Greetings. Here's a quick info-fix on what has always been my least favorite day of the week. The Boomtown Rats were one day off...

Artists mentioned below include Maritime, The One AM Radio, the Soft Drugs, Eldridge Rodriguez of the Beatings, Tom Thumb, Annie Lynch & the Beekeepers, Yo La Tengo, Come (Chris Brokaw and Thalia Zedek), Seana Carmody, Dylan in the Movies, Tara Jane O'Neil, American Music Club, Big Dipper, The Settings Suns (Swervedriver meets Interpol), Air Miami, The House of Love, The James Rocket, Kristin Hersh, and her brand new CASHMusic program.

I also bring up Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, the new Houston Redux live music sharing blog, and this Thursday's Tourfilter DJ Night. Off we go...


First, a few musical goings-on in the Boston area this week deserve your attention...

Maritime and The One AM Radio, who have both released excellent albums this year, bring their short team-up tour to the Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge tomorrow night. And lucky us, we get the Soft Drugs to start off the night, so arrive early as not to miss 'em. Can only hope that the crowds in Meadville, Pennsylvania (on Friday) and Pontiac, Michigan (on Saturday) get an opener half as good. Details on those two remaining Maritime/One AM Radio shows here.

On Thursday night, Nov. 29th, I'll be returning to River Gods in Central Square for another set as part of the monthly Tourfilter DJ Night, which have us playing nothing but songs from bands coming to town in the coming month or so. I'm up first, at 9pm, followed by Chris from TF at 11-ish (yes, as a sleep-deprived new dad, I pull the earlier shift). Last month's was canceled due to the Sox and their World Series run (not a bad excuse, really), so I'm a little extra-psyched to get my DJ fix this time around.

And tonight, fellow Boston-area music blogger Ryan's Smashing Life presents an all acoustic evening at the ultra-cozy Lily Pad in Cambridge's Inman Square. Three performers on tap: Eldridge Rodriguez of the Beatings, Tom Thumb, and Annie Lynch & the Beekeepers. It's all ages, and the doors open at 7 o'clock.

I mentioned a few weeks back that Hellboy creator/writer/artist Mike Mignola will be coming to Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art on April 3rd, 2008 to chat about his past, present, and future work. Well, tickets have now gone on sale to the general public, so if you're a fan, grab yours before they're gone.


Y'know those Yo La Tengo live Mp3s from the MFA I shared last week? Well, thanks to the Phoenix's On The Download, there are now a few video counterparts. Shared two-camera footage includes their Dylan cover, "4th Time Around", "Mr. Tough", and a personal fave, "Stockholm Syndrome". OTD also shared up a video of the on-stage reunion of Come members Chris Brokaw and Thalia Zedek performing their "Hurricane" at the Middle East's 20th Anniversary show a couple weeks back. Great stuff, and here's hoping we get to see the video for the other Come song they played, "Submerge", as well.


Some new songs up on MySpace from some Boston-area faves: Seana Carmody (ex-Syrup USA / Swirlies) has posted "Oh Tokyo" and "Plenty of Stars", and Dylan in the Movies has shared a new one called "Massachusetts Avenue".


Tara Jane O'Neil has just released "Wings. Strings. Meridians." through Yeti Publishing. The book/cd combo collects a bunch of TJO's wonderful paintings and drawings, along with a full-length disc of home recordings, live tracks, and film score work. You can also order up a limited edition signed & numbered version that comes with three silkscreened prints. A perfect gift for fellow TJO completests.


Wolfgang's Vault, which typically streams live shows recorded long ago, surprisingly has the recent Dylan tribute "I'm Not There" up for free listening pleasure. J. Mascis, Calexico (who back a bunch of the performers), Jon Doe, Yo La Tengo, Lee Ranaldo & the Million Dollar Bashers (who back many others), and lots more took part. Stream it here.


The new (and long-awaited) American Music Club full-lengther, "The Golden Age", will be out in February, thanks to Merge, and they've let fly a preview Mp3...


Here's the full tracklist: "All My Love", "The Victory Choir", "The Decibels and The Little Pills", "The Sleeping Beauty", "The Stars", "All The Lost Souls Welcome You To San Francisco", "Who You Are", "The Windows On The World", "One Step Ahead", "The Dance", "I Know That's Not Really You", "On My Way", and "The Grand Duchess Of San Francisco".


Merge will also be putting out "Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology" in March, a 3 disc set that brings together 48 re-mastered tracks from the late-80s/early 90s Boston-based band, along with a video and lengthy liner notes (by WFMU DJ Tom Scharpling and the band themselves). The original line-up of the band will reunite on East Coast stages in April to mark the occasion, with a possibility of West Coast dates later on. Here's a sonic taste, originally from the 1987 "Heavens" LP, and now from the box set...


The full tracklisting for Big Dipper's "Supercluster" collection can be found here.


