On October 10th EAR FARM will be turning 3 years old! That’s right, we’ve been harvesting music for your ears for three years now. Come celebrate with us and two of our favorite things… tasty barbecue and awesome music!

Tickets are STILL AVAILABLE for the food/concert combo… as well, you’ll be able to purchase $10 tickets at the door if you just want to come for the music!

More details on the show below…
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Nothing says harvest like the crackle of hot, crispy pig skin, especially when that skin is covering a 200-lb Berkshire hog, roasted whole over an open barbecue pit by Tom Mylan, Brooklyn’s favorite butcher.

Hosted by Brooklyn Based, Sweet Deliverance, EAR FARM, and The Yard, the first annual Big Brooklyn Pig Roast and Harvest Hoedown is a prelude to the following day’s Harvest Festival at The Yard, and a celebration of all the best the season has to offer.

Snuggle up to someone special with a pint of Sixpoint and a plate of pork tacos, roast corn, fresh salsas, greens, warm apple crisp and cinnamon ice cream from Blue Marble. Then turn up your heels to the Americana twang and hillbilly swerve of The Jones Street Boys, Motel Motel, and Bel Air, as the lights sparkle on the Gowanus Canal.

Joshua Applestone of Fleisher’s Grass Fed and Organic Meats will be on hand to talk about why properly raised pigs are so delicious, and a member of the New Farmer Development Project, which the dinner will benefit, will speak about their work with farms. And Not Eating Out in New York blogger Cathy Erway is lending a hand with dessert.

Sixpoint beers $1 from 6-7. Five percent of proceeds benefit New Farmer Development Project. Tickets $32 in advance, available online HERE, or $40 at the door. (Free for kids 10 and under.)
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In order to get the music in before sound curfew, the first band will go on promptly at 6:15. It’s an early start, but with those $1 Sixpoints and Bel Air providing the happy hour entertainment, it’s going to be well worth it to be there right at 6:00. See you there!

Listen:
“Looking Up” by Bel Air
“Coffee” by Motel Motel
“Last Time” (live @ WMSE) by The Jones Street Boys

Now about the video…have you ever been kidnapped and dragged to a dank cellar only to be forced to drink Jameson and play Russian roulette with an NES Zapper gun? No? Well, you can at least approximate the experience by watching below and absorbing the charmingly surreal affair; it’s definitely worth repeated viewings (remember how you used to have to blow on those NES cartridges and push them up and down a thousand times before they’d work?). And as a bonus, we’ve got a new DuB track for you below as well from their forthcoming full length. Oh and stay tuned in the coming days for some EF-related Drink Up Buttercup news…..good stuff awaits!

Listen: “Young Ladies”

Visit Drink Up Buttercup on MySpace.

Dead Confederate played Mercury Lounge last night; they belong in a stadium. The band, already building a sizable following thanks to loads of touring nationally and the recently released debut Wrecking Ball, combines the bombast of Sonic Youth with the Southern vibes of My Morning Jacket and the bite of Nirvana to create a sound that should be very welcome in the barren landscape of today’s rock scene. Having spent some time with them in Austin during their show with R.E.M. I can tell you two things: they’re great guys, and they’re getting better and better. It’s a scary thought considering how great Dead Confederate already is, but don’t just take it from me… see what David Fricke has to say about the band in the current issue of RollingStone: “(a)Dead Confederate are even better than their name and (b)could give My Morning Jacket a very hard time in Dixie-guitar-hurricane combat.”

See for yourself tonight on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

*above slideshow created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

See Dead Confederate live in NYC:
10 Oct - Brooklyn, NY @ Union Hall
10 Oct - New York, NY @ Late Night with Conan O’Brien

Visit Dead Confederate on MySpace and check out the rest of their extensive tour dates or follow along with their tour blog HERE.

Tickets for the Dec. 16th Walkmen/Dodos show at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple are now on sale, go ‘git some

Today in album title news…M. Ward unveils the name of his latest effort, Hold Time, due out this February

AND, Animal Collective also confirmed their new album Merriweather Post Pavilion, out January 20th

Watch the video for Department of Eagles’ track “Herringbone”

Ha! Take That…reunites with Robbie Williams

Chinese Democracy gets an honest to goodness release date: November 23rd at Best Buy

Prefix has pics of Franz Ferdinand’s “intimate” show at Music Hall of Williamsburg

The New York Times reviews the first night of Beck at the United Palace Theater and notes how somber he is

Lars Ulrich to sell Basquiat’s “Untitled (Boxer)” painting

What do you get for two million MySpace friends and 26 million streams?

