Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

01 Southern Point
02 Two Weeks
03 All We Ask
04 Fine for Now
05 Cheerleader
06 Dory
07 Ready, Able
08 About Face
09 Hold Still
10 While You Wait for the Others
11 I Live With You
12 Foreground

So after finding out what the-album-that-somehow-comes-up-in-every-comment-thread was called, the only outstanding issue was: how exactly do you visually conceptualize aVeckatimest? I figure either you incorporate imagery of the namesake uninhabited isle, or create sort of a hand-drawn collage of various geometric shapes rendered in pastels and earth tones to capture the breadth of emotion and mood-spanning mystery conjured by the title's syllabic string. Oh I guess the latter...www.stereogum.com

Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels

1. Palmistry
2. Everything Is Moving So Fast
3. Pulling On A Line
4. Concrete Heart
5. She Comes To Me In Dreams
6. The Chorus In The Underground
7. Singer Castle Bells
8. Stealing Tomorrow
9. Still
10. New Light
11. Rivers Edge
12. Unison Falling Into Harmony

Heeding the invitation of historian/photographer/mondo Great Lake Swimmers fan Ian Coristine, Tony Dekker and his folksy crew took a field trip upstream to the Thousand Islands region of Ontario last year. There they recorded in churches, community centers and even a castle, basking in the picturesque environs and getting artistically inspired in general. Those recordings make up the bulk of Lost Channels, the group's fourth album. Lead single "Pulling On A Line" reveals how the group spent its 
river vacation: chiming mandolins, subtle harmonies and an easygoing beat combine to make the ultimate sonic postcard. Wish we were there, indeed...www.prefixmag.com

Maria Taylor - Ladyluck

1. LadyLuck
2. Time Lapse Lifeline
3. It's Time
4. My Favorite Love
5. 100,000 Times
6. Green Butterflies
7. Broad Daylight
8. A Chance
9. Orchids
10. Cartoons and Forever Plans

Maria Taylor is set to release her third solo album titled Ladyluck on April 7. Teaming up with producer friends Andy LeMaster (Bright Eyes, Azure Ray and a host of Saddle Creek label mates), Mike Mogis and Lukas Burton and featuring collaborations with Michael Stipe, Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes and Mckenzie Smith of Midlake, LadyLuck showcases Taylor's ability to pull at your heart strings while proving she's not a woman down on her luck.

Julie Doiron - I Can Wonder What You Did with Your Day

01. Life Of Dreams
02. Spill Yer Lungs
03. Lovers Of The World
04. Tailor
05. Heavy Snow
06. Nice To Come Home
07. Consolation Prize
08. Je Le Savais
09. When Brakes Get Wet
10. Borrowed Minivans
11. Blue
12. Glad To Be Alive

Over the last few years, it’s become increasingly easy to picture Julie Doiron writing songs from the comfort of her Sackville kitchen. Her sonic preferences have evolved from sludge and lo-fi melodies to tender tracks that expose hints of sadness delivered by a subdued voice and her emotions are spiked with the drama of a slowed down life filled with memories and dreams instead of the insecurities of youth. And while there’s no doubt that Doiron is incredibly successful writing in this style (Woke Myself Up earned a Polaris short-list nomination), for me it’s hard not to pine for the noise and energy that she and the other Tripper’s created in the 90’s. It’s obvious, even after working with her former band mates on Woke Myself Up, that Doiron is never going to fully return to that style, but I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day blends her past and present nicely...www.herohill.com

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Beware

01 Beware Your Only Friend

02 You Can't Hurt Me Now 

03 My Life's Work 

04 Death Final 

05 Heart's Arms 

06 You Don't Love Me 

07 You Are Lost 

08 I Won't Ask Again 

09 I Don't Belong to Anyone 

10 There Is Something I Have to Say 

11 I Am Goodbye 

12 Without Work, You Have Nothing 

13 Afraid Ain't Me

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy will release his “biggest and most ambitious album,” Beware on March 16th via Domino Records. “Though Beware shares spit with its immediate predecessor released this past summer, Lie Down in the Light, it’s reach is longer and stronger, more grandiose. Where fiddle and steel contribute their rustic timbre alongside guitars and voices, a thickening thud of low tone rolls beneath, giving the record a bottom that’s fun to watch bounce in new clothes”...www.muzzleofbees.com

