Get your holiday shopping done early, and listen to tunes by Trent Reznor, Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket, John Mayer, Ministry and Josh Groban, all while supporting those in need: the fourth volume of The Bridge School Collection, which benefits children with severe physical impairments and communication difficulties, was released on iTunes yesterday. The digital release features 22 songs recorded at Neil and Pegi Young’s annual Bridge School Concert, held every October at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. The first concert was held in October of 1986 and, with the exception of 1987, has been held every year since. As a practice (but not a solid rule), performers use acoustic instruments, and Neil himself performs every year.

Support this amazing organization by buying a copy of the album on iTunes. The tracklisting is as follows:

01 Ministry: Here They Come (11/2/94)
02 Ministry: Paisley (11/2/94)
03 John Mellencamp: Jackie Brown (10/29/05)
04 Jerry Lee Lewis: Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On (10/30/05)
05 Trent Reznor: Fragile (10/22/06)
06 Trent Reznor: Hurt (10/22/06)
07 John Mayer: Heart of Life (10/27/07)
08 John Mayer: Waiting on the World to Change (10/27/07)
09 Regina Spektor: Ain’t No Cover (10/27/07)
10 My Morning Jacket: Gideon (10/28/07)
11 My Morning Jacket: Just One Thing (10/28/07)
12 Tegan and Sara: Dark Come Soon (10/28/07)
13 Tegan and Sara: Like Oh, Like H (10/28/07)
14 Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet: What Keeps Mankind Alive (10/28/07)
15 Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet: The Part You Throw Away (10/28/07)
16 Band of Horses: Marry Song (10/25/08)
17 Band of Horses: The General Specific (10/25/08)
18 Norah Jones: Jesus Don’t Cry (10/25/08)
19 Death Cab For Cutie: Cath (10/26/08)
20 Death Cab For Cutie: I Will Possess Your Heart (10/26/08)
21 Josh Groban: Changing Colors (10/26/08)
22 Josh Groban and Neil Young: Harvest Moon (10/26/08)

When we commented a week ago on the New Moon OST falling short to Michael Buble in the Billboard charts, commenter/reader Chris Molanphy pointed out a detail we had been quick to overlook “You’re leaving out an important detail, ” he said. “The ‘New Moon’ OST did that number in *three days* of sales, because they had to move the release up from Tuesday to the previous Friday. So that 115K is up against Bublé’s full seven days of sales.” And while we were incredulous upon reading that three days could create the spread, Mr. Molanphy was right on the money. Billboard is reporting that after a second—and this time full—week of sales, the soundtrack sits pretty atop the charts, having sold 153,000 copies since we last spoke. That’s a 33% uptick in sales from week one and 16,000 more units moved than that of Tim McGraw’s tenth studio album Southern Voice, which also hit shelves last week. Never doubt a Twi-hard.

Photo: Nikki Turner

Band of Skulls will grace this country’s shores once again, touching down in Los Angeles on November 6 to perform at the Twilight Saga: New Moon cast event at the Hollywood and Highland Center. The event is open to the public and will feature performances from several of the bands included on the New Moon soundtrack, including Death Cab for Cutie, Anya Marina, and Sea Wolf in addition to Band of Skulls.

Following their epic performance for Twi-hards, the band will then mosey over to the Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 15, followed by a tour of the US with Metric.

We can safely say we wrote about the band before vampire enthusiasts knew they existed. Get psyched about their tour by reading our profile here.

Tour dates are as follows:
11.06.09 Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood & Highland Center
11.15.09 Brooklyn, NY @ Williamsburg Music Hall
11.16.09 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom *
11.17.09 Portland, ME @ Portland City Music Hall *
11.18.09 Hartford, CT @ Webster Theatre *
11.19.09 Providence, RI @ Lupos *
11.20.09 Boston, MA @ House of Blues *
11.21.09 Albany, NY @ Northern Lights *
11.23.09 Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live *
11.24.09 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls Theatre *
11.25.09 Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory *
11.27.09 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre *
11.28.09 Atlanta, GA @ Centerstage *
11.30.09 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live *
12.01.09 Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa *
12.02.09 Dallas, TX @ Palladium *
12.11.09 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour

* with Metric

Twi-hards, rejoice: the soundtrack for the latest film in the Twilight series, New Moon, will be released this Friday, as “overwhelming and unprecedented demand” prompted the release date to be pushed up by four days. The album will be hitting stores more than a month before the film is released on November 20, so the Twilight faithful can comfort themselves with the musical musings of Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, Muse, the Killers, OK Go, Grizzly Bear, Lykke Li, Bon Iver, St. Vincent, Sea Wolf, and the Editors, among others, until their cinematic dreams become reality.

