Blog: The Tripwire

Photography by Jimi Patterson silent xx sex everyone was making out grinding to "Islands" More photos after the bump! Jack Peñate Chairlift The xx

Not sure if it will include the rendering of the above jewel case, or if it'll simply be that photo of actor Jorge Garcia alone. We vote for the former. Hurley will be out September 15 on Epitaph , their first for an independent label. (via Spinner )

Show this to your father. Show this to that kid you know who really loved Age of Empires and Civilization . Film their responses. Compare and contrast.

Much like they did on the streets of the East Village for us a couple months ago, Chief stripped down and played new single "Night & Day" for the UK's Watch, Listen, Tell . As you can see, they are still frustratingly handsome.

Straight from the horse's suspiciously fuzzy mouth: Saturday, August 14th - $5 - Doors at 7pm Shea Stadium - 20 Meadow St, Brooklyn, 11206 No Demons Here Big Troubles Family Portrait Julian Lynch Andrew Cedermark Warlords Alex Bleeker and the Freaks Air Waves Fluffy Lumbers Ducktails Food will be made available by Last Action Hero (Mobile Deli Unit) YALL SHOULD COME. YOU CAN BUY TIX NOW IF YOU WANT. You can buy said "tix" here [...]

For Levi's Pioneer Sessions ! Given the influences James Mercer has always kept front and center when writing for The Shins, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that he chose to cover Squeeze, a band that dreamt up some of the most well-crafted pop songs of the 70s and 80s. If you're a fan of either band, it's cause for (quiet) nerdgasms. Mercer opted to take on "Goodbye Girl" from 1978's Cool For Cats , which, with an e-mail address under your name, you can download for free here . DO IT.

One time when we were in Philadelphia we walked into this shitty bar in which, unbeknownst to us, a Sonics coverband was headlining a show. It could've been really cheesy, one of those nostalgia acts, but it was actually just the opposite. There's something about 30 Rockabillys drinking Bourbon and dancing to a note-for-note replay of "Strychnine" that is really life-affiriming, that actually gives us faith. We feel almost exactly the same way about Heavy Cream , a Nashville band treading waters that have already been swam in but one that does it so well and with enough spin [...]

• Heavy Cream - Meow Meow

Dylan Baldi brought his Cloud Nothings songbook to the Daytrotter studios recently. He sprinted through four tracks from his Turning On LP, he likely sipped a few soft drinks with the other underage guys in the band, and all in all, he turned out one of the more effervescent, listenable , immediate Daytrotter sessions we've heard in a while. Hear it here right now and marvel at Baldi's portrait while you do.

Every time we see a music video coming out of the Ridgewood camp, we feel like we're watching tape reels and old slide shows with our parents twenty years ago, then wondering why we don't do that anymore. Julian Lynch, nascent music ethnomusicologist and the not-so-evil pop genius of the scene, just snuck this clip for Mare 's "A Day at the Racetrack" onto the web last week. By web standards, that's a really long time ago.

Above is a first look at Heavy Light: A Film about Sunset , a limited edition DVD the Austin hook merchants are selling on tour at the moment. Loveshines But The Moon Is Shining Too is the name of their latest opus and it's set to drop digitally September 7 with a physical release on the way October 12 via Autobus . If there's any justice or order to the universe, people will hear this record, absolutely lose their minds like we have and Bill Baird and Co. will be playing Madison Square Garden next year [...]

Above is a first look at Heavy Light: A film about Sunset , a limited edition DVD the Austin hook merchants are selling on tour at the moment. Loveshines But The Moon Is Shining Too is the name of their latest opus and it's set to drop digitally September 7 with a physical release on the way October 12 via Autobus . If there's any justice or order to the universe, people will hear this record, absolutely lose their minds like we have and Bill Baird and Co. will be playing Madison Square Garden next year [...]

