Week In Review (03/7 – 03/14)

by Joe on March 14th, 2010

Another busy week has come to an end here at Sun On The Sand and given how tricky it can be to stay on top of musical matters at the best of times, we’ve decided to introduce a new weekend feature summarizing recent happenings for your reading pleasure. Take a gander at the biggest news stories, top reviews, and other great content from this week:

Two new songs from The National surfaced in the form of live performances, the first being ‘Terrible Love’ on Fallon and the second being ‘Vanderlylle Cry Baby’. They can be viewed below.

Lo-fi and appropriately named folkies Woods announced the upcoming release of At Echo Lake earlier this week while Canadian indie titans Stars have June 22nd penciled in for their fifth LP The Five Ghosts.

In less concrete album news, word broke via an interview with Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas that he believes the new Strokes album will “be out in September”. We also had some faint hints of a new Thom Yorke solo album via an interview with Flying Lotus who stated he “might make a contribution or two to the next Thom Yorke album”.

In tour news, we had a few new Simon & Garfunkel dates announced, as well as a lengthy Minus The Bear North American tour announced.

As always, new tracks have appeared from around the rock circuit, most notably from Bright Eyes (with Saddle Creekers Neva Dinova), Neon Indian, and Ariel Pink. Visit the links provided for a taste of what’s to come from these acts.

On the reviewing front, it seems as though we cannot stop awarding Top Of The Pops status to new releases as this week featured two more albums making the prestigious cut. Staffer Matthew James reviewed the new Gorillaz album (9.0) — which garnered a score only two albums have ever surpassed on SOTS — while Paul Bulow reviewed the latest from The Ruby Suns (8.4).

Every now and then, we’re fortunate enough to interview artists/bands and this week, we caught up with renowned percussionist Morgan Doctor. Check that out right here.

If you’re in search of tunes, check out our weekly recommendations in which we provide short write-ups concerning what we’ve been spinning lately. The current batch dabbles in wistful indie, melodic metal, art-rock, and more. Be sure to check back every Tuesday for a brand new set of tasty records.

Cheers,
SOTS