Take the New Old Neutral Milk Hotel Blog Tour!

Courtesy of Neutral Milk Hotel dot org, You Ain't No Picasso, My Old Kentucky Blog, and ultimately, Jeff Mangum's former roomate, Shannon: Six previously unheard Neutral Milk Hotel demos.

Read Shannon's story, (it's amazing), then hit up YANP to get the rundown on where to get what.

If I place all my chips on only one bet, I'm all in

My conscience got the best of me, so I took down the link to Rabbit Furcoat (google "Jenny Lewis leak" if you really really want it). Jenny deserves your money.

On that note, it's ladies of country night at Father to a Sister of Thought! Yeeeeeeeeeeeehaw!

Neko Case-Deep Red Bells
Rabbit Furcoat is garnering all sorts of comparisons to the ringing voice of the New Pornographers. Both Neko and Jenny's voices are nicely complemented by honky tonk slap echo, but whereas Lewis usually employs a growl to get her point across, Case ups the helium and soars to another altitude. How else could she ring so much just out of the words "deep", "red" and "bells"?
(buy Blacklisted from Amazon.com)

Loretta Lynn-Fist City
During an apartment-wide music swap last night, my roommate Carrie couldn't decide on which Loretta Lynn songs she wanted from our friend Mike. Her solution: take the ones with the funniest titles. Now I can't do anything without the threat of being taken to Fist City being hung over my head. For those of you who, like myself, don't have much non-Jack-White-mediated exposure to the Coal Miner's Daughter, Fist City's as good a place to start as any (sorry I don't have the whole song).
(buy All-Time Greatest Hits)

Bonus Canadian MP3: Broken Social Scene-Major Label Debut (Fast)
As David Newfeld told Pitchfork last week, "Yeah, it's a nice tune, but we don't want to be the Gin Blossoms." I can see his point, but this is way better than "Hey Jealousy".
(buy Broken Social Scene)

If we can help to entertain you, oh we will find the ways

Christmas comes early!

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins-Rabbit Furcoat(link removed)
Everyone's excited about this, but it's my first time with a leaked album, cut me some slack. Going completely country suits Ms. Lewis well. I've always thought she and Neko Case were cut from the same beautiful auburn haired cloth

Carrie, Erik and Luke-"Step Into Christmas"
Good God these kids are hysterical. Stick around for bonus super-cool teleporter footage during the credits.

Where do s'pose she goes?

You know who's awesome? The White Stripes.

Conan O'Brien and Michel Gondry are pretty awesome too. See their combined awesomeness through skewed perspectives via the links below
Take some Dramamine, then watch the video for "The Denial Twist"
Awesomeness for those with Windows Media Player
(courtesy of Stereogum)

You throw the voice you know wouldn't say yes, the body says no

I feel like linking tonight, like linking tonight, like linking tonight:

Jacky White writes song for Coke
All the makings of the best soft drink pitch song since "I Like the Sprite In You". Will they start selling three packs to appease the maddest genius in Detroit?

You Ain't No Picasso brings you World Leader Pretend
Yeah, it's from last week. But the songs are really good. In the vein of the most anthemic Radiohead/Muse/Coldplay stuff, but with bigger horn sections.

I really wanted to write about the CBC Radio 3 Podcast, but I'll save that for another day. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't check it out.

What I've Been Listening to This Week, Vol. 1: This Is A Song For Carol!

I bid you welcome to the first installment of Father to a Sister of Thought's "What I've Been Listening to This Week". In this edition, we'll be taking a look at a couple of incredi-buzz indie acts and some of the patron saints of alt-rock. So without further ado...

Antony and the Johnsons-I Am A Bird Now (Buy it from Amazon.com)
I was pleased to see this in my roomate's LiveJournal the other day, because that meant I could steal it from her and finally see what everyone’s been talking about. I Am A Bird Now is angelic, androgynous cabaret pop from the angelic, androgynous Antony and his Johnsons (huh huh). Though Antony’s voice sometimes sounds like it belongs to a Ziggy Stardust-worshiping Josh Groban, the lyrical themes of birth, death and rebirth (all tying to gender and sexuality) distances the album from middle-of-the-road radio pap. Boy George, Rufus Wainright, Devendra Banhart and motherfuckin’ Lou Reed all show up to lend a hand; Reed’s spoken word intro on “Fistful of Love” acts as a stamp of approval for the song’s white soul take on the dark secrets that pop couldn’t explore before “Venus In Furs”.


