Sigur Rós Announces New Album, Posts MP3 of First Track

The Icelandic quartet announced the release of their fifth album today, which is due out the week of June 23rd! Apparently this one's quite a bit different, moving toward a more acoustic style, something like we heard on Heim/Heima. Read the full release here.

Also, don't forget to download the first track off the new album, "Gobbledigook." Get it here.

Goear.com, etc.

I'm thinking about expanding my blog to include more things non-music. I don't do it often, but whenever I browse blogs I almost always get sucked into them, and inevitably want to start having conversations with their writers. I'm not suggesting anything, just simply stating that I might share some more stuff; I suppose that's blogging.

Anyway here are the songs I'm listening to on repeat these days, wonderfully conveniently streamed on goear.com (which happens to be a pretty awesome site with a huge selection of songs that you can listen to):

Two Step (DMB)
Merry Happy (Kate Nash)
Nothingman (Pearl Jam)
Heartbeats (José González)
You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. (Bright Eyes)

Looking over these tracks, I could say why I keep listening to each of them, based on the lyrics to each. But who ever knows what the real reason is that we pick songs? I like to think that I choose songs for their lyrics some times, but more often than not I either 1. have the song stuck in my head so want to hear it, or 2. love the way the song sounds and/or makes me feel. How much do the lyrics really have to do with both of these? Everything? Nothing? One of my buddies says he doesn't know the lyrics to any songs, because he just focuses on the music, whereas I read and interpret and memorize them.... There are so many facets to this experience called music; I'm excitedly hoping this book I just bought will shed some light!