Ah yes, a performance-based video in a small venue with insane amounts of stage diving, crowd surfing and crowd walking — not to mention a fat dude being completely dropped as soon as he leaves launches himself in the air. Every Time I Die, thank you for magically transporting me back to 2001.

This White Hinterland video is very reminiscent of this clip from the Star Wars cartoon where Anakin Skywalker goes to some snow planet and hallucinates, seeing his future. Except that didn’t make me fall asleep halfway through.

However, Simmons did have some kind words — sort of — to say about the Gallagher brothers. You know, if calling someone a lush and a junkie is considered saying kind words. Which it probably is in England.

I like Keane, I like Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand write great songs. What’s missing is stars. I don’t care what they do, who they’re shagging, where they live… they’re not interesting people.

The most interesting people to me are the Gallagher brothers. The interesting thing about them is they’re drug addicts and alcoholics and they fight with each other. That’s really it.

Ted Leo turns a great episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon into a phenomenal one.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Mighty Sparrow

Rotting Christ – Aealo
Release date: March 9, 2010
[amazon.com]

This bears a slight resemblance to the forthcoming War of Ages album. My money is on the War of Ages cover because roaring lions eat human skulls, in the rock-paper-scissors fight of graphic design.

Highlights include new LPs from The Bled, Demon Hunter, Gorillaz, Liars, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Titus Andronicus, Alberta Cross, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Frightened Rabbit and Ludacris; a bunch of Jimi Hendrix remasters; a Pavement best-of (and some vinyl reissues to boot!); some collaboration between System of a Down’s Serj Tankian and the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra; a DVD of some old film from The Who; and a live CD/DVD from Ben Harper.

All that among several other notable releases. Get your headphones comfortable and prepare your wallet (and/or your bandwidth, depending on how you roll) for a long week of new release listening.

:: 1986, Everybody is Whatever I Think They Are (Palentine)

:: Acrassicauda, Only the Dead See the End of the War EP (Vice)

:: Alberta Cross, Broken Side of Time (Ark Recordings/ATO)

:: Aloha, Home Acres (Polyvinyl)

:: Anais Mitchell, Hadestown (Righteous Babe)

:: Before Their Eyes, Untouchable (Rise)

:: Ben Harper, Live From the Montreal International Jazz Festival CD/DVD (Virgin)

:: The Besnard Lakes, The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night (Jagjaguwar)

:: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Beat the Devil’s Tattoo (Abstract Dragon/Vagrant)

:: The Bled, Heat Fetish (Rise)

:: Blind Witness, Nightmare On Providence Street (Mediaskare)

:: The Breathing Process, The Odyssey (Un)dead (Candlelight)

:: Broken Bells, Broken Bells (Columbia)

:: The Bundles, The Bundles (K)

:: Burning Star Core, Papercuts Theater (No Quarter)

:: The Chieftains with Ry Cooder, San Patricio (Hear Music)

:: Choir of Young Believers, Claustrophobia (Ghostly International)

:: Coconuts, Coconuts (No Quarter)

:: Dark Tranquillity, We Are the Void (Century Media)

:: Darkthrone, Frostland Tapes (Peaceville)

:: Daughters, Daughters (Hydra Head)

:: Demon Hunter, The World is A Thorn (Solid State)

:: Deru, Say Goodbye to Useless (Mush)

:: The Diamond Rings, Wait & See / On Fire single (Tomlab)

:: Eluveitie, Everything Remains As It Never Was (Nuclear Blast)

:: Emanuel & the Fear, Listen (Paper Garden)

:: Finntroll, Nifelvind (Century Media)

:: The Fleshtones, It’s Super-Rock Time! The IRS Years, 1980-85 (Raven)

:: Frightened Rabbit, The Winter of Mixed Drinks (Fat Cat)

:: Gonjasufi, A Sufi and a Killer (Warp)

:: Gorillaz, Plastic Beach (Virgin)

:: Immolation, Majesty and Decay (Nuclear Blast)

:: Jason Collett, Rat a Tat Tat (Arts & Crafts)

:: Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced remastered with DVD (Sony Legacy)

:: Jimi Hendrix, Axis Bold As Love remastered with DVD (Sony Legacy)

:: Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland remastered with DVD (Sony Legacy)

