Blogs

* Skeletor and Early Man. Just because. (HT: Brandez.)

* Oh, fine. You want Sesame Street Slayer instead?

* For the six of you who have not already heard through vines of various kinds, Hotpipes have broken up. Let's just say we weren't happy to hear that.

* Someone/something called Live on the Green just started following Nashville Cream on twitter. Their web address is Lightning 100's site and they tell us to "get ready for the official announcement." Sounds like a concert series of some sort, right? We'll let you know.

* Guitarist Jason Yeary has quit Shoot the Mountain.

* Speaking of guitarist Jason Yeary, he is a member of Hammertorch, who have a new song up on their MySpace for your listening. The 'Torch will get to torchin' it up for their CD release shows on July 23 (at The 5 Spot w/Chris Crofton and the Alcohol Stuntband and Eric Zarycki & The Persuasion) and July 25 (Wall Street w/All We Seabees and The Bohannons).

* This weekend's midnight showing of Point Break at The Belcourt has been canceled, due to a "change in rights." Totally extreme bummer.

As reported by Pitchfork earlier today, Andrew Bird and St. Vincent will tour together this fall, including a stop at The Ryman on Oct. 10. Those of you who missed out on Mr. Bird's insanely packed Grimey's in-store can now have a fairly intimate engagement with the whistling one. There's probably a reasonably good chance he'll do that thing where one pays homage to the venue by playing/singing unamplified at the edge of the stage, relying on the Ryman's acoustics. Or maybe he'll play his violin through six Marshall stacks. I dunno. My crystal blog isn't working today. (Unfortunately, as Out the Other points out, this will be during Next Big Nashville.)

In any case, I, for one, am really geeked to see St. Vincent again. As I've said before, she and her band were fully sensational at Bonnaroo--and I was both sweaty and sober when I saw them. In the video above you can see Ms. Clark & Co. perform "Marrow" on Letterman. Very cool, though it seems they'll let pretty much anyone play that show these days. If you haven't seen St. Vincent's Lake Fever Session, go ahead and add that to your list for today.

Tickets for the 8 p.m. Oct. 10 show are $27 and go on sale Friday, July 10 at 10 a.m.

Update: Pre-sale tickets are available through Andrew Bird's website if you're a "fan community" member, which requires an email address. (HT: Frank.)

Tomorrow morning, I'll be interviewing Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison in preparation for the band's July 14 show at Exit/In. As most of you already know, Denison--who currently lives in Nashville--plays in Tomahawk (with Mike Patton) and Th' Legendary Shack Shakers as well. In keeping with our current climate of interactive media, I thought it would be appropriate to see if any of you Cream readers had questions for the man.

Post any inquiries in the comments section and I'll use whichever ones don't suck.

Creamy!

I'm certain that ever since we at the Cream announced our monthlong 8 off 8th series at Mercy Lounge next month, you've been on pins and needles awaiting some lineups. Well the first one is here, and we just couldn't keep you waiting any longer. July 6 is '60s night, meaning all of the following artists will be playing some of their favorite songs from the greatest decade, y'know, pretty much ever:

Matt Friction and the Cheap Shots
Roman Candle
Eureka Gold
The Clutters
Kindergarten Circus
Ole Mossy Face
Jacob Jones
Millionaire Magicians

I can tell you that some of the covers already spoken for--or at least put "on hold"--include songs by The Zombies, The Animals, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Tommy James & the Shondells, The Rolling Stones, Dion DiMucci and Roy Orbison. Also, I'm guessing there will be some Sonics in there, and I've heard whispers that Adam Gold may or may not engage in some light cross-dressing. Fingers crossed. There will be prizes, but I won't tell you what those prizes are going to be. Maybe that's because I'm secretive, and maybe it's because I actually have no idea what the prizes are going to be. And remember, all four shows are free.

From David Berman's new book, 'The Portable February.'

Hey suckers, the deadline for YASNI entries is tomorrow. As you probably already know, you just complete the sentence "You are so Nashville if..." with something funny.

If it's good, we put it in the paper. If it's totes roflcopter, you win a prize!* Maybe you've been 'racking your brain,' so to make things easy, here's a few trusty topics you can choose from:

marching bands
John Rich
sexes on fire
being on the guest list
blog comment punctuation
Bonnaroo
Jack White
wedding parties
what David Berman is doing at this moment
how things were so much better before
shows that should sell out but don't
what Warren Pash thinks about JEFF the Brotherhood

If you want, you can email your entry to YASNI [at] nashvillescene [dot] com.

You want some new jams? How about some old jams? Here are some jams to perk you up, courtesy of a few locally-mixed mixes of jams.

* DJ Burgers Summer Mix: You may know DJ Burgers as a particularly science-minded local photographer. Or you might not. Either way, there's a mix in it for you.

* Nashville Mixtapes revisits 1989 in anticipation of De La Soul's show at the Cannery Aug. 5. Talk about jams! "Fight the Power" and "Head On" came out in the same year as The Stone Roses and 13 Songs. I know, I know.

* Yewknee Mix Vol. 18, "Omission" fills the mix-shaped hole in your heart that was created when there was no mix full of jams last month.

Enjoy it while you can, people. Pretty soon we'll all have to give all the money in the world to the record industry.

As my man Coolout says, "Don't call it Cashville cuz we're br-br-broke still!" Even though I did finally receive my "underemployment" check after seven weeks of dealing with the rather slipshod Web-based services of our state bureaucracy, I still can't afford to buy music the way I used to. I've been scouring the interwebs looking for some quality jams that I can cop for free while still respecting the intellectual property rights of others. No matter how broke I am, I still feel guilty for stealing music--Lapsed Catholic guilt is a bitch.

You can imagine my delight when local promoter Tyzayah Gold-Kiser hit me up with a message about his latest event, Black Market at the Exit/In on July 17, and its accompanying mixtape. See, Tyzayah, unlike some folks in town, has realized that if you want people to come to a show featuring out-of-town acts that nobody has heard, you've got to get those acts heard. The easy solution? Set up a specific website for the show and curate a collection of the aforementioned artists' most compelling tracks so lazy folks like me can actually concentrate on the music rather than spending an hour trying to find that shit on MySpace. It's really kind of genius, which is why we gave him a "Best of Nashville" award last year, I guess.

The Black Market mixtape is a slick little snippet tape of progressive electro-influenced hip-hop that clocks in at 15 tracks in 25 minutes and sounds like the cyborg offspring of Roger Troutman and Mantronix. The tape and the show are heavy with heat from the Norfolk/Virgina Beach scene, including one of my favorite underground rappers, Ced Hughes, and his boys Max Mega and Battle. It also includes two of the top local summer jams, "Product of the Game" by Future a.k.a. Future Unknown a.k.a. the MC from Biscuits N Gravy and N.O.B.O.T.S.' "Flight of the Navigator." If you like squiggly synths, full-tilt party rhymes and not paying for shit, then you're gonna dig this tape.

Black Market happens July 17 at the Exit/In. You can scope the whole lineup and download the mixtape here.

Generally speaking, each of my colleagues here at the Cream has a few years and a few hundred records on me. But I'll be damned if I'm going to let the Maloneys, Haruches and Golds of the world school me in the ways of rock until I'm as old and bitter as they are. Just kidding, dudes. Anyhow, as more of an exercise in discipline than anything else, I'll be listening to a new album every day for the next 365 days. New to me, that is. This experiment is partially inspired by the abysmal words of Christopher Weingarten, partially by the fact that Adam Gold did it with three records a day for a year while playing Internet poker for a living, and partially by the fact that I've done it casually off and on for some time. From my mission statement:

My goal in this seemingly ambitious experiment isn't necessarily to review a record a day, but rather to simply hear one in its entirety...if my goal is to be a well-rounded listener (and thus a critic the reader can trust), shouldn't I have a broader palate? Shouldn't I challenge myself with that which is outside my area of expertise/interest?

I won't lie about my m.o.: I'll start with albums I've intended to peep for some time, new releases by artists I enjoy and artists recommended to me by, say, my Last FM account. But from there I hope to branch out.

Some days you'll probably catch me giving a wistful screed about why an album reminds me of my childhood. On a particularly ineloquent day, you might catch me simply saying, "This one sucks." Recommendations are heartily encouraged, and if you'd like to send me your band's record, I might throw it in the mix. I've already posted about Record No. 1, Son Volt's forthcoming American Central Dust. While Tumblr doesn't offer a comments section, you can always comment here on the Cream or email me at prodgers[at]nashvillescene[dot]com with your recommendations, complaints or nude photographs.

Drinking!

I know there's been a lot of Darlins talk lately, what with The Black Lips playing their release on June 27 and them looking sexy at Bonnaroo and all. But their people (they have people) gave us the green light to post the first track/lead-off single from their eponymous debut full-length, so we're gonna go ahead and do that. It also happens to be what I think is the best song on the album. Listen up:

Those Darlins, the album, is now available on iTunes and vinyl, and you can get it in compact disc format on July 7. Maybe the girls will play the release in their bikinis? Eh? Probably not. It was worth a shot. Full list of the Darlins' summer tour dates after the jump. Also, there's some ridiculous Photoshop that--believe it or not--I actually had nothing to do with.

Here's a little something for you to kick off your work week, something to brighten your day and put a spring in your step. Incidentally, this is exactly what it's like hanging out at Sullivan's house, only he's always wearing that spiked cod-piece and talking about Andrew Jackson--no less hilarious, just, um, different. Ya, different--that's the word...

(Via Buzzfeed.)