We love vinyl, you love vinyl. This is nothing new. But for once a corporate entity is confirming what we’ve known to be true for a good long while now — Nielsen SoundScan reported that sales of LPs were up by 89 percent in 2008, from 990,000 in 2007 to 1.88 million. But since we already knew people loved vinyl, here’s bigger news: Neutral Milk Hotel landed in the top 10 best-selling LPs of 2008.

Maybe now we’ll be able to talk Neutral Milk Hotel into coming back from hiatus — the band’s 1998 sophomore LP In The Aeroplane Over the Sea moved 10,200 vinyl copies last year, tying for sixth with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. And yeah, we’ll admit it. That’s still a very (okay, very) small piece of the bigger music-sales puzzle — actually just .01 percent of the total music sales from CDs, digital downloads, LPs and ringtones combined — but you can’t deny that the analog sound is making a comeback.

Interestingly, sales of CDs, LPs and digital files did fall overall 14 percent in 2008, while digital album sales raked in $65.8 million, a huge 32 percent jump up from last year’s sales.

Other albums ranking in the top 10 included Radiohead’s In Rainbows at number one, Fleet Foxes’ self-titled release, Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy and, fairly inexplicably, the B-52s’ Funplex. Perhaps some people prefer their Rock Lobster on vinyl.

As you probably know by now, we can’t help but like Mahjongg, no matter how weird and yeah, maybe a little cult-like they might be. So here’s the video for their newest single from Kontpab, “Free Grooverider.”

We defy anyone not to dance to this stuff. French synth/techno/house/80s pop genius Anoraak has put his trademark style on a new mixtape as part of ">No Love Lost Records’ mixtape project.

Arguably the most notable member of ">The Valerie Collective, Anoraak has created one serious mix for NLLR, including Futurecop!, Ladyhawke, Daft Punk, Foals, Boards of Canada and Cut Copy.

Anoraak - NLLR Mixtape Project

01 Boards Of Canada - Ready Let’s Go
02 Stephen Falken - Shadow Of The Wind
03 Anoraak - Nightdrive With You (Grum Remix)
04 The Outrunners - Blazing Speed And Neon Light With You
05 Parallels - Ultralight
06 The Similou - All This Love
07 Frisky - Digitalis
08 Futurecop! - Class Of 1984 (Anoraak Remix)
09 Drownsoda - Playing With Fire On A Cold Winter’s Night
10 College - Teenage Color (Anoraak Remix)
11 Nicolas Malkelberge - A Clean City
12 Russ Chimes - Mulsanne
13 Tocotronic Vs. Console - Freiburg V3.0
14 Relation - Your Tiny Mind (Lifelike Remix)
15 Pnau Feat. Ladyhawke - Embrace
16 Lo-Fi-Fnk - End
17 Adeyhawke - Adeyhawke Theme
18 Daft Punk - Face To Face
19 Maethelvin - My Favorite TV Show
20 Minitel Rose - Business Woman
21 Error::Love - Dangerous Dance
22 PonyPonyRunRun - First Date Mullet (Xinobi Remix)
23 Cut Copy - Lights And Music (Moulinex Remix)
24 Foals - Balloons

So on one of our regular searches around the world wide interweb looking for new music, we have a few regulars we like to scout from. Problem is then you feel guilty taking the credit for it. Such is the case with the next teen sensation, Fungi Girls.

In case you missed the hint, we found these guys via Impose — who ironically is responsible for Brooklyn teen noisemakers Fiasco’s most recent record — because they are currently hosting a link to download Fungi Girls’ Psilo demo.

