Exerpt from Barsuk Records:

Ben Barnett is a musician who has, all his life, documented experiences through song. After releasing eight albums, six singles and five splits as Kind of Like Spitting over the course of a decade, retiring the moniker and reinventing himself as Music Director of Seattle’s Paul Green School of Rock, Barnett has now emerged triumphant with a new band, Blunt Mechanic, and said band’s debut full-length, world record. Both band and album tip heavy on the riffaged hooks and light on the darkness; big on the thumbs up — no time for the thumbs down. It is far from hyperbolic to enthusiastically assert that this album is Barnett’s finest work to date, and that he has created the culmination of his musical and personal explorations in a way that is powerful, relatable, inspirational, ineffable and communicable, and there’s just no stopping that kind of force.

It’s time, folks, to strap on those headphones and jam the jams. Feel it.

Through Yourself & Back Again is the second studio album by American rock band Thriving Ivory. It is due to be released September 14, 2010 on Wind-up records. “Where We Belong” is the lead single from the album.

Rumor has it that those of you hoping for Isobel Campbell to return to Belle & Sebastian and for Mark Lenegan to reunite with the Screaming Trees should stop holding your breath. This odd pairing is an esteemed duo and it’s time everyone jumped on the bandwaggon.

Produced by Campbell herself, Hawk is the 13-track follow-up to 2008’s Sunday at Devil Dirt. You may stream their new duet “Come Undone” below from kcrw.

Arcade Fire released The Suburbs on August 2, 2010. “The Wilderness Downtown” is an interactive interpretation of the song “We Used To Wait” from this album. In collaboration with Google, Arcade Fire’s new video invites viewers to enter their postcode or childhood address, and then uses Google Maps to generate a user specific video with images of their childhood streets. It was created by director Chris Milk via Google Chrome and the latest open web technologies, including HTML5 video, audio, and canvas.

Click The Wilderness Downtown to try it.

Note—you must be using Google Chrome for this to work. Therefore, you will be asked to download it if you do not already have it. When you finish downloading it you must copy the above URL and paste it into the Google Chrome browser. Once you are redirected you will be asked to enter the address you want to use. You will see it populate as you start to enter it.

I have tried this and it works a little bit. Some of the briefly displayed containers will show surrounding buildings. But he isn’t running down my childhood neighborhood street. Is he running in your neighborhood?

The album comes out Today!! The Orchard is the long awaited sophomore release from Ra Ra Riot. If you have not heard it then you must check it out. It was produced by Ra Ra Riot themselves and Andrew Maury. 9 of the ten tracks were also mixed by Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla, and one was mixed by Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij.

Please enjoy the video for the single “Boy.”

Menomena recently released Mines, thier fourth full-length album, on Barsuk Records. They made their national television debut on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” Monday evening and performed “Killemall” from the new album.

And here is a funny, amateurish video for “Dirty Cartoons”—a track also from Mines.

Chrissie Hynde, leader of the Pretenders, has joined J.P Jones to form J.P, Chrissie, and the Fiarground Boys. Never has she recorded a full CD under any banner but the Pretenders’, until now. She and J.P will release the full-length debut, Fidelity, this month. Below please have a listen to the single, “If You Let Me”, cut live for radio station KRCW.

The Lone Wolf moniker belongs to singer/ songwriter Paul Marshall. He took on the alter ego for his second album The Devil and I, which was released on July 27, 2010 via Bella Union.

Photo courtesy of Direct Current.

The folk/pop, pedal-steel infused country tradition of L.A.’s Leslie Stevens and the Badgers has been catching some attention the past two years. Stevens’ self-released album Roomful of Smoke LP will be available everywhere August 17, 2010 from Lyricland/Thirty Tigers.

Please have a listen to “Ballpark Lights” from the upcoming release.

Auditory Viewing || Leslie & The Badgers perform Ballpark Lights from ISHOTHIM on Vimeo.

GNDN stands for “goes nowhere, does nothing.” It refers to Star Trek’s USS Enterprise. We see it flying and doing all these amazing things but “with its cardboard parts” it really goes nowhere and does nothing.

Admiral Radley is a band formed by two members of the indie rock bands Grandaddy, Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch and Earlimart, Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray. “GNDN” can be found on their one album entitled I Heart California. It was released July 13, 2010 on the label The Ship.

[audio:GNDN.mp3]
“GNDN” by Admiral Radley