I’m a little late to this, but I’m rather pleased to hear that Kings of Convenience have a new record out. Here’s a video from the single “Mrs. Cold.” Looking forward to giving the new record a spin.

The highly anticipated new record Exploding Head from Brooklyn’s A Place To Bury Strangers hit stores today. Definitely worth a spin. Absolutely gutted that I missed their live show last night in DC.

I caught these guys opening up for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart the other night and while their sound didn’t really translate to the live experience, I’m digging their recordings. Reminds me of a chiptune Majesty Crush.

If Robert Palmer’s backup singers got hit by a truck full of Bjorks, then you’d get the tacky, bored to death, technicolor robots that mime Depeche Mode’s new single off Sounds of the Universe, “Hole to Feed.” Inexplicable tongue dancing ensues. Utterly bewildering yet fascinating new video.

In this interview with NME, Graham Coxon discusses his newest record, The Spinning Top, in his typically unsure and self-deprecating way. He also admits that Blur has no plans beyond this past summer’s run of celebratory shows, which means absolutely zilch, especially considering the way these guys danced around the whole idea of reforming FOR YEARS.

“Everyone’s slipped back into what they do when the Blur creature isn’t heaving around. Law and cheese and music, I suppose.”

Downcast new Burial track from the Five Years of Hyperdub compilation on Norman Records, which is due out in the US on October 20, 2009.

I hadn’t had a chance to listen to the new Julian Casablancas song “11th Dimension” until this past weekend. It’s getting some unsurprisingly heavy airplay on Sirius XMU, and while Casablancas’ voice is unmistakably his own, the music veers away from the crunchy garage jangle of The Strokes in favor or a purer, cleaner pop sound. On the first few listens, it definitely made me grimace. I’m still not sure what I make of that keyboard line. It almost sounds like some sort of Miami Sound Machine outtake, but the tune itself is admittedly catchy. It’s growing on me.

http://www.myspace.com/juliancasablancas