The Arcade Fire + Crack Cocaine =

Meet iForward, Russia! (the first "i" is supposed to be an upside down exclamation point, like they do in them other languages). These guys are from Leeds, England, and if you check out their debut album, Give Me a Wall, you'll notice that all the tracks are named with numbers. Here's a secret: they name 'em after the order in which they write 'em.

Anyway, I'd recommend these guys to anybody who are kinda worried that Bloc Party and the Arcade Fire have gotten kinda pussy with their follow-ups. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is nice to rock out every now and then, right?

iForward Russia! - Nine

iForward, Russia! - Twelve

Elliott Smith lives!

Or so I wish.

Mark your calendars! May 8th, Kill Rock Stars will be releasing a double disc Elliott Smith CD called New Moon. It will be music recorded from 1995-1997. The list of songs is below. I'm sure this won't be the last time we see releases from my true love.

xo J

Disc 1

Angel In The Snow
Talking To Mary
High Times
New Monkey
Looking Over My Shoulder
Going Nowhere
Riot Coming
All Cleaned Out
First Timer
Go By
Miss Misery (early version)
Thirteen

Disc 2

Georgia Georgia
Whatever (Folk Song in C)
Big Decision
Placeholder
New Disaster
Seen How Things Are Hard
Fear City
Either/Or
Pretty Mary K (other version)
Almost Over
See You Later
Half Right

Bloc Party, Live!

NME.com is graciously streaming an entire Bloc Party live show in Bristol from earlier this month. Check it out while you still can because it's probably a safe bet to say that this gem won't be up forever.

Yay-yay.

500 Greatest Songs, Live!

Here's an ambitious endeavor: Coming this May, Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta will be hosting a ten-day marathon featuring 500 bands, each of which performing one song on Rolling Stone's 2004 greatest songs list. They've already got about 100 bands signed up, and the proceeds go to the kiddies, courtesy of the Songs for Kids Foundation.

Random fantasy question: If you could choose any two or three songs on the list to perform, which would you choose?

I'd want to take a crack at Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It," and maybe follow with the Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner," but yeah, definitely gotta push it real good.

soul brother

Coachella is good and all but when was the last time we talked about some soul on this blog (RIP the godfather)? Since D went and dropped the mother of all neo soul jawns and went MIA, I've scoffed at those trying to take his crown... and when Bilal came on the scene couple year's back I did the same...it certainly didn't help that the WNBA licensed his "Soul Sista" joint to market their league... I figured after he'd drop his little solo joint that he would fall off the face of the earth... but then dude started working with the Soulquarians and all... did some vocals on common's Be joint, produced some of ms badu's music, then he goes and kills "Nightmares" on my #6 album of 2006... and I get to thinking...where is dude's much hyped about second album Love For Sale? well thanks to label politics, its been shelved and prolly won't be offically released evah... but I managed to get the album (shhhh) and well if the label ain't gonna put it out there...then i will cause you NEED this in your lives, here it is: Bilal-Love For Sale. and yea Bilal used to sing backup for D. and yea people at work think i'm crazy when they walk into my office and i got this on blast.

UPDATE// Love For Sale.zip (full album)