Hey! Hey! It’s trailer day and apparently, Bishop Allen week, at least on The Walrus.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which is set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and stars everyone’s favorite awkward “teen” Michael Cera, is based on the 2006 novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

The plot goes like this: “High school student Nick O’Leary, member of the queercore band The Jerk Offs, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.” Cue the sweet and oh-so-amusing trailer:

Not too shabby! But the coolest part of this whole coming-of-age indie rock tale is the soundtrack, which features Bishop Allen (who make a special cameo appearance in the movie), We Are Scientists, Band of Horses, Devendra Banhart, Modest Mouse, Vampire Weekend, Shout Out Louds and The Raveonettes. Wait…What’s that sound? Oh, it’s P’fork shitting their pants.

The film hits theaters on October 3rd. No word yet on the release date of the soundtrack.

The Free Yr Radio campaign, created by Toyota Yaris and Urban Outfitters to generate awareness and support for partnering independent radio stations, will be putting on FREE shows in Philadelphia, Omaha, and Salt Lake City during the months of August and September.

Omaha gets Dan Deacon (son of a!), Salt Lake gets Tokyo Police Club (meh) and Philly gets…Secret Machines and Making Time’s Dave P. NOICE! The Philly show is presented by WPRB 103.3 in Princeton, one of the most consistent and knowledgeable indie stations in the country. Oh yes, she and I go way back.

Grab your free ticket for the August 12th Philly show here and you can purchase the benefit comp here.

What’s that? You definitely prefer free music? Cool, me too. Go and download Urban’s newest FREE mix, featuring Music Go Music, War On Drugs, Lykke Li, Dr. Dog and MORE. So what if all the songs can be found on Hype Machine? You LOVE FREE shit, just like me!

Secret Machines – Lightning Blue Eyes

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Well, it’s about goddamn time dudes! The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has been talking up his pet project, the sci-fi, low-budget film Christmas on Mars, since who knows when. Finally, an official release date has been announced and a trailer has hit the web. Yes, the trailer is super weird. Then again, what did you expect from a dude who stage dives in a giant plastic bubble?

Christmas on Mars will be shown this summer at various shows and will hit DVD racks, with an accompanying audio disc, just in time for, you guessed it, Christmas!

When The Cardigans released First Band on the Moon in ‘96 it was a semi-worthy follow-up to their amazing and insanely underrated album Life. The one song that stood out like a dwarf in a basketball game was the hipster-chic track (for the time) “Lovefool,” which went on to be a modest hit. It had that 60’s style and charm with a hint of new disco. But was it the song or just the style that was so compelling? Well, The Morning Benders acoustic version of the song from their newly released FREE covers album, Bedroom Covers, answers that one with a softer and down-to-earth “yes.” Have a listen.

Download the rest of the album here.

The Morning Benders – Lovefool (Cardigans Cover)

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Koushik’s “Lying in the Sun” is a glowing and youthful kaleidoscope of horns, bells and beats that recalls the music of 60s pop bands like Sagittarius and United States of America, as well as Native Tongues-era hip hop.

Now if you are like us, you may notice the uncanny similarity between this song and pretty much every song on Caribou’s immaculate album Andorra. That aint no coinkydink, friend. Northerner Koushik lends his voice to a few of those tracks, and now it seems as though he is catching Snaith fever. Jeez I hope he doesn’t get sued by a legendary punk-rocker too.

“Lying in the Sun” will be featured on Koushik’s new album Out My Window, out 9/30 (my niece’s b-day:) on Stones Throw.

Koushik – Lying in the Sun

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Like another French garage rock band, The Last Rapes of Mr. Teach, The Feeling of Love have a special place in their hearts for drunken, lo-fi. The charmingly titled “Dad = Eat, Mum = Die” from their debut album petite tu es un hit is a gritty sing-along, a la Black Lips, infected with face-melting noise spasms. How romantic.

petite tu es un hit is available now on vinyl from Yakisakana Records (site is temporarily down. If you know another place to buy it, send me the link!)

The Feeling of Love – Dad = Eat, Mum = Die

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Uh oh, looks like there are only a few more days left in which you can enter and win this absurd and wonderful prize designed by our good friends Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction and Times New Viking. The July 31st deadline is quickly approaching!

