Built To Spill Conventional Wisdom

Here's the video of Built To Spill's Conventional Wisdom from their latest album In Reverse, which like the previous BTS album and Doug Martsch's solo effort have been US only releases. I'm sure the suits at Warner Brothers know best.

Kevin Tihista Modern Standard

World Exclusive! The greatest singer songwriter in the world (let me know if you beg to differ) Kevin Tihista is set to begin recording his new album, "Modern Standard" in the next few weeks. Remember where you heard it first.

Conner Hello Graphic Missile

Broken Horse is proud to present the debut UK release from Conner. Release date is October 2nd 2006.

Hello Graphic Missile introduces Conner's unique brand of "Get in the Van" garage rock, taking in such diverse influences as Fugazi, 70's Stones, Richard Hell, The Smiths and Iggy Pop. A winning formula aided by a toughness & intensity to their sound that leaves many of their contemporaries looking bereft in comparison.

The band hail from the college town of Lawrence, Kansas which is also home to label mates Ghosty and the town that William S.Burroughs lived in for the last 15 years of his life. Current population is 80,098 (2000 census, thanks wikipedia.)

Conner were formed in 2001 by singer/guitarist James Duft & bass player Phil Bonahoom. After their original drummer & lead guitarist both skipped town to music college in Boston, the band’s line up was solidified by the arrival of drummer Bryce Boley and guitarist Tom Wagner in a poacher turned game keeper scenario, as Wagner had produced the band’s early demos.

Away from the scrutiny of a music scene such as New York or LA, living in the mid west allowed Conner to flourish as a live act, and to hold their own as the support act of choice when touring acts such as The Arcade Fire, Hot Hot Heat and even Hard Fi came to town. The culmination of this was when the band were invited to support The Killers on the mid west leg of their 2005 tour, playing up to 10,000 people a night and selling every CD & T- Shirt the band had brought with them.

Hello Graphic Missile is the band’s second full length release (following debut the White Cube which they self released in 2003). The album was recorded at guitarist Tom Wagner’s Underground Sound studios in Lawrence. A strictly analogue studio , Wagner’s tape machine is a 1200 pound monster that was used to record Jefferson Airplane’s Volunteers album back in the day.

The band is currently planning some intensive US touring and hopes to land on European shores in the coming months (late 2006 or early 2007).

Listen to independent woman

current ipod playlist

The Pernice Brothers Somerville
Guided By Voices Girls of Wild Strawberries
The Webb Brothers The Flood
Windmill Plimsoul Gravity
Conner Start it Up
Built To Spill Traces
Camera Obscura Lloyd I'm Ready to be Heartbroken
The Isles Flying Under Cheap Kites
Jody Wildgoose Misty Morning Sunrise
Dr Dog The World May Never Know
Belle & Sebastian Sukie in the Graveyard
Kelley Stoltz Are You Electric?
Teenage Fanclub I Heard You Looking

Pernice Brothers Somerville

The Pernice Brothers have unveiled a new track Somerville on both their my space page and website. You can download it for free at their own site, you just need to hand over your email address in return. It's from their forthcoming album Live A Little which is due in the Autumn (or Fall if you're an American) and sounds like the best thing they've done in years.

Joe Pernice famously wrote the sleeve notes to John Cunningham's Happy Go Unlucky on Broken Horse.

"There is a train leaving Penn Station at 10:00 in the morning and I'm on it, I think. I am the guy slouched over in his seat, as defeated as a lower case question mark. This could be exactly the wrong time to start a business or family or a relationship with any kind of legs. Could be the right time. The world is coming apart like a disgustingly ornate wedding cake gone stale, and here I am, seated backwards and hung over on good booze, escaping to Massachusetts in first class.

An undeniable sense of real loss much greater than that associated with our failure to get the girl or house or job, if you can believe it is the conductor of this train. The train with its cars barreling into the crocodile enriched water like antelope made stupid by the clock's tick. What right do I have to hope there is a meal of grilled duck and fish soup waiting at the table of my host? Is it simply because I am hungry? Maybe. Like I said, I'm seated backwards, and from this angle, yes, John, everyone is getting young. People left standing on the platforms shrink in the distance like New York City. And you're absolutely goddamn right, even from the other side of the ocean, that the memories fade like rainfall after snow, whether we want them to or not. That's precisely how they go. When I was more afraid I would have looked you in the eyes and said, "You're full of shit." But things are in fact as delicate as you make them out to be, and I'd turn around and face forward if there were a seat. We are cursed with opportunity, so much so that we screw the pooch harder daily and without permission, and it's taking the place of love. Things could be so good, and life be what it should: A sentiment so simple, you'd think we'd get it."
Joe Pernice, NYC, Feb. 11, 2003

Buy Happy Go Unlucky direct from Broken Horse

Ghosty No Nothing

From Ghosty's My Space page

As we mentioned a couple months ago, our sophomore full-length release 'NO NOTHING' is more or less finished...

Wanted to let you know we've decided to beef it up a bit by adding a couple songs we weren't previously planning on putting on the record.

Because we're rethinking the tracklist, the record will come out later than the previously promised Fall 2006 release.

We were already thrilled about the sound of the record, but now it's going to be even NICER. Thanks for your patience.

GHOSTY

Andrew Morgan update

Seems like Andrew has changed his mind about the next album title. A Simple Plan has reverted to it's original title (see below).

"A Unified Theory of Everything is the follow-up to Misadventures in Radiology. Foundational sessions were held in an old Frank Lloyd Wright building in Chicago's No Man's Land neighborhood; Orchestral sessions in a studio apartment across the street from the University of Kansas football stadium. Rivaling Misadventures in cliffhanging ambition, the A.U.T.O.E sessions saw 21 songs and 5 instrumentals take shape across 10 months. Produced by Andrew and recorded in equal parts by engineers Shiraz Dada and David Wetzel, the album traverses an ever-shifting topography marked by helical staircases, blind alleys, and trap doors. Hopefully a release can be expected not too long after you've unpacked your jackets and scarves."

Read a review of Andrew's recent show at Schubas in Chicago.


Sunday morning listening













Bid on an original orange label issue LP on ebay
Lester Bangs on Astral Weeks.














Lullaby For The Working Class' Blanket Warm from 1996.

Jody Wildgoose

Misty Morning Sunrise from Jody Wildgoose's excellent Afterlife album (Sketchbook). Yes, that is a wig.