At last, it has happened. A new album by The Howling Hex is on the way, promising kinda weird indie rock, cryptic titles like "O Why, Sports Coat?" and... ranchero music. According to a recent press release from the Hex’s label home, Drag City, the band — with records released under both the Howling Hex moniker and mastermind Neil Michael Hagerty’s given name — will release Earth Junk on September 23, 2008. Could September 23 get any better????

And now, a little background because there’s not really much left to this story without it: The Howling Hex started up as the brainchild of New Mexico resident Hagerty, who lives half an hour from the border of Old Mexico, or "Ol’ Mexico" like the name of a popular (?) restaurant near my hometown. The band features a revolving cast of musicians, the only constant being Hagerty, a man with considerably more ambition than me, as evidenced by his band’s previous eight albums and his two published books.

Earth Junk, the band’s ninth album, promises a "Mexican polka" flair, lots of fuzz, and basslines played on organs! What more could you ask for in an early autumn release?

Earth Junk tracklisting:

1. Big Chief Big Wheel 2. Sundays Are Ruined Again 3. Annie Get Redzy 4. Faithful Sister 5. Contraband & Betrayal 6. No Good Reason 7. The Arrows 8. Blood & Dust 9. Coffin Up Cash 10. O Why, Sports Coat?

Dear Tim,

College is a lot different than I expected. It’s hard being away from home, even if the people are nice. It’s a lot of work, too. Three-hour classes! Plus there are a lot of distractions. High-speed internet is great — they haven’t blocked BitTorrents yet, thank god. I got Nick Cave’s whole library in remastered 5.1 surround sound. The rooms are nice — cable television, and we’ve got our own bathroom right in the room. No floor showers like when I visited you at school. All in all, it’s not bad. It’ll take some getting used to. Some guys, Jordan and Matt I think, down the hall, they’re having a party, but I don’t know if I’ll go. It’s good to hear from you, tell the folks I miss them.

Dear Kyle,

I am LOVING college. Yesterday I played Frisbee on the quad, AND made four new best friends: Jordan, Carrie, Matt, and Tommy. Carrie is from California. The West Coast! Tommy is studying poli-sci, just like me, and he sits behind me in this HUGE room — Tribbey Lecture Hall. The prof is real cool, too. We don’t even call him Professor or Mr. Fernald or anything stuffy like that. Just Craig. Or Craiggo, but pronounced like Prego, you know, the spaghetti sauce? College is NOTHING like I expected. Jordan and Matt live together — they’re best friends from the ’burbs — and they’re throwing a party down the hall tonight; it is going to be off the hook. Anyway, it was good to hear from you, and YES I am eating fine. Tell Mom and Meghan I said hi.

Paul,

First of all, thanks for the package. Mom’s cookies were great, as good as Grandma’s. The CDs were much appreciated, too. How’s home? I’m adjusting to the college life pretty well, I think. It’s a lot different than I expected. I’m not used to the whole dorm thing, doors open and all that. I love that I can connect to everyone’s iTunes on the network, you know? If they didn’t block it. Some kid has Nick Cave’s ENTIRE catalog in 5.1 stereo. Jordan has surround sound and we watched The Punisher last night, but I hooked up my PowerBook to it and rocked out. It sounded decent, I suppose; 5.1 is cool I guess, for the novelty and all that. I was just PUMPED to hear No More Shall We Part from all angles. What’s really cool is that it isn’t even out yet. The first four albums are out next month on Mute, with B-sides and expanded packages. Don’t tell the government! Anyway, tell mom and dad I said ‘hey,’ and don’t let them mess up my room or anything. I’m still living there. Later.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery the The Jesus and Mary Chain must be close to death from the flattery battery they have endured from similar-sounding counterfeits since the legendary misfits started begetting back in 1984. But, as is often the case, some replicates have been interesting, most embarrassing, and none as charismatically aloof and downright exciting as the original copy. With this genuine pioneering spirit in mind, it is only fitting that the brothers Reid will release a four-disc retrospective of rarities entitled The Power of Negative Thinking: B-Sides & Rarities through masters-of-the-reissue Rhino September 30.

The four-disc set includes a large number of notable rarities: unissued tracks from 1983-1998 (Psychocandy to Munki), a primitive cassette recording of "Up Too High," the previously unreleased "Till I Found You," all the rare booty found on 1988’s Barbed Wire Kisses (minus one track), compilation efforts, alternated versions, and a lot of unnecessary acoustic renditions of classic tracks. Seriously, what word besides "distortion" comes to mind when I say "The Jesus and Mary Chain"? Exactly. Is it too much to ask for some recordings of their infamous early gigs that featured the band in all their intense wall-of-sound glory? In my experience, ear-bleeding bubblegum noise mixed with a sense of complete contempt from the band is always a crowd-pleaser.

