My review of The Dodos’ Visiter for JamBase.com:

Within the first four seconds of Visiter (released March 18 on French Kiss), it’s apparent that The Dodos aren’t your run-of-the-mill singer-songwriters, pop-rockers or even rock-folk-pop-singer-songwriters. The duo has a distinct sound that’s almost impossible to be label.

Most of the 14 tracks flow seamlessly together in a pattern similar to an orchestral suite. Marked by slightly sullen, quietly sung lyrics paired with quick, repetitive drumbeats that mirror a metronome - the beginning of almost every song on Visiter is the same. While some stay like this and continue building tension until their respective conclusions, others, most notably “Joe’s Waltz,” loudly climax with harsher drumming, background howls and a significant increase in both energy and intensity.

Whether it’s the pedestrian near-ballads “Park Song” and “Undeclared” or long, detailed poppier pieces like “Jodi” and “God?” that last over six minutes, it’s nearly impossible not to tap a foot to the mix of driving beats and steady guitar strums. I became a MySpace Dodos junkie before I got my hands on this full-length, and was initially disappointed at how much “Fools” and the aforementioned “Jodi,” both tracks featured on their page, stood out on the album as more developed and catchier than their counterparts. But, Visiter is an album to be lived in, where new lines and phrases constantly become stuck in your head when you least expect them. Over time standout tracks level out with the less immediately grabbing ones, and if there’s one thing The Dodos are it’s multi-layered. And maybe even rock-folk-pop-singer-songwriters, too.

…….

It appears their MySpace account has been deleted. Not sure why, but MySpace.com/mericlong, where I used to sit and listen to their tiny selection of songs over and over, is no longer there. Weird.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is featured on Daytrotter today! I’m only on the first song, but so far, this in-studio perfectly captures their sound, which always seems so accessibly lived-in.

me: http://burnsides.muxtape.com/

menomena song

it makes want to rip my skin off and run around in circles

it’s that good

Donald: it makes you want to do meth?

me: hahahaha

* Dinosaur Jr
* The Pitchfork Music Festival and All Tomorrow’s Parties present “Don’t Look Back” featuring Mission of Burma performing “Vs.”
* Jarvis Cocker
* Ghostface & Raekwon
* The Apples in Stereo
* Jay Reatard
* Ruby Suns
* Dirty Projectors
* Cut Copy
* A Hawk and A Hacksaw
* Fuck Buttons
* King Khan & the Shrines
* Occidental Brothers Dance Band International

Good acts — mostly buzzworthy —but it seems like there’s a lot less headliners this year.

Going to see New Pornographers and Okkervil River on April 20th in Chicago?

Congrats, you are the luckiest person in the world.

As part of Green Apple Music Festival, there will be free shows at Lincoln Park Zoo that afternoon, and DEREK TRUCKS BAND is headlining.

All three bands in one day, with one being outdoors and free?!? The only way it could get better is if Susan Tedeschi comes onstage, and if she does, I’m going to faint. (Probably because I’m a pale weakling and I’ll be in the sun, but she is totally pass-out-worthy.)

This post will change your life.

No, I’m not paying homage to a lame scene in a lame New Jersey-referenced movie. A site I recently came across might actually improve the quality of your life, considering it has already bettered mine.

I’ve been embarrassingly lazy when it comes to discovering new music lately. My sullen apprehension to plugging in an external hard drive, loading in a CD, waiting ten minutes for it to load, plugging in an iPod, waiting another five, properly ejecting both, leaving my apartment, setting up which artist, album and song i want to listen to, and pressing play is draining. iPods are convenient since you can hold your musical library in your hand, but when you really think about it, throwing an album into an obnoxiously large discman is simpler. Hell, even loading a vinyl record in and setting up the needle is quicker.

My pacifism with keeping up with downloading and transferring tunes is apparent by the fact that I’ve listened to my Bon Iver vinyl about five times within the past few days, and its digital download code is strewn on my desk…somewhere. I’ve become a Rhapsody junkie, but considering they are slacking over there like none other by not changing the rotating panels every few days, leaving a “Celebrity Playlist by Finger Eleven” option up for over a week paired with craptastic radio recommendations, I’ve moved on.

Pitchfork’s Forkcast has been treating me well, as well as Stereogum’s Gum Mix, but a new website I found out about called Muxtape blows them all out of the water.

Ordinary people upload a mix of tunes. That’s it. It’s a bit old-school, a tad new-school, and exactly what I have been looking for. Don’t like the one you chose? Go back to the homepage and pick a completely different one at random. I’m not going to describe it further; it’s worth exploring on your own.

My favorite playlist of the day is courtesy of thisisawakeupcall. With a mix of Fleet Foxes, Atlas Sound, The Dodos (who I’ve been raving about for months and are getting huge - what, an 8.4 on the Fork or something like that? Toldjya so!) and some other similar bands that fit the moody bill, I’d recommend it as a starting point. Just wait until I get that computer back…

PS - if you find a good one, post it in the comments!

I just heard Justice playing during a Cadillac commercial. My grandparents just got way, way cooler.

I’m shocked, appalled and saddened that I didn’t know about Mission Freak Music Festival. Sponsored by Daytrotter, close to school in Gillman’s hometown of the Quad Cities and with ticket prices so low they’re almost free, the only redeeming factor of my lack of attendance is that I’ll be in Chicago seeing Spoon…who are also at the festival.

Between April 2-5th, the festival will feature bands such as The Walkmen and White Rabbits (on tour with Spoon), Dan Deacon, The Hood Internet, Baby Teeth, Bon Iver, Cursive, The Poison Control Center, Evangelicals. Not only that, there’s a pre-party with Headlights (and Bon Iver) and a festival hangover party with Fleet Foxes and Blitzen Trapper.

Sure, a lot of these artists have recently and will soon grace the Canopy stage (seriously, April is going to be insane), but this is EXACTLY why I need a car at school.

Mom, I know you’re reading this, since you always talk about my blog. Please. Car. Please.

I’m obviously obsessed with Tumblr, since every blog on their website just…looks better. It’s such a smarter way to blog. (The217.com uses Wordpress, however. Boo.)

Anyway, check out this blog: Tuneage.tumblr.com. What a perfect layout for a music blog! It’s starting to feel like the difference between web pages and Tumblr is comparable to that of PCs and Macs.

Pitchfork posted Spoon’s newest music video, which is an animation with paper cut-outs that definitely rivals past videos done by Justice. Check out the eye-explodingly cool vid for “You Got Yr Cherry Bomb” here, and check out the Flickr gallery for behind-the-scenes photos here.