I’m still try­ing to come back around to Ghost’s In Stormy Nights. I have a hard time believ­ing that it’s been, what, three years since Hyp­not­ic Under­world com­plete­ly blew my mind and that I’m find­ing so lit­tle to hang on to with their lat­est record. Of course, as I draft­ed this, “Moth­er­ly Blus­ter” sound­ed more appeal­ing than it had on pre­vi­ous lis­tens, so this may be a 180 degree turnaround.

Nonethe­less I’m find­ing sus­te­nance else­where: Marathon­packs has a track from Haru­mi, a band that pret­ty obvi­ous­ly had some impact on Ghost’s spec­tral psy­che­delia. Eric thinks he’s hear­ing new Dun­gen in it, but Haru­mi is way too inter­est­ing for a direct com­par­i­son to Tio Bitar. There’s plen­ty of sec­ond-rate Swedish psych to com­pare it to any­way. If you can’t tell, the new Dun­gen record isn’t find­ing favor with me. I mean, I went to at least three shows where they debuted no new mate­r­i­al and were just re-pre­sent­ing Ta Det Lugnt in more ambi­tious, insane­ly well-rehearsed fash­ion and then — poof — there’s hard­ly any evi­dence of that patience and dis­ci­pline on Tio Bitar.

As far as new psych is con­cerned, I’ve been using Raven Sings the Blues and home away from home Paper Thin Walls as repos­i­to­ries for new stuff worth audi­tion­ing. Most recent­ly it was Black Moth Super Rain­bow, which final­ly showed up in the mail on Fri­day [after I bought a used copy the day before.] Check it out at Raven Sings…but I’ll be sure to have some thoughts post­ed here shortly.

[Dare I say that Pitch­fork’s Fork­cast has had a few nice tid­bits inter­spersed with the detri­tus that neces­si­tates auto­mat­ic cov­er­age? I mean, even I have an imeem.com account now!]

Since my last post I feel like I’ve need­ed some­one to RSS-cue me. I’ve been swept up by my new job pret­ty com­plete­ly, engrossed in Joshua Fer­ris’ amaz­ing new nov­el, and writ­ing brief reviews for Paper Thin Walls when I get chance [Keep an eye out for Low and Von Suden­fed.] I’ve missed shows I meant to see [Noisettes/TVOTR and Spoon. Real­ly sor­ry about Noisettes (see video) but a funer­al took me out of town.] and have been gen­er­al­ly remiss, if not gross­ly neg­li­gent when it comes to music blog­ging late­ly. I’m hope­ful that a quick round-up of links will serve as a suf­fi­cient short­hand for what I’m into lately.

• Bat­tles refute a NYTimes char­ac­ter­i­za­tion. I don’t buy it.
• Ton­ic closed and jazz­bos will have to find cheap­er places to drink.
• Inter­pol returned.
• This Parts & Labor pho­to cracked me up.
• Malk­mus updat­ed us.
• Son­ic Youth? Still Day­dream­ing.
• Jodor­owsky’s Holy Moun­tain re-emerged.
• Andrew Hill left us.
• So did Lob­by Loyde.
• Lichens freak me out.
• The Phillies are on a four game win streak. [I went to see them mop up the Astros, 11–4.]

Dear Mark Ronson,

Where’d that bril­liant­ly boun­cy ver­sion of “Just” go? That was inspired. This is just reheat­ed. I say this know­ing it will be a tremen­dous hit some­where because the source mate­r­i­al is so good and that cov­ers typ­i­cal­ly fare well in rock his­to­ry, etc. etc.

Also, I don’t care if you asked per­mis­sion from Mor­ris­sey and Marr. It makes me think less of them know­ing that they allowed you to go ahead with this.

Sin­cere­ly,

Black­mail Is My Life

Miss­ing Blues Con­trol’s recent show at Big Jar Books is a sore dis­ap­point­ment. Why? Just lis­ten for your­self [via Raven Sings The Blues aka RSS trea­sure trove.] Also because Max and Bryan at AKA told me so, and I trust them. Like broth­ers. Seri­ous­ly. Once I lay hands on a copy of Puff I’ll be sure to expound on why I should’ve been there.