Disc One:

1. Up Too High
2. Upside Down
3. Vegetable Man
4. Suck
5. Ambition
6. Just Out of Reach
7. Boyfriend’s Dead
8. Head
9. Just Like Honey (demo, October 1984)
10. Cracked
11. Taste of Cindy (acoustic)
12. The Hardest Walk
13. Never Understand (alternate)
14. My Little Underground (demo)
15. The Living End (demo)
16. Some Candy Talking
17. Psychocandy
18. Hit
19. Cut Dead (acoustic)
20. You Trip Me Up (acoustic)
21. Walk and Crawl

Disc Two:

1. Kill Surf City
2. Bo Diddley Is Jesus
3. Who Do You Love
4. Everything’s Alright When You’re Down
5. Shake
6. Happy When it Rains (demo)
7. Happy Place
8. F. Hole
9. Rider
10. On the Wall (demo)
11. Surfin’ USA (outtake)
12. Here It Comes Again
13. Don’t Ever Change
14. Swing
15. Sidewalking
16. Surfin’ USA (summer mix)
17. Shimmer
18. Penetration
19. Break Me Down
20. Subway
21. My Girl

Disc Three:

1. In the Black
2. Terminal Beach
3. Deviant Slice
4. I’m Glad I Never
5. Drop (acoustic remix)
6. Rollercoaster
7. Silverblade
8. Lowlife
9. Tower of Song
10. Heat
11. Guitarman
12. Why’d You Want Me
13. Sometimes,Br> 14. Teenage Lust (acoustic version)
15. Reverberation (Doubt)
16. Don’t Come Down
17. Snakedriver
18. Something I Can’t Have
19. Write Record Release Blues
20. Little Red Rooster

Disc Four:

1. The Perfect Crime
2. Little Stars
3. Drop (re-recorded version)
4. I’m in With the Out Crowd
5. New York City
6. Taking it Away
7. Ghost of a Smile
8. Alphabet Street
9. Coast to Coast (alternate take)
10. Dirty Water (alternate take)
11. Till I Found You
12. Bleed Me
13. 33 1/3
14. Lost Star
15. Hide Myself
16. Rocket
17. Easylife, Easylove
18. 40,000K
19. Nineteen66

What’s better than free music? Sex! But since you’re not getting any, you’ll be happy to know that HUSH Records is here to distract you from your hornball tendencies (stop touching me there) with a FREE compilation of music (seriously, no means no). Celebrating 10 years of existence, the Portland-based label has compiled 28 tracks spread over two "albums" titled DECA: A HUSH 10th Anniversary Compilation, featuring artists ranging from Colin Meloy, Loch Lomond, and Bobby Birdman to Flash Hawk Parlour Ensemble, Novi Split, and Podington Bear (the project of label head Chad Crouch, for your information).

Like I said, the comp (which includes a 36-page PDF booklet) is free, but if you want a high-quality ZIP version, you can head on over to this page and do a pay-what-you-want sorta thing. According to HUSH, the proceeds will "go to funding a retreat for the artists who participated. Songs are the richness of our community and we enjoy sharing them. It is an increasingly rare and meaningful gesture – which does not go unnoticed – when one is willing to pay for them of their own volition."

So, have your choice: free or donate. Choose to donate.

Album 1:

1. “Hollow Notes” - Novi Split 2. “Refining” - Peter Broderick 3. “Come By Storm” - Laura Gibson 4. “The Afterlife Pt. I” - Run On Sentence 5. “Winding Sheet” - Nick Jaina 6. “Coo Coo Bird” - Shelley Short 7. “Hiding Home” - Norfolk & Western 8. “Spring Bird” - Rauelsson 9. “Space And All Dead Things” - Corrina Repp 10. “Elephants & Little Girls” - Loch Lomond 11. “Sharra” - Kaitlyn Ni Donovan 12. “Wii Oui” - Podington Bear 13. “Broke Down” - Amy Annelle 14. “The Wagoner’s Lad” - Colin Meloy

Album 2:

1. “Song #4″ - Fun With Friends 2. “Petting Zoo” - Solid Home Life 3. “Your Smile” - Fancie 4. “Ridin’ For A Fall” (Young Dub) - Bobby Birdman 5. “These Blues” - Super XX Man 6. “Egg Hunt” - Reclinerland 7. “Asleep At The Wheel” - Casey Dienel 8. “The Bane Of Progress” - Jeff London 9. “Flight Cub” - Velella Velella 10. “Oh Darlin” - Blanket Music 11. “Big Eye City” - Operacycle 12. “Elysian Fields (We’re Dead, We’re Dead)” - Parks and Recreation 13. “Humm-na” - Dat’r 14. “Sleep At Last!” (Live) - Flash Hawk Parlour Ensemble

