"We'll do whatever we please..."

Introducing A Lady Never Tells. It's my band with Sunil. We have five songs for you. I'm pretty excited to share them with you. Also Sunil is. I feel comfortable speaking for him on this matter. 

"How does it make you feel?"

My A Lady Never Tells bandmate and friend Sunil Sawani just put out a brand new song as part of the It Takes A Village 3-Way Singles Club. It's called "In The Cellar." You will probably love it if you like singles, cellars and/or 3-ways. Take a listen!

We're no Quarterflash, but...

For those that are not internet stalking me enough to be aware, Sunil and I have a band. It is called A Lady Never Tells. Sunil is moving to L.A. at the end of the month, so we're about to switch things up to "long distance music relationship." But if we can make it work, I'll consider forgiving him for moving to my least favorite city in the universe. We just recorded 5 songs over a whirlwind weekend with Dave Lawson, and those will be up soon, soon, soon for the world to hear. We have a brand new Facebook page, so please go like it.

"I hope you are in a nice hotel playing cards in your room."

Using the powers of Facebook, Lambchop just told me to listen to this song because Tony Crow, one of the guys from Lambchop, is half responsible for it. Since I would do just about anything that Kurt Wagner (or whoever the admin of his band's Facebook page) tells me, I went ahead and listened. This despite the fact the description said the other guy half responsible for this, Mark Nevers is in the band Yuck. I have been told by like, a million people that I should like Yuck so much. But instead, though I don't actively dislike them, I find myself not able to care about them at all. BUT! This song! It may be a cover, but I have only listened to the Porcelain Raft record a couple of times so I am in no way familiar enough with the original for this to really feel like a cover, you know? It's really beautiful. I'm now checking out some of Mark Nevers' other Oupa songs and I'm really liking it. A lot. Are you at least half satisfied now Yuck fans?


You can buy this too - a limited number (300) hand stamped white vinyl 7" record. Mmmm...


Also! Don't forget! Lambchop's new record comes out February 21st on Merge AND they're coming to The Ark in Ann Arbor on April 23rd! Are you peeing your pants with excitement? Also I am.

These shows looks fun

Sweet. This show could even make the Blind Pig bearable.

Destroy This Place is real. Unlike hammerhead sharks.

But I'm a Cheerleader

I hope the artist is able to repair his or her work and address the glaring structural integrity issues of this St. Vincent piece so that it can be installed at the DIA sometime soon.

I can't WAIT until this comes in the mail

In an effort to both keep the United States Postal Service alive and to satisfy my vinyl appetite, I pre-ordered the new Damien Jurado record Maraqopa from Secretly Canadian. The record is being released the week after Valentine's Day, so all you lonely, heartbroken and forlorn people, hang in there because you have something to look forward to! I'm a big fan of extra fun stuff with pre-orders, and I think SC is doing a good job with this. As they say:


"Several great songs from the Maraqopa sessions did not fit on the album, so Secretly Canadian is releasing six of them via special 7"s that will come with pre-orders of the record. 7"s will be randomly inserted into the regular edition bundles, but the deluxe edition will include all three 7". What songs you receive will be a surprise, unless you decide to buy them all!" 


As much as I love surprises, my OCD also kind of forces me to live by the phrase, "Collect 'em all!" So the "Deluxe Bundle" deal was obviously too sweet to pass up:

• LP on GREEN VINYL
• CD 6 panel wallet
• 11 x 17 poster on uncoated stock
• All three 7"s
• Instant MP3 download

Did I mention the 7"s are all primary color vinyl? Hooray! Thanks for reading my record release dream diary, Secretly Canadian.

Richard Buckner is bringing his murder truck to a town near you!

There are few artists I love as much as Richard Buckner. Every single record he's released is worth hearing. His album Our Blood was one of the best of last year, but apparently many people were too dazzled by that one guy's terrible Bonnie Raitt covers to notice. Although I've been an unwaveringly enthusiastic fan of Richard Buckner since the late-90's, I just saw him live for the first time last year when he opened for Sebadoh in Cleveland. I took away three things from this experience:


1. Seeing Richard Buckner live is worth it. Amazing.
2. Cleveland is a really cool city. Like, for real.
3. Lou Barlow looks soo cute when he plays bass guitar.


When I was at the show, I signed up for the Richard Buckner e mail list. Today, I got the following in my inbox:

Hello Mailing List!


I've just added these new performance dates for February and March. I'll be coming around alone this time in my pickup truck (just turned over 579,000 miles) with about 4 guitars, a couple of amps and maybe a keyboard, depending on what's working at the time (including the truck). I'll be doing some older songs, some from 2011's OUR BLOOD and a few newer ones.

There'll be some more US dates in April and a European tour in May that will be announced next month. Also, I'll be playing at the End of the Road Festival in the UK in September with more dates around then, as well.

Thanks,

R

Sadly, none of these newly announced US dates are near me (keeping my fingers crossed that I might be more lucky with the announcement of the April dates), but for the love of all things worthy of your attention, if you're on the East Coast go see this man. And if you, for instance, own a car dealership, give him a new truck! Just for being amazing. Because he is and he deserves it. He really, really does.

Records I Want to Gay Marry: Sharon Van Etten's 'Tramp'

It's February! Aside from being a fun month to pontificate on the stupidity of white people, it's also a month that is bringing to me (and by extension the world) a cornucopia of new records by bands/artists that I already know I love: Shearwater, Damien Jurado, Lambchop, Perfume Genius and Xiu Xiu. But its a record by an artist that's relatively new to me that I can't get out of my head: Sharon Van Etten's Tramp. I first heard about her via The Music Slut. They put together a "TMS Loves Moz" comp a couple of years ago which featured different artists covering Morrissey songs. Sharon Van Etten's take on "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" gave me goosebumps. Like, not in a figure-of-speech way, but real life goosebumps. Listen to it and see what I mean.


So. Tramp. Holy shit. I can promise you this will be one of the best records you've listened to in a long, long time (unless you have a heart made of stone and/or have made the unfortunate choice of limiting your music interests to dubstep). Prepare yourself, because you're going to be reading about her constantly this year. Like, constantly. Mark my words! But at least Tramp will live up to the praise unlike, say, virtually everything critics peed their pants about last year (Shut up, Bon Iver! Shut up, Destroyer!). The record comes out next week and I highly suggest actually going to the record store and buying it with real money. You can also listen to the whole thing right now (thanks, NPR!)  and hear for yourself the greatness. That's what I'm doing right now. And will be doing for the next several thousand hours. Tell my therapist I'm not going to make it in today.