Before We Go; Crystal Antlers, Jay Reatard, and more.

Culture of Me has Crystal Antlers' newest video for their single "Andrew" off of their recent album Tentacles along with a free MP3 copy. The visually entralling video is only traunced by the 60's induced rock atmosphere of "Andrew," thrown through an encapsulating array of colors and lights. See for yourself.

Crystal Antlers - Andrew - MP3


Jay Reatard's crash-induced "DOA" lasts only about a minute, but it's crumpled, paper mache, trashed beauty made of birds is certainly as memorable as the song is eeringly cheery. Fans should note that if they sign up on Reatard's website they recieve daily renditions of his joyous junk free of charge.


Chromewaves has an assload of songs all of us should pay attention to from artists like White Lies, Friendly Fires, The Dukes of Stratosphear, Les Savy Sav, and John Vanderslice. I feel I'm in a agreeable position that describing these would be redundant. Just take them and have fun.

White Lies - Death - MP3
Friendly Fires - Jump In The Pool - MP3
Dukes of the Stratosphear - My Love Explode - MP3
Dukes of the Stratosphear - Brainiac Daughter - MP3
Les Savy Sav - Precision Auto - MP3
John Vanderslice - Fetal Horses - MP3

Thursday; Stuart Murdoch, Swan Lake, Screaming Females, and more.

Yesterday's post wasn't so much an April Fools prank but rather an out-cry of apathy from my part. Today, however, I've put a little effort in on getting you guys something more your time.

In a story from Stereogum, Belle & Sebastian front-man and songwriter Stuart Murdoch made an open call for female singers to work on a project entitled God Help the Girl, accompanied by an LP of the same name. The record reportedly contains nine singers, Belle & Sebastian, and a 45 piece orchestra set composed by Rick Wentworth.

The first single "Come Monday Night," sung by contest winner Catherine Ireton, is available for listen here. The album is due out in the states on June 23 via Matador Records.

Murdoch discusses God Help the Girl.


The Needle Drop, a name I haven't mentioned in some time, has a a couple nice downloads from Swan Lake's recent album Enemy Mine. Band members Daniel Bejar, Spencer Krug, and Carey Mercer are all well-recognized for their work with band's like Destroyer, Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, The New Pornographers, and Frog Eyes, so I guess you can qualify this as Canada's biggest indie supergroup, after Broken Social Scene. Regardless.

Swan Lake - Spanish Gold, 2044 - MP3
Swan Lake - Spider - MP3
Swan Lake - A Hand at Dusk - MP3

You Ain't No Picasso has turned me on to Screaming Females, another low-fi indie act with a great name, putting that list up to around 759 since I've started this. The band's new single "Bell" is accompanied by a super-crappy video that looks like I made it when I was eight. It shouldn't take too much away from the song's impact though. You can pre-order the band's upcoming album Power Move here.

Screaming Females - Bell - MP3


And finally here's PJ Harvey and John Parish's new video for their single "Black Hearted Love," from the duo's second album A Woman A Man Walked By courtesy of Music is Art.

Except Fiona Apple's New Cover Song

Found this on Stereogum, and I gotta say it's pretty incredible. Sorry, no download's yet.

April Fools, I've Got Fucking Nothing!

Seriously. Nothing. Except Trent Reznor's awesome prank.

Tuesday; Lolla Updates, Sigur Ros, Glasvegas, and more.

Again I find myself struggling to put anything worth mentioning in Bears and Bullets at least one day out of every week. That being said I'm still giddy over getting my hands on a ticket for this year's Lollapalooza today. Tickets for the three day Chicago festival officially went on sale today and fans can get their hands on three-day passes for the special early-bird rate of $175.

In other exciting Lolla news, Billboard has reported (although through an unconfirmed source) that suspected performers Fleet Foxes and Peter, Bjorn, and John have confirmed to play the festival, putting the confirmed list at 21.

Anyway, Bobby Solomon's site Kitsune Noir has finally come back after a solid week of just floating around in unfiltered white space, which is good because I need someone else to confirm my odd Sigur Ros fascinations. Speaking of, here's the Iceland band's Planet Earth-esque documentary Heima. Watch here.

Heima Trailer



Glasvegas appeared on Fallon (first time I've said that without flinching) last night performing their barely audible but still likable "Geraldine" off of their recent self-titled album. Me, I was more excited about Bill Hader and Andre Iguodala showing up. You can check out the whole episode over at Hulu.

Monday; All Points West, Stephen Malkmus, Neko Case, and more.

Although I was criminally certain that Jersey City's All Points West festival was cancelled this year the official line-up for the July 31-August 2 2009 celebration came out today. For those of us like myself who teeter on the brink of any slight word about this year's Lollapalooza festival, this is important. Most consider this year's APW line-up to be a bit bulkier than last year's, which as most recall was just Radiohead for two days.

The Friday and Saturday headliners, The Beastie Boys and Tool, are already slated for Lollapalooza performances, along with Neko Case. Rumor has it that the Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Vampire weekend are almost certainties as well as Q-Tip, Ra Ra Riot, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKFT, the Gaslight Anthem, and Heartless Bastards. Several of 2008 performers are making the trip to North Jersey including Gogol Bordello, The National, The Ting Tings, The Black Keys, MGMT, and Steel Train. What this means is that the probability of these performers returning to Chicago in early August just jumped up a little (aside from The National, who are performing at this year's Pitchfork Music Festival). I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for another appearance from Gogol Bordello.

Tickets for the Jersey City festival round at $89 for single days, and $199 for a three-day pass and go on sale this Friday (4/3).

Anyway, miracle music site Daytrotter has a couple glorious songs from Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks today. The ex-Pavement frontman and indie frontiersman still hasn't strayed away from the quircky and iconic roots that made his career as evident with his post-Pavement work. The session includes a couple gems from Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks Pig Lib and Real Emotional Trash LP's, and a cover of the James Gang's "Funk 49." Listen and download the session here.

Neko Case appeared on Spinner's Interface yesterday with a coupld performances from her new (and very good) Middle Cyclone LP. Here's "Don't Forget Me" and the album's title track.

Neko Case - Don't Forget Me

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone



Aquarium Drunkard has two important MP3's every one (okay, not everyone) should have by the end of the day. Bob Dylan's newest album Together Through Life is set fof release April 28, but fans can get a listen to the album's first release; "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'." Along with that, the site has a live rendition of Destroyer's "It's Gonna Take an Airplane" by Spoon at Tallahasee's The Moon. Take.

Bob Dylan - Beyond Here Lies Nothin' - MP3 (One Day Only!)
Spoon - It's Gonna Take an Airplane (Destroyer Cover) - MP3

Oh, and here's Amazon's list of the 100 Greatest Indie Albums. Judge if you will.