3-Way Electro Yr Face

1. Get the new album from Kansas City's Ssion /shun/, Fool's Gold. Previous incarnations of this band have spliced the New York take on new-new garage punk and po-mo'd it up to hit all the freaky right notes, including a Rocky Horror reinterpretation ("Opportunity Bless My Soul") and a Minute Man parody ("What Make a Man Start a Band?"), both from the apparently out-of-print-but-worth-hunting-down Opportunity Bless My Soul.

The band has become more electronically oriented in the last couple years, like some of their peers. Mo' money--mo' circuits, i 'pose.

From what I could find, the album is currently only available on iTunes, which I've seen happen before. Who'd have thunk Apple would be bringing the cutting-edge indie tunes to the kids? Luckily, it's an iTunes Plus album. You can also sample some tracks on myspace. Ug.

[mp3] Ssion - Street Jizz
from Fool's Gold (2008)
[mp3] Ssion - Opportunity Bless My Soul
from Opportunity Bless My Soul (2003)

2. Check out the live Klaxons / Rihanna mashup from the Brit Awards. Laser shows are cool!? Or is it lazer in England?


As advertised on Pitchfork.

3. Crystal Castles official release of their self-titled album has been pushed back, but you can pick up the Crystal Castles v. Health - Crimewave single all over the place.

[mp3] Crystal Castles - "Alice Practice"
from Crystal Castles (2008)

Download Crystal Castles v. Health - Crimewave: Emusic Amazonmp3
Preorder Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles: insound

Bonus Track!
[mp3] Klaxons - "Atlantis to Interzone" (Crystal Castles Remix)

Bower-y Boi; "Rosebud!"

It's rare that I find a music writer I can name drop, but William Bowers (not to be confused with the late Western-film writer) has become an elite member of the club. Besides writing for various zines and mags, his "Puritan Blister" columns on Pitchfork have become a warm center of meta-postmodern critique among the trivial news and overwrought reviews (not that PF is bad). I'm currently enamored with his commentary on the new Hannah Montana "movie." Also check out his previous entry "about" the dysfunctional marriage of music and film.

Puritan Blister #34: I Went and Saw Me Some Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, Part One
Puritan Blister #33: Big Pimpin’ (Organic Synergy Remix)

You can also download mp3s and such from his blog, samely titled.
...

Filmspotting's musical interludes are provided by the Rosebuds this week. The band is currently on tour (dates below).

[mp3] The Rosebuds - Leaves Do Fall
from Birds Make Good Neighbors
[mp3] The Rosebuds - Kicks in the Schoolyard
from The Rosebuds Make Out

Feb 24th - B1 Maximum * Moscow, Russian Federation w/ Brett Anderson (Suede)

Feb 29th - Noise Pop XVI * The Mezzanine - San Francisco CA w/ Working for a Nuclear Free City & Foxtail SomersaultMar 7th - Kings Barcade - Raleigh NC w/ Monotix & Un Deux Trios (all ages)Mar 8th - Bellafesta - Wilmington NC w/ Un Deux Trios

Mar 9th - The Map Room - Charleston SC w/ Un Deux Trios
Mar 10th - Art Bar - Columbia SC w/ Beach House
Mar 11th - The Earl - Atlanta GA w/ Beach House & Birds of Avalon
Mar 12th - Spanish Moon - Baton Rouge LA w/ Silversun Pickups (all ages)
Mar 14th - SXSX * Antones * Merge Records Showcase * Austin TX w/ Imperial Teen, The Broken West, Lady Bug Transistor and and "secret band from Austin!"
Mar 15th - SXSW * Austin TX tba
Mar 16th - SXSW * Poke Joe's * Merge Records/Absolutely Kosher Records Party * Austin TX
Mar 17th - SXSW * Austin TX * tba
The Rosebuds - Night of the Furies - April 10th! Merge Records USA

The Rosebuds on Emusic
The Rosebuds on Insound

Devils and Demons

The second Damned series, Prodigal Sons, should be on the shelves March 19 from Oni Press. Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt (Hard Time, Queen and Country) handle creative duties again. I really enjoyed the first series, which followed Eddie, a classic noir protagonist who can return from the dead when someone touches his body, as he navigates his way through and underworld of organized crime and demons.

The Damned: Prodigal Sons is only a three issue series, but will be followed by another mini, Daughter's Dance.

Fellow STL-artist Chris Samnee (Capote in Kansas, Queen & Country) provides pencils on the upcoming Daredevil one-shot (?), Blood of the Tarantula. I've been unable to find any previews of Samnee's work on the issue, but I'm sure it will be worth getting.

You can expect to see at least Brian and Cullen at the 2008 Cape Comic Con.

See also:
Cape Comic Con 2007
Comic's the Spektor

WOXY?

WOXY.com, the former alt.fm of Oxford, Ohio, has featured some of America's best band on its weekly live, in-studio show, Lounge Acts. Recent acts have included The Broken West, Ra Ra Riot, and the Forms. In the archive, you can find acts like Neko Case, Pernice Brothers, and Yo La Tengo. Almost every show is available for download at decent quality. I recommend The National or any of the Forget Cassettes shows.

While you're there, check out WOXY's best of '07.

Let's Get "Let's Get Digital"

Hop on over to Insound to get their brand new sampler, Let's Get Digital 5, featuring new tracks from Xiu Xiu, Hot Chip, Ida, and 12 others. These mixes always feature some great new stuff.

Download Let's Get Digital 5

Apparently it will only be available for a limited time, but you can still get #4 right here. If anyone finds links to the other three, let me know and I'll post them here. The third one was put together with the help of CMJ and helped me through the extraction of four wisdom teeth. Ow!

In apology of compression

from my personal blog:

I spent an hour or so organizing some of old CDs (mostly burned) and putting up some posters. On this week's episode of AV Rant, one of my favorite podcasts, Tom Andry expressed his puzzlement as to why someone would need to carry around 5,000 songs in their pocket. Although I share--less enthusiastically--in his lament of the shift towards music that is more compressed and, thus, less dynamic, I refuse to throw out thousands of babies with the mass-produced bathwater.

Even now, as I listen to last year's Myths of the Near Future from Klaxons, I'm mildly distracted by the bass clipping and overall lack of range. Whether it's the original mastering, the digital compression down to a wimpy 128-kbs AAC file, my $50 2.1 speakers, our living room's horrible acoustics, or a combination of all four, the delivery process leaves much to be desired.

However, I didn't get into music because an $800-pair of speakers dazzled me with an impressive sound stage. I love music because it speaks to me; it makes me feel something. The melodies dances around my brain when its absent. I get powerful urges to hear particular songs, and if the thirst goes unquenched, I'm mildly distracted. The best cure for what some might label an addiction, is my iPod classic loaded with 15,000 songs (three-fourths of my iTunes library), many of which are painfully compressed.

Although I'd love a 7.1 audio-centric home theater system featuring the Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver, Oppo's DV-980H up-converting player, and a set of Axiom speakers, I can't bring myself to save my monthly entertainment budget to get them. In the meantime, I looking for a good deal on MDR-V6 headphones, downloading 320 kbs torrents, and re-ripping some of my favorite albums in 256 kbs. That digital artifact I just heard in "Gravity's Rainbow" tells me that Klaxons CD is first.

Read the entire post here.