Bill Evans - Peace Piece

Everybody Digs Bill Evans [Riverside; 1958]

This marks the end of Bows + Arrows, a venture I began on a whim a few years ago which would prove itself worthwhile many times over, in wonderful and often strange ways. Thanks to everyone who has read- those few of you left who may see this- for the discussion and kind words. Also, to everyone who has taken interest from the other side: bands, managers, labels, PR people and anyone else who has sent me an email I never replied to: Thank you. It's been fun writing.

- BKL

10. Frightened Rabbit
The Midnight Organ Fight

"The Modern Leper"

]]> Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:11:50 -0800 http://virb.com/bowsplusarrows/posts/text/985884 http://virb.com/bowsplusarrows/posts/text/965820 "Listless" at the Catbirdseat. With any luck, mine will be ready by '09.

]]> Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:19:07 -0800 http://virb.com/bowsplusarrows/posts/text/964011 http://virb.com/bowsplusarrows/posts/text/948174 Where are all you people who pretended to like Wilderness in 2004? (k)no(w)here is an awesome album- all I'm saying is there's time yet, and you might want to reconsider giving that third spot on your end-of-year list to Chairlift or whatever.

Wilderness - Chinese Whisperers

(k)no(w)here [Jagjaguwar; 2008]

***

I compulsively seek used Van Morrison CDs when I'm at the record store, probably because it fulfills my weirdo/completist desire for rules (pre-owned, original issue, CD) and brings a strange kind of order to the wilderness of the store (Amoeba/Rasputin). A hobby within a hobby, I guess. So far the two that have escaped me entirely are Veedon Fleece and Hard Nose the Highway, despite the others from that (remarkable) era being abundant. Today, however, TWO copies of Veedon Fleece were in the racks, along with The Philosopher's Stone, AND It's Too Late To Stop Now. I mean, how fun is that?

The Rosebuds - Change My Life (Spoon cover)

Tour EP/Fun Book [2008 tour]

***

Frightened Rabbit's contribution to The Lifted Brow's compilation is a Forkcast download today. Along with the Wrens' and SSLYBY's songs being freely available, I'm left with little incentive to pick up the real thing. Sean has graciously reminded me that there is incredible incentive to purchase this project: US$25, more than 100 stories, and hours of music.

Frightened Rabbit - Last Tango in Brooklyn

The Lifted Brow [2008]

JAGJAGUWAR is proud to announce the worldwide release of a new, four-song 12-inch/CDEP by Bon Iver entitled "Blood Bank". (It will be released in the U.K./Eire on January 19 and in the U.S. on January 20. Release dates in other territories to occur on January 20 or later.)

The new EP will be for sale in vinyl form at Bon Iver's upcoming UK and US tours in December. Those who purchase the 123 will be able to activate the digital download coupon on the January release date.

P.S. these don't count because they're not yours:

The Rosebuds - Get Up Get Out (Bon Iver Remix)

Bon Iver - Blue Tulip (Okkervil River cover)

Whatever- The Slow Wonder gets more play around here than any New Pornos tune, and though the latter are essentially Newman songs I guess I just like them plain.

A.C. Newman - There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve

Get Guilty [Matador; 1/20/09]

"Three Or Four," anybody? "The New Face Of Zero And One"? "The Jessica Numbers"? The song's one big, cascading phrase and Newman sounds cool as ever.

Here's a little-known Newman tune, sung by his niece and new-ish Pornographer Kathryn Calder:

A.C. Newman - Transcanada

Souvenir of Canada EP [iTunes]

***

Michael's back at Dreams of Horses (for those of you who remember), and he's sharing a bunch of girl group songs.

[VIDEO REMOVED BECAUSE IT PLAYED AUTOMATICALLY AND EVERYBODY HATES THAT]

Ben Folds Five - Narcolepsy

The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner [550 Music; 1999]

Bill Callahan - Night

Woke On A Whaleheart [Drag City; 2007]

Beautiful, right? And check him out literally at night singing "Sycamore":

Seeing that makes his seem like the weirdest, most self-contained band. And it does something to the songs too; it's very pretty.

