Suffice it to say that we're unbearably excited to see Shearwater tonight at Emo's. If you didn't catch them on this tour, there's a neat live session up at Dutch radio station VPRO from late 2005 (you might remember them as the hosts of the brilliant Extra Glenns live set that's also been circulated 'round the interschitzel).

Green Pea-ness beat me in gushing over The Long Blondes' "Fulwood Babylon" (produced by Erol Alkan). It is, in short, WICKED FANTASTIC.

Everyone surely knows by now that I adore weird musical flourishes: fugues, triplets, etc. Which, you know is why I find Ratatat's "Tacobel Canon" so great -- the name totally cracks me up and it is, indeed, a rather nicely contstructed canon full of contrapuntal deviation. Which, you know, is appropriate given that the title of the album is Classics (due out Aug. 22) -- thought, to be honest, I don't even know what genre to put this in. Can we make one up? Baroque organic electronica? I like the sound of that...

Ratatat -- Tacobel Canon

And, lest we forget the remix skillz of the Ratatat dudes in all this refined folderol, here's a reminder.

Shout Out Louds -- The Comeback (Big Slippa Mix By ratatat)
Jay-Z -- Sunshine (Ratatat remix)

Hmmm. Maybe that's not what you need. Maybe you need new Beth Orton...I'm so buried over here in hype bands, I didn't even know she had a new album coming out. This is easily the best thing she's done in years (though apparently most of her fans don't think so?) -- then again, I may just think that because of the the super-crashy drum track. It's almost enough to make a girl start poking around in ProTools, the instrumental begs to be mashed up with something...

Beth Orton -- Shopping Trolley

And, for all your Friday shout-along anthem needs, I present the Parlour Boys, a nice little band from Kentucky who I think I tried to book for our SXSW party (on that day I emailed like, a billion bands in one day) -- and then they won some contest or something like that... And how can you say no to a band endorsed by both VHS or Beta and my #1 secret gay boyfriend Stephen Trask? You can't, so don't even try.

Parlour Boys -- Lovers

(Does anyone want to sponsor a trip for me to go to London and see the Damien Hirst/Francis Bacon exhibition? Serious offers only, please. I'm only partially kidding/begging.)

Oh! And! TRGAW pal Adam Pranica is working on a documentary about the Long Winters called Through With Love. Sounds like it's gonna be pretty great -- John Roderick certainly is an interesting enough subject, if an unwieldy one. (The title of the film comes from a Western State Hurricanes -- the precursor of The Long Winters -- song, see below...)

Western State Hurricanes -- Through With Love

Over at Stop Loving Everything, Mr. J. Frank Parnell offers a rather definitive post on Luke Sutherland's bands Long Fin Killie and Bows. Nicely done, sir, but you forgot this one...

Long Fin Killie -- Godiva

Have a great weekend!