so, there's a new Postal Service track out there

It seems that lately music news is making me late for my second job every day. It is pretty frequently these days that something awesome comes shooting out of the interwebs just in time for me to have to leave, but of course I cant wait a few hours and have to know about all the things right away.

Anyway, I was at home between jobs, dealing with a situation (namely, i have a funky stomach thing going on and i really was very opposed to wearing pants today) and happened to be scrolling through my twitter feed when i noticed a tweet from none other than Ben Gibbard. It was a link you a YouTube video and something about a new PS song. I punched the wall in excitement, yelped because it hurt, and then yelped again because i didn't honestly think id ever be able to say "new postal service music" again, unless i was talking about things that would never happen, of course.

I texted my musical soul mate, LB, who was listening to it right at that very moment. OF COURSE i couldn't view the video on my phone and had to come back downstairs to hear the song. My life cant ever be easy. #firstworldproblems.

I was actually pretty prepared to hate the song. I mean, new stuff from old favorites has been relatively crappy lately (hello, FOB?) so i didn't really expect much from this at all. But i hit play anyway because i had to, and guess what? i freaking LOVE this song. L-O-V-E. Maybe it will be my valentine.

It is definitely poppier than most of Give Up was. or maybe its just more produced. i put on Give Up in the car this afternoon to compare, but driving stresses me out and i wasn't really paying attention. I have listened to the song about five times now and I'm confident in my adoration for it.

And what i think might be the best part of the whole thing is that subpop flat out said that this song isn't a left-over from Give Up, but rather its something that was "actually begun in 2006 and finished in 2012."

This gives me a teeny, tiny glimmer of hope that with this new tour and new song there just might be a new album. A girl can dream, right?

"A Tattered Line of String"

thoughts?

show review: Shone at the Mercury Lounge, NYC

I turned 33 on Friday.

I still act like I'm 16.

For instance, I decided, upon seeing that a band that I didn't know anything about, and that I had only heard one song from, was playing a show in NYC on the night before my birthday, on a school night, that I just had to be there. I mean, tickets were only 10 dollars, so it was obvious that I needed to go, right?

That day was insanity. We had a shortened day at school, and I hauled ass out of the building as soon as it was time to go. I ran into my house to change, and was gone again, officially hitting the road at about 1:10 Thursday afternoon. I picked up Mandy and we were on our way to Philly to catch the bus to NYC.

The bus ride was...interesting. It took us longer than it should have and the moron Greyhound driver thought that because he was angry over someone's headphones he would stop the bus in the middle of the Lincoln Tunnel. Makes sense to me. Whatever. Greyhound sucks, but for some reason (I'm broke; they're cheap) I keep going back to them.

After catching a cab from the bus station to the venue (and missing out on pizza with my new Shone friends) we started walking up the line outside of the venue. Some girl in the line points at me and yells, "YOU! YOU! I think I'm looking for you!" She was. We jumped into line with our new friends, and waited anxiously for a show that we really didn't know anything about.

Okay, so here's the deal. This band has had us on an insane viral marketing roller coaster since December 21. We got to hear the album about two weeks ago, but didn't actually have the album in our digital hands until the week of the show. Up to this point, we still weren't entirely sure who was in the band. We had suspicions and some people that "confirmed" it on twitter, but no real firm lineup. Honestly, I was still pretty certain that slendyclown was going to off us all.

The opening band, Sleep Bellum Sonno, played, and while they weren't a band that I'd run right out to learn more about, there was a decent enough vibe going on in that room. Mostly, though, I think the entire room was waiting with baited breath to see exactly who was part of this mystery band.

I just want you to take a second and think about something that still blows my mind. The show was sold out. And it sold out early on. We only had one song by this band. We had NO IDEA who was involved. This band that no one knew anything about sold out an NYC venue. People were travelling in from all over the country for this mystery band. That is just bananas to me. Bananas.

Anyway, the band comes out, in costume, and everyone in that room was giddy with excitement. The band consisted of Andrew and Vin Accardi, Brian Lane, Mike Strandberg, Ben Homola, Joe (?) Cannetti, and an unknown man who played the sax and some keys. Now those of us who have been all over this campaign are super excited to see the band for the first time.

The show itself was very loose; very relaxed. That was alright by me. Andrew seemed super humbled by the fact that so many people were there in spite of everything. They played 8 of the nine songs on their album, and that is the only complaint about the entire night that I have. The song they left off, "Bestial" is my favorite song on the album, and might be my favorite song right now.

Aside from that, the night was perfect. During the entire campaign, "Levi" has been telling us he has been watching us. This was evident to us, especially with the cover art, but I was still blown away when someone yelled out, "Where's slendy?" and Andrew, without missing a beat, started asking where Slendyclown was. That was a name that someone dubbed the Brian Lane character from one of the early videos in the thread (sorry, that sentence is a train wreck) but it was never an official name from the campaign. Somehow, him knowing what we were talking about made me feel like we were really all part of something special.

