Joanna Newsom is so this morning. Have we talked about the new Long Winters album yet? It sounds like the old Long Winters album but more straightforward. I’d blame the infamous Chris Walla touch, but songwriter/singer etc. John Roderick produced Putting The Days To Bed himself. Borat: “Niiice.” If you don’t have the last L-Dubs album (When I Pretend To Fall, a The Rawking Refuses To Stop! retroactive top 25 album of 2003 – look for that list, someday), they sound like R.E.M. playing power-pop. “I just want you to say, come on!” OK alright, OK alright.

The Long Winters – “Pushover”: mp3
The Long Winters – “Ultimatum”: mp3

bonus: The Long Winters – “Stupid”: mp3
(from When I Pretend To Fall)

(Buy Long Winters albums from Barsuk Records)

First, Joanna Newsom leaked. Second, according to the person who uploaded it to private bit torrent site Indietorrents, it may have been pilfered from here (link is broken now, obviously), Pitchforkmedia’s sprawling illegal download hub, which includes everything they reviewed this year and a “Cursive Megadiscography” as well as “Rob’s [Mitchum] Fiery Furnaces Bootleg Folder.” Among others. After a brief invasion by the message boarders of Hipinion, it went down. Coincidentally, the Hipinion forums crashed just after.

But anyway, Joanna Newsom leaked, and everything you’ve heard about it — Jim O’Rourke’s involvement, Steve Albini’s recording, Bill Calahan of Smog doing guest vocals, Van Dyke Parks writing the best string arrangements of his career – all true. The best part is Joanna’s songs and performances are still the centerpiece, and they’re absolutely masterful. This is as beautiful and weird and heartwrenching as music is going to get in 2006.

You can download “Emily” over at The Rich Girls Are Weeping.

(Ys is due from Drag City Records on Nov. 14)

“Oh YEAH!”

Teetering on the brink of disaster; stumbling on the edge of sheer chaos; recording too many instruments for his own good. That’s Paul Brill for you. His new album, Harpooner, is a pretty perfect example of what happens when a pop musician of the lo-fi variety decides to make a mess, like Clue To Kalo in reverse (dude plays his own instruments before cutting them up). Beneath the collage, though, there’s real songwriting, heart, and John Vanderslice-aping vocals. Meet me in the laundry bin:

Paul Brill – “Consanguine”: mp3
Paul Brill – “Harpooner”: mp3

(Harpooner is due Nov. 21 on Brill’s own imprint, Scarlet Shame Records)

This vibraphone belongs to John Vanderslice

Hylozoists don’t score films, but they should. Their debut, La Fin Du Monde, is a fluttering jumble of Jon Brion I Heart Huckabees flourishes and rhythmic Morricone-isms, horn squelches and woozy vibraphones. The mostly instrumental album is kind of a weird fit for the otherwise pop-oriented Boompa Records (you shold check out the Salteens), but if we can’t hear this at the movies, scenic drives down Pacific Coast Highway will have to suffice.

Hylozoists – “The Fifty Minute Hour”: mp3
Hylozoists – “Elementary Particles”: mp3

bonus: Salteens – “You Stood Out From The Crowd”: mp3

(Buy from Boompa Records)

I can’t stand it / I can’t stand it!

Wilco – “I Can’t Stand It”: mp3
Ted Leo / Pharmacists – “Counting Down The Hours”: mp3

Sorry about the unexpected day off yesterday, folks. Had to throw Alfred Lee a birthday party. I haven’t seen my lady in what, 9 weeks? People who can carry on long distance relationships mystify me.

I Am Fuel, You Are Friends has a gigantic post with tracks from almost all of the famed Sub Pop Singles Club, er, singles. Check it out here.

Also, I never thought I’d see this day come, but Justin Timberlake > Yo La Tengo. FutureSex/LoveSounds is already contending for a high spot on my AOTY list. Honest.

If you’ve only heard “Flower Gardens,” (mp3 – right-click, save-as) you’re missing out, big time. Only Sub Pop (and Chad VanGaalen himself, perhaps?) can tell you why it’s the single, but as if I haven’t posted on the dude enough…

Chad VanGaalen – “Dead Ends”: mp3

The juxtapositions of this song – from the candy-sweet melody to the acidic lyrics and looming guitar thumps – exemplify everything that’s great about the songwriter/recordist. VanGaalen can take the saddest, most serious line – but one that’s inherently ridiculous (“broken hearts last for a million years”) – and place it in a context that simultaneously supports it and tears it down. When he goes into the big breakdown, his voice out of control and the guitars even more so, any other musician doing the same thing would sound ridiculous – or worse, emo. But Chad pulls it off: “Here we are again, like two best friends / but I will not sail on through the sea / on a sinking ship that is bound for the bottom.” Here, the Weezer-esque “Ooh-ooh-ooh!” segment after the big conclusion isn’t ironic, but we’re not sure if it’s homage, knowing wink, or genuine catharsis. It’s nigh impossible to tell for certain with this music, and that’s what makes it so fascinating.

(Buy Skelliconnection from Sub Pop Records)

If you’d like to read a much better rock writer’s opinion about a far more indiscernable album by a much older Van, here’s a typically excellent piece by one Lester Bangs on Astral Weeks.

Check out some weekend reading before you head out for the night, or just save these until tomorrow morning:

In one of its most epic articles yet, Cokemachineglow recounts the Pitchfork music festival – or rather, the glorious week of CMG staff bonding that led up to it (still bummed I missed that) – starting with this week’s part one.

TRRTS! pals Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands posted a YouTube of a fantastic, orchestra-backed performance of the Lovin’ Spoonful doing “Darling, Be Home Soon” on the Ed Sullivan show. Watch it here.

Smile – An Aquarium Drunkard has some Beach Boys rehearsal sessions from 1967, with a stellar “God Only Knows.”

So, I changed the banner again. I think I’m sticking with this one – the other felt too morbid after a while, though opinions are welcome.