my next girl will be nothing like my ex-girl

Akron, Ohio’s finest The Black Keys are releasing their newest album Brothers (recorded at the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama) on May 18th.

Yesterday the Danger Mouse-produced “Tighten Up” made its way around the interwebs, and today I heard this shadowy, squawky, marvelous track for the first time. It certainly feels trademark heavy (”a Zeppelin-y blast of fuzzed-out guitar“) while simultaneously loaded with melodic swagger – I even catch some R&B undertones. It stuck in my head immediately, and remains there happily.

STREAM: Next Girl – Black Keys

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Woman straight up done him wrong.

You can download both tracks for free at the Black Keys site– if you buy a presale ticket to their upcoming summer tour:

THE BLACK KEYS TOUR DATES
*with Mondo Drag
†with Brian Olive
§with The Morning Benders

April 8 University of Iowa Memorial Iowa City, IA *
April 10 – Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2010, San Francisco, CA
April 17 – Wanee Music Festival, Live Oak, FL
April 18 – Jackie Gleason Theater, Miami, FL †
April 19 – The House of Blues, Orlando, FL †
May 20 – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
May 25 – Late Show with David Letterman, New York, NY
May 26 – Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, New York, NY
June 2 – The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT †
June 3 – The Fillmore, Denver, CO †
June 4 – The Crossroads, Kansas City, MO †
June 8 – First Ave, Minneapolis, MN †
June 9 – First Ave, Minneapolis, MN †
June 10 – The Pagaent, St. Louis, MO †
June 11 – Bonnaroo, Manchester, TN
July 27-28 – Central Park SummerStage New York, NY §

(thanks, jonny!)

New from Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys): “I Want Some More”

In between producing the new albums from Hacienda and Jessica Lea Mayfield in 2008, while continuing to be a member of the Black Keys, Akron’s filthiest bluesman Dan Auerbach is fixin’ to release his solo debut album on February 10th.

Keep It Hid will be out on Nonesuch Records, and first listens sound like fuzzed-out, skwonky rock and roll. I love his yowl. He’ll be touring in support of it in the coming months, with those Hacienda fellas opening.

I Want Some More – Dan Auerbach

Listen to two other new tracks over on the Nonesuch Records site. And if you (ahem) right click the song titles you might be able to save the mp3s. Just sayin.

Black Keys live from Abbey Road

The Sundance Channel original series Live From Abbey Road featured Akron dirty-blues-rock duo The Black Keys this week. Dudes are currently gearing up for their Fall tour promoting their Danger Mouse-produced sickass album Attack and Release (they’ll be at Red Rocks August 21!).

Upcoming episodes in the Sundance series from the famed studio will feature artists such as MGMT (August 7), The Kills (August 14), Brian Wilson and Martha Wainwright (Sept 4), and Bryan-not-Ryan Adams on August 28.

Monday Music Roundup

I had a full day interview here on Friday. Now that’s eight hours straight of me talking about myself coherently and winningly. This is a draining endeavor, no matter how exciting the job or how good of a fit. I did mostly okay except for one specific question where I recall clearly starting to veer into Miss Teen USA territory (”such as“). Hey! Turns out if you don’t know the answer, continuing to talk is not going to help you find it, oddly enough.

In between the real-life stuff going on, I’ve been listening to these songs:

Strange Vine
Delta Spirit
I just got news today from Rounder Records that they’ve signed Delta Spirit, who I allegedly saw with Port O’Brien at Noise Pop in March but regrettably actually missed due to sensory overload at the time. But I remember reading a review a few days after the festival that Amrit from Stereogum had penned that completely intrigued me: “Matthew Vasquez’s vocals are powerhouse stuff, and his Dylanistic harmonica and melodies worked well over Delta’s roots-rock roots. ‘Strange Vine’ was a standout, riding the sway of old mid-tempo, ’50s-styled r&b rock, with vocal lines ala Alec Ounsworth or Julian Casablancas depending on how the light caught it.” I want to listen more to these guys – they’ve got a great sound and a lot of promise. Their 2007 release was aptly named Ode to Sunshine, and will be re-released by Rounder.

I’m Glad
The Black Keys
If you’re the grizzled, bluesy force of nature known as The Black Keys, and you’re just sitting around Dan’s house on a Thursday, why not record a Captain Beefheart cover and post it on your MySpace for free download? Why not indeed. Just a few days old, this cover is fuzzy and dirty like it’s being sung through a dusty microphone someone dug up in the garage, then looped back through a decades-old set of crackly speakers. But you know, it’s also just about perfect for some really late-night drunk slow dancing – sad and regretful but with some heat behind it too. Attack & Release is out now, The Black Keys are playing Red Rocks with My Morning Jacket in August, and then next day will be out in San Francisco for Outside Lands.