Conversion Party - East River

Conversion Party - Bag Man

More No More [free full album download; 2008]

***

Tomorrow marks the Last Happy Night of My Life!

Oh what the hell, you're gonna listen to it no matter what anyone says, and you'll probably like it eventually. - I Guess I'm Floating

Kanye West - Heartless (unmastered)

808s & Heartbreak [Roc-A-Fella; 11.25.08]

I couldn't have said it better myself.

We were hungry;
There was no food

Starving to death, starving to death
For the low-hanging fruit

To hear John Darnielle sing it, hunger is a portent of transcendence. The wretched characters inhabiting the Mountain Goats' best songs- four of which comprise the new Satanic Messiah EP- are ravenous indeed, and all seem to be waiting, rapt, on an End and its transfiguration.

The album is bookended by the couplets above, and justified by the twelve intervening minutes. Justified not just as a tour EP (it's free to download), but as an entry in the Mountain Goats' oeuvre; specifically, an illuminating link between some of the band's best stories. The pitiful cast of We Shall All Be Healed and the defiant pronouncements of Heretic Pride are amalgamated in these narratives, which are delivered in Darnielle's underused lower register. The lucidity here is nearly frightening- despite the songs' minimalist, acoustic & piano tendencies, everything is ultra-crisp and the languid swirl the Goats have employed with limited success on recent releases is gone entirely. Little release is to be found in the record's lyrics as well; everything is deliberate and fateful and hardly optimistic- like HP turned on its head.

The Mountain Goats - Sarcofago Live

Satanic Messiah [self-released; 2008]

Satanic Messiah is a superb and intriguing release, with substance that informs even its title's seemingly-irretrievable aspirations; whence could such hopelessness come otherwise?

Raise the trumpet, sound the drum
He whom the prophets spoke of long ago has come

Photo: bstrand

I saw Stars last night (har) and the evening's only remarkable moment occurred when the band requested that we acknowledge them as the ones responsible for our awareness of the opening act, Think About Life. "In three years when all the hipsters are sucking their dicks" (pretty crude for that mildest of bands, no?).

More like three years ago. That's about when I wrote about "Paul Cries," the only song of theirs which I could recall and, coincidentally, the one they were playing as we walked in. Listening now it seems exceedingly primitive; a weird short-range time warp to early 2006.

Think About Life - Paul Cries

Think About Life [Alien8; 2006]

Somehow, and you'll have to agree, this is much more significant than even Sonic Youth playing Daydream Nation, or any other of the touchstone 80s/90s bands playing their classics. A precedent has been set and it will not be overcome until modern science develops a better understanding of reanimation.

Stream the album at Van Morrison's MySpace

Tickets go on sale October 5 for shows November 7 & 8

The Secret Machines don't seem to have lost much of their formidable force after losing their guitarist (one-third of the Machine), as evidenced by the brand-new "Atomic Heels." It's a short song by the band's standards, with all the old bells & whistles; including, best of all, the cosmic pounding of Josh Garza's mammoth kickdrum.

The Secret Machines - Atomic Heels

Secret Machines [TSM; 10/14/2008]

If you miss the boys' more epic numbers, they've got a non-album track just for you:

The Secret Machines - Dreaming of Dreaming

That's more like it!

Bob Dylan - Mississippi

Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8 [Sony BMG; 10/7/2008]

Magnolia Electric Co. - Trouble In Mind

Sojourner [Secretly Canadian; 2008]

It's no surprise, then, that coming across the compilation cut "Sweet Release" is nothing short of, well, just that. It's cut from Astral Weeks' cloth: long, beautifully vocal, and sweetly mystic. The instrumentation (flute!) flows without effort and Molina lets out: sweet release, sweet release. I'm not sure if it's Molina's- it's from a Muscle Shoals tribute, so probably not- but regardless: it's a hymn, truly, and the best kind; a missive from soul to space, so grand.

Songs: Ohia - Sweet Release

Burlap Palace: A Tribute to the Muscle Shoals Sound [Soundgun; 2001]