After saying I hadn't taken more than a few days off from the blog since I started, I'm now about to take it a step further and leave the blog for a week! I'll be taking a long-awaited tropical vacation starting this Sunday, returning just in time to start up the radio show again on the morning of Tuesday, September 5. Any other PFFR blog members can feel free to post something interesting while I'm gone, otherwise, I'll be back in September!

I don't usually like music articles that get excessively personal, but for some reason I really liked this one from Pitchfork today. I think it's because it reminds me of another tale of adolescent musical discovery that I thoroughly enjoyed, Joe Meno's Hairstyles of the Damned. It also really put me in the mood to listen to the Smiths.

Salon.com has an article up today asking a group of people to make up their idea of the ideal television show. John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats takes up the challenge. Speaking of, the new Mountain Goats album is out today and apparently only those who've had their heart ripped into a million pieces and stomped all over will "get it." Take that, happy people!

Apparently the Rapture has updated their music video for "Get Myself Into It" since Jessica Simpson stole their video idea. From their PR firm:

"You may have seen the new Rapture video floating around last week for “Get Myself Into It” – well that wasn’t the correct version so let me give you the right one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFACpd4ow64

In this version you will find a nice blonde female skating around with some ice cream that remarkably resembles Jessica Simpson in her “A Public Affair” video. I hope you enjoy this addition that they made to the video."

Don't worry, DJ Lazer is still in it doing his white tornado and showing off his biceps :) . They also sent along a remix version of the song:

The Rapture - Get Myself Into It (Prince Language Disco Edit)

Here's a great show I will definitely be hitting up:

October 6: The Long Winters w/ Menomena and What Made Milwaukee Famous @ Subterranean.

Menomena and WMMF were both just signed by Barsuk Records, also home to the Long Winters. Barsuk showcase! Menomena has a new record on the way and this should be a great place to debut it.

A couple years ago I interned at a small booking agency in town called Billions, which represented dozens of great indie bands like the New Pornographers, Calexico, Constantines, and more. I thought I'd check out their webpage today to see how they were doing, and my goodness, has that company blown up- it looks like it's merged with a couple other agencies, expanded a Seattle office, added new employees and taken on dozens of new artists. I'm going to guess their real success started once they took on a then-little known band called, um, the Arcade Fire. Opening for U2 has to do good things for the bottom line, right? It's nice to see a little upstart indie music business doing so well!

Just got the new Asobi Seksu album, Citrus, in the mail, and so far it is quite enjoyable. Very ethereal sound with some of those high, cutesy Japanese female vocals that seem to pepper every Japanese female-fronted band (Deerhoof, Enon), not that that's a bad thing. Check out a couple tracks here.

New Rapture Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s66kkoJQMIg

Great song featuring some of New York City's finest dance skaters... and me.

0:31: In focus with the short shorts doing the "white tornado"
1:27-1:32 In the corner with the biceps
3:28-3:30 In the back left of the crowd clapping

Enjoy!

If I was interested in commercial radio at all, this would be a very interesting site. It still is, regardless.

September 12 is a hot date for highly anticipated album releases- new stuff from the Junior Boys, TV on the Radio, the Rapture, the Black Keys, Yo La Tengo- how will the big review sites handle it? I already have my pre-orders in for the Junior Boys and TV on the Radio through Insound.com, where both of them were available for pre-order at under $10. Why shop in brick and mortar shops (as they say in business school) anymore when you can have albums delivered right to your door on the day they come out?

Here's a Tinymixtapes article we put up today where one of our writers had his class of Houston 9th/10th graders write reviews on random indie albums. Very cute.

I don't think I'm going to like the new DJ Shadow album.

Wolf Parade/Frog Eyes

Wolf Parade
Originally uploaded by Nicolemc99.