The Boy Least Likely To - The Law of the Playground

1. Saddle Up
2. A Balloon On A Broken String
3. When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade
4. I Box Up All The Butterflies
5. The Boy With Two Hearts
6. Stringing Up Conkers
7. The Boy Least LIkely To Is A Machine
8. Whiskers
9. Every Goliath Has Its David
10. The Nature Of The Boy Least Likely To
11. I Keep Myself To Myself
12. The Worm Forgives The Plough
13. A Fairy Tale Ending

"This record should have been released sooner," admits a press release for the Boy Least Likely To's forthcoming sophomore album, The Law of the Playground. Unfortunately, the album got tangled up in label drama, but it will finally see release March 3 via the English duo's own Too Young to Die label in the UK and in North America via +1.

Contrary to a previous report, the follow-up to 2005's The Best Party Ever will not include recently Forkcasted holiday single "The First Snowflake". It will, however, include not-so-recently Forkcasted ditties "I Box Up All the Butterflies" and"Balloon on a Broken String"."The First Snowflake" will be released as a download-only single on December 15, and that will be the only way to get it until the Boy Least Likely To release a greatest hits/B-sides and rarities/holiday album, of course.The Boy Least Likely To's only show scheduled right now is an appearance at a Christmas party at London's Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen on December 15, the same day as the single's release...www.pitchforkmedia.com

Justin Townes Earle - Midnight At The Movies

1. Midnight at the Movies 

2. What I Mean to You 

3. They Killed John Henry 

4. Mama's Eyes 

5. Dirty Rag 

6. Can't Hardly Wait 

7. Black Eyed Suzy 

8. Poor Fool 

9. Halfway to Jackson 

10. Someday I'll Be Forgiven for This 

11. Walk Out 

12. Here We Go Again 

If being the son of one of America’s greatest songwriters isn’t a hard enough burden to carry on your shoulders, how about sharing the name with one of American’s forgotten legends. Justin Townes Earle, son of Steve Earle and name adoptee of the late Townes Van Zandt has not only been busy at work carving his own niche in the Americana world, but stepping outside of the shadow that people like Jakob Dylan could never have achieved. After honing his chops in the Nashville area, The Good Life was his humble introduction to the world at large. Midnight at the Movies is a record that tests the endurance of a rising star in the south, and carries the potential to shoot him out of the bar and into the Ryman Auditorium

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

01. This Tornado Loves You

02. The Next Time You Say Forever

03. People Got A Lotta Nerve

04. Polar Nettles

05. Vengeance Is Sleeping

06. Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth

07. Middle Cyclone

08. Fever

09. Magpie To The Morning

10. I'm An Animal

11. Prison Girls

12. Don't Forget Me

13. The Pharaohs

14. Red Tide

15. Marais La Nuit

On March 3, 2009, Anti- Records will release the eagerly awaited new Neko Case album Middle Cyclone. The fifteen-track collection is Case's first release since 2006's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, the best-reviewed and best-selling album of her career.Middle Cyclone was produced by Case with Darryl Neudorf and recorded in Tucson, Brooklyn, Toronto, and Vermont. It features Case backed by her core band - guitarist Paul Rigby, bassist Tom V. Ray, backing vocalist Kelly Hogan, multi-instrumentalist Jon Rauhouse, and drummer Barry Mirochnick - along with numerous guests including M. Ward, Garth Hudson, Sarah Harmer, and members of The New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Sadies, Visqueen, The Lilys, and Giant Sand, among others. In addition to twelve new songs written by Case, Middle Cyclone includes covers of 'Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth' by Sparks, and "Don't Forget Me" by Harry Nilsson. In 2006, SPIN Magazine called Case "one of pop music's best" voices, and Interview Magazine hailed her album Fox Confessor Brings The Flood as "one of the most original, beguiling, honest records of the year." The album also earned Case Female Artist of the Year honors from the PLUG Independent Music Awards, and a Top 10 placement in the Village Voice's annual Pazz and Jop Critics Poll of the year's best releases. Fox Confessor was Case's first album to debut in the Billboard Top 100, and has sold nearly 200,000 copies in the U.S. alone...www.anti.com

