Songs Are For Listening

And here's a few of my recent favorites:

The Antlers, "In The Attic"

Chris over at The Battering Room has mentioned these guys a number of times before, but for some reason I never went out of my way to listen to them. Quite possibly one of the biggest mistakes I've made in a while. The band's new album, In The Attic of the Universe, is spectacular (if a tad short). Listen for yourself -- it's available for free download at the band's website.

Preakness, "What They're Saying"

This one comes from the excellent Cable and Tweed blog, which I haven't been reading nearly enough lately. Very mid-90's sound, which always perks my ears.

Oh, and head over to Cable and Tweed to also hear some cool live Jeff Tweedy covers, including a version of Neutral Milk Hotel's "King of Carrot Flowers" (with Ken Coomer [!?] backing).

Voxtrot, "Kid Gloves"
Voxtrot, "Biggest Fan"

I'm a latecomer to the whole Voxtrot thing. While I bought the first two EPs when they came out last year, I never really spent a whole lot of time with them. Then, when the New York blogosphere went nuts over the band's Bowery Ballroom (?) shows last summer, I basically wrote them off the new Tapes n' Tapes, i.e., a blogger-fed phenomenon unsupported by any actual artistic merit. And while I still stand by that assessment with TNT, I've recently come around to Voxtrot. Strangely enough, I think it was the 3 songs I saw them play at Emo's at SXSW that did it for me. Something about seeing the songs live made them come alive for me in a way that I hadn't expected. (I'd have stayed for the whole set but my ride back to the hotel was leaving.)

The band's new album, entitled simply Voxtrot, is due out on May 22nd. [PREORDER] I've been listening to it pretty much non-stop for the last week, and am fairly certain it will end up somewhere in my top 10 or so for the year.

Calexico, "Ocean of Noise"

Via Stereogum via the Merge Blog comes a live cover of Arcade Fire's "Ocean of Noise" by Calexico. Good stuff. I didn't realize that the horns section from Calexico played on the AF version of the song. Don't hate me, but I think I like Calexico's version of the song better.