Good Weather For Airstrikes

UPDATE: I Guess I’m Floating, who are tearing up the blog scene now, has a new Sufjan song, from the upcoming Kill Rock Stars The Sound The Hare Heard compilation, which focuses exclusively on singer/songwriters. “Adlai Stevenson” is typical Sufjan flawlessness, and is one of the tracks slated for the hotly-anticipated The Avalanche b-sides compilation, so head over there and grab it while it’s hot.

So I was re-reading my post on Sufjan’s upcoming Illinoise b-sides compilation The Avalanche (because sometimes I re-read my own posts as an ego boost), and I realized I should have posted one of his best (and unreleased) songs, his incredible rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner”. I first heard this when I felt the Illinoise live in concert when Sufjan rolled through DC last fall, and it was a definite highlight of the show and just a great treat to hear live. After the show I frantically tried to find a recording of this, but could only come up with a poor-quality version. However, the lovely Dodge over at My Old Kentucky Blog posted the complete live set from Sufjan’s Denver show, which contained a great recording of the song, thus making me a very happy man. Granted, Dodge posted that live set way back in December, but with Sufjan entering the news again with the announcement of his new b-sides album and my recent posting of two of his excellent b-sides, I figured it’d be appropriate for me to post it here for any of you who missed Dodge’s great post.

The American classic, which spent weeks at the top of the charts when Francis Scott Key first dropped it on our young nation back in September of 1814, is completely reinvented here with a haunting new echoing chorus and reworked lyrics. When the backing vocals come in around the midway point, the deal is sealed, and this is easily one of my favorite covers of all time.

MP3: “The Star Spangled Banner” - Sufjan Stevens [highly recommended]

Also, sorry for the lack (in quantity and substantiality) of posts around here over the last week, I’ve got a huge paper (”Car Culture In Nabokov’s Lolita“) due tomorrow and I’ve been pretty busy with that. However, M3 Volume 8 will be dropping sometime next week, and it’s all springtime-y and fun and wonderful, so you can look forward to that. Also, My Ex-Best Friend posted Benjamin Costello’s covers of (Iron & Wine’s version of) “Such Great Heights” and Death Cab’s “A Lack of Color”, and while they’re not incredible or anything, those are two of everyone’s favorite songs so that’s probably of interest to some of you. I also just finished a pretty fantastic collaboration with Zack (from All Things Go), which he’ll be posting shortly, so yeah, there’s that too. Cool, talk to you guys later.

I love it when bands release excellent b-sides or double a-side singles that actually make the single worth buying, and Franz Ferdinand have decided to do just that with their single release of “The Fallen”, the third single off of last year’s You Could Have It So Much Better. The single is actually a double a-side, with brand new track “L. Wells” being thrown in to make the package all that more exciting. Also, available on the CD-single/EP is another new song, “Jeremy Fraser”, further continuing the trend of nominative song titles on this release, as well as Justice’s remix of “The Fallen” and an instrumental track, “Brown Onions”.“L. Wells” gets the “a-side” call here over “Jeremy Fraser”, and rightfully so, as it’s an excellent song, about Lynsey Wells, a friend of the band from Scotland. Here’s what frontman Alex Kapranos has to say about her:

Lynsey [Wells] is a girl we know from Glasgow. She’s amazing, one of those people who can always put you in a good mood. There’s something very whimsical about her, living her life like she’s a character in a film. The song started when I was thinking about her red hair blowing in the winter wind.

“Jeremy Fraser” is a darker track, that lyrically sounds like it might be better suited as a Decemberists song, a creepy-souding song about a boy who was died in the woods “by a lance of silver”. But the best part of this whole deal is that rather than just releasing a video for “The Fallen”, as is custom, they decided to go ahead and release a whole slew of videos, filming clips for “L. Wells” and “Jeremy Fraser” as well! The “L. Wells” video is fun, following the whimsical Lynsey Wells (though I don’t know if that’s actually her in the video) all about town, but honestly, who doesn’t enjoy watching a good-looking indie girl frolic about? The “Jeremy Fraser” video is, like the song itself, much darker, and actually feels a lot like a Sigur Ros video, with its focus on schoolyard children and the animal masks and such. Best of all, Domino’s been kind enough to make all these videos available for download directly from their website, so get to it below. Also, I’ve posted iPod compatible versions of all of these videos over on Videoteque, so be sure to head over there and grab those if you want these videos for viewing on your ‘pod.