Maybe the fact that they are only 14 and 15 years old will help you want to dig out from under their lo-fi murky garage rock and the obvious Vivian Girls and Wavves comparisons. Or maybe it will make you realize how novice bands like those are at such “advanced” ages. Or because that at such a young age, their list of references ranging from Suicide and Pavement seem that much more impressive. Whatever the case, the beyond-their-years song writing of Fungi Girls has paid off in the way of two soon to be released split tapes. One with Natural Numbers on North Carolina’s Neon Aztec Records and one with Philadelphia’s Reading Rainbow on California’s Not Not Fun. Not bad for “three Texas teenagers who make noise pop.” The track below, “Crystal Roads”, is on their self-released Psilo demo.

Fungi Girls - “Crystal Roads”

Coupleskate isn’t just something that made your palms sweaty in junior high — it’s also a tight indie-rock four-piece from Chicago! The ladies are getting ready to drop their first full-length album, Don’t Scare the Horses this spring.

Their story, like most, is kind of a long one. The quick and dirty version goes something like this: first there was Andrea Bauer (vocals, guitar) and Laura Watral (guitar, vocals, keys), who’d played together a bit while both students at the University of Iowa before pursuing their own musical ventures. They eventually reconnected in Chicago in 2002, along with bassist Carol Bales and drummer Jonathan Durlam.

But those two ended up falling in love and getting married, leaving Chicago in 2006 and leaving Bauer and Watral to find a new rhythm section and reconceptualize Coupleskate. They found Lauren Viera (bass) and Martha Williams (drums) in 2007, and since then the band’s sound has evolved dramatically from its self-released debut EP, Trophy, to the sound fans will finally experience in full with the release of Don’t Scare The Horses.

It’s thought-rock: that place where complex melodies and harmonies meet the simplest rules of a really good bass line, and evocative lyrics float over reverbed guitar solos. In a Jenny Lewis/Ben Gibbard kind of way, Bauer’s casual, calm voice has this way of pulling you in, its very tonality hinting that she knows something she’s not giving away just yet. On top of that, of course, you’ve also got the absolutely irresistably mellow harmonies — delicate, smooth, almost weightless — floating over driving rock beats.

On Don’t Scare the Horses the ladies also bring in the strings, like in the opening of “Laws of Physics,” where they pair perfectly with sustained reverb before drums and rhythmic guitar burst through the texture. You can have a listen to “Laws of Physics” below, and be on the lookout for a music video for the single coming soon. Also included below is “Friends in Pharmacies,” another track from Don’t Scare the Horses.

Coupleskate - “Laws of Physics”

Coupleskate - “Friends in Pharmacies”

By Danny R. Phillips

The Heartland of America has given fully to both respected culture and pop culture. Missouri, the literal “heart” of the Heartland, can lay claim to the old-West Robin Hood Jesse James, writer Mark Twain, painter Thomas Hart Benton, The Pony Express, the world’s greatest barbecue, Brad Pitt, Walter Cronkite and now, a rock band known throughout our land as The Architects.

I will not foolishly attempt to compare a punk-ish rock band from Kansas City with the likes of Twain or Cronkite but judging by the lyrics and attitude spewed onto their most recent Anodyne Records release Vice, it would be totally justifiable to place The Architects in the same headspace as the country’s legendary outlaw.

Kansas City’s scene is thriving like never before with bands like The Architects, Federation of Horsepower, The Republic Tigers, Lights and Siren, In the Pines and Sister Mary Rotten Crotch leading the charge. But Brandon Phillips, singer and guitarist for The Architects doesn’t seem to want to go into great detail about the city’s scene. “The K.C. scene takes pretty good care of it’s own. That said, I almost prefer to avoid ’scene stuff’” he continued, “it can be very political in a smallish town. I came to play and sing not whip votes in a city wide alterna-popularity contest.”

Play and sing they do. I am not basing this opinion solely on what I hear on a disc or some shit ass recording on a MySpace page. I am going by what I’ve experienced first hand. A few years ago, I happened into The Jackpot Saloon, one of my preferred Lawrence, Kansas haunts, while I was in town to cover a Sonic Youth show for another publication that shall remain nameless. After two hours of art rock no wave, all I wanted was a tall glass of Maker’s Mark with Coke. The drink was doable but considering it was a Monday night at 11, the odds of seeing a good band or any band for that matter, were slim to none. But as luck would have it, myself and the thirty other people that happened to be in the bar that night were in for a special treat.

