I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I thought Marching Band would be a good inclusion to your festivities. They are a Swedish group who craft upbeat melodies and catchy guitar/keyboard riffs. Their whole album follows this really great mellow vibe. Nothing amazing going on here, but a good record to put on as your cruising down to the beach…which I am.

But not the usual beach, today I will be going to Ventura (aka my hometown). If you don’t know what Ventura is I will quote a 20/20 special I saw one time (which I think was about a murder, but thats not important). The host of the show described us as, “A sleepy seaside community.” Ventura is in Southern California for the record.

Oh wait, I have Kevin Costner in the title of this post, what is going on? Kevbo (as some of my friends call him) is performing a free concert with his rock group. Yeah, that’s right, Costner has a rock group, that of course he is the singer in. I’m so excited about going to this I didn’t even bother to look up the name of the band.

This is part of a premiere for Swing Vote, which I fucking can’t wait to see!!!

But seriously folks, enjoy your weekend and I’ll snag you an autograph; cover of Waterworld or A League of Their Own? Wait, that last one was Tom Hanks? I thought Kevbo had the market cornered on cheesy baseball sports movies!

Marching Band - Gorgeous Behavior

Marching Band - Makeup Artist

Marching Band - Spark Large

My friend D Rock and I got really into Dr. Dog after their last release; and I was really excited this week to see that they had a new album, Fate. I’ve been listening to it along with a bunch of other new stuff, and of this week’s releases I think this is the one to put your dollar down for. But anyways…

…D Rock. D Rock as you may remember was an author on the Audio Muffin; I think I am being a little selfish, D Rock started the Muffin with me about a year ago. I came from a web background and he was a musician who knew all the good shit - so it was a good team. But alas, D Rock is a rambling man; and just as quickly as he swept into the Audio Muffin’s life - he was gone again.

But I think the most interesting thing about D Rock, which I think leaving the Muffin is a symptom of; is his inevitable gravitation to an existence outside ‘the grid’. For this blog, D Rock currently doesn’t have adequate access to a computer; which I think he prefers. He is also notoriously difficult to reach by phone. He owns a cell phone, but good luck getting him to carry it on his person.

I actually got some sand in my cell phone a week ago and although it is still somewhat functional, I can’t see the screen, so I have been living my life D Rock style, sans instant access. And I think I finally understand D Rock. The rambling life is nice. This past week I’ve lived very much in the moment, not making too many plans, people who wanted to meet up were stuck with my voice mail.

So D Rock, this post is for you, and maybe if you find yourself accessing the net from a public library in Maine or Alaska one of these days you’ll find it. And speaking of this post, the first song, The Old Days, is just beautiful Dr. Dog styling; I especially like the guy faintly yelling in the beginning. The second song is a rocker, and thank you Dr. Dog for rocking!

Dr. Dog - The Old Days

Dr. Dog - The Beach

Dr. Dog - Fate

The Audio Muffin authors have been tapped to judge a Battle of the Bands at the Good Hurt on July 16th. The bands performing run a wide range of musical styles, including rock through spinning, so it should shape up to be a pretty interesting contest. One of the Muffin authors even has his band participating (hopefully he sucks or our judging days are over). But anyway, if you will be in Los Angeles next week, here is the full info:

TDP Battle of the Bands
Wednesday, July 16th
Doors open at 8 p.m.

The Good Hurt
12249 Venice Blvd
West Los Angeles, 90066
http://www.goodhurt.net/

Now there were a few really awesome albums that dropped this week. I was planning to write about the new Albert Hammond Jr. album, knowing full well that the new Ratatat album had finally been released too. But the blogosphere has really beat the Ratatat hype to death. So being that most people heard much of the album in the past couple of months I wasn’t anticipating much new shit from Ratatat this week; boy was I wrong.

The album is great, with every track interesting and pushing their sound in a different direction. Which is especially noteworthy being that you will hear the same instruments being repeated on each track - but in completely different ways. The new album has gone from my desktop, to my car, to my laptop, to the iPod, etc. I can’t take a drive without needing it on full blast. This album is also completely instrumental, mixing electro styles with classical music. In fact - I found it hard to describe a similar sounding group to my friend Paul the other day - I guess you just gotta take a listen.

The first track I’m posting is a definite must listen for anyone unfamiliar with Ratatat (although, like I said, it has been pimped all around the net for the last couple of months so most people can skip it). I decided not to post my favorite track on the album, saving it for my next Robot Music installment - which is coming close to completion so watch out for that (but honestly, if you are looking forward to that post and you are an internet shopper, you may want to order your helmet soon, because it will be coming very soon and those shipping schedules on helmets are never accurate, and that post is surely going to whack you on the melon).

Ratatat - Mirando

Ratatat - Dura

Ratatat = LP3

is the best UK grunge-cowboy, storytelling, rock star act out there by far. Its elements are infalably mixed, Devonte Hynes and Tom Clark go together like the 4th of July and running from cops. Devonte is the former vocalist for Test Icicles, a UK group that disbanded sometime in 2006. I remember them getting popular really fast, getting signed to Domino or some other major, and then breaking up as quickly as they had blown up. Found out later that they just flat out were not that into their own music. Possibly a bit too clubby for Hynes… It brings me great pleasure that the talented Devonte is now humming to the tunes of his own masterpieces with the help of his strings master, Tom Clark and an array of other musicians on the album, Falling Off the Lavender Bridge (2007), which was released on Domino for sure.

I knew the album was going to be good. How you ask? well knowing before the album was released that they were working primarily with Mike Mogis from Bight Eyes on the recording gave me a slight indication and the fact that Dev rocks the same Ibanez as me gave it away. Currently Lightspeed Champion is on tour playing shows in the UK and Australia. I would seriously recommend picking up this album…enough said.

Lightspeed Champion - Dry Lips

Lightspeed Champion - Let The Bitches Die

Lightspeed Champion - Galaxy of the Lost

Hey everybody, I’ve got a special treat for your 4th of July festivities.  This is a new group called Upsidedown Couches.  They’ve released their first single exclusivly to the Audio Muffin.  It’s written specifically for today.  God bless the USA!

Upsidedown Couches - Freedom Part III (4th of July Song)