Never So Strange
Morning State
The harmonies and vocals on this particular song evoke straight-up ’50s power pop, but there’s also a tenser undercurrent of that good ’90s rock running through it that you know I’m a sucker for. Atlanta’s Morning State cooks up a jubilant blend with a kick to it. They’ve played shows with Dr. Dog, Peter Bjorn & John, and White Rabbits, all of whom are fun bands that we like round these parts. This is a fun band. Their new album You Know People I Know People is out tomorrow on Indie Outlaw.

Time Can Be Overcome
The Constantines
Said The Gramophone intrigued me (as they always do) with a fictional vignette Sean constructed around this song, involving a South Korean man in an isolated high-rise apartment: “[He] bought an electric guitar thirteen years ago and every night since then he has spent learning a single song. He does not feel this is slow or fast; it is just right. One day he will play the song, play the whole thing. Meteorites will hammer the city and tsunamis will rise and his heart will come to life in his chest.” Really, I couldn’t ask for more than that. This is a terrific, terrific slowburn of a song. From the Constantines‘ recent release Kensington Heights (Arts & Crafts).

Measure Of The Same
Birds of Avalon
Kids heading out and paying the big black-market bucks to see The Raconteurs recently on their tiny-club tour were greeted by the psychedelic retro-tinged sounds of Birds of Avalon as openers. A five-piece band from Raleigh, North Carolina, BofA formed from the ashes of previous ’70s garage rock incarnation The Cherry Valence. They actually have a guitar player named Cheetie Kumar, which frankly is reason enough to go see them — also the way she shreds that thing ain’t bad. Their new The Outer Upper Inner EP is out now on Volcom.

Strange times with the Black Keys

Coming from the swampy, minimalistic fuzz-blues background of the Black Keys‘ past work, the decision to have Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz) produce their upcoming album sounded so surprising, so fresh. I had a hard time picturing what that would sound like. Now I have some idea, and I am even more excited:

Highly recommended: Stream the new Black Keys song “Strange Times” over on their MySpace.

Well, that feels spacey, crisp, and dirty all at once. I would post the mp3 but it looks like other bloggers have been asked to remove it (plus, it’s for sale on iTunes) and I don’t need to go lookin for woe.

Attack & Release is out April 1 on Nonesuch, and there’s a bunch of tour dates coming up.

Exclusive! Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers, “All Along The Watchtower”

The new Dylan biopic I’m Not There takes the interesting, surrealistic angle of illustrating Bob at different stages of his life through the rubric of six distinctively different actors (including a black man and a woman): Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, and Christian Bale. I am very curious to see how this works itself out in the film – at least it’s a fresh angle (I mean, how many Dylan movies can you make?).

In addition to this creative lens used in the film to examine the man himself, the soundtrack is a double disc jamboree of some pretty cool Dylan covers, including disc 1, track 1 with Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers covering “All Along The Watchtower.” Fuel/Friends is pleased as punch to get an exclusive stream for you guys to take your first listen of this!

EDDIE VEDDER & THE MILLION DOLLAR BASHERS
“All Along The Watchtower”

Stream FLASH
Stream QUICKTIME
Stream WINDOWS MEDIA

And who are said Million Dollar Bashers? It’s Wilco’s god-like guitarist Nels Cline, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley (from Sonic Youth), bass player Tony Garnier, keyboardist John Medeski (from Martin, Medeski and Wood), and guitarist Smokey Hormel (onetime Beck guitarist, Smokey & Miho). I never thought I’d hear musicians from those bands all jam together. The guitar solo (assumedly from Nels?) is pretty blazing, and Vedder’s got the seething caged scream goin’ on.

Historical tie-in from last summer: there was an absolutely scorching live version of this song that full-band Pearl Jam did in San Francisco (when Sonic Youth opened), climaxing in a very rock n roll moment of Mike McCready giving his guitar the Townshend treatment and then surfing on it across the stage. PJ has played Watchtower 4 times live before, but that was my favorite. If you’d like to hear that one as well, the link over on that old post still surprisingly works.

You can also stream four other full songs from the biopic over on the soundtrack’s MySpace (the ones by Sufjan Stevens, Cat Power, Jeff Tweedy, and Jim James with Calexico). Among others, I’m also looking forward to hearing Mason Jennings’ two contributions, The Black Keys cover of Wicked Messenger, and The Hold Steady enticing me to climb out my window. The soundtrack is out October 30, and the film opens Thanksgiving weekend.

NEW CONTEST:
Would you like to win one of two copies I have to giveaway of this lovely double disc? Of course you would. Leave me a comment to enter, make sure I have a way to contact you (might wanna spell out that email addy), and if you feel so inclined, please let’s talk about your favorite Dylan cover. So I can wrap this up before I head to NYC, this contest ends Wednesday at midnight.

