new: Arches Wide Awake LP

Comin' Back Again

No stranger to these pages, Arches have been making some of the most thoroughly enjoyable subtle guitar pop for a bit now, and now the Philly-based group is readying their debut record, Wide Awake. They've been upping songs to their Bandcamp at a steady stream and are now, um, streaming(!) the entire record. While digi is all-well and good, the boys have taken to Kickstarter to fund the vinyl release of the record. Nearly half way there after just a few days. Some great incentives, too! Be sure to catch them this coming weekend at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, then chip in to fund their vinyl release. Download (or stream) two new tracks below

mp3: Velvet Davenport "Mystery Michael"

Warmy Girls

Psych pop classicists Velvet Davenport are making good on the promise of their early cassette releases, the stream-of-consciousness Lemon Drop Square Box and the equally ephemeral (and even more psychedelic) White Blue. No auditory hallucinations on "Mystery Michael", a selection from their forthcoming LP Warmy Girls, rather, more Quixotic explorations through the dazzling world of prophetic paisley pop. Compared to the stoned monotone often extolled on Lemon Drop Square Box, Parker Sprout sounds spritely on "Mystery Michael," proclaiming "I feel great about my day/ Wouldn't have spent it any other way." A warm affair from Sprout's psilo-pop extravaganza, whose Warmy Girls is set to slather the rest of 2010 in a distinctly lysergic cream. Highest recommendation.

MP3: Velvet Davenport: "Mystery Michael"

Warmy Girls will be available shortly from Moon Glyph.

liner notes: Bob Dylan's Planet Waves

"Forever Young"

From the liner notes of Bob Dylan's Planet Waves, featuring The Band:

"Back to the starting point! The kickoff, Hebrew letters on the work, Victor Hugo's house in Paris, NYC in early Autumn, leaves flying in the park, the clock strikes eight, Bong– I dropped a double brandy & tried to recall the events...beer halls & pin balls, polka bands, barbwire & thrashing clowns, objects, headwinds & snowstorms, family outings with strangers– Furious gals with garters & smeared lips on bar stools that stank from sweating pussy– doing the Hula– perfect priests in overhauls, glassy eyed, Insomnia! Space guys off duty with big ducks & ducktails all wired up & voting for Eisenhower, waving flags & jumping off fire engines, getting killed on motorcycles whatever– We sensed each other beneath the mask, pitched a tent in the street & joined the traveling circus, love at first sight! History became a lie! The sideshow took over– what a sight... the thresh-hold of the modern bomb, temples of the power, the cowboy saint, the Arapahoe, snapshots of– Apache poets searching thru the ruins for a glimpse of Buddha– I lit out for parts unknown, found Jacob's ladder up against an adobe wall & bought a serpent from a passing angel– Yeah the ole days are gone forever and the new ones ain't fair behind, the laughter is fading away, echoes of a star, of energy vampires in the gone world going WILD! Drinking the blood of innocent people, innocent lambs! The wretched of the Earth, my brothers of the flood, cities of the flesh– Milwaukee, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Bismarck, South Dakota, Duluth! Duluth– where Baudelaire lived & Goya cashed in his chips, where Joshua brought the house down! From there it was straight up- a little jolt of Mexico and some good luck, a little power over the Grave, some more brandy & the teeth of a lion & a compass"