Muzac in Misery

Some good music has come to my attention lately...

Cold War Kids are coming here in March and I think I'm going to go see them over TV on the Radio, despite my crowning TVOTR's new album #1 for 2006. The main reason is the Kids are playing with Tokyo Police Club. They're this noisy garage rawk band outa Canada (always good for music, eh?) that should put on a much more interesting show than droned-out barbershop quartet singing. The Kids and Club play Mojo's on the 10th of March. It should be a great rawk show!

Beirut is the band that I never listened to in 2006 that will fill my speakers through 2007. "Postcards from Italy" will be my old song of the New Year. Gypsy music is cool...if only you'd give it a chance.

Camera Obscura comes to town in early February. I like their poppy mcpoppy sound that sounds right out of that pop music heaven that never existed in the mid to late 60's. They outplay their Glasgow mates Belle & Sebastian at their new game. Although I like this record a lot, I'm not 100% sure I'll go to their show...this whole happy pop thing running through the indie world is old before it's new.

I finally bought the Thermals. Ever since I caught them po-go-ing on 120 Minutes a few years back I've wanted to check them out. I'll always regret not seeing them at OSU's free Springfest in '02. Back to the music...their new record (something about "The Body, the Blood...") talks about the hypocrisy of organized religion in a way that speaks to my 20-year-old self, sneaking beers in the back of Bernie’s and wishing I had worn more than a flannel and thrift store t-shirt.

New stuff from old favorites will steadily be coming out in the next few months:

*I've already purchased my tickets for the Shins in St. Louis and their new record via pre-order. The first single doesn't provide a lot of hope but I love this band too much not to give them a chance. Even if it is the third best Shins' album (there's only been two prior to this), it should be better than 90% of the music released in '07. If they play "Kissing the Lipless" and "New Slang" at their show next month, it'll be worth the $50+ and personal day. Besides, the show's on my birthday.

*I've also pre-ordered the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah cd (w/t-shirt) and Arcade Fire LP. The Clap Your Hands record sounds interesting. Gone is that whining drone ripped off from David Byrne and in its place is a newer, more fleshed out sound. The Arcade Fire almost can't go wrong (until they leave Merge for Interscope or some crap like that). Their new single is as dramatic as anything on Funeral. I'm actually most excited to receive the LP in the mail with a coupon for a free MP3 version of the record. I think this will revolutionize indie rock and bring back the album!

*I don't want to forget to mention some other stuff coming out in the near future...Modest Mouse (I don't care what you say. The new single is fun!) and Bright Eyes (I'll probably be coming out of my situational depression when this hits stores.).