Kaitlyn Maria Filippini has released a new single, her version of Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights.”  Check it out here: http://soundcloud.com/kaitlyn-maria-filippini/such-great-heights

Variety Lights, the new band from former Mercury Rev frontman, David Baker, is sharing a new track in advance of their debut record, Central Flow, due June 12, 2012 via Fire Records.  Here is the stream of “Oh Setting Sun”:

Stream: Variety Lights – “Oh Setting Sun”

As a founding member and vocalist for Mercury Rev, Baker helped to forge the band’s sound on Yerself Is Steam (1991) and Boces (1993). Having left the band in 1993, Baker went on to release a solo album World under the moniker Shady, which featured members of the Boo Radleys, Rollerskate Skinny, Swervedriver and Th’ Faith Healers.  Much of Variety Lights’ debut Central Flow was recorded by Baker at his own Over the Trees studio.

The inspirational photo collage thing or whatever.

What does it take to get two of the most sought after producers/musicians in indie rock to get into a studio and record a song together in two days?

National Public Radio and a photo of a black dog in a flood! If you’re enough of a nerd, you’ve heard this already as a segment of Project Song which is part of the All Songs Considered segment of All Things Considered. So many sub-segments!

In either case, the most important part about this is seeing who’s production direction steered the drums. As it turns out, both producers chickened out and went for more of a live sound on the drums instead of going for their individual signatures. But the Walla/Robbins guitar/bass dynamic is interesting.

You can check it all out here.

These guys also play rock and roll music.

These guys were in other bands, but aren’t anymore. Black Wine have some great fuzzy psyched out garage riffs and hooks, but is the world ready for everything they have to offer? As a test to see if their rock ‘n roll will melt your brain, you can check out two Black Wine songs on the band’s MySpace page.

If you’re giong to check out “Couch Critics” and “Belong,” I suggest having a set of ear plugs ready lest the greatness pollute your eardrums and force you to only listen to Black Wine for the rest of the year.

Look at that hair!

Imaad Wasif is probably the kind of guy you wanted to punch in high school because he was pretty cool, could play guitar, and dressed sort of wacky. Plus there’s all that weird magic type stuff. Regardless, he’s had a run as a touring guitarist for the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, he worked on the Where the Wild Things Are score, and he’s coming out with a new album soon.

He talks about the soundtrack here with Paste, and you can hear a new track from him titled “Priestess” here.

SAYS – And In It I Could

When I was in high school, I played around with a guy named Mike who was an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist. I coudn’t really play crap, and this fella went on to play in a lot of pretty solid bands.

Fast  forward through my college career, and Michael Warren has a new album out as a collaboration with Max Serota. The two take classic pop song structures, build them over acoustic guitars and a combination of live and programmed drums, add in a funbox of auxiliary instruments,. and the result is something worth blogging about.

Ghettoblaster recommends you give the song “Garden Girls” a spin, but you can check out the whole album streaming online at SAYS’ bandcamp site.