As a look through the lenses of our very own cameras demonstrates, the live incarnation of The Fiery Furnaces is a fascinating and ever evolving experience. Given the break neck twists and turns their gnarly batch of experimental psych rock take on record, it’s no surprise brother Matthew and sister Eleanor (Friedberger) purposely reinvent and re-imagine their songs for stage…a fact that never makes a Fiery Furnaces show ever just a Fiery Furnaces show. No, theirs are performances sourced from completely original and unique intentions. The Furnaces would love nothing more than to give their fans a personal experience of their very own, night after night.

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It’s called At Mount Zoomer…a tribute to the studio where Wolf Parade recorded their new album. We’ve got the track list after the jump.

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The five golden gals and a guy that cram in to São Paulo’s CSS might feel “tired of being sexy” (“Cansei de Ser Sexy”, or CSS), but apparently not so much so that they’re willing to forgo album #2. That would just be silly given the popularity of their ’06 self titled debut. So when it comes to the matter of a proper follow-up, the band will bring the snappishly titled Donkey to fruition this July 22nd.

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Would you take a look at these grizzly bears! Such flapjacking, mountain men could only call a certain kind of music home. A warn beyond their years blend of old man folk, country, or blues? A definite possibility. An extreme dose of speed metal, carefully careening along to some distant, dark destination? Maybe. Could even be some riff rocking, whiskey soaked Southern affairs. God knows that genre has seen these kind of facial sprouts before.

Turns out Pattern is Movement – the Philly based duo occupying our weekly “Beautiful Unknown” post – instead favor an experimental, avant garde breed of pop.

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Given the heaping help of hype that accompany this one, one could be forgiven for confusing Tokyo Police Club’s Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek) for anything but a debut album. Plenty of folks sort of lost their collective shit over A Lesson in Crime’s 16 minutes worth of music back in ’06. And both the Smith EP and the Your English is Good single have helped tide fans of the band’s crystalline song craft over since then. All of which actually makes Elephant Shell Tokyo Police Club’s debut full-length…if 28 measly minutes qualifies as a long player.

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Last week we snuck Wolf Parade’s latest single offering “Call It a Ritual” on to the Baeble airwaves...courtesy of Sub Pop of course. And while the band’s June 17th follow-up to Apologies to the Queen Mary still lacks an album title, that fact has apparently not stopped the band from lining up a proper supporting tour this July and August.

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We here at Baeble think your weekend should get off to a fitting start. Something nice, something charming, something slightly whimsical even…It is spring after all. And you should finally be feeling a little warmer. If for any reason you’re not, tune into to Toronto based band Ohbijou. With a 7 piece front pulling addictive chamber pop out of a variety of sweet sounding instrumentation (banjo, trumpet, mandolin, cello, keys, drums, bass, guitar) and Casey Mecija’s coolly captivating way with words, these doe eyed dandies’ debut release Swift Feet For Troubling Minds packs away the perfect kind of vibe for the rejuvenating weekend that lay ahead.

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Many people would like to forget their teenage years, but in reality our teenage years define our behavior for the rest of our lives. We’ll develop different habits and sometimes reform, but what we became during those embarrassing, confusing and glorious years will stick with us forever.

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Remember way back when, when Isaac Brock declared himself Ugly Casanova and recorded himself a solo effort called Sharpen You Teeth? Sort of seemed like an easy excuse to record an album for the very label (that being Sub Pop) that employed him as an A&R man, didn’t it? Yeah, we thought so. And this following bit of news...well it sort of reeks of the same kind of motivation…though I don’t think Conor Oberst is currently on the pay role over at the mighty Merge record label.

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It’s hard to explain the sound of a Kelley Polar album in familiar musical terms. Electronic is the best word, obviously, but it doesn’t quite capture the strangeness and atmosphere that an album like I Need You to Hold on While the Sky is Falling (Environ) accomplishes in pretty much one song. Personally, I imagine George Lucas’ first sci-fi cult classic, THX 1138; this is probably the music playing when the holograms are dancing.

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Here is the kind of news you don’t read every day. My Bloody Valentine – the hallowed English outfit responsible for just about every band that has pumped massive swarms of guitar through miles of chords and processors over the last fifteen years – are officially gracing our little continent with their presence. And if you don’t find that at least sort of special, get this: it’ll be their first American gig in over 16 years.

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When first we caught wind of Sweden’s Lykke Li, we were instantly charmed. The way that girl so coyly works a street corner? Precious. So while the 22 year old’s MySpace page has been the recipient of some rather serious traffic ‘round these parts, it’d be nice to take her debut EP Little Bit home sometime soon. That’s where her very own label, LL Recordings, comes in.

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Sure…our boys have had a pretty nice run at it with Handsome Furs, Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes, and Swan Lake. But really…It’s all kind of felt like a little bit of filler, don’t you think? Haven’t we all just been patiently waiting for Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug to pack it in and return to the mother ship?

