Spoon’s upcoming release Transference has much of us chompin at the bit in anticipation of it’s early 2010 appearance, compliments of the released track “Written In Reverse”.  A return to a sound that might be more reminiscent of a younger Britt Daniel at work? January will tell all soon enough.

In the meantime, some video cut of the Spoon boys behind the scene and behind the music with Howie Weinberg…

It’s been just over a year since Athen’s GA’s Dead Confederate released their debut album Wrecking Ball, and album that made the WOXY year end top 97 album list of 2008 coming in at #6, if you hadn’t heard. With the band coming off a year of constant touring and plans to hole up in the studio soon for the follow-up to Wrecking Ball, a live LP just made itself available for fans itching for something new from the band. Dirty Ammo contains previously released material in it’s intense live presentation as well as the band’s un-released “Guns” along with covers of Elliot Smith and Officer May. The album was recorded @ The Earl in Atlanta GA, May 27th 2009.

And there’s more..

If you choose, you can get the album download for free, but I hope that at the least, you choose to donate $1 to help rebuild the historic Georgia Theatre which was destroyed in a fire in June of this year. There are several levels of donations available, with each level getting you more Dead Confederate Dirty Ammo paraphernalia. $1, $21, and $41 are the magic numbers and you can check out the goods @ dirtyammo.com. It’s the holidays folks, dig deep, help out a good cause, and get some great tunes.

MP3> Dead Confederate ‘Start Me Laughing (Live)’ Dirty Ammo

Dirty Ammo Track List

Side A
Get Out
Start Me Laughing
Shadow The Walls
Roman Candle*

Side B
Smoke A Minor**
Guns
Tortured Artist Saint

* Elliott Smith cover
** Officer May cover

Upcoming shows:

December 19, 2009 – The 2009 Festivus of Bands at Sky City – Augusta, GA

January 7, 2010 – Tasty World – Athens, GA (with Futurebirds)

January 8, 2010 – The Earl – Atlanta, GA

One of the hottest bands on the indie-rock circuit in 2009 for sure, and 101x secured them for their annual December show. Chances are you’ll be hearing more Phoenix on the station over the coming year.

Denton’s Midlake have been keeping us all at bay for what seems wayyyy toooo long since they dazzled and wooed us with the old world adventures on the 2006 release The Trials of Van Occupanther. The band’s forthcoming release, which is easily one of the most anticipated releases in the already promising music year of 2010, The Courage Of Others is quietly revealing itself. The “Acts of Man”/”Rulers, Ruling All Things” limited edition 12″ is out today, and you can stream both songs over @ The Hype Machine.

Both songs sound amazing as expected, yet not quite as strayed from the The Trials of Van Occupanther as I was expecting.

The band has also released a string of tour dates, which unfortunately doesn’t have an Austin appearance yet listed. I say yet, because if they don’t make an appearance here soon, heads will roll.

Dates after the jump…. Read more

Known for sharing more than he might have cared to at times, Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox is sharing willingly a 2005 recording by his band Deerhunter. Maybe it’s the holiday spirit that moves him to share. Cox posted a link to download the band’s 2005 recording titled Carve Your Initials Into The Walls Of The Night on his blog with an explanation of his reason for doing so, and the nature of the recording. Click the image of the cover art or any of the links found in this post to get there and get the download.

Sample the tunes…

MP3> Deerhunter ‘But I’m A Boy’ Carve Your Initials Into The Walls Of The Night

In related news…I’ve been really diggin Atlas Sound’s (Cox solo) latest offering Logos.

I know that I recently posted about this band from L.A. called Warpaint, but when it comes to music I exhibit signs of an extremely obsessive personality. I find something that I really like, and I wallow in it like a pig in mud. Not a pretty visual, but you get my point. I like Warpaint a lot, and not just because the band is 3/4′s cute females.

Check out the video for “Stars” which can be found on the band’s fairly recent EP release Exquisite Corpse.

You know I’ve always been a fan of Seattle’s KEXP, but ever since WOXY relocated to my own backyard (Austin you idiots), my loyalty has shifted a bit. You have to support the locals of course. If you haven’t checked out WOXY yet, you best get to it, and do it soon. You don’t win the 2009 Best Online Radio award @ CMJ for nuthin.

With all of the Year End lists starting to pop-up, and everyone has one, see how they stack up against WOXY’s 97 best albums of 2009. The countdown starts this Thursday Dec 19th @ 9 a.m. (Central), and you can bet I’ll be checking in from time to time to see what WOXY has to say about the best in ’09. Anyone want to try to guess what will be in the top 10? Probably some Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors. Maybe Animal Collective in the top 20? I would hope Atlas Sound, but maybe released too late in the year?

Eagerly awaiting more news about the pending 3rd installment of Austin’s Psych Fest? Satisfy your psych needs and take a trip down memory lane this Saturday Dec 19th with a special screening of Psych Fest 2 DVD produced and directed by Alta Real Pictures Oswald James, @ The Mohawk. The movie shows @ 8 p.m. and will be available for purchase on premise as well. Live music as well and it wouldn’t be a Psych Fest event without mind altering visuals. See poster for more deets…

A Place to Bury Strangers

So, the show isn’t happening until March of 2010, but A Place To Bury Strangers @ The Parish is a show that you should mark down on your calender now. The last appearance in town, albeit always enjoyable to see the band, was a bit of bust as a result of having to play inside @ Mohawk because of rain. I’m just now familiarizing myself with the United Kingdom outfit called The Big Pink, but they are stirring the buzz pot here in the states after just completing their first North American tour, and with the Sept 2009 release A Brief History of Love on the 4AD label. You know I love me some 4AD..don’t you?