As you may have heard, the Arcade Fire's MSG concert last night was broadcast live on YouTube. The multi-camera show was overseen by neophyte live-director Terry Gilliam, who you've probably also heard of. What he's claimed to lack in experience on projects like this, he seems to make up for in his ability to get buttoned-up arena rockers to get a little silly. Here's a backstage pre-show video starring the ever-humble American Python and the band, with a cameo at the end from the new Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, just as things start to get kind of weird.

It kind of feels like a lot of people forgot that Contra came out this year. Or forgot until the recent album art legal scuffle popped up and put Vampire Weekend back in the news for a few weeks. Which is unfortunate, because, litigation aside, it's a pretty good album. XL labelmates Basement Jaxx seem to agree with us and have gifted Columbia's Finest with a remix of the next single off of Contra, "White Sky". Presumably, the version on the single won't include the alarmingly thorough introduction and occasional interjections given on this radio rip by [...]

Dear Chicago, what are you doing tomorrow? Oh wait, you're going to be at Lollapalooza with the rest of the music loving universe? WELL WE GOT AN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITY FOR YOU, and it's for a good cause. Your favorite band MGMT, those spry pop visionaries, will be performing a benefit concert and silent auction for Dare 2 Dream, a concert series benefiting the People's Music School. While "benefit show" and "MGMT presence" sounds like a double-header of win, it's actually more than a two-fer: the People's Music School is a non-profit dedicating to educating children that might not be able [...]

A few weeks ago on HBO's Hung , Ray suggested Tanya come to the movies with him and his kids. There had been some friction between he and the twins up until that point, both of them suggesting pretty plainly that if they had all gone to high school at the same time, Ray probably wouldn't have been friends with them. So Ray decided to enlist Tanya's help because she's also kind of a spazz and a weirdo and a self-described "fellow traveler." They ended up in an art house theater, watching an old Russian film in black-and-white while [...]

00:00:02.100 SIDE A: "Don't Believe The Hype Machine" 00:00:56.142 The Idle Hands "Socialite Death Squad" (self-release) 00:05:16.734 Land Of Talk "Swift Coin" (Saddle-Creek) 00:09:55.678 The Mary Onettes "The Night Before The Funeral" (Labrador) 00:13:33.427 The Cure "A Japanese Dream" (Fiction) 00:16:59.686 JETSKIIS "Reaganomics" (self-release) 00:20:34.509 The Sour Notes "Do-ers & Say-ers" (self-release) 00:23:57.197 Bear Face "Speedy Eyes" (self-release) 00:28:22.125 Dead Models "Rosy" (White Noise) [...]

00:00:02.100 SIDE A: "Don't Believe The Hype Machine" 00:00:56.142 The Idle Hands "Socialite Death Squad" (self-release) 00:05:16.734 Land Of Talk "Swift Coin" (Saddle-Creek) 00:09:55.678 The Mary Onettes "The Night Before The Funeral" (Labrador) 00:13:33.427 The Cure "A Japanese Dream" (Fiction) 00:16:59.686 JETSKIIS "Reaganomics" (self-release) 00:20:34.509 The Sour Notes "Do-ers & Say-ers" (self-release) 00:23:57.197 Bear Face "Speedy Eyes" (self-release) 00:28:22.125 Dead Models "Rosy" (White Noise) [...]

• The Tripwire - The Tripwire Podcast 061

"The '70s were so rad!"

This probably happened last night, too, backstage at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN HOLY SHIT THIS BAND IS SOMETHING ELSE, HUH. Also, after the jump, watch a video of Win Butler tease his wife and bandmate Régine Chassagne while trying to determine which part of the Nirvana/Pearl Jam divide she stood on back when both bands hit the scene. It's kind of awesome.

We get you, Britt. We get it allllllllllll the time. And we love the all-white painter getup. More than that, we love this song, one of the tightest packages off this January's Transference , and a great excuse to let ?uestlove shake a maraca or two. And, as Austin Chronicle columnist Austin Powell tweeted yesterday morning , it's nice to see Owen Biddle shake a little soul into Rob Pope's tight-as-a-nun's-tail bass lines.