Not only did the Jackpot’s management let all of us in sans cover charge, there was a band and a great one at that. The Architects played like they were the headliners at Reading; “The size of the crowd only matters in my head,” lead singer/guitarist Brandon Phillips recently told me. “There is a certain pride and satisfaction that comes with clobbering a near-empty bar like it’s Wembley Stadium.”

[Brandon Phillips]

With their combination of classic rock hooks and the occasional punk rock kick to the throat, The Architects are easily one of the best bands Kansas City has to offer but they are far from new to the game.

Like The James Gang of yore, The Architects are a family enterprise. “We three brothers (Brandon, Zach and Adam Phillips; Keenan Nichols rounds out the four-piece) have been doing this since we were wee little tots. I’d say it makes everything a lot simpler; most of the dumb bullshit that other bands fight about was already covered years ago.”

Not only are the Phillips boys family, they’ve already served time together in another iconic Kansas City band, The Gadjits. The brothers played long and hard releasing four albums (Da Gravy on Your Grits, At Ease, Wish We Never Met and Today is My Day) before The Gadjits hung it up five years ago. “We just got fed up with being in that band. There was some perceived dumb baggage that came along with being in The Gadjits.”

Then, the final piece in the Architects creation slid into place: In 2003, The Gadjits were dropped by RCA. “When we were dropped we took a breath, renamed the band, retooled a bit and became The Architects.”

Once The Gadjits were history, local Kansas City record label Andoyne Records, also home to country acid punk legends The Meat Puppets, came calling. “Andoyne wanted to release our first record.” Phillips said. “We’ve been lucky enough to release two more with them.”

But since the release of Vice, some things have changed. “We liked being with Andoyne but we recently moved over to Skeleton Crew, a label owned by Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance. “We’ll be making a new record with Skeleton Crew in January that will likely come out in early Summer 2009.”

While some bands, both big and small, are content with latching on to whatever sound is popular or deemed hip by “cool” local publications (in K.C.’s case that “cool” publication would be The Pitch Weekly), The Architects are unapologetic about their sound and influences.

They are a great rock band with a sound that is fairly easily pinned down: Social Distortion, Johnny Cash, AC/DC and Cheap Trick are front and center depending on the track your listing to at the time. However, Brandon listed a few that I didn’t hear as readily at first. “Yeah, we are definitely into AC/DC and The Who a lot. Those two always seem to come through along with The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers. Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings are influences in the sense that they are damn good with narratives and scenery… and Lucinda Williams gets a big nod as well.”

Sighting bases for their sound such as these, would The Architects classify themselves as a punk band? “Yeah, I’d consider us a punk band only insofar as that is a huge part of where we come from and why we persist in doing this.” However, as Phillips explains, they aren’t punks in the classic public perception. “In order to meet the burden of most people’s common definition of a ‘punk band’ we would need a lot of help with the 1978 period costume.”

Though their sonic forefathers are easily distinguishable, that does not mean they are one of the many run of the mill copycats that flood the music world today. No, they are clearly their own being that is simply not afraid to let the music that shaped them show through their wall of sound.

Yes,The Architects have accomplished much over the last five years. They played on the Vans Warped Tour in 2006 and 2008. Brandon said playing the annual tour was like if you took “parts of John McCain’s book about waking up all sweaty with dysentery in a North Vietnamese prison and the parts of David Lee Roth’s book about waking up all sweaty in a sleeping bag on tour with Van Halen… well you’d have a pretty accurate description of what it’s like to do Warped Tour in a van.”

They’ve recorded three well-received albums (Keys to the Building, Revenge and the aforementioned Vice) and recently opened a show at Kansas City’s Beaumont Club for their old friends, Rancid.

