…is on Sunday and it’s the year of the golden pig. Cakehead has some great suggestions on how to celebrate.

USAisaMonster play post-apocalyptic noise-prog that will probably serve as the soundtrack when Bush decides to invade Iran and we all get nuked. Unlike their 2005 70-minute rock opera, ‚”Wohaw,” their latest, ‚”Sunset at the End of the Industrial Age,” comes in at a mere three quarters of an hour and features a few tracks that tread close to indie-rock song structure. If you like Hella, USAisaMonster might just become your second-favorite earsplitting two-piece.
MP3s: http://www.myspace.com/usaisamonster
Tonight’s show is at 8pm with Arbouretum and BLUES CONTROL. Cover is $6 and directions to Uncle Paulie’s are here: http://myspace.com/unclepauliesnyc
-Cortney Harding

From Obscure Sound

On May 1st, Ejstes will release Dungen’s fifth album Tio Bitar. Translated to ‚”Ten Pieces”, that is exactly what it is: ten new excellent pieces of music from the mastermind of Gustav Ejstes. While he still plays the majority of instruments like past releases, Ejstes actually enlisted some outsider help for the recording of Tio Bitar. While Ejstes is still the main force, he brought in a few friends to aid with backing vocals, along with a Turkish string musician. Ejstes can still be found on guitar, bass, organs, flute, and strings. Tio Bitar is Dungen’s most expansive album yet,

Download 3 New Dungen MP3′s here

We’ve also been enjoying The Postmarks. Fans of Belle & Sebastian, Stars, Camera Obcura, amd mopey twee won’t be disappointed:
MP3: The Postmarks – Goodbye [from Fabulist]
MP3: The Postmarks – Let Go [From BonTon]
MP3: The Postmarks – Weather the Weather [From BonTon]

I recently had the unfun experience of having to review Rob Sheffield’s sweet ode to his late wife, ‚”Love is a Mix Tape,” the same weekend I got totally super-dumped. But the experience did get me back on the mix kick, and thus I present my Valentine’s Day 2007 playlist. I’ll get all Casey Kasem style and send this out to the fish, with the following note: pay attention to the order of the songs and the lyrics.
Twilight Singers, ‚”I’m Ready”
Jennifer O’Connor, ‚”Today”
Velocity Girl, ‚”My Forgotten Favorite”
Wilco, ‚”Reservations”
PJ Harvey, ‚”You Said Something”
Elliott Smith, ‚”Amity”
Carla Bozulich, ‚”Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”
Snuggle-Ups , ‚”Ferris Wheel”
The Blow, ‚”The Long List of Girls”
Neil Young, ‚”Only Love Can Break Your Heart”
Liz Phair, ‚”Divorce Song”
Ian Moore, ‚”April”
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, ‚”Graceland”
The Submarines, ‚”Peace and Hate”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, ‚”Maps”
Bob Dylan, ‚”Just Like a Woman”
-Cortney Harding

Both cross the nine-minute mark. Both feature female starlets linked the singers. Both are about love gone wrong, and end with the female starlet dying (sorry for the spoiler, and also, since when did Houellebecq influence rock videos?).
So which one wins:

Guns N’ Roses, “November Rain”
or

Justin Timberlake, “What Goes Around Comes Around”
-Cortney Harding

See the full gallery here.

This was created by Billy F Gibbons’ of ZZ Top. He also created the iconic Eliminator Coupe. Check out more pictures of the Bus Ball here.

Awesome Color get compared to early Sonic Youth quite a bit, but that shouldn’t come as much of a shock, seeing as Thurston Moore has acted as their producer. Their live show is very high energy, and occasionally a bit violent, as lead singer Derek Stanton has been known to smash the occasional guitar on-stage. The Bushwick-by-way-of-Michigan trio also manages to work in some nifty Southern rock elements, which makes the classic rock nerd in me love them.
Mp3s: http://www.myspace.com/awesomecolor
Glasslands is at 289 Kent Avenue. Doors are at 9pm and An Alien Heat, and RJCC (from Sightings) also play.
-Cortney Harding

Meanwhile, CNN is reporting o Anna Nicole, astronauts who wear diapers, and skateboarding dogs. From WaPo

Intelligence provided by former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith to buttress the White House case for invading Iraq included “reporting of dubious quality or reliability” that supported the political views of senior administration officials rather than the conclusions of the intelligence community, according to a report by the Pentagon’s inspector general.
Feith’s office “was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda,” according to portions of the report, released yesterday by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.). The inspector general described Feith’s activities as “an alternative intelligence assessment process.”
An unclassified summary of the full document is scheduled for release today in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Levin chairs. In that summary, a copy of which was obtained from another source by The Washington Post, the inspector general concluded that Feith’s assessment in 2002 that Iraq and al-Qaeda had a “mature symbiotic relationship” was not fully supported by available intelligence but was nonetheless used by policymakers.
At the time of Feith’s reporting, the CIA had concluded only that there was an “evolving” association, “based on sources of varying reliability.”
In a telephone interview yesterday, Feith emphasized the inspector general’s conclusion that his actions, described in the report as “inappropriate,” were not unlawful. “This was not ‘alternative intelligence assessment,’ ” he said. “It was from the start a criticism of the consensus of the intelligence community, and in presenting it I was not endorsing its substance.”
Feith, who was defense policy chief before leaving the government in 2005, was one of the key contributors to the administration’s rationale for war. His intelligence activities, authorized by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul D. Wolfowitz, and coordinated with Vice President Cheney’s office, stemmed from an administration belief that the CIA was underplaying evidence of then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s ties with al-Qaeda.
In interviews with Pentagon investigators, the summary document said, Feith insisted that his activities did not constitute intelligence and that “even if they were, [they] would be appropriate given that they were responding to direction from the Deputy Secretary of Defense.”
The report was requested in fall 2005 by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), then chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Although the committee and a number of official inquiries had criticized the administration’s prewar intelligence, Democratic senators, led by Levin, demanded further investigation of Feith’s operation.
“The bottom line is that intelligence relating to the Iraq-al-Qaeda relationship was manipulated by high-ranking officials in the Department of Defense to support the administration’s decision to invade Iraq,” Levin said yesterday. “The inspector general’s report is a devastating condemnation of inappropriate activities in the DOD policy office that helped take this nation to war.” READ IT ALL