This is fine.
We’ve always made a point to see Bill Callahan when he comes to Austin and we always enjoy the performance he puts on. If you’ve yet to catch one of these shows, you can sort of recreate the live experience with Tiny Desk Concert Mr. Callahan just recorded for NPR. It’s a 3 song set and really highlights the unique style this guy is coming with. Check it out now.
Matt Sharp and his band The Rentals finally got back together a couple years ago and are hard at work on a whole slew of new material. The new project from the band is called Songs About Time and is a year long project with films coming out every day, short films every Tuesday and 3 EPs dropping every 3 months. It’s quite the project and no one would expect any less from Mr. Sharp. Two of these EPs Chapter One: The Story of a Thousand Seasons Past and Chapter Two: It’s Time to Come Home are both streaming and available for digital download on The Rentals website. Stay tuned because even more new material will be coming your way soon. Here’s the title track from Chapter 1.
Download: The Rentals – Story of a Thousand Seasons Past [MP3]
The new Jack White supergroup Dead Weather are streaming their new album Horehound over on Facebook. Check it out now before it drops next week and let us know what you think.
As the lull in summer music news gently takes hold of us here at ATH, we hear via our friend Chris at GvsB that our local Transmission Entertainment has begun to slowly unleash the list of bands hitting the stage at the 4th Annual Fun Fun Fun Fest. The bands so far released are reunited Jesus Lizard, Broadcast, Atlas Sound and King Khan and the BBQ Show. We’re already stoked, so lets see if they can pull the Descendents together.
Long time ATH fave, Beirut, just recorded another session for the fine folks at La Blogotheque over the weekend. The set is a more traditional in-studio somewhere in France and is quite lengthy at over 26 minutes. The band plays some of our favorites including another version of “Nantes” which was the highlight of Beirut’s last Blogotheque performance. This one is well worth your time.
Download: Beirut – My Night with the Prostitute from Marseille [MP3]
Sad news in the music world today. Michael Jackson, the true king of pop music, has passed away today from an apparent heart attack. We won’t try to put into words what this means to the music world, but we will say that everyone here at ATH is deeply saddened by this news. We will miss you. Full story comes from CNN.
A sad day in the world of indie music news as one of our favorite bands of 2008 Oxford Collapse have decided to call it quits after over 8 years in existence. We’ve enjoyed this band ever since we caught their show at Mohawk several months back and had the chance to interview them before their set. You can read an official statement about the break up over on the Sub Pop blog. Take some time today to check out the last single from Oxford Collapse called “Birthday Wars” or read our positive review of the band’s last album Bits. Let’s hope the guys keep making music outside of this project.
Download: Oxford Collapse – Birthday Wars [MP3]
During SXSW we took it upon ourselves to investigate the hype generated by San Francisco’s Girls. Lucky for us, they completely lived up to the hype, if not rising above and beyond. Now we finally have a release date for their debut, Album, which will be released on True Panther Records via Matador Records. The album comes out on September 22nd, and the following song “Lust for Life” is slated as the opening track. Look out album of the year, here come Girls.
Download: Girls – Lust for Life [MP3]
Swiss transplant Jason Albertini is now living in the Northwest, and his music with Helvetia is easily influenced by the sounds of the area, not to mention his recordings, since he’s been joined by Scott Plouf of Built to Spill. His new album, Helvetia’s Junk Shop, will be released this September on Static Cult. This recording sounds a bit muddy, but it the vocals definitely meander through the song as you would expect from a band in this region. Here’s “Leading Towards an End.”
Download: Helvetia – Leading Towards an End [MP3]
We love the project over at Daytrotter, especially when they do work with local Austin bands. Corto Maltese is one of the younger bands around town who are making a name for themselves. Their Daytrotter session is full of four unreleased songs recorded during SXSW. Unfortunately, the band have no current shows lined up, but at least we have these new songs.
Download: Corto Maltese – Providence (Daytrotter Session) [MP3]
