There won’t be any posts until the first of November as I will be covering the Vegoose Music Festival in Las Vegas. Check back for interviews, photos, and reviews of artists like The Arcade Fire, The Shins, Sleater Kinney, & The Flaming Lips.

Black Balloon has a live track from the new Lucero CD/DVD. I ordered mine from insound but have been informed that it is on back order.

The Catbirdseat and Chromewaves pass along some ground breaking news from Merge Records. In summary, if you purchase the new Clientele vinyl, you will get a coupon for the full digital download of the album inside. Pretty sweet idea.

I saw Rhett Miller of the Old 97’s last night at the High Noon Saloon along with Griffin House. I had every intention of leaving during Rhett Miller, but he turned out to be better than my anticipation warranted.

Who Is Jake F?

Coke Machine Glow reviews two albums that I find totally unlistenable:

Animal Collective - Feels & The Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir, at least they got the Fiery Furnaces review right, unlike Tiny Mix Tapes.

Tiny Mix Tapes totally redeem themselves though with the fantastic review of the Vashti Bunyan masterpiece, “Lookaftering.” Indie Interviews has a great podcast/download featuring an interview with Vashti Bunyan which you should really check out as well.

Finally, here is a list of the current albums that are on constant rotation at Muzzle Of Bees HQ:

New London Fire - I Sing The Body Holographic
Vashti Bunyan - Lookaftering
Polar Bear - Held On The Tips Of Fingers
The Joggers - With a Cape and a Cane
Death From Above 1979 - Romance Bloody Romance

Who doesn’t like free postcards? Follow this link and The Motion Sick will send you one! The Motion Sick is hoping to release their upcoming album, “Her Brilliant Fifteen” at the beginning of 2006. Below I have linked some MP3’s for you to make the call.

The Motion Sick - Satellite MP3
The Motion Sick - The Day After MP3

Griffin House makes his return to Madison tonight opening for Rhett Miller of the Old 97’s. There is a good chance you missed Griffin when he played the now closed Luther’s Blues, and there is also a good chance that you’ve missed his amazing second album called “Lost & Found.”

Tonight, he will step on stage at the High Noon Saloon, and play a mix of old and new songs. There is something really intimate and warm about Griffin’s albums, and yet, he finds a way to explore the songs during a live performance which add to their initial foundation of beauty.

Talking with Griffin before his Madison show tonight, you find that in addition to being a great artist, you can really tell he’s a fan of music as well. What follows is a brief question and answer segment Griffin graciously agreed to do with muzzleofbees.com.

Q. The last time you were in town you played the now closed, Luther’s Blues. At that show you mentioned that you have family from Wisconsin. I was reading through the lyrics to “The Way I Was Made” and you mention a town called Rewey. Is that a Wisconsin reference, as there is a Wisconsin town that bears the same name?

G. Rewey is a family name. It’s my grandmother’s maiden name on my mother’s side.

Q. What would we find if we checked out what is on your iPod?

G. My iPod is full of all sorts of crazy stuff; my friend Rusty loaded it up for me. You’ll find a pretty diverse catalogue in there but the last thing I probably listened to was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers while I was running.

Q. Are you able to write while touring or is that something you like to do away from the road?

G. I write on the road in spurts, some tours are more conducive for that than others. It usually depends on how much down-time I have in a place where I can be still and think and play.

Q. Is there anyone that you would really like to tour with, or play music with?

G. I would like to go out with my band and play a tour with the Band back in the late 60’s. I would like to have been touring with Dylan right at the beginning of his career. I would have loved to play prisons with Johnny Cash, I would like to run around the heart with Bono and get in his face or something, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers tour 2006, still waiting for that call. I want to sing Beast of Burden with Mick Jagger and then have him knight me Sir Griffin. My Morning Jacket is a great band. I have done some shows with Teitur who I think is a great artist and one of those timeless guys. He is sort of like a Beatle from the Faroe Islands that just hags out in his London apartment surviving in the messed up music world of 2005.

Q. Can you talk a little about your songwriting process? Do you write the music or lyrics first, and to expand on that how long does it usually take you to finish a song?

G. I think real artists doubt they’ll ever win a Grammy these days. I don’t really know how to write a song. I don’t have a formula. They just come. But they come more often when you are putting yourself in a position to see them when they come to pay you a visit. You can’t let them in the door if you aren’t home.

Q. A lot of people that come to your shows may be familiar with the songs on your two albums, will you be debuting any new material this time around?

G. Yes, I will be playing several new songs. Can’t wait to come play.

Here are some MP3’s from the amazing album, “Lost & Found.”

Griffin House - Tell Me A Lie
Griffin House - Liberty Line
Griffin House - The Way I Was Made

You can buy either of Griffin’s albums through his site. All photos taken in London by Martin Dam Kristensen.

Griffin House and Rhett Miller play the High Noon Saloon tonight. Admission is $15, and doors open at 8pm.

Today is the release date of the new Rogue Wave album, “Decended Like Vultures.” Here is what Stylus Magazine has to say about the album.