When Bodies of Water’s Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink was released independently on the band’s own 1000 Tongues imprint it was rightfully met with rabid acclaim. Before long, Secretly Canadian got wise and jumped in to sign the band, resulting in a redistribution of said debut album and the discharge of forthcoming sure-to-be-super-duper new album A Certain Feeling on July 22. We are not into referencing but there may be reason for being excited; any PR gush that name-drops Upsetters, Steve Reich, ESG, Velvets, an imaginary Morricone/Spector score collaboration, Wagner, Sabbath, musique concrète, and five-time tropicalia has to be good. After hearing the album, we have to admit that all of the above is true but the label forgot to mention Starship, the Like Mike soundtrack, new rave, Chris de Burgh’s "Lady in Red," a Gap commercial song montage, B.O.C., "The Bartman," grime, and "Jingle Cats." Believe the hype!

I’ve got a certain feeling that this is the song list for A Certain Feeling. I also have a certain feeling that that line you just read sucked.

1. Gold, Tan, Peach, and Grey
2. Under the Pines
3. Only You
4. Water Here
5. Keep Me On
6. Darling, Be Here
7. Even in a Cave
8. If I Were a Bell
9. The Mud Gapes Open

Regardless of any possible metamorphoses Bodies of Water may have undergone from first to second record, or will undergo from song to song, the band will assuredly still be a live spectacle of the highest order, with members perched on the stage full-throatingly testifyin’ and singing pop psalms as only they can. Their next clump of dates is bookended by two dates in Bodies of Water’s hometown, Los Angeles, where the spectacularly overpaid and underproducing superstar Andruw Jones plays Major League Baseball (that %$#&ing bum! — Dodger fan).

07.17.08 - Los Angeles, CA - Echo #
08.06.08 - Madison, Wisconsin - Café Montmartre $
08.07.08 - Chicago, Illinois - Schubas $
08.08.08 - Cleveland, OH - The Grog Shop %
08.09.08 - Toronto, Ontario - El Mocambo $
08.10.08 - Montréal, Quebec - Le Divan Orange $
08.12.08 - Cambridge, MA - The Middle East Upstairs $
08.13.08 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge $
08.15.08 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall $
08.16.08 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s $
08.17.08 - Washington, DC - Black Cat Backstage $
08.18.08 - Columbus, OH - Café Bourbon St. Annex $
08.19.08 - Indianapolis, IN - Locals Only $
08.23.08 - Los Angeles, CA - Sunset Junction Street Festival
09.02.08 - Vancouver, British Columbia - The Media Club ^
09.03.08 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey ^
09.04.08 - Portland, OR - Holocene (Musicfest NW) *
09.05.08 - Salem, OR - IKE Box ^
09.07.08 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill +
09.08.08 - San Luis Obispo, CA - SLO Art Center +
09.09.08 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah +
09.10.08 - Los Angeles, CA - Echo +

# record release show w/Seasons and The Henry Clay People
$ Port O’Brien
% Parts & Labor and Port O’Brien
^ Karl Blau
* Deerhunter
+ Throw Me the Statue

Just when you thought you were safe from the near-constant barrage of "Britpop" tagged bands being hurled around the world by these the British Press’s comically oversized medieval wooden catapults... here comes Oasis again, and they look as determined as ever to make sure that you NEVER forget who The Beatles were. Okay, so you don’t think this is all getting a bit predictable? Let’s run down the checklist, shall we?

Two irascible brothers and competing writing forces in Liam and Noel Gallagher? Check. A heady band that won’t let you forget for one damn SECOND that "British Music" is supposed to sound THEIR way, Coldplay and their lite-FM-Radiohead stylings be damned!? Check, again. Oh, music that’s huge, spacey, lush, cloyingly melodic, "druggy," just a little bit longer song-per-song than it actually needs to be? Check, check, and double check, ladies and gentlemen. They’ve got it all down!

And, well, why shouldn’t they? After all, the boys who won’t let us forget that they speak the Queen’s English are now slated to release their seventh studio album in twice as many years. Aaaaand, let’s seeeeee... psych-twinged album title? Uh, check. This newest effort, produced by Dave Sardy (who worked with the band last time out on 2005’s Don’t Believe the Truth), is titled Dig Out Your Soul and is slated for release October 7 in the United States and October 6 worldwide.

