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FREE MP3s TOUR DIARY

Au Revoir Simone Tour Diary: West Texas

au_revoir_groceryBrooklyn trio Au Revoir Simone recently took to the road to promote its latest pop confection, the keyboard-buzzing beauty Still Night, Still Light. Annie Hart reports:

They say everything is bigger in Texas, so when we stopped at the typically mega, jumbo, enormous, ginourmous Fiesta Mart in West Texas for a thousand-mile-overdue oil change, it was surprising that Caroline, our English sound engineer, and I were taken aback by the size of the cereal boxes in the store. Maybe it’s because my normal grocery store is about the size of this cereal aisle (and the store was about the size of my neighborhood), and the boxes of cereal that I do buy from time to time are smaller, more demure versions of the reasonably sized Pathmark No-Frills Corn Flakes I was used to as a kid. I’ve never seen anything like this, and it made me wonder what becomes of the impossible-to-eat portions. Are they destined to be gulped down with serving spoons in great big salad bowls by college freshmen? Or end up in forgotten, stale, slightly soggy messes in the bottom shelves of pantries? I want this whole thought process mapped out in a cartoon by Roz Chast.

“Knight Of Wands” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/KnightOfWands.mp3

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VIDEOS

Film At 11: Sufjan Stevens

As we told you before, Sufjan Stevens premiered The BQE, a film-and-musical suite exploring New York City’s Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, in 2007. It will be out as a CD/DVD package on October 20 via Asthmatic Kitty. Watch the trailer, and read our in-depth feature on Stevens from 2005.

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TIVO PARTY TONIGHT

TiVo Party Tonight: Spinal Tap

tivospinaltap4353Ever wonder what will happen during the last five minutes of late-night TV talk shows? Here are tonight’s notable performers:

Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (NBC): Spinal Tap
On Metric’s website, Emily Haines tells a story about swinging by Stonehenge while in England and meeting who other than Harry Shearer of Spinal Tap. She writes, “it was Spinal Tap’s first trip to Stonehenge as well. According to Shearer, they were just making their way back to London when they spotted the source of their most memorable joke in the distance and decided, ‘this would be the time to see the full-scale version.'” Spinal Tap recently released Back From The Dead and is celebrating the 25th anniversary of This Is Spinal Tap.

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FREE MP3s

MP3 At 3PM: Girls

girlsbus6546Any song with a name like “Hellhole Ratrace” has got to be good. The San Francisco duo has added a rhythm section and some harmonies to its sound, making this track a lovely, ambling tribute to the fast life, played at a slow pace. And when Girls vocalist Christopher Owens croons “Come on, come on and dance with me” over a druggy, bedroom-pop beat, well, who could say no? “Hellhole Ratrace” and “Solitude” make up the 10-inch single that precedes Girls’ debut LP, Album, out in September on True Panther/Matador; download both songs below.

“Hellhole Ratrace” (download):

“Solitude” (download):

Categories
FREE MP3s TOUR DIARY

Au Revoir Simone Tour Diary: Austin, Texas

au_revoir_chicoBrooklyn trio Au Revoir Simone recently took to the road to promote its latest pop confection, the keyboard-buzzing beauty Still Night, Still Light. Annie Hart reports:

Austin rules. Austin is one of our favorite destinations on tour because of Mr. Natural’s Health Emporium, the best margaritas in the country, drool-worthy breakfast tacos and the best party shops ever on East Cesar Chavez. We stopped into one on the way to the show and picked up a little multi-colored burro piñata, whom I christened Chico, ’cause he’s my boy. I have a little bit of a problem with with anthropomorphizing piñatas, which admittedly is a little strange, but not as strange in my book as not anthropomorphizing piñatas. Side note: I got to talking to the sound engineer at the venue in Tucson, Ariz., about the piñata, and he said, “Oh! My dog is named Chico, too. But I found him in East Austin on Cesar Chavez, so that was no-brainer.” Look at the classic situations my Chico got into after the jump.

“All Or Nothing” (download):