There’d always been something about the boy, he was smart and stupid at the same time. As if he was meant to do everything the wrong way. Junior league ball, the boy was twelve, they subbed him in for the pitcher, good arm but he chokes, eight runs straight, loses the game. Afterward acting like nothing happened. It made no sense. The feeling that gave you, watching your son lose the game, but he just shrugged it off, didn’t care.

-from American Rust by Philipp Meyer

Jessica Rabbit.

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Part of a huge Playboy cover archive over at Cyana Trand Land.

Here is the second brand spakin’ new song off the Foo Fighters upcoming Greatest Hits album. I’ve listened through it a few times and I’m already a huge fan. I want your babies, Dave Grohl.

Snowy.

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I‘ve been a fan of Illinois-based indie pop band Headlights since I happened to catch them at Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest a couple of years ago. I’d just suffered through two or three noisy screamy bands that forced me as far back from the main stage as I could get, and then Headlights came on and were like a breath of melodic, intricately orchestrated fresh air. Thankfully it was early in the day, so I could get back up to the stage relatively easily and get my fill of them.

They’ve recently released their third album, Wildlife and this morning posted the video for the first single from it, entitled “Get Going.” I haven’t picked up the whole album yet (waiting until they tour through LA in a couple of weeks to snag it there), but like most of their two previous albums, this song isn’t really edgy or challenging or deep, it just makes me happy. But the video does contain violent, unexplained deaths. So there’s that.

If you’re in LA, Headlights is playing at Spaceland in Silver Lake on November 13th. The last time they were here was Easter, and the turnout was kind of pitiful. Let’s do better for them this time, okay?

Links:
Official Site
MySpace
Facebook
Twitter
Amazon MP3

A.A. Bondy “When The Devils Loose” – In the tradition of Bon Iver and Sun Kil Moon comes my newest favorite folkie. While not as lo-fi as Bon Ivers “For Emma” and closer in instrumentation to Mark Kozeleks Sun Kil Moon, it manages to capture that same feeling of isolation and molding something beautiful from it. Here’s the “Mightiest of Guns”…

Backstage Sessions : AA Bondy – The Mightiest of Guns from Hard to Find a Friend on Vimeo.

Gumball vortex.

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Indie rocker twins Tegan & Sara released their sixth (!) studio album today, entitled Sainthood. Tegan & Sara have always been one of those bands that a lot of my friends listen to and they’re right in the pocket of music I like, but somehow I never listened to them enough to get into them. I find myself saying “Oh, yeah, Tegan & Sara are great” a good bit before realizing that I really only know like two of their songs. I think I might rectify that with this album, finally, and go back and catch up with some of their earlier stuff (and seriously, I had no idea until I checked to write this post that they have so many albums already out! Makes what I’ve accomplished in roughly the same amount of time being alive seem kinda paltry).

Here’s the video for “Hell,” the first single off the album, directed by Jamie Travis.

Links:
Official Site
Sainthood at Amazon MP3

HT Stereogum

Welsh band Los Campesinos! have been working on their third album for several months now, playing songs from it at their shows and predicting an early 2010 release to those who asked. A couple of songs and videos have already dropped from the album, and now they’ve officially announced, titled, dated, and tracklisted it.

Romance is Boring will be released February 1, 2010 in all formats – digital, CD, vinyl. According to the band’s blog, “it is a record about the death and decay of the human body, sex, lost love, mental breakdown, football and, ultimately, that there probably isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel.” Pretty much like their first two albums, then. The couple of songs that have turned up online and at their shows, though, show a greater maturity and deeper melancholy than the earlier stuff – something I’m looking forward to hearing more of come February.

Here’s the video for “The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future,” the first track that dropped a few weeks ago. Technically, it’s not the first single (“There are Listed Buildings”), but I’m not sure what that means in the world of digital distribution. Except, I suppose, that they’re selling vinyl editions of “There are Listed Buildings” at their shows. This is shot by bassist Ellen (the official unofficial videographer of the group) and a friend, and fits beautifully with the melancholia of the song. (via LC!)

The full track listing and a couple more videos after the jump.

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Recorded at Jack White’s “Third Man Records and Novelties” that popped up in the city in August, “Live From Third Man West” is a new five-song/four-video digital EP from The Dead Weather that is now available on iTunes. Along with highlights from the band’s debut LP “Horehound”, the EP features a cover of “Forever My Queen”, originally recorded by doom metal overlords Pentagram. Full tracklist is below.

01 Forever My Queen (Pentagram cover) (audio)
02 Hang You From the Heavens
03 I Cut Like a Buffalo
04 So Far From Your Weapon
05 Treat Me Like Your Mother
06 Hang You From the Heavens (live video)
07 I Cut Like a Buffalo (live video)
08 So Far From Your Weapon (live video)
09 Treat Me Like Your Mother (live video)

Thanks to PitchFork for the heads-up.

Tree. House.

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Nearly everyone I know is highly, HIGHLY anticipating the forthcoming, and regrettably final, season of LOST. All the questions will be answered and what will become of our castaways is finally… wait for it…

…wait…

insert figure skating here.
insert luge here.

That’s right folks. While no official broadcast schedules have been announced. Rumors are that the Winter Olympic games are most definitely going to cut right into the middle of LOST season 6 after just a couple of episodes. So as of now, LOST is scheduled to premiere in January. Then it will be cut off for at least a couple of weeks before resuming again in March. Let me be the second to say, “fuck the Olympics.”

So I was pretty sick last week and lost interest in pretty much everything except sleep and juice. So we’re starting fresh this week and to make up for the absence last week, here is a complete series of awesomeness compliments of Clark Little Photogrpahy.

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I cannot recall those years without horror, loathing, and heart-rending pain. I killed people in war, challenged men to duels with the purpose of killing them, and lost at cards; I squandered the fruits of the peasants’ toil and then had them executed; I was a fornicator and a cheat. Lying, stealing, promiscuity of every kind, drunkenness, violence, murder – there was not a crime I did not commit… Thus I lived for ten years.

-from Confession by Leo Tolstoy