Want more proof of Oasis’s "Britishness?" Well, lets see, Dig Out was recorded at Abbey Road... umm, oh, and they’re releasing it independently (on their own label, Big Brother Recordings, to be exact) just to keep up with the Joneses (Yorkes, Greenwoods, etc.). So, does all of this mean that you are going to "dig" it? Oh come, now, reader. I think we both know that you’ve already made up your mind on that one.

Dig Out Your Soul tracklist:

1. Bag It Up 2. The Turning 3. Waiting For The Rapture 4. The Shock Of The Lightning 5. I’m Outta Time 6. (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady 7. Falling Down 8. To Be Where There’s Life 9. Ain’t Got Nothin’ 10. The Nature of Reality 11. Soldier On

Tourdates:

08.26.08 - Seattle, WA - WaMu Theater 08.27.08 - Vancouver, BC - GM Place 08.29.08 - Edmonton, AB - Rexall Place 08.30.08 - Calgary, AB - Pengrowth Saddledome 09.01.08 - Winnipeg, MB - MTS Centre 09.04.08 - Ottawa, ON - Scotiabank Place 09.05.08 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre 09.07.08 - Toronto, ON - Toronto Island Park 09.09.08 - London, UK - John Labatt Centre

If you’re like me, you like music that’s both haunting and danceable. Something that kind of scares you, but makes you two-step at the same time.

So, if you’re like me, unidentifiable indie-gems Gang Gang Dance will certainly leave you happily flustered on the dance floor. The Brooklyn-based quartet plans to release their fourth LP, Saint Dymphna, October 21, their follow-up to 2005’s God’s Money (TMT’s #4 favorite album of 2005). The new album will be released via The Social Registry in the U.S. and on Warp in the UK.

Known for their experimental approach to rock, electronica, and tribal music, the group has a knack for juxtaposing intricate, bizarre songs with catchy beats. If you take a look at the bands Gang Gang Dance have played with in the past — Black Dice, Spank Rock, TV on the Radio, Architecture in Helsinki — you’ll find it easy to see how they fit into the category of “unexplained indie rock.” Oh, just give a listen to their MySpace material, which includes new song “House Jam” remixed by XXXChange.

Gang Gang Dance will embark on a brief U.S. tour of the Northeast at the end of July, hit New York’s Central Park SummerStage in August, and will head off to Japan in September.

07.24.08 - Philadelphia, PA - M Room 07.25.08 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar 07.26.08 - New York City, NY - Bowery Ballroom 07.27.08 - Cambridge, MA - Middle East 08.16.08 - New York City, NY - Central Park SummerStage $ 09.18.08 - Nagoya, Japan - Huckfinn 09.19.08 - Shibuya, Japan - O-Nest 09.20.08 - Hamamatsu, Japan - Rock Bar Lucrezia 09.21.08 - Fukuoka, Japan - Voodoo Lounge 09.22.08 - Nagasaki, Japan - TBA 09.23.08 - Osaka, Japan - Sunsui 09.24.08 - Shibuya, Japan - O-Nest

$ Battles, Black Dice

Saint Dymphna tracklisting:

1. Holy Communion 2. Blue Nile 3. Vacuum 4. Princes 5. Inners Pace 6. Afoot 7. House Jam 8. Interlude(No Known Home) 9. Desert Storm 10. Dust

[Photo: Georg Gatsas]

It seems like just yesterday Growing was a young band in short-pants and with a runny nose, scampering off to its first day of music school. Now, it’s all grown up, sports a pencil-thin mustache, and spends every Friday night exhaling cigarettes and drinking lemon gin outside the arcade. My, how they grow!

Growing are indeed big boys now, and their refined brand of distorto-drone (© 2008, TMT) is hotter than scrap-metal recycling. The duo of Joe Denardo and Kevin Doria will unleash their long-awaited The Social Registry full-length album, All the Way, September 9, their first release since the exquisite 12-inch single/mini-album/EP Lateral (TMT Review) was issued way back in February.

All the Way tracklisting:

1. Green Flag
2. Wrong Ride
3. Rave Pie Only
4. Innit
5. Lens Around
6. Reconstruction

If we were betting folk, we would put a sawbuck down on Growing — so obviously named after the episode of "Growing Pains" where one of the boys (Mike, Ben... Alphonse?) learns a tough life lesson after he steals a skag mag and some Skoal from a convenience store, heads upstairs to the master bedroom closet with the intention of flogging his wazoo, and depositing a hunk of chaw into his father’s Italian loafers but is caught by Dad mid-wrist pump (that’s the "growing" part) who wraps up the episode nicely with a heart-to-heart at the kitchen table over mugs of Ovaltine and a friendly match of Hungry, Hungry Hippos — announcing a tour sometime soon. We are not betting folk. We are cheapskates. But Growing must play soon. That’s just the way it is done. Until then, feast your eyes on this!

