Maybe I’m somewhat old-fashioned in my approach to the internet, or that I really like the payoff of delayed satisfaction, but this is true: I don’t listen to music before it is released on a record. I am perpetually behind-the-times. Maybe, I am not someone who should be writing for a music blog because I really like the thrill of going to the CD store and picking up new releases on a Tuesday. I like evaluating an album as a whole, and my somewhat neurotic personality prevents me from doing that if I imprint a couple songs on my memory before listening to all of them, in the sequence that the artist intended.
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Some cool stuff coming up:

– This week, we see the release of the 25th Anniversary edition of Thriller, Michael Jackson’s landmark pop-transcending musical opus…you know, pre-albino freak-out. CD has a bunch of remixes tacked on and comes complete with music videos including a digitally re-polished “Thriller” as well as live performance footage.

Since Jack-o seems to have enthralled YouTube into preventing embedding of his video, I have taken the liberty of embedding the Indian version, musically less entertaining, but comedically much better than the original.

– Everyone’s favorite indie-pop jokers We Are Scientists are releasing their latest LP, Brain Thrust Mastery in the UK and parts of Europe on March 17th. Video for lead single “After Hours” after the jump.

– Self-described “art-pop” kids in HIJK combines pop-punk vocal delivery and melodic direction with technical details constructed using post-punk nuts and bolts. Most notably, the angular and interesting guitar work as well as the truly kinetic bass work to deliver some enjoyable gems that often surprise and defy description. Maybe its the inspired and varied instrumentation…je ne sais quoi. Check their first video for “Paper Boat” after the jump.

Tracks from the 2007 LP The Pen and the Letter:
Paper Boat
Hey Sleepy Smile
Center of Things

– News and interview from local shoegaze darlings Thrushes, forthcoming…
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Dream-pop band Beach House, the child of Baltimore’s own Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand, will be preforming at the G-Spot on the 28th in support of their second album, Devotion (due out the 26th on Carpark Records).

A a quite pretty video for “Master of None” follows.

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