Glass Candy, M.Ward, and Blitzen Trapper have joined the ranks of... um... uh... sorry, I lost my train of thought when I saw these two words: Leonard Cohen. Finally, Coachella steps up and provides music fans everywhere with with an ideal environment to properly enjoy Leonard Cohen (in a smoldering hot field, shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of others, and minutes before Franz Ferdinand plays). Hmmm, perhaps I'll just stay home that night and listen to Songs of Love and Hate on the stereo.

But if you are going to Coachella—April 17th-19th—it's best you buy your tickets soon. At least for the first day, since the kids these days love their Beatles (with their cute hair and songs about hand-holding), and their Moz as well (with his cute hair and songs about hand-holding). Three day passes are "$269.00 +$3 charity + $9 facility fee" ($431? I can't add.), or individual day passes are "$99.00 +$1 charity + $3 facility fee." And since we are in a recession, Coachella's promoters are offering a layaway plan. Personally, I was just going to hop the fence and pin an "I.O.U." note to Amy Winehouse's forehead—she can't feel a thing—but layaway might be a better option.

Full details, and terrible Paul McCartney quote, after the jump.

Here's a little something for musicians in the End Hits readership: The RPM Challenge. I'll let them explain:

This is The Challenge - Record an album in 28 days, just because you can.

That’s 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material recorded during the month of February. Go ahead… put it to tape.

It’s a little like National Novel Writing Month, (NaNoWriMo.org) where writers challenge each other to write 1,700 words a day for 30 days, or the great folks over at February Album Writing Month (fawm.org), who encourage artists to write 14 new songs in February. Maybe they don’t have “Grapes of Wrath” or “Abbey Road” at the end of the month, or maybe they do—but that’s not the point. The point is they get busy and stop waiting around for the muse to appear. Get the gears moving. Do something. You can’t write 1,700 words a day and not get better.

Don't wait for inspiration - taking action puts you in a position to get inspired. You'll stumble across ideas you would have never come up with otherwise, and maybe only because you were trying to meet a day’s quota of (song)writing. Show up and get something done, and invest in yourself and each other.

At rpmchallenge.com there is a little community to get involved in. Share, listen, learn more, etc.

It starts in February, so seriously, think about it. I am.

What they say about forcing yourself to produce is true. Last year I embarked on what I call the "7 Songs in Seven Days," project. I wrote and recorded a new song each day, for seven consecutive days. It nearly killed me. I blew a deadline for another newspaper because I was so creatively focused, sapped, and under the influence. It was fucking great. I expect to do it again, but it takes some serious free time—had to shut out almost all work and outside communication, though after the song was in the can each night, if I finished before bar closing time, the need to plumb the depths of twisted spirit were important as both release and for drumming up new material. It was a difficult, dark, rewarding march.

An album in a month doesn't sound too difficult. Right? (Assuming one doesn't wait until the deadline is bearing down...) It doesn't have to be GOOD, but I bet pieces of it will be.

If anyone from Portland decides to do it I'd certainly look into posting some of the results when it's all done.

Another week, another Mercury music section to read while you watch your pet octopus play with a Rubik's Cube. But be warned, when they get frustrated they are just going to spray the cube with a big blast of ink.

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By my calculations Broken Social Scene now employs 1/3 of the entire population of Canada. In addition to the members you might already know—Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Leslie Feist, Emily Haines—the band also features former prime minster Jean Chrétien, hockey legend Mario Lemieux, and that white rapper Snow.
LISTEN:

Broken Social Scene Presents Brendan Canning - "Churches Under The Stairs"

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Odds are, you haven't heard the odd instrumental beats, and Japanese obsessed style, of Gouseion. Well, now is your chance. The track below is absolutely ridiculous, it's everything I wanted the last Ratatat album to be, and more.
LISTEN:

Gouseion - "Venomous Always"

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Hurry up and pay respect to Cool Nutz and his new album, The Miracle. Why the rush? Well, because his new(er) album, Young Obama, is coming a few months from now. Actually, he might have recorded another record in the time it took me this write this.
LISTEN:

Cool Nutz - "The Dream" (featuring Arjay)

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Sure, we all love the Album Leaf, but enough to get a tattoo of their logo? Well, I'd do it, but only if it can go next to my sweet Operation Ivy tat. All I know is that I don't know nothing (about how much I was going to regret this ska band tattoo).
LISTEN:

Album Leaf - "Always For You"

End Hits: At least we didn't post a photo of our Reel Big Fish tattoo.

