Even if it does good

Well, as I enter the week before hand-in that is commonly known as 'Dissertation Hell,' the frequency of my posts over these next seven days is likely to drop off quite considerably. For today, though, I've burnt myself out on essays about Edgar Allan Poe's detective fiction, and am taking a well-earned break. Whilst I'm doing so, I'd like to post a couple of videos (filmed by Andrew Haigh) from this Saturday just gone, a good portion of which I spent in a couple of parks in Didsbury, watching a trio of acoustic acts, surrounded by candles and wonderful people.

Hungry Ha Ha Ha



Jess Bryant



I'd also like to point you in the direction of Peter Jones' blog, Erase Erase, and his most recent entry on the plight of the Night & Day, which perfectly vocalises what seems to be the consensus at the moment. A few years ago, the very suggestion that the venue might be closed down prompted both shock and a general sense of panic as to the damage it might do to the Manchester music scene. For a time, pretty much every band I loved wound up playing there; the number of amazing shows I've attended at the Night & Day may very well number in the hundreds. Now, a cursory glance through the listings reveals practically nothing to be excited about over the coming months, and unfortunately that has been the situation for quite a while now. Their stubborn refusal to acknowledge the problems they have means that, ultimately, their slow demise is hard to lament. I wouldn't care so much were it not for the fact that I've spent some of the best nights of my life in there. Here's hoping they get their act together.

Dance with me until I feel alright

Reaction to "Drunk Girls" seems to have been decidedly mixed so far, which comes as something of a surprise to me, seeing as how I think it's one of James Murphy's best ever tracks - the very essence of fun condensed into a four-minute pop song. Right now, you can hear two more This Is Happening tracks over at One Thirty BPM. My first impressions of "Dance Yrself Clean" and "I Can Change" are overwhelmingly positive, and if this album really is to be LCD Soundsystem's swan song it looks like they're going out on one hell of a high note.

Toy Story 3

Seeing as how this is in danger of becoming a music-only blog: and now for something completely different...

So, Toy Story 3. What to say? At this point, any new Pixar release is automatically going to be at the top of my must-see list. WALL-E is the greatest love story of the twenty-first century; Up, meanwhile, surpassed it, and in the first five minutes alone reminded me why it is that I love the medium of cinema. In the past I've often argued that, by comparison, the first two Toy Story movies don't hold up quite so well; sure, they're great, but Pixar have only truly hit their creative peak in recent years. Such an observation, however, only serves to highlight exactly why we should all be excited about Toy Story 3. The first two films came when the studio was still finding its feet, and both of them were fantastic. Now that everyone involved in their making is a little bit older and a little bit wiser, there's every reason to believe that, rather than seeing the law of diminishing returns kicking in, the third film could be the best yet. So I'd say that July 23rd just can't come soon enough. In the meantime, /Film posted a wonderful article that introduces all the new characters we can expect to see. My favourite has to be the lederhosen-clad German hedgehog, Mr. Pricklepants. The official trailer isn't embeddable, but head on over to YouTube and watch it - the first minute is pure poignant beauty. Minor issue: the whole 'toys breaking out into the world at large' structure might end up proving to be a bit stale at this point. But I'm willing to worry about that later.

We tried to push forward

At this rate, we're going to have heard the entirety of Heaven Is Whenever before it even hits the stores. Stereogum have debuted another new track, "Barely Breathing", and it offers yet more evidence that the new album is going to be fantastic (I'd say it harks back to Craig Finn's first band, Lifter Puller, more than The Hold Steady usually tend to). Fortunately, there's only a few weeks to wait for it. Which is fine by me, seeing as how over the course of the last few weeks I've gone from mildly interested to ridiculously enthusiastic. Without question, I'll be at their June 26th Manchester show, and outside of the Pavement-curated All Tomorrow's Parties, I don't think there's anything coming up I'm quite as excited about.

In the daytime she's like a mannequin

Right now, I could write about Freedy Johnston until the cows come home (and maybe I would do, if he hadn't already sold the family farm to fund the recording of Can I Fly). Instead, I'll point you in the direction of his recent Daytrotter Session. Not only does he perform his most famous song ("Bad Reputation"), but there's also three tracks from his new album, Rain On The City, including "Don't Fall In Love With A Lonely Girl," the album version of which is far and away my favourite song in the world at this moment in time. I don't often urge people to do things, but as far as Freedy Johnston is concerned, I urge you to listen to him. His songs are frequently beautiful in a way that most songwriters can only ever dream about.

