Nearing 200

Last Wednesday, The National played a packed Magic Stick in Detroit. Along with openers Talkdemonic and Shapes and Sizes, all 3 bands performing have been MP3this! "featurettes".

For whatever reason, the place didn't open up until a good 45 minutes after the advertised time; the guys from The National could be seen 10 feet in front of the door, waiting until a nondescript black Audi came and scooped them all up. Rather than give a show review, Talkdemonic performed well (although more on stage members are encouraged) and Shapes and Sizes might have had an "off night." More importantly, what the fuck was Caila Thompson-Hannant wearing? The National were smooth.

The National - Fashion Coat (the most requested song that evening, for good reason)
CSS - Meeting Paris Hilton (because I really do laugh at the fact CNN covers this shit for over 3 hours a night, ignoring every problem on the Earth that deserves and needs national broadcasting)

Acoustic Live

I'm now going to redirect you to a Blogger counterpart who posted a really wicked post.

Featured are: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Futureheads and Sebadoh.

Stewie goes to Harvard

The Stage Names

The New Okkervil River album is due out August 5th on Jagjaguwar records and the Lead-off track has been out for a couple weeks and it is truly a beautiful thing. I am now officially pumped for it because of the "Deluxe Edition" that will be released. WOOT WOOT! Time to clear some room on the VISA to purchase that bad boy...is it bad that I need to make room on my VISA for a 15 purchase?

Okkervil River - Or Life is not a Movie or Maybe

And if there are any techies out there that can answer a question regarding the Hype Machine and why not all of our post get updated on it I would be extremely thankful.
\

Love,
Jon

White Rabbits

The White Rabbits debut album has been out for a little over a week now and I it is quickly becoming one of my favourite albums of '07 (Boxer beats it out ever so slightly, but that had to grow on me).

White Rabbits

The Gushing review from Pitchfork.

And the fucking fantastic opening track from the album.

White Rabbits - Kid on my Shoulders

I know let it all sink in.

Love,
Jon

Casting

I am a mad spinner, DJ extraordinaire. You can hear some of my remixes on CJAM, especially in the archives. The standout track for my current 2007 vitae was a remix of The Pogues.

Kid Koala is an equally mastered spinner. Here is one of his singles, Fender Bender, off of 2000's Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Arthur and Yu

The first CD to be released by Hardly Art is going to be Arthur and Yu's "In Camera" on June 19, 2007.

The song is called "Come to View (A Song for Neil Young)"

On a unrelated note You Say Party! We Say Die! will be in town tomorrow night at the Avalon Front for a show which can be seen for the cheap cheap price of 5 dolla's. Me thinks this is the closest they will get to the US for quite awhile.

love,
Jon

Tegan and Sara

Well it's no secret that we here at MP3THIS love Tegan and Sara, and that I love Tegan (She will be mine). So when new Tegan and Sara comes out you know we will be all over it like, well, me all over Tegan in my dreams.

First Posted Here: Neiles Life

Tegan and Sara - The Con
Tegan and Sara - Back in Your Hand


Love,
Jon

Zuender

I can't understand a word of it, but publicity is publicity even if it is in a foreign language.

DieZuender!

Love,
Jon

From the Basement

Here comes Yukon Cigar. I doubt they make cigars in the Yukon but I know their gold is nice, and these guys sound like gold. The band assembled in early 2007 to record at a Toronto studio. The songs are more like stories; take "Hello Soul" for example, where centre man Craig Konyu pleads to "sip New Orleans of its soul" through his soup. I hope it's potato soup, because that's what I had last night. The EP, titled Spooning Noises is out now, and maybe upon reading this, CJAM 91.5 fm will get a copy in it's mailbox for us to play!

Songs are here.

Mountain Goats Covers

Yay for covers.

Sorry for the notable absence, I have come down with a bad case of the clap*. Anyway I have a couple covers from John Darnielle

The Mountain Goats - Cut Your Hair (Pavement Cover)
The Mountain Goats - Two Headed Boy (Neutral Milk Hotel Cover)

Love,
Jon

*actually just lazy

Why is the bedroom so warm?

Jon lied, he said he would update. So now I must update you.