“We’ve know each other for a long time now.” Brandon told me when explaining his band’s good fortune. “ Our old band, The Gadjits, were one of Tim Armstrong’s first signings when he launched ,a href=”http://www.hell-cat.com/” target=”new”>Hellcat Records back in 1997 or ‘98. So, when they came through town on this last tour we were fortunate enough to get the call.” The luck keeps on coming for the boys in The Architects; a new record deal, opening shows for punk heroes like Rancid, a great new record and summers spent seeing the country while playing for larger and larger crowds. Lucky bastards, indeed.

Whatever category you choose to put The Architects in: hard rock, punk, good old straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll, a few things are of absolute certainty; they put on a hell of a show, the band believes 1000% in what they do and (hopefully) they won’t compromise their music or change to please anyone but themselves. I hope against all hope that they’ll stay true to who they are and not forget where they come from. But I’m a bit of a pessimist from Missouri so The Architects are gonna have to Show-Me.

[photo courtesy of Impose]

They’re definitely a little bit weird. But if you’re like us, you tend to think that the weird kids often make the best music. So mark your calendars — Chicago’s resident Kontpab experts ">Mahjongg are hitting the road at the end of the month.

They’re sticking mostly to the east side of the country, kicking it off and wrapping it up in the band’s home state of Illinois, which seems to be the home base of their, um, revolution. Something about grids and spheres and sects — all we know for sure is that we’re somehow a little better off for listening to their music. We think.

In addition to the tour announcement, they’ve also released the video for “Free Grooverider,” the next single from 2008’s Kontpab, which you can check out below. Be prepared for sweet use of the vocoder. The 7″ single is also up for grabs through K Records.

Mahjongg U.S. Tour Dates
01.29.09 - Dekalb, Ill. (The House Cafe)
01.30.09 - Grinnell, Iowa (Gardner Lounge, Grinnell College)
01.31.09 - St. Louis, Mo. (Billiken Club)
02.12.09 - Lexington, Ky. (Al’s Bar)
02.13.09 - Knoxville, Tenn. (Pilot Light)
02.17.09 - Charlottesville, Va. (Outback Lodge)
02.18.09 - Baltimore, Md. (Floristree)
02.19.09 - State College, Penn. (Chronic Town)
02.20.09 - Bloomington, Ind. (The Cinemat)
02.21.09 - Chicago, Ill. (Hideout)

Lo-fi, freak folk phenom Bon Iver’s tour-only vinyl EP Blood Bank will be made available to the rest of the world in a little less than two weeks via the fine people at Jagjaguwar. But for the next few days, Mr. Vernon is making it available for free.

The EP, set for official release on January 20 after being available as a tour-only vinyl release, is currently available to hear on their MySpace page. In a MySpace message the band said the EP, featuring the songs “Blood Bank”, “Beach Baby”, “Babys” and “Woods”, would be available online for “a few days” only.

Some of our readers probably can’t remember a time when MTV actually played music videos. And soon enough, some of us won’t be able to remember a time when we could find them on YouTube, either. As more and more videos get pulled from the site, we were less than shocked to learn that the major labels are hard at work figuring out a way to make a little extra cash off internet views.

It seems the big four (Universal, EMI, Warner and Sony BMG) have now teamed up to take your money — because they obviously don’t have enough weight to throw around all by their lonely selves — and they’re in the process of working out a deal to build their own music video web site that would work like Hulu, according to The Financial Times. In fact, the plan proposes an actual partnership with Hulu, the creation of a premium service on YouTube or some sort of standalone site between some or all of the four label groups.

Last year, some labels began requiring YouTube to pay out a few tenths of a penny for each view of a video on the site, which Universal Music apparently makes “tens of millions of dollars” from. But Warner is singing a different tune, saying they are not making the kind of money they deserve. They demanded that YouTube take down Warner artists’ videos, but they couldn’t stop there. They wanted people to spit on them in the street, so they also made YouTube take down amateur videos that used songs Warner owned the rights to. This list includes “Happy Birthday To You.” Seriously.

