THE MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES - CLUSTERF**K

A new video and a limited 7" single from The Manhattan Love Suicides with the a-side "Clusterfuck" as well as 3 others. It is on the band's own label Squirrel Records and here are their own words to describe it. The Manhattan Love Suicides just keep getting better. Their latest 7" on this very label is the roughest one of the bunch so far. Recorded with the needles in the red and without too much polish, but still keeping the pop elements that make them what they are. "Clusterfuck" will be familiar to anyone who has ever seen the band play live, "Detroit Diesel" is three minutes of My Bloody Valentine inspired noise, "Burning Wire" doesn't even hit the 2 minute mark and is raw sounding pop at its best, and finally "Heat And Panic" is rough, noisy, sweet and abrasive all at the same time. It could even be "Sister Ray" condensed into three and a half minutes.
As usual, this single is limited edition, so get your order in before they've gone for good." A generel warning as the video is pretty gruesome. These songs will also appear on a cd compilation due out later this summer on Magic Marker.

BOAT Kelly's Olympian from curt kentner on Vimeo.

BOAT pulled ashore in sunny Portland, OR this weekend. They played Kelly's Olympian Mark, Dave, Jackson, and Ricky filled in on parts to cap off a day of Softball, Lawn Jarts, and BBQ. I was kind of randomly taping songs and I missed the Baba O'riley intro but here is "Make Way for the Genius to Appear" and "kind new shrink". Fantastic show! Can't wait to see them again in few weeks with The All Girl Summer Fun Band.

When summer began the thunderstorms came

First of all i wanted to comment that two blog posts in two weeks is pretty good. Second of all given all that, I am straight up stealing this post from Fred Thomas' blog City Center. There are a lot of good songs on his blog that most of them will never show up anywhere else. He post regularly with half songs and experimentations for that day that sound great even in their rawest form. The song i am posting today is a song he recorded 2 years ago at the K records studio that he never finished. I am not a recording engineer but he states on his blog that it isn't mixed and that the 8 track tape broke but this song just sounds beautiful whatever state it is in. I have been listening to it on repeat while drinking my morning cup of coffee and It just feels like one of those life changing songs. I am not sure what Fred is trying to express here or dissecting the lyrics but to me it just feels so epic and grand that I am swept up in the whole thing. As his blog goes on to say a live version will show up on a Australian release sometime this summer but i am happy that his blog rescued this gem from import rarity. It is going to be hot weekend in Portland so much time may be spent in the basement. BOAT is coming through town and I think they have enlisted Ricky from the Galactic Heroes on saxophone and everyone on shakers. Have a great weekend and checkout Fred's blog.

Saturday Looks Good To Me "When We Die There Will Be More"

Whatever I have is yours and it's right here

So I didn't want to forget Sydney. If you know anyone from either Melbourne or Sydney you know they are in constant competition with each other. While Melbourne feels more organic, bike friendly, and small townish to Sydney's sophistication, tourist attractions, and more big cityness. Sydney was so jealous that Melbourne hosted the Olympics in 1956 that I believe the Opera House was built in response for tourist and cultural competition. Sydney was finally awarded the Olympics in 2000 and no longer feels inadequate to Melbourne. While Melbourne boasts a much larger of "good" bands we met up with some of Sydney's best Darren Hanlon and Sarah Blasko. We were shown the neighborhood of Petersham, backyard bbqs, chocolate bullets and the very popular board game World Domination created by the founder of Candle Records (RIP) , Crouchy. Darren also shared with us a Go Betweens tribute both he and Sarah had participated in that was released by the Triple J national radio station. We are such big fans of the Go-Betweens that it is hard to improve on perfection but we think these two covers are worthy of your ears. Here are two of the tracks off that release.

Darren Hanlon - "Right Here"

Sarah Blasko and Darren Hanlon - "Hold Your Horses"