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Remember that day this year when Robert Smith broke your heart? No, not that day. That day. Well boys (and girls), don't cry! It's all over. Sorta.

Radiohead's putting the finishing touches on LP7, and from the sound of things, Thom needs to get his IDM fix elsewhere. Enter Modeselektor (or MDSLKTR if you have to get all MSTRKRFT about it). The Berlin-based electronic outfit wooed Mr. Yorke and and Maxïmo Park to guest on its forthcoming record Happy Birthday, and the Thom track is a glitch or two away from his heady The Eraser days. "You have all the time in the world" is the verse/refrain/whatever-it-is-Thom-writes, paired with inevitably dystopic moans and an intellectual beat fit for his spastic stage boogie. RIYL if you like Yorke solo. Of if you like Yorke at all, really -- it's awesome. Have a listen at Hype.

The Stage Names is Okkervil River's fourth full-length. More importantly, though, it's the follow-up to Will Sheff and company's most acclaimed album, 2005's Black Sheep Boy and subsequent spin-off, the Black Sheep Boy Appendix EP. We liked the Overboard & Drown EP, too, but it was the former, really, that signaled the longstanding Austin band's apex, inspiring some surefire Lou Reed fandom. Lifting the curtain on this new nine-song affair, Sheff's crafted more upbeat, less ragged tunes and instead of secret messages in radio transmissions, he's focusing on the silver screen, the images that flicker on and in front of it.

We love the endless rhymes, extended metaphors/journeys, and smarty-pants playfulness. Excellent closer "John Allyn Smith Sails" finds Okkervil one-upping the Hold Steady on the John Berryman tip with a mini-biopic that offers more details about the poet's life than Finn musters on "Stuck Between Stations." (John Allyn Smith was Berryman's given name before his mother remarried.) Sheff takes the P.O.V. of Berryman before and after his suicidal leap onto the frozen Mississippi river -- "From a bridge on Washington Avenue, the year of 1972, broke my bones and skull and it was memorable" – but mixes in details about Berryman's father's suicide, earlier flirtations with death, academia, the funeral, etc. Sheff wins the smooth transition of the month award for concluding uproariously by shifting into "John B Sails"/"The Sloop John B," transforming this John B. into a Beach Boy or sailor instead of a dead 'n' frozen poet.

Y'all might remember that last fall I packed up my futurephone and dug deep to revitalize my Bawlmer accent (y'all might know the city by it's other name: it's Baltimore, hon) and headed down to the Pimlico Racetrack for would be a different day-long drunk Baltimoron affair (just check out the infield madness at the Preakness): the first-ever USA Virgin Festival. I came, I saw, I moblogged a whole bunch.

So this year, things are different. For one thing, it's a 2-day whopper of an event. Just check out the monster mega man-eating lineup on the Festival's site... Cheap Trick, M.I.A., Interpol, The Police and the Wu Tang Clan on the same ticket? Only in America! No wait, check that, only in Charm City! This is going to be a crazy weekend. Fun sure, but I mean crazy in all seriousness. As in insane. It is Baltimore, after all. The heat does things to us Baltimorons over the years, y'know.

So there's a few things you should know. First off, you can still cast votes to decide what band opens up Sunday's festivities by going to the site and clicking the Book the Band link (go Cold War Kids!).

Also, stay tuned to MFR in the coming weeks for tidbits on some of the artists you'll see at VF07.

But more importantly! Y'all can win a pair of tickets to the whole damn thing! Now I know Baltimore gets a bad rap from the NYC kids, but seriously, it's a quick 3 hour drive, an über-expensive Amtrak ripoff ticket, or a cheap Dragon Coach bus ticket. So think of it as accessible. Quite in fact. Don't you want to see M.I.A. and CSS on the same ticket? I do.

AND... to make the pot even sweeter, we're throwing in a VIP gift bag with all sorts of TBA goodies contained within! You just need to get yourself and your buddy down there in time for the event, find a couch to crash on (house party at my house?), and enjoy the hell outta what should be two days of incredible music and equally incredible humidity.

So, now for the important part:

To win the tickets and gift bag:

1) Send us an e-mail at contests at music for dash robots dot com, with I want dem tickets hon! in the subject line (don't ask - it's a local thing).

2) Send your entry in by midnight on July 31st. Obviously, make sure you're free the weekend of the festival.

3) In your e-mail, include your full name, your cell phone number, and...

4) ...a haiku composed entirely using lyrics from any of the bands playing the Festival (see above for the list). Remember, three lines, 5 syllables, then 7, then 5. The goofier the better. We'll post the winner on 8/1 when we announce the winner.

5) One entry per person (though your travel buddy can enter too), and Mark, you're not eligible.

And that's it. We'll notify the winner via phone and e-mail after the contest closes on 7/31, and you'll pick up your tickets and goody bag at the will call desk down south.

That poker forum thread in which Steve Albini mystically appeared to dish, rather curiously, on his prolific past as indie-rock studio god was a veritable treasure trove of too much information to process -- but that doesn't mean we didn't try. The poker players were surprisingly well versed in the annals of Albini lore, and of the many worthy queries, we checked later to find two were answered with the same band name.