Fanfarlo - Reservoir

01 I'm A Pilot
02 Ghosts
03 Luna
04 Comets
05 Fire Escape
06 The Walls Are Coming Down
07 Drowning Men
08 If It Is Growing
09 Harold T. Wilkins Or How To Wait For A Very Long Time
10 Finish line
11 Good Morning Midnight

Patients - Patients

1. Tall Tale Number 5
2. The Coldest Hands
3. Not In Nottingham
4. Body Song
5. Mind Ur Manners
6. Doorways
7. Mathematics
8. The Voice Of Our Age
9. Leaves
10. Sad Business
11. If You Come Back To Haunt Me

Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free

01. Everyone is Guilty

02. River
03. Creatures
04. The Alps & Their Orange Evergreen
05. Set 'Em Free, Pt. 1
06. Gravelly Mountains of the Moon
07. Many Ghosts
08. MBF
09. They Will Appear
10. Sun Will Shine (Warmth of the Sunship Version)
11. Last Year

Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free marks the band’s first album recorded as a trio; Seth Olinsky, Miles Seaton and Dana Janssen became a three piece in 2007 after original member Ryan Vanderhoof left the band that fall, and this shift in their line-up reconfigured the band’s approach to touring. They brought along like-minded musicians such as Megafaun, the Dodos and Greg Davis, both as openers and as members of an ever-changing Akron/Family ensemble, bringing about cacophonous onstage jams interwoven between the band’s songs. Whether it’s the three members of Akron/Family – communicating and interacting with one another onstage with something like the visceral language of the classic John Coltrane or Albert Ayler ensembles – or upwards of a dozen guest musicians joining them, their live shows are becoming a thing of legend.

Bon Iver - The Myspace Transmissions EP

1. For Emma
2. Flume
3. Lump Sum
4. Blindsided

Bon Iver visited with MySpace Transmissions for an exclusive performance...www.myspace.com

Jackie Leven - Men In Prison

Disk: 1 

1. Men In Prison 

2. Opening Remarks To Prisoners 

3. Extremely Violent Man 

4. Poortoun 

5. Call Mother A Lonely Field 

6. The Garden 

7. Classic Northern Diversions 

8. The Crazy Song 

Disk: 2 

1. Intro 

2. Looking For Love 

3. Plastic Irish Pubs In Europe 

4. Stranger On The Square 

5. Universal Blue 

6. Jackie's Great Records 

7. Single Father 

8. I Saw My Love Walk Into The Clouds 

9. When German People Call Me(On The Toilet) 

10. Paris Blues 

11. You've Lost That Loving Feeling

'Men In Prison', was recorded live in Bergen Men's Prison, Norway in 2000. A million miles away from Johnny Cash's exuberant prison recordings, the Norwegian prisoners were impassive, watchful and considered in their response to a great performance, but their gathering warmth is palpable and their appreciation heartfelt at the end of a blinding set of songs. Recorded live in 2002 at Cafe Muffathalle in Munich, with long term Jackie collaborators Michael Cosgrave [multi-instrumentalist] & Deborah Greenwood [vocals], 'Munich Blues' includes much excellent and typical Jackie humour. Both albums are recorded to the highest professional standards, as might be expected of two countries with a significant interest in obtaining the very best from artistic endeavour.).

Elvis Perkins - In Dearland

1. Shampoo
2. Hey
3. Hours Last Stand
4. I Heard Your Voice in Dresden
5. Send My Fond Regards to Lonelyville
6. I’ll Be Arriving
7. Chains, Chains, Chains
8. Doomsday
9. 123 Goodbye
10. How's Forever Been Baby

XL Recordings is pleased to announce the forthcoming release from Elvis Perkins in Dearland. The album, self-titled, will be released on March 10, 2009. This album is the debut album for the band and at the same time is the follow up to Perkins' first release, the critically acclaimed Ash Wednesday.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland's new eponymous album feels very much like the second line to his exquisitely melancholic and much-hailed solo debut Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday gained Elvis a dedicated and reverent following for its nuanced meditations on death and grief — many moments on that first record felt as if the listener had tip-toed into the intimate confines of a private elegy, enveloped in that wondrous, old-soul quality of Elvis' voice.