Descended Like Vultures snuggles down between Wolf Parade’s Apologies To The Queen Mary and Modest Mouse’s 2004 release, Good News For People Who Like Bad News as a competent, half-slapped together, half-methodic slice of evolved indie-rock. Not as rural and weathered as the former, not as pushy a grab-bag as the latter (though all three albums do have mystifying, undergraduate titles).

Stylus Magazine also has a review of the fantastic new My Morning Jacket album, “Z.” I saw Elizabethtown the other night, and the My Morning Jacket performance of “Freebird” during the movie was jaw-dropping.

This was rock as I understood it from my childhood, stripped of boredom and as serious as you wanted it to be. Usually albums that take up a full seventy-plus minutes are frustrating (so much fat to trim!), but this time all that excess made sense.

My Morning Jacket along with Kathleen Edwards play The Annex right here in Madison on Friday, October 28th. Tickets are still available and are only $16, which is an amazing deal for these two great live acts.

MP3 Clips can be found here.

Polar Bear has been rocking my ipod this morning, so I thought I would share my love for their recent release, “Held On The Tips Of Fingers.” It’s one of the most refreshing Jazz sounds out there right now, and to further make that point, listen to what the folks at AllAboutJazz.com have to say:

The second album from Sebastian Rochford’s group of young London anarcho-punk-groove-electronica-free improv upsetters is an even more thrilling and momentous affair than its predecessor, last year’s highly acclaimed Dim Lit. It’s the most radical, invigorating and heartening Britjazz album to be released so far this year and, even though it is still only March, it’s certain to be close to the top of many end-of-year Best Albums lists in nine months time.

It is, perhaps, the sound of the future—one of them anyway—and boy, does it work. Basically uncategorisable, Polar Bear reflects the mega-eclectic, post-modern listening tastes of Rochford (who wrote all the tunes) and his colleagues, moving with equal enthusiasm through Björk and Beethoven, Pig Destroyer, Coltrane and his tenor legacy, Monk, Stockhausen and the ghost of Rip Rig & Panic. With some of Kurt Weill’s crudely syncopated, rough edged, fairground-meets-cabaret pit band arranging aesthetic thrown in for good measure.
(more…)

I wish I wasn’t so busy so that I could write at length of how much I like the Crystal Skulls new album, “Blocked Numbers.” Since I don’t, let me turn you to what Tripwire has to say about it:

You’ll be hooked on Wargo’s ability to compliment the rise and fall of the rhythmic guitars. This band won’t make you pump your
fist in the air, because as their name suggests, they’re playing a more delicate rock game here. Blocked Numbers is the kind of album you lounge back and bob your pretty little hipster head to while drinking an imported beer… Stylish? Very. Smart? Well I don’t know them personally, but Crystal Skulls gather up all of the subtle sensibilities of pop rock and toss them together to make a debut album that’s sleek and fun.

Crystal Skulls - Airport Motels MP3
Crystal Skulls - No Room For Change MP3

Order “Blocked Numbers” right here.

According to rumors, Ryan Adams will not be playing with Phil Lesh and Friends at the upcoming Vegoose music festival. Luckily, Joan Osbourne will act as the special guest.

Due to a band member medical emergency, the New Pornographers had to cancel their show at the Barrymore tonight in Madison. You should hold onto your tickets as they are trying to get the show rescheduled soon.

I am very sorry to report but after last nights show in Chicago for the New Pornographers, John Collins, the bass player, suffered from an appendix attack. He ended up having to have it taken out and the band will be canceling their last two shows in Madison tonight and Minneapolis tomorrow.

The band has been racking their brain to figure out a way that they can play without him but they have exhausted all possibilities.

This is a postponement. The date will be replayed as soon as possible. Ticket holders should hold on to their tickets. Tickets are not being refunded until a rescheduled date has been announced, which should be either today or tomorrow. Please check in at our website for more information over the next few days, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

What can I say about this guy? A larger than life Californian, I have been a fan of the White Buffalo for a few years. I remember he used to take offers to play your living room for a 12 pack of Budweiser. Here’s the bio from his website:

Everything about the The White Buffalo is larger than life; from his
towering stature, to his dissident style, and his quaking bravado. With a musical history that began with the country albums his parents preferred his eclectic personal tastes range from Waylon Jennings to the brooding clamor of Radiohead, Elliot Smith and Tom Waits. These touchstones steep into his harrowing lyrical content, a mix of lament and sincere melodic lightness.

Rising from the gratis of West Coast living, from his birth place of Oregon along the California coast - the White Buffalo developed a keen sense of processing the world around him that manifests itself in his sound. During his time living in San Francisco the Buffalo waited tables, raised hell, and collected his lyrical content through the characters and experiences he encountered.

At moments his songs are wrought in tenderness, in the next he allows the grit to surface. His new self-entitled EP evokes imagery that uncovers the places that we often shy away from ultimately should embrace.

His new EP is only $8, and it’s worth it. You can buy it here.

I don’t have any MP3’s for you, but if you go to The White Buffalo homepage there are 3 songs that stream across the bottom. Enjoy!