Blog: Stranded In Stereo

It's the movie that has been 18 years in the making, and the one myself and several other fans have been waiting forever for, is finally hitting your local cineplex in 10 days. Or should I say googoplex? Amid much fanfare and worry, The Simpsons Movie is definitely going to fill up the theater, yet with what kind of people? Yes, it'll be 99%-110% Simpsons fans, enthusiasts and the like from all ages young and old. But what are the fans thinking? How skeptical [...]

Yeah, yeah, all the cool blogs were at that Pitchfork Festival this weekend, as I jealously sat missing out on Sonic Youth perform one of the greatest albums from front to back, but I did become fast friends with a new record. It seems that another great act has come about from the depths of Portland, Oregon in the form of Blitzen Trapper . The sextet recently released their sixth album, Wild Mountain Nation to much buzz and acclaim. [...]

• Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation

What's that coming over the hill of the half pipes in venue parking lots around the country this summer? It's UK outift, The Automatic Automatic . Known solely as just The Automatic in their native land, the band has scored a handful of dates on this summer's edition of the Vans Warped Tour to support their recently released album Not Accepted Anywhere . Full of gargantuan guitars and monster riffs, it's no surprise we're all in love with the song titled [...]

The cute girls of UK punk quartet The Hedrons kicked off their second tour of the US last night in Rochester, NY. The lovely ladies are out supporting their first album, One More Won't Kill Us , out now on 4 West Records, finds the ladies channeling their inner punk while having a sheen sound that's almost sort of like Green Day . [...]

This week, Jose Fritz returns with a look at Steinbeck lovers Beasts Of Eden . It's rare that such a slickly produced record interests me so. But between their Brit-pop posturing and their Coldplay like melody my inner anglophile needs to be edified. I'll proceed without further homonym. The band was named after Steinbeck's book East of Eden , as a play on words. [...]

It's been almost 24 hours since I was given the news that one of my all-time, Top 5 favorite bands was getting back the original line-up and hitting the road for six limited shows in October and November. And then I found out they were playing Boston. And then, I shit many a brick and phoned up one of my best friends at home. The Kings of Power Pop, Knoxville, TN's Superdrag have apparently been rehearsing for the past eight months to get ready for the stint [...]

One thing we've really been digging around the office lately is the new John Doe record, especially that song "The Golden State" featuring Cindy Wasserman on vocals with the legendary X singer. The duet is so awesome that her band, Dead Rock West , is going on tour with Doe starting tonight in Austin! Show up early to catch their set, and stick around to see John and Cindy do the duet. "The Golden State" [...]

Every year, and usually it is in the summer months, one Tuesday ranks higher than any other Tuesday in the books for me, and I usually dub it "Super Tuesday" or something lame along those lines. Today is that Tuesday for 2007. Besides Our Love To Admire which we covered yesterday, and The Else which you can now get in stores, here's the other notable releases this week . [...]

Diet Kong's new video mixes black suits and white gloves, an old school lesson in anatomy, and most importantly the rock. Don't freak out, just enjoy the love in the evil sound.

"Spare me / the suspense" Paul Banks commands on "Mammoth," one of 11 new songs on Interpol' s third opus, Our Love To Admire . Finally, after a three-year wait, listeners are no longer waiting in suspense but listening to see what changes and modes of growth would occur after jumping from Matador to Capitol. Like "Mammoth," opener "Pioneer To The Falls" was previewed on tour dates earlier in the year and fails to disappoint on record. The opening chime of the guitars that start off the record would almost [...]

For all of those smart enough to subscribe to Stranded In Stereo the compilation (as opposed to this wonderful little companion blog that I love running so dearly) should start watching their mailboxes as we'll be starting the mailing process for Volume 6 very very shortly. This is the strongest, greatest line-up SiS has seen yet. What can you expect this round? Check it out: CD: Interpol - "The Heinrich Maneuver" They Might Be Giants - "Take [...]

So, I decided to celebrate my Independence Day a little bit on the early side this year by seeing the newest film to feature the legendary action hero John McClane (played by Bruce Willis) in Live Free Or Die Hard . Growing up, I was always a huge fan of Die Hard trilogy: the original was groundbreaking for its time, bringing a return to form to the action hero in cinema. It was also named the greatest action movie of all time the other week by the folks at [...]

Definitely wetting our appetite even more for Our Love To Admire , here's the vid for the first single off Interpol's third amazing album, "The Heinrich Maneuver." It's almost July 10th. PS - New blog design, you dig?

We're rounding the month of June with a two-part blog showcasing the best releases of the first half of 2007. The idea is to list the albums that I think we'll be in my Top 10 at the end of the year, and see how many of them live to see that mark [Note: these are not in any order; I was going to alphabetize them but then i just became a lazy blogger.] LCD Soundsystem [...]