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Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
Michael Carney
April 8, 2009
This record is almost as much of a serendipitous accident as the child (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who was conceived during the making of it. When French musician‚ actor‚ writer‚ director and pervert Serge Gainsbourg asked Vladimir Nabokov to set his seminal novel Lolita to music‚ he was denied because Stanley Kubrick already had his film adaptation in the works. Gainsbourg had the chance to script his own taboo epic when he met the much younger actress Jane Birkin working on a movie set in 1968. Their affair turned into a relationship and his fascination with Nabokov's risque story turned into a semi-autobiographical concept album--one of the first ever.

In the first stanza of Melody‚ our middle-aged protagonist runs over a young English girl on her bicycle while driving his 1910 Rolls Royce. He then goes on to deflower her in a pay-by-the-hour hotel‚ fall in love and lose his Melody in a plane crash willed by cult members in Papua New Guinea. Musically, it is really a progenitor of what would be called art-rock now. Arranged and produced by fellow Gallic oddball Jean-Claude Vannier‚ the record includes a seventy-member choir‚ youth orchestra‚ and a wicked funky rhythm section made up of British session musicians. Melody was first released as a major flop in 1971 in France‚ but grew on the public as a cult classic ever since. Beck has called this album "one of the greatest marriages of rock band and orchestra that I've ever heard." It's not hard to see why.

Light in the Attic Records has just re-released Histoire de Melody Nelson on CD and LP for the first time ever in America.

Akron/Family Preorder Info, Free mp3 of "River" and Tour Dates
Mike McKinley
April 8, 2009
Yes, we've been hyping Akron/Family quite a bit lately, but it's just because their new LP Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free is so good that it hasn't left rotation at the SoM HQ in the last six weeks. It's coming! May 5th is the official release date on Dead Oceans. But you get some immediate access if you pre-order now:

Fans who pre-order Set 'Em Wild now will receive immediate access to an MP3 download of the entire album.

Download the mp3 of "River" here or listen below.

To order Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free in North America visit Dead Oceans

In addition, they're going to be the cover of our next issue due out in late May and we're presenting their show at Club Metronome on May 8th here in our hometown of Burlington. In other words, we think you'll really dig this record and/or seeing them live. Here's the second track, "River," which has earned the title "this song is a revelation" here in State of Mind land.

"River" - Akron/Family


Akron/Family Tour Dates:
05/05/09 - Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
05/06/09 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
05/08/09 - Burlington, VT @ Metronome
05/09/09 - Bennington, VT @ Bennington College
05/16/09 - Brussels, Belgium Orangerie 'Nuits Botanique'
05/17/09 - Amsterdam, Holland @ Melkweg Old Room
05/18/09 - Nijmegen, Holland @ Doornroosje
05/19/09 - Paris, France @ Nouveau Casino 'Custom'
05/20/09 - London, UK @ ICA
05/22/09 - Glasgow, UK @ Captains Rest
05/23/09 - Machester, UK @ Ruby Lounge
05/24/09 - Bristol, UK @ Fiddlers (with Omar Souleyman and Group Doueh)
05/25/09 - Malaga, Spain @ Teatro Cervantes w/ Wilco
05/26/09 - Madrid, Spain @ Teatro Calderon w/ Wilco
05/27/09 - Granada, Spain @ Congress Palace w/ Wilco
05/29/09 - Seville, Spain @ La Cartuja Monastery, Contemporary Arts Museum w/ Wilco (Territorios Fest)
05/31/09 - Bologna, Italy @ Locomotiv
06/01/09 - Ravenna, Italy @ Hana-bi
06/02/09 - Verona, Italy @ Interzona
06/03/09 - Milan, Italy @ Casa 139
06/04/09 - Torino, Italy @ Spazio 211
06/05/09 - Rome, Italy @ Init
06/08/09 - Shibuya, Tokyo @ O-West w/ Deerhunter
06/09/09 - Osaka, Jyuso @ Fandango w/ Deerhunter
06/10/09 - Nagoya, Aichi @ Apollo Theater
06/11/09 - Kyoto, Kyoto @ Metro
06/12/09 - Shindaita, Tokyo @ Fever
07/23/09 - Detroit Lakes, MN @ 10,000 Lakes Music Festival
07/25/09 - 07/26/09 - Calgary, AB @ Calgary Folk Festival
08/02/09 - Liberty State Park, NJ @ All Points West Festival
09/12/09 - Monticello, NY @ All Tomorrow's Parties Festival

