Elbow: Get the new album a week early

I’ve said it here before and I’ll say it again: I’m a big Elbow fan. In fact, I was just listening to Asleep in the Back yesterday at work. The group’s new album, Leaders of the Free World, is coming out Sept. 12.

Elbow’s label, V2, is offering the album exclusively a week before the release date through TellJack. Visit TellJack here and you can pre-order the album in digital or CD format and receive the content a week before Sept. 12. Packages include free bonus material, including videos for Station Approach and Forget Myself.

Check out the video for Forget Myself here (via Filter).

Caption winner

After much deliberation, the winner of the Rex Grossman caption contest is … (drum roll, please) … Goose! For his efforts, Goose has won a sourceVictoria EP and T-shirt. But please know, you’re all winners in my book.

I quite enjoyed Goose’s reference to Jim McMahon, who might be the last somewhat decent QB the Bears have had. And if I remember correctly, Goose is a Packers fan, so there was just the right touch of spite and venom in his entry. Goose, e-mail me your mailing address and T-shirt size. Well done.

More contests to come!

Maybe if I lay here long enough they’ll bring Jim McMahon back.

Seven Storey Mountain

Seven Storey Mountain is, by far, one of my favorite bands from Arizona. The best compliment I can pay is that they don’t sound like a local band, if that makes sense.

The band has undergone plenty of turnover, but the one constant is singer/songwriter/guitarist Lance Lammers, the brains of the operation. Seven Storey Mountain (which, for a short time, truncated its name to Seven Storey) has made several appearances on Deep Elm’s Emo Diaries collections. But I’m hesitant to label it “emo.” If emo is about baring your soul and getting in touch with feelings, Lammers is more about relieving the burdens of emotions in sonic thrusts. It’s relationships and reality gone awry, then examining the wreckage. Catharsis defined.

The band’s first LP, Leper Ethics, released on Art Monk Construction, is engaging and introspective. Deep Elm released the follow-ups, “Based on a True Story” (an EP) and “Dividing By Zero.” (All available through Stinkweeds.)

  

A new LP is due for release this year, and Lammers has posted four demos at the band’sspot on My Space. There are MP3s at the band’s Web site, and I have a few of my favorites to add (all recommended, including the scathing “Politician.”)

Seven Storey Mountain: Last Time (from Leper Ethics)
Seven Storey Mountain: Politician (from Based on a True Story)
Seven Storey Mountain: Halfway (from Dividing By Zero)

Yet even more Brendan Benson

At this rate, I may surpass Chris as Brendan Benson’s No. 1 fan … no, that’s just not possible. I do have to give a shout-out to Chris for introducing me to him, though.

Anyway, I’ve had a few requests (OK, like two … shut up) for this Metarie EP by Brendan Benson and the Wellfed Boys I found in Los Angeles. There’s five tracks, but I’ll post three: the two versions of Metarie and a sorta tweaked version of Alternative to Love (probably my fave BB track so far). The UK version of Metarie, which seems more melancholy than the original, includes the female vocals of Emma J (per liner notes), which gives it a nice change of pace.

This version of Alternative to Love is a little more sparse than the original. It matters not: The song is aces, my friends.

Brendan Benson | Metarie (Wellfed version)
Brendan Benson | Metarie (UK version)
Brendan Benson | Alternative to Love

Eight days to kickoff

Chris at Gorilla vs. Bear made his obligatory Michigan football post, so I feel it only necessary to hype up my Sun Devils of Arizona State. The Devils are ranked No. 20 in the preseason AP poll after finishing last season 9-3, including an, ahem, uplifting win in the Vitalis Sun Bowl.

The Devils lose Pac-10 record-breaking quarterback Andrew Walter (now with the Raiders), but I have high hopes for Sam Keller, the Sun Bowl MVP in his first collegiate start. WR Derek Hagan (below) is set to become the school’s all-time leading receiver and he’s a preseason Playboy All-American (hey, I read it for the articles!). The ‘D’ is stellar; yes, there is SOME defense in the Pac-10.

The schedule has its hurdles: AT Louisiana State on Sept. 10; home vs. USC on Oct. 1 (Trojans embarrassed us last year 45-7). The good news is we miss Cal on the schedule, and we open with the laughably easy Temple on Sept. 1. But I swear, if U. of Arizona beats us again this year …

The Pharcyde | Devil Music
INXS | Devil Inside

Joan as Police Woman

A guy I met in Los Angeles this past weekend introduced me to Joan as Police Woman(born Joan Wasser). She’s a trained violin player, and incorporates that instrument into an indie setting. More intriguing is her voice: not strained or forced and never setting out to steal the spotlight. It’s somehow complementary to the music but still stands out.

Her bio is impressive, and her work includes an opening slot for Rufus Wainright in Europe this past spring. She also was a violinist/vocalist for the Dambuilders.

Find three songs here off her solo EP, available at CD Baby.

The Life and Times

I’ve been skipping around new music so much of late I can’t keep track. And I’ve stumbled on another band that deserves my (and your) attention: The Life and Times, whose newSuburban Hymns is out on DeSoto Records. I know little of the band other than what you can easily find at its bio, like the fact that singer Allen Epley once fronted Shiner. But what drew me was a production credit to J. Robbins, he of Jawbox and Burning Airlines fame.

Epley’s slightly distorted vocals certainly suggest a Burning Airlines influence, but the guitar play colors outside the lines a little more. I really like how active the drums sound, especially under some of the more soaring vocals and guitar lines.

The Life and Times My Last Hostage
The Life and Times Charlotte Street
The Life and Times Coat of Arms (via DeSoto)