Well, it appears that your old pals in Bright Eyes are back in the studio with longtime producer Mike Mogis, working on their full-length follow-up to 2002's epic-length Lifted, Or, the Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground. Though already titled I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, the new record is presently in the early stages of recording, and reportedly won't see release via Saddle Creek Records until January. But the songs?
They're written. in both Nebraska and Atlanta, and that, while work has already begun on album, there has been one temporary setback: "Mike, who runs the studio in Nebraska, his girlfriend's having a baby in June so we're waiting for that to happen and then finish the records after that." Wait, did he just pluralize?
Or was that just a typo on behalf of the NME team (whose story continually refers to the songwriter as "Oberest")? considering releasing them by genre. In all, 25 future bedroom hymns are currently vying for a spot on Of the genre-jumping new material, Conor said, "A lot of the songs are more traditional folk, country-sounding stuff, and then we have some other stuff with like two drummers-- more beat-oriented, more grooves, not necessarily dancey but just [has] a good beat to it.
" But indeed, the kicker comes at the story's close, when his pluralization is thrown into crisp focus: "It's kind of weird. I don't know if we're going to put it all out in one release or sort of split it up." Use your illusion, Conor.
So, right. The Shins-- yes, those Shins-- are still on the road. If you read this fine publication on anything resembling a daily basis, you would know that, because-- as evidenced by this, our third report on the tour-- we make it a point to keep you informed.
Can we help it if The Shins continue to announce their tour plans at a trickle, allowing them maximum exposure and all the hott press they can handle? No! The answer is no!
So, here's the deal: Tonight, after a nearly month-long touring hiatus, The Shins will take up the slack at Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom, before winding their way east across the states. Then, following a rousing two-night stand at Minneapolis' historic First Avenue in late June, they'll be headed off to nine more freshly announced Euro dates. Along the way, they'll be accompanied by future Pitchfork darlings The Fiery Furnaces, as well as Rogue Wave, The Glands, and Calexico.
After that, if they know what's good for them, The Shins will spend the dog days of August back at home, coolin' on the porch with an icy glass of Country Time. Surely, by then there will only be so many days left of summer. America and Europe, 06-18 Chicago, IL - House of Blues @ 06-19 Chicago, IL - House of Blues @ 06-20 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue %
Steady footing not assured, cloven hooves a possibility Writing about John Darnielle, master of the defiantly broken hearted put-down ("I'd be grateful my children aren't here to see this/ If you'd ever seen fit to give me children"-- oh no he did not!
), used to be all "four-track" this, "bedroom troubadour" that. It's a hard habit to kick, even though now he's palling around with fellow ex-four-tracker John Vanderslice, and is getting to be about as lo-fi as late-era Guided are taking their not so lo-fi show on a West Coast junket beginning tonight at Anacortes, WA's Department of Safety venue. After that, they'll just slide on down that western coast before winding up at San Diego's Casbah next Saturday.
Another show is also scheduled for early June at Chicago's Empty Bottle. The Goats weirdo soundbiter Vinny Miller. Check it out it's like a motherfuckin' book from the libraries, yo: 05-21 Anacortes, WA - Department of Safety 05-26 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill (w/Destroyer, Frog Eyes) 05-27 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill Beachwood Sparks frontman Chris Gunst is gearing up for a comeback with an all-new band, poetically called Mystic Chords of Memory.
The bandname was lifted from Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address of 1861, which Beachwood Sparks frontman Chris Gunst first encountered etched beneath Lincoln's visage on Mount Rushmore. I invite anyone who's searching for a bandname to notice, as they peruse the following passage, that pretty much any bit between commas could be expropriated as a pretty good one: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." Okay, maybe any phrase except "as surely they will be.
" Seriously, if you're an inchoate Canadian space-rock band and you don't claim the name Stretching From Every Battlefield posthaste, you're peanuts. Stick an exclamation point in there if Gunst, whose grandfather was "the first Portuguese guy in California" according to his own dubious claim, optimism. After three albums with Beachwood Sparks, Gunst felt haggard from the pressures of trying to make a living off of music, and the band decided to take a long hiatus.
Gunst then went to grad school to Nevertheless, he continued to fool around with guitars and keyboards in the stress-free environs of the Santa Cruz apartment he shares with Jen Cohen of The Aislers Set, who would embellish the tracks with her own instrumentation before the pair recorded them on their home equipment. During this period, Rough Trade's Geoff Travis contacted Gunst about recording a new album for the label. Gunst decided it would be just perfect to release the songs he'd recorded with Cohen, since that would keep it casual and fun-- plus, he and Cohen wouldn't have to be separated if they toured (which they intend to do, probably with Ben Knight of The Tyde, who helped record the songs, on extra guitar).
Rough Trade plans to release the album on June 2nd. Since Gunst was a major songwriting force in Beachwood Sparks, expect this project to run in a similar, if perhaps lower-key, vein: poppy Americana Belle Sebastian to Release New EP, Tour Europe Scottish tweesters-- say it out loud, then picture the world's friendliest tornados-- Belle Sebastian have declared plans to release a new single via Rough Trade come June 21st. The disc will lead with Rhapsody'" by (guess who!
) NME, while analysis of the other track, "Your Secrets", comes courtesy of frontman Stuart Murdoch: "Musically, it started by putting down quite a lot of ideas from the band jamming, so to speak. It's not something we usually do..
. It's a live take, we didn't chop anything up, shouldn't be that hard to get it going live. We do like to move a bit, some of us have the According to Murdoch's online diary, in which he's recently been giving fans the blow-by-blow on the new EP, the disc will also feature a slew of additional multimedia delights: "I like the feeling that the mix media EP represents these days.
Ok, it's basically still a single off the album, but hopefully it's going to have one vid, one 'animation', one video game, one remix, one musical saga, one summer throwaway...
Oh we work hard, everyday of our lives." No further information on these peculiar bonuses was given, but one In addition to releasing the extended-player, the ladies and gentlemen of Belle Sebastian have scheduled to strut said funk at nine European dates this summer, including three concerts in Italy with The Rapture, two London performances with Devendra Banhart and The Shins, and a free show in their native Glasgow alongside V-Twin, Camera Obscura, The Trash Can Sinatras, Mother and the Addicts, and the James Orr Franz Ferdinand to Soundtrack Porn Scenes! Just about everyone who isn't a self-righteous, puritanical, pious asshole enjoys getting their hands on some filthy-ass pornography from time to time.
But what about crazy foreign flicks that revel in nasty, Nope, it's not a new LP. Nope, it's not an EP. It's a film soundtrack.
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