Shhh...It's A Secret

Too bad my favourite song isn't played!

Live

P.S - If you're from Windsor/Detroit, Kevin Devine is at the Magic Stick tonight!

NEW HOSTING -- HELP

If anyone knows of good cheap hosting services please leave a comment.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

No it's Andrew Bird! One of this blog's favourite singer/songwriters is about to release his 3rd solo effort this year and we have three...thats right THREE songs from the album.

Andrew Bird - Heretics

Andrew Bird - Plasticities

Andrew Bird - Dark Matter


2007 is already starting to kick ass and it just started!

Jon

New Bright Eyes

A brand new Bright Eyes single to hold you Oburst fans over until the March release of the EP Four Winds. The LP "Cassadaga" will be released on April 10th. For the most part I'm not really a Bright Eyes fan, but I did enjoy "I'm wide awake it's morning" so I'm curious to see how this turns out.

Bright Eyes - Tourist Trap

As well for all the aspiring remix artists out there the fine folks at Arts and Crafts records and the Apostle of Hustle himself have started a remix contest for his song "My Sword Hands Anger".

The Apostle of Hustle Remix Contest

And on a personal note I am getting better slowly. I may be fully functioning by the end of the week.

Jon

Some Big News

Well I have been rather bored considering I have had to stay in bed for the last 3 days. So I have been exploring the internet and different news sites. This has lead to some excitement about Coachella on my part. Who else is a closet rage fan?

Aswell there are these stories:

Island's have enough material for two new CDs

Ted Leo touring with new material...including a Detroit date, thank Jesus!

And Mix tapes under fire, a very good story about mix tapes and the law on the NPR.

It's A Long Haul

Did anyone seriously notice the new links section on the right hand side? Think you know a good link? Hit us up, email (G)us!

New LCD Soundsystem. The prospective album is due out in March (the 22nd, I believe), but James Murphy, the front-runner, has put a couple tracks on their Myspace.

Check out the new, presumably, single--North American Scum. Doesn't that phrase just sum up what we really are?

Things To Notice

Thing to notice #1: A minimal(ist) layout change. Arial, with some booms and blips added. I think I'm going to fool around a bit more with it. If you guys and gals don't know, web design (I'd hesitate to say "design in general", for protection of my nuts) is a favourite hobby of mine. It's art, and that's what I like about it. In retrospect, I was a digital artist when I was like 7.

Thing to notice #2: There is a picture of the cutest Windsorite right there(!) on the screen, Cassie. She's a fellow (C)Jammer, and we'd do anything to plug her show.

Thing to notice #3: We've been slow to post this new year, for that notorious end-of-semester bug has taken me in. Jon also has the bug. Don't fear, I've made visual messages (Post-it notes--both physical and virtual) to remind me to post more often.

Things to notice #4: This update does actually contribute an MP3. This is Tycho, an electronic music project of ISO50 founder, Scott Hansen. He's got really cool t-shirts, one of which the architecture/Chicago (city)/Wilco fan inside me won't allow to go un-purchased. You figure out what I'm referencing. Sweet Boards of Canada like song found __here__

Podcast Week 2

Kay we know it's not really a podcast...

Part 1

Part 2

Plus the Cjam Top 10's are up here.

Not to shabby.

Hopefully I will recover from this black lung I seem to have come down with after my time in the salt mines...

Love,

Jon (hopefully I will be alive for the next show)

The Weekly Podcast

I can't fathom why we haven't done this before!

Our radio show, in which we air live Thursday mornings between 6 and 8am, is like a podcast of our blog. Most of the time we talk about the content and bands we post. In one way or more, the two are connected. That being said, always head on over to the CJAM website and look under the mp3 archives for every Thursday entry (between 6-8am).

Jon had a case of the flu this week, but thanks to his loving, caring sister who drove me to the station at 530am (!!!) the show continued at its weekly pace. Below are the links to the mp3's; some great artists featured were The Hold Steady, Pascal, Castle Project, Jim Guthrie and The Most Serene Republic.

Part 1
Part 2

I'm So cheap I'd might aswell be free!

A song that was tragically, nay criminally overlooked by Myself but luckily not by the good listeners of CBC Radio 3 . The song in Question was Joel Plaskett's - Nowhere with You. This infections little gem has been on repeat for a couple day's now and it's not lettin' up.

Enjoy kids,

Joel Plaskett - Nowhere With You



Mr. Plaskett, Keep on rockin!

Jon

Time for celebration

Jon's previous-picture-post was our 100th post. That's pretty sick, considering we're not even a year old. We've received great feedback from bands and labels--performancing.com also tells us we've had visitors from over 35 countries, every habitable continent in large quantities. I encourage everyone to comment if you like a band we post, or a video. Lately I've been into videos, unintentionally.

