Blog: we also ran | music

Saratoga Springs' fantastic Railbird are finally releasing the full-length No One this week, and it's worth the wait. I've posted about Railbird a bunch of times (and I'll probably post about them again soon with a review of No One ), each time insisting that they're on the cusp of greatness. For now let it suffice to say that this record is one more indication that they're ready for much bigger stages than they've been playing so far. They're playing a bunch of record release parties to celebrate, which you should absolutely [...]

The Strokes are releasing Angles , their first album in a very long time (like 5 years) in March, but today and tomorrow you can download "Under Cover of Darkness," their first single, for free. After that, you'll have to wait until 2/15 and buy the shit. Admit it...you're curious what it sounds like. Go to www.thestrokes.com .

credit: Scott Beseler http://www.taketheday.com It's going on 3 years now that I've wondered to myself why I'm the only person I know who's into Cincinnati's quirky banjo-electronic The Seedy Seeds . I can't understand why these guys aren't a much bigger deal than they are. Not a week goes by that I don't play them in my car at least once. Here's to hoping their newest record Verb Noun (available later this spring) [...]

• TSS VERBNOUN - Verb Noun

Buried deep in a truly epic press release about Dropkick Murphys ' upcoming release (it's called Going Out In Style , it comes out March 1st, and it'll be good just like all their other records) I found a tidbit of information that actually moved me to write a post about a record I haven't heard that doesn't come out for more than a month: F-ING SPRINGSTEEN IS ON IT. For Going Out In Style , Dropkick Murphys even enlisted the vocal talents of the legendary Bruce Springsteen--whom they first met at a [...]

I really like when covers really take on the sound of the band performing them. This one sounds like it might as well have always been a Nada Surf song, while still being recognizable as the classic that it is. Nada Surf has a whole record of covers out now: if I had a hi-fi .

Josh Ritter has been publishing a blog for a little while now about the process of becoming a successful touring musician, which I've found to be a great read. He's honest about the work, talent, and luck required, which is important when your audience is likely comprised of many who simply won't make it, but more importantly he's charming and reading it has really elevated him in my mind from singer-I-like status to man-I-admire status. This video is short and a little hokey, but it gave me the same sense anyway. [...]

Surely you've read by now somewhere more relevant that The Decemberists have a new record coming out January 18th and that they'll be touring to support it of course thank God. Tickets are on sale here , and they've even added a second show at the Beacon Theater in NYC in case you're a slowpoke and didn't get tickets to the first one in time. Go go go go go. Purchase "Down by the Water", the first single from The King is Dead :

Last Leaf OK Go | Myspace Music Videos OK Go continues to make videos that are hard to watch without wanting to share. And the song, this time, I think is pretty nice too.

Hellogoodbye have a new record coming out November 9th, and if the lead single "When We First Met" is any indication, fans can expect the shift from quirky dancepop to dancy quirkpop to just plain warm'n'fuzzy quirkpop to continue as it has from their debut EP to Z!A!V!D! . I'll set the over-under for must-include-on-a-teenage-mixt ape songs on this record at 3.

This makes two posts in a row on my neglected blog about Bad Books, but when I posted the first time there weren't any (legit) downloads available, and now there are. Click the link below for a download of "You Wouldn't Have To Ask," and then head over to facebook.com/badbooksmusic to stream another (even cooler, IMHO) song: "Please Move." Download Bad Books - You Wouldn't Have To Ask (mp3)

Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra's Kevin Hull started writing songs together basically to kill time, but as these things often do when they're good, their on-a-whim collaboration has evolved into something you can buy, and, if you're like me, enjoy. They're calling the band (and the record) Bad Books , and you can buy the record in October. More importantly in the immediate future, tickets for a very short run of shows are going on sale Wednesday 8/18 at noon . That's tomorrow, if you're reading this when I'm writing it. [...]

Kevin Devine, Mary Poppins, and I agree. A teaspoon of sugar helps the medicine go down. Bad news delivered by a dancing bearded skinny guy in sequined tights? I'll take two!

Josh Ritter's So Runs The World Away is the best record so far to come out in 2010, and if you're in NYC this weekend (I, unfortunately, am not) you can go to just about the coolest place on earth (Governor's Island) and see just about the best concert you'll see this summer (Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band, duh) for FREE. Just make sure you get your act together early, so you're not waiting in line for the ferry while he's on stage. In fact, go there first [...]

I find myself writing on here fairly often about Johnstown, PA, considering that I've never been there. It's the My Idea of Fun collective that calls that Johnstown home. They're always up to something interesting there. Over a year ago I wrote a bit about Emmet and Mary's S/T , which will finally see the light of day in September. I wrote about the project's ambition: it's a folk-rock opera based on a series of stories by Christopher S. Bell , performed by an enormous cast, and recorded in a bedroom with [...]

Adam Haworth Stephens is one half of Two Gallants. More relevant to this post, he's putting out a record all on his own, called We Live on Cliffs . As you might guess, it sounds a lot like Two Gallants (or at least the lead single"The Cities That You've Burned" does. That is, unequivocally, a good thing. This here fancydoodle widget'll letcha yank yer own copy down from th' ether:

Anberlin - Impossible from Publicity on Vimeo . One time I met a guy at a party who did music videos and ended up in a Rufio video the following weekend. It was just something that happened. But it was fun because the song was called "Out of Control" so the video didn't have to make any excuses for being completely batshit crazy. Those guys had also done an Anberlin video for "A Day Late" that I thought was super cool. [...]

I managed to duck into Railbird's set at the Living Room last night, and if there's any band I'm listening to right now that's perched (see what I did there) on the threshold of a great record, it's these guys. There is so much talent on stage when they play that I spent most of their set last night slack-jawed and shaking my head. Thing is, their recordings to date have yet to do their live show justice. If the record they're working on now doesn't turn heads, it won't be the fault of the songwriting, or [...]

The Chap split their time between London and Berlin. Or maybe some of them live in the former and the others the latter. Or maybe there's a city called London/Berlin somewhere. Probably not that one though. They've been around for a while, and once in a while an mp3 of theirs crosses my desk. I could have sworn I'd written about them before and/or posted a song, but apparently not. So...here's "We Work In Bars" from The Chap's upcoming Well Done Europe -- their fourth. It's about exactly [...]

The Chap split their time between London and Berlin. Or maybe some of them live in the former and the others the latter. Or maybe there's a city called London/Berlin somewhere. Probably not that one though. They've been around for a while, and once in a while an mp3 of theirs crosses my desk. I could have sworn I'd written about them before and/or posted a song, but apparently not. So...here's "We Work In Bars" from The Chap's upcoming Well Done Europe -- their fourth. It's about [...]

• The Chap - We Work In Bars

Trent Reznor's newest project is, unsurprisingly to those who've followed his web activity for the past few years, available for free download in incredibly high quality (and, of course, DRM-free). It's not NIN (that's a girl singing!), but Trent's new project with his wife Mariqueen Maandig still sounds very Reznor. And all it'll cost you is a valid email. Go go go go. http://howtodestroyangels.com/