If you were hoping to catch either band @ SXSW 2010, the chances might be slim with a performance scheduled so close, and the tour ending on the 4/15. Don’t miss the opportunity.

The Big Pink w/A Place to Bury Strangers @ The Parish 4/08/10. Advance tickets on sale 12/12/09 right HERE

MP3> A Place To Bury Strangers ‘In Your Heart’

MP3> The Big Pink ‘Velvet’

And pardon me for just a second, but..HOW in the HELL is this @ 101x show??!!?? They don’t play the cool music but they want to put their grubby hands all over the shows?? Play some A Place To Bury Strangers guys!! And not just on the Next Big Thing.. stop playing the Toadies for crying out loud and get with the program. (for the record, I have nothing against the Toadies, other than the fact that are borderline Classic Rock at this point). Actually I don’t listen to 101x enough to know that they don’t play A Place To Bury Strangers, but I would be willing to bet…..

The Big Pink w/ A Place To Bury Strangers Spring Tour dates Read more

I’m sure that there is a ton of pressure for the 90′s DC band Jawbox to push on with reuniting for a slew of shows, but the word is that this Jimmy Fallon performance was it, the one and only. As previously mentioned the band just released a newly mastered version of it’s ’94 Atlantic release For Your Own Special Sweetheart .

Savor the “Savory”

The Austin based Transmission Entertainment, responsible for bringing you music joy @ The Mohawk, Red 7, Club De Ville and the hot, hot, hip Fun Fun Fun Fest, is seeking interns and street team members for the 2010 year. Free shows anyone?

Details from the mouth of Transmission after the jump.. Read more

I love the cycle of discovering new music. It seems when I really am craving something new and interesting, it’s a barren desert of a musical landscape I find myself scouring, and when I’m not really paying attention, I get slapped up aside the head with tiny little gems of sweet sounds. One of the most recent sweet sounds I’ve come across is the mostly female outfit Warpaint, based in Los Angeles. The bands originally self released debut EP Exquisite Corpse was re-released on this past October on Manimal Vinyl, and the band has recently signed with Rough Trade Records.

Warpaint and Exquisite Corpse sound a bit darker than what you get from this foursome. It’s delicate echo and reverb drenched pop psychedelia, that at times reminds me of some early Cocteau Twins. Something in the vocal delivery I’m feeling. Song titles like Elephants, Beetles, Stars, and Burgundy are found on this debut EP which I highly recommend.

In a time when the music scene is mostly dominated by Prozac junkie, slag, watered down versions of The Arcade Fire, Warpaint are a welcomed soft glow of feminine comfort.

The band will be hitting the road with Akron Family early 2010 and finds the Parish stage here in Austin Feb 24th. You know who will be there….

MP3> Warpaint ‘Elephants’

Jawbox is one of those bands that I have always been clearly aware of their existence and the fondness that many of my friends harbored for this D.C. post punk band that found the heart of it’s success in the early 90′s. The D.C. scene a proud breeding ground for many a D.I.Y. band in the 80′s and 90′s. A proud label for many fans that led to the unfortunate backlash when Jawbox left the indie label Dischord for the major Atlantic to record the 1994 release For Your Own Special Sweetheart. Now that we’ve all grown up a bit, and sold a bit of our souls to some corporate entity, the band re-releases it’s heartbeat album For Your Own Special Sweetheart on DeSoto records in the fall of 2009. It’s remastered and sounding as sweet as ever.

You can purchase the remastered release @ DeSoto or @ iTunes

MP3> Jawbox ‘Savory’

The only live performance in celebration of this release will be on the Jimmy Fallon show, Tuesday Dec 8th. Set your DVR, TiVo, whatever, or just tune in like we used to do in the old days.

As it seems like everyone is in the music video game these days, La Blogotheque always delivers the goods. Remember the St Vincent episode? The sexy little vixen strumming her acoustic guitar on the bed in a hotel or apartment somewhere in Paris (?). Being the buzz band of the moment, it only seems appropriate that Phoenix are on the plate. Didn’t get your ticket to the Phoenix show coming up here in Austin on Dec 17th? Tickets are going for $85+ on Craigslist. You people should be ashamed of yourselves!! Especially that guy asking $120 a piece, cuz he has a trip that he has to pay for. You, my friend are a low life piece of c***!

Phoenix – 1901 – A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros have been making themselves oddly present in my life over the past few weeks. They keep catching my attention while listening to WOXY, and keep popping up in conversation. So, when the email came across today with Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros newest video, what was I supposed to do? Ignore it? Post it of course. Here’s the intro…

Part 2: Kisses Over Babylon is the second installment of SALVO!, a 12-part music video series from Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros. Kisses picks up in the same desert wasteland world, ravaged by drought. Edward is arrested by two Minors (police from Ursa Minor) for the murder of his own father, and taken to a water-labor prison. There he reunites with Brother, his long-ago friend, and rallies the prisoners to a frenzied prison break.

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros “KISSES OVER BABYLON” from Edward Sharpe on Vimeo.