New Broken West song!

A while back The Broken West covered Tegan & Sara's "Back In Your Head" -- last weekend, they all got together at Sled Island! Check The Broken West on Myspace for that track.

Your first taste of Now or Heaven is right HERE! Click to listen to Perfect Games.

Now or Heaven is out September 9!

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Ladybug Transistor Sugarhill Session

Want to learn something about the Ladybug Transistor? Want to hear some great Ladybug tunes? Who doesn't! Sugarhill (shout out to Houston!) did a studio session and interview with our favorite Brooklyn baritone and his merry band of . . . well, bandmates. For instance, here we see some of Kyle's thoughts on the recording process:

Kyle: ...when you're in a real studio like this, you have this nervousness about... you have a certain amount of time, you have to decide what you're going to do, you have to play a take you didn't mess up on . . .
SugarHill: You have to be efficient.
Kyle: But when you're recording at Gary's house . . . you could always do it later.

You can also learn all about Julia's heroic nature, Gary's love of photographing food, the band being aimlessly driven around Moscow after hailing a random car, and on, and on. It is truly excellent.

A tracklist (with interviews interspersed throughout):

-Always on the Telephone
-Nico Norte
-Oriental Boulevard -> Three Days from Now
-Everybody's Missing the Sun
-This Old Chase
-Lord Don't Pass Me By
-Terry

Download an mp3 of this show right away! (length: 44:51, size: 60.6 MB)

wilson

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Merge Double Feature!

Portastatic played a fantastic, if wet, set at Duke Gardens yesterday evening. A tent sheltered most of the adults, but the kids were more happy running around in the downpour. Go and see one of the great performances Duke Gardens have booked for their series in the Garden this summer. Rain or shine, it's a good time!



Next up, we headed to Local 506 for Wye Oak. Jenn and Andy sounded great, and previewed some new songs for us. We can't wait to hear more! Don't miss them on tour this summer!

Christina

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Let's hope he's wearing pants!

Merge intern Parker Shields caught on camera at Bonnaroo without a shirt on!

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Spoon Daytrotter Session

Spoon visited the Daytrotter studios and recorded a few tracks, including a Paul Simon cover of "Peace Like a River"!

The band still have a few more tour dates, so check them out!

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Ladybug Alert!

The nyctaper has just posted a recording of this past Saturday's Ladybug Transistor NYC Popfest performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Everyone would do well with a little more Ladybug in their lives.

wilson

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She & Him on World Cafe

from npr.org
World Cafe - June 11, 2008
Produced by the legendary Steve Lillywhite, She & Him inaugurates World Cafe's new Lillywhite Sessions series from Avatar Studios in New York City. David Dye hosts the duo with discussion of its debut album, Volume One, while Lillywhite offers his own commentary on the music.

Since their initial collaboration on a single for the soundtrack to the film The Go-Getter, M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel went on to record a full-length collection of her demos. Volume One seamlessly combines her syrupy-sweet voice with his simplistic yet stunning instrumentals. Through songs of love both lost and found, She & Him captures timeless sounds and rhythms.

Listen to She & Him on World Cafe here. She & Him will be on tour this summer.

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Hot Pants

It's a bajillion degrees here in NC and you know what that means - the unveiling-of-pasty-legs season!

John (web guy, pictured above) is modeling the latest in these-are-my-girlfriend's-mom's shorts and I think the no-socks ties it all together.

-spott

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Diagramming Destroyer's Rubies

Graphic designer and Merge fan Jez Burrows created these handsome screenprinted posters dissecting Destroyer's Rubies as an exercise in exploring the word banausic.

"I transcribed the entire album and produced an exhaustive collection of diagrams and analysis, including: every word contained in the album in order of how many times it appears; references; grammatical structure; and the overall distribution of lyrics and 'la's."

This is not the first time we've seen Destroyer's lyrics have this effect on someone...they almost seem to demand deconstruction. It's certainly the prettiest effort, though. More pics of the sold-out posters on Jez's site.

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Paper Magazine loves Wye Oak!

photo by Dan Monick for Paper Magazine

Paper Magazine invited Wye Oak to NYC for a photo shoot celebrating their favorite duos, and also ran a feature about the Baltimore music scene on their website.

Wye Oak

"The number-one reaction to all attention that Baltimore has been getting is we just kind of shrug and laugh," Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak says. "Like, ‘Well, I guess we'll just keep on doing what we're doing either way.'" Wye Oak, named after an iconic white oak tree in Maryland, is comprised of Wasner and her partner, Andy Stack. And what they're "doing," exactly, is creating sweet, full, deceptively optimistic music -- a song called "Obituary" from this year's If Children features hand-claps and a melodic la-la-la outro. Wye Oak, who will be touring throughout June with Pontiak, have the advantage of rarely sounding like a two-piece band; when you hear Wasner's guitar swelling through the bridge in opener "Please Concrete," you'd swear there were at least two or three of him.

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Undaunted

One of our favorite people and essential Merge cheerleader, Jennifer Daunt of Dauntless Promotion representing at the Non-commercial Radio convention in Philly

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Jim Putnam visits LiveDaily

Jim Putnam recently visited the LiveDaily studios to record a few acoustic versions of songs from Auditorium for the cameras. Take a look!


Check the Live Daily Sessions Page for more Radar Bros. live videos from the session!

Radar Bros. may be scheduling more tour dates in the following months so keep your eyes peeled!

Buy Auditorium HERE!


Lindsey K.

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