I’M NOT THERE (FULL SOUNDTRACK LISTING)
Disc 1
1. Eddie Vedder & the Million Dollar Bashers: “All Along the Watchtower”
2. Sonic Youth: “I’m Not There”
3. Jim James and Calexico: “Goin’ to Acapulco”
4. Richie Havens: “Tombstone Blues”
5. Stephen Malkmus & the Million Dollar Bashers: “Ballad of a Thin Man”
6. Cat Power: “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again”
7. John Doe: “Pressing On”
8. Yo La Tengo: “Fourth Time Around”
9. Iron and Wine and Calexico: “Dark Eyes”
10. Karen O and the Million Dollar Bashers: “Highway 61 Revisited”
11. Roger McGuinn and Calexico: “One More Cup of Coffee”
12. Mason Jennings: “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”
13. Los Lobos: “Billy”
14. Jeff Tweedy: “Simple Twist of Fate”
15. Mark Lanegan: “The Man in the Long Black Coat”
16. Willie Nelson and Calexico: “Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)”

Disc 2
1. Mira Billotte: “As I Went Out One Morning”
2. Stephen Malkmus and Lee Ranaldo: “Can’t Leave Her Behind”
3. Sufjan Stevens: “Ring Them Bells”
4. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Calexico: “Just Like a Woman”
5. Jack Johnson: “Mama You’ve Been on My Mind”
6. Yo La Tengo: “I Wanna Be Your Lover”
7. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova: “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”
8. The Hold Steady: “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window”
9. Ramblin’ Jack Elliott: “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”
10. The Black Keys: “Wicked Messenger”
11. Tom Verlaine and the Million Dollar Bashers: “Cold Irons Bound”
12. Mason Jennings: “The Times They Are a-Changin’”
13. Stephen Malkmus and the Million Dollar Bashers: “Maggie’s Farm”
14. Marcus Carl Franklin: “When the Ship Comes In”
15. Bob Forrest: “Moonshiner”
16. John Doe: “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine”
17. Antony and the Johnsons: “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
18. Bob Dylan: “I’m Not There”

[Vedder photo credit Kerensa Wight, header image credit Playlist]

New contest: Win the Hottest State soundtrack, and read the book you lazy summer slacker

I am generally a really upbeat person but I can’t help myself — I truly despise heat coupled with humidity. This is why it is good that I don’t live in, say, Georgia or West Virginia because I would be the most grumpy person you know all through the month of August. Plus my hair would be very frizzy.

I am rambling about hot weather as a seamless tie-in to my newest contest: two lucky winners will win a soundtrack+book prize pack for the upcoming Ethan Hawke film The Hottest State. My first listens have been very enjoyable – it’s a fairly mellow and eclectic collection, and features the superb songwriting of new Fuel-favorite Jesse Harris. When forming the concept for the film adaptation, Hawke and Harris delved into the collection of 80+ songs that Harris had penned over the years, and then enlisted a dream team of folks like M. Ward, Feist, Bright Eyes, Cat Power, Black Keys, Willie Nelson, and Emmylou Harris to record them. You can stream the entire record here and then pop over to see the full tracklisting on their MySpace.

The movie is based on Hawke’s book (I didn’t know he wrote), so the two winners will each get a CD soundtrack plus the book for good end-of-summer reading as you lay by the pool and perfect that tan that will have to sustain you as the last vestiges of summer slip away.

So depressing, I know, stop it.

I’ll pick TWO random winners from all entrants by next Friday August 17th. If you’d like to win, please leave me a way to contact you (or promise to check here to see if you won, and then email me if you do) and answer this question:
What is one of your favorite hot weather/summertime memories? Random, funny, serious, whatever – it just has to effectively include that “hot” business. Godspeed.

From the soundtrack:
If You Ever Slip – The Black Keys
It Will Stay With Us – Jesse Harris

The Black Keys :: Free live EP, just because they love you

Hey Black Keys fans (yes, I’m talking to you): Those who find themselves enamored with the dirty, gritty, minimalistic blues-rock of this Akron, Ohio duo can let out a whoop of thanks for the live 4-track EP they just posted up for download at their MySpace. All the lovin of good new live tunes, for free. Don’t you wish every band would sate us this way?

