Back from the DL

After spending a week laid out with a smorgasboard of sickness, I'm finally starting to feel like myself again.


Of course, the only thing that mattered last week was the word "ho," but there were a number of other music stories. Here's a recap of what I missed, in case you missed it, too:

You can almost feel that Feist is going to break out this year. Last week, she was profiled in the New York Times, and her one-take, Jazzercise dance video spread across the blogs with the kind of speed usually reserved for a Wilco leak. I've never been a big fan of the one-take dance videos. All the OK Go videos, Fatboy Slim's "Praise You," where they're dancing outside the movie theater, all just seems so cheesy. With that in mind, I say the Feist video isn't half bad. She's just that hard to dislike.

Her fantastic past albums have made her an indie hero, but there's just this feeling in everything I read that her new album is going to break her out. "The Reminder" is out on the 1st, and, along with The National's "The Boxer," is the most anticipated new album here at BH HQ. I instantly fell in love with the first song that leaked from it a couple of months back and decided I wouldn't listen to it anymore until the album comes out. With so many albums leaking, I like holding off on the ones that really get me excited until they're released. I think it's important not to lose that experience of going to the record store to buy the album. Builds the anticipation and gets you out of the house, if nothing else.

Feist story in the New York Times
Link to Feist video
Past Baby Heisman post on Feist, with MP3


Meanwhile, the Hold Steady are coming back to San Diego on June 1. The band has always been really good about playing the city, and this stop, at Canes, will continue their tour of S.D. venues after shows earlier this year at Brick By Brick and the 4th and B.

One of the biggest "My City is a Sucker" moments I've seen so far: At the 4th and B the Hold Steady were the first band for the 94.9 birthday concert. A few songs in, someone from the balcony yelled "Get off the stage! We want Sparta!" The crowd on the floor, which was extremely into the show, was dumbfounded more than angry and just cheered louder as the band tore into "Your Little Hoodrat Friend."
The Hold Steady always been a love-or-hate kind of band, with frontman Craig Finn's "yell 'em real quick" vocals. But if you're on the fence at all, see ... them ... live ... it changes everything. That's how I went from hating them to loving them.

The Hold Steady — Stuck Between Stations (MP3)
The Hold Steady — Stevie Nix (MP3)


For the record, Don Rickles is just a touring member of the band.

Finally, a bunch of album release dates have been set, including:
June 5: The U.S. release of The Long Blondes' "Someone to Drive You Home"
June 19: The White Stripes "Icky Thump."
June 26: M.I.A. "Kala" (Although that's a Pfork report of a Rolling Stone article on a release date that's been pretty elusive, so it could change)

So, what else did I miss?