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Inspired by one of our favourite web destinations, we at Baeble are setting out upon a weekly trek of our very own. So while you’re busy climbing mountains and plunging head first into foreign cultures, we’ll be busy bursting through the incredible fuzz that is our inboxes, turning up new bits of beauty wherever it might be found. In this week’s inaugural edition, we stumble upon a band of musical drifters…their commitment to “meeting all of America” so engrained, their very namesake serves as a kind of ultimate ode day to day movement. Meet Denver’s Motel Motel.

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With references to Friendster, Limewire and the Dandy Warhols, rapper Roland Pemberton (a.k.a. Cadence Weapon) has limited his audience without realizing it. In a roundabout way, that’s a compliment to CW and his second full-length Afterparty Babies (Anti. Although the clever lyrics make you celebrate that there are still MC’s who actually care about the art of rhyming, the synth-heavy electro beats are tailor-made for ironic hipster dance parties.

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The seriously synthetic pop moves Chromeo turned in on last year’s ,Fancy Footwork were pretty darn nice. And while I’m not saying such stylized steps of retro funk have worn the tread down to the sole, sometimes an album needs cobbled in new ways to keep on truckin’. Perhaps that’s why Dave One and Pee Thug are pimping out their classic release. I guess Fancy Footwork just got a little more frou-frou.

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Score another triumphant moment for the new music model. Ever since Radiohead decided to give away In Rainbows back in November, it seems world class acts have been finding plenty of opportunities to shock and surprise their fans (see NIN, Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley). And while Portishead isn’t exactly giving away their first album in 11 years, they are at least letting their fans in on Third ahead of its’ April 29th release date. Starting April 21st, fans will be able to stream the album in its’ entirety over at LastFM. For more information, visit Last.fm/music/portishead/third.

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Brooklyn’s Bear Hands can claim themselves a rather prizewinning pedigree. First off, these dudes deliver the steady combination of post punk and indie rock that populate their self-released Golden EP tighter than a hipster’s belt buckle. And something special needs to be said for their ability to construct head lodging hooks. Try getting 'em out of your head after a few listens. It's just not going to happen. Then there is the matter of these gents’ rockish good looks; one can only imagine just how many Tiger Beat crushes have fallen hard under the weight of their focused gaze from the stage.

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If Ontario’s Tokyo Police Club owe their prolonged shelf life to a 7 song, 16 minute EP released darn near a year and a half ago (A Lesson in Crime), then just imagine what their first proper full-length might be able to accomplish. The crystalline collection of honey suckled melodies, seasoned songcraft, and dare deviling energy that is Elephant Shell suggests it’s an album capable of a whole lot.

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And now for a bit more proof that flashy, English kiddos clinging to guitars just can’t seem to resist the urge to disco punk their days away…this time from chirpy, Oxford based band Foals. On their debut disc Antidotes (Sub Pop), Foals continue Britain’s never ending new rave obsession, rolling through a rather athletic, 53 minute set. It’s high energy and ultimately likeable; the perfect kind of urban soundtrack for setting your day to day ways throughout the city of your choice to. Just don’t expect to hear anything particularity new out of Foal’s molecular make up. “Red Socks Pugie” and “Electric Bloom” immediately bring to mind the wide open synthetics and pitchy vocal yelps of both Bloc Party and their so-very-serious-singer Kele Okereke. Lead Foal Yannis Philippakis, however, seems a slightly less sober sort of front man. After all, he did pen opener “The French Open” for his favorite tennis player, Andy Roddick (someone Philippakis admits to being more obsessed with than any musician…go figure).

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More dance worthy tunes from a group of geeky Englishmen (say, didn’t we sort of do this yesterday?), though these lads here can lay claim to the fact that they have been getting down since the early ‘00’s. That might even place Oxford’s Young Knives in the category of forerunners, or forerunners to England’s post punk revival anyway. Whatever the case, the point of all this is Young Knives have been slaying it for almost six years now. And if you’ve been a band for six years….why, you should have a number of albums.

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Though the Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel hail from San Francisco, Two Gallants’ performance at the Blender Theater at the Gramercy would have one believe they were bred on an utterly authentic, rural ruggedness. I suppose it’s due to the way their agrarian blend of folk, blues, country, rock, and punk conjure up apocalyptic dust bowl images…think The Grapes of Wrath if you have to. And if you don’t rely on such a picture, just know that such intense, tom tom driven folk thrash can set Midwestern hay bails ablaze all the way from New York City.

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An itty bitty part of me always thought Vampire Weekend might have it a wee bit wrong. Sure, their brand of breezy, feel good indie pop is darn near perfect…a fact that continues to keep New York’s finest Ivy Leaguers on heavy rotation at Baeble HQ. But Pirates trump Vampires these days…at least in terms of high fashion. This is something, of course, I can only assume Reading England’s Pete and the Pirates took into account when they penned their namesake.

