Here are two clips from Sunken Treasure the live DVD of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. Released through Nonesuch on October 24th. Its available to pre-order from all good stockists.

Jeff Tweedy “Sunken Treasure” Trailer

Jeff Tweedy - Is That The Thanks I Get

The US public radio station NPR is currently streaming a handful of live shows including a full set by Jenny Lewis.

Also its worth noting that on 19th October they will be streaming Wilco at the famous 9:30 club in Washington DC. The show will be archived for a year after the transmission date. Hopefully it will be available as a download like the Jenny Lewis show.

Visit the archive here.

The Shins have revealed the tracklisting for their hugely anticipated third album Wincing The Night Away set for release on January 23rd of next year. The lead single from the album, Phantom Limb will be available as a download exclusively through itunes on November 14th and gets its CD release a week later on the 21st. The single will contain two unreleased tracks from the albums sessions, one being an alernate version of album track Split Needles.

Tracklisting as follows….
Phantom Limb
01 Phantom Limb (album version)
02 Nothing at All
03 Spilt Needles (alternate version)

Wincing the Night Away
01 Sleeping Lessons
02 Australia
03 Pam Berry
04 Phantom Limb
05 Sea Legs
06 Red Rabbits
07 Turn on Me
08 Black Wave
09 Spilt Needles
10 Girl Sailor
11 A Comet Appears

Well… next year…

February
2 Sheffield Leadmill
3 Dublin Village
4 Glasgow ABC
5 Manchester Academy 2
7 Nottingham Trent University
8 London Shepherd’s Bush Empire
9 Southampton University

No info on how much the tickets will be or when they’ll be on sale… I think I’ll probably be heading down to Shepherds Bush though.

Their new album, The Crane Wife, is an absolute belter and is getting rather a lot of good reviews state-side but is yet to be released over here.

Stumbled across some rather intriguing news this morning whilst surfing the internets… First up is an interview from last month in the Chicago Reader with one of my heroes, Steve Albini. He’s talking about recording the new Stooges album (more about that later) but, more importantly, that a new record by Shellac has been recorded and finished, pencilled in for an early 2007 release. There’s also rumours of Spring shows in the UK as well… The full interview is here for those interested.

Linked to that is information on the new Stooges record, their first in 33 years. The intriguing part of this is Mike Watt turning up on bass for this record. Watt is a fantastic punk bassist and was a crucial part of the Minutemen. He’s actually started recording a diary of the recording sessions which makes excellent readings… especially the parts on Albini and his digestive habits. I joke not!

Well, the ringing has gone from my ears but only because I saved them from the headliners rubbish three songs in… more of that later. I have returned from this years NME winter tour, this time imaginatively titled the “Rock N Roll Riot” and crammed full of bands that are, apparently, a bit animated on stage.

The bill for tonight’s show moved around a little so first up we had The Horrors, fresh off a wave of publicity and reviews. They’re the first band to appear on the cover of the NME without releasing a record. Tonight’s set was, quite frankly, a mess of noise, hair and black clothing. But there’s something about their circus ground act, complete with whirling organ, which captivates the viewer - are these guys for real? They’re lacking tunes, that’s for sure, and the crowd look bewildered as the five guys on stage seem to be playing individually, but there’s hints of promise there, certainly not easy listening. As the night progresses it’s obvious why these guys are on first, the polo shirt wearing boys in the audience just don’t know where to look and they seem oddly out of synch with the other bands playing tonight. It might be all a bit art-school and cooler than though, but the put on a show and entertained for their short, sweet and dark 20 minute set.

We then have the delights of The Dykeenies… ok, well I lied. These guys are this years The Automatic… truly woeful. A lead singer with little or no charisma, he stands, protectively over his casio keyboard waving his hands at his wrists and looking like an extra from “Hi-de-Hi” (probably a reference they’re too young to get…). They sound like if you take all the interesting aspects of Emo and took them away… there’s no emotion there and as they sing “I’m so full of new ideas” it certainly doesn’t look like it from down here.

Next up was the pleasant surprise of the evening, The Maccabees, sounding a little angular on their myspace page, live they come across a lot better. The riffs are bolstered by an energy and noise that they’ve not quite managed to get onto record yet. The lead singer has taken some inspiration from The Rakes with his thrusting body movements and rolled up shirt sleeves and their music ploughs the same furrows, but they’re a little cheekier and the music more pop-tinged. Though the set tailed off a little towards the end, I was impressed with their songs that seemed to mean something to the band and they’ve obviously played a lot of gigs as the sound is tight and focused. Good stuff.