MTV has the full scoop on the most recent Twilight developments, of course, and is featuring an interview with OK Go and Lykke Li about their involvement with the soundtrack; check them out here and here. Stream the video for Death Cab for Cutie’s contribution to the soundtrack, titled “Meet Me on the Equinox,” here.

It must be tiring to be snarky all the time, coming home for vacation and your parents never knowing when you’re being ironic or why you think meatloaf was so last summer. So why not call a spade a spade from time to time.

Here’s the deal. The tracklist to the much-hyped new Twilight movie was released. And it sounds… really good. And why not. It’s a friggin’ pop culture phenomenon. If Phoenix or someone would have played the Harry Potter prom we would have been cool with that (although it would have given “Too Young” a bit of a new teen-angst feel). And hey, nothing else in this world has brought about a Bon Iver, St. Vincent collaboration yet. So screw it. Down is up. East is west. Blah blahblah. This soundtrack is going to be kind of awesome. The end. Vampires vampires vampires.

Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack:

01 Death Cab for Cutie: “Meet Me on the Equinox”
02 Band of Skulls: “Friends”
03 Thom Yorke: “Hearing Damage”
04 Lykke Li: “Possibility”
05 The Killers: “A White Demon Love Song”
06 Anya Marina: “Satellite Heart”
07 Muse: “I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)”
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent: “Rosyln”
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: “Done All Wrong”
10 Hurricane Bells: “Monsters”
11 Sea Wolf: “The Violet Hour”
12 OK Go: “Shooting the Moon”
13 Grizzly Bear: “Slow Life” [ft. Beach House's Victoria Legrand]
14 Editors: “No Sound But the Wind”
15 Alexandre Desplat: “New Moon (The Meadow)”

(Via: P4K)

Indeed, the vows happened, somewhere near Seattle. Little else is known about the details. But in our own indie-rock fantasm we imagine lots of beautiful people in pastel suits and horn-rimmed glasses swooning as Ben sings “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” to her and she replies with a somewhat out of context version of “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here” and he says “Because we’re married now, silly” and everyone chuckles and eats vegan cake. The end. No word yet on what M. Ward thinks this will do to the implied sexual tension on the next She & Him album. (Via: SPIN)

Photo by John Cohen

That is, if you happen to live near L.A., New York, Chi-town or San Francisco. But still, at least they spread it out a little bit. The two have been hard at work on a Kerouac-inspired album to accompany a documentary on the famed beat writer. The album is entitled One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur and will coincide with the film’s release on October 20. Members of the singer’s respective bands will provide the musical backing for the live tour. Dates for the brief tour as follows.

10.23 Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
10.24 San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
10.26 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10.28  New York, NY @ Webster Hall

(Via: Paste)

One of many interesting events that occurred during Sunday’s broadcast of the MTV Video Music Awards, the debut of a fragment of Death Cab for Cutie’s “Meet Me On the Equinox,” from the New Moon soundtrack, sent as many mouths a-moving as Kanye’s ridiculous grandstanding. MTV now has the whole track streaming on its website; other rumored collaborators on the soundtrack to the soft-core vampire porn sequel include Thom Yorke and Bon Iver.

In other Ben Gibbard-related news, the Death Cab frontman’s collaboration with Jay Farrar, titled One Fast Move Or I’m Gone and inspired by Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur, will be released on October 20 via F-Stop/Atlantic. The duo will play a handful of shows around the country shortly after the album’s release. The dates are as follows:

10.23.09 Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
10.24.09 San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
10.26.09 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10.28.09 New York, NY @ Webster Hall

The New York Post’s Page Six is reporting that Zooey Deschanel, Indie Babe 3000, is set to wed Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard at the end of this month in Gibbard’s native Seattle. Deschanel is currently in Belfast shooting “Your Highness” with James Franco and Natalie Portman. Hey man, don’t kill the messenger!

