• I was only half right about the new Stars album being fantastic. It gets off to an incredible start; bombastic, if you would. But around “He Dreams He’s Awake” someone slips the beat a NyQuil and the whole CD gets the nods.
• By way of general complaint, god damn it, bands, enough with the fucking five-track mid-disc walls of mid-tempo ballads. When in doubt, play it faster.
• Speaking of which, Maps and Atlases’ debut is piss. Maybe three good songs on there, and the rest has so much annoying acoustic guitar experimentation I want to scream. It was such a huge disappointment that I ignored my ticket to see them at SubT and spent the night eating Indian food and drinking gin instead.
• By way of reminder, The Pigeon Detective’s debut album “Wait For Me” was one of the best fast-paced rock albums of the last decade, and if you don’t agree with me, you need to stop listening to Animal Collective, you toad.
• A curiosity: Why is it that Christian rock has yet to have any decent entries in the “indie” vein? There’s alternative, hardcore, metal, folk, etx, but where are the Pavement-aping praise groups? Where are my men dressed in black singing Satan Will Tear Us Apart?
• Wavves has the best song of the summer with King of the Beach. It’s stupid, mindless, absurd fun. I want to get high and listen to it on loop on cassette for like a week straight.
• Having a miserable time trying to find out anything from Glastonbury. As of now, all I heard was that Gorillaz set was kinda middling, and Emma Watson was wearing wellies. The American blogs are basically ignoring it, and my NME subscription ran out months ago.
• Here is an awesome cover by Tegan and Sara of an awesome Steel Train song from their new album. I have it on good authority (read: me) that their forthcoming LP is worth serious attention. Reminiscent of Modest Mouse but faaaaster.
• Did I mention I got my photo taken next to Sara at Coachella? She’s really cute.
• Why do people still like MGMT?
