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Progress Report: Blitzen Trapper

Twice a week, Jessica Suarez's Progress Report updates you on what your favorite bands have been doing. Or not doing.

NAME: Blitzen Trapper
PROGRESS REPORT: Recording the follow-up to 2008's Furr in Portland, Oregon.

"I don't really record records," says Blitzen Trapper leader Eric Earley. "I'm always writing and recording." And because of that, it's hard to answer some of the basic questions about the next Blitzen Trapper record. It will probably come out next year -- though it could come out now (he's already recorded over 20 tracks). It will probably be more consistent. But, since he and his band chose album tracks by simply drawing their ten or so favorite songs from those already recorded, nobody is sure exactly what will be on the album. Earley doesn't seem worried about it. He writes and records when the band's got a break between tour, scheduling just one day at a time, whenever he has a new song written. He splits his time between Mike Coykendall's and Gregg Williams' studios in Portland. Each studio has its own advantages: Coykendall's studio lets him record to tape, while Williams' has a more digital set-up, which means Earley can get warmer vocals and fine-edit the electronic elements when he needs to." I kinda just move in a lot of different directions," Earley explains. "I don't really think it terms of records. I just think in terms of songs."

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Posted at 3:01 PM by Jessica in MP3, Progress Report
Tags: Blitzen Trapper

Comments (14) latest by Peter K

Sasquatch! 2009 In Photos

Everybody loves Memorial Day weekend, but nobody loves Memorial Day weekend like those that make it to Sasquatch! As friends have returned from their treks across country, they've shared nothing but raves for this year's festival, from the Gorge's breathtaking views to this year's fantastic lineup. Even the public indecency seems particularly magical on the Sasquatch! grounds: at Coachella all we got was a wizard penis; according to fest-vet Whitney Pastorek, the Gorge had 22,000 people applauding a couple having sex on the ridge. Top that, Bonnapalooza. We sent Chona Kasinger to capture the non-sexual goings on at this year's party, including Jane's Addiction, YYYs, Girl Talk, Santigold (inviting the crowd onstage, M.I.A. style), Shearwater, Animal Collective, and so many more. Enjoy.

Comments (44) latest by Kim

Amanda Palmer And High School Drama Club Stage Neutral Milk Hotel Musical • You knew she dug Brecht and now Palmer's collaborated with her former drama teacher Steven Bogart and the kids at her former Boston-area Lexington High School to create "a play that uses music... not a musical." It's called "The Needle That Sings in Her Heart" and, yes, In the Aeroplane's its inspiration/backdrop. Can jazz hands play musical saw? Watch.

Comments (11) latest by Eric!

New Meat Puppets - "Rotten Shame" (Stereogum Premiere)

A couple years ago, we caught up with Curt Kirkwood to discuss Rise To Your Knees, Meat Puppets' first release since 2000's Golden Lies, and the first with new drummer Ted Marcus. The trio, rounded out by Cris Kirkwood, of course, has clearly fallen into some sort of rhythm: Sewn Together, a collection of a dozen new Curt Kirkwood-produced tracks, is out in a couple of weeks, reportedly about the amount of time it took the band to put the record together. The results are tight, but pleasingly breezy. For example, take a listen to the flanged rock 'n' roll of "Rotten Shame" while you mull the tracklist and album art. As fans of the Meat Puppets might expect, the lyrics seem fairly straightforward at first, but grow more subtly surreal with each listen.

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Posted at 12:41 PM by brandon in MP3, Tour Dates, Video
Tags: Meat Puppets

Comments (7) latest by Andres

Fischerspooner Cover Obscure R.E.M. Song

The final version of R.E.M.'s 2001 LP Reveal featured twelve tracks, however the original master (known as Reveal 1.0) contained two songs that didn't make that final cut: "Free Form Jazz Jam," and the excellently lush ballad "Fascinating" which was an unfortunate omission that gets some retrospective justice courtesy of Fischerspooner. Warren and Casey have covered the track at Michael Stipe's request as a bonus to their forthcoming Entertainment LP. Mr. Fischer tells us how their version came together:

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Posted at 2:42 PM by amrit
Tags: Fischerspooner | R.E.M.