Rogue Wave-Descended Like Vultures (Buy it)
I was drinking with some friends last year when one of them put on Rogue Wave's debut LP, Out of the Shadow. I wasn’t impressed. It was good, catchy indie pop, but there was something lacking. It didn’t seem to sink it's hooks into me like other records have. Fast forward to this week, Descended Like Vultures, and it’s opening number “Bird On A Wire”. Damned if those caterwaulling guitars weren’t what I was searching for (they might have been on the first album, but I wasn’t in the right state of mind to hear them). "10:1" starts off as a pristine rocker, but when that Elvis Costello organ squeal comes in after the first verse, you know things will only end up immaculately disordered.


Pixies-Surfer Rosa (Buy it)
Forgive me father, for I have sinned: up until this week, I had, for all intents and purposes, pretty much ignored the Pixies. I had "Where Is My Mind?" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven", but no full Pixies albums in my possession. After a week of classes with "Bone Machine" and "Gigantic" looping in head, I'm simultaneously angry and glad I didn't get into the band earlier. I shall now perform thirty spooky "ooo-ooo's" and fifteen "You're so pretty when you're faithful to me's" to atone for my tresspasses.

Come on baby, now throw me a right to the chin

It's November, and in Erik Adams' world, that means it's Ben Folds Five time.

The Five's music is perfectly suited to this time of year. Like the emotions I feel in the eleventh month of the year, it's optimistic and playful (Christmas is on its way!) and at the same time cynical and gloomy (frigid temperatures and impenetrable snowfall is on it's way!). Here's a couple of my favorite BFF tracks for November:

Selfless, Cold and Composed (from Whatever and Ever, Amen)
As an alternative rock band working with vocals, piano, bass, and drums, the Five were outfitted to strike the occasional jazz combo posture. The instrumental interludes in “Selfless” would work well under scenes of a college-age Charlie Brown getting the football pulled out from under him by an aloof ex who could give Lucy a run for her psychiatry stand money (the jingle bells in the outro don’t hurt either).
(Click here to buy the extended version of the album from Amazon.com)

Jane (from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner)
Unauthorized Biography is the band's swan song, and as such, is often more introspective and cinematic than any of its predecessors; it's an album for grayer days. "Jane" strips away most of the album's excesses, exploring the recurring Folds theme of be-true-to-yourself-ism over a swaggering beat and electronic flourishes. Climaxing with a crunch from Robert Sledge's fuzzed-out bass, it's self-assurance in a cold November rain.
(Click here to buy the album from Amazon.com)

And when we meet on a cloud I'll be laughing out loud

Tell your town crazy that he's been right all along: the end is nigh! And what signs have convinced me of this? Click away at the following links, doubters!

-Neil Diamond's MySpace page
-Parts six through eight of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" premeire tonight on VH1, and there's four more parts on the way!

Repent Repent!

Five is the number that I dream about

Check out my iPod article in The Big Green!

Listened to the new Rogue Wave today...it's pre-ordained that I should like it, and I can admit...Descended Like Vultures is actually a decent ablum through the first listen. What the second listen holds, only the future can tell...

However, at this point it's got nothing on Broken Social Scene. Find me a rock track from 2005 that pumps you up more than "Windsurfing Nation", and I'll try to split the coast in half with my face.

Broken Social Scene-Windsurfing Nation

What you do that for?

OK, first real post...

I had no idea Fiona Apple was going to be on Letterman tonight. I just caught the tail-end of "O' Sailor", and while in might have been ruined when it was re-recorded by Mike Elizondo, that oh-so-chilling vibraphone part is still there. Not only was there vibraphone, but she was backed by five or six guys, which means she could pull off the original Brion arrangements...if she really wanted to. But it's not Fiona who wants her to do that; it's me.

Also, she was a surprisingly candid interview for the few minutes she was on the couch.

New Feeling

Here it is ladies and gentlemen...Erik's very own music-related blog. I'm still continuing with my LiveJournal, but this will be the place to find my vaguely pretentious thoughts on rock 'n' roll. Think of Father to a Sister of Thought as the retaining pool for the torrent of musical musings pouring from my brain.

Now don't be a stranger!