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    "The Winter of Mixed Drinks"
    Frightened Rabbit

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    "The Suburbs"
    Arcade Fire

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    "Soundtrack To The End"
    Communist Daughter

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    "Crazy For You"
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    "Treats"
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Watch This

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    "Silver Soul"
    Beach House

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    "Little Secrets"
    Passion Pit

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    "Unhinged"
    Eels

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    "Black Smoke"
    Tindersticks

Vancouver duo the Pack a.d. talks blues and the power of playing as a duo

Becky Black and Maya Miller aren’t messing around.
The Vancouver duo, known as the Pack a.d., plays blues-laced garage rock with ferocious abandon, and they do it a lot: Black and Maya played 157 shows in 2009. Naturally, all that rocking out has molded them into a super-tight unit, and it shows on “We Kill Computers,” [...]

Jesse Malin draws inspiration from love, Salinger, on new LP, ‘Love It To Life’

Jesse Malin likes to talk about “positive mental attitude,” the words behind the “PMA” decals on his trusty black Les Paul. It’s a motto that’s served him well — particularly over the last couple of years.
Following the release of his third album, 2007’s “Glitter in the Gutter,” the New York City singer-songwriter found himself broke, [...]

Slackers’ Glen Pine talks about 2 Tone, songwriting and band democracy

Glen Pine joined the Slackers in 1997, just after the New York City band released its sophomore effort, “Redlight.” The album marked a major step forward, its mix of ska, reggae, rocksteady, dub, soul, and ’50s rock ‘n’ roll prefacing the string of smart, genre-defying releases that has followed. More than [...]

Latest from Mantler takes lush turn with inspiration from ’70s R&B and ’60s film

After Mantler released “Landau” in 2004, mastermind Chris A. Cummings figured it would take three years to make the next record. It actually took six, in part because he was in no hurry.
“It ended up being really exhausting, getting it out on a deadline, so I decided that when the time came to record my [...]

Drive-By Truckers talk rock, learning to listen and living in the present tense

The Drive-By Truckers like to work ahead: the Southern rockers have usually finished making the album after the current album by the time the current album comes out. For example: The band this week released its latest, “The Big To-Do” (ATO), and already has the next record in the can ready for release later this [...]

Ted Leo sheds stress of deadlines, record label, for new LP ‘The Brutalist Bricks’

After releasing “Living With the Living” in 2007, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists got off to a fast start on the follow-up. It also proved to be a false start.
Recording sessions went nowhere, prompting the band to take a year-long break from the studio — just in time to spend the summer opening for Pearl [...]

Retribution Gospel Choir leader talks lyrical themes, geography and football

The first album by Retribution Gospel Choir came together in a hurry in 2008, but Alan Sparhawk’s Low side project took its time honing songs for the follow-up.
“The first record was pretty early in the band and we were still trying to figure out what was going on,” he tells Listen, Dammit. “This time we [...]

Neon Indian's Alan Palomo on nostalgia, buzz and 'Wonderful Christmastime'

Perhaps by instinct, children of ’80s suburbia will be drawn to the music of Neon Indian.
Armed with vintage synths and arcane samples, group mastermind Alan Palomo writes songs reminiscent of, among other things, Wham hits, Sega soundtracks and Cameo-era funk jams. Listening to Neon Indian’s debut, “Psychic Chasms” (Lefse), is like sleeping over your at [...]

Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard draw from Kerouac’s ‘Big Sur’ for ‘One Fast Move’

Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard had never met before each was asked to contribute to the soundtrack for “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur,” a new documentary exploring the Beat author’s last major novel.
The Son Volt singer and Death Cab for Cutie front man got along so well that what they thought [...]

A Fine Frenzy singer Alison Sudol talks songwriting, books and growing up

Alison Sudol laughs with delight when it’s suggested that “Bomb in a Birdcage” (Virgin), the new album by her band A Fine Frenzy, is more muscular than its predecessor.
“I just imagine a really big dude in a tank top with big arms,” she says by phone from home in Los Angeles.
Sort of, yeah. A Fine [...]

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