Now I must say, of all the t-shirts I own, this is the one that definitely gets the most attention/compliments when I wear it out. It also has an uncanny ability to spark conversation. So whether you have trouble breaking the ice or just like making a statement with your fashion, enter the contest for your chance to win a free one. Time(s New Viking) is running out!

The music on Animal Collective’s remix for the Goldfrapp tune “Little Bird” could be thought of as a modern-day, minimalist electronic version of a Syd Barrett composition, with the addition of angelic vocals and a thick texture. The song’s ambiance recalls Laika, a lesser known electronic band from the UK that got some recognition in the 90s. Overall, it’s not as chaotic as AC’s own work, which is refreshing in this case.

The remix is taken from the new Goldfrapp 7″, Caravan Girl, which is available here.

Goldfrapp – Little Bird (Animal Collective Remix)

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There is no shortage of good bands playing tonight in Philly, here’s a quick rundown of our recommendations:

Love City – The Other Side

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She and Him – I Thought I Saw Your Face Today

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Friendly Fires – On Board

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MGMT – Kids

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In 1986, between the rise of The Smiths and The Stone Roses, NME released a compilation once referred to as “the most indie thing that ever existed.” Really? The most indie thing ever?! No way! Annoying anecdotes aside, C86 (Casette 1986) was a tape featuring British bands that would help to usher in the underground musical movement known as indie-pop, or what some call “twee-pop” (even though much of the music on the comp was tilted towards punk, no-wave and arguably, shoegaze…go figure).

Unlike it’s predecessor, C81, only a couple of the bands on C86 (Primal Scream, Wedding Present, Pastels) went on to make somewhat of a name for themselves beyond the British underground. But that, as I am sure you have already guessed, wasn’t the point. The daring quality of the music and the DIY spirit (it sounds like crap, so you know it’s made by real people!) was what mattered. The songs on the tape, which I recently found online, vary in style from punk to jangle-pop to off-kilter funk to slowcore. Through the years, bands that were inspired by the sounds featured on the original cassette, were labeled as “C86.”

So is it any good? Well, from the 22 song collection, I have pulled some highlights which you can download below. It’s a fun listen and definitely cool to hear where bands like The Stone Roses, Slowdive, Manic Street Preachers, and Arctic Monkeys came from…as well as some from the current crop of Lo-Fi bands. It’s also neat to see where Velocity Girl took their name…

The cassette isn’t for sale anywhere as far as I can tell, but I’m sure you can find it floating around online like I did. For more info, check out this article and this article. Also visit the modern day home of all things C86, Indie-MP3.

Primal Scream – Velocity Girl

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Soup Dragons – Pleasantly Surprised

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The Pstels – Breaking Lines

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Bogshed – Run to the Temple

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Shop Assistants – It’s Up To You

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Half Man Half Biscuit – I Hate Nerys Hughes (From The Heart)

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Stump – Buffalo

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These days there seems to be a lot of bands doing the “garage-rock” thing, but White Denim is one that turns it on it’s head. Don’t get me wrong, I love simple, straight-forward…even predictable rock and roll, but once in a while it’s good to shake things up…and in this case, really good.

On “I Can Tell You,” from their fantastic, off-kilter debut album Workout Holiday, the Austin band channels James Chance, MC5 and The Creation through a funky, quasi-jazz groove that sounds great every time.

I highly recommend that you purchase Workout Holiday, which will be released domestically on 8/5. You can pre-order it now on Amazon.

White Denim – I Can Tell You

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In my previous post, I mentioned I wasn’t that into new Hip-Hop, well wouldn’t ya know it? I spoke too soon because here comes Canadian duo Thunderheist, comprised of Nigerian born, female MC Isis and producer Grahm Zilla. I’m loving the old-school party flavor of their semi-dirty, club-induced party anthem “Jerk It.” Plus, it’s getting some serious action lately courtesy of djs and blogs. I wonder why? Oh yea, because it’s fun as hell.

The duo’s debut EP, Jerk It, is available now on their website.

Also check out this weird and awesome video for the song, which was the winner of Thunderheist’s “Jerk It” video competition”:

Thunderheist – Jerk It

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