After discovering that their track for the New Moon soundtrack, “Meet Me on the Equinox,” would be the album’s leadoff single, Death Cab for Cutie set off to create a similarly epic music video. Initially, plans revolved around cameos by the film’s stars, including Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, but the band chose to focus on making a smart, stylish clip with the help of the Walter Robot directorial duo instead. (The pair had already directed the video for the band’s “Grapevine Fires.”)

The band assembled in a ski lodge outside of Toronto last week to film a video that focused on the contrast between light and dark, a theme prevalent both in the song itself and in the Twilight series as a whole, given that the books revolve around vampires. Guitarist Chris Walla notes: “The whole idea behind the video is that this house that we’re in, this crazy ski lodge of a building here, it’s going to get cut together with scenes from the film, sort of like it’s a place that might be in Forks, sort of a place that might be next door to Bella’s house or something.”

Having never read the Twilight series, lead singer Ben Gibbard drew on his childhood memories of Pacific Northwest towns like Forks and Port Angeles, where the books are set. “For me, I grew up on the west side of Puget Sound, and I spent a lot of my youth traveling around those areas — Port Angeles and Forks and down around the peninsula — and for me, who grew up in that area, it’s kind of nice to see this kind of new tourism boom,” Gibbard said. “It’s basically a logging town. There’s never been anything going on there, unless you were logging or protesting logging — those are the two things to do in Forks. But it’s a really beautiful part of the country, and it’s great to see such a beautiful light shone on it through these films.”

The soundtrack for Twilight sequel New Moon sure is sounding more and more like the lighter rock hour at a college radio station. First, word circulated that Thom Yorke and Bon Iver were penning songs for the much awaited sexed-up vampire sequel. And now comes word the first official single for the soundtrack will be a Death Cab For Cutie track premiered at the VMAs. Sort of gives “I Will Possess Your Heart” an eerier meaning eh?

The track, hilariously titled “Meet Me On The Equinox”, marks the first time DCFC have contributed original unreleased material for a film soundtrack according to bassist Nick Harmer. It also solidifies the band’s semi-odd place in tween culture for a new generation of youngsters who might never even care why Ryan and Marissa broke up.

(Via: Stereogum)

Basically every song on this album is appealing, they are short, sweet perfect little pop gems. So if you pick up this CD, be prepared for it to be the soundtrack of your summer.

Nothing can induce a potent combination of nostalgia and rage like the time-honored top 100 list. All the major music magazines have come out with at least one or two, and Rolling Stone has about a one-per-month quota. But this latest one comes from a slightly unlikely source — Amazon. Apparently they don’t just sell you music. They might actually know a little something about it, too. Maybe.

The Amazon list came equipped with a read-this-before-you-write-a-strongly-worded-letter clause, listing all the requirements and stipulations the Amazon music editors placed on albums worthy of the list.

The term “Indie Rock” is undeniably tricky. We challenge anyone to definitively define what is and what is not indie rock–you will fail. For the purposes of compiling this list we’ve decided to use a combination of hard and fast rules and gut instinct. Our hard and fast rules are listed below, but as for gut instinct—you just kind of have to know. For example: John Oates put out a rock record called Phunk Shui on an indie label, however, in no way should Phunk Shui be mistaken for indie rock. Likewise, Black Flag put out many seminal punk albums on SST, but we’re not talking about punk or grunge or classic post-kraut-rock, we’re talking about indie rock. Are Black Flag really indie rock? Not to our ears.

Here are the hard and fast rules:
• One album per artist.
• No EPs or singles, this list is about albums.
• No greatest hits collections or compilations of previously released tracks.
• Nominations must have been originally released on an independent label. Albums released on indies which were later acquired and/or re-released by majors are allowed (like Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation, originally released by a pre-1989 major label merger Enigma Records).

With the only one album per artist rule, there are definitely a few that make you scratch your head — why Death Cab’s We Have The Facts instead of Plans, why does Sufjan Stevens fall higher than Bright Eyes, and both of them higher than Arcade Fire’s Funeral, which is higher than Husker Du?