Then it was the turn of the headliners The Fratellis. I bought tickets for this event without really knowing anyone apart from The Horrors. I listened to the Fratellis album off the back of a 8/10 review in the NME and a 4/5 review in Uncut. I won’t be buying those publications in a hurry again. This is a band devoid of original ideas - the video screens prior to them coming on proclaiming the lead singer and songwriter to be the new Dylan. Fuck off. Not a chance. He’s nicked all his riffs from Marc Bolan / T-Rex whilst the drummer wants to be in Led Zep. This isn’t the future, this is the past - where’s something different. I stuck around for 3 songs before being completely bored… the band themselves are supposed to have a great live reputation but tonight they look completely uninterested and seem to be going through the motions. Complete rubbish - though the crowd seem to be enjoying themselves, it seems like a shame and act, they just want to enjoy themselves regardless of actually being entertained.

Myspace links:
The Horrors
The Dykeenies
The Maccabees
The Fratellis

I nicked this off the Drowned In Sound website where they’ve asked 65daysofstatic to write an article about their recent trip to Japan - it’s very good. They’re one of my favourite post-rock bands, they manage to change the mix by bringing in some electronica and laptop technology that gives them a different edge to, say, Mogwai. Click here to read the full piece…

I just love this final paragraph:
Put 65daysofstatic on a stage and they know what they’re at, and why they’re there, and who it’s for. Put us in a room that the attention of the world’s homogenised entertainment industry (that would be MTV) is resting on, then your audience and your motives get a little further away. It becomes less clear who you’re actually benefiting. It feels like an exercise in self-love rather than self-belief, and it tastes a little sour. Being rather more versed in the art of self-effacement, we left them to it.

A couple of recent reviews for you today…

Working For A Nuclear Free City - s/t
Working For A Nuclear Free City inhabit that dark world between dance and indie music. Creating atmospheric and melodic worlds that remind me of Vanishing Point-era Primal Scream and Begging You-era Stone Roses, it’s the blend of electronica and guitar work that manages to transport you into somewhere else, possibly forward, maybe even back in time and captures your imagination. Full review.

Ben Kweller - s/t
Ben Kweller’s third album sees him take full control of proceedings. Every instrument played on here is done so by the talented young man himself, a real and proper solo album. Where that normally indicates a striped back and more personal album for most artists, Kweller has carried on with his sunshine pop sound and the songs are as bright and breezy as they ever have been. Full review.

Get in!

The classic Sebadoh line-up (III, Bubble & Scrape etc) are to reform and tour next Spring! Let’s just hope there’s a couple of dates in the UK pencilled in.

This was officially announced on Lou Barlow’s website the other week but it’s now been reported on Pitchfork as well including information on a new Dinosaur Jnr album, though the reunited Dinosaur have been touring for a while (I caught them at ATP this year).

My Morning Jacket - Okonokos
Like the recent Wilco live album, Kicking Television, so to does Okonokos find a band in transition. A band at the top of their game live, but a band that is trying to shake off their original image and re-establish themselves as something more… With the greatest of ease, My Morning Jacket has achieved that with this collection. Full review.

The Mars Volta - Amputechture
Where do you start with a Mars Volta review? Comments on them being one half of the infamous At The Drive-In have been said and done whilst their tendency for prog-rock operas and over long, complicated songs, titles and albums have been mentioned, moaned over and discussed at great length over the internet and paper press. All I’m going to comment on is the music. And, in the case of Amputechture, how good it is. Full review.

Not a bad way to start the week, I seem to have been quoted on the BBC’s Electric Proms Paul Weller micro-site! Which is nice… The full link is here and it’s on the bottom right-hand corner… Have a made it?? Doubt it…

Death Cab cutie and philandering producer Chris Walla, having planted his infamous seeds of production pretty much everywhere by now, is about to get busy in the studio with, um, himself. Walla has announced on his website that former DCFC home Barsuk Records will release his latest solo offering, tentatively titled It’s Unsustainable, in March 2007. First critic to dismiss Walla’s efforts as “masturbatory” gets a hearty smack on the wrist.

Walla’s yet to decide on a moniker, but after flinging with the idea of billing himself “The Convincer”, he’s now close to settling on his given name. Smart move, Chris. It also seems this won’t be a Martin Youth Auxiliary thang, the solo tag under which Walla released a self-titled cassette way back in 1999.

