Heads Up

I know that I'm risking turning this space into a music blog, but:

• If you're into music, I highly recommend that you check out the Salon.com daily download. The page is edited by Thomas Bartlett, and he usually features songs that are either very good, or, at the least, very interesting. I've found songs from Bloc Party, Annie, New Pornographers, Sleater-Kinney, Wilco, Belle & Sebastian, Aimee Mann, and others on the site. Bartlett lives in New York, so he does feature a lot of the up-and-coming NYC/Brooklyn acts, such as The Hold Steady, Animal Collective, etc. I especially recommend this song by a band called The Cloud Room. Strangely enough, one of the guys in The Cloud Room dates the literary agent who read my novel last year. Anyhoo, the selection is usually very good, and if it isn't very good it's at least interesting. Also, the song is always in MP3 format, so you never have to worry about compatibility issues.
  
• I'm going to see a really hot new band called Clap Your Hands Say Yeah tonight at the Knitting Factory. Here's head Pitchforker Ryan Schreiber on their first single, "In This Home on Ice": "Jangly, processed guitar, shimmering cymbals, and vocalist Alec Ounsworth's chorused vocals meet somewhere between a much poppier pre-Loveless My Bloody Valentine and the conventional indie songcraft of the Arcade Fire. So basically we're trying not to piss ourselves." Right on, Ryan.