Q1: What bands have you worked with that deserve to be heard but have been overlooked?
Q2: You recorded Icarus by "The Forms." What do you think of them? Are there any bands you would recommend to a fan of The Forms?

Answer to both: The Desert Fathers. 'Gum love for Icarus runs deep, but it took Albini casually mentioning the Desert Fathers' as the Forms' "alter-ego" to send us excavating, and we dug what we, dug. Steve's got his shit together -- who knew, right?

The Desert Fathers - "The Art Of Reason" (MP3)

Turns out the Desert Fathers feature the Forms' drummer Matt Walsh (aka Acquaman) and lead singer Alex Tween, and Alex was good enough to shed some light on the DF and give some context for the Forms' forthcoming, anticipated long-player. Jump for some Q&A and more Forms/Desert Fathers MP3s.

Augie March is one of Australia's finest, embraced down under with accolades and awards nominations, though States side awareness and record distribution's been lacking. We hope all that's gonna change for the Augies this August, when Moo, You Bloody Choir finally sees these shores in all its clever, melodic glory. In a review that's more 8.3 than the given 7.5 (but what do we know of numbers), P4K lavishes love and likens them to Grant Lee Buffalo, and that's fair, though singer Glenn Richards pulls off of Grant-Lee's page as much from Jeff Buckley's high-range grace notes. "One Crowded Hour" is a superb starting point if you've yet to dig in (it's a must-listen, at MySpace), which is followed sequentially on Moo, You with the equally gripping, heart-blood dripping "Victoria's Secrets." You get both those with the LP, but "The Brothel Creeper"'s a bonus for American ears, released as an Australia-only bonus in the special edition Moo package. This one's about the horn charts, more of a throwback gait than a steady March, but when Glenn's singing, the tune's all his.

Augie March - "The Brothel Creeper" (MP3)

The band's got two US shows in advance of Moo, You Bloody Choir's long-overdue American release (Mercury Lounge, NYC on 7/30 / Roxy, LA on / LA 8/9), well worth checking.

So I just got directed to Kitsune’s video archive and stumbled upon this video for The Whip’s Dive Bomb. Welcome to the music factory….this is where it gets grimy. And cheers to the girl drummer…..

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Lily lends her voice for yet another collab, and it ain't bad. Last time she was getting grimy with Dizzee, and here she sings along to Chicago hip-hop good guy Common on "Drive Me Wild," from Com's forthcoming LP7 Finding Forever. Standard setup (Lily on the hook, Common getting socially conscious), but Kanye weaves some more ethereal Allen samples through his verse beats. Have a listen at FADER.com.

Then there's the duo's recent extra-curriculars, like Common turning up for an impromptu hip-hop all-star jam at NYC S.O.B.'s (along with Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Kanye, Rah-Digga, Drag-on, even Queen Latifah). And just in case you missed it in our post about Lily's appearance on the Friday Night Project (and everywhere else since), take the jump for some isolated vid of Lil' flashing her supernumerary nip.

Ben Folds - March to Re-Energize Iowa

Full disclosure: This is promotion for my day job, but given that it's still arguably relevant to our site, and it's a good cause, I felt like it was ok to post this--I hope you don't mind indulging.

There's obviously been a lot of talk about Global Warming this year, and a lot of celebrity involvement. As an environmental advocate, I think this is a good thing, as a serious music fan, it's been a mixed bag at best. I mean, I loved Spinal Tap's video and the army of bassists playing Big Bottom, but there's no denying that there's a right way and a wrong way for celebrities to get involved in causes and the risk of tedium is never far away.

So here's my favorite recent example of the right way to do it: Ben Folds was in Des Moines a few weeks ago for a show and was handed a flyer on the street for Sierra Student Coalition and Sierra Club's March to Re-Energize Iowa which is taking place from August 2-5 (also in New Hampshire!). In the dressing room he literally set the flyer to music and performed the new song that night. It's kinda funny, energetic, and it gives people some kind of action to take on the issue. And personally, as cheesy as it might get, that tune is catchy as hell and will get stuck in your head.

So thanks to Ben Folds for getting it right and helping my friends in the Sierra Student Coalition get word out about taking action to fight global warming. You can learn more about the Iowa and New Hampshire marches here . The marches are August 1-5 in New Hampshire and August 2-5 in Iowa--each will end with a big rally on the 5th in Des Moines and Concord respectively. We need all the folks we can get so if you'll be in one of those states, please join in. And any other rockers want to lend a hand, by all means let me know!

Fresh off performing one of the 'Fork Fest's best (and dustiest, thank you mosh pit) sets, the men of Mastodon unveil a new vid for Blood Mountain's "Sleeping Giant." Roboshobo is your director in arms, and before watching, it may be helpful to understand his thought process. Via MTV:

The concept for the video was kind of my take on the mythology that seems to be encapsulated in the album. I thought the reference to ‘Father Snake' in the song sounded like an actual priest of some sort and thats where the robot came in … Turning the blind man into a miniature landscape that evolves and eventually commits nuclear suicide — that was my take on the ’sleeping giant — like a volcano that’s threatening to erupt … The blind man who was unwittingly used in the ritual goes nuclear and destroys himself before the bones crystallize, thereby thwarting the priest.”

Duh.

Watch it at Headbanger's Blog.