You can get the tunes there or you can get it mirrored here:

No Trust (live) – The Black Keys
Recorded at The Troubador in LA on 9/13/06 by Dan Auerbach – Mixed by Dan Auerbach

Girl Is On My Mind (live) – The Black Keys
Recorded at The Troubador in LA on 9/13/06 by Dan Auerbach – Mixed by Dan Auerbach

10am Automatic (live) – The Black Keys
Recorded at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville on 12/15/2006 by Wilton J. Wall, Jr. – Mixed by Patrick Carney

Elevator (live) – The Black Keys
Recorded at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville on 12/15/2006 by Wilton J. Wall, Jr. – Mixed by Patrick Carney

THE BLACK KEYS WANT TO ROCK YOU
Jun 13 Cain’s Ballroom – Tulsa, Oklahoma
Jun 15 Bonnaroooooooo – Manchester, Tennessee
Jun 16 La Zona Rosa – Austin, Texas
Jun 17 Warehouse Live – Houston, Texas
Jun 18 Lonestar Pavilion at Sunset – San Antonio, Texas
Jun 19 The Ridglea Theater – Dallas, Texas
Jun 21 Tabernacle – Atlanta, Georgia
Jun 22 City Hall – Nashville, Tennessee
Jun 24 The Vogue – Indianapolis, Indiana
Jun 25 Agora Theatre – Cleveland, Ohio
Jun 26 Majestic Theater – Detroit, Michigan
Jun 28 First Avenue – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Aug 3 Lollapalooza – Chicago, Illinois

Monday Music Roundup

Hey there tiger, happy Monday. Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you.

So you think you know your rock history? Or do you just want to see how little you actually know? Newsweek has a wicked hard Rock ‘n’ Roll Quiz. It’s probably the worst that this nerd has ever done on a test (52% score), but it is extremely entertaining if you like the minutiae of musical history. Fun sound clips throughout, too, so turn down those speakers at work before you start the quiz — I mean, before you start working on that, uh, important spreadsheet, boss.

And as usual, here are 5 songs that have kept me company this past week:

“Your Touch“
The Black Keys
The boys of The Black Keys have parted with the Fat Possum label (but not before leaving them with a nice ‘lil EP of Junior Kimbrough covers) and joined Nonesuch Records, thrashing through their unique Hendrixesque garage-blues sound for a new disc, Magic Potion, due out in September. It’s heavy and wonderful, with a casual, loose, calling-out-key-changes-across-the-garage feel to it. They just finished a short tour opening for Radiohead — I guess their job was to exhaust the Radiohead fans before Thom Yorke and crew come and sing them into relaxed & hazy happy-land. The Black Keys also have more tour dates coming up, those are some I would check out.

“Cemetery Row“
The Minus 5
There is a jangly, shimmery, indie-bluegrass-rock sound to this track, with more than a passing resemblance to the wavering honesty of The Shins or Band of Horses. The Minus 5 is helmed by songwriter Scott McCaughey (The Young Fresh Fellows), who is joined here by friends such as Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), and Ken Stringfellow (The Posies), among others. From the self-titled 2006 disc (so-called “The Gun Album“) on Yep Roc Records.

“05-22-02“
Golden Smog
A friend and I spent some time re-dissecting the Clerks soundtrack last year, and one of the best efforts on that disc is by Golden Smog (a cover of Bad Company’s “Shooting Star”). I don’t recall us knowing then who, exactly, was in Golden Smog but now I know that it is a mixed blend of Gary Louris & Marc Perlman (The Jayhawks), Kraig Johnson (Run Westy Run), Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum) and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco, again!). This offering is a warm mid-tempo song from their upcoming album Another Fine Day (out on Lost Highway Records, July 18th).

“Supermassive Black Hole“
Muse
I just had not had the time to listen to Muse (even though they were running an ad over there, stage right). Then my cousin Alan posted an uber-enthusiastic status update on Facebook (I know, why doth the Facebook have such power over me?) wherein he raved about Muse. He recommended I check out several of their tracks while he tries in vain to contain his excitement before their concert in San Francisco tomorrow night. I completely love this song – a heavy arse-shakin’ blend of interesting sonic electronica and superfun stadium rock (a la the falsetto swagger of Eagles of Death Metal). From Black Holes and Revelations, released last week.

“A Lifetime in Heat“
Guggenheim Grotto
A very persistent reader kept sending me little blurbs about this band. I finally got a chance to listen to them – and I am glad she was so tireless! (Takes a while sometimes with me). Guggenheim Grotto is an Irish trio reminiscent of a blend of the intelligent composition of Badly Drawn Boy with the loveliness of Damien Rice or the backyard-hammock drifting of Iron & Wine. Their 2005 album Waltzing Alone is available on eMusic, and their Lifetime In Heat EP is downloadable in full from their website. Nic Harcourt from KCRW called this “one of the most beautiful records of the year,” and my peeps over at NPR’s World Cafe/WXPN have been spinning them as one of their “Artists of the Week.”

Enjoy.