A drunken conversation led to the formation of Nick Thorburn’s newest band, Reefer

Well well well, Columbus Day is right around the corner, which means there’s a very good chance you’re about to enjoy a three-day weekend. Good for you! Though of course, by this point the smoke and mirrors surrounding Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of America has long cleared to reveal a lost Italian (by way of Spain) washing ashore to steal land from the native inhabitants…..but still, three-day weekend! Regardless of your own personal feelings about this holiday, enjoy the following mix, specially created as a sort of chronological story of what happened in 1492 along with generous helpings of moral ambiguity with smooth listening. In other words, perfect for a three-day weekend….

EAR FARM’s Mixtape #29: Chris Columbus Weekend
1. “Christopher Columbus” by Dave Brubeck
2. “Building A Boat” by The Rumble Strips
3. “Trip Out West” by Bombadil
4. “My Boats They Go” by Frog Eyes
5. “Beady Eyes On The Horizon” by Jukebox The Ghost
6. “Lost Coastlines” by Okkervil River
7. “Point A To Point B” by Mason Proper
8. “A Beast Washed Ashore” by White Hinterland
9. “New Country” by The Walkmen
10. “Welcome To This World” by Primus
11. “The Visitor” by Angels of Light
12. “Conquering Kids” by Throw Me The Statue
13. “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” by She & Him
14. “1492 Ghost Dance” by Beachwood Sparks
15. “Conquest” by Tapes ‘n Tapes
16. “October Is Eternal” by Of Montreal
17. “Holiday” by Weezer
18. “Modern Guilt” by Beck

*above image found HERE.
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8tracks is a simple way to create and share mixtapes that we’re now using in lieu of Muxtape, we may even like it more. Check back, as we post a brand new mix each week on Friday morning. You can see all of the EAR FARM Weekly Mixes HERE.

“Mother and Child” by Nigel Short & Tenebrae which clocks in at 12:39.

The following is Part 4 of a four part 8+ series based upon songs from the film ‘Children of Men’, the film itself, and the writing of Jorge Luis Borges. Read the first chapter HERE, second chapter HERE, third chapter HERE.

Gradually, Kee began familiarizing her child with reality through a series of chores. Once she told him to travel across the valley to a faraway hilltop on the other side of the basin and start, then extinguish, a fire so that she might see that the task had been completed. The next day the smoke was billowing in puffs and rings from high on the peak. Upon returning, the boy was asked to attempt other analogous experiments, each one more intrepidly daring than what had come before. She resisted his readiness to enter the world, our world, her world; however, with a certain bitterness, she understood that her son was indeed ready to be born and perhaps a bit impatient. That night she kissed him for the first time and sent him off to the other temple whose skeletal remains were turning white downstream. In this task her son would be required to venture across many miles of impenetrable jungle and wetlands. A rite of passage, after which he would return as real a boy as any other; she prayed. Before doing this (and so that her son might never know that he was a phantom, a creation born out of her imponderable imagination… so that he should think himself a man like any other) she destroyed in his mind all memory of the time spent in this netherworld learning, growing, and working towards reality. And then, he was released.

Her victory and resulting tranquility morphed into ennui. In the twilight hours of dusk and dawn she would lay herself before the stone figure adorning the temple which surrounded her and speak to the heavens, perhaps imagining her illusory son carrying out an identical ritual in the other circular ruins downstream. Things were the same, yet time slowly eroded her reality. At night she no longer dreamed, or dreamed as any human being does. Her perception of the sounds and matter that makes up this universe dulled and it seemed entirely necessary: her absent son was being nourished by this very erosion of her soul. The purpose of her life had (again) been fulfilled; she was (again) the bringer of life, Eve, and thus bathed in a kind of ecstasy. A short time passed - the length of which would later be described in the journals of man as being years, or perhaps decades - and then two fishermen awoke her at midnight. She could not open her eyes, could not see their faces, but she knew their presence and understood their words. They spoke to her of a charmed man in a temple to the North, capable of great things and of walking on fire without burning himself. Kee suddenly remembered the words of the Fire god. She remembered that, of all the creatures and elements that populate the Earth, Fire was the only one who knew her son to be a phantom. To everyone else, the boy would appear as human as the next man. This memory, which at first calmed her by planting her mind firmly in the soil of the past, ended up tormenting her impetuously. She feared that her son might think of his abnormal resistance to fire and discover, by either his own doing or another’s, that he was nothing more than a simulacrum. This discovery - to realize yourself not to be a human, but rather a projection of another person’s dreams - would be an unbearable humiliation. What madness! Every mother is interested in protecting the children she has birthed (or imagined, or allowed); thus, it was natural that Kee should fear for the future of her son whom she had not physically given birth to, but rather thought out organ by organ, bit by bit, feature by feature, in a thousand and one phantasmical nights.

