My Eyes Have Been Opened by Bright Eyes Openers

Red Bone Slim (Bianca Casady of CocoRosie) - Noah's Ark

In addition to filling my life with his own tremendously influential music, Bright Eyes has turned me on to a diverse group of bands that play regularly in my soundtrack. The list of past openers demonstrates a flair for the unique and the well-crafted (a talent put to good use at Saddle Creek). Arguably my favourite of the bunch, Tilly and the Wall, is set to release a new album called Bottoms of Barrels on May 23rd. After listening to the first single, it might be a collection of songs that are metaphorically (not literally... that would just be weird) remnants from the stylistic barrels of last albums. The band's uniqueness is such a *literal* leap beyond other bands that I suppose more of the same is still groundbreaking.

Tilly and the Wall - Bad Education (mp3) [myspace]

CocoRosie - Noah's Ark (mp3) [myspace]

The sisters also contribute to a project called Metallic Falcons, whose upcoming release "Desert Doughnuts" can be previewed with two tracks available for download here.

Arab Strap - Who Named The Days (mp3)

Arab Strap - Love Detective (mp3)

A diverse collection of classic and live oddity tracks featuring Aidan's stretched plodding lyrics is available at their website including "We Don't Make Each Other Laugh Anymore".




With spring comes fresh blog features... here are a few beauties:

1) Evan of Evan's Song A Day academically dissects a new song every day!
2) Bethanne of Clever Titles are So Last Summer answers your questions (musical and otherwise) with her Ask Bethanne feature.
3) Jeff of DIY Rockstar is exploring the music label perspective over the next three weeks with his Loveable Labels feature starting with JagJaguwar.