Next to the Last Romantic

Josh Ritter has announced details about his follow-up to 2006’s The Animal Years. The new album, called The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter hits store shelves on August 21. It’s Ritter’s debut on new label, Sony BMG/Victor, and is sure to live up to such a grandiose and epic title.

Ritter has often been described as an heir to the singer-songwriter tradition of Bob Dylan, whose political views sit nicely alongside personal revelations in his lyrics. Musically speaking, he’s a composer of the highest order; capturing the moments and emotions of the music were a priority in recording the new album. “A lot of this record is an effort to capture moments when they were at their most passionate,” says Ritter, “What ties them together for me is how raw they were captured and how we maintained that rawness throughout the production.”

STREAM: Josh Ritter “Right Moves” (from The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter)

Josh Ritter “Here At The Right Time” (from The Animal Years)

+Josh Ritter
+official
+Myspace
+more mp3s
+preorder The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter at Amazon
+buy Josh Ritter at Insound

What’s a Girl To Do?

4 for the weekend vol. 19:Happy Birthday, QBiM

a Population boom

A sampling of Population’s cover art.

The Most Serene Republic have announced details about their sophomore album, Population, out October 2, 2007 on Arts and Crafts. The band self-produced the album in Toronto over this past year, gathering inspiration from their hometown of Milton, Ontario.

I’m most I had a hard time getting into The Most Serene Republic the first time around, even though I adored the band’s name–which is never something to judge an artists by. In anticipation of the album, the band have made an mp3 available via their Arts and Crafts artist page, and that’s what’s sealed the deal for me. They may have always been grand and majestic and complex, but “Sherry and Her Butterfly Net” is tight and focused pop that doesn’t lose any of the band’s sweeping, epic tendencies. I’m now officially definitely excited about hearing the album.

The Most Serene Republic “Sherry and Her Butterfly Net” (from the album Population)

TMSR did a crack up job remixing and reimagining Stars’ “Ageless Beauty” for their Do You Trust Your Friends? project.

Stars “Ageless Beauty (The Most Serene Republic Mix)” (from the album Do You Trust Your Friends?)

+The Most Serene Republic
+Arts and Crafts artist page
+Myspace
+more mp3s
+buy The Most Serene Republic at Insound

Sprinting Hyphens

Jim Fairchild is the singer/songwriter and big cheese behind All Smiles. Previously a member of Grandaddy, Ten Readings of a Warning is his debut. Joining Fairchild are drummers Janet Weiss (Sleater Kinney, Quasi), Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse, Black Heart Procession, Magic Magicians), Danny Seim (Lack Thereof, Menomena), and Solon Bixler (Great Northern), so it’s not so solo after all.

It was a no-budget affair, recording the album almost entirely created on 8-track in various living rooms up and down the West Coast. Says Jim: “It sounds like the places it was recorded in. You can hear the walls, and the floors, and the ceilings, and you can hear the cars, and the trees, and the guys selling drugs outside.”

What the project lacked in monetary funds, it makes up for in sound. The grandiose without being over the top, yet intimate and personal without being uncomfortable and in-your-face.

All Smiles “Moth In A Cloud Of Smoke” (from Ten Readings Of A Warning)

+All Smiles
+Myspace
+more mp3s
+buy All Smiles from Dangerbird Records