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So thanks to a hat tip from my buddy Andy Mitchell, I just bought Bob Mould’s new album off iTunes. Wow. The new disc harkens back before Modulate - all at once, I’m hearing the influence of Workbook, Sugar and Copper Blue, all rolled into one nice package. It’s got an edge, but perspective at the same time. Good stuff. I shot the photo above for Bob several years back on the Modulate tour, and hope to see him again when he comes through Atlanta.

Link: Bob’s got a blog now! Boblog is here.

Link: Here’s the gallery of my pics from the Modulate tour.

Tags: Music, Photography

As announced on the Ben Folds mailing list, the Attacked by Plastic website now has samples of all eleven tracks from Ben’s upcoming album, Songs for Silverman. There is also a spiffy custom media player, but that only lets you hear four of the samples. The new disc comes out on April 26th.

Tags: Music

More good music news. Aimee Mann is releasing her latests CD, The Forgotten Arm. This will be her first ‘concept’ album (although one might argue that her soundtrack to the great film Magnolia was also a concept disc). This is her fifth solo release, and an email to her fans describes it like this:

a dozen songs that tell, rather loosely, the story of John and Caroline as they meet, fall in love and road trip across America.

Best of all, you can listen to three new tunes from the disc for the next four weeks, released on AimeeMann.com

Tags: Music

Ben Folds has released his own take on Dr. Dre’s seminal ‘B*&tches Ain’t S&%*t’. Unlike the throbbing beat from Dr. Dre, this version features a falsetto backing chorus, moog-like synthesizers, and Ben’s usual light touch on the keyboards. Hope this one makes his pockets ‘phat.’ It’s a busy late Winter/Spring for Mr. Folds, with his new album Songs For Silverman due April 26th, and a 7-inch single from the disc, ‘Landed’ due on March 22nd. Also On March 22 — The special expanded edition of Ben Folds Five’s Whatever And Ever Amen remastered with new liner notes from alll the original band members and 7 bonus tracks: Video Killed The Radio Star (studio version, previously unreleased), For All The Pretty People, Mitchell Lane, Theme from “Dr. Pyser” (studio version), Air, She Don’t Use Jelly, Song For The Dumped (Japanese version).

Tags: Music

My favorite geek band, They Might be Giants, is releasing their second kids collection tomorrow. Hat tip to Daddytypes blog for the heads-up. With Baby Trotz on the way, I’m dreading the insipid, tenative and timid junk which passes for most ‘Children’s Music’ — but TMBG’s Here Come the ABC’s (CD and DVD) should be a welcome respite from most of that. My friends John and Jana played a lot of TMBG for their twins when they were younger - and yeah, they did have some trouble explaining why the boys liked to sing S-E-X-X-Y in preschool. These songs should be a bit more age appropriate. Amazon has an interview with the band, and the TMBG site has some DVD video samples.

Tags: Music, sam

The weekly email from the iTunes music store featured a gem this morning - The Postal Service EP We Will Become Silhouettes. It features several versions of songs from their disc Give Up from 2003, and a new song called Be Still My Heart. Worth a listen for $3.96 from the iTMS.

Tags: Music

Great news by email on Friday, courtesy of the Ben Folds mailing list. Ben’s first album since 2001 is coming out on April 26th - Songs for Silverman. “Landed,” the first single, is already on some radio stations. It officially goes on-air and online (ITMS) on February 1. The email also announced a remastered version of Whatever and Ever Amen adding seven lost classic bonus tracks, out March 22. As Martha would say, ‘that’s a very good thing.’

Tags: Music

Bob Mould brought the second night of his Modulate tour to Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse in March, 2002. I shot the show at Bob’s request, and one of the images was used with an interview/show preview in New York Magazine later that year. Click here to see the photos.

Tags: Gallery, Music, Photography