Hullo Gorgeous: Dev Haynes makes his appearance

One of my oldest IRL friends (read: IN REAL LIFE friends) made it to Pitchfork.

This means one of two things.

ONE) One of my oldest IRL friends made it to Pitchfork.
TWO) I am getting very old.

Dev (or "V-E-D," as we insiders like to call him), is a Texas-born lad who relocated to England when he was a a young lad. He somehow managed to adapt the thickest Cockney-mangled accent I've ever heard, making speaking on the phone with him a nearly impossible endeavor.

The last time we spoke he used the final few minutes of his prepaid phone card.

Here's to you my dear Lightspeed Champion, may you forever have enough minutes:

Make sure you're ALREADY LOGGED INTO MySpace when you go to this link ... because I am about to be one proud little American girl.

Stream the new Black Mountain record RIGHT NOW: or, Why MySpace Sucks Less and Less Everyday

The people at MySpace Music totally have something up their sleeves. If I remember correctly, and I usually do, the music section on myspace was the biggest piece of crap ever, and definitely the last place I'd go to hear a new track or to look up an artist (last.fm was the first). Times, they are a'seriously changin, because over the past week MySpace has offered streamable, advanced, and complete album previews that're pretty bangin, if I do say so myself (think Xiu Xiu, Magnetic Fields, & The Breeders).

The latest piece of good stuff I've bumped into on MySpace: You can now stream the new Black Mountain LP, (Jagjaguwar) In The Future, in its entirety. So if you're about to pee your pants with the anticipation of its release (January 22nd) then save yourself some embarassment and do one less load of laundry: Listen to In The Future right now.

Black Mountain - Angels

My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection #2: Black Kids

I've practically been obsessing over it, I know, but better to freak out over things I can fix than to go ballistic over the fact that I invited a boy to Thanksgiving dinner and he cancelled on me 3 hours before we were scheduled to make our entrance. Considering the fact that this was the first boy who I had deemed worthy enough to subject to the wrath of my entire extended family in over 3 years, I'm pissed. And rightly so.

I stayed up all night, so sue me. At least I was productive. Here's what I have for you this time:

ContraStream.com--a new social music network with a Digg-like interface that actually has GOOD music on it. Users can submit indie albums to be "hyped" or "dropped" by other users, and can also discover new music through videos and audio tracks embedded on the site. In my first 10 minutes on the site I found the Crystal Castles/HEALTH record, Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog, Battles - Tonto, and this:

The band is called Black Kids, and the track is called 'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You' off of their demo, Wizard of Ahhhs--which, according to Pitchfork, isn't available for purchase in stores but rather as a free download on their myspace page. I checked, and trust me, it isn't. All downloads on the Black Kids MySpace profile have been disabled, and as of November 14th they've been named one of Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 10 Artists to Watch.

Good news for you, though. You can download it here. Just right-click and select "Save Source As." Happy Black Friday.

MySpace Secret Show: November 1st - Sigur Ros + Screening of Heima

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Myspace Secret Shows U.S.
Date: Oct 30, 2007 10:32 AM


MySpace Secret Shows
is very pleased to present
An Evening with
Sigur Ros

featuring an extra special Black Curtain Screening of their new film, Heima



Thursday
FREE! / All Ages!
Doors @ 10:00 PM
November 1st, 2007

Entry is FREE and ALL AGES

For entry you MUST go to Amoeba Records on October 30th from 6-9 p.m. to pick up a wristband.

To obtain a wristband to the show just add Secret Shows as your friend and bring a printout of your profile with Myspace Secret Shows US in your Top 8.

*Wristbands will be available at the Information desk.*
*Only one wristband per person.*

Amoeba Records is located at:
6400 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
323.245.6400

Show/Screening Location:
The Vista Theatre
4473 Sunset Blvd. @ Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323.660.6639
Pre-order new Sigur Ros album, 'Hvarf Heim' here.
Pre-order new Sigur Ros DVD, 'Heima' here.

At the Drive-In - Influential/Famous/Gone

Thanks to Christopher Diers for allowing us to repost his MySpace blog entry about At The Drive In on our site. Reasons why I did it: uh...have you even read it yet?
________________________________________________________

The other day I was having a state-of-the-union type discussion about music with a very old friend of mine and through all of the usual babble about this band and that band, your top ten favorite whatever, which group killed that genre, etc we finally got to the one subject that most everyone who enjoys music loves (and to a certain degree, dreads) talking about: Albums and bands who have had a personal impact on your life. While I've always thought that it's a bit of a silly subject (I've never felt that hearing a really good album or going to an amazing show is necessarily "life-changing", unless of course you start a band as a direct result), my answer has always been simple enough. For the last 6 years the only two albums I have listened to on a (somewhat) weekly basis have been Refused's Shape of Punk to Come and At the Drive-In's Relationship of Command. I already did a blog about Refused and for whatever reason I hadn't even thought about doing one for At the Drive-In until I heard myself answer that question out loud.

Cosmonaut - Live at Big Day Out

The Relationship Of Command was actually given to me in my math class in 11th grade by this rich goth girl who sat in front of me. She purchased the album under the pretense that the group was similar to System of a Down and was ultimately disappointed with it. I traded her for a spare copy of Slayer's South of Heaven. Like many records I acquired under what now seem to be strange circumstances, I didn't quite know what to make of it. At the time I had sort of regressed into 80's hardcore, but every aspect of The Relationship of Command captivated me.

Rolodex Propaganda - Live on Later... with Jools Holland

Almost every band I was into for the next two years after absorbing this record somehow audibly referenced At the Drive-In in some shape or form. Even today, 6 years after the fact, a great deal of the newer groups I find myself drawn to were obviously just as impacted by the sheer force and emotion they commanded.

Rolling Stone.com Video Interview

As good as they were on record, nothing can touch the live show. I wish I had been able to see them before they were gone. Thats part of the reason that the band retains such greatness--the fact that they were here and in the public eye for such a short time before they disappeared--probably for good. Much like Refused, the chances of catching these guys on a reunion tour anytime soon seems very unlikely especially when you consider the success of The Mars Volta and the mediocrity of Sparta.

Rascuache (Live)

ORPHAN REVIEW:

While sifting through my (very, very, vast) iTunes library, searching ANYTHING I hadn't heard within the last 3 months, NOTHING piqued my interest. I shit you not. So I dug around on myspace and found a few new artists that I dub, "Entirely Worth Listening To." Why should you respect my opinion? Because I totally know what I'm talking about. Here's proof:

Black Black
these kids are good. true--a little rough, but i think the roughness is done on purpose. they totally get close to the depth of Young Marble Giants, but definitely have the raw sound/lyrics of The Moldy Peaches. Black Black is on the right track. ha. that rhymes.

Cat Hair Ensemble
i love this!!! i seriously love this. the name is absolutely disgusting and i sneeze just thinking about it, but these dudes are extremely talented musicians. AND THEY HAVE AN ACCORDION, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE! i mean...they make me want to take muscle relaxers and then dance the tango to a polka, but with a midget. they have totally been bitten by the party animal.

dawn Landes
oh god. could this GET any better? she's sifted through dumpsters to steal table scraps from every halfway decent female artist over the past 20 years, and has managed to make it pretty perfect. listen to picture show. it’s really freaking good. and she's super cute, too.