But when it’s coming from Amazon, we know two things that bring us solace. No. 1, it’s an online marketplace ranking indie records, and thus any discrepancy should be taken with that proverbial salt grain. No. 2, the only reason something like this exists on a site like Amazon is to boost sales. And any outlet that wants to boost sales of indie rock? Pretty much okay in our book.

You judge for yourself. Here’s the top 20, you can see the full listing here.

20. I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One – Yo La Tengo
19. Kill the Moonlight – Spoon
18. Give Up – The Postal Service
17. Dig Me Out – Sleater-Kinney
16. No Pocky for Kitty – Superchunk
15. I See A Darkness – Bonnie “Prince” Billy
14. We Have The Facts and We’re Voting Yes – Death Cab For Cutie
13. Michigan – Sufjan Stevens
12. Daydream Nation – Sonic Youth
11. 69 Love Songs Volume 1 – The Magnetic Fields
10. Bakesale – Sebadoh
09. Either/Or – Elliott Smith
08. Surfer Rosa – Pixies
07. If You’re Feeling Sinister – Belle & Sebastian
06. Slanted & Enchanted – Pavement
05. Imperial f.f.r.r. (Deluxe Edition) – Unrest
04. Exile In Guyville – Liz Phair
03. Spiderland – Slint
02. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel
01. Bee Thousand – Guided by Voices

The new Appleseed Cast release Sagarmatha comes on the heels of an ambivalently received follow-up to Low Level Owl entitled Two Conversations on the blink-and-they’re-gone faux-indie Tiger Style. The following record, Peregrine was their first for The Militia Group and seemed to coalesce the best parts of their early, more conventionally structured material with the epic post-rock leanings of Low Level Owl. While Peregrine was well-received by fans and critics and well-loved by Crisci and Pillar, Sagarmatha returns to more of an LLO sensibility, with only two of the songs featuring any sort of vocals.

In recent years, Appleseed Cast have been incorporating more electronic elements into their music, embracing a Minus The Bear sound replete with loops and sampling. A bit of a Death Cab fixation features prominently as well. Sagarmatha’s opening “As The Little Things Go” features a very DCFC intro and coda, stretching to a pleasant eight minutes plus of reverb and arpeggiated guitar that gets almost Pinback at times. Sagarmatha was mostly home recorded and self-produced, which may account for the epic length of some of the tracks.There are no vocals at all until three or four songs into the record, but you won’t miss them with the tasteful arrangements. A couple moments seem very familiar, like the opening of “Raise The Sails”. It’s one of the strongest tracks, but may be guilty of sounding a wee bit like Minus The Bear remixing Death Cab’s “The President Of What?” Now that Death Cab are a big deal, I can see someone from Atlantic having a quiet word with the Appleseed gents about just how far those apples fall from the tree. Similarities aside, from where I’m sitting Sagarmatha is the best Appleseed Cast release yet, rarely boring and splitting the difference nicely between the electronic and the organic.

Vagrant Records

Death Cab For Cutie has just returned from touring overseas, are getting ready to kick off  U.S. tour in April, and have just released a brand new, animated video for “Grapevine Fires” off of 2008’s Narrow Stairs. So we figured why not give you a taste of the genius combination of Death Cab’s song-writing chops mixed with the skilled animation of Walter Robot — it’s a killer combo.

Walter Robot was provoked to create the new Death Cab video for “Grapevine Fires” after the song was included on the official commemorative CD/DVD set Change is Now: Restoring America’s Promise, which celebrates the historic inauguration of President Obama. Inspired by DCFC front man Ben Gibbard and his experience with the infamously dangerous California wildfires two years ago, Robot managed to portray the devastating event through his unique style of animation, but was sill able to capture the sincere optimistic undertones of Gibbard’s lyrics throughout the video.

Robot has been praised for his work with on various projects including collaborations with Modest Mouse and Gnarls Barkley, and was even featured at the Sundance Film Festival, so it is no wonder that the merge of the two talented forces created an ingenious piece of work.

