I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for The Elevator Division.  Part of that’s because they’re a bunch of fine, strapping young lads who look and smell great (even on tour), they always have a couch to spare whenever I’m in Kansas City, and they’re some of the funnest and craziest guys to hang out with.  But if those things weren’t enough, they also write some incredibly great music.  Although they’re often lumped, unfortunately, within the emo genre, the boys have an avowed love for all things post-punk, especially stuff like The Cure, Joy Division, and Tears For Fears, which shines forth in all of their music.

Their new album, entitled Years, comes out September 21st on Second Nature Recordings.  3 songs from the album are now available on Purevolume for your listening pleasure, all of them full of great hooks and soaring vocals.  I’m especially digging “Radio” (love that early 80’s U2-style guitarwork), but they’re all solid.

Download Havalina’s Russian Lullabies for free!

Do you have any idea how awesome this is?!?

Of all of the bands we’ve championed in the past, the one that probably deserves a break more than any other is the venerable Havalina (formerly of the Rail Co.).  They’ve seen countless line-up changes, weathered label woes and failures, and survived tour debacles (usually involving a less-than-trustworthy van).  But Matt Wignall, Orlando Greenhill, et al. have always soldiered on, churning out one release after another of their wonderfully idiosyncratic music.

Although their early music got them (wrongfully) pegged as a swing band, subsequent releases found them delving into spy themes, country & western, jazz, American folk, Spanish ballads, psychedelia, lounge, and probably a couple of styles still waiting for names.  And of all of their releases, the one that many people still talk about is the stunning Russian Lullabies.  Originally released in 1997 on the band’s now-defunct Jackson/Rubio label, the album was a lovely blend of Django Reinhardt-esque jazz and Russian folk music inspired by the writings of Dostoevsky and frontman Wignall’s journeys through Eastern Europe.

Sadly, the album has long been out of print… until now.  Earlier this month, Wignall placed the entire album on the band’s website for people to download.  That’s right… if you’ve never heard Havalina before, or you’ve given up hope of ever hearing this delight of an album, now’s your chance—just click here.

Earlier tonight, I was discussing the notion of nostalgia, and I find myself becoming very nostalgic while listening to this album for the first time in a very long time.  Songs like “Tundra” and “Twilight Time” take me back to past Cornerstone Festivals (where the band’s marathon midnight sets were the stuff of legend) and old friendships with such force I get goosebumps.  And as soon as a song like “Kaliningrad” comes barelling out of the speakers, I can’t help but grin from ear to ear!

I realize that a lot of the music covered on Opus is of the sort that would fly under most people’s radar.  However, I can’t understand for the life of me why Havalina hasn’t received more attention than they have, and listening to Russian Lullabies has me just as confused as ever.  They just seem cursed with bad luck I suppose, but they keep pressing on, regardless of the circumstances, and releasing great music.  Someday, I hope all of that perseverance pays off tenfold.

On a related note, Havalina is currently finishing up their latest album, entitled Pacific.  According to Wignall, it’s unlike anything they’ve done to date—but that could be said of any of their releases.  No word on a release date, or on a label for that matter (although you can hear what is presumably a short clip from the album during the homepage‘s Flash intro).  If you want to be kept in the loop, the band has a message board where you can probably get all of the latest scuttlebutt… while listening to Russian Lullabies, of course!

I had written a post concerning the whole Cheney “F-bomb” debacle awhile ago, but had never gotten around to actually putting it on the site, largely because so many others had already commented on it.  And besides, anyone with even a shred of humor would be able to find the whole situation delightfully ironic, given the current administration’s stance towards “indecency” and whatnot.

However, I just couldn’t pass up mentioning this humorous take on the whole sordid affair, “8 Mile” style.  The last paragraph is exceptionally good, with a nice little jab right where it’s needed.  Click here for some mad skillz…

Be sure to check out this MetaFilter thread (which, FYI, is fairly laden with profanity itself).

Saw this on the Bark Psychosis message board earlier today… The Blue Nile is releasing a new album!  The Blue Nile was yet another band that just seemed to fall off the face of the planet after their last album, 1996’s Peace At Last (which most seem write off as their worst, though I enjoy it quite a bit).

