Rosebuds + Bon Iver = Awesome

There are some great in-studios coming up @ KRUI. Here is the in-studio schedule:

- Thursday, May 8, 2008, 4 PM – Film School (MYSPACE) AND Airiel (MYSPACE)

- Friday, May 9, 2008, 2:30 PM – WS-Burn MYSPACE

- Thursday, May 22, 2008, 5:45 PM - Minipop MYSPACE

- Friday, May 23, 2008, 4:30 PM – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin MYSPACE

Be sure to tune into Your Sound Alternative — KRUI 89.7 FM for these interviews.

www.kruiradio.org/listen

Local band Shame Train will be stopping by KRUI studios tomorrow. They will be chatting about their new album, and play some songs. Be sure to tune in!

Friday, May 2, 2008, 2 PM – Shame Train MYSPACE

www.kruiradio.org/listen

We’re still lamenting the cancellation of Matt Pond PA’s Friday show at The Picador. Check out “Halloween,” off 2005’s Several Arrows Later and some of the best stuff they’ve got to offer. And hey, it’s hella better than nothing.

“Halloween”, courtesy of YouTube

• Wolf Parade announce their summer tour dates supporting their new album, now to be titled At Mount Zoomer. If you’re based in Iowa, you might be able to catch them in Chicago or Minneapolis (thanks, Pitchfork).

• The Strokes are working on a new album, perhaps hoping to overcome the somewhat apathetic reaction to their last release. Best of luck to them, but tellingly, the one and only comment on the related PrefixMag.com blurb reads in its entirety, “cool….forgot about them.” Hm. (from Prefix, as mentioned)  ALSO: Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. seems to be wrapping up and about ready to release his sophomore LP, Como Te Llama, which is slated vaguely as a June release. More on this as it develops, as one of our KRUI bloggers (John Wilmes) considers Hammond’s debut LP Yours To Keep an utter pop masterpiece. (ALBERT HAMMOND JR. MYSPACE)

• The Arcade Fire continue to rock for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, this time in North Carolina on May 1 and 2 (Prefix again).

• In the “matter of taste” department, Stereogum offers links to various new media from Death Cab For Cutie and the cover art for Coldplay’s upcoming album, Viva La Vida (due June 17), plus news about two free Coldplay concerts in June. How cool you think this is probably depends on how much indie cred you’re willing to risk by saying you like Coldplay (come on, guys, nobody should be excommunicated for thinking “Clocks” is a good song).

LINK

Dirty Projectors live video. (via Pitchfork.tv)

Awesome.

Also…more goodies!

Le Loup - “Planes Like Vultures”

My Morning Jacket’s next album, Evil Urges comes out on June 10th. The album can be heard in its entirety now if one is internet savvy enough. If you don’t want to step over any funny legal lines, though, check out the title track for free, courtesy of MMJ.

The album is at first surprising, seemingly taking the band’s more psychedelic, spacy (experimental, if you will) aesthetic found on Z to new heights. The first and titular track sets a tone of unpredictability, evoking Prince-like 80’s electro-soul, creating ominous keyboard atmospheres, and injecting an interlude of some good ol’ home cookin’ that It Still Moves fans will be ecstatic to hear (once again, MMJ is letting you hear this one for free). Through the next two tracks the album follows in a similarly, strangely impressive vain. Track 3, “Highly Suspicious,” is hands down the weirdest thing MMJ has ever done, and will be a polarizing song. But what we get for the rest of the album is nothing short of great rock and roll: soulful ballads and engaging rockers occasionally dressed up with funky keyboard arrangements and strings. MMJ can’t get away from being great, no matter how many urges they indulge. One may say that Evil Urges synthesizes the best elements of both Z and It Still Moves quite effectively. Definitely keep your eyes and ears open for this one.

Highlight tracks: “Evil Urges,” “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream,” “I’m Amazed,” “”Thank You Too,” “Two Halves,” “Smokin’ From Shootin’”….. everything but the questionable “Highly Suspicious” and the 6 second finale “Good Intentions”

Au “RR vs. DD”

Along with the good weather in Iowa City these past couple of days comes a track from the up and coming Au. It’s hard to pass up this sunny, happy, cheerful track filled with great joy and exuberance, especially when the brass band enters half way through.  Amidst this, a little piano line sneaks its way in, keeping the structure of the song steady, rolling, and cooperative with its aligning parts.

Au is out of Portland, Oregan and have already toured with Grizzly Bear, Phosphorescent, Beach House, Blitzen Trapper, Fleet Foxes and The Castenets. Their debut album was rated #2 Portland album of year in 2007 by The Portland Mercury and they’re now eagerly awaiting release of sophomore album Verbs on June 24th. (Drew Ingersoll)

Au Myspace