Amoeba In-Store: Vampire Weekend, Monday February 4th

Amoeba's just full of 'em lately. In the past couple months we've seen Band of Horses, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Kate Nash, Sia, and now Vampire Weekend. I think it's a pretty dumb name for a band because it doesn't make any sense (but I guess there are other things that I'm into that don't make any sense, like that Gossip Girl show, but whatever that's not what this is about). Anyway, yea, there's something not normal about their music. Rolling Stone'll tell you it's cause they've got "a suave sound that incorporates ska, New Wave and Afro-pop", a combination of genres that makes even less sense in my mind than Puffy and Sting, but I'll have to agree with Pitchfork when they simply state, "Vampire Weekend come along like Belle & Sebastian and the Strokes each did, sounding refreshingly laidback and uncomplicated, and with simple set-ups that make good songs sound exceedingly easy. (The result being not "this is mind-blowing," or "this is catchy," but "I have listened to this, straight through, four times a day for the past month".)"

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.

Goldfrapp, Black Mountain, and Ariel Pink: It's news to you

In the interest of keeping you informed, here are several updates to stories we posted in 2007.

1. GOLDFRAPP - Go to the group's MySpace page to preview the first single from their forthcoming album, Seventh Tree. It's called 'A & E,' and it's not that great, but the artwork is pretty cool.

2. BLACK MOUNTAIN - The Canadians have extended their North American tour to include dates with label-mates Bon Iver--but unfortunately for us Los Angelenos, we'll be missin' out. Don't fret, my pets, because we still get to see 'em with Howlin' Rain.

3. ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI - Human Ear Records has re-released an old Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti album. Ariel Pink is awesome, and Scared Famous is highly recommended. Pitchfork has the story, and I have to go watch movies on demand now. That is all.

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.

My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection: #1: Through The Wilderness, A Tribute To Madonna

With all of the "Radiohead-destroyed-the-music-industry" hype that's circling the net right now, you've doubtlessly heard that NIN & Madonna have (in their own way) followed suit. So I'm not gonna talk about that. I also feel like there's a more important issue at hand--this weekend something horrible happened: my external hard drive crashed and took with it my 100+ GB music library. As a result, I've freeloaded from the internet's countless mp3 blogs. This is post #1 in a series of what we can call, "Desperate Picks" or, "My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection And These Are The Highlights Of What Was Available To Highlight."

Through The Wilderness: Tribute To Madonna
Scheduled Release: 27 November 2007

I've heard some of this, and I must say--it's certainly not bad. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Lavender Diamond, Giant Drag, and Mountain Party are all great artists and I am definitely interested in hearing them do their best Madonna. If you're interested and would like to hear more, I've taken the liberty of directly linking to some available downloads (courtesy of stereogum). But please consider the fact that all proceeds benefit Raising Malawi, so buy it (even if you only buy one album for the next 6 months). Orphans with AIDS need the ten/twelve/however many dollars you know you'll only spend on cigarettes anyway (after you download the album from someone on soulseek).

Official Track List (Manimal Vinyl, 29 October 2007)

Jonathan Wilson "La Isla Bonita"
Golden Animals "Beautiful Stranger (Blues)"
Winter Flowers "Live To Tell"
Mountain Party "Material Girl"
Jeremy Jay "Into The Groove"
Ariel Pink "Everybody"
Giant Drag "Oh Father"
The Tyde "Hung Up"
Alexandra Hope "Lucky Star"
The Chapin Sisters "Borderline"
Apollo Heights "Dress You Up"
The Bubonic Plague "Who's That Girl?"
The Prayers "Cherish"
Lion of Panjshir "Crazy for You"
Lavender Diamond "Like A Prayer"
Siddhartha "Holiday" (iTunes only)
Pangaeans "Impressive Instant" (iTunes only)


DOWNLOADS
Giant Drag - "Oh Father" (MP3)
Ariel Pink - "Everybody" (MP3)