I wish I could say I wasn’t so busy right now. There are a lot of things I’d like to write here about (the DRM-free EMI deal being just one of them). But instead I spend all my spare time working on other projects. Hopefully that won’t be for too much longer.

But for now, here’s my March Monthly Playlist. It should be pretty clear what albums I was in love with this month.

1. Belle and Sebastian - “This is Just a Modern Rock Song” (Push Barman To Open Old Wounds)
2. Sondre Lerche - “The Tape” (Phantom Punch)
3. The Arcade Fire - “Keep The Car Running” (Neon Bible)
4. The Arcade Fire - “Intervention” (Neon Bible)
5. Daniel Lanois - “Sonho Dourado” (Friday Night Lights Soundtrack)
6. Air - “Photograph” (Pocket Symphony)
7. The Arcade Fire - “My Body Is A Cage” (Neon Bible)
8. Life In Your Way - “Reach The End” (Waking Giants)
9. The Arcade Fire - “Windowsill” (Neon Bible)
10. Sherwood - “Song In My Head” (A Different Light)
11. Wilco - “Misunderstood” (Kicking Television: Live In Chicago)
12. A Tribe Called Quest - “Jazz (We’ve Got)” (The Low End Theory)
13. Sherwood - “For The Longest Time” (A Different Light)
14. Port Royal - “Zobione Pt. 2″ (Flares)
15. Laura - “Fugitive” (Mapping Your Dreams)
16. Laura - “Ariadne” (Mapping Your Dreams)
17. Jesu - “Tired Of Me” (Jesu)
18. Mogwai - “Kids Will Be Skeletons” (Happy Songs For Happy People)
19. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - “Television, The Drug Of The Nation” (Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury)
20. Sherwood - “Home” (A Different Light)
21. Andrew Bird - “Armchairs” (Armchair Apocrypha)
22. REM - “Sweetness Follows” (Automatic For The People)
23. REM - “Man On The Moon” (Automatic For The People)
24. Tom Waits - “Jesus Gonna Be Here” (Bone Machine)
25. Tom Waits - “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” (Bone Machine)
26. Mims - “This Is Why I’m Hot (Blackout Remix)” (Music Is My Savior)
27. AFI - “Love Like Winter” (Decemberunderground)
28. Modest Mouse - “Dashboard” (We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank)
29. The Weepies - “Gotta Have You” (Say I Am You)

The Coachella 2007 lineup was posted today, with some especially surprising news that Rage Against The Machine, who broke up in 2000, will be headlining on Sunday, April 29, the last of three days of musical mayhem.

Apparently it will only be for this one show, but I still wonder about the possibilities. Obviously enough reconciliation has happened that vocalist Zach De La Rocha is willing to share the stage with his former band mates (now known as the non-vocal portion of radio rockers Audioslave), so it doesn’t seem too far a stretch for them to realize how much chemistry they had on stage, and that maybe, just maybe, they’ll start to miss it. Hey, let me dream, OK?

Other notable Coachella confirmations (aka the ones I really care about) include: Björk, Interpol, Explosions In The Sky, The Jesus And Mary Chain (whaa?), Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Arcade Fire, The Decemberists, Sonic Youth, Nickel Creek, Damien Rice, We Are Scientists, Comedians Of Comedy, Circa Survive, Gillian Welch, Kings Of Leon, The New Pornographers, The Black Keys, Blonde Redhead, !!!, Regina Spektor, Jack’s Mannequin, The Nightwatchman, Andrew Bird, Girl Talk, Amos Lee, Ratatat and Anathallo.

Others festivals are on the horizon as well. I previously mentioned SXSW, and the Pitchfork Music Festival was recently announced to be taking place mid-July in Chicago.

This onslaught of news kinda makes me wish I were independently wealthy and could travel anywhere at any time.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s post that things are finally starting to pick up for 2007, the confirmed-so-far lineup of 240 (yes, 240) artists for this year’s SXSW festival in Austin has been posted.

Here are the artists that make me wonder if I should trek my way out to Texas this year:

• 65daysofstatic
• Aqualung
• Architecture In Helsinki
• Badly Drawn Boy
• Bloc Party
• Blonde Redhead
• Circa Survive
• Cold War Kids
• Cute Is What We Aim For
• Daniel Johnston
• Diplo
• Emmylou Harris
• Girl Talk
• I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
• Interpol
• Kings Of Leon
• Les Savy Fav
• Lily Allen
• Malajube
• Mates Of State
• Matt & Kim
• Morrissey
• Okkervil River
• Ozomatli
• Pete Townshend
• Rocky Votolato
• Scissor Sisters
• The Stooges
• The Walkmen
• These Arms Are Snakes
• Thunderbirds Are Now!
• Viva Voce
• Voxtrot
• Watson Twins

I have no idea how they’re making any profit from this whatsoever, but it makes me pretty happy. This is from the weekly newsletter from my local independent record shop, Boo Boo Records, where I am a regular customer:

Occasionally a customer sighs and says “gee, I wish I could spend this big box gift card here, they never seem to have what I really want, and you always do”. Well, now you can use those unwanted gift cards from Aunt Betty, Grandma Moses, or whoever thought it was cool to hook you up with generic big box #7214. We will gladly accept gift cards from any major, non-independent store that sells entertainment media in our area. This includes, but is not limited to: Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Wal-Mart, and Starbucks. All you need to do is bring in your card and we’ll give you the full value on anything in our store.