Land of Talk - Magnetic Hill
Nathan Lawr - Bury Me Blues

Two great songs that have already exploded.

Monday

Montag is Monday in German. If any of you appreciate a good novel (or film) perhaps you will recall the name of the protagonist from Fahrenheit 451 was in deed Montag. But Montag is less familiarly known as Antoine Bédard's electronic musical project.

We may have posted a previous entry about his collaboration with Stars lead singer Amy Millan, producing the dreamy single Perfect Vision, but nonetheless I (and maybe Jon) have been a Montag fan for some time now. He is featured on The Blue House dot org, the new Stars remix album (that is officially out now, and recieved a 1.8 on Pitchfork) as well as a compilation I've spoken about before entitled See You On The Moon (which also features Great Lake Swimmers, Sufjan Stevens, The Fembots, etc).

Well, Montag's got a new single. Best Boy Electric, it is called. Listen to it __here__, and buy it after. Other great tracks off of the new CD (titled Going Places) include Mechanical Kids, Alice, and 322 Water.

I'm so glad that you exist

Also, just reported:

The Weakerthans and Sarah Harmer live on CBC Radio 3. Click on "Concerts and Sessions."

Aussi, si vous habitez en Windsor, allez au Milk pour un présentation de la film "Escarpment Blues" le documentaire de Sarah Harmer.

Soda pétillant

I am officially supposed to be bilingual tomorrow. Here is a Portland band with a sort-of french name. Au, the preposition which combines "a" and the singular "le." Add an "x" it it's plural. Think Animal Collective, or perhaps Sigur Ros.

Au - Boute

I'm looking into the University of Illinois, any comments?

Choke

Only because they broke up, they're from Edmonton, and this song is sweet.

Choke - Breathing Won't Come Easy

Les bots-au-femmes

Fembots put on the best show I've seen so far this year. Please support them, and everyone mentioned in the previous post.

Fembots - Small Town Murder Scene

Closing Again

There is a circle of musicians in the Toronto area that have reinvented what the phrase "circle of musicians" means. What I'm talking about are circles that turn into other, partially finished circles. So imagine 3 or 4 circles connected, but then around the edges of those circles you have half circles sticking out.

In this case, it's the combination of Three Gut Records, Paper Bag Records, Die!Venom, The Blue House.org, and Blocks Blocks Blocks. Jim Guthrie (who runs Three Gut, get the joke yet?) has an established solo career, but plays currently with Islands and historically as a member of Royal City. Nathan Lawr was in Royal City, plays drums for the Fembots (Paper Bag Records) and Sea Snakes (Die!Venom)and has an established solo career. Shaw-Han Liem is I Am Robot And Proud, a member of Sea Snakes and the man who made Jim Guthrie's website. He is playing a show in Montreal this August with Nathan Lawr. Owen Pallett (Blocks..) fits into the group because he played strings on Mr. Guthrie's albums. Lawr also played drums for The Constantines. The Blue House is a musical catalogue collective that distributes records and other things, prominently these artists. Grizzly Bear, everyones favourite New York Capella group, put out demos on Audraglint records that were mastered by the owner of Autumn Records, Greg Davis. Greg Davis' solo stuff is found on Car Park, whom caries Montag and Dan Deacon.

Nathan Lawr is busy, but thankfully making a stop here in Windsor tomorrow, May 18th at The Phog Lounge.

Music is here. Or here.

Aye Aye Watson

Montreal is big and famous. Sam Roberts no more. Salut Patrick Watson!

After releasing his 3rd CD, Close To Paradise, Pat has been featured on late night CBC programs as well as Grey's Anatomy. It's beautiful music, and the more I post on mp3this the less poetic I want to be.

Patrick Watson - Man Under The Sea

Universal Soul

Universal Soul (yes, that's their real website) is from Halifax, a growing centre for great Canadian music. They produce good hip hop together that functions. Also check out Classified, for your Canadian white MC needs.

Now, from Chi-town (Chicago, where I had the opportunity to go this weekend) comes the band The Changes. I don't know much about them, really at all. They played Lollapalooza unsigned (the only band to do so) and garnered Stephen Malkmus' likening. This next song is sweet.

The Changes - Modern Love