MP3: John Maus - "Bennington"

"I love those fucking eyes."

So we've always loved John Maus' unreleased song "Bennington" for the obvious reason that we ourselves are rad ladies who matriculated at Bennington College... and harbor fantastical delusions of such songs being written about us. Then today we saw this hilarious post over on Ad Hoc declaring the official release of this song - and other rarities - on Ribbon Music. Awesome shit.



Whaaat! It sounds so much better than the shitty quality of the old recording. Pre-order the album here!

MP3: Twigz - "Sea Sheets" (Sea Sick mix by Altitude Sickness)"

Twigz is a band of bros from Bennington, VT and Amherst, MA who recently shared the stage with Real Estate. (Libxartsxcollegexcore.) They make psychedelic jams that you can dig on over at their newly nascent MySpace page like "Kakoon," which sounds like a sweet Dodos hit with a lovely lil strings section. Below is a personal fave track, a remix by Twigz's buddy in Jersey, Altitude Sickness.

Twigz - Sea Sheets (Sea Sick mix by Altitude Sickness).mp3

ALBUM: Jackson Emmer - PEN-PAL

There is a familiar youthful longing throughout Pen-Pal, the new album from Jackson Emmer that we were lucky enough to receive straight from the handsome devil himself. Childhood memories like "If you weren't seven years old, you would have shown me yours and I would have shown you mine," make frequent appearances. Emmer describes his latest musical endeavor as a group of songs that "are all based on human correspondence. They are inspired by distance, separation, communication and reunion." As a whole, the album can be characterized by a lone banjo and sprawling vocals, peppered with some super raunchy lyrical bits that verge on eroticism. ("The space between our sentences becomes erect, and starts to poke us at both ends, beginning and behind, stiff as the silence.) It's those delightful, almost inappropriate surprises that make Emmer's music more than just nostalgic pining for childhood.

Download/stream it here and also be sure to check out the Open Face Record Collective and all their awesome artists, such as the delectable divas of Mountain Man.

Here's "Was It Winnie" for your streaming pleasure.

"Come watch me bleed, I need you more than ever."

By the by... if you dig Jackson Emmer, then we've got a hunch you'll also really dig Horse's Mouth.

MP3: Stingray Migration - "Boneyard"

Stingray Migration features the songwriting and vocal stylings of such Bennington lovers as Nate (Skippy) Luce, Michael Chinworth, Maia Friedman, Will Stratton, and more...

Check out this recent mention of another lovely Bennington group via Choco Bobka.