Grant Manship

MGMT - Electric Feel

Parenthetical Girls Cover OMD

Parenthetical Girls, also known as (((GRRRLS))), are a few months away from releasing their new full-length, Entanglements.  The album will be released by Tomlab on Sept. 9th, 2008.

While you're waiting to get your hands on Entaglements, here is a non-album track.  It's a cover of OMD's "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" from their Architecture & Morality album and I think it's reaallllly good.  Be sure to check it out below.

• Parenthetical Girls - "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" [OMD Cover]

WHY? - Song Of The Sad Assassin

New MP3 from Au

A second track Au's second record, Verbs, landed in my inbox today.  While Au has just recently appeared on my radar I'm looking forward to this record based on what I've heard.  "Are Animals" (which is serves as part 2 of the album's lead-off track "All My Friends") features a 21 person choir, including members of tons of different Portland bands, including Yellow Swans, Parenthetical Girls, A Weather, Gulls, Evolutionary Jass Band, Ah Holly Fam'ly, etc.

Aside from "Are Animals" you can also check out another track from Verbs, "RR vs. D,"  below.  The album is due out on Aagoo Records June 26th.

• Au - "Are Animals" from Verbs
• Au - "RR vs. D" from Verbs

Citay - Eye On the Dollar

Man Man - Mister Jung Stuffed

Ariel Pink - Gray Sunset

MGMT Get Remixed

Jorge Elbrecht, of the psychedelic-pop band Violens, has remixed MGMT's "Time To Pretend" into a darker, more solemn version of the original.  The feeling of the remix seems to more accurately reflect the story at the heart of the lyrics.  Specifically, the feelings of not quite living up to your expectations of the prime of your life and only having the morning commute to look forward to.  I think most of us have been able to relate to that at some point during our lives haven't we???  Thankfully MGMT is normally all about cheering us up!  Alright, check out the remix below.  I've already added it to my MGMT playlist that's been on constant repeat lately. 

Also, make sure to click through to the Violens page and check them out.  I've been hearing a lot about them lately and after only my initial listen I think their psych-pop sounds really good.  You can check out a track from their debut release below if you're too lazy to click on the above link.

• MGMT - "Time To Pretend" from Oracular Spectacular [Remix]
• Violens - "Violent Sensation Descends" from Violens EP

The Impossible Shapes - Let The People Build What They Will

The Music Tapes - Minister of Longitude

New NIN Album Available Now For Free!

Radiohead left it up to you but Trent has decided for you.  You will take the album for free and you will like it.  Yes, that's right!  At some point this morning Trent Reznor took his experimentation with releases to a new level and decided to give away his new album The Slip away for absolutely nothing.  The note from NIN is as follows:

as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.

the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE.  your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.

for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.

So what are you waiting for?  Pick up your free swag here.