Hype Hype Hooray.

Editor's Note: Next week, Tug, Mister Toaster's first mix of 2006 will be released. Stay tuned for a track list. (Psst. That also means the rest of 2005 and some early 2006 MP3s are coming down).

>> Featured Artist: Death Cab for Cutie

Having now seen this band twice (and winding up disappointed a bit both times), The Toaster has been conned into seeing them again by the band's paired matching with Franz Ferdinand next week.

Don't get us wrong. It's not the O.C. popularity that's got us down. It's just that Ben Gibbard and Co. don't really reproduce their sound well live. Too many songs drag on past the point of losing the unobsessed fan's interest (we shall hereafter call this the "Sin of the Dead"). The high moments are high, to be sure, but the low moments are just really (s)low.

On the bill with Ben Kweller in 2003, opener Ben took the cake and crowd love (a third of the crowd didn't stick around for the whole Death Cab set); closing a double-billing with Stars last fall, the band did nothing to move our opinions, except proving to be significantly less weird than their opening counterpart.

What's worse, Plans is nothing short of solid. The Toaster can't even hate Death Cab like so many have after the band OC'd. Half the songs are well better than par for the indie course, and most of the other half aren't entirely awful. Sure, it's not Transatlanticism, but - then again - little is, and little they produce in the future will compare.

So here's hoping for a charm this third time around. Or, at least, let's hope Franz Ferdinand gives Mister Toaster his money's worth. In the meantime, here's a fun cover from a Ben Gibbard solo show. Good god if it doesn't bring a little bit of gloss out of the original, showing the gritty truth underneath. (We all wish the fans wouldn't be laughing and cat-calling; they lead to the deterioration-implosion that finishes the song and leads to the - sorry - cut-off ending).


>> Album Lookout: "In Colour"

The Concretes - Due Out: (Today) April 4, 2006 Astralwerks

As Yuppie Punk points out, "Just because they had a song in a Target commercial doesn't mean they suck." Ah, the ol' song-in-a-commercial-or-too-hyped-popular-television-program syndrome.

The album has been ripped by Pitchfork (4.7 out of 10) and deemed near-golden by Allmusic (4/5 stars). To be honest, it's more Mister Toaster's sister who's always been big on this Swedish combo. But the Toaster Talks is digging all the band's stuff off In Colour thus far. Perhaps it's a bit more polished, but where we come from, "Polish goes on everything but the baby's pacifier."

Be a judge for yourself...Here's the latest single, "Chosen One." (although not the Toaster's favorite track, "On the Radio")


>> Reverting to: 1974

Anyone who knows Mister Toaster knows he can't get himself enough of the Jackson Browne. "Late for the Sky," off the album of the same name, shows the reason. It's a superb song that proves to be quite sad, considering his first wife committed suicide less than two years later. Great line: "Now