MP3s:
“L. Wells” - Franz Ferdinand
“Jeremy Fraser” - Franz Ferdinand
“The Fallen” (Justice Remix) - Franz Ferdinand

Videos:
“The Fallen” - Franz Ferdinand
{Director: Alex & Martin}
“L. Wells” - Franz Ferdinand
{Director: Blair Young}
“Jeremy Fraser” - Franz Ferdinand
{Director: Scott Lyon}

Bonus Acoustic MP3s:
“The Fallen” (Acoustic) - Franz Ferdinand
“Walk Away” (Acoustic) - Franz Ferdinand

UPDATE: I Guess I’m Floating, who are tearing up the blog scene now, has a new Sufjan song, from the upcoming Kill Rock Stars The Sound The Hare Heard compilation, which focuses exclusively on singer/songwriters. “Adlai Stevenson” is typical Sufjan flawlessness, and is one of the tracks slated for the upcoming The Avalanche b-side compilation, so head over there and grab it while it’s hot.

This is easily the most exciting thing I’ve heard in a while: Sufjan Stevens will be releasing a new album on July 25th, a collection of songs originally cut from Illinoise titled The Avalanche: Outtakes & Extras From The Illinoise Album. Seriously, how wet-your-pants-exciting is that? Here’s the backstory direct from the Asthmatic Kitty website:

The little secret behind the Illinois record is that it was originally conceived as a double album, culminating in a musical collage of nearly 50 songs. But as the project began to develop into an unwieldy epic, common sense weighed in—as did the opinions of others—and the project was cut in half… Sufjan gleaned 21 useable tracks from the abandoned material, including three alternate versions of Chicago. Some songs were in finished form, others were merely outlines, gesture drawings, or musical scribbles mumbled on a hand-held tape recorder… As an illustration, the avalanche refers to the snow and rubble that falls off the side of a mountain, or, in this case, the musical debris generously chucked from an abundant epic.

Seriously, three alternate versions of Chicago? I’m pretty sure that’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever heard. Head over to the Asthmatic Kitty website to view the full tracklisting, available here. Also, Rosie Thomas is not carrying Sufjan’s baby, so ladies, you may now get back to drawing pictures of Sufjan and writing “Mrs. Stevens” all over your Geography binder.

Finally, I’ve included two MP3s, title-track “The Avalanche” and a live acoustic version of “Chicago” (as heard on M3 Volume 7), below, in case you weren’t already in a fit of spasmic anticipation.

MP3s:
“The Avalanche” - Sufjan Stevens [highly recommended]
“Chicago” (Acoustic) - Sufjan Stevens

Bonus Video:

[cover design adapted from Waking Ashland]

M3 Volume 3 was conceived of and released in the premature warmth of late March last year and V3 was the first volume to focus on a specific idea or feeling: the transition between winter and spring and the feelings of happiness that are automatically associated with such a time. All of these songs have a decidedly warm-weather, springtime feel about them, and all work together to create a mix perfectly reflective the mood of early spring.