Comments (8) latest by ilike

Coachella 2009: M.I.A., Superchunk, And So Much Sun

By Amrit Singh & Brandon Stosuy
The weather's getting hotter by the day, but we refuse to cave: We arrived at the grounds when the sun was at its peak. Amrit's given to wearing shorts at this point, but Brandon sticks by his Levi's because pale white legs are no good in the Southern California desert, a land where men think nothing of attending festivals in speedos, you see more horrible back tattoos than anywhere else in the world, and dozens of ladies have clearly forgotten to wear pants. Yes, photos of these sorts of things to come. In the meantime, though, we saw more music. The bands always seem to wear more clothes than the crowds, especially in a year without Les Savy Fav.

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Comments (16) latest by kgloss

We Got The Tweet: The Week's 50 Best Rock Star Twitters

Twitter has revolutionized the way celebrities broadcast what they ate for lunch. In this column, Stereogum founder @scottgum tracks the latest rock star Tweets and Twends.

Microblogging service Twitter has signed up countless celebrities in recent months, and among them are some of our favorite musical artists: Trent Reznor! Colin Meloy! Ed Droste! Diddy! Stereogum Tweets too! But who can keep up with all that lunch eating? Most of us only have eight hours a day with which to procrastinate in the Twitterverse. That's why every week Stereogum founder Scott Lapatine (@scottgum) will compile the best recent rock and pop star Tweets in this space. And by "best" we sometimes mean "worst." And by "star" we rarely mean more than "professional musician" (or MC Hammer). In this inaugural column, covering the week of 3/16 more or less, a Fleet Fox quits smoking, Courtney Love goes off her meds, everyone and their mother goes to SXSW, and Ryan Adams hijacks his wife's Twitter account. This will get #ugly.

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Comments (50) latest by Nicole

SXSW 2009: Thursday In Photos

By Amrit Singh & Brandon Stosuy
Yesterday started off bright, early, and ecstatic with NJ's Roadside Graves at Peckerheads. The band seduced a 2PM crowd into hooting, hollering, do-sa-do-ing, and otherwise pretending it was after midnight to tracks both new ("Far And Wide," "My Father Sat Me Down," "Ruby") and old ("Family And Friends," "Radio"). If you haven't seen them yet, you need to soon. From there, walked out to Gorilla Vs. Bear's Gorilla Vs. Booze (and got nice tans in the process) to watch the Golden Filter and Wavves do their thing at the Peacock, aka a small turquoise room that seemingly doubles as a sauna. Head Wavver Nathan Williams opened his set asking, more or less, "Do you remember that time you were at SXSW and it was hot and smelled like ass?," etc. Yes. Every year.

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Comments (2) latest by the musicologist

New Veils Video - "The Letter"

Last week we premiered a dramatically lit black and white clip for Sun Gangs' "Scarecrow," performed acoustic at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. For Veils' new "Letter" video, Finn Andrews switches things up (just a little) by plugging in and sharing the screen with his bandmates. He's still wearing that hat, though.

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Posted at 1:44 PM by Scott in MP3, Video
Tags: The Veils

Comments (4) latest by Micah Schmidt

The Wrens @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC 3/13/09

The Wrens/Titus Andronicus @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC 3/13/09 1

Beloved online music radio station KEXP.org took over Bowery Friday night to celebrate one year of co-broadcasting terrestrially at 91.5FM and raise some funds, and you know, respect for the momentousness of that occasion and all, but for most that snapped up tickets to the sold-out show, the evening had a different celebratory center of gravity: The Wrens are back, with the express purpose of banging out new songs with their old battered instruments, and by the count of these photos by Dese'Rae L. Stage, they are looking fucking great doing it. There's a new album happening. Here's part of why this is so exciting to us. As it stands you have a few options to check in with the Wrens circa '09: via text, via MP3, or via flying down to Austin and catching any of these three shows:

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Posted at 2:06 PM by amrit in Concert, Photo
Tags: The Wrens | Titus Andronicus

Comments (8) latest by Homer

R.E.M. Joins Patti Smith's R.E.M. Tribute

If you love R.E.M. and weren't at Carnegie Hall last night, you should probably do a better job at loving R.E.M. The evening was billed as a tribute to the Athenian eye-smilers, which meant career-spanning covers by everyone from Kyp Malone with Jolie Holland, to Elf Power, to Hootie (the Blowfish were initially an R.E.M. cover band, you'll remember)(no, you won't). Like the Boss's similar party in '07, the guests of honor couldn't help but make a "surprise" appearance to close the show. This wasn't a Springsteen-styled superjam, though; after Patti Smith presented her version of "New Test Leper," she recreated her original backing vocals on a very special "E-Bow The Letter" with Stipe, Mills, and Buck. Looks far away but sounds OK:

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Comments (5) latest by Dfactor

Michael Stipe Promotes Nothing On Jimmy Fallon

Well, maybe that's not entirely true. Despite the fact that Fallon mentions Stipe (nice recession beard) is his first guest with "nothing to promote," the R.E.M. frontman shows up with a bronze-cast camera sculpture and the two talk about tonight's R.E.M. tribute at Carnegie Hall with Throwing Muses, Bob Mould, Patti Smith, Calexico, the Apples In Stereo, Elf Power, Jolie Holland, Vic Chesnutt, the Feelies, Marshall Crenshaw, Darius Rucker, etc. Maybe Michael Stipe will perform? (Michael Stipe will perform.) Stipe also teaches Fallon to "smile with your eyes" (ur doin it wrong) and sings an outgoing greeting for the host's cellphone. It's all at Hulu.

During the Q&A, they bring up Michael's first late night appearance with Letterman back in 1983, where he ducked out of the interview because of his pathological shyness. It was more interesting than last night's conversation. Memories:

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Posted at 3:15 PM by brandon in Video
Tags: Jimmy Fallon | Michael Stipe | R.E.M.

Comments (13) latest by Eric

New Veils - "Scarecrow" (Acoustic In London)

Finn Andrews recently performed an acoustic set of songs from the Veils' forthcoming third album Sun Gangs at the Institute Of Contemporary Arts in London. We posted Sun's post-punked, Wire-inspired "Killed By The Boom" a couple of weeks ago. "Scarecrow" is a quieter, more fragile offering. And not just because the video was shot in dramatically lit black and white, Finn breaks out in a sweat, or that it's ominously silent at the end.

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Posted at 11:46 AM by brandon in Video
Tags: The Veils

Comments (2) latest by The Disappearing One

New Veils - "Killed By The Boom"

Three albums deep and the most consistency XTC-progeny Finn Andrews is willing to show, aside from steadily improving songcraft, is building his Veils of a different lineup at each stop. This upcoming LP isn't a total overhaul in the personnel department -- the band is now a quartet instead of a trio but retains bassist Sophia Burn -- however "Killed By The Boom" seems to once more hint at new rhythmic suits. Nux Vomica dosed with sublime and rangy pop noir, all fire-and-brimstone fervor and caterwauling spaghetti western and Buckley-on-Cave offerings, and then at Mercury Lounge two years back Finn told us the band was off to Oklahoma to shift things up and work on the new album. Now he tells us the jagged and spunked barn-burner "Killed By The Boom" is "possibly about The Wire's Omar Little." Which means this song is a big old SPOILER ALERT for anyone who hasn't seen that show, and now you have two reasons to finish The Wire: to enjoy this new track from the Veils, and to witness the advent of broadcast literature. Sweet.

Continue reading New Veils - "Killed By The Boom"...

Posted at 10:01 AM by amrit in MP3
Tags: The Veils

Comments (10) latest by Brewster

Love Bites: Stereogum's Anti-Valentine's Day Mix

Valentine's Day is one of those holidays you might not pay too much attention to if you're in the midst of a really good relationship -- because every day is like Valentine's Day! -- but can gain importance in direct ratio to how shitty your love life is when February 14th rolls around. With that in mind, we're skipping the saccharine soundtracks in favor of a mix for those who need one. Because, really, if you're in love and you spend the night downloading MP3s from your laptop, well, you're not in love. We chose 13 recent tracks: 13 tracks for Friday the 13th. Even though it's Friday, maybe we all aren't in love.

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Comments (30) latest by Oreck

Beirut & The Vassar Orkestar @ BAM, Brooklyn 2/6/09

Beirut & The Vassar Orkestar/Kaki King @ BAM 2/6-2/7/09 1

Seeing as this has already been Beirut week on Stereogum.com, I'll save my trademark purple prose in dissecting this show for the Year's Best Concerts post in December. Except for the next bunch of graphs because, really, it seems this week was a graduation of sorts for Zach. These shows and recent EP releases were the next big down-payment on the potential we'd been looking for all along, positioning him as an uncanny melodist and deft cultural appropriator, with all the charm of a legend leavened with touches of the exuberance a kid his age oughta have (see: every time his band would kick into the relatively rocking grooves of the Holland EP's giddy synth pop).