Walla, who’s presently putting together a brand new studio called the Alberta Court, has already written the songs that will appear on It’s Unsustainable, which he says bear a “pretty dark political stripe.” Neocons, watch your backs!! He’s also posted a Clinic cover on his website, revealed plans to tour, and beseeched his fans to help him make some damn decisions already.

Pitchfork

Brakes return next month with a brand new 11-track studio album entitled Beatific Visions. The follow up to last years Give Blood will be released on November 8th through Rough Trade. I’ve just heard a copy of it and have to say it doesnt dissapoint. Its certainly a step up from their debut - with more focused, rounded songs. A highlight for me is Spring Chicken. Great stuff.

A statement from the band follows….

Brakes are the rollin’, bowlin’, tumblin’, toilin’, boilin’, wheelin’, bleedin’, blood givin’ buddies that have been throwing eyes into the valleys of the blind and sending mp3s to the moon or further for over three years now YEAH!!! Roll over cold dog’ cause a hot dog’s movin’ in!! HELL YEAH!!!

So far this year, Brakes backed Belle and Sebastian and Editors in the UK & Europe before seeing in the spring with trips to warmer climbs; March saw the band head to Texas for a string of successful shows at the South by South West festival in Austin, a return to NYC and a debut tour of Italy.

Come April and Brakes’ super-duper smash hit ‘All Night Disco Party’ received a repeat release disguised in Graham Sutton, Matthew Herbert and FC Kahuna remix formats. The band then toured from Aberdeen all the way down to the city of London where they did a good job of filling the popular Mean Fiddler venue.

It was high time for Brakes II by now, so, on an invitation from Seth Riddle (husband of Cerys Mathews) they flew to Nashville, Tennessee to record with Stuart Sikes (Cat Power: The Greatest, White Stripes: Red Blood Cells…) After a few days acclimatisation; catching fireflys; drinking 45 ounce margheritas; swapping guitar licks and rocking on rocking chairs on various porches, they got to work at The House of David studio, where records have been made by the likes of JJ Cale, Yo La Tengo and Elvis Presley.

The band stuck to their old habits by recording fast and live to tape. They recruited a few extra pairs of hands in the shape of local axe hombre Kevin Teel (lapsteel) and the man of ‘The House’ himself, Mr David Briggs (piano) David was an original Muscle Shoals band member and went on to play piano with Elvis between ‘68 and ‘77. Brakes asked him to lay down some ‘ragtime’ piano on ‘If I Should Die Tonight’ offering him $10. “Well, that was worth 50c.” he said. They squeezed in gigs at the legendary record shop ‘Grimeys’ and its sister venue The Basement in between sessions, and were greeted by Nashville with hollers, whoops and screams.

Between festivals around the UK and Europe, Brakes mixed their new album ‘Beatific Visions’ at Radiohead’s studio, Courtyard, in Oxfordshire. They paid their dues at the grave of Eric Blair (George Orwell), drank too much at the local mind bending pub ‘The Plough’, recorded a string section and mixed a fine record, which was later mastered by Neil Young’s mastering engineer in Nashville.

The band played festivals until the end of the summer, and will be out on tour somewhere near you soon.

‘The Beatific Visions’ Tracklisting:

Hold Me In The River
Margarita
If I Should Die Tonight
Mobile Communication
Spring Chicken
Isabel
Beatific Vision
Porcupine or Pineapple
Cease and Desist
On Your Side
No Return

The band are touring the album in December with the following dates. Tickets are available at usual outlets.

Anyone in the Cambridge area looking out of the window this afternoon will understand what I’m saying… it’s raining, the win is blowing and autumn is finally here.

So, in a bid to try something different and to cheer people up, I’ve made a compilation for pure entertainment. It’s got some of my favourite tracks of the past couple of months on there… hope you enjoy it!

The End Of Summer: Oct 2006

1. Shallow - South
2. Troubled Son - Working For A Nuclear Free City
3. Think I’m In Love - Beck
4. The Operation - Charlotte Gainsbourg
5. So Far Gone - The Early Years
6. Tendency - Battle
7. Weekends And Bleak Days (Hot Summer) - The Young Knives
8. A Pillar Of Salt - The Thermals
9. Sabbatical - This Et Al
10. Thank You - Jay Bennett

Download here.