The mixtape-sharing website Muxtape (read about it here) shut down over the summer, citing problems with the RIAA. But now it's back, albeit it in a different and more limited legal form. There's an interview with founder/former Portlander Justin Ouellette over at the New Yorker, describing the site's future as a sort of social networking/music-sharing platform. Read all about it here.

Visually and functionally, Muxtape is great. The interface loads quickly, makes immediate sense, and doesn’t come burdened with the flash animation and banners that ruin so many MySpace pages. But the beauty of MySpace is that anyone can start a page and put music up quickly. I can’t think of a musical act that isn’t on MySpace. Will acts be able to make Muxtape pages easily, or will they have to go through a submission process? I can imagine Muxtape taking the lead in music the way Facebook took the lead in social networking.

Muxtape is going to be an invite-only system to start with. As a band, you’ll need to be invited by another band in order to create a profile. It won’t be this way forever, but we want to make sure we can effectively combat abuse and provide the best experience for everyone before we open the floodgates. Even Facebook didn’t let everyone sign up right away.

More Blind Pilot news.

The bike-happy local band has been booked to appear on Last Call with Carson Daly, the favorite late night viewing option of drunks, insomniacs, and people stalking Carson Daly. Their performance will be on February 9th (although technically it will be the 10th when it actually airs), and we'll post it here the next day for those who do not fit into the drunk/tired/stalker categories.

Is the most famous Smith (not named Morrissey) out of Modest Mouse? The sorta-local band announced a series of tour dates this morning—none of which will be in Portland—and the press release included this line: "Jim Fairchild of Grandaddy will be playing guitar with Modest Mouse on this tour."

Does that mean Johnny Marr is no longer in Modest Mouse? Hmmm, just in time for a certain reunion of one of his former bands... no, not Electronic.

Also, local newcomers Mimicking Birds (who have signed to Isaac Brock’s Glacial Pace imprint) will be opening on all the dates. We'll get to the bottom of this...

Update: False alarm. This just in from the band's publicist: "Jim [Fairchild] is filling in for Johnny on these dates only. Johnny will be recording with the Cribs at this time." Damn, there goes that Smiths reunion...

Mornin' friends. Lots of little music nuggets this morning, and since sharing is caring, here they are:

A local movie about porno—but not a local porno movie—The Auteur is now available for purchase online via Amazon or iTunes. The film's soundtrack features a slew of local artists, including Au, Laura Gibson, Norfolk & Western, Riddenpaa, The Shaky Hands, and tons more. All those bands and no wah-wah pedals?

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Starfucker is growing, right in front of our very eyes. A trio no more, the band has added Keil Corcoran (Guidance Counselor, Flaspar) on drums and keyboards. The band also has a brand new EP, Dance Face, hitting the streets this May. The EP will contain a Cyndi Lauper cover (it better be "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough"), a remix courtesy of Strategy, and a few new songs as well. The band will debut their new member, and new songs, at their Valentine's show at the Wonder Ballroom.

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Our pals at the local music blog Crappy Indie Music are looking for new writers, could it be you?

Crappy Indie Music wants you to blog with us:
* You are in a band: write about venues, shows you went to, your friends bands, touring, tips for other musicians, compliments and complaints about and and all things listed above or whatever
* You love to blog: share your favorite online video, blog, wise cracks, photo's, you know whatever you want to blog about as it pertains to Portland music and/or loose affiliation with. Do you have friends you think make kick ass videos, music, photo's? Tell us about them. Maybe you make your own videos... Blog them here so people can see them.
* You love music: you listen online, you have favorite Portland, Oregon, Vantucky bands, you might throw house shows, maybe you are heavily into one genre of music (punk, jazz, folk, synth pop, drum and bass, hip hop etc.) and want to share the word about it by listing shows you would recommend.
* You hate music: you listen to music and it makes you mad. You might have a beef with aspects of Portland music, venues, bands, etc

Oh, it's so on.