Continue reading Beirut & The Vassar Orkestar @ BAM, Brooklyn 2/6/09...

Posted at 6:25 PM by amrit in Concert, Photo
Tags: Beirut | Kaki King

Comments (15) latest by WILLMELBO

Progress Report: The Wrens

Twice a week, Jessica Suarez's Progress Report updates you on what your favorite bands have been doing. Or not doing.

NAME: The Wrens
PRGRESS REPORT: Recording the followup to The Meadowlands at bassist Kevin Whelan's home studio in Teaneck, New Jersey.

We usually like to catch bands after they've been in the studio for a while, or when they've just left it. But we are so excited to hear that New Jersey's Wrens were finally back in the studio that we wanted to catch up with them early into their recording process. And it's very early: as the band says on their newly redesigned site, their session at Abbey Road studios was the first time they'd recorded in the same room in a decade. Now a week into recording at Kevin Whelan's home studio, the band is still figuring out how to use Tracktion, dealing with dead computers, and balancing recording with their jobs and families.

Still, ten years, what the hell, right? Charles Bissell and Kevin Whelan answered that question, and variations of "So, seriously, when's the new album coming?" with such good humor that we thought we'd present this Progress Report in Q&A format. Here the Wrens discuss Paul McCartney, the direction of their next album, and how they're really Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. And they're really sorry.

The Wrens

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Posted at 12:46 PM by Jessica in MP3, Progress Report, Video
Tags: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | Paul McCartney | The Wrens

Comments (20) latest by Mark

New Ferraby Lionheart - "Dear Corinne"

Seems like a lot's been up with Class of '06 BTW Ferraby Lionheart since we heard from him last. In a long letter penned To Whom It May Concern, the Cali-based folkie explains that he's not quite Cali-based anymore. After finally "arriving" in L.A., eight years after having arrived in L.A., it was time for a move -- to Sweden, then to Nashvile -- to patch up a broken heart and find a new muse for his jangle. That inspiration came at the bottom of a box of old letters from the '40s in Tennessee. Cue the epistolary title, to this first track, "Dear Corinne," all rimclicks and Wurly and old-timey lover's allusions. Ferraby Lionheart is his real name, btw.

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Posted at 3:55 PM by amrit in MP3, Tour Dates
Tags: Ferraby Lionheart

Comments (8) latest by n/a

Death Cab, Dept Of Eagles Do Starbucks Covers Comp

Refresher: Starbucks is a company that is in the business of selling $5 cups of coffee. Starbucks is also a company that is in the business of selling music. Basically the best business plan imaginable in 2009, good job guys. Starbucks will soon fill their diminishing inventory space with another Sweetheart compilation, asking some noteworthy artists to cover other noteworthy artists. So that makes this compilation a lot like that Heroes collection, only one benefits a "network of independent organisations, working across the world to help children affected by war" and the other benefits a corporate mandate to offset society's waning appetite for overpriced lattes. Same thing, basically.

Balance sheet sniping aside, they've assembled a sweetheart of a tracklist here: Death Cab's covering the Cure, Ms. Death Cab and M. Ward are doing "I Put A Spell On You," Department Of Eagles reworks Elvis Presley, etc. A.C. Newman's take on "Take On Me" should be fun times, too. Here's a full tracklist for you to pore over:

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Comments (14) latest by John

New Wrens(!) - "Pulled Fences" (Live At Abbey Road)

Good morning, 2009. True to form and band lore, the mighty Wrens released one of the past decade's best albums, like they do ... and then retreated to too many years at their day jobs, to play the occasional gig here and contribute to our Automatic For The People tribute there. Like they do. And now it's time for a followup. Well it's been time for a followup, but this time it's FOR REALS. They're kicking it all off with a "new" song (which I put air quotes around because you'll recognize it from your Gum Drop inbox when it was a demo called "In Turkish Waters," only now it has the whole band and has been renamed "Pulled Fences" and was recorded at Abbey Road because that is a place you record things). A breathless press blast came around last night from Absolutely Kosher to set the scene:

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Posted at 9:32 AM by amrit in MP3
Tags: The Wrens

Comments (3) latest by abkosher

New Blitzen Trapper Video - "Furr"

SXStereogum alum Blitzen Trapper put out the very fine Furr album last year, releasing the title track as a freebie. In posting Brandon said "The track's mellow and straight-up folky until they let a harmonica in with a few electronics, making it a little coyote spacey but still pastoral." I was really taken by their performance on Conan, which cut the digital squiggles and embraced the back porch stomp of it all, with a new round of earthy Trapper harmonies in tow. Director Jade Harris does the track proud here, sticking to the lyrics with a sepia photo flipbook of Blitzens and lupines and mice on magical beanstalks. Solid.

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Posted at 12:40 PM by amrit in MP3, Video
Tags: Blitzen Trapper

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Progress Report: Kings Of Convenience

Twice a week, Jessica Suarez's Progress Report updates you on what your favorite bands have been doing. Or not doing.

NAME: Kings of Convenience
PROGRESS REPORT: Recording their third studio LP, Quiet IS The New Loud (working title), at Esagono Studios near Reggio Emilia, Italy

Things are coming full circle for Kings Of Convenience, at least as album titles go. "We have thought about Quiet IS The New Loud, says Erlend Øye of their upcoming third studio album. "But the record company might object to that." Quiet Is The New Loud -- the same title minus a capital letter -- was the name of Kings of Convenience's 2001 debut album. It's been five years since their last LP, 2004's Riot On An Empty Street, so a confusing title isn't the biggest concern, especially when most assumed the duo had stopped working together.

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Posted at 5:35 PM by Jessica in Progress Report
Tags: Erlend Øye | Kings Of Convenience | The Wrens

Comments (22) latest by Matt Keppel

Takka Takka Cover Phil Collins

The second installment of Guilt By Association comes out in February. In case you don't remember Vol. 1, the compilation featured contemporary indie bands covering so-called "guilty pleasures." Of course, the problem with these sorts of things is that the "guilty pleasures" have generally written timeless classics that outshine the contemporary band's not timeless oeuvre. Well, that's less an issue this time around because, as Vol. 2's new producer Wesley Verhoeve noted: "I really wanted to make sure that this second one made no assumptions about whatever is guilty or not. The artists and i just picked songs we actually loved that are mainstream pop songs." Such as My Brightest Diamond doing "Tainted Love," the Forms on "We Didn't Start The Fire," or Takka Takka digging into Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight." As Takka member Conrad Doucette explains:

"In The Air Tonight" is probably the darkest, and weirdest, tune Phil Collins ever wrote. The structure of the song allowed us to drop some of our own atmospherics onto a song already rich in atmosphere.

Takka listen:

Continue reading Takka Takka Cover Phil Collins ...

Comments (7) latest by Matt

Ryan Adams Disses R.E.M., The Killers, Not Oasis

Ryan's unadulterated idolization of the Gallaghers is rubbing off on him in all the wrong ways. Unless you're a hot beef-craving blogger (nullus?) who scours the web for this sort of stuff, in which case nevermind, Ryan you're doing great. Actually reader Danielle did the scouring for us this time, pointing to Ryan's "Is This It?" feature for the Guardian where the estimable British publication poses existential lyrical questions ("Where's your head at?", "Who got da funk", etc.) and asks for freely associated answers. So Ryan, "What's the frequency, Kenneth?":

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Posted at 11:24 AM by amrit in Where's The Beef?
Tags: Oasis | R.E.M. | Ryan Adams | The Killers

Comments (44) latest by chaz

Blitzen Trapper Bring "Furr" To Conan

Conan and Letterman always win the award for best music guests that I just made up. They're both based out of NYC. Coincidence? I hope so -- Mr. O'Brien's days in the city are numbered, and it'd be a shame for him to inherit the empty-pop minded booker Leno's leaving behind. Anyway, it's nice to see Blitzen Trapper get a nod from the Late Night staff, bringing their Sub Pop country strumming harmonica jam "Furr," from the album of the same name, to 30 Rock last night. Watch it at Hulu, and take notes on how to make your show more bloggable, Jimmy Fallon. You're off to a good start.

Posted at 5:13 PM by amrit in Video
Tags: Blitzen Trapper | Conan O'Brien