New Deer Tracks and Twiggy Frostbite - Christmas mp3s

The Deer Tracks- "Christmas Fire" mp3

Twiggy Frostbite- "Bells and Chimes" mp3

Another day, another Christmas post... but we're not complaining one bit. These two carols are couresty of a pair of European acts on Despotz Records. Europeans celebrate Christmas, right? We're 99% positive they do. That's probably why these kick so much ass: The Deer Tracks, a she-him electronic duo from Sweden, are giving us the angelic, glitchy "Christmas Fire", with a haunting melody from chantreuse Elin Lindfors. (It's really, really good.) Similarly, fellow Swedes Twiggy Frostbite, whose name is all-too-appropriate for this time of year, share Lindfors and employ her talents wonderfully on "Bells And Chimes." If the holidays make you pensive and just a little bit moody, then snatch these up and sit inside pronto!

The Deer Tracks' Aurora is out 3/9 in the UK, and Twiggy's Through Fire precedes it in February in Scandinavia.

Hearty Welcome To LV Readers

We'd like to welcome a whole new audience of readers from the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, after being linked on The LV Blogosphere via The Morning Call. It's an exciting opportunity to reach out to the area, and expand the musical palettes of its noble citizens. LV Represent! Stark was conceived one magical night on the footseps of Lehigh University, and the rest is history. (And if you'd like to know more about that history, we direct virgin readers to our About section.) Simply put, we can't forget our roots, which is why we're beginning to work diligently to better represent a pretty great place in our daily coverage. There's a lot of supercool things going on every night if you look hard enough; places like The Funhouse, The Wildflower, Crocodile Rock, Jan's Room, Godfrey Daniels, and Zoellner Arts Center (housing David Byrne a month ago) are among the many venues around the streets of Bethlehem, Allentown and Easton that are home to great independent music. And who can forget the 10-day oddyssey that is Musikfest? So check it, homeskillets: starting now, we'll bring you the best of your backyard. I love this place. Of course, we're including a performance for the most famous song ever written about the Valley after the jump.

The Dream Team

Way To Normal hits stores in less than a week, but Ben Folds is already thinking about his next project: a full-length collaboration with author Nick Hornby. Yes, the news hit the web on Monday, but excuse me for being late; I still haven't stopped drooling at the thought of this. Hornby is my favorite author, whose seminal classics High Fidelity and About A Boy not only were self-deprecating, pop-culture-spewing literary masterworks, but also excellent film adaptations as well. Here's what Folds had to say to news.com.au:

Nick Hornby and I are talking about doing a record where he writes all the lyrics and I write the music. His lyrics are great. These are really good words.

I'm not going to let them intimidate me. I'm just going to go in and whip out the music. Some of [the lyrics] hit close to the bone about certain things, certain named people, and we've been juggling how to keep from making a record that's going to get sued.

And here's Hornby's account, courtesy of jabiba.com: 

I’m writing the lyrics for a Ben Folds album, which he’s recording in Dublin in December. I wasn’t going to mention this, on the presumption that it will never happen, but my writing partner seems confident enough to have talked about it already, and if he thinks something will come of it, then (deep breath) so do I. At the moment it feels rather as if I have several half-finished cryptic crosswords on the go: there are bits of paper lying all over the place, and sometimes I have a stab at a couplet while making the tea, or watching Arsenal beat Bolton. I suppose that’s what Dylan must do, although I have no idea who he supports.

Ben, as you may know, is quite capable of writing his own lyrics, but I think he fancied a rest, and anyway he, like me, wants to have as much fun as he can in his chosen medium while there’s still fun to be had.

There is undeniable greatness to come of this. I'm positive. Eat your heart out, William Shatner. 

Changes

Voila! Just like that, Stark gets a facelift. Do you like? We've been toying with the idea of a new look for the last several months, and today we decided to act on it. The changes have been brewing in our collective minds, and we truly think that what we've come up with has enhanced and expanded the Stark we know and love.

What we're most excited about, in addition to our sleek new look, is the capability to present our new features. If you look to the right in our decked-out sidebar, you'll notice how we've listed each feature. As per request from countless readers, we've grouped posts together by feature, and you'll be able to access each category by clicking on your graphic of choice. Do you like our interviews? Check out "The Inquisition" - simply click and you'll be transported to an archive of every interview we've done in the short history of the blog. (Don't worry, many more coming!) How about concert reviews? We've got plenty. Click on "Stark At Large" and you'll automatically be whisked away to another archive full of concertgoing goodness. (And again, don't worry if it initially seems bare... we're in the process of archiving our many reviews, so in the next couple of days it will be fully updated.) We think this will make things much easier for you, no?

But for real... we're incredibly excited about the new Stark, and what the future holds for us. We've experienced our biggest week ever over the past week (thank you!) and we continue to grow every day. Keep coming back and keep your eyes peeled for new changes.

So what do you think of our new digs?

Weezer Returns! (For Real This Time?)

Yesterday, Weezer fans around the world, who are anxiously awaiting the band's upcoming sixth album -- titled, of course, Weezer, and due in stores June 17 -- were treated to a tease. Amazon posted 20 seconds of the new single, "Pork and Beans", and something peculiar happened in the process. It didn't get trashed, as it was expected to. Fans and critics immediately loved it. I replayed it five times to make sure it wasn't a joke.

I'll be damned... it kills.

Wait, is this 1996? Sweet heavens, listen to that guitar tone! Listen to those cheeky lyrics! Weezer is back!

Well, maybe. I've been wrong before. When the cell phone clip of "Beverly Hills" started circulating a few months prior to the release of Make Believe in early 2005, I thought the Weez of yore had returned, based off of the song's similarities to "Undone" and "El Scorcho." But then I heard the whole song, and the whole album, and I was let down. Rivers Cuomo was emoting, sure, but his lyrics read more like third grade poetry than the tortured genius found on Pinkerton. There was very little to salvage on that album, and when the band had all but broken up toward the end of the following year, I was disappointed that I couldn't find myself caring.

But this band has gotten me excited again.

I don't want to jump the gun based off a tiny sample, but if this is any indication of what the new album entails, we may get the band's return-to-form that we've clamored for over the last decade. "Pork and Beans" sounds like it can hang with anything from The Blue Album or Pinkerton, and that's incredible to think about. Can this really be happening? Or is the idealist in me overshadowing the skeptic? We'll see on April 22 when the full single is digitally released. Even if the venture turns into another disappointment, though, at least I'll always have these twenty seconds to smile at and think about what could have been. Hear for yourself.

- Andrew Daniels