The mix opens with A.C. Newman’s excellent “Miracle Drug”, which moves on into “Graceland”, a gem of a b-side from his full-time band, The New Pornographers. Next up is The Decemberists’ “16 Military Wives” the lead single from their album Picaresque, which had just been released at the time. A pair of Rilo Kiley-related tracks follow; “My Slumbering Heart”, an often-overlooked highlight from the band’s 2002 release, The Execution of All Things, and “A Time For Emily”, by The Elected, the side project of RK guitarist and back-up vocalist Blake Sennet. The Arcade Fire keep things moving with “Rebellion (Lies)”, easily the warmest song on Funeral, which flows into the album’s pinnacle, Ted Leo’s flawless “Timorous Me”, which hints at shades of summer with its down-home guitar strumming and Blues Traveler-esque sound. Snow Patrol and Eels round out the mix’s second half, but it’s album-closer “Sweet Child ‘O Ravi” that steals the show. The least known, and – as a result – most underappreciated song on the album, “Sweet Child ‘O Ravi” is my favorite mash-up of all time, in which DJ Lenlow takes the soothing piano of Norah Jones, speeds it up, adds an energetic percussion rhythm, and then transplants onto it the infamous guitar riff from Guns ‘N Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine”, creating an instrumental masterpiece of sheer exuberance and delight.

Download: M3 Volume 3 [follow link]

M3 Volume 3:
01. “Miracle Drug” – A.C. Newman
02. “Graceland” – The New Pornographers
03. “16 Military Wives” – The Decemberists
04. “My Slumbering Heart” – Rilo Kiley
05. “A Time For Emily” – The Elected
06. “Rebellion (Lies)” – Arcade Fire
07. “Timorous Me” – Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
08. “Spitting Games” – Snow Patrol
09. “Fresh Feeling” – Eels
10. “Sweet Child O’ Ravi” – DJ Lenlow (Norah Jones vs. Guns ‘N Roses)

Blogger is being lame and refusing to let me upload any images, which means M3 Volume 3 will have to wait a little bit (even though it’s mostly ready to go), because no images means no cover art, and we certainly can’t have that now can we? Anyway, to tide you over, here’s some ridiculous overanalysis of “Trains To Brazil”, which only further proves that this is the best song of 2006 so far. So here is, to the best of my knowledge, the full, overanalyzed and long-winded meaning of the song:

At first glance, “Trains” appears to just be a lesson in unbridled exuberance and worry-free existence, which Pitchfork eloquently described as “like going full-speed down a hill in rollerskates”, but in actuality it’s somewhat the opposite of that.

First of all, the song was written in 2002 when the world was still recovering from 9/11,and then when Guillemots were recording it in 2005, a Brazilian man was killed on the subway by London police because he was wrongly suspected of being a terrorist, and the band changed the title as a tribute. As for the meaning, here goes:

The song is a social commentary on the state of the world today. Lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield (not his real name) discusses the ever-present feeling of distrust and suspicion caused by terrorist attacks, which resulted in the wrongful murder of the aforementioned Brazilian man on the subway last year. We are all living with our “backs to the wall”, and though he wonders when they’ll “blow us away”, he’s just thankful to here for as long as he can. The “prophets and pawns” are the terrorist leaders and their mindless followers, and we live in a culture of anxiety, aware that are lives are “in the hands of these erroneous fools”. He curses those who live their lives unhappy, “from one day to the next”, and says “let them take you next”, as you should just be thankful to be here on this earth, living this life, as it could be “you tomorrow [or] next year”.

As for the girl referenced in the song, the one he still “thinks about on cold winter mornings”, I’m a little less confident. It could be that she’s just an example of a reason he’s happy to be alive, but I think she may have been a victim of terrorism herself. She is an example of a person whose life turned out to be “in the hands of those erroneous fools”, a victim of senseless terrorism. This song is beautiful, amazing, moving, life-affirming and completely worthy of the hyperbole I drenched the first half of this sentence in. Far and away the best song of 2006 so far. Download below, in case you managed to miss it the first two times we posted it.

MP3: “Trains To Brazil” - Guillemots

ALSO, Drowned In Sound recently devoted an entire podcast to those lovable Guillemots, or rather, the lovable Guillemot as it was an interview with and solo performance by lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield. Included in the podcast is a solo performance of the band’s brand new single, “We’re Here”. Download the podcast below or click here to subscribe.

