ahh summer….hope yours is great. sorry you haven’t seen me in awhile. what little time I would spend here writing about songs I love is now spent playing songs I love on the radio. My show is called ANODYNE, its on KBOO here in Portland, and you can hear it Monday mornings from 3 to 5:30am. That’s right I said AM. I cater to old-skool hipster insomniacs now.

as long as i’m typing, here are my fave albums of the year so far:
yeah yeah yeahs - it’s blitz
robyn hitchcock & the venus 3 - goodnight oslo
a.c. newman - get guilty
art brut - art brut vs. satan
bat for lashes - two suns
neko case - middle cyclone
and i’ve also been listening to alot of telepathe, viva voce, handsome furs, and julian cope.

i hear there’s a new shaky hands record coming out this fall!

and i am eagerly awaiting the three explode into colors 7″ singles that should be out in the next couple of weeks. first one august 4 on m’lady records.

Robyn Hitchcock, Elvis Costello, and Nick Lowe April 9th, 2009 in NYC.

According to an article that appeared today at billboard.com, Robyn Hitchcock will be a featured guest on The Decemberists‘ forthcoming Hazards Of Love album.

What this means is that The Decemberists are now at critical mass. Their next album (the one after HOL) must feature The Smiths (and that means all four original members — none of this Mike Love-is-The-Beach-Boys shit) or they will tank.

Also, Prince must be featured on an iTunes-only bonus track, and he needs to say at least one swear word in it. Or something naughty.

So high…..the bar….unnnnngggghhhh.

p.s. This probably shatters my dreams of that Colin Meloy Sings Robyn Hitchcock EP, unless RH himself sings backups on it or something…

Here, then, is my list of favorite albums of 2008. I’ll say right off the bat that I only listened to about 80-90 releases this year, whereas in the few years before that I was at the 120+ mark. Out of those 80-90 that I listened to (and by LISTEN, I mean LISTEN FROM START TO FINISH SEVERAL TIMES), here are the ones that caught my ear and became a part of my year:

11. Sons & Daughters - This Gift
10. The Breeders - Mountain Battles
09. R.E.M. - Accelerate
08. Rachel Taylor Brown - Half Hours With The Lower Creatures
07. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
06. Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
05. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
04. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
03. Kaki King - Dreaming Of Revenge
02. Cat Power - Jukebox

and

01. Kelley Stoltz - Circular Sounds

And here’s a pullquote:

It’s very different from The Decemberists’ 2006 major-label debut, The Crane Wife: Producer Tucker Martine is piecing together 16 or so segments into a continuous, hour-long narrative suite that riffs on folk-song archetypes.

And here’s one more, this one about the overall sound of the album:

Musically, Hazards of Love is The Decemberists’ full-on classic-rock move, with Meloy and guitarist Chris Funk’s pretty Zep-style fingerpicking punctuated by crushing stoner-metal lurches. They’re joined by guest vocalists including Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark, who sings the knockout “Margaret in the Taiga,” and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden.

Thanks to Rolling Stone for the article.

If you’re still jonesing for more info on the upcoming D’s disc, here’s last month’s Paste article, where Colin pegs the album’s sound as “mossy and evil”. Hey wasn’t that the name of a Robyn Hitchcock album?

According to the Paste article, The Hazards Of Love is due “sometime in April”.

(written by Luciana Lopez; appeared in The Oregonian in June)

And European fans, get your boos and heckles ready. And stick some new batteries in your recording equipment. Dan Bern is headed your way:

20 Sep — La Casa Encendida — Madrid, Spain
22 Sep — Costello Club — Madrid, Spain
28 Sep — Roepaen — Ottersum, Holland
30 Sep — In The Woods — Lage Vuursche
02 Oct — Kroller-Muller Museum — Otterloo
03 Oct — WVHEDW — Amsterdam
04 Oct — Take Root Festival — Groningen
07 Oct — Q-Bus — Leiden
11 Oct — Cultureel Centrum — Meise

And finally, I have some music to help you celebrate the first annual Bernstein Day! These are some favorite tracks from shows I’ve been listening to lately. I hope you enjoy them!

Dan Bern - Asterisk Nation (live) : don’t say BOO, say KBOO! Dan played this song live on radio program “The Dharma Wheel” on 16 Nov 2006 and was captured by me from KBOO’s audio stream. Dan played at the Doug Fir Lounge later that night. Some clips from that show can be found on YouTube.

Dan Bern - Year By Year Home Run Totals Of Barry Bonds (live): recorded 27 Nov 2008 at The Crepe Place in Santa Cruz, CA. First of two nights at the Crepe Place. Great show, you can find this entire show at the Live Music Archive.

Dan Bern - 2014 (live): recorded 28 Nov 2008 at The Crepe Place in Santa Cruz, California. This show is also available from the Live Music Archive.

Dan Bern - Royal Jelly (partial) (live): from a show at 12 Galaxies in San Francisco, CA on 16 Apr 2008. Dan Bern covers a classic Dewey Cox song. I think this counts as a rarity!

Dan Bern - Luke The Drifter (live): recorded 16 Apr 2008 at the 12 Galaxies club in San Francisco, CA. I think this song is quickly becoming a fan favorite. I put it right up there with “Blue Highway” in my list of favorite recent songs.

Okay, everybody go do everything! See you later…..