Ravens & Chimes record four new songs in Montreal: The Rawkblog ’09 band to watch is making progress on their sophomore album, frontman Asher Lack announced on Facebook today. They’re working with Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and Larry Crane (Elliott Smith). We’ll keep you posted on the new tunes…

Previously: Interview: Ravens & Chimes

Strand of Oaks won’t leave a trail of dead behind them, but with Leave Ruin, the Wilkes-Barre, Penn., act sings of a life ravaged by love and sex. The project of Timothy Showalter (no relation to Michael, I assume), with assistance from Rawkblog favorites Lewis & Clarke (whose label, La Societe Expeditionniare, has released this album), Strand of Oaks’ lovingly arranged folk is apocalyptic only in spirit. Like Lewis & Clarke’s fantastic Blasts of Holy Birth and Bare Bones and Branches, Showalter’s tuneful tracks are built of beautiful, guitar-damaged arrangements not unlike Iron & Wine or Califone’s recent releases. Read the rest of this entry »

Some three years before the release of In Rainbows, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke presented the world — or rather, a talkative crowd inside the roomy-sounding Methodist Central Hall church — with acoustic versions of “House of Cards,” “Nude,” “Last Flowers” and a drastically different version of “Reckoner,” which shares little besides a name with the eventual album version.

And then there’s “No Surprises,” a song that will never grow old. Enjoy the full gig after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Or at least the trailer. Yup, that’s wee Jon Brion the left. This hasn’t been announced anywhere and doesn’t seem to be on IMDB, but, awesome!

Previously: Live: Jon Brion at Largo 11.28.08 | More Jon Brion

Like a hot knife through bloggers, Japandroids‘ Post-Nothing might single-handedly make the recent glut of fresh-from-Guitar Center lo-fi/garage acts worthwhile. They’ve been compared to the Constantines, and while there’s certainly something of that band’s savage songwriting in Japandroid’s guitar rampage, the relentless 35-minute onslaught of Post-Nothing probably owes more to Husker Du and McLusky. “I don’t wanna worry about dying,” Brian King — or perhaps David Prowse, dudes switch off yowling convincingly — sings on “Young Hearts Spark Fire.” “I just wanna worry about sunshine girls.” Everybody’s got priorities. I hope Japandroids’ also include saving rock ‘n’ roll.

Japandroids – “Young Hearts Spark Fire”: mp3

(Post-Nothing is due April 28 on Unfamiliar Records; they’ll be at the Silverlake Lounge in May)

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Looking for new music? Click below for more recent and upcoming 2009 releases or visit the MP3-filled Album Release Calendar.

All photos by David Greenwald

I’ll be frank: I’ve never thought of My Bloody Valentine as gods. Loveless has never sounded like a gift from Mt. Olympus. But on impulse, I plunked down my credit card for two tickets to their last-minute, pre-Coachella El Rey show last week, feeling like I was going to miss out on history otherwise. My Bloody Valentine, now, in a theater?! Unthinkable. When the show failed to sell out until hours before doors, I started getting edgy — maybe this was a mistake, maybe everybody was going to see Britney at Staples tonight (obviously!) — but there I was, picking up my earplugs at the door and staking out a spot in the middle of the venue, where I’d stand for an hour or so as we suffered through an unexpected opening act (a singer-songwriting one, no less; he was fine, but doomed from the start as a sacrificial lamb) and then a lengthy wait. Read the rest of this entry »

M.I.A. / Photo by Mick Ø

For the second day of Coachella, we turn once again to Flickr’s finest to capture the day’s best. Don’t miss Day 1. Photos by Joshc, Vonlohmann and Mick Ø, all credited accordingly.

Previously: Live: Coachella 2009, Day 1: Friday | All Coachella Posts

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Coachella: My hour-by-hour guide hopefully helped you through the weekend. Check it out if you’re not sure who to see today, and click here for Flickr photos from Friday’s sets. In other concert photo blogging, I posted my shots from The Boat People‘s opening gig for Chad VanGaalen. [At left: The Boat People / photo by David Greenwald]

The Canon, Examined: A look back at American Music Club’s seminal works, Everclear and Mercury; not quite Canon, but a discovery of Midlake’s ’06 classic, The Trials of Van Occupanther.

New Music: Dave Matthews Band’s “Funny The Way It Is“: Almost a return to form!

Videos: The French Kicks’ awesome “Abandon“; Phoenix’s even better “Lisztomania.”

Film & TV: Seth Rogen at 13; a first look at Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.