The Picture is returning to Mercury Lounge this Friday (11:30pm, $10), after opening the first night of Art Brut’s 5-night residency earlier this month. The Brooklyn-based band has already released 2 albums Connect (2006) and Drift Away (2007), but today is the first time I’ve ever heard their music. You can listen to 3 songs on from the Bluebirds EP (2009) on MySpace, as well as an excellent cover of Echo & The Bunnymen’s “Bring On The Dancing Horses”. “Deer Crossing” is understandably the most frequently streamed track, but “Devious” deserves a lot more attention and The Picture is worth a closer look.
After dismissing Saturday’s APW lineup, I decided to check out the Postelles (because I liked the sound of their name). Their youthful, positive retro-pop immediately brought to mind Vampire Weekend but they’re more musically related to the Strokes. The four-piece band was born and raised in NYC and their debut album is being produced by Albert Hammond Jr. The Postelle’s 6-song, self-titled EP is available on iTunes for $5.48 and some of the tracks are available free throughout the blogosphere. For more info visit http://thepostelles.blogspot.com/.
Saturday’s All Points West lineup is the weakest of the festival so it was disappointing to have to pass on the opportunity to see Arctic Monkeys in the NYC area. The $89 (+fees) price per ticket just isn’t worth it unless you’re already paying for a 3-day pass. But I’ve been betting that the band would be playing at least one club show while they were in town for APW. (Let’s hope that Yeah Yeah Yeahs will do the same.)
Sign up for membership at Arcticmonkeys.com to receive links and a passcode for pre-sale tickets for the dates below. Pre-sale tickets for New York and Boston went on sale at 10:00am EST today! Pre-sale tickets for Chicago will be available at 10:00am CST. Limit 2 per person.
8/3 – New York, NY – Highline
8/5 – Boston, MA – Paradise
8/7 – Chicago, IL – Metro
Arctic Monkeys release their third album, Humbug, on August 25th on CD, vinyl, and as a digital download. It was produced by Josh Homme in the Mojave Desert, LA, and in Brooklyn by James Ford.
Tracklisting:
01. My Propeller
02. Crying Lightning
03. Dangerous Animals
04. Secret Door
05. Potion Approaching
06. Fire & The Thud
07. Cornerstone
08. Dance Little Liar
09. Pretty Visitors
10. The Jeweller’s Hands
The second season of Z Rock premieres on Sunday, June 7th on IFC. The 10-episode season includes guest appearances by Daryl Hall, Dave Navarro, John Popper, Marky Ramone, and Dee Snider.
“Z ROCK is a comedy series that follows three friends leading a double life: by night they’re a hard-partying rock band and by day they’re a kids party band. Z ROCK is (kinda) based on the true story of the band Z02 (brothers Paulie Z and David Z, and lifelong friend Joey Cassata) and gives a satirical look at the dark underbelly of the rock n’ roll dream.”
A non-album acoustic version of “Help I’m Alive” is available on the Metric website. Enter your email address to receive a link to download the free track.
Billboard convened a panel of six experts to create a list of the top 5 worst and best songs featured in TV commercials. I like the idea behind this feature but the online user experience is horrible. ReadersUsers have to click through 10 pages to see the list when the content could’ve been presented in a much better way. Unfortunately, Billboard’s parent company, Nielsen Business Media, is still stuck in the ’90s and struggling to understand digital media. Desperate for page views, the content has also been vomitted on the website of their sister publication, Adweek.
Photographer Christopher Wray-McCann formed Operation Aloha by inviting a group of friends, including members of Gomez, Maroon 5, and Phantom Planet, to shack up in Maui for a month to see if they could make music together. “The end result is a collection of songs that captures the tranquility, freedom and spirit of Hawaii.” The group’s self-titled debut will be released tomorrow. Buy the CD at the Operation Aloha Official Online Store ($12.99) or download all of the MP3s on iTunes or Amazon ($5.99).
Operation Aloha Musicians:
Dajon Everett (Gomez)
Ian Ball (Gomez)
James Valentine (Maroon 5)
Jesse Carmichael (Maroon 5)
Olly Peacock (Gomez)
Sam Farrar (Phantom Planet)
Christopher Wray-McCann (Photographer)
Charles Danek
Fil Krohnengold (All Spots To Black)
Mathew Chaney
Maureen Wray-McCann
Nadav Kahn (Kahn Brothers)
Saam Gabbay
Will Nash
Watch Ian Ball performing “Failure” below and see the band on Last Call With Carson Daly on Thursday, May 14th.
Mobius Band released their sophmore album Heaven in the US in 2007, but I’ve never heard it until today. Editors became friends and fans of the Brooklyn-based Band when the two toured together in the UK in 2008. Editors liked Heaven so much that they partnered with MBs US label, Misra, to release it in the UK today. Mobius Band’s biography on Allmusic describes their music as “hard to place, lying somewhere between bittersweet indie rock, electronic pop, and alt-country leanings.” I’m still listening to the album on Rhapsody–so far, not bad. They remind me of Elefant, but that’s not necessarily a good thing because their playlist shelf-life may be very limited. The tracks “Hallie” and “Friends Like These” are available to download free on their website.
Doves are using their presence on three different social networking sites, Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo, to alert fans about a free, alternative version of “Birds Flew Backwards” from the recently released Kingdom of Rust. As usual, sign up for their newsletter in exchange for the song. I guess I’ll have to check my News Feed more often.