Her fears were quelled unexpectedly, but not without certain forewarnings. First (after a long period without rain) a single cloud appeared above a hill to the west; then, toward the south, the sky shifted towards the deep pinkish color of life, no - the deep orange hue that presages fire. From beyond came clouds of smoke which imposed their will upon the night sky and signaled the descent of suffocation. Wild animals and domesticated herds alike took flight. For, what had happened many centuries before was repeating itself: the ruins of the sanctuary of the god of Fire was (once again) going to be consumed by fire. In an apocalyptic dawn that rose without a living creature anywhere in the sky, Kee saw rings of fire caressing the walls of the temple. Briefly she thought of running back to the safety of the water, back to the boat she had arrived in so many days (months, years) before, but then at once she understood that death had finally found her and had arrived to relieve her of her eternally arduous task. She walked; not away from, but rather towards the sheets of flame. Suffocating fear overcame her. The smoke surrounded her body and entered every pore, every inch of her being. She felt the flames rise from her feet to her hips to her breasts and nose. And yet, they did not burn her flesh one bit. Instead, they gently massaged her and flooded her with a warmth that belied their typical aggression. Without malicious intent, or combustion of any kind, Kee stood amidst the flames and knew herself for the very first time. With relief, with humiliation, with terror and disbelief, she understood that she too was nothing more than an illusion. That someone else was dreaming her and -likely- her entire world.

Buy Children of Men (Music from the Motion Picture) HERE.

Read the entire 8+ Children of Men series on one page HERE.

*front thumbnail/top photo screenshots from Children of Men.

EAR FARM’s 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. Click HERE to see the songs recently featured in EF’s 8+.

A story on the AP newswire early last week detailed the rash of road sign thefts along the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, which alone probably wouldn’t be worth noting except for the fact that all of the thefts have involved the metal signs at mile marker 66.6.

What does this mean? Most likely, it’s just some metalhead in New Jersey eager to outfit his bedroom with a series of “666″ road signs. NJ Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando, however, seems to imagine a darker figure behind the swipings, saying, “Given the symbolism of the number and the fact that it is obviously done in the middle of night, and in the middle of nowhere, I can safely say that I’m not eager to meet the rocket scientists doing it.”

Who else thinks Orlando needs to grow a pair? Besides, as Pinback’s Rob Crow pointed out during their show at Music Hall of Williamsburg a few weeks back, 666 isn’t even the technical sign of the beast. After some research (cough cough Wikipedia), it seems Crow is right. In 2005, scholars at Oxford University used advanced imaging techniques to parse through the earliest known version of the Book of Revelation and found the Number of the Beast identified as 616 and not 666. The news must have sent the wheels turning in Crow’s metal-loving mind, for he even wrote a song about it, “Off By 50″, that closes out their latest album Autumn of the Seraphs. Here are the lyrics:

Separate the wall. When the earth is mined.
The water and the seas have all been wiped.
To pave the way. Forced. Primed.
To kick the very seeds from their heights.

If i believed I would believe that you’re the one they talk about.
If I believed I would believe that you’re the one they call upon.

Mindless. Hateful. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
No such thing at all.

(Is there no end / Are we all in / I must let go…
Why would they go through this again / Is there no other way)

So, with this new info, our advice to the 666 thiefs: you’re off by 50! You’ve got the wrong sign! And our advice to Orlando and the Turnpike Crew: consider looking to see if any of the 616 signs have gone missing. I think Pinback just passed through town after all.

Listen: “Off By 50″ by Pinback

Visit Pinback on MySpace.

above: “Tourtured Artist Saint” by Dead Confederate (interview and live footage at SXSW)

Visit Dead Confederate on MySpace.

NYC Taper has audio from the Naked Hearts’ October 6th Mercury Lounge show

Pitchfork has a live review of Pop Montreal

Jim James injured in stage fall

My Old Kentucky Blog debuts the new video for “Colors” by Arizona

The Guardian: What pop and rock music need right now is a dose of doo-wop

Crawdaddy! reviews Pale Young Gentlemen’s Black Forest (Tra La La)

The New York Times visits the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne at his home in Oklahoma

Foo Fighters blast McCain’s use of “My Hero”

Charlie Kaufman is now a songwriter too?