There are still plenty of private moments on Elvis Perkins in Dearland, but Elvis is now joined by a talented trio of friends that toured with him in support of Ash Wednesday. Along with Elvis on guitar and lead vocals, Elvis Perkins in Dearland is Brigham Brough (upright bass, saxophone, vocals), Wyndham Boylan-Garnett (pump organ, guitar, harmonium, trombone, vocals), and Nick Kinsey (drums, percussion, banjo, clarinet, vocals). Many of the new songs on Elvis Perkins in Dearland were honed on the road by the four bandmates, whose natural ease with one another allowed them to constantly experiment with arrangements on the fly.

Produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Chris Shaw (Public Enemy, Bob Dylan, Ween) and Elvis Perkins In Dearland, the album was recorded in Upstate New York in the latter part of 2008. Shaw recorded and mixed the album as well.

"On this new record we wanted to capture the spirit of our performances," drummer Nick Kinsey said. "The challenge was to get down that spontaneity." Perkins says, "This album is faster and younger than Ash Wednesday. Being in a studio with three other creatives instead of just one was a new thing for me. It takes four times as long to decide everything... but in the end, this kind of interplay made for much good.

Headless Heroes - The Silence of Love

01. True Love Will Find You In The End 

02. Just One Time 

03. Here Before 

04. Just Like Honey 

05. To You 

06. Blues Run The Game 

07. Hey, Who Really Cares? 

08. Nobody's Baby Now 

09. The North Wind Blew South 

10. See My Love

With an under-loved folk singer (Alela Diane), a bunch of top-notch musos (Joey Waronker, Josh Klinghoffer, etc) and a covers album full of lost classics and obscure gems, what could possibly go wrong?

Not much, actually. This is a tasteful and entirely pleasant run-through of great songs from the likes of Vashti Bunyan, Daniel Johnston, the Jesus and Mary Chain and I Am Kloot. The only thing missing is one moment of jaw-dropping, risk-taking audacity...www.indepedent.co.uk

Geoff Berner - Klezmer Mongrels

1. Shut In 

2. Luck in Exile 

3. The Whiskey 

4. Half German Girlfriend 

5. King of the Gangsters 

6. No Tobacco 

7. Play, Gypsy, Play 

8. Authentic Klezmer Wedding Band 

9. One Shoe 

10. High Ground 

11. Fukher

Vancouver bad boy Geoff Berner’s latest album is not a spectacular achievement in the field of music. Basically all of the music on Klezmer Mongrels is played by an accordion, violin, and what sounds like a djembe with a couple symbols. It isn’t supremely recorded and has absolutely no chance for mass appeal whatsoever, but, come hell or vampire weekend, I like this album. It’s just as fun and drunk as Gogol Bordello, yet it’s more coherent and not as loud. To get this album is to buy Geoff’s quirky personality and the vibe he’s going for, not necessarily the musicianship and fidelity of the recording. This is the campfire jam session style of klezmer punk.

Most songs mention booze and/or girls, with the possible exception of “No Tobacco” (an essential song that begs the world to not roll their joints with tobacco lest they sully the true taste and experience of BC bud). The lyrics are perfect for the form, delivering everything good, honest folk music should. They’re blunt and boozy, with a hint of “fuck this” and anything goes. Of course, it is a little confusing to hear Berner talk about trying to breed out the bad half of German culture in “Half German Girlfriend”, not the only time the subject is broached on the record, but it’s easy to live with considering its context.  Though I’ll never see the spectacular cover art by Kelly Haigh (who also did a great Carolyn Mark album) sail up the Billboard charts, it will never leave my collection. Here’s mud in your eye...www.popmatters.com

