Friday Random Five (#8)


It's that time of the week again, the weekend spread out before us with the promise that the things that never happen for any of us on any weekend will, finally, happen this weekend. But I digress and, in the event that that's not the case, a rather special Random Five has been constructed this week made solely of brand new and soon to be released kinds of things (except for one, which is new but might not ever be released). Anyway, here's to your enjoyment of the selections, be they a soundtrack to, or a replacement for, whatever your weekend holds.


1- We begin with a track from Austin's Okkervil River, who are set to release an EP of songs that didn't quite make it onto their most recent full-length, Black Sheep Boy (surprisingly entitled Black Sheep Boy Appendix). It's out November 22nd on Jagjaguwar, and "No Key, No Plan" (MP3) will be on it.

2- I don't know a lot about singer-songwriter Edith Frost, but she's got a new album called It's a Game coming out on Drag City on November 15th. "Emergency" (MP3) is a song that will make you want hear the rest of it.

3- You may or may not have heard, but several Elliott Smith tracks were leaked this week, purported to be from the same sessions as the From a Basement On the Hill recordings. While that claim has been refuted for some of the songs, others have been confirmed-- "The Worst Part Is Almost Over" (MP3) is one of those.

4- Harvey Danger are back, as you may have seen on this blog a couple of weeks ago, and sound great on the new full-length Little By Little. They've also gotten some attention because they happen to be giving away the album as a download on their website. Here's a demo version of "Wine, Women & Song" (MP3), which appears in a slightly more poppy and horn-laden state on the new album.

5- A few years back the Red House Painters' Mark Kozolek released a couple of albums worth of AC/DC covers. Rock & Roll Singer and What's Next to the Moon ingeniusly reinterpreted Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs into Kozolek style folk, shedding a whole new light on the content and meaning of the songs. Kozolek's latest act, Sun Kil Moon, is set to release a Modest Mouse covers album entitled Tiny Cities on November 1st. The tracklist more or less covers the entire MM discography, with slightly more attention paid to their early catalog. If nothing else, the project promises complete re-realizations, as in this version of "The Ocean Breathes Salty" (MP3).


enjoy. rinse. repeat.