Good Weather For Airstrikes

So regardless of my knowledge of the week’s releases, I always spend fifteen minutes or so browsing around the iTunes Music Store every Tuesday to see what surprises they have in store for us, and today certainly did not dissappoint. Not only did they have the Decemeberists previously vinyl-only Picaresqueties EP in mp3 format (more on that later), but they also have Imogen Heap’s brand new “Goodnight and Go” single. “Goodnight and Go” itself is obviously not new, seeing as it was featured on M3 Volume 2 over a year ago, but the single version, officially dubbed “Immi’s Radio Version”, has been subtley revamped and reworked. At first listen, the differences between the original and the single version aren’t terribly noticeable, but so far I’ve noticed a shortened intro, a new wordless chorus, a completely new post-chorus at the 2:30 mark, as well as lots of brand new little production flourishes here and there. Definitely worth the listen, regardless of whether or not you already have the original.

However, the real prize here is the brand new b-side, “Speeding Cars”. Another post-break up song, which is what Imogen does best (see: “Hide and Seek”), “Speeding Cars” is a delicate piano-based track, featuring a more sparse arrangement than her usual fare (not including “Hide and Seek”). “Cars”, in all of its stark beauty, is immediately one of my favorite Imogen songs, so be sure to grab that below as well. Also, I’ve included for download Imogen’s wonderful “Can’t Take It In”, another non-album b-side from the Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack.

MP3s:
“Goodnight and Go” (Immi’s Radio Version) - Imogen Heap [highly recommended]
“Speeding Cars” - Imogen Heap [highly recommended]
“Can’t Take It In” - Imogen Heap

Yes, we’re aware we’ve been a veritable parade of [highly recommendeds] recently, but trust me, all these songs are definitely worthy of the label.

God I’d kill to post this, but this is officially a Stereogum premier, so please (please) go here to download this wonderful track. This is our third taste of The Avalanche, and while the title track is quite nice, “Adlai Stevenson” (downloadable below, in case you missed it) left a good amount to be desired and surely had some questioning how the rest of The Avalanche will turn out, but “The Henney Buggy Band” offers plenty of reassurance. Stereogum even begs the question, “Could Avalanche pull of some consecutive album-of-the-year Tom Hanks-style shit?”. To be honest though, if the 18 other tracks we’re yet to hear off of this album are all this good, then the answer’s probably yes.

I really can’t fathom why this was left off of Illinoise, as it’s just as good as the vast majority of that album. That descending horn refrain, the group backing vocals, the part where the instrumentation drops out for a beat and he says “the catastrophic smile” and rocks that falsetto; seriously, this is so good. But yeah, just go, now. Seriously, bye.

UPDATE: “The Avalanche” and “Adlai Stevenson” have been removed at the label’s request. Also, please note that the acoustic version of “Chicago” posted below is not the version that will be on The Avalanche, rather it is a live recording from a KCRW session last summer, though I imagine the album version won’t be drastically different (I mean, acoustic is acoustic).

Previous MP3s:
“The Avalanche” - Sufjan Stevens [link removed]
“Chicago” (Acoustic) - Sufjan Stevens [highly recommended]
“Adlai Stevenson” - Sufjan Stevens [link removed]

Alright, so normally this would take the form of an artist profile, but to be honest, I really know nothing about Apathy and don’t have the time to investigate further, as my History of Photography final paper (25% of my final grade, fuck) is breathing down my neck. And yes, hip hop is normally Everett’s thing, but I’m making an exception here. Earlier tonight Ben (from Videoteque and Work For It) brightened my relatively-bleak night by hooking me up with Apathy’s “It Takes A Seven Nation Army To Hold Us Back”, which just defines hotness, and I still haven’t gotten over Apathy’s “Banquet” remix, which I posted a little over a month ago with my Bloc Party Always New Depths rarities compilation. While the various rappers’ featured on these two tracks’ (one of which is Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park) lyrics are juvenile at best, the beats on these songs are just awesome, as their sampled from two of my favorite songs of the last few years.

Also, the “Banquet” remix, aside from being ridiculously hot, is worth listening to just so you can hear Mike Shinoda’s “I’m fuckin’ awesome when I’m rockin’ the booth” line, as it never ceases to bring a smile to my face. WARNING: Fiery hotness below.