07.17.08 - New York, NY - New Museum in New York (with I.U.D.)

(TMT – Manchester) Nineties alt-rock legends The Verve are set to release upcoming album Forth via the band’s own imprint, On Your Own, August 26. Frontman Richard Ashcroft publicly confirmed today that a cover of “Bitter Sweet Symphony” will in no way be included on the album, contrary to the daunting and ridicule-laden expectations of the consumer public and/or former Nineties Kids! that are now slightly overweight disc jockeys at top 40s stations in and around the Midwest.

“‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ was a really sweet jam, but it isn’t on our new album,” said Ashcroft at a press event. “I’m a million different people from one day to the next,” he added, trailing off in a raspy half-mumble.

Ashcroft then launched into an unprompted discussion of the song, named the 382nd best of all time by Rolling Stone.

“You see, what I was trying to get across [in ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’] through the powerful force that is music is that being a slave to money is, like, very bad,” he explained. “It’s sort of a complex grappling with existence that will live on until the end of time as, like, the benevolent pressure of life and love and consumerism. It’s like Damn The Man!, but it’s also like just being a slave to money till you die, you know. That’s what I was getting at lyrically, you know,” he said.

“I can confirm that the tracklisting for Forth in no way includes a reference to ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony,” he said, pausing in thought to contradict himself: “Okay, maybe tangentially.”

Friend and contemporary Noel Gallagher agreed. “Yeah, maybe tangentially, sort of,” he said in a phone interview.

Forth tracklisting:

1. Sit And Wonder 2. Love Is Noise 3. Rather Be 4. Judas 5. Numbness 6. I See Houses 7. Noise Epic 8. Valium Skies 9. Columbo 10. Appalachian Springs

It’s official: Jim James can do anything he wants.

Not only is he touring the hell out of his divisive Evil Urges (TMT Review) with his band My Morning Jacket, but according to a story in the latest Rolling Stone, he’s teaming up with fellow Midwesterner Conor Oberst and good friend M. Ward for a record. Additionally, Mr. James plans on adopting "Sec Walkin’" (a tune from MMJ’s latest record) as a stage name/alter ego for another album.

According to Rolling Stone:

...he’s recording an album with Conor Oberst and M. Ward; and, bizarrely, he’s dead serious about making music as an alter ego he describes as an Asian country star named Sec Walkin (after the Evil Urges tune about walking). "It’s such a great country name, like Trace Adkins," he says. "Look for us at the top of the charts."

While I don’t really see this making it to the top of the charts, I would suggest catching My Morning Jacket while they’re touring until New Year’s Eve. Nice sarcasm, Jim.

Maybe Sec Walkin’ will make an appearance during tour:

07.11.08 - Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms 07.13.08 - Balado, Scotland - T in the Park 07.15.08 - London, England - The Forum 07.19.08 - Benicàssim, Spain - Benicàssim Festival 07.26.08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival 08.01-03.08 - Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival # 08.15.08 - Nashville, TN - Riverfront Park 08.16.08 - Louisville, KY - Waterfront Park $ 08.18.08 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre $ 08.19.08 - Council Bluffs, IA - Stir Cove $ 08.21.08 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater * 08.23.08 - Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom $ 08.24.08 - Austin, TX - Stubbs $ 08.27.08 - Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre $ 08.29.08 - Miami, FL - Jackie Gleason Theater $ 08.30.08 - Lake Buena Vista, FL - House of Blues Orlando $ 08.31.08 - Myrtle Beach, SC - House of Blues $ 09.02.08 - Charlottesville, VA - Charlottesville Pavilion $ 09.03.08 - Washington, DC - Constitution Hall $ 09.05.08 - Philadelphia, PA - Festival Pier $ 09.06.08 - Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion $ 09.19.08 - Berkeley, CA - Greek Theatre $ 09.21.08 - Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre $ 09.23.08 - Tempe, AZ - The Marquee $ 09.24.08 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint $ 09.25.08 - San Diego, CA - SDSU Open Air Theater $ 09.27.08 - Portland, OR - McMenamins Edgefield $ 09.28.08 - Seattle, WA - McCaw Hall $ 10.02.08 - Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre $ 10.03.08 - Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater $ 10.04.08 - Detroit, MI - Fillmore $ 10.09.08 - Chicago, IL - Chicago Theatre $ 10.10.08 - Chicago, IL - Chicago Theatre $ 12.31.08 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden $

# solo show
$ "An Evening With My Morning Jacket"