That doesn’t involve Alex Ounsworth! Shocking…I know. I dig receiving updates via e-mail from these side projects of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Thanks to an update in September, I was informed of Flashy Python. His LP turned out to be one of my favorites. Ounsworth is also releasing another solo album on October 20. I’m really looking forward to that! Now, we have Uninhabitable Mansions. The group is made up of the likes of Robbie and Tyler from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Annie Hart from Au Revoir Simone, Doug Marvin from Dirty on Purpose, and Chris Diken from Radical Dads. Their album Nature Is a Taker is available now for digital purchase! They are also playing at TT The Bears @ 11 PM on October 25 for 10 singles.
1. “The Speed Is Deceiving” – 10
2. “Big Kick” – 9.7 3. “Do You Have A Strategy” – 9.8
4. “Midnight Topography” – 9.6 5. “Maps Not Accurate” – 9.9 6. “The Brain Is A Slow Wave” – 9.7 7. “Static State” – 9.6 8. “This Drift” – 9.9 9. “Ex-Explorers” – 9.9 10. “We Already Know” – 9.9
Comments: This album is very Pains of Being Pure at Heart sounding. It’s, in fact, becoming status quo to use Pains as a reference point for bands of this “throwback-pop” sound. What really does it for Uninhabitable Mansions are two things in particular: vocals (lead and backing) and keyboards. That’s not to downplay the good old gui-tar, which is the principal instrument in “Midnight Topography.” Lyrics, which CLYHYS and its well-received side projects like Alec Ounsworth and Flashy Python have always been masters at, are just as beautiful as you could imagine. “Only you could make me believe your masterful eyes which you pass off as business as usual…it’s just just just society’s way,” a voice speaks on “Maps Not Accurate” in a tone only a teeny notch above a whisper. Tracks like “The Speed Is Deceiving” and “The Brain Is A Slow Wave” are mind-blowing. On many occasions I conjured up sounds of Galaxie 500 — an awesome slow-core band to be compared to. If you have an hour or so of boredom, just play these songs. Sit back and relax. If you fall asleep, that’s fine. I don’t think I’ve felt as much of an emotional connection to any band as I have with UM. And I’ve only known them for an hour. This is the album I’ve been waiting to hear all year.
Reporting from Washington — The Supreme Court debated today whether the government can maintain a cross in a national preserve to honor fallen soldiers or whether an official display of this Christian symbol violates the 1st Amendment’s ban on an establishment of religion.
Yes. It does.
But the justices spent most of the hour mired in a side dispute over whether Congress solved the constitutional problem by transferring the land under the cross to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
No. It didn’t.
At issue was cross that sits atop Sunrise Rock in a remote part of the Mojave National Preserve in California, not far from the border with Nevada.
“At issue was cross…”? Two things, “Los Angeles Times,” don’t ask stupid questions and proofread before you publish.
Does a moment pass when Kim Kardashian isn’t selling? If she’s not hyping her workout video, she’s touting her online shoe club, her new book or her sisters’ “reality” TV spinoff, a gripping look inside their high-end Miami boutique.
Shameless self-promotion is the stock in trade among the famous-for-being-famous crowd. But should the self-described “Armenian Princess” have to tell the world if she’s getting paid for the endless stream of products — Famous Cupcakes, Balenciaga shoes, Quick Trim weight loss capsules — she touts seemingly round the clock as one of the most popular users of the micro-blog site Twitter?
WASHINGTON — Envoys from the UN Security Council’s top powers have called on Sudan’s feuding parties to urgently implement a 2005 peace accord and prepare for 2010 elections.
Wait, so there was a peace accord years ago? That didn’t do anything? Can ANYTHING stop the violence in the Sudan?
A health-care reform bill drafted by the Senate Finance Committee would cost $829 billion over the next decade and would meet President Obama’s goal of reducing the federal budget deficit by 2019, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
We have a winner?!?
The bill would also expand coverage to 94 percent of Americans by 2019, the CBO said, up from the current 85 percent.
And the phrase “public option” is AWOL in this piece.
A day after soliciting the views of congressional leaders, President Obama is convening top national security officials Wednesday afternoon for a strategy session on Afghanistan and Pakistan amid escalating U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and signs of declining public support for the war there.
Maybe this time America will do what the UN advises!
Animal Collective is releasing something new on December 8. It’s called Fall Be Kind. EP or LP? Probably EP, but not much is known at this time. Stay tuned…
“Band quit! Fuck them! They are boring rich kids who can’t play for ahit anyways … Say hello to your ugly and boring wifes opps I mean lifes guys suck it.”
That’s Jay Reatard communicating the apparent demise of his touring band via Twitter this morning. If or how this will affect his upcoming U.S. and European tour datesis not known at press time. (A rep for Jay did not have any more information.)
UPDATE: It has been confirmed that bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes have indeed quit the band. Reatard is currently looking for new band members. However, no upcoming tour dates have been canceled.
Punk rock, dude. Punk fucking rock.
They did something right when we saw them play at Harpers Ferry last weekend. Of course, Stephen Pope sucks at bass. It’s not ground breaking, Jay. Ask him to play in the key of A and he will eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
![UM01 2pnl_insert. [Converted]](https://klyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/um-nature-is-a-taker-cover.jpg?w=300&h=295 "UM01 2pnl_insert. [Converted]")
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 