As I struggle with a Grolsch induced hangover this morning, I may as well recount the event which led me to this point… Seafood at The Loft last night.

It was the busiest I’ve seen the Loft since it’s opened as a venue and the team behind it are doing a really good job. The sound and lighting was impressive and creates a nice and tight atmosphere when the bands are on. My only problem with it is the lack of any decent alcoholic beverages, but that’s just me!

I missed the first two support acts, but caught the set by Fighting With Wire. They seem to be getting quite a following, there crowd were very into them and were responding to their tight sound. My only problem with these guys, which is admittidely a big one, is that they don’t really stray to much from the whole “emo” sound… there’s loud guitars and chunky riffs, but it doesn’t do anything different, you pretty much know where the music is going to go and what the words are going to be. Sound good live, but left me unmoved.

Things change when Seafood come on and the difference between these guys and the support acts is noticeable straight off. Their music is much more articulate, the songs have more going on and are arranged with an ear for something involving. Though they played a lot of new material (I’ve not heard the critically acclaimed new album yet) it seems as though they’ve toughened up their sound, moved away from the sonic experimentation of their previous albums and honed their musicality. Though this was the most disappointing part of the night, they played to the crowd of emo-lovers, their delicate and off-kilter songs were played fast and loud, each song descending into a wall of noise and feedback. Instead of playing their own way, they ended up sounding more like the support acts. However, a storming version of “Cloaking” from “When Do We Start Fighting” buried any disappointment and as a live act they sound very tight… I just hope that the next time I see them they’ll play their own way instead of someone elses.

There are times when you read the associated information that comes with a CD and you’re left cold, bored and a little frightened to actually play the music a record label have sent you. Then there’s times when what you read makes you instantly reach for the ‘play’ button. When I received the debut album from Steve Adey the latter was the case, a piece of PR proclaiming a singer, songwriter influenced by Talk Talk and The Blue Nile (in fact using their engineer to mix and master this album) who are two of my favourite artists of the 80’s. Full review.

So I might be a little late to this particular party (I actually read about it in the Times Culture section of all things last night… not mine I hasten to add, but my housemates), but Jarvis Cocker is back and has made a rather impressive new tune attacking the corporate world and having a right old dig at Live-8.

It’s not for those who get offended easily, there’s rather gratuitous use of the C word throughout, but it’s nice to see him back with his bite still sharp and way with words undulled.

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

A couple of record reviews for you to peruse this morning, I’m slowly but surely catching up on all the records I’ve been sent in the last couple of weeks.

The Pernice Brothers - Live A Little
“Steady as she goes” should be the motto of the Pernice Brothers. Having crafted four, rather lovely studio albums, their fifth effort sees them shifting their outlook just a little, changing the ingredients of their sugary-sweet mix just enough to keep you interested without losing sight of what their good at. Full review.

Jay Bennett - The Magnificent Defeat
The seven or so years spent with Wilco saw Jay Bennett involved in their shift in direction from a respectable alt-country band to something all the more adventurous as their sonic experiments and sparseness unfurled. Before this transition was complete however, Jay left the band during the recording of Wilco’s seminal album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot due to artist differences. Listening to The Magnificent Defeat you can see why. Full review.

The Hidden Camera - Awoo
As time has progressed The Hidden Cameras explicit imagery and left wing politics have become more and more polished with each successive release and with Awoo, they’re at the best yet. Full review.

The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off
When Dylan went electric there were certain people who couldn’t cope with it. From being proclaimed as the king of folk and acoustic meanderings, he got himself a full on backing band and played “fucking loud”. If The Walkmen had been at the infamous ‘66 Albert Hall gig, they wouldn’t have been shouting “Judas” but shouting and cheering the rock n roll riffs and reworkings that Dylan was achieving. Full review.

Another week, another load of rubbish posted by me!

To begin with, at least, here’s some links to a couple of interesting articles recently published in The Guardian.

First up is a list of Britain’s Best Independent Music Shops… which is very London and Manchester-centric but includes my favourite record shop, Spiller’s Records in Cardiff. Spent most of my student grant in there whilst spending 3 years of my university career there. Full article.

Then there’s a really good review of the Sparklehorse gig at London’s Bush Hall last week… shame he’s not playing Cambridge again as I was particularly haunted by his last gig here. An amazing mix of whispered vocals and country-tinged americana, he’s been working with the producer Danger Mouse on his latest album which I bought on Sat. Full Review.