This is fine.
Dayton’s own Heartless Bastards appeared in the WOXY radio studios recently and the Futurist has a recap complete with MP3s. We’ve got a track from the performance below or you can download or stream all the tracks now.
Download: Heartless Bastards – Wide Awake(live) [MP3]
Daytrotter continues with their sweet recordings this week bringing you one from Sub Pop band Death Vessel. The 3 song set features one unreleased tune that you can check out below. Head over to Daytrotter to stream/download all songs.
Download: Death Vessel – Obadiah in Oblivion(live) [MP3]
It’s never to early to start getting your plans made for SXSW. Do512 has a pretty sweet list of artists that have been confirmed so far. Who are you looking forward to?
Every single person has to love a solid song from none other than Eef Barzelay, especially when he is going under the moniker of Clem Snide. This new tune comes your way as the first single on the new Clem Snide album Hungry Bird, coming our way on February 24th.
Download: Clem Snide – Hum [MP3]
It’s 2009, and here at Austin Town Hall we are looking to help promote the Austin scene, and thus comes our new segment on Austin Artists to Watch. Our first little blurb comes after catching this band, The Great Nostalgic, at Emo’s Friday night during Free Week. Follow the jump for full story and free tuneage.
We just heard about this new band hailing from Chicago, The Dogs, and wanted to spread the word about their new album. This is the band’s debut album, it’s self-titled, and you can download the thing for free from their website. The songs are mostly acoustic driven, folk ballads with some pretty nice harmonies mixed in. Here’s opening song of the album “I Don’t Know Your Name”.
Download: The Dogs – I Don’t Know Your Name [MP3]
The Alamo Downtown has some crazy good shows for your enjoyment this week. Here’s a quick rundown:
Tuesday – Terror Tuesdays featuring Howling 2 w/ Sybil Danning in person. Reserve a seat now or read the new Terror Tuesday blog.
Wednesday – Weird Wednesdays featuring Chained Heat w/ Sybil Danning in person yet again! Reserve your seat now or read the new Weird Wednesday blog.
Thursday – The main event! Tonight features the debut of the new Mickey Rourke flick The Wrestler along with real live wrestling before the show from The Texas Wrestling Federation!! Get tickets now for $18.
Dear Alamo, we love you. That is all.
Rating: 
How does one truly classify a band like Animal Collective? Let alone, how does one place a name on something that is easily unidentifiable? You can’t, which has often led to praise for this band, as many love that which we don’t completely understand, yet sounds so beautiful. Merriweather Post Pavillion is the first Animal Collective album that fully reaches beyond and into the masses.
From the get go, the band quickly falls into their typical IDM driven pop music. However, from the first entry on this album, there is a certain clarity to the vocals. Animal Collective obviously has pushed beyond their own borders, grasping onto the vocal element with a clearer sense of purpose than before. It’s a breath of fresh air, with a presence all it’s own.
This oddity in styling is reemphasized by the band choosing to also stay a little closer to the mainstream with the lyrical content. Not only do the vocals sound better, but the lyrics aren’t coated in outsider allusions. Oddly, this is the closest the band has come to writing meaningful lyrics that will translate to the laymen. Don’t fret though, the band still primarily seems to use the vocal as an instrument in itself, as lyrics repeat time and time again. This is where many people will find the Brian Wilson comparison obvious, though they’ve clearly expanded with spending time writing lyrics.
Many will claim that the album closer “Brothersport,” which caused loads of Internet controversy with its leak is the most accessible of the songs present here. It would be hard to argue that all songs are not accessible this time round, but also consider “Summertime Clothes” as another popular ditty as the mini-chorus of “I want to walk around with you” dances along.
While this may be the first complete album the band has put out, there are always going to be detractors to an album by this group. Occasionally, the band repeats itself too often, making the listener lose focus in the progression of the song. It goes on a bit long, and many will get detached as they listen. In all likelihood this album will be best on vinyl, listened to one side at a time. This is fortunate for all us fans because the band releases the vinyl version on January 6th, while Domino Records will release the CD version on January 20th.
As usual, the band has the knack to suspend listeners in a pop-induced trance, as rhythms steadily pound in your ears, accompanied by the vocal as an instrument. It’s difficult to predict how some will react, but most can admit that there are many beautiful moments created by clever crafts of Animal Collective.
Don’t start going crazy over the headline of the post just yet. It’s sort of new music from Yo La Tengo and sort of not. The story goes that way back in March a band by the name of Condo Fucks played a surprise type show in NYC with some other bands. Sort of unexpectedly, that band turned turned out to be just another name for now famous New Jersey indie outfit Yo La Tengo. This new band, side project or whatever you want to call it has a new album out via Matador on March 24th entitled Fuckbook. Not sure exactly what the idea is for the project or why the need for all the cursing, but all YLT band members are involved. Here’s a recently posted song by the band called “Whatcha Gonna Do About It”.
Download: Condo Fucks – Whatcha Gonna Do About It [MP3]
If you’re growing impatient for the new Andrew Bird album, the nice folks over at NPR are streaming the entire thing right now. The new album is entitled Noble Beast and won’t be out in physical form until January 20th. Here’s whistle heavy first single from the new album “Oh No”. Don’t forget that Mr. Bird is also coming through Austin on the 12th of February at the Paramount. Obstructed view tickets are all that’s left so scalping or alternative action may be in order.
Download: Andrew Bird – Oh No [MP3]
