No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Red Hot, "an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture" is releasing Dark Was The Night, a forthcoming (and can I say POWERHOUSE) thirty-one track album that is out February 17 via 4AD. It'll be available as a double CD, triple vinyl, or download, and all the proceeds go to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Every day until 2/1 a new track will stream on the DWTN MySpace, so make sure to add it to your Morning Coffee! Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National take reign as co-producers, and their track is the daily feature.

Now that we have the album logistics out of the way, let's revel in the goodness of this new version of "Train Song", played by Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and former Broken Social Scene member Feist! They pull off the duet flawlessly, with Feist as usual giving a stellar vocal performance - I'm sure Zooey is jealous..

MP3: Feist + Ben Gibbard: "Train Song" (zShare - comment if link breaks please! I'll be sure to find a working one for you)
MP3: Vashti Bunyan: "Train Song" (written by Alasdair Clayre) (mp3 via indiemuse.com)

DWTN Tracklist:

Disc One
01 "Knotty Pine" - Dirty Projectors + David Byrne (mp3 via Stereogum)
02 "Cello Song (Nick Drake)" - The Books Feat. Jose Gonzalez
03 "Train Song" - Feist + Ben Gibbard
04 "Brackett, WI" - Bon Iver
05 "Deep Blue Sea" - Grizzly Bear
06 "So Far Around the Bend" - The National (arrangement by Nico Muhly)
07 "Tightrope" - Yeasayer
08 "Feeling Good" (popularized by Nina Simone) - My Brightest Diamond
09 "Dark Was the Night" (Blind Willie Johnson) - Kronos Quartet
10 "I Was Young When I Left Home" (Bob Dylan) - Antony + Bryce Dessner
11 "Big Red Machine" - Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12 "Sleepless" - The Decemberists
13 "Stolen Houses" (Die) - Iron and Wine
14 "Service Bell" - Grizzly Bear + Feist
15 "You Are The Blood" - Sufjan Stevens

Disc Two
01 "Well-Alright" - Spoon
02 "Lenin" - Arcade Fire
03 "Mimizan" - Beirut
04 "El Caporal" - My Morning Jacket
05 "Inspiration Information" (Shuggie Otis) - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
06 "With A Girl Like You" (The Troggs) - Dave Sitek
07 "Blood Pt 2" (based on original song "You are the Blood" by the Castanets) - Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
08 "Hey, Snow White" (Destroyer) - The New Pornographers
09 "Gentle Hour" (Snapper) - Yo La Tengo
10 "Another Saturday" (traditional song) - Stuart Murdoch
11 "Happiness" - Riceboy Sleeps
12 "Amazing Grace" (traditional song) - Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
13 "The Giant Of Illinois" (Handsome Family) - Andrew Bird
14 "Lua" - Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch
15 "When the Road Runs Out" - Blonde Redhead + Devastations
16 "Love vs. Porn" - Kevin Drew

Pre-Order Dark Was The Night

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It does seem too perfect to be true, but this is not a joke! According to US Magazine and MTV News, 32 year-old Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard proposed to actress/She & Him singer Zooey Deschanel (28) sometime before the holidays. Let's crown them the indie rock couple of 2008? Both musicians were highly successful in 2008, Zooey releasing Vol. One of her collaboration with M. Ward, and Death Cab's Narrow Stairs hitting the #1 spot on the Billboard 200.

Deschanel had previously dated actor/musician Jason Schwartzman and Mickey Madden from Maroon Five. Various Web sites are reporting that the couple have been dating for almost a year, and they shared the stage together — dueting on a cover of the Everly Brothers' "Dream" — at an Obama fundraiser in August. -MTV News

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Langerado regulars are going to have some initial backlash with the news of this year's festival: it has been cut back down to three days and worst of all camping has been eliminated from the equation! Also the location has changed from the Big Cypress Indian Reservation to Bicentennial Park in Miami. But don't get too down: the initial lineup looks spectacular. Girl Talk, Slightly Stoopid, and Umphrey's make returns, plus tons of newcomers. I expected bigger headliners than Death Cab and Snoop Dogg, but this is quite pleasing for the first announcement.

Tickets go on sale December 12 at noon ET at Langerado.com.

Langerado Music Festival Initial Lineup
March 6-7-8, 2009
Death Cab For Cutie
Snoop Dogg
Ryan Adams And The Cardinals
Thievery Corporation
Slightly Stoopid
Flogging Molly
Dashboard Confessional
Broken Social Scene
Cold War Kids
Girl Talk
Chromeo
Mute Math
Black Kids
Gym Class Heroes
The Faint
The Pouges
Zac Brown Band
Matisyahu
Disco Biscuits
Umphrey's McGee
Robert Randolph And The Family Band
Michael Franti And Spearhead
Virgins

UPDATE (1/28): Deerhunter, Modest Mouse, and the Gene Ween Band have been added to the list.

UPDATE (2/3): The festival has been cancelled.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It's not that Death Cab For Cutie know where they're going with the next album, it's that they know where they won't go. Songwriter Ben Gibbard is already thinking about the follow-up to this Spring's very successful Narrow Stairs:

"The next record will be a little softer," he tells SPIN.com. "I'm interested in writing a very different type of record next time."

"I feel like there's a lot of beauty in the darkness of Narrow Stairs, but that's not really a place I'm ready to go to for a while. I'm interested in taking a different approach and having the next record be different in tone -- I'm just not interested in making another dark, dark album. Just not two in a row. I felt pretty exhausted when we got done with Stairs."

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

"There were four songs that we recorded during the Narrow Stairs sessions that didn’t quite fit into the final running order. We were really happy with them though so we decided to go back into the studio, in some time off between our Australian tour and before our Fall starts up, to add a few finishing touches and do a mix.

"I don’t think we’ll decide for sure how they’re going to live in the world until after we’ve got the finished results, but I do think an EP is a cool idea; it’s something we’ve done in the past so why not? I think it would be a really cool supplemental piece to Narrow Stairs and a snapshot of the musical headspace we were in during that period in the band.

"The songs will definitely see the light of day ahead of a new album though and, hopefully, before the end of the year." (via Rock Sound)

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.