The Financial Times said two unnamed music companies were actually in discussions with Hulu, but that no announcement was expected any time soon. Of course, they also assured us that any deal for a new music site wouldn’t replace the existing YouTube deal, and that they were interested in supplying videos for a new premium YouTube service. You mean they’d be willing to take advertising money from two sites at once? Well color us surprised. And sure, maybe that’s not exactly your money they’re taking. Technically, it’s advertiser money, that advertisers make from companies, who make products that you buy. But who’s counting? One question does remain — where do the musicians fall in this pyramid scheme?

We thought it would only be appropriate to share our thoughts in video fashion.

Just two days after postponing dates in Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., Femi Kuti has cancelled his entire North American tour due to an unspecified illness.

The cancellation was made official in a press release issued this afternoon, which advised ticket holders to seek refunds from the box office or venue through which the ticket was purchased. The release also promised that a comprehensive U.S. and Canadian summer tour would be announced soon, causing us to wonder even more at what could be ailing the musician.

Kuti’s most recent album, Day By Day, released in October, is his first full-length studio album in seven years. Details for future tour plans will be announced through his MySpace.

Because unlike everyone else, we’re still not certain if Merriweather Post Pavilion is the best Animal Collective album, we’ve decided to bring back their beautiful video for the single “Peacebone” from Strawberry Jam. After all, it is an unspoken music-website rule to make at least one Animal Collective post a day.

Animal Collective - “Peacebone”

[Talk Normal]

Two of my favorite noise making duos — one from Brooklyn, one from Chicago — played last night at Glasslands. While it was an understated affair, and one that went too late for me to stick around for headliners Tall Firs, it was one filled with jarring percussion and lushly layered dissidence.

Talk Normal is definitely a band to keep your eye on. I mean, if Marnie Stern likes them, then it’s good enough for me. In all seriousness though, I’ve witnessed an astute musical maturation process happening with the girls from Talk Normal. What started as misconstrued noise has morphed into distinct patterns backed by a wall of sound. It reminds me a bit of early Magik Markers, which is always good company to keep.

[White/Light]

Conversely, White/Light avoids the confinements of patterns (and drums for that matter), and instead perform a wash of beautifully orchestrated noise. Where as some bands could take this to an uncomfortable level — what with all the feedback, pedals and various noise makers on stage — White/Light draws you in. Like a soundtrack to a lazy car chase, they exude an urgency but calm your nerves with comforting tones, even in atonality.

One of our favorite beta sites these days is Buffetlibre Rewind, which hosts — legally mind you — a bunch of our favorite contemporary artists covering the “classics.” We’ve picked out three we liked (along with videos of the originals), but there are plenty more where those came from.

Au Revoir Simone - “Here Is The News” (ELO Cover)

Electric Light Orchestra - “Here Is The News”
Click here to view the embedded video.

One of our favorite beta sites these days is Buffetlibre Rewind, which hosts — legally mind you — a bunch of our favorite contemporary artists covering the “classics.” We’ve picked out three we liked (along with videos of the originals), but there are plenty more where those came from.

Starfucker - “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” (Cindy Lauper Cover)

Cindy Lauper - “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”
Click here to view the embedded video.

One of our favorite beta sites these days is Buffetlibre Rewind, which hosts — legally mind you — a bunch of our favorite contemporary artists covering the “classics.” We’ve picked out three we liked (along with videos of the originals), but there are plenty more where those came from.

Little Boots - “Love Kills” (Buffetlibre vs Sidechains remix) (Freddie Mercury cover)

Freddie Mercury - “Love Kills”

Say what you will about the failures of 2008, but from it we’re learning: If people won’t even buy a boring Guns N’ Roses or R.E.M. record, then they’re not likely to turn an ear up to a lackluster album they haven’t yet heard. We’ve become searchers for what’s interesting, and we lack the patience to uncover potential layers in the seemingly bland.