Behold Mufin, yet another music-recommendation service

Department of Eagles and Grizzly Bear promise they all still love each other

In many ways, Creem - self-proclaimed as “America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine” - set the template for current music blogs and new media sites. The outsider perspective, personal and subjective approach to stories and content, willingness to champion relatively unknown bands, and ability to spot trends early (Creem allegedly coined the term “punk rock”) are just some of the ways this Detroit-based publication helped revolutionize music journalism for future generations.

Of course, while Creem may share these characteristics with contemporary blogs, it also did all of these things about a hundred times better than anything out there right now. Where else could you read a live review of a Rolling Stones show written by Charles Bukowski (framed entirely around the venue’s coincidental proximity to a racetrack he enjoyed visiting)? Or enjoy a glossy cover hand-drawn by R. Crumb? Or have Lester Bangs, Cameron Crowe, Robert Christgau and Nick Tosches all on the same masthead? Exactly. From 1969 to 1989, Creem dared to elevate music journalism as a form of artistic expression in its own right.

I highly recommend checking out the recent hardcover Creem retrospective for an absolute assault on the senses. From this collection, we’ve culled some of our favorite cover shots over the years that we feel capture the spirit and energy of their particular era as well as of Creem’s own reckless bravado.

October 1969 - Mitch Ryder. An uncharacteristic display of restraint and proof of the magazine’s showcasing of local, homegrown artists from day one.

November 1971 - R. Crumb Illustration. Subversive, raunchy, and impossible to look away from - much like the pages within - by one of the masters.

January 1972 - Alice Cooper. More Midwestern love from the mag, this time in an unexpected package. Cooper as Kris Kringle? Now that’s spooky.

April 1974 - Iggy Pop. While there’s been no shortage of iconic Iggy Pop poses over the past 40 years, this is certainly among the best. Posed but honest, destructive but methodical, choose your own meaning; the symbols are all there.

November 1975 -Rod Stewart & Britt Ekland. Was Creem poking fun of Rod the Bod here by putting him in matching sailor suits with former Bond girl Ekland? Does it matter? Dude can wear a sailor suit and still get the girl, i.e. he’s definitely “in” on this joke.

August 1976 - Paul McCartney. Not only a resourceful solution to when one of the most famous faces on earth doesn’t want to be on your cover, but also one of the most accurate depictions of 70s era Macca. Wings = fast food?

September 1977 - Ted Nugent. One of the magazine’s favorite cover subjects, the Nuge encapsulates the Creem spirit: a brash, eccentric, unapologetic free spirit representing Motor City.

November 1983 - The Police. An example of a perfect snapshot of time; you can pretty much tell from their faces and poses (and clothes?) here that they’ve absolutely had enough and are ready to break up (which they kinda sorta did a few months later, after the Synchronicity tour).

August 1984 - Judas Priest’s Rob Halford. Look at this and just try and tell me you were surprised when Halford came out of the closet in 1998.

October 1986 - David Lee Roth. Worth inclusion if nothing else than as the antithesis to Creem’s usual look. Might as well JUMP!

February 1987 - David Byrne. This cover is simple, cool, but slightly askew, just like its subject. It also brings home an essential point: from Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels to David Byrne and all unfathomable points between, “America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine” had it covered.

above: “Chandelier Searchlight”

above: “Fresh Born”

above: “The Tears and Music of Love”

On October 10th EAR FARM will be turning 3 years old! That’s right, we’ve been harvesting music for your ears for three years now. Come celebrate with us and two of our favorite things… tasty barbecue and awesome music!

But wait! What’s this about a “ticket giveaway”??

Well… if the $32 ticket price is a bit steep for you, you’re in luck. We’re giving away TWO sets of TWO tickets each to TWO lucky people. All you have to do is send us an email (mail -at- earfarm -dot- com) telling us your VERY MOST FAVORITE BBQ SPOT and we’ll pick TWO people at random. Yay? More details on the show below…
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Nothing says harvest like the crackle of hot, crispy pig skin, especially when that skin is covering a 200-lb Berkshire hog, roasted whole over an open barbecue pit by Tom Mylan, Brooklyn’s favorite butcher.

Hosted by Brooklyn Based, Sweet Deliverance, EAR FARM, and The Yard, the first annual Big Brooklyn Pig Roast and Harvest Hoedown is a prelude to the following day’s Harvest Festival at The Yard, and a celebration of all the best the season has to offer.