Podcast: “Drowned In Sound Radio: Guillemots Special” - DiS Radio

I’ve never posted an embedded YouTube video and I generally try to not to simply post things other blogs have already covered, but I had to make an exception here. Above is an embedded YouTube video of a crazy fan at one of Death Cab’s recent shows, who just had to hear “Talking Like Turnstiles” and then, subsequently, just had to get up on stage and then had to run backstage and steal a water bottle from the band’s dressing room (via Stereogum). The video starts out slow, as the audience sings along to the end of “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”, but get’s going immediately after that, so stick with it. Also, since the song is a b-side from Plans that was only available on the vinyl release, I’ve included it below for your downloading pleasure.

MP3: “Talking Like Turnstiles” - Death Cab For Cutie

[Polar Bear adapted from Threadless]

M3 Volume 2 shares some major similarities with OC Mix 4. I’m really sorry about this, I assure you it was unintentional. Around the time that I began working on V2 I was seriously into The OC, and I had gone on a downloading binge trying to get all the songs from the second season, and in the process of that I discovered a lot of great new songs, a couple of which ended up on M3 Volume 2 and subsequently, OC Mix 4. The mix opens with Bloc Party’s incredible “Little Thoughts”, which at the time was still considered a rarity, as it was excluded from the UK release of Silent Alarm and wasn’t released in the US until Silent Alarm saw a domestic release in late March of that year. Two tracks from OC Mix 4 follow, “Cartwheels” by The Reindeer Section (the side project of Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody), and Flunk’s otherworldly “Play”. Next up are two electro-pop gems, Postal Service b-side “Be Still My Heart”, which would later see release on the We Will Become Silhouettes CD-single, and Imogen Heap’s immaculate “Goodnight and Go”, another track introduced to me by The OC and music supervisor Alex Strapstavas. The album reaches its pinnacle with Phoenix’s “Run Run Run”, before moving through Shins’ b-side “When I Goose-step” and onto Radiohead’s indie classic, “High and Dry”. Ben Fold’s incredible cover of Dre’s “Bitches Ain’t Shit” offers another highlight, before things are closed out with Death Cab’s flawless and beautiful “Blacking Out The Friction”. Though M3 Volume 2 was probably the least well-received of the M3 collection, it’s still a great mix and entirely worth the download.

Download: M3 Volume 2 [follow link]
MP3s:
01. “Little Thoughts” – Bloc Party
02. “Cartwheels” – The Reindeer Section
03. “Play” – Flunk
04. “Be Still My Heart” – Postal Service
05. “Goodnight and Go” – Imogen Heap
06. “Run Run Run” – Phoenix
07. “When I Goose-Step” – The Shins
08. “High and Dry” – Radiohead
09. “Bitches Ain’t Shit” – Ben Folds
10. “Blacking Out The Friction” – Death Cab

Trust me, you want to do this. If you’re like me, and someone tells you to go to Teddy Geiger’s website to check something out, you’d probably rather stay as far away from TedHeads.com (actual name of the website) as you possibly can. However, fortunately for me, I heeded my friend Stephen’s recommendation yesterday and checked it out, and it turns out the people who promote Teddy Geiger may have come up with the single greatest promotional tool of all time (Built To Spill Basketball finishes a distant second).

You see, they’ve created a program that allows you to insert your face and the face of a friend into Teddy’s new video for “For You I Will (Confidence)”, and the results are nearly always hilarious. Seriously, I spent like four hours playing with this yesterday, it’s ridiculous. So anyway, I encourage all of you to head over there and make one for yourself and your friends, I myself took the liberty of creating one for Everett and I, to commemorate our everlasting love. Let it be noted, Everett and I hardly ever jump into pools and make out these days (that was so summer-after-8th grade), but if we did this is exactly what it would look like. My personal favorite part is the adorably smug look on Everett’s face at the end, it’s priceless. Enjoy our video below, and be sure to make your own (which it gives you the option to do as soon as the video finishes playing).