Wolf Parade/Frog Eyes pics are up now on the photoblog! Overall, it was a good show, though it can't possibly compare to their Schubas show last year, which was almost perfect. A little sloppier with less-than-perfect sound, the band still kept the energy high, played a couple of songs we weren't treated to at Schubas ("Grounds for Divorce," "Killing Armies"), and heard a few new tunes, one that involved keyboardist Spencer Krug taking his turn at an acoustic guitar. Frog Eyes were totally on, meanwhile, playing many of the new songs I heard them debut at their Schubas show a few weeks ago, all which sounded just as great. Their general attitude was marked different than that Schubas show, where Carey Mercer just seemed angry and annoyed that his headlining band played to a much smaller crowd than opener Sunset Rubdown. With a full crowd cheering him on this time around, however, he seemed to have a newfound sense of confidence, keeping the self-deprecating comments to a minimum and even asking to play for five more minutes.

Here's a thought for a tour this fall: Wolf Parade / Frog Eyes / Sunset Rubdown / Swan Lake. Krug overload? I think not!

The good people at Chicagoist did a rundown of local blogs, and look who showed up on it! My beloved Tiny Mix Tapes also got a shout out- I think having four or five Chicago writers makes us sort of local, right?

Brad over at Radio Free Chicago posted this utterly hilarious picture related to his recent Pitchfork beef, and I just about fell out of my chair at work from laughing. That is a quality piece of Photoshop work if I ever saw one.

Cat Power has finally rescheduled her Chicago date at the Vic for September 13!

As expected, the Junior Boys' new album got a Best New Music tag. Too bad it isn't out until September 12. I really hate it when they review albums that far in advance- it's like they want to be sure they are on the front end of the hype, but it probably just encourages illegal downloading. Anyhoo, catch them Sunday, October 8 at the Empty Bottle- buy tickets quick!

And the summer of Krug continues with a new Swan Lake track! It's very nice.

And what a great promo photo:

A good article from the New Yorker about the Boredoms, where vocalist Eye tells a hilarious story about having some of his artwork stolen from a Tokyo art gallery.

Here's an interesting looking tour: Architecture in Helsinki w/ Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Who's opening for who?

Thu 09/28 - New York NY @ Central Park Summerstage
Fri 09/29 - Bennington VT @ Bennington College
Sat 09/30 - Philadelphia PA @ Trocadero
Sun 10/01 - Cleveland OH @ House of Blues
Mon 10/02 - Chicago IL @ Vic Theatre
Tue 10/03 - Chicago IL @ Vic Theatre
Wed 10/04 - Minneapolis MN @ First Avenue
Thu 10/05 - Omaha NE @ Sokol Underground
Fri 10/06 - Englewood CO @ Gothic Theatre
Sat 10/07 - Boulder CO @ Boulder Theater
Sun 10/08 - Salt Lake City UT @ In The Venue - Small Room
Tue 10/10 - Seattle WA @ Showbox
Wed 10/11 - Seattle WA @ Showbox
Thu 10/12 - Portland OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Fri 10/13 - San Francisco CA @ Warfield Theatre
Sat 10/14 - Los Angeles CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre
Sun 10/15 - Los Angeles CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre

Wolf Parade and Frog Eyes tonight at the Metro! Hopefully more details and some pics later this week.

Forgot to mention I'd be out of town from Wednesday to today . . . probably the longest time I've been away from the blog since it start, sadly enough!

Strange news from the packed inbox that awaited me:

Johnny Marr Joins Modest Mouse

While reports of a glittering white unicorn trotting
down Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg are still
unverified, Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock has
confirmed a similarly mythical rumor: Former Smiths
guitarist Johnny Marr is now a permanent part of the
Pacific-Northwest band.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Brock said Marr
"made a cautious commitment to write and record with
us, and then the tighter we got, he was like 'okay,
let's tour too.'"

Modest Mouse, with newby Marr, will tour in support of
their forthcoming album, We Were Dead Before The Ship
Even Sank, which Marr helped write and record.

Brock told Rolling Stone that after the decision to
have Marr tour with the Modest Mouse, "he was pretty
much a member of the band—not pretty much. He's a full
blown member of the band. It's really f***in' nice."

Who's up for seeing the Human League???? Sept. 29 in Wicker Park, oh yeah!