Props to you, Boo Boo. Keep it up, and pass on some encouragement to the rest of the world’s independent record shops on how you’re pulling this off.

I’m almost a week late on this, but better late than never I suppose.

Explosions was, as expected, absolutely amazing. The songs they played, in no particular order (because I can’t remember) are:

• First Breath After Coma
• Your Hand In Mine
• A Poor Man’s Memory
• Yasmin The Light
• The Moon Is Down
• The Only Moment We Were Alone
• Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean
• With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept

There were also at least two songs that I didn’t recognize, which either means they’re new or from their Friday Night Lights Soundtrack.

If you are interested, there are a few pictures on my Flickr.

In other Explosions news, they recently announced their new album, All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone, will be released on February 20, 2007, after which they will begin touring again. The album art has also been released.

Update: Stream the new track: Welcome, Ghosts

Andrew Bird will be releasing an album of unreleased studio recordings, live tracks and some other stuff on an album titled Fingerlings 3 this October.

I Guess I’m Floating has posted a couple tracks from the upcoming release. They’re well worth checking out.

The Nick Hornby novel-turned-movie that has inspired countless indie snobs since its release is now a Broadway play.

As a die-hard High Fidelity fan, I’m fairly certain that Rob, Barry and Dick would not be pleased. Rob would probably spin into a dark depression, Barry and his band would write a protest song and Dick would spend three days in the fetal position in his bedroom before taking a job at a Virgin Megastore.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand musicals. This is blasphemy.

Funny how it takes a comment from a local acquaintance to get me posting here again…

Anyway, I’ve decided to just have this be my blog for music musings. Kind of how I originally intended, except without any expectation for it to gain any popularity, and I don’t think I’ll do any formal album reviews or anything.

That said, here are my favorite discoveries in recent months/days as well as some older favorites that are now full-on addictions:

• This Will Destroy You - (instrumental/post rock)
• Joshua Radin - (Simon & Garfunkel-esque acoustic folk)
• Caspian - (instrumental/post rock)
• Pelican - (instrumental/heavy post rock)
• The Appleseed Cast - (indie/post rock)
• Band Of Horses - (indie rock)
• This Is Your Captain Speaking - (instrumental/post rock)
• Baaba Maal - (world/African)
• Explosions In The Sky - (instrumental/post rock)
• Mono - (Japanese post rock)

As you can see, a lot of post rock. Duh. I can’t get enough of it. It’s got this great soundtrack-ish feel to it. In fact, Explosions In The Sky can be credited for the soundtrack to the movie Friday Night Lights. So there.

In other news:

Norma Jean has two new tracks posted on their PureVolume page from their upcoming release, Redeemer, which releases September 12. Absolutely brutal. I can’t wait.

mewithoutYou has a new track from their upcoming September 26 release, Brother, Sister, posted on their Myspace. And, in case you missed it, they performed another of their new songs at Cornerstone, and the video has made its way to YouTube.

It was just officially announced yesterday via their website that Death From Above 1979 has broken up. Far too soon, if you ask me, but apparently it’s been speculated for the last year or so. Rest in peace.

Random thought: maybe I should start a podcast. But would anyone listen?

As was suspected by some of the more clever indie folk on the scene, Sufjan and Rosie are not having a baby.

But there is good news: Sufjan is releasing yet another new album! But there is bad news about the good news: it’s not the next state in the 50 States Project. The album is called The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album. So there’s that.

Read the article at Pitchfork for more details on the faux-pregnancy and Sufjan’s upcoming album, including a wonderful-looking track listing.

Sorry to all you single-and-looking indie girls. It looks as though Sufjan Stevens’ recent collaboration with former Sub Pop-er Rosie Thomas produced more than just music. Yes, that’s right. Sufjan and Rosie have a little indie bun in the oven.

No news about any wedding plans, which may come as a surprise to many considering Stevens’ Christian roots. Or maybe they’ve just kept a very good secret from us.

Prepare to be bombarded with music-ingrained cuteness in about nine months. Or maybe sooner…

Oh, and Denison Witmer collaborated too. But just on the music part.

[Link]

Update: According to a Buzzgrinder reader who was at a recent Denison Witmer concert, this may have been an April Fool’s joke that Sufjan, Rosie and Denison decided to play on Pitchfork (and the entire indie world, it seems). Only time will tell.