The Stills - Without Feathers

The Stills, "In The Beginning"

The Stills, "Oh Shoplifter"

Before I get to all the Miami bass and booty music, I'm going to binge and purge on faggy indie rock stuff. To start, this is the newest release from Montreal band The Stills, one of the lesser-known of the recent wave of post-punk influenced bands. While The Strokes and Bloc Party sell out big venues, The Stills haven't quite made the big leap yet. The only reason I mention this is because their new album, Without Feathers, has a distinctly nice, melodic sound, not what I imagine when I think of the wave of music that came out in the early to mid 80s., and definitely something that might appeal to a larger, more mainstream audience Those Interpol references hold no weight after this album, that's for sure.

This is not to say that a nice, catchy album is a bad thing. Without Feathers is up and down for me, which isn't surprising. Since they don't take many sonic chances, it all comes down to great songwriting, and only the greatest of songwriters can put together an album's worth of gems. The songs above are amazing, catchy and lovely sounding. One thing that stuck out at me was the prevalance of piano and organ on the entire album, an instrument that doesn't get much props from the indie world today. On "In The End", it's just a simple piano, guitar, bass and drums backing the melancholy lyrics, a sort of indie ballad. "She's Walking Out" goes in that direction too, complete with a hair band guitar. The problem is that on the other half of the album, the songs seem uninspired, tired guitar music with nothing to latch onto.

I'm way late on this album, so there's been lots of talk about the album already. The Music Slut, The Underrated Blog, Indoor Fireworks, people of paper, i guess i'm floating and Badminton Stamps. Mars Needs Guitars takes a look back at their previous album. I Rock Cleveland gives us some old and new songs. Buy the album here and show some love to our neighbors up north.

-Jonathan Turley looks at the similarities between the Bush administration and Tony Soprano's gang in light of the nomination of Gen. Michael Hayden to be the Director of the CIA. Hayden was the person in charge of the controversial eavesdropping program the NSA set up to spy on domestic calls. It's not suprising to see the number of criminals and wrongdoers who have thrived in this White House, considering the attitude of their boss to the law and oversight.

-You want law-breaking? Have we got law-breaking for you. First, the USA Today is reporting that the NSA has created a massive database collecting Americans' phone calls. For the record, I was attempting to call a charity and so that 1-800 sex number was a WRONG number. Why it took me 40 minutes to hang up is my business, and my business only. Shayana Kadidal has a nice look at the legal issues, as does Glenn Greenwald. georgia10 at dailykos and Christy at firedoglake have a list of actions you can take, especially if you have one of the phone companies that have been handing out your info.

-You know what? There's a ton more stories about the criminal enterprise/dictatorship in Washin gton D.C., but I don't have the stomach to delve into the Duke Cunningham/Hookergate story, Bob Ney, Abramoff, KY Gov. Fletcher, etc. All I want to do is watch this hilarious Stephen Colbert piece from an old Daily Show episode. Colbert profiles the inventor of an electronic gaydar device, which closeted gay men can use to communicate with other closeted gay men. Best part comes early, watching the stammering response to the "Are you gay?" question.