Our big 'sis paper to the north is running a blog post about how disappointing Portland's record stores are. Jackpot, Millenium Music (sic), Everyday Music, and Mississippi Records were all called out. Jackpot got the worst of it:

Jackpot Records (both stores!) you were the worst offenders. I picked out a couple of albums I was interested in, and brought them to the front counter to listen to, only to be told, "We don't have a vinyl listening station."

WHAT?!?!?!

WTF kind of used record shop doesn't allow you to listen to the vinyl to judge what shape the record is in? That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard come out of a record store clerks mouth. Ever. (And that's saying something as I used to go to Orpheum on Broadway all the time. Remember that doof?)

Even worse, when asked if he could put them on the system so I could hear them, he gave me this pained look, like, Wow! you want me to stop listening to this thrilling Iron and Wine album so you can put on some old 80's freestyle single?

"We don't do that," he said.

"Well," I said, "you can re-shelve these for me, 'cause I'm not buying them without hearing them first."

"Okay, I'll put them on," he grumbled as he sllllloooooowwwwwlllllyyyy turned down the record he was playing (yes, please! A decent fade out is needed when there's just 1 person in your store!) and put my track on.

It gave me great pleasure that both singles were crap and I decided not to buy them anyways.

Not to get into a full-blown music nerd throwdown here (Just imagine all the flailing, plus if anyone bleeds on my limited edition Sonic Youth Goo t-shirt, I'll cry.), but I've never found a single decent record in any Seattle store. Easy Street, Sonic Boom, that one place kind of by the Showbox = nothing.

But regardless, isn't not finding something you are searching for in an indie record store just part of the process? It's not supposed to be easy. They can't have everything, especially if you are crate digging for LPs (as opposed to just picking up the new Katy Perry CD at Best Buy). Whatever, at least our basketball team is better... oh, sorry... you don't have a team. Perhaps Oklahoma City has good record stores?

Another week, another Mercury music section to read after you realize that posting someone's Facebook status is a piss-poor excuse for breaking news. Really? Well if that works for you, then according to Facebook, Hank Stern is "having a full day." Make of that what you will. It sounds dirty if you ask me.

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Everyone knows Nick Jaina as the supremely talented roaming troubadour, skilled writer, and professional busker. But Jaina also wears a novelty-sized foam #1 finger in support of the Walkman. That said, we could not pass on the opportunity to let one of Portland's best singers write about his favorite band.
LISTEN:

The Walkmen - "In the New Year"

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It's no Xanadu, but Ethan Rose's lovely ethereal music just might soundtrack your next trip to the roller rink. I'm a big fan of couples skate, now if only I can find a girl who loves competitive rollerblading as much as I do.
LISTEN:

Ethan Rose - "Fortunate"

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The expendable karaoke pop of Katy Perry? Yes, we just ran a Katy Perry article, and you are powerless to stop us. Next week: Take our Jonas Brothers quiz! Which brother are you most like? (Spoiler alert: I'm totally like Nick!)
LISTEN:

Katy Perry - "Hot N Cold"

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Chomp! Chomp! Sorry (the ghost of) Steve Irwin, but these Crocodiles will not be hunted by you, or their past.
LISTEN:

Crocodiles - "Neon Jesus"

Still boo-hooing that Rererato closed their doors last October? Well, dry those eyes my friends, because the multi-use show/art/whatever space is back in action under new management and with a snazzy new name, The Wail.

The Wail is a music and art venue located in a former Hare Krishna Temple/video store in Northeast Portland. We are all-ages and non-profit. We are not a video store and not Hare Krishnas (although we do believe in transcendence through vibrations).

Although I would personally prefer that they were a Hare Krishna video store—where else am I going to rent a VHS copy of Bhakti Charu Sw: Personal Instruction from Srila Prabhupada?—this new showspace has a slew of quality shows on the docket, including a (not literally) roof-raising grand opening party on the 6th of February with (not literally) the mayor of Olympia, Calvin Johnson.

Thanks to Cary for the heads up.