New Music: Art Brut - It's a Bit Complicated Preview

Well well well, I guess that Eddie does read my blog!

(Wishful thinking or sexy reality?)

As mentioned last week the new Art Brut album is all but done! While it only comes out in June, the band's been nice enough to give us three new tracks from the forthcoming It's a Bit Complicated to tide us over until then. All three are equally good, if not better then the band's material on 2004's Bang Bang Rock & Roll. In particular I'm digging "Pump Up the Volume", it's musically and lyrically fab.

Check out the 3 tracks posted below, and get ready to have your socks rocked:

[edit: the links are acting funny...head here instead]


It's a Bit Complicated will be out 06/26/07 on Downtown/Atlantic

Under Review: The Slip

These guys have been around the block a few times but seemed to have slipped under the radar. Considering their Shins-ish sound I find it pretty weird that the cool kids have yet to pick up on them. Maybe it's the fact that I don't watch Grey's Anatomy.

I know, I hate that show too.

But enough about lame doctor shows, this Boston trio has some serious good stuff going on pretty much throughout their new LP Eisenhower. While there isn't anything "new" here, The Slip seem to have figured out exactly how to write catchy, cute indie pop. Personally I would love to hear them get diverge from their sound a bit and add some synth to flush out the sound they hint at in "Mothwing Bite". Meanwhile, what The Slip do, they do well, pretty much everything from opener "Children of December" to closer "Paper Birds" is pretty damn good.

I'm sure that anyone who liked the Garden State soundtrack will dig this LP bigtime.

Eisenhower is out now on STUDIO PLATEAU Records.

Site News: New Feature Ahoy!

Yep, I got tired of that crusty ol' "Weekly Playlist Powered by Last.fm" thing.

I'm sure you hated it too.

Well, if you mosey on over to the right side of the screen you'll see the brand new addition to So Overdone, "So Hot Right Now".

Start Ooo'ing and Awww'ing.

Rant: While My Guitar Gently Weeps

After buying a new guitar and playing it like mad for the past few days I found a very helpful site on the internets. Chances are if you play guitar (or like to think you do) then you may need some help figuring out how to play diffrent chords (I'm far too lazy to list examples).

Enter Chordbook!




This site has a flash application where you select what chord you want to play and it shows you where to put your fingers, how it should sound (on electric and acoustic) and you even can add a capo (the guitar tool thing, not the mafia type) onto the e-guitar.

We'll return to our regularly scheduled snob related news shortly.

Weekend Update: Album Leaks and Starbucks

...And we're back!

I hope you've all managed to get by this weekend without a constant fix of overdoneness.

A recap of what happened this weekend in bite sized news bits:

- A new Ratatat remix album leaked...and it's sadly really bad. Oh well, maybe they're just buying time. That or they're getting lazy
- A new Wilco album leaked...I've yet to listen to it, but it's safe to assume it sucks but will be loved by a fair few people with less then good taste.

In equally crappy news the McDonald's of the espresso world - Starbucks - has started another record label. So far they've signed the better of the two still living Beatles. Rumor has it though that they've been talking to critic wet dream subjects Radiohead. Oh well, maybe if they sign they'll do a split EP with Nora Jones.

Friday Five: March 23 '07

Warning: Cheesy intro ahead

...

This is the first installment of a weekly series that I've been really excited to write. Every Friday I'll share five of the best records I've had in rotation that week. These hand picked albums are the very best that the music world has to offer - served up fresh weekly.

Ok ok, enough of the sales pitch, let's get going. Because this is the first installment I wanted to include some of the stuff I've been listening to no just this week but for the past little bit. Enjoy!

Crystal Castles - Alice Practice EP

Noisy. Unpredictable. 8-bit sound.
Those five words pretty much sum up Crystal Castel's Alice Practice EP. Another way to describe it would be ''really good''. If you like electro crazyness like Miss Violetta Beauregard but want something a bit more accessible, this is it! Think Deerhoof meets nintendo (the original on..with duck hunt). Should you check it out just because it sold out of stores in a matter of days? No, you should check it out because I'm recommending it. Oh, it's only a few songs long, so no excuses.


LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

After his startlingly good first LP, DFA founder James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem has repeated with a great sophmore LP. Yeah, yeah, I know you read that type of thing on Pitchfork, but now you're reading it here. And here is just SO much cooler, isn't it? Belive me, despite an amazingly crap opening track, Sound of Silver really delivers on everything that was good about their first release. Tracks like ''All My Friends'', ''New York I Love You'', and ''North American Scumm'' make this one of the year's best...for now.


Menomena - Friend and Foe

I've been a fan of this Portland group since I first layed ears on their first album, I Am The Fun Blame Monster. Their music is a fine tuned mix of jazzy electro and acoustic guitar indie. All in all, it's a great LP, start to finish. I'm not the first or the last to praise this album so you might as well check it out. Cuz, yeah, all the cool kids are doing it. And you want to be cool, don't cha?




Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

Kevin Barnes recent divorce sure had an impact on Of Montreal's 10th..no 11th..no wait, 12th release. But despite what some people say, this album's more towards a darker, harder electro sound is more of a natural evolution of where they've been going since Satanic Panic in the Attic. As I mentioned in my review of their live show, their new material is so far gone from the cheery innocence of Cherry Peel, but don't see that as a bad thing - see it as one of the better albums released this year. Top marks for Kevin Barnes!


Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

Yes, this album really is as wierd as it looks.
Melding a day-glo circus vibe with cheery indie pop isn't as easy as you might think. I mean, look at the train wreck that was the last Scissor Sisters' LP. Where they failed, Patrick Wolf comes out prancing...victoriously. The title track alone makes this album worth listening to. If you're still too put off by the album art, then just imagine that Islands' frontman Nick Diamond had reeeeally let himself go. Hey, musically, you wouldn't be too far off.


Note: Sorry about the lack of MP3 links for these. I'll make sure to include them in next week's installment!