MP3s: [both highly recommended]
“It Takes A Seven Nation Army To Hold Us Back” (ft. Emilio Lopez) - Apathy
“Banquet” (Remix ft. Mike Shinoda & Styles of Beyond) - Apathy

My favorite arena-rockers, Muse, who put on one of the ten best live shows I’ve ever witnessed when I saw them two years ago at the 9:30 Club in DC, have just announced the details of their comeback single, “Supermassive Black Hole”, which will be out June 19th in the UK (and way before that on the blogs, I imagine). Their as-yet-untitled fourth album will follow on July 3rd, and though no US release date has been confirmed, I imagine we shouldn’t have to wait too long, as Muse achieved mild success and radio play with Absolution in the US the last time around. Singer Matt Bellamy, who consistently manages to sound absolutely flawless live, hinted at a shift in sound for Muse, saying:

“I was going out dancing in clubs around New York. That helped create tracks like ‘Supermassive Black Hole’. Franz [Ferdinand] have done it very well, with that dance type beat going on mixed with alternative guitar and I’ve always wanted to find that.”

So, considering my undying love for dance rock, I’m definitely looking forward to hearing this. While unfortunately I don’t have their upcoming single for you (yet), I do have two of Muse’s pre-Absolution singles, their two finest songs in my opinion, which could easily have been overlooked by you American readers, seeing as Origin of Symmetry didn’t see a US release until long after Absolution came out here. “New Born” (awesome intro) and “Bliss” (check out that piano/synth line) are my two favorite Muse songs, so hopefully some of you non-UK folk will discover them for the first time and enjoy them as much as I do.

MP3s:
“New Born” - Muse [highly recommended]
“Bliss” - Muse [highly recommended]

UPDATE: I replaced the old poor-quality webrip with the actual mp3 from the album, which means no more of those irritating clicking noises in the background.

Here at Good Weather for Airstrikes, we have a thing for sports. Football always holds the number one spot in our hearts, but with no NFL season right now the NBA Playoffs are keeping us occupied. Our hometown Washington Wizards should have gotten over that road bump known as LeBron James’ Playoff Debut by now and are poised to make a run deep into the playoffs (until they have to play Miami. If you know ‘Zards basketball, you’ll know its been a looong time since we’ve beaten Miami. Over two years, in fact). However, as we were watching our Wizards being dismantled by LeBron’s triple-double, we couldn’t help but notice one NBA Playoffs commerical standing out, and no, it’s not the one with Fort Minor (more on that later: guilty pleasure alert!). The commercial is called “To Each His Own Ritual”, and advertises the beginning of the NBA Playoffs, airing on ESPN and ABC. Zack posted the commercial over on All Things Go, and we’ve done the same, right here:

If you read Zack’s post, it signs off with a plea for somebody to identify the wordless track that plays in the background. Well, Good Weather For Airstrikes (read: Everett) has come to the rescue, tracking down that elusive song, and, with the help of Derek’s computer-hacking skills, has made it available for download.

The band is Mountains In The Sky. Signed to Trifekta Records (Aussie home of The Decemberists & Deerhoof and the past label of The Avalanches, Architecture in Helsinki, and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone), Mountains in the Sky is the creative outlet of Melbourne, Australia’s John Lee. His latest album, 2005’s Celestial Son, features the song that is being made famous through its use in the above commercial, “Noah’s Arkestra”. Trifekta says of the band: “Mountains In The Sky is music you half-hear in your dreams. It lifts musical elements from the everyday and constructs kaleidoscopic, intimate, cut’n'paste pastiches that are as elusively foreign as they are somewhat familiar…sonic bliss.” Hyperbole, perhaps, but the song in question is definitely worthy of that description. Vaguely reminiscent of RJD2, who’s excellent “Ghostwriter” has been used in past NBA commercials, Mountains In The Sky’s work also seems influenced by DJ Shadow, but slightly more energetic. The song itself works perfectly with the “To Each His Own Ritual” concept, which sees various NBA stars going through their superstitous pregame activities. The jittery track perfectly imagines the butterflies even the greatest of basketball players feel before taking the court in the playoffs, and I applaud the National Basketball Association and ESPN for selecting a song that is not only obscure, but perfect for the mood they are trying to set.

Unfortunately, at the moment the only mp3 of the song we have downloadable for you is not of the highest quality, as it is a webrip. Rest assured, it will still play fine on your computer or your iPod, but because our only option at the moment was to capture the streaming audio from the label’s website, the sound quality does leave something to be desired. We are working to get a better copy, but we couldn’t wait to share this song with you, so we’re offering it to you right here, as is.

MP3: “Noah’s Arkestra” - Mountains In The Sky [updated link]

To download the song, PC-users should right-click on the song link and select “Save Target As…”, and Mac users should CTRL-click and select “Download Linked File”.