And as long as we're talkin' about Merge, I should mention that they've just started their annual Merge Records Charity Auction, from which all proceeds will be donated to Oxfam America and the Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC. Bookmark their their ebay page to bid on silk-screened posters autographed by Robert Pollard, M. Ward, the Arcade Fire, Oakley Hall, Spoon, the Rosebuds, David Kilgour & the Heavy 8's, Superchunk, Portastatic, Destroyer, and more. They'll be auctioned off two-at-a-time, and they've started off with the Arcade Fire and Kilgour prints.


Now that all those reissues are out of the way, Mr. Billy Bragg gets back to releasing new music with his first album in six years, "Mr. Love & Justice", on March 3rd. Tracklist: "I Keep Faith", "I Almost Killed You", "M For Me", "The Beach is Free", "Sing Their Souls Back Home", "You Make Me Brave", "Something Happened", "Mr Love & Justice", "If You Ever Leave", "O Freedom", "The Johnny Carcinogenic Show", and "Farm Boy" (via NME).


Swervedriver's Adam Franklin & Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino have digitally released the first fruits of their collaboration, The Settings Suns. Their debut EP is now up on iTunes, with a physical release to follow "hot on its heels", and a full-length planned for sometime in 2008. Busy year ahead for Franklin, what with Swervedriver reuniting to tour and all.


Teenbeat Records continues their "Teenbeat Archival CD" series with new pressings of Air Miami's never-officially-issued original 1994 cassettes on disc. The first remastered and repacked disc, "Fourteen Songs", is Teenbeat mainman Mark Robinson (Unrest/Flin Flon/etc) and Bridget Cross (Unrest) with a drum machine, while the second, "Sixteen Songs", brings in a few different drummers (Eggs' John Rickman and Ben Currier, the Ropers' Alex Hacker).

The tracklist for "Fourteen Songs": "Sweet As a Candy Bar", "Airplane Rider", "Bubble Shield", "Stop Sign", "Special Angel", "The Event Horizon", "Agent Molder is Here", "Adidas My Ass"", "Niagara Falls is Frozen", "Neely", "Nicola Six", "Fight Song", "Fox Sighting", and "Definitely Beachy". "Sixteen Songs" contains: "Neely", "Special Angel", "World Cup Fever", "Stop Sign", "Definitely Beachy", "Airplane Rider", "Bubble Shield", "I Hate Milk", "The Event Horizon", "Pucker", "Adidas My Ass", "Dean", "Fight Song", "Afternoon Train", "Dade County Cops Don't Quit", "Special (Reprise)" and the hidden track "Niagara Falls Is Frozen".


As planned, the still-reunited House of Love performed the entirety of their seminal self-titled disc (the one that leads off with "Christine") at London's Koko in late September as part of the "Don't Look Back" series, and threw in some extra gifts at the end. Full setlist here. They also played Dublin a couple days later, and lead singer Guy Chadwick was interviewed before both shows. Lucky us, I just discovered that someone has shared a recording of the "Don't Look Back" set on DimeADozen. Hell yes. Time to start up Azureus.


I've been remiss in not mentioning that John Van, a fellow Seam devotee whom I met while out in Chicago for the Touch & Go anniversary fest last year, is now graciously sharing lots of his personal live recording collection at his new blog, Houston Redux (so named because most of the shows were recorded in his home of Houston). Recent highlights include a 2003 Sigur Ros set and a Blonde Redhead set from 2000. Keep a close and frequent eye on the site, as the files are shared for a short time, and you may have already missed out on some killer stuff.


James Roy (who used to play bass in the band Saint Bastard, among others), has been recording and sharing songs under the name The James Rocket for awhile now, and his latest offering has really grabbed me. Here 'tis...




Lastly, but very importantly, Kristin Hersh has officially kick-started a new model for releasing her work called "CASHMusic", which stands for "Coalition of Artists & Stake Holders". She's the pilot artist for what will hopefully be a growing group of music-makers offering their output directly to fans under a Creative Commons license in a variety of digital formats. The inaugural song, "Slippershell", was posted just yesterday, and is not just available as an Mp3 and in lossless flac format, but as a ProTools stem that allows fans to remix the track as they wish (links to mixes are already popping up on the Throwing Music forum). Available with each shared song will also be downloadable cover artwork, lyrics, and later on, demo versions.

Like the oft-discussed Radiohead model, you can pay what you want for the songs, which will arrive monthly, either through a one-time donation or a subscription model (which will get you extra goodies). The entire arrangement is based on a closer, more trusting relationship between artists and fans, and it's pretty damn exciting. Head over there, do some reading, some downloading, and if you're a music fan who truly believes in supporting its creators, a little donating. If KH ain't your cuppa tea, maybe someone who is will join the coalition in the future.

By the way, Kristin has also just released the wonderful Toby Snax, a children's book that arrived just in time for gift-giving season. As both a new dad and a new uncle, I'm all over that action.


See you on Thursday night at River Gods...