New music

• The Hold Steady, full stream of Heaven is Whenever (May 4th), NPR
• Broken Social Scene, full stream of Forgiveness Rock Record (May 4th), NPR
• Blur, "Fool's Day," single released for Record Store Day, Blur website

UPDATE

• Band of Horses, "Factory," Infinite Arms (May 18th), band's website
• Rolling Stones, "Plundered My Soul," Exile on Main Street deluxe reissue (May 18th), TwentyFourBit
  

New music

• The National, "Afraid of Everyone," High Violet (May 10th), Pfork
• Band of Horses, "Laredo," Infinite Arms (May 18th), Pfork
• Deer Tick, "Twenty Miles," Black Dirt Sessions (Jun 8th)

New music

• The Hold Steady, "Rock Problems," Heaven is Whenever (May 4th), Vulture
• Band of Horses, "Compliments," Infinite Arms (May 18th), Pfork
• Tokyo Police Club, "Breakneck Speed," Champ (June 8th), Pigeon Post
• Broken Social Scene, "Forced to Love," "All to All" and "Love Sick," Forgiveness Rock Record (May 4th), Songs to Save
• The Black Keys, "Tighten Up" and "Next Girl," Brothers (May 18th), I am fuel
  

Band of Horses - Ram's Head Live! (6/12/09)

I'm not really sure what happened here. The conditions were set for a successful evening - the LOML made a rare appearance with me, we've been looking forward to see BoH for a few years and it was our maiden voyage to Ram's Head in B-more. The night even started off on a few positive notes - got rid of our extra pair of tickets without a hitch and had solid dinner/drinks at the newly established J.A. Murphy's. Once we got to Ram's Head, the night didn't go in the crapper, but it sure didn't continue to get better...


First, the venue. It doesn't seem like a bad place to see a concert, but we didn't help ourselves any by showing up to the sold-out show about 10 minutes before BoH came on stage. We chose to head to the second floor and had to bob and weave the whole night to catch glimpses of the band.

Which brings us to BoH. They kicked off their set with three or four slow songs in a row (their set list looked similar to their NY show)... if I could have laid down on the floor and taken a nap, I would have. I'm not sure what I expected from these guys, but they didn't live up to it. They sounded fine but their choice of songs and lack of movement on stage didn't really give the crowd a chance to get into it. It was almost like they didn't want us to get into it...

Hooray Friday!

- Band of Horses played the Accelerator Festival this week in Stockholm and let loose on an unreleased song. Check out the video at P-fork.

- All reports from Bonnaroo are that MMJ killed with a 3+ hour set. I've been back and forth on seeing them when they swing through DC for their "An Evening with..." tour and I think this sealed the deal for me. Have a listen for yourself at You Ain't No Picasso.

- If you're looking for some new music to check out, head over to Sixeyes who has the list of nominees for the Polaris Music Prize which is given to the best Canadian album released in the last year.

- Not sure if I've already posted this, but Radiohead's April concert at the BBC Radio Theatre is available for download on Sixeyes.

- And the trifecta for Sixeyes! Some Shins live tracks from a concert last year are up and available for your listening/downloading pleasure.

- Spoon recorded a Daytrotter session which includes a cover of Paul Simon's "Peace Like a River" and three other songs.

- The Editors cover Calvin Harris' "Acceptable in the 80s". Thanks to Lets Sexy Fighting for the love.

- More covers from Lets Sexy Fighting. Grizzly Bear takes a crack at "Owner of a Lonely Heart" - can't wait to hear to this one.

- Take a listen to Blitz Trappen's title track off of their upcoming release Furr, due out in September. Thanks to You Ain't No Picasso.

- Another Peel Session from Aquarium Drunkard, this one courtesy of Fugazi from 1988.

- Aaaand the first of the 1/2 year lists are out.

Band of Horses - Morning Becomes Eclectic

[flickr]

I was going to include this in the week’s recap, but figured that these guys deserve a post all to themselves...

It kills me that I missed Band of Horses come through DC not once, not twice, but three times in the past six months. Believe it not, prior engagements kept me from attending any and all of them. To make matters worse, the LOML has become a bit obsessed with Ben Bridwell and the boys. One day she rotated between Cease to Begin and Everything All the Time for probably eight straight hours and then made a fuss when I finally cut it off (needless to say, one of the albums "found" its way back into the CD player when I went to the bathroom). And the final dagger was that RatBat Bear scored FRONT ROW tickets to their upcoming show in State College, PA courtesy of his better half. Lucky bastard!

I came across an interview/set from Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW while browsing around the NPR website. Yeah it’s from September but better late than never, right? I’m actually listening to it right now and it’s just what the doctor ordered for a Saturday morning (almost afternoon). Anyway, there are some diddies from both albums and listening to it makes me regret not seeing these shaggy bastards in concert even more (and makes me envy RBB more too). Plus it has an interview with Bridwell sprinkled through the performance. He's is just like you’d imagine he would be from his looks and music – cool and down to earth. Not many people could pull off a beard like that, but Ben does it well and entertains the hell out of us at the same time.

Tour dates announced

With their upcoming album complete, Band of Horses have scheduled a handful of dates, beginning on August 1st at Red Rocks. Looks like they'll be teaming with Modest Mouse for about half of them. Dates can be found on their MySpace page, although their appearance at the 9:30 Club in DC on Aug. 7th (unfortunately not with Modest Mouse) is nowhere to be found there. My hope is that it's the band's error, not the 9:30 Club.

The National is returning to the states for some more goodness before heading back to Europe. A full list of dates can be found on their website.

The VH1 Hip Hop Honors Tour featuring the Roots, MC Lyte and Big Daddy Kane are hitting a handful of cities this fall. Scheduled dates here.

This is a little late notice, but the Format kick off their summer tour tomorrow night in Dallas. Scheduled dates here.

Band of Horses interview (and others)

[flickr]

From The Line of the Best Fit:

"Earlier this month, Band of Horses finally made it over to the UK for a
whistlestop tour. Rich Thane caught up with frontman Ben Bridwell to find out
what the band have been upto since the release of last years outstanding debut Everything All The Time, and how they’ve found playing to a UK audience for the first time. "

I didn't realize until a few minutes ago that Mat Brooke left the band almost a year ago. Hopefully, that doesn't effect their sophomore effort. Ben Bridwell doesn't seem to think it will, but then again, would you expect him to say anything different? Anyway, check out the interview here.

Also, TLOTBF has a few other interviews posted, including the band that I said I wouldn't talk about for a while and The Twilight Sad.