If you’ve never heard The Blue Nile, you’re missing out on a very underappreciated (and influential) band.  Along the same lines as ambient, mature pop artists like David Sylvian or even Talk Talk, The Blue Nile’s sound is much more relaxed and accessible, almost folky at times, with Paul Buchanan’s lovely croon the icing on the cake.  Their music can be downright sentimental at times, but there’s a certain earnestness to it that I personally find refreshing.

Click here for a nice article about the new album, as well as the band’s reclusive nature.  I think the following quote sums up the band’s sound quite nicely…

The Blue Nile’s records seem to be about ordinary things and ordinary people - the pathos and beauty of an ordinary life. They are enigmatic, sketchy invocations of city life. They take ordinary situations and make them glorious.

Nicely put.  Anyhoo, the new album is entitled High and is set for an August 30th release on the Sanctuary label.

What the IMDb is to movies, the AMG (or Allmusic Guide) is to movies music.  You can go there and search for any obscure artist, get discographies and reviews, histories, lists of peers and influences, genre descriptions, etc.  I find it to be an invaluable resource when working on reviews, and I even sometimes surf it for fun, catching up on the history of artists or finding out about releases I don’t have, but should.  There’s a ton of great content on the site.  Unfortunately, it’s wrapped up within one the clunkiest and least-reliable designs I’ve seen in awhile.  And yes, I’m saying that after the new redesign.

Don’t get me wrong… the old design was no prize, either.  But it was more reliable than this new one.  True, the new design does look a bit spiffier, and they added a number of new features.  However, as the old saying goes: “One step forward, two steps back”.

When I came to the site, using good ol’ reliable Safari, I was greeted by this friendly notice:

You are accessing allmusic.com with a browser that is not currently supported. The appearance and functionality of the site could be impacted. allmusic.com is optimized for Internet Explorer 5.5 and above for Windows.

For a minute there, I thought I’d been whisked back the halcyon days of the late 90s, when web designers (foolishly) optimized their sites for either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, largely because the browsers (foolishly) supported different standards and ways of doing things.  Thankfully, much of that foolishness is past us, as structurally-sound, standards-based design is quickly becoming a reality.

But for whatever reason, the designers behind the new AMG have decided to forget that it’s 2004 and have regressed.  Not only is the site “optimized” for IE, but a quick view of the source code will reveal the sort of bloated code (nested tables, classes everywhere, little structural sense) that can (and should) be a spectre of the past.

I decided to fire up IE6 on my Windows machine, just to see what great “user experience” I was missing out on in my unsupported browser.  And irony of ironies, the site wouldn’t even come up reliably.  That’s right, the only browser in which the site was remotely usable was little ol’ unsupported Safari.  Once the pages finally loaded in IE (after all of the timeout errors and connection delays), they did look better, but it was all eye candy.  For example, mousing over an album title results in a little dropdown section with the album title, sleeve, and recommended tracks.  Sure, it looks cool, but it quickly becomes annoying and tedious (and also adds considerably to the page’s load time).

Aside from that, there are some interface issues.  Do a search for, say, U2’s “October” (a fave of mine, and woefully underappreciated, even by AMG).  An overview page comes up, with the album sleeve, the introduction to their review, a track listing, and rating and release info.  Clicking on the “More” link that follows the review intro will take you to the complete review.  However, doing so removes the track listing, which I don’t remember occurring in the old design, and was actually quite nice.  This new way, although it sounds minor, is a bit jarring for someone who has used the site a lot in the past (like me).

Then I noticed the tabs across the top: “Overview”, “Review”, “Credits”, and “Chart & Awards”.  Okay, so I guess that makes sense.  I’m now in the “Review” section of the album’s info, and so the review should be all that’s there… I suppose So what about “Credits” or “Chart & Awards”?  Oops, that content is for subscribers’ eyes only.  Blech.

I love the idea behind the AMG, just like I love the idea behind the IMDb.  A comprehensive online database of artists and albums is a virtual Godsend for us musically-obsessive types.  And I’ll probably continue to use the AMG, if only because of the wealth of content.  I just wish I didn’t have to grit my teeth everytime I did so.

Note:  Waxy has a great post on the redesign, pointing out other display bugs, the labyrinthine URL structure, Javascript links, and the slower-than-slow server.  And if you still haven’t had your daily allowance of vitriol, check out the MeFi post.

