Jill interviews Meaghan Smith while her tour bus is broken down somewhere in Ohio. Also, Meaghan has a new ep out. The follow up to her debut album the Cricket’s Orchestra called the Cricket’s Quartet. The Cricket’s Quartet can be purchased here.  Enjoy the interview.

Jill Donenfeld: You’re in the midst of a tour right now… what’s been your favorite place to play? Why?

Meaghan Smith: Well, you know, this whole tour has been fantastic. Every night the crowds have been super great. I mean I am on tour with Eric Hutchinson who is pretty poppy but the crowds have been into what I’m doing too… but as far as specific cities…I loved Chicago. I love New York—we are finishing out our tour there. And we played LA. It was fun. And Minneapolis actually was really fun.

JD: Is this your first tour?

MS: This is actually my second tour. I was out for 6 weeks doing a tour with Ron Sexsmith who is also a Canadian. So I’ve been out for 2 months now.

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For more information check out Meaghan’s website or MySpace Page.

Meaghan Smith – A Little Love (mp3)

Continue reading the interview after the jump…

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Damn I hope you didn’t have anything planned today. I know some of you are probably still streaming The Fireman, but it’s time to move on. Kanye West is letting us listen to 808′s & Heartbreak over at his blog. I’ve been a fan of everything he’s let us hear so far with exception of maybe “RoboCop”, but apparently the album has an alternate version that will more than likely be great.

I can’t remember who it was but I hears someone say that 808′s & Heartbreak is going to be Kanye’s Amnesiac. What do you think?

Anyways head over HERE to stream the album.

The Secret Machines have reveled a psychedelic new video for “Atomic Heels,” the first single off their latest self-titled release.

A word of warning: the video for “Atomic Heels,” the first single off the Secret Machines’ 2008 self-titled record, is not for the faint-hearted. Directed by celebrated music photographer Brantley Gutierrez, it’s an entrancing look into the essence of the band. Haunting, super-saturated images of drums, guitars, and keyboards flash and flutter and spin, reflecting both the psychedelic nature of the Secret Machines’ music and the studio, the legendary Electric Lady, where the album was mixed. It’s a contemporary, cutting-edge graphic interpretation and homage to psychedelic music, and in itself reflects the driving, prog-influenced rhythms and universally approachable themes the trio have always encompassed and defined.

If you haven’t checked out the album yet you really should do so. It’s pretty good.

Chad VanGallen’s Soft Airplane remains at #1 on the CBC Radio 3 Top 30 for the 3rd straight week. Damn that was a lot of 3′s. Soft Airplane also went back to # 1 on Chartattack on Nov 9th making that 8 weeks at # 1 and was # 1 for the second month in a row (September/October) on Earshot with 8 weeks at #1.

To celebrate Chad has made “City of Electric Light” available for download. You can also hear “Willow Tree” and watch the video for “Molten Light” after the jump.

If you haven’t heard Soft Airplane yet it is available now on Flemish Eye. Check it out.

For more information head over to Killbeat Music.

Chad VanGaalen – Willow Tree (mp3)
Chad VanGaalen – City Of Electric Light (mp3)

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We’ve spent some time here at SDM talking about Pitchfork Reviews and what they mean to up and coming bands. We compiled all the perfect 10 reviews as well as the reviews that were given 0′s across the board. We spoke briefly about the Pitchfork hyped Black Kids and their unfortunate (but funny) review of the band’s first full length, Party Traumatic. We decided that we enjoy the Pitchfork reviews but we take them with a grain of salt. Case closed right?

Well yesterday Pitchfork reviewed the Airborne Toxic Event’s self-titled album and gave them a less than impressive 1.6. Today The Airborne Toxic Event responded by posting an open letter to Pitchfork regarding the review. Give it a read and let us know what you think. Good move taking on Pitchfork or career suicide?

The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight (mp3)

The Airborne Toxic Event’s MySpace Page.

Check out the letter after the jump…

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Very few of the posts we’ve made continue to get hits after a couple of months, but the one that has displayed staying power is our “Worst Album Covers Ever” post. We continue to get hit after hit from people wanting to feast their eyes on Cody Matherson, Ken, and the Handless Organist. So we figured we would try and put together another list for your viewing pleasure. We didn’t have to look far because Cover Browser has compiled 149 of the worst album covers ever all in one place. I picked a few of my favorites for this post, but if you want to laugh for hours I suggest heading over to Cover Browser. In case you were wondering, yes, Millie Jackson has managed to make both lists. That in its own right is an impressive accomplishment.

Find plenty more bad album covers after the jump…

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Art-punk outfit MGMT added an interactive element to their new video for ‘Electric Feel.’ The piece features the group’s founding pair — Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden — showing viewers how to bring the hook-laden tune to life by choosing the background on which they surf, dance and generally rock the party. Each of the 4,290,888 options are a fit for this psychedelic Prince-influenced falsetto jam (via Spinner).