NEW ALBUM! Cold War Kids - Behave Yourself EP

Should be in stores by Dec. 21st, if not the 19th. They've already released a single, and of course I have an opinion.

I fucking loved Robbers and Cowards. One of the best CDs I have in my collection. I especially loved the first few songs on the album (like "Hang Me Up To Dry" and "We Used To Vacation"). Plugging in some of the slower ones at the end even seemed like an appropriate balance (like "Pregnant" and the beginning of "God, Make Up Your Mind"). After a tireless review of the album, over and over again in my car, room and inner head space, I knew I had fallen on something really great.

But when they followed up with Loyalty to Loyalty, I dismissed the entire band as quickly as a kid tosses the other half of a worm infested apple. All that really great stuff they achieved with Robbers and Cowards had been replaced by all that slow and borderline questionable material at the end of the album (like "Against Privacy" and "Avalanche in B"). Granted some songs were a respectable exercise in the Kids more jazzy and soulful stylings (like "Golden Gate Jumpers").

All in all, though, it didn't want to make me party. That was a big problem.

Which is why I'm excited for Behave Yourself. After checking out the single "Audience," I'm confident that the Kids dumped that Loyalty nonsense and got back in touch with their head space in Robbers.

You can also check it out on their MySpace page and official web site. BONUS! The track's available for free download at RCRD LBL.

A modern Cellist worthy of a listen

http://www.myspace.com/rufuscello

Alrighty, I feel like rufus does for the cello what the late alli farke toure did for the steel guitar. As you know, I am a fan of fusion. Call me postmodern, yeah, i don't make distinctions between high and low forms of art. that's why I'll listen to arvo part in the same breathe as mason bates. Or eat a little Cheese with the same bottle of vino that accompanies pete seeger. The point that Rusty and I always love to discuss, unfortunately usually exclusively when inebriated, is globalization; some fear, some distain, but we can all appreciate the progeny of its work.

from pitchfork...beck...

When most of us have extra spare time on our hands, we end up zoning out in front of "Daisy of Love" reruns or rereading Watchmen for the billionth time. Beck, on the other hand, challenges himself to record cover versions of entire albums as quickly as possible. Different strokes, I guess.Over the next month, Beck will be overhauling his website, and one of the features will be something called Record Club, in which Beck ropes in various musician friends to record an entire album in a day. For the purposes of scrappy immediacy, nobody will rehearse or arrange anything beforehand. After that day of furious recording, Beck will slowly let the record out into the world via his website (as well as the websites of the other musicians involved), uploading a new song once a week. He'll kick this party off with The Velvet Underground and Nico. That's an ambitious start! Will Beck attempt the Nico vocal parts himself? We'll find out!Future Record Clubs will involve friends-of-Beck like Devendra Banhart, MGMT, Jamie Lidell, and producer Nigel Godrich. Here's hoping they give 8Ball & MJG's In Our Lifetime a shot.