Death Cab For Cutie – “Grapevine Fires”

Death Cab For Cutie tour dates
04.07.09 – Upper Derby, PA (Tower Theatre)
04.08.09 – Washington, DC (DAR Constitution Hall)
04.09.09 – Davidson, NC (John Belk Arena/Davidson College)
04.10.09 – Louisville, KY (Louisville Palace)
04.11.09 – Memphis, TN (Orpheum Theatre)
04.12.09 – Tulsa, OK (The Brady Theatre)
04.13.09 – Omaha, NE (Holland Theatre)
04.15.09 – St. Paul, MN (Roy Wilkings Auditorium)
04.17.09 – Chicago, IL (Aragon Ballroom)
04.18.09 – East Lansing, MI (Breslin Events Center/Michigan State University)
04.19.09 – Waukesha, WI (Van Male Fieldhouse/Carroll College)
04.22.09 – Bellingham, WA (The Mount Baker Theater)
04.24.09 – Spokane, WA (McCarthey Athletic Center/Gonzaga University)
04.25.09 – Boise, ID (The Morrison Center)
04.27.09 – Sacramento, CA (Memorial Auditorium)
04.29.09 – San Diego, CA (RIMAC Arena/UC San Diego)
05.01.09 – Austin, TX (Austin Music Hall)
05.02.09 – New Orleans, LA (Contemporary Arts Center)
05.04.09 – Nashville, TN (Ryman Auditorium)
05.05.09 – Birmingham, AL (BJCC Concert Hall)
05.06.09 – Atlanta, GA (Fox Theatre)
05.07.09 – Orlando, FL (Hard Rock Live)

We’re not entirely sure the reason for Ram being reconceived by not one — but two — respected independent media outlets. We understand it’s a great album, but did we miss the 27th anniversary party or something? Either way, both WFMU and Aquarium Drunkard have managed to recreate some of Paul McCartney’s best solo work with the help of some of today’s best independent musicians.

Enlisting the likes of Earlimart, The Parson Redheads, Los Baby Fools, Naptunes, Travel By Sea, and Le Switch, among others, Aquarium Drunkard has set the stage for a diverse lineup that not only showcase the genius of Paul and Linda McCartney’s album, but also displays the variety of talented musicians are artists harvesting themselves within the L.A. region.

Aquarium Drunkard used The Parson Redheads to record the title track for the cover album, “Ram On”, and Earlimart’s recording of “Too Many People” is another notable staple cover off of the recording, bringing together an interesting redition of what-would-be McCartney’s falsetto on the track, and Earlimart’s distinctive sound. The record is available as a digital download, and can be downloaded for free, but donations for McCartney’s No More Landmines are strongly encouraged.

Meanwhile, as Pitchfork reported this morning, WFMU has enlisted some loftier names to help raise money for — well, WFMU. As we all know, these are tough times for independently run radio stations, so as an incentive for this year’s WFMU pledge drive, which runs through March 15, they’re offering up their version of Ram. The WFMU version is called Tom, after “Best Show” host Tom Scharpling and features Death Cab for Cutie, Ted Leo, Portastatic, Danielson, Aimee Mann, James Pants, Black Hollies, and more covering the classic album. It can be yours — along with a warm fuzzy feeling for helping out a good cause — for a $75 pledge, which you can make here

Langerado organizers announced the initial line-up for the seventh-annual music festival today, which is exciting for two primary reasons: 1. It’s a three-day music festival in south Florida, being held this year for the first time in gorgeous Miami; 2. It reminds us that the most magical time of year, festival season (Coachella, SXSW and Bonnaroo, glee!), is almost upon us.

Headlining the festival will be Death Cab for Cutie, Snoop Dogg, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Thievery Corporation, Slightly Stoopid and Dashboard Confessional. Even more exciting is that the rest of the line-up features Girl Talk, Cold War Kids, Mute Math, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Broken Social Scene and Flogging Molly, among others.

All the fun and frolicking (and good music, of course) goes down at Bicentennial Park in Miami March 6-8, 2009. Tickets go on sale Friday at noon Eastern, and you can buy them here with no added service charge. Tickets start at $120 for weekend passes and $75 for individual days. In keeping with the recent trend, Langerado (like Bonnaroo) will be offering a layaway/payment plan option that allows you to pay for your tickets in three equal payments spread over the three months between now and the fest.

Langerado 2009