Enter a band like Vulture Whale. The first half of their self-titled album reads like a compelling case for such an industry demise. It sounds slightly noisy, not overly melodic, and it’s evenly tempoed; there’s nothing abrasive about these songs. There’s also nothing particularly interesting about them. With the irreverence kicked off on tracks like “Teedy” and “Sum Yung Scientist” combined with the signature indie rock guitar jangle, it’s hard not to wonder if this is what Vampire Weekend might sound like if they didn’t rip off Paul Simon.

On the other hand, tracks like “The Waves” recall the softer side of the Pixies, and a shimmer of something compelling begins to emerge. The follow-up, “What Do”, features an exaggerated vocal accent that gives it a quirky simplicity that falls somewhere between the beloved TMBG and the underappreciated Ass Ponys. As resistant as any listener may be at encountering a number of songs that sound mostly like “what everyone is trying to do,” it’s hard not to relax into the final half of the album.

It’s even more difficult to stop picking out the interesting bits once you’ve begun. A re-listen pulls out a pouty drawl in “Sugar” (from the aforementioned dreaded “first half”), inviting the potential for a brighter overall assessment. Still, there are too many stumbling blocks for Vulture Whale to overcome: the trite, too-easy lyrics of “Head Turner”, the sudden misplaced rockabilly spirit that comes with “Guillotine”, the general predictability of “Thought Eyes.”

This band might not be something to give up on, but to wait for. A compilation of their more interesting moments might bear some truly worthwhile fruit, but on the whole, Vulture Whale has a few too many missteps (or non-steps) for the listener to continue the search.

Skybucket Records

By Jason Jackowiak

In this installment of The Singles Collection, we look back on two great 7″ that current industry darlings Wavves and, ahem, The Muslims, put out last year. The two slabs of wax we’ve got this week are as good as they get, and we urge you to get out and snatch ‘em up while they are still around. After all, we’d hate to say we told you so… but we will.

The first single we’ve got this week is from San Diego’s shit-hot The Muslims (they have since changed their name to The Soft Pack), on the upstart I Hate Rock ‘n’ Roll imprint. “Parasites” b/w “Walking with Jesus” is a cool brace of Flying Nun-style pop-rock delivered with such an impassioned-yet-relaxed verve that they damn well might have recorded the whole thing while still asleep. The A-Side rumbles along on a gnarled, muscular riff accentuated by taut drumming and a just on the right side of monotone vocal delivery that’s somewhere between (JAMC’s) Jim Reid and Little Richard. The B-Side, a cover of Spacemen 3’s “Walking with Jesus”, strips the interstellar flanging/phasing and impossible feedback squalls of the original, revealing the song’s furious, stripped-down skeleton and jangly ’60s pop undertones. That they can take a song that’s been covered extensively and make it their very own (and somewhat unrecognizable to whit) is a testament to their audacious versatility as a unit.

Our second single this week is from another California dreamer, beach-combing pop wonder Wavves. “Beach Demon” b/w “Weed Demon”, released on Tic Tac Totally was — across the board — one of the best singles released last year (it eked its way out in the last days of ‘08). Its packaging is beyond over the top, with a handmade sleeve made entirely out of grip tape and accompanied by two clear transfers that create the single’s front and rear covers, one of which features a brilliant re-conceptualization of the Natas’ classic Santa Cruz deck design. As if that weren’t enough, the songs here are absolutely fucking killer, the A-Side “Beach Demon” is a skuzzy, hook-filled ride down the PCH at 100mph. Its trashcan rhythms and dirt-encrusted guitar lines held together by barely discernable vocals and a bevy of sunburst melodies struggling to emerge from the murk. On the flip, “Weed Demon” is the perfect foil, a Quaalude-addled slice of pure Californian pop bliss, replete with four-part harmonies and a simple, delicate guitar tacet that, strangely reminds of Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Soma”, especially in its gorgeously fragile last moments.

