Adam and Jeremy Say: Against Me! Via Ben Lee

From CMJ.com:

Against! Ben Lee
2007-08-20 16:39:26.977,
Story by: John Beardsley
Australian nice-guy-with-acoustic-guitar Ben Lee has covered the entirety of the recently released Against Me! album, New Wave (Sire), available to stream or download for free at his MySpace page or his blog. Apparently Lee became obsessed with the the album after checking it out because he "like[s] to keep [him]self up to date with what's going on musically in the world," and was struck with the cover idea on a plane ride from Sydney to Melbourne. Lee decided to go with Ben Lee Sings Against Me! New Wave for the title, although the reasoning behind that decision remains a mystery.

From A&J: And so the almost unexplainable rise of Against Me! continues...

Adam Says: Music is Fun!

Last week was a great week for music; mainly because Modest Mouse released their excellent "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank." These northwest nihilist have a sound and vibe that make them fun to listen to even if the subject matter is rather dark and foreboding. I really enjoyed the album even though critics say it is less accessible (accessible is the word critics use whenever they don't get it but they don't want to sound unhip.) If you liked their platinum selling "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" then you will love this new one, but don't take my word for it... check it out for yourself.

AOL is streaming new albums from Tim McGraw, Kaiser Chiefs, Good Charolette and J. Lo. However, I would not advise wasting your time over there because honestly they are all awful.

I am really disappointed in the Kaiser Chiefs; "I Predict a Riot" is still in heavy rotation in the iPod, but this album doesn't have one track that lives up to that standard. Apparently no one told the Kaiser Chiefs that the Beatles, Oasis and Franz Ferdinand have perfect the Brit-Pop-Rock sound, because they try their hardest to emulate it... badly. I reckon I should not be upset with Good Charolette they sold their souls to the corporate rock devil long ago, and I am sure their pseudo-pop-punk thing is still big with the tweeners, but honestly I think they take themselves way to seriously... after all they are just a bunch of punk kids from Baltimore.

If you do not know The Kills you do not know music. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but honestly I love this band. Their dirty take on garage punk-funk is one of the most amazing entries in the indie rock lexicon. their album "No Wow" is a must for any serious music snob, and a stumbled across this article about them yesterday that is pretty interesting. It paints them as the Rock N Roll Romeo and Juliette (oh did I mention The Kills are a two piece girl boy duo?) at any rate check it out, but I must warn that the magazine I found it in may be a little racier than some of you are up for so please don't click if you are offended by beer ads or women's beach volleyball.

Pitchfork has the track list for the as-yet-untitled new Spoon album, and I must admit I cant even type this post without having "The Way We Get By" bounce through my head. Spoon has also announced a handful of tour dates, but the closest they are coming to Richmond is Baltimore... and everyone knows that Baltimore is a hole.

Did you ever wonder who that enchantingly magical female voice singing with Damien Rice on his ready for coffee house albums was? I did until I found this article on Stereogum and found out that the aforementioned amazing voice is Lisa Hannigan and apparently she is doing her own solo thing that is worth checking out. You can check her website out here, and take my word for it... its totally worth it.

White Stripes news! Advance copies of the White Stripes latest album, "Icky Thump," have made it into the hands of several critics and over influential music publications. So of course the news of the day is the... TRACK LIST! well leave it to the White Stripes to completely stop Billboards presses for a track list. At any rate the reviews sound promising, and I don't want to steal CMJ and Billboards thunder, but apparently bagpipes are played... that is literally the only thing both publications touch on... from their they both do a good job of suppressing expectations. No release date for "Icky Thump" yet, but look for it before the years longest day.

One last non-music tidbit; Popcandy recently did a post on this website. There is a threesome of twenty somethings who want to road trip across America and to do it they are selling ad space on their van like this is NASCAR or something. At first glance I just figured this was another one of those "put me through college by buying pixels on my website" things, when I started to think about it I realized that this is just another case of capitalism whoring out one of my found childhood memories in the name of the all mighty dollar! What ever happened to five guys jumping into an ISUZU Trooper and driving all night from Lynchburg to Alabama?

The Cold War Isnt over YET

So for a while now I have been hearing the buzz about the Cold War Kids. Like most unsigned buzz bands the Cold War Kids were more myth than legend to most music fans; myself included. But then their record Robbers and Cowards dropped in the fall and instantly they went from buzz darling to critical war fodder. It seems to me that they have had more press on both sides of the "are they really that good" debate than anyone I can think of in recent times. Some critics, like the folks from Pitchfork, couldn't get past the sometimes obvious Christian faith of the band, and therefore lampooned the album as bad Christian music. But other critical giants like Rollingstone and Spin have seen their faith as the back drop that makes their music so rich and rewarding, much like Dylan, Cash, and Sufjan Stevens. Even Internet taste maker stereogum.com has given the Cold War Kids the thumbs up so it is easy to see why I am excited about the band. I was even more excited when I logged onto Relevant today and found out that the Cold War Kids will be playing with another buzz band that I am excited about, the Tokyo Police Club, Right up the road in DC at the legendary 930 Club! When tickets go on sale I will have them Oh yes I will. Check out CMJ and see if the Cold War Kids are coming to your town.