Here's a 3:30 in the morning "Crickets" from Las Vegas, 3/13/09:
Ominous Seapods‚ 12/27/96 - Irving Plaza‚ NYC
Mike McKinley
April 7, 2009
Man‚ like I really needed another reason to love the interwebs! And then this drops on my lap: an Ominous Seapods show from 1996 on YouTube! Are you fucking kidding me?

I spent a lot of time with this band from 1994-2001. I rang in the New Year with them a few times‚ celebrated my 21st with them‚ traveled far and wide to see them‚ and even saw God a few times at their shows. And there was that one night‚ May 3‚ 1997 in Syracuse, when they physically knocked me over with sound. It was my second life-changing experience with live music.

The Seapods were as influential to my growth as Nintendo and the 1986 Celtics. They arrived precisely at the right time when I need to be disturbed and have my eardrums blasted with a mutated amalgam of rock music. They were like the Rolling Stones of the bars and Pavement for wigglers. Their stage antics were some of the most disgustingly beautiful things I've ever witnessed. And they had lines like‚ "It's ostensibly oscillating and it's forever on fast-forward." Come on‚ who else describes masturbation and doing bong hits with such poetic insight?

Seriously though‚ it seems like every couple of months I'll revisit one of their records and I'll be amazed. They're one of those bands that still sound great, and to a certain extent, timeless. A lot of their material sounds more like today's rock music than it did then.

Watching these videos‚ they still seem like they're a rock band from the future. Ah, north country alchemy!

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5 - Lo Faber from God Street Wine sits in


Part 6 (cut)
The Low Anthem Signs to Nonesuch
Matt Bushlow
April 6, 2009
There are times when an anonymous CD picked from the stacks of those sent to State of Mind World Headquarters becomes a favorite in the office - then in the car‚ in an iTunes playlist‚ as a recommendation to others… You get the idea. That was the case in 2007 with What the Crow Brings‚ the debut album by The Low Anthem. We started talking about covering them‚ saw them open for Surprise Me Mr. Davis in April of 2008‚ and finally arranged a podcast recording and an in-person interview with Ben Knox Miller‚ Jeff Prystowsky‚ and Jocie Adams last September‚ on the heels of their new album Oh My God‚ Charlie Darwin. You can read the feature here.

Praise for The Low Anthem has rained in from outlets such as NPR Music‚ Paste‚ Rolling Stone‚ The New York Times‚ and BBC Radio 1‚ which described how the band's performance "weaved its magic into the hearts of everyone present" at the recent South By Southwest Festival.

And now‚ all the band's hard work has born fruit of a new kind: The Low Anthem has signed a record deal with Nonesuch‚ home to Bill Frisell‚ Wilco‚ Ry Cooder‚ Emmylou Harris‚ Randy Newman‚ Pat Metheny‚ and many more leading lights of modern American music. The news from the band is that they signed "a wonderful and fair record deal with the world's best record label. Nonesuch Records will be supporting our national rerelease of Oh My God‚ Charlie Darwin without asking us to change anything! The tentative rerelease date is June 9."

You can read the official word from Nonesuch here and check out The Low Anthem here. Phish at Fenway 5/31
Mike McKinley
April 6, 2009
Two of America's favorite past times...


BATTER UP: PHISH HITS FENWAY from Phish on Vimeo.

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