That’s it for this week, short-but-sweet, but we are resting up, drinking lots of fluids and gearing up for a great year bringing you the finest seven-inch singles the world has to offer.

Ugh.

Taking a page from the Journey handbook, apparently Jimmy Page is itching to get back in the studio with his old band mates, even if they’re not really into it.

In an interview with 6 Music, Jimmy Page’s manager confirmed that Led Zeppelin are planning to tour and record a new album with a replacement singer for Robert Plant.

It’s not really a surprise as Plant — who in December told NME that he wasn’t interested in doing a Led Zeppelin reunion — remains the only member of the legendary band still making commercially viable music. In October, Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones hinted that the band were willing to continue with or without Plant, who affirms that he still remains on good terms with his former band mates.

Speaking to 6 Music about Led Zeppelin’s future plans, Page’s manager Peter Mensch confirmed that the band would indeed carry on if they can find the right singer.

“Jimmy Page has been playing guitar professionally since he was 16 years old. Jimmy Page likes being a musician. That’s what he does! He doesn’t want to be a race car driver or a solicitor,” Mensch said.

“So they [Page, Jones and drummer Jason Bonham] did the show [at London's O2 Arena in 2007] with Robert Plant; they had a really good time rehearsing, the three of them, before Robert showed up. And they decided that if they could find a singer that they thought would fit their bill — whatever their bill was at this stage in their career — that they’d make a record and go on tour.”

While the idea is still in its infancy, rumors of who Plant’s replacement will be have started to swirl, with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler being brought up as potential options and NME also hinted that the band was rehearsing with American singer Myles Kennedy. Though Mensch remained tight-lipped on the Subject.

“It’s gonna be a long and difficult process,” he said. “And we’re not soliciting people! So don’t call me about it!”

As reported by Reuters yesterday and again in the NY Times Bakhtawar Bhutto, the 18-year-old daughter of the assassinated former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, “has written a rap song expressing her anguish” over the murder of her mother just over a year ago. The song, entitled “I Would Take the Pain Away,” and a five-minute video of clips and photographs of Benazir Bhutto has been broadcast on the state-run Pakistani television (posted below).

From the Times: Information Minister Sherry Rehman, for years an aide to Bhutto, said Bakhtawar, a student at Britain’s Edinburgh University, wrote the lyrics and music. “It’s a tribute of a grieving daughter to her iconic and loving mother,” Rehman told Reuters on Monday.

The lyrics, delivered by Ms. Bhutto in English with the words scrolling across the video, describe the song as dedicated to “my mother, shot in the back of your ear / legendary leader / murdered / legendary mother / She got crazy courage / Dear Mom / crazy intelligence / if you can hear me, I’ve got a few things / no one can replace you / I never got the chance to say, but if I could have / Yo, yo….”

It’s actually not half bad. Given the circumstances, we’ll even cut her some slack for the lazy way she delivers the word “comprehend.”

2009 has started with bang, as critics have already proclaimed Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion the best record of the year. Mind you the year is 5 days old and the record has only been released on vinyl (as of today), but now you can listen to the heavily-hyped, closely-watched-for-leaks album in its entirety. And legally.

It’s only been officially out for a few hours, but already The Chicago Tribune, Paste Magazine, Spin and Pitchfork are elbowing each other out of the way to bow down in front of it. Why don’t you be the judge?

With a current listener rating of a rather paltry 5 out of a possible 10, NME is hosting the entire album on its website. The only catch is you need Windows Media Player installed (c’mon NME — don’t you run on Mac’s?), so we sent this to our intern who works on a PC to indeed verify they are the entire songs and the entire album. To listen, just click here.