I’ve been listening to The Autumns’ In The Russet Gold Of This Vain Hour for the past couple of days in my car, and if there was ever a band that deserved a break, it’d be these guys.  Seriously, long before Sigur Rós came on the scene, these guys were blending ethereal guitars with wispy falsettos and glossolalia-type lyrics.

It’s been 4 years since their last full-length, with all sorts of setbacks and difficulties in the interim.  However, it looks like that’ll soon be in the past.  The band is scheduled to release their newest album, Nocturnes And Subades, in September on Pseudopod Records.  The European release will be handled by Bella Union Records.

Until then, click here to listen to “Slumberdoll”, which will be on the upcoming album.

Inspired by Justwatchthesky, I thought I’d cobble together my own iTunes Music Store Celebrity playlist.  You see, the Store is currently preparing for their 100 millionth song download (they were at 99,033,776 last time I looked), and if you’re the lucky one to download that milestone, you’ll get: a 17” Powerbook, a 40GB iPod, a 10,000 song gift certificate, and the chance to create a Celebrity Playlist that’ll be published in the store.

However, there’s no reason you can’t put together a playlist of your own, and so here we go.  Mind you, I certainly wouldn’t mind winning that contest (oh how I pine for that 17” Powerbook), but this will do for now.  Note: the following links require iTunes.

1. David Bowie - “Be My Wife” - A few weeks ago, Pitchfork listed the most influential albums of the 70s, and David Bowie’s Low came out on top.  Given my love for electronics, it might be hard to believe that this is not one of the album’s gorgeous electronic pieces.  Rather, it’s this song that I always associate with that album, a rollicking number that finds Bowie at his most personal.
2. Joy Electric - “The Phonograph Plays, Part And Parcel” - I finally got around to getting (or rather, downloading) Joy Electric’s latest, Hello Mannequin.  This song is one of the best on there, a playfully melancholy slice of analog synthpop that is Ronnie Martin at his best.
3. Marvin Gaye - “What’s Going On” - I remember the first time I heard this song.  Gaye’s voice was (and always will be) smooth as silk, but it was the gorgeous music backing him up that really hit me.  And of course, the lyrics, full of questioning and introspection in the face of the social upheavals going at the time, are timeless.
4. Talking Heads - “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” - I’m really not all that familiar with Talking Heads’ material, but I’m going to go out on a limb and proclaim this their best song.  Ever.  Thanks to Aaron for turning me onto it.
5. U2 - “Sunday Bloody Sunday” - I always thought it was Depeche Mode’s Violator and The Cure’s Wish that set me on my current musical path.  But on second thought, it can all be traced back to the first time I heard this live rendition, on Under A Blood Red Sky.  This is where it all started for me.
6. The Cure - “Last Dance” - Given what I just wrote, I really do need to put a Cure song on here.  After all, The Cure is what got me through high school.  Although most people mention to “Lovesong” or “Fascination Street”, “Last Dance” has always been the most captivating track on Disintegration for me.
7. Slowdive - “Catch The Breeze” - This being my list, there has to be some shoegazer.  And I can think of no better track than this one, which guaranteed that I will always be enamored with layers of swirly, billowing guitars and breathy vocals.
8. Namelessnumberheadman - “Going To Breathe Again” - Your Voice Repeating has been getting its praises sung left and right, and songs like this one are why.  A perfect mix of electronics and warm human emotion.
9. 16 Horsepower - “American Wheeze” - Not to sound all Falwell-ish, but we could all benefit from having a healthy fear of the Lord, and this track is as good as any for inspiring a moment of reflection and reverence.
10. David Sylvian - “Forbidden Colours” - Sylvian is the master of mature, orchestral pop that is both artistic and emotional.  And “Forbidden Colours” is one of his finest tracks, a lovely blend of Sylvian’s rich vocals and equally rich arrangements.

And for convenience’s sake, here’s a direct link to my pseudo-Celebrity Playlist.

What’s this?!?  A new record from The Faint entitled Wet From Birth due out on September 14 from Saddle Creek (big surprise there).  I’m guessing it’ll have anguished vocals spouting dark sonnets of sexuality and alienation over booty-shaking rhythms and icy cool knob-twiddling.  And of course, there will be a sold-out show or two at Sokol, followed by a world tour of some sorts…

Which is at it should be…