Snuggle up to someone special with a pint of Sixpoint and a plate of pork tacos, roast corn, fresh salsas, greens, warm apple crisp and cinnamon ice cream from Blue Marble. Then turn up your heels to the Americana twang and hillbilly swerve of The Jones Street Boys, Motel Motel, and Bel Air, as the lights sparkle on the Gowanus Canal.

Joshua Applestone of Fleisher’s Grass Fed and Organic Meats will be on hand to talk about why properly raised pigs are so delicious, and a member of the New Farmer Development Project, which the dinner will benefit, will speak about their work with farms. And Not Eating Out in New York blogger Cathy Erway is lending a hand with dessert.

Sixpoint beers $1 from 6-7. Five percent of proceeds benefit New Farmer Development Project. Tickets $32 in advance, available online HERE, or $40 at the door. (Free for kids 10 and under.)
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In order to get the music in before sound curfew, the first band will go on promptly at 6:15. It’s an early start, but with those $1 Sixpoints and Bel Air providing the happy hour entertainment, it’s going to be well worth it to be there right at 6:00. See you there!

Listen:
“Looking Up” by Bel Air
“Coffee” by Motel Motel
“Last Time” (live @ WMSE) by The Jones Street Boys

Largethearted Boy: Try It Before You Buy It (October 7th Music Releases)

Jarvis Cocker delivered a lecture on the art of lyrics as part of Manchester’s ‘In The City’ music conference

Madonna has banned US Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin from attending her concerts

Paul McCartney is “furious” that McDonalds have hung photographs of The Beatles up in their Liverpool restaurant

Forest Whitaker to direct and star in Louis Armstrong biopic

Islands Cover Spiritualized, Sinead on iTunes EP

Faith No More, TV On the Radio and Anticon form supergroup

Pink Floyd rejected from this year’s Glastonbury festival due to the logistics of major festival programming

“The moment things began to turn around in Iraq is when the USO deployed Jessica Simpson,” said President Bush at a USO benefit recently

Beautiful, polished and funny, Jenny Lewis is an indisputably terrific performer. And surrounded by her dynamite band, she certainly cast her spell over the sold-out Apollo Theater on Saturday. In retrospect, though, the highlight of my evening was the hilarious shock of the surprise opening act: Sarah Silverman, with her gloriously filthy, vagina-centric monologues, made me laugh in a way that I haven’t in years. Thank you for that Sarah.

I felt some trepidation going to this show. I was disappointed with Lewis’ latest solo album, Acid Tongue, just released on September 23. Her voice is too often lost beneath her band; worse, at times her sound even borders on the affected, belying the so-called confessional style that she is known for. And aside from a few standouts, the song writing pales in comparison to Rabbit Fur Coat, her 2006 album with the Watson Twins.

That being said, the songs from Acid Tongue stand up much better live, doubtlessly benefiting from the force of Lewis’ personality, her razor-sharp band and the harmonies they provided on nearly every number. Still, the old-time country-bluegrass songs are a better showcase for her pretty voice and clever lyrics than the repetitive barroom torch songs, which mostly comprise Acid Tongue. The title track from that album did supply the high point of the show. The band put down their instruments and, with their arms around each other’s shoulders, surrounded Lewis to sing backup on a ballad centering on LSD and lost love. Maybe it was because of the Apollo’s acoustics, or because it was one of the few times during the night where Lewis seemed to be simply singing and not performing, but the song sent chills down my spine and over my skin. Two days later, I still can’t get it out of my head.

At one point, Jenny did a note-for-note cover of “Love Hurts” with her guitar player Dave Scher. It was the slow, heartbreaking version by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris from Grievous Angel, not the hit version by Nazareth. But it certainly begged the comparison between Jenny Lewis and Emmylou Harris. Both ladies have higher-than-average voices and are probably at their best in the realm of folk and country. But where Lewis can be coy, Harris is consistently sincere. And I think erring on the side of sincerity can never be a bad thing.

See Jenny Lewis live:
24 Oct - Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre
25 Oct - Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
26 Oct - Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
28 Oct - San Francisco, CA @ Herbst Theatre
29 Oct – San Francisco, CA @ Herbst Theatre
30 Oct - Los Angeles, CA @ The Orpheum
1 Nov - San Diego, CA @ UCSD Price Center Ballroom

Visit Jenny Lewis on MySpace.

*above slideshow created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.