A 3-D iteration of the band redecorates an austere gallery.

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A fan made mashup making good use of “Meet Me In The Basement” to protest the G20 summit. Check it.

Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden are back. They’re back and they’ve again enlisted Broken Social Scene to write music for their movie, just as with Half Nelson, a minor marvel thanks in large part to the band’s affecting score. Mental health oriented movies never interest me and Zach G is fast wearing out his welcome, still, trust the collaborators to make this worthwhile.
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Here it is, our favorite singles of 2010 so far.

Right Click-Save As to Download.  Don’t forget to download the entire mix as a single track at the bottom of the list.

Singles:

1. The Morning Benders – “Excuses”
From Big Echo, out on Rough Trade

2. Beach House – “Norway”
From Teen Dream, out on Sub Pop

3. The New Pornographers – “Crash Years”
From Together, out on Matador

4. LCD Soundsystem – “Dance Yrself Clean”
From This Is Happening, out on DFA

5. Broken Social Scene – “Forced To Love”
From Forgiveness Rock Record, out on Arts & Crafts

6. Drake – “Over”
From Thank Me Later, out on Cash Money

7. Dr. Dog – “Shadow People”
From Shame, Shame, out on Anti

8. Local Natives – “Airplanes”
From Gorilla Manor, out on Frenchkiss

9. Fol Chen – “In Ruins”
From Part II: The New December, out on Asthmatic Kitty

10. Kanye West – “Power”
From Upcoming LP

11. The National – “Bloodbuzz Ohio”
From High Violet, out on 4AD

12. Vampire Weekend – “Cousins”
From Contra, out on XL Recordings

13. Gorillaz – “On Melancholy Hill”
From Plastic Beach, out on Virgin

14. White Flight – “Panther”
From “Panther” single, out on Range Life

15. The Black Keys – “Tighten Up”
From Brothers, out on Nonesuch

The Mix: For Extended Listening

Best Singles of 2010* Mix

The best albums of 2010 halfway through the year anyway. We pooled our individual lists and tallied up the points to arrive at this, the official Tale of The Tape Best Albums of 2010* List. Interestingly, Teen Dream was the only consensus pick with regard to position and selection. Quite a few albums to go this year so we’re interested to see how this holds up when we reconvene to make our year-end lists. If you’re up on some or all of these albums jump in the thread and we can compare notes.

1. Beach House – Teen Dream

2. Black Keys – Brothers

3. The Morning Benders – Big Echo

4. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

5. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor

6. Dr. Dog – Shame, Shame

7. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening

7. The New Pornographers – Together

9. The National – High Violet

10. Vampire Weekend – Contra

Also in the discussion: Sleigh Bells – Treats, Gorillaz – Plastic Beach, Harlem – Hippies

Check back tomorrow for our Best Singles of 2010* List. It’s here now.

Cedric the Entertainer mingling with indie-supergroupers is the sight of the week.
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Kevin Drew and co. are back with Forgiveness Rock Record, their most comprehensive effort to date. Sprawling over fourteen tracks, Broken Social Scene’s latest features the usual suspects (Canning, Haines, Whiteman) along with some fresh faces (John McEntire, Sam Prekop).

Where previous BSS albums have explored and employed space to achieve atmospheric highs, Forgiveness busts out of the gate with the immediacy of opener “World Sick” and doesn’t look back. This exhaustive set continues with “Chase Scene,” in which BSS do their best Fleetwood Mac-in-outer-space impression, followed by the driving quirkiness of “Texico Bitches.” “Forced to Love,” “All to All,” and “Art House Director” provide the heart of the lineup, with about 8 guitars, Lisa Lobsinger’s gorgeous vocal, and a Clarence Clemons cameo**, respectively.

“Meet Me in the Basement” is an instrumental powerhouse which immediately recalls the Newport Folk Festival scene in I’m Not There (3:00 minute mark), only with a gaggle of scruffy Canadians in place of Cate Blanchett. Contributions from Leslie Feist, Amy Millan, and Emily Haines are fairly limited throughout the LP, with Millan & Feist relegated to background duties, and Haines getting the nod on the electro-tinted “Sentimental X’s.” Though the album slightly suffers from a bloated tracklist, Forgiveness Rock Record is an enthralling set that is not to be missed.

**This is entirely unconfirmed.

Buy Forgiveness Rock Record on iTunes.

Buy Forgiveness Rock Record on vinyl.

Download:

Broken Social Scene – World Sick

Two highly anticipated albums are streaming in full right now. NPR has Broken Social Scene’s Forgiveness Rock Record (5/3), and The National’s High Violet (5/11) is up at The NY Times until 4/27.

While we’re at it how about a video of BSS playing “Forced to Love” on Letterman with Sebastien Grangier in tow?

SXSW added Film and Interactive conferences to the yearly festival in 1994, attracting the best and brightest in web technology and filmmaking.  The interactive portion focuses on emerging technologies, and features panels on everything from video games to social media.   In fact, Twitter was the main attraction at SXSW 2007, winning a SXSW web award and gaining three times the users that it had the week before the festival.  The big winners this year include the unicorn and rainbows service Cornify, Gowalla, and knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha.

Many filmmakers avoid the pressure of a Hollywood or New York premiere, instead opting to present their films at the SXSW Film Conference and Festival.  It has grown tremendously since its inception, and is a rare festival where big studio features might be preceded by a micro-budget indie.   Previous screenings include The Aristocrats, V for Vendetta, Knocked Up, and The Hurt Locker.  2010′s big winners were Tiny Furniture and Brotherhood, while the SNL spin-off MacGruber has been getting some surprisingly decent reviews since premeiring in Austin on Monday.

Just about every indie band you could imagine is playing or has played sets this week in Austin, as well as some big names like Nas, The Walkmen, and Broken Social Scene.  As I’ve mentioned previously, SXSW is a tastemaking festival that can really put a band on the map, and we are expecting to hear big things from some of our favorite new bands like Best Coast, Local Natives, Sleigh Bells, Surfer Blood, and Gwar.

The line up is different. The producer is different. So far the sound remains the same: anthemic, emotive, guitars. “World Sick” is the first song off Broken Social Scene’s so far untitled album due May 4th from Arts & Crafts.

Broken Social Scene – World Sick

While the famously amorphous collective effectively disbanded after Broken Social Scene, they kept the brand alive, operating under the “Broken Social Scene Presents…” banner, turning out arresting “solo” efforts from core members Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, both of whom are part of the current lineup–six in all–indicating the band is sufficiently intact. Though fear not Feist, Metric, and Stars devotees, as the ladies will be back, all together in fact for a track Kevin Drew promises to be heartbreaking.

Broken Social Scene