Stuart & Caan - The Mayfly Dance

1. Lalita 

2. I Waited So Long 

3. Big White Boat 

4. Rosemary 

5. Isn't It Wonderful 

6. Lord Of The Cosmos 

7. Look To The Sky 

8. God Song 

9. Holy Moment 

10. Do You Want To 

11. Set Sail 

12. Land Of Stone

Stuart and Caan's The Mayfly Dance came to Knw-Yr-Own from England thanks to friends Little Wings and Devendra Banhart. After opening for the two bands on the Hair Fairies Tour, Banhart invited the gents to come over and play the United States. Needless to say, Stuart and Caan fell smartly into the middle of the new weird America musical movement, taking it all in (until they were deported). With pastoral guitars, heartbreaking melodies, and a rare sense of wide-eyed wonder, The Mayfly Dance spins a timeless Anglo-folk sound...www.insound.com

Fiction Family - Fiction Family

1. When She’s Near 

2. Out Of Order 

3. Not Sure 

4. Betrayal 

5. Elements Combined 

6. War In My Blood 

7. Throw It Away 

8. Closer Than You Think 

9. Please Don’t Call It Love 

10. Mostly Prove Me Wrong 

11. We Ride

12. Look For Me Baby

SEAN WATKINS ALWAYS SEEMED to be the underdog of his bluegrass trio, Nickel Creek: His vocals and guitar-playing, though solid, never attracted the instant attention garnered by the honey-sweet vocals of sister Sara and the fiery mandolin melodies of Chris Thile. Instead of using Nickel Creek's indefinite hiatus to record a fourth solo album, Sean joined forces with Switchfoot's Jon Foreman on the project Fiction Family.

Despite Fiction Family's collaborative nature, its acoustic melodies and sweet vocal harmonies more closely resemble Nickel Creek's sound than Switchfoot's passionate alterna-rock. The self-titled debut is more cohesive than one would expect from a compilation of ideas swapped while each band was touring, but all those months on the road certainly influence the tone of the album. "Betrayal" and "Not Sure" convey a sense of longing and heartbreak; that air of wistfulness ties the songs on this album together. Watkins and Foreman switch vocal duties, but it isn't always immediately apparent (nor truly important) who's at the lead microphone. The resulting sweet harmonies make "Fiction Family" a solid set of near-duets from two diverse, accomplished musicians...www.washingtonpost.com

Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill

1. Disengaged

2. Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping

3. Stuck

4. When We Fall

5. Traveling Through A Sea

6. Fishing Bird (Empty Gutted In The Evening Breeze)

7. Invisible

8. I'm Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill

9. A Cover Over

10. Wind And Snow

11. Tidal Wave

12. We've All Gone To Sleep

Portland, Oregon based Liz Harris might have achieved a significant fan base thanks to the whispering, near ambient vocal crusades of her debut album ‘Way Their Crept’ and its follow-up ‘Wide’, but those with a careful ear would have heard slightly more trapped beneath her fuzzy chain of effects. ‘Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill’ marks a departure of sorts for Liz which sees her turn down the fuzz-boxes which caged (and to some degree defined) her sound and allows her voice to ring out above everything else. It is an album steeped in the world of dream-pop, a genre pioneered by the likes of 4AD’s Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil, and far from shy away from the reference Liz has instead grabbed on with both hands, in the process creating an album’s worth of perfect, leftfield pop songs. 
Using delicate song structures which are at once both familiar and alien somehow we hear her words cry out hauntingly over stripped down guitar lines and looped environmental recordings. Just listen to ‘I’d Rather be Sleeping’, a track that could be a mournful take on Belly, albeit with a more fragile heart. These unforgettable harmonies and vocal lines that embed themselves in your consciousness before you even realise it are the key to the album’s success and the reason why it makes such a lasting impression. There is something to Liz Harris’s music that defies the time, makes you sit up and listen in an age where we’re told that recorded music is disposable. These are the future soundtracks to love, despair and ultimately hope..www.typerecords.com

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

1. Seven-Mile Island  

2. Sunstroke 

3. Good 

4. Cigarettes and Wine 

5. However Long 

6. Coda 

7. The Blue 

8. No Choice in the Matter 

9. Soldiers Get Strange 

10. Streetlights 

11. The Last Song I Will Write