It's the one thing you can count on

Add Stars to the list of bands I really need to spend more time with. That is, if their upcoming new album The Five Ghosts consists of songs as good as the first single, "Fixed". If the Broken Social Scene connections haven't proven to be enough to draw you in as of yet, now could be as good a time as any to get on board.

The Five Ghosts track list:

1. Dead Hearts
2. Wasted Daylight
3. I Died So I Could Haunt You
4. Fixed
5. We Don't Want Your Body
6. He Dreams He's Awake
7. Never Been Good With Change
8. The Passenger
9. The Last Song Ever Written
10. How Much More
11. Winter Bones

Trying not to hurt anybody

With "Bloodbuzz Ohio" already proving to be suitably impressive, footage of a few more songs from The National's upcoming new album High Violet has emerged from the Big Ears Festival, held in Knoxville, Tennessee, courtesy of The Milk Carton. The videos are of a pretty high quality, and offer even more reason to be excited ahead of the May 10th release.

"Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks"

"Conversation 16"

"Afraid Of Everyone"

We are meant to be

With another Record Store Day almost upon us (and with Piccadilly Records once again taking part) one of the most exciting of the exclusive releases has to be The Thermals and The Cribs putting out a split single. The two bands have toured with one another quite a bit in the past, and "Separate" is now streaming on The Thermals MySpace page. It's a straightforward but strong effort from a band who seem to go from strength to strength; take the second Daytrotter Session that the band recorded, almost a year ago, which makes for great listening, in particular the companion songs "I Let It Go" and "I Can't Let Go," which see singer Hutch Harris wrestling with his desire to move on from his feelings for another person, and ultimately realising that he is unable to do so. All of which reminds me that I really need to spend more time with 2009s Now We Can See, whilst awaiting the release of their new album, (tentatively titled) Personal Life, due 8th July.

He sets his watch by her smile

It was "She's A Goddess" that struck me first; the simplicity of the sentiment that Freedy Johnston is expressing was immediately disarming, and the innocent beauty of the lyric had me captivated from the start. I can't help but think that maybe the song is a touch too open, in the process becoming a kind of mission statement that helped dictate every future musical endeavour he embarked upon; there's value in such honesty, certainly, but it can become a millstone around the neck of any artist. One of his earliest songs, it remained unreleased until 2004s The Way I Were, a collection of some of his 4-track recordings dating from 1986 to 1992, which eventually saw the light of day as a stop-gap release. He's never quite achieved the acclaim he might have done, despite seeming to be on the cusp of great things at the beginning of the nineties, with Rolling Stone magazine going so far as to compare him to the likes of Neil Young and Bob Dylan in the wake of his major label debut, This Perfect World. Most reviewers saw it as a step down from 1992s Can I Fly, however, and he never really recovered his momentum.

Fast forward to 2010, and for the first time in almost a decade he finally has a new album of original compositions out. Entitled Rain On The City, the standout track "Don't Fall In Love With A Lonely Girl" seems like the perfect answer song to "She's A Goddess," all these years later. The girl he literally idolised has ultimately proven to be unavailable to him; faced with the folly of his youthful feelings, and the perspective granted by the passage of time, he still sees singing about it as the best thing, the only thing he can do. We should be grateful that he's willing to put himself on display to such an extent, because the results are frequently wonderful.

Thinking it over by the snack machine

Having already wrote about their new album Infinite Arms the other day, Band Of Horses are previewing another new song, entitled "Factory." It's more immediate than "Compliments," which itself has grown on me after a few more plays. At this point, I'm feeling hopeful that the band will improve upon their first two albums. You can listen to it here.

On a similar note, there's yet another new track from The Hold Steady. "The Weekenders" once and for all dispels any suggestion that the band have ditched their '21st century Springsteen' sound, but when the songs are as anthemic as the three they've previewed so far, no-one is likely to be complaining. Debuting on the US-only MTV Buzzworthy blog, it took me forever to find a means of listening to it, but Exclaim News have a link up that works, so head here if you're interested. I'm only just working my way towards becoming a proper fan of the band, but I'm now incredibly excited for Heaven Is Whenever.

Another band I wouldn't count amongst my favourites just yet, Fleet Foxes still did enough on their debut, self-titled album to keep me interested in what they do next. At a recent show at the MusicNow Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio, band leader Robin Pecknold debuted several new Fleet Foxes songs, the most striking of which was captured on film.