Fruit Bats Announce New Album, Offer Unreleased MP3 Featuring J. Mascis

Sometimes a story can take a long time to tell. Eric D. Johnson, who has recorded and performed as the Fruit Bats for a decade now, had a story like that, a chance encounter that had rattled around his head for years. He’s tried to write it as a short story, a play, a movie…yet until now couldn’t get it down just right. Finally he decided to make a song out of it, and the result is “Tony the Tripper.” It’s the song at the heart of his fifth album, Tripper, setting the tone for a bittersweet meditation on hitting the road, leaving the familiar behind and reinventing yourself.

Fruit Bats will release Tripper on August 2. Click here for more information and to download “WACS,” a free bonus track featuring J. Mascis.

via SubPop

Stream: Two New Tracks From Arcade Fire

Photo credit: Gabriel Jones

Stream: Arcade Fire – “Culture War”
Stream: Arcade Fire – “Speaking in Tongues” (feat. David Byrne)

For the 1-year anniversary of the release of Arcade Fire’s epic, Album of the Year Grammy-winning album The Suburbs, Merge will release a deluxe edition that will include two brand new tracks recorded during The Suburbs album sessions (“Culture War” and “Speaking in Tongues” featuring David Byrne), an extended version of album track “Wasted Hours,” Spike Jonze’s short film, “Scenes From The Suburbs,” and an 80-page booklet as well as other exclusive content.

Visit the Merge store to purchase the new songs, or pre-order The Suburbs Deluxe Edition to receive a download code for both songs.

Live Review and Photos: Man Man and Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers at the Casbah, May 11, 2011

MP3: Man Man – “The Ballad of Butter Beans” (from 2008’s Rabbit Habits)
MP3: Shilpa Ray – “Venus Shaver”
MP3: Shilpa Ray – “Heaven In Stereo”

A couple hundred fans packed San Diego’s Casbah on May 11 to watch freaky Philadelphians Man Man prove once again that they’re not just a band with a “doom-wop” schtick. Continue reading…

Contest: Win Tickets to See OK Go at UCSD on 5/31

Los Angeles quartet OK Go are coming to San Diego and, if the above video is any indication, UCSD students have already put on their dancin’ shoes.

OK Go, known in no small way for their meticulously choreographed music videos, are touring to support their 2010 album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, and will play the Price Center West Ballroom at UCSD on May 31. Tickets are $10 for UCSD’s graduating seniors, $20 for lesser students, and $27 to the general public. Buddha’s Playlist will open.

For those who don’t feel like throwing down the dough to see Ok Go, we’re offering up a pair of tickets to the concert. To enter the contest, simply comment via Facebook (below) by May 29.

Stephin Merritt Unveils His ‘Obscurities’

MP3: Stephin Merritt – “Forever and a Day”

Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt has just announced the release of Obscurities, a rare tracks compilation set to drop on August 23:

Obscurities features 14 tracks in all, including five previously unreleased songs, all recorded prior to The Magnetic Fields’ seminal album 69 Love Songs. Three of the unreleased tracks hail from The Song From Venus, the unfinished science fiction musical written by Merritt and Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snickett. Also included on the record are five songs culled from various Merge-era 7” vinyl singles by The Magnetic Fields, along with one from Merritt’s guest vocalist-laden side project the 6ths, one from an audio book, one from the Oh, Merge compilation CD, and a track from a rare K Records cassette-only release.

via Merge Records.

You can check out the tracklist below. Continue reading…

a san diego music blog (and more)