New EP, Tour Dates From Wye Oak. Download A Track Here.

Less than a year after releasing The Knot, Baltimore’s Wye Oak offer My Neighbor / My Creator, a killer 5-track EP. My Neighbor / My Creator is out today via digital download in the Merge store. The EP will be available at all other digital outlets on April 20 and the CD will be in stores on June 8. You can also buy the CD from Wye Oak at their spring tour dates:

03.12.2010 Frederick, MD Cafe Nola
03.13.2010 Pittsburgh, PA Brillobox
03.14.2010 Indianapolis, IN Vollrath Tavern
03.15.2010 Memphis, TN Hi-Tone Cafe
03.24.2010 Atlanta, GA The Earl
03.25.2010 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
03.26.2010 Washington, DC Rock and Roll Hotel
03.27.2010 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
03.28.2010 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda's
03.30.2010 Cambridge, MA TT The Bear's
03.31.2010 Montreal, QC La Sala Rossa
04.01.2010 Toronto, ON Lee's Palace
04.02.2010 Ithaca, NY Castaways
04.03.2010 Cleveland, OH Beachland Tavern
04.04.2010 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall
04.05.2010 Milwaukee, WI Mad Planet
04.06.2010 Minneapolis, MN 400 Bar
04.07.2010 Grinnell, IA Gardner Lounge - Grinnell College
04.08.2010 Lawrence, KS Bottleneck
04.09.2010 Norman, OK The Opolis
04.10.2010 Dallas, TX The Loft
04.22.2010 Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room
04.23.2010 Tucson, AZ Club Congress
04.24.2010 Los Angeles, CA Spaceland
04.25.2010 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
04.27.2010 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge
04.28.2010 Vancouver, BC The Biltmore Cabaret
04.29.2010 Seattle, WA Triple Door
04.30.2010 Pullman, WA The Bell Tower
05.01.2010 Boise, ID Neurolux
05.02.2010 Salt Lake City, UT the State Room
05.04.2010 Denver, CO Walnut Room
05.05.2010 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad
05.07.2010 Austin, TX The Parish

Here's a taste:
Wye Oak - "I Hope You Die" mp3

Headed to SXSW? Here are a few parties you'll see us at...

Here are a few parties we consider unmissable...see you there!

Phantogram rocks Boston, releases new album

When they stepped onto the stage at Boston's Great Scott last night, Phantogram's Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter looked remarkably young and fresh-faced, not unlike the college kids who made up the majority of the crowd. For some reason, I expected the duo to be older—maybe just because the assured songs on their debut full-length Eyelid Movies (released just in time for last night's show) seem to reflect the confidence of long experience.

Phantogram's sound--which whips together bright, ringing guitars, smooth vocals, and dense, hip-hop-esque beats--sometimes reminds me of vintage Portishead or Bowery Electric, minus the feeling of stoned relaxation. Instead, songs like "Bloody Palms" and "Running from the Cops" combine languid melodies with an edgy, beat-driven intensity, while even the slower tracks, like "You Are the Ocean," seem to throb with anxiety. Though a few songs (like album closer "10,000 Claps") sound less fully developed than others, Eyelid Movies makes for a cohesive whole, filled with a compelling, seductive energy.

That energy was on full display last night at the show, when a small but adoring crowd danced, bounced up and down, sang along, and otherwise displayed their devotion. It may have been the band's relative inexperience that brought a slight initial tentativeness to their live show; it took them a few songs to really pick up the energy from the album. Still, for a two-person band (Carter on guitar and vocals, Barthel singing and dancing behind a daunting bank of synthesizers) Phantogram generated a remarkably big sound. They saved "When I'm Small" for last, and with good reason: it's probably the best song they've written yet, and it sounded incredible live, closing the show with a sexy, energetic swagger. As time goes on, I have no doubt they'll be able to harness that potential over a long-lasting career.

Download "When I'm Small" on MP3

- Anna K

Reflections on a silver soul

In honor of yesterday's release of the new Beach House album, Teen Dream, thought I'd share the video for my current favorite track, "Silver Soul." Singer Victoria Legrand directed this video, one of several included on a DVD when you buy the album; it features some truly mystical hula hooping in, you guessed it, hues of silver:


Download: Beach House - Norway MP3

-- Anna K

Tomorrow, in a year

Last fall, a friend of mine traveled to Copenhagen with the express purpose of seeing "Tomorrow, in a year," the Knife's opera based on the life of Charles Darwin. (Apparently, it was well worth the journey.)

The rest of us fans of the Knife may not be quite as devoted, but we can at least share in the awesomeness on March 1, 2010, when the Knife will release "Tomorrow, in a year" in album form. A collaboration with the artists Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, the opera will also be performed live in select European cities in 2010, according to their website.

For now, you can sign up to their mailing list at the link above to get a free MP3 of a new song. Called "Colouring of Pigeons," the 11-minute epic rides a slow build of thunderstorm rainforest percussion into elegantly operatic vocals by an unknown singer, before the familiar voice of Karin Dreijer Andersson winds its way out of the shadows. Stream it below:

Colouring of Pigeons by The Knife

- Anna K

Spoon Interviews Master Masterer Howie Weinberg

The guys in Spoon recently sat down with album-mastering legend Howie Weinberg to chat about the mastering process, and his thoughts on Spoon's new album "Transference". The results are pretty hilarious:



Spoon's "Transference" is out January 19th, and can be pre-ordered here.

Spoon - "I Turn My Camera On" mp3

Team Band Yens for Jens, Puts Out Lekman Tribute EP.

OK, so you are sitting around in your post-New Years Eve haze, thinking to yourself, "I love the pop-stylings of Jens Lekman, but I really wish I could hear his songs as played by snotty, loud riff-meisters from Chicago."

Well, as fast as you can say "Whoomp there it is", here it is, courtesy of our friends, Team Band:















Deeee-licious.

Stream 'em here:






And download for yourself at Team Band's website.