that originally came out on 12" vinyl is coming...

Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy came out Tuesday, and I'm surprised I haven't seen more press on it. It's pretty good, and has grabbed me a lot faster than any of their previous releases. I've been rocking "For Real" for...

We caught the Jason Anderson show here in Columbus last week, and it was great. He got booked at the armpit of the Columbus (ostensibly), but dammit, he really made the best of it. M. Buzzi turned in this review:...

New mix is finally up, thanks again to S. Finch for the banner. I'm assuming everyone's already checked out Tiny Showcase and signed up for the mailing list and all that, right? Everyone's buzzin' b/c the new Spoon disc comes...

The site downtime I mentioned last month is probably going to happen in the next 72 hours, so I don't expect to have the April Mix up until next week. S. Finch did a swell banner for the mix, btw,...

::: Spoon - I Turn My Camera On :::...

I somehow missed the fact that Jason Zumpano had a band after Zumpano, but a cursory googling turned up evidence of a few discs by "Sparrow" (as well as the standard 'Fork savaging (plus also Kempa's Zumpano Rarities page)). Anyway,...

Double-albums can be kind of irksome. Often, they can seem to be a mark or extreme egotism, hubris, and sheer excess. But not always. Sometimes it just takes 2 albums to say what you've gotta say. Case in point: the...