Schedule Two is a video posting website that has recorded some great artists in and around the Minneapolis region. Some of those include hometown favourite Tapes 'n Tapes, Maria Taylor, The Oranges Band, POS, John K Samson, Voxtrot and more. Check out the links under "video".

However, more important is their live mp3 section. Julie Doiron, a personal favourite of ours, has a concert featured. Check it out here. If you want the whole show, without even visiting the link, click here for a zipped folder containing it all.

Explanation

Here are 3000 words worth of explanation for my absents. They are fuckin huge but bear with them because they are worth it.

Jon has dissapeared

He has yet to return from vacation, even though our radio show is tomorrow morning (and I don't think I can get there by myself). Hopefully he'll read this message in Sin City, email me within 4 seconds of me publishing it, and tell me he's detained in Windsor, but will be out shortly. Hopefully, but you never know.

A major thanks goes out to POST*RECORDS for sending me 3 sweet CD's. The Heathens, posted previously, are a rocking band from FLA whose single "Sticking Around" (video can be seen HERE, with alternate audio) is memorized in my head (honestly).

So today, while shopping, I picked up the Wilco DVD ("I am trying to break your heart-a film about Wilco by Sam Jones") for a featherweight 29,91$. That aside, the DVD looks very interesting (with solo/live/in-studio/raw performances galore). Below is some good 'ole Wilco (from the DVD):

New Year, New York

This band pursued our blog a while ago, asking to send us some mp3s. I really got into the first song I heard, "Poison Lips". It's in my list of top plays on iTunes right now, next to "Motr"--the great Trans Am song.

The content itself, along with the other samples that can be heard on the bands website --www.deadleafechonyc.com--is very reminiscent of that great "Damp Bar" sound of 1985-1995. Think of combining Echo & The Bunnymen's instrumental verse extensions with perhaps Tom of Editors? Have a go for yourself, I hope Pitchfork picks up on this group.

Dead Leaf Echo - Poison Lips

Make sure to visit their MySpace as well (not that we like to promote that site) for full songs, and everything else.

It's the end of 2006

Time goes unnoticed. This is one of my favourite singles of 2006, along with "Soobax" (his other single).


K'naan - What's Hardcore?

Jeffrey Eckman and his amazing keyboard

We are now diverting from indie snobdom to bring you an important message:

B-Boy

An overlooked release this year was the new Long Winters album.

"Putting the Days to Bed, the third LP from Seattle’s The Long Winters, combines lyrical intimacy and melodic complexity with the guitar pop rave-ups of the band’s earlier material. John Roderick writes songs that make you feel like you’ve been talking to someone really interesting in an airport for the last hour and, although you know you’ll never see them again, you just told them your whole life story and a part of you will love them forever."

Though familiar with John and his songs, I never got around to listening to this album. Good news however-they're putting out a DVD called Through With Love on Dorsia Films. Watch the preview here.

2007's coolest new band name = "Apostle of Hustle"

I hope everyone enjoyed their boxing day experiences. It was a bit of a disappointment for me, since the mall failed to impress. However, to my surprise, American Apparel had a 25% off sale! Though not 50%, or the more radical 70%, 25% means that 50 dollar sweater now becomes $37.50!

Basically AoH was created by Andrew Whiteman, the guitarist for Broken Social Scene. He was born in Havana, Cuba, and therefore loves the Latin guitar sounds; I can`t say it seems to influence what I`ve heard from the band, but that certainly seems like it could help. Look forward to another over hyped release from Arts & Crafts.

Let`s steal Stereogum`s bandwidth: ``My Sword Hand`s Anger``

Talk to your current therapist

In Civilian Clothing are a band from Flint, which balances out Micheal Moore as another product from the town. So, in my eyes, Flint is neutral-neither good nor bad. Here's one of their tracks:

In Civilian Clothing - Current Therapist

You're probably saying to your self, "why does this post suck from lack of information on the aforementioned band?"

Well for that I have an answer. Blockbuster and the Holidays have stolen my soul so I have no energy.

Fuck the Holidays,
Jon

**EDIT** - their website is down, but they have a Myspace. (Love, Thomas)

BESTOF06 - PART 5

Officially, our top ten of 2006. We'll leave which bands are whose up to your mind, but any emails with a close enough guess will get a prize. Some facts: 10 of our top 20 are Canadian, and 20 of our top 50 are Canadian.

Destroyer - Destroyer Rubies
Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson in Crime (EP)
Land of Talk - Applause Cheer Boo Hiss (EP)
Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
Small Sins - Small Sins
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Chad VanGaalen - Skeliconnection
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain

Also, this is in no order. It would be impossible to come to an agreement on which of these albums places ahead of another. In all honesty, tape the names to the edge of a twister spinner and randomly select your order.