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Poor Ladyhawk, with the sudden rise of label mates Black Mountain, the comparisons will be sprinkled all over every review you read. What shouldn’t be lost is the soul, sweat, and booze that had to be consumed to create their new aptly titled album, Shots (Jagjaguwar). Hints of the bands previous efforts are notable throughout, but so is the volume and screaming guitars that may be new for some fans.

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Remember the way back when, when Athens GA reined supreme as undisputed king of alternative/independent music? There was really no place quite like it…the “Liverpool of the South” as someone, somewhere apparently put it. Of course bands like the B-52s, REM, and Widespread Panic got things going in the 80’s. Then ten odd years later it was indie minded artists like Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, and Olivia Tremor Control playing headliners for the Georgia enclave. And though the city didn’t exactly go cold in the years that followed, the post Elephant 6 era did produce a little less notoriety than the city’s more formative years. Lately though, it seems the city is once again repositioning itself as one of America’s music hubs, thanks in large part to the success of bands like Gnarls Barkley, Of Montreal, and Phosphorescent.

To that current crop of Athens’ luminaries, it may soon be time to add 17 member neo-hippy collective Dark Meat.

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You’ve been pumping your fists ferociously in the air ever since you first heard the heavy strokes of rugged Canadian rock outfit Ladyhawk’s newest release, Shots. Yeah, I know. We have to…at work, on the train, at home, in bed…all over really. But where you and I should really be participating in such uncontrollable behavior is from the front row of a Ladyhawk concert. So while I’m not suggesting that you give it a break during your day to day activities, you might want to save a little something for the band’s upcoming North American tour with Neva Dinova. – David Pitz

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Though like minded artists like Ryan Adams, Wilco, and Neko Case have certainly enjoyed more commercial success, former punkert turned soft hearted troubadour Jesse Malin has made a nice little career out of gliding somewhere under the radar. While such a tactful flight has yielded a number of perfectly penned albums over the years, one thing that has not been given the proper documentation are Malin’s storytelling live performances…until now.

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Akron OH’s shaggy, retro blues duo The Black Keys never knew they were prepping their next album when they first set out to record it. All guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney assumed was that they had been tapped by producer Danger Mouse to participate in a quick collaboration with Ike Turner. But Turner’s passing last December obviously derailed the project, leaving band and producer alike a bevy of unused material to work with. Thus the foundations for the Keys’ fifth and most dare deviling album to date were laid. KEEP READING

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We’ve been pretty happy with Mr. Mark Eitzel these last few years. When he pulled American Music Club back together in ’04, he did it the right way. Not one of those once and done reunions, but an honest to god reformation with only the slightest overhaul in lineup…plus new album Love Songs for Patriots to boot. Following up Love Songs, American Music Club released The Golden Age this past February to fine reviews the world over. And now fans of the band will a have chance to see the band live in the flesh this Spring and Summer. We’ve got all 35 dates after the jump. American Music Club kick their North American tour off tonight in their home town of San Francisco.

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When this hit the inbox yesterday, I had myself a little chuckle. Could Ben Gibbard really be proud to announce a new project that speaks to his desires for “a lack of structure”? Could he really be fixing to allow himself an outlet in which he can just blare out whatever popped into his note at any time? Ok. I’m not ashamed to say I have always been a fan of the care and consideration Gibbard puts into his recorded work. But if wants to expand his horizons, well then, cool.

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Remix work may not be my bag per se, but I can imagine how finding quality source material to work with could be a rather arduous enterprise for anyone just dipping their toes into the waters for the first time. To those newbie remixers…I’ve got some good news. The greatest band in the world feels your pain.

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Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan are not miserable guys. They can’t be. I mean, how do two guys with so much long term success come out so miserable? They don’t. They just like to sing about misery. We’re just going to stick by that. In their latest Gutter Twins video, the darkest dudes in indie rock sing serenades for the not so sweet. Filmed in New Orleans, our guys perform on stage at an ill-lit cabaret club and spend a little time futzing around city streets and grave yards. Of Course they would run into a funeral procession along the way. That is just the kind of guys they are.

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For a band best known for breaking down sonic conventions, preferring a lovely little mess of grooves, beats, melodies, harmonies, and a variety of other catastrophic soundings instead (See Rise Above), Dirty Projectors sure seem to keep a steady, organized hand on the hype. They’ve kept it beaming in their general direction for the better part of a year, and recent activities are only sure to keep it coming. Having just finished their contribution to Stereogum’s Björk Tribute, David Longstreth’s head turning outfit hit the road last evening, bringing Vancouver minimalist pop outfit No Kids along for the ride. They have also announced plans to participate in both the ATP vs. Pitchfork Fest in the UK, along with the annual Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. We’ve got a slew of dates after the jump.

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