I’ll refrain from writing a lengthy review of this one, at least for now, as I’ve only recently started to listen and Geoffrey Stueven already did such an excellent job conveying this album’s intricacies that I’ll just point you to his review.

Please see my full review here.

The second single taken from their new, excellent Waiting for Something to Happen actually predated the album’s release by a month or so, but in any case the A-side may be their very best, catchiest song yet while the B-side is a more than adequate song that sounds like it could’ve easily made the album.

With lyrics about women’s prison straight out of ’70s B-movies (or perhaps The Zombies‘ “Care of Cell 44”), the excellent A-side of this is one of the many highlights of this great band’s debut Lp Strange Heaven while the B-side “I Know What Girls Like” is not the great song by The Waitresses, but rather a similarly short and typical original that’s fine but not quite as punchy as most of the songs that made their album. You can hear the A-side here.

Following 2011’s Left by Soft, here is a track recorded last year that’s as excellent as most of that album. You can listen to it here.

Please see my full review here.

Though I’m currently obsessed with “The Swan”, the lead-off track from this wonderful collection of early singles by this new UK group, don’t let that stop you from ignoring the rest of this. That is, of course, if a mix of Mezcal Head-era Swervedriver, Without a Sound-era Dinosaur Jr and even a hint of Dear You-era Jawbreaker sounds good to you. With that description, is it any wonder that I’m a fan?

Thurston Moore‘s second major, post-Sonic Youth effort is another winner. This time he’s covering territory more in line with Sonic Youth’s last few records or even his first solo Lp Psychic Hearts from the mid ’90s as opposed to 2011’s more hushed, emotional Demolished Thoughts. Instead, we get stream-of-consciousness ranting, guitar squalls, pop hooks and an insane cover of The Germs‘ “Communist Eyes” (perhaps a culmination of his fairly recent Germs and Darby Crash obsession going back at least to The Eternal‘s “Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn”). I’ll take it!

Django Django played a 35 minute set during this super-packed, sold-out afternoon Free at Noon show, encoring by saving their best for last with “Default” played as an encore and thus not making it to the radio broadcast. Before that, though, their stage show and overall sound has less in common with The Beta Band than with dance-rock of more recent vintage like LCD Soundsystem,Hot Chip, !!! and far older Madchester outfits like The Inspiral Carpets. I really enjoyed it, though I don’t know if it would work as well on record. I got there a bit late, so I only got to see a song and a half of Pete Donnelly’s short, opening set, but I did hear the entirety of him playing “Can’t Talk at All” solo and it was as enjoyable as always!

This one’s in honor of the absolutely gorgeous weather we’re enjoying this weekend!