Video: “For You I Will” (GWFAS Version) - Teddy Geiger [follow link]

I’ve had the upcoming Saves The Day album, Sound The Alarm, for a couple of weeks now, and just as I had hoped, the band has announced the album’s best track, “Eulogy”, as the lead single, which was released on iTunes today (purchase here). Saves The Day are another band following the current trend of once-emo bands trying to shed their emo label and go for a more pure arena-rock sound, a la Muse, and this is evident in the high-quality production and pure rock sound of “Eulogy”. Granted, if you didn’t like Saves The Day before, this song probably won’t change how you feel, but as a on-again-off-again Saves The Day fan for the last three or four years I love this song. The highlight comes early, at the 0:47 mark, when the instrumentation momentarily falls out and the addictive chorus suddenly fades in with an intense burst of energy. I really like this new single, and while it is a definite change in sound, I’d recommend you check this out if you ever were or are a Saves The Day fan.

MP3: “Eulogy” - Saves The Day

Also, in other single news, though it appeared as if “You’re All I Have” would be the lead single from Snow Patrol’s upcoming Eyes Open, “Hands Open” is the first track to be formally released, and it’s available in the US iTunes Store for purchase now. I don’t know which one’s technically the first single, but I think I’d definitely go with “Hands Open” if it were me.

So here it is, the one that got everything started: M3 Volume 1, from way back when life was still simple, when each M3 only carried ten tracks of audio ecstasy and I could still fit secondary graphics on the back cover. For a while, I viewed M3 Volume 1 as my Mona Lisa - that is, a work of mixtape art that I’d never again be able to meet or surpass, though I think I may have at least come close with M3 Volume 5. But back to the matter at hand - M3 Volume 1 has it all. You’ve got classics in “Staring At The Sun” and “New Slang”, the latter a more-obscure live performance featuring heavily-bearded folk god Sam Beam (known to the common folk as Iron & Wine) on backup vocals. However, you’ve also got your rare gems like Ty Cobb’s “When You Smile” (the original version of what became “Smile” after Ty Cobb changed their name to Mad Action), and Iron & Wine’s immaculate “Swans and The Swimming”. The latter is from Beam’s 9-20-02 recordings, a collection of songs he recorded on a 4-track recorder (in September of 2002, hence the title of the recordings) and ultimately used to get signed to Sub Pop. Another incredible song that can be considered somewhat of a rarity is “Couches In Alleys” by Styrofoam, featuring vocals by Ben Gibbard. Gibbard shines on this track, unleashing some of his most impressive lyrics to date. The lyrics are an allusion to Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, hence the “Hey Jack, it’s me” lyric. In interviews Ben has said that On The Road is his favorite book, and “Couches In Alleys” serves as a fine tribute to it. In the song he relates to the listener his attempts to leave his problems behind, just as people leave their old couches in alleys, and just as the couches become “rain-soaked and rotten” so too do his problems, as no matter what he always has to come back to them and face his demons; they won’t just go away. But that’s enough summary for one song, there’s plenty more to love on M3V1.

Granted, the passage of time has stolen some of the freshness from M3 Volume 1. “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead”, “Goodnight Goodnight”, and “Hounds of Love” were all very hot/lesser-known tracks at the time of M3 Volume 1’s “release” (February 2005), but have all since become well-known indie staples. Regardless though, M3 Volume 1 is a lot of fun and definitely has the most stylistic variety of all the M3s (yet still manages to flow seamlessly), and be sure to download it so you can hear for yourself how it all began. Available in it’s entirety via Rapidshare or individually below.

Download: M3 Volume 1 [follow link]
M3 Volume 1:
01. “Staring At The Sun” (EP Version) - TV On The Radio
02. “New Slang” (Live ft. Iron & Wine) - The Shins
03. “When You Smile” - Ty Cobb
04. “Pale Horse” - John Vanderslice
05. “Couches In Alleys” - Styrofoam ft. Ben Gibbard
06. “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” - Stars
07. “Goodnight Goodnight” - Hot Hot Heat
08. “Hounds of Love” - The Futureheads
09. “Counting Down The Hours” - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
10. “Swans and the Swimming” - Iron & Wine