After the show, many of our friends that couldn't be there were waiting to hear something from those of us that were. I guess for whatever reason we all stopped tweeting right after the show, but when I did get a second to catch my breath and tweet, my tweet read "sorry. show was a fucking riot. loved every second of it. would do it all again, even the missing the bus part. that was super fun."

I think that describes it pretty perfectly.


If you are interested at all in what happened that night, the video of the live stream is here. I warn you, though, its bouncy and crazy because I was bouncy and crazy.

also, here is a picture that someone else took. Mike Sapone, who we believe produced the album, put this picture on Facebook and its pretty perfect.

(We sort of missed our bus home, but that was okay because we got to go eat and get some cupcakes before we came home. the bus thing, though, is a story for another time.)

Music News Explosion!

With everything that has happened today in my little corner of the music world, I can't help but feel compelled to get some of these feelings out. New Fall Out Boy track. Postal Service tour dates. New Relient K track. My head is spinning.

First and foremost, the thing I am most excited about-Postal Service is touring. With Jenny freaking Lewis. (that might not actually be her middle name, but it should be.) When the Postal Service announced that they were re-banding to play Coachella, I was hoping, against everything that Ben Gibbard was saying, that they would do a tour. And then I was directed recently to an article on Spin.com about my girl Jenny Lewis, in which she stated that she had a new album in the works, but that she needed to tour with one of her other bands before we would see its release. Could it be? I found myself waiting with baited breath to hear about her tour.

Imagine my excitement when I happened to check my Facebook feed today and see that my friend LB posted, asking if anyone wanted to go to Brooklyn with her, with a link to an article about the Postal Service.  I didn't even read the article. I figured it didn't say anything other than they were touring and the dates, but someone else commented "Jenny Lewis is on the tour, too?" and I about lost my stuff. I was actually sort of flailing around in my desk chair like one of those wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men that one sees in front of car dealerships and the like. I am glad that I only had a few children left in the classroom and that they were busy working on puzzles and didn't see my reaction.

LB is off work when the tickets go on sale, and as the Brooklyn date is (at least as of right now) the only east coast tour date, I am hoping shes able to land these bad boys. I think its realistic to assume that a Philly date will be announced in the next batch, but I also don't trust that enough to risk not getting these ones. I will probably shed a tear if we aren't able to see this tour.

Next up, Fall Out Boy is back from hiatus and I can't say that I care. I am, though, peeved at a point brought up by someone on twitter, which was that this band has gone on and come back off hiatus before Brand New got off their asses and made new music. I am hoping for new Brand New sometime this year, but with Jesse producing one of Kevin Devine's new albums and Brian Lane being wrapped up (as far as anyone can tell) in this Shone business, I think its a long shot at best. But I digress.

Fall Out Boy has been trying to keep this under wraps for a week or so now, since it leaked over on Property of Zack but they haven't done a very good job, really. I mean, swearing up and down that you aren't back together yet having Jimmy Kimmel post your appearance on his lineup doesn't quite work, you know? There have been lots of (obvious) tweets coming from members of the band about a Skate & Surf appearance, all the while good ole Petey Wentz was trying to deny the whole thing.

Anyway, so the band made the announcement officially this morning, via a radio station in Chicago (of course) and also premiered a new song. It is awful. I just can't even.

Maybe I am just so far removed from today's popular music culture that I don't understand the appeal, but honest to God, every time Patrick screeches "FIIIIIIRRRRREEEEEE" I want to rip my ears off of my head. I also really don't understand the hype surrounding this 2Chainz fellow, and I really am fine with that. I am really disappointed though, because I expect a lot more from FOB, especially with Butch Walker  at the helm.

I am fairly sure that the Fall Out Boy tour is one that I will be skipping.

Thirdly, Relient K put out a new diddy today. Its not going to have a home on their next release; it was just something that they came up with messing around in the studio. I don't hate it, at least not as much as I hate the above-mentioned song, but its almost annoyingly poppy and I am in a bad mood today, so it did grate on my nerves a bit. The saving grace for this song is that it is literally a string of 90's pop music references (think "Taxi Driver" by Gym Class Heroes.) I think that, if i remember it exists, I am going to love the crap out of this song when the weather is sunny and 75 (see what i did there?)

One last note-WXPN announced today that The Lumineers are headlining the Xponential Festival this coming summer. This is worth noting because A) I am still obsessed with "Ho Hey" and B) I missed them last year at the festival because they played first (at noon) on Saturday. They have come a long way in the last year, and that is both awesomesauce and well deserved. You can bet that I will renew my membership so that I am able to see them this summer.