:: Jimi Hendrix, First Rays of the New Rising Sun remastered with DVD (Sony Legacy)

:: Jimi Hendrix, Live At Woodstock DVD (Sony Legacy)

:: Jimi Hendrix, Smash Hits remastered (Sony Legacy)

:: Jimi Hendrix, Valleys of Neptune remastered (Sony Legacy)

:: jj, jj no 3 (Sincerely Yours/Secretly Canadian)

:: Josh Rouse, El Turista (Yep Roc)

:: Judson Claiborne, Time and Temperature (La Société Expéditionnaire)

:: The Knife, Tomorrow, In a Year (Mute)

:: Liars, Sisterworld (Mute)

:: Ludacris, Battle of the Sexes (DTP)

:: Method Actors, This is Still It (Acute)

:: Miles Kurosky, The Desert of Shallow Effects (Majordomo/Shout! Factory)

:: Mimicking Birds, Mimicking Birds (Rough Trade)

:: Morning Benders, Big Echo (Rough Trade)

:: Murder Death Kill, Fuck With Us and Find Out (Mediaskare)

:: Of Mice and Men, Of Mice and Men (Rise)

:: Ortolan, Time On a String (Sounds Familyre)

:: Patty Larkin, 25 (Signature Sounds)

:: Pavement, Quarantine the Past: the Best of Pavement (Matador)

:: Pharmacy, Weekend (Park the Van)

:: Rotting Christ, Aealo limited edition (Century Media)

:: Serj Tankian and the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, Elect the Dead Symphony (Serjical Strike/Reprise)

:: The Splinters, Kick (Double Negative)

:: Tanlines, Settings (True Panther Sounds)

:: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Brutalist Bricks (Matador)

:: Thrushes, Night Falls (4AD)

:: Titus Andronicus, The Monitor (XL)

:: Violent Soho, Violent Soho (Ecstatic Peace)

:: White Hinterland, Kairos (Dead Oceans)

:: The Who, The Kids Are Alright Blu-ray (Sanctuary)

:: Woodpigeon, Die Stadt Muzikanten (1-2-3-4 Go)

:: Zola Jesus, Stridulum EP (Sacred Bones)

Did I miss anything important? Post it in the comments.

Then there’s the fact that Leo and his boys always give you a reason to use the phrase “pop punk” without wincing… or at least without wincing as much (I’d still call it intensely punk-informed rock with pop sensibilities just to avoid the pejorative nature of the term).

You’ve also got the fact that The Brutalist Bricks is a much more personal record than his wartime output. Not to say his trademark socially-conscious and thoroughly punk themes have given way to first wave emo musings. But this time around, the knowledge eggs he cracks on the listener are more about general life experiences than a political malaise.

So yeah, I could spend paragraph after paragraph extrapolating on each of those bullet points. However, I’ll save you the trouble of reading a few more belabored fanboy words and say that this is easily Teddy’s best work since Hearts of Oak, and The Brutalist Bricks seems to reach back to that record a bit for it’s affectation and approach without getting stuck in the past — or giving the impression that those big Matador bucks have made Ted Theodore Leo, Esquire complacent.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Even Heroes Have to Die
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Mighty Sparrow

:: Stereogum has a new song from the new Cursive.

:: Hey all you 350-pound, six-and-a-half-feet-tall dudes: Terror is heading into the studio.

:: The third and final installment of Manchester Orchestra frontman Andy Hull’s Right Away, Great Captain! might see the light of day soon.

:: Little kids cover Phoenix. Apropos.

:: Spin is turning 25, and apparently the celebration will be a doozy.

:: Random tracks that don’t suck:
Nebula – Aphrodite
Good Old War – Coney Island
Harvey Milk – Shame (live)

Hmm, when Morrissey says “in the ghetto,” it shows a black dude. Tsk tsk tsk, Mozzer.

There are seldom records that pair such deliberate and dense lyricism with the brevity and immediacy of punk rock without seeming disjointed, and The Monitor is one of the few that accomplishes just such a task. Frontman Patrick Stickles and the gang have shown more than just promise on their sophomore effort, and hopefully they keep it up for a long time.

Titus Andronicus – Four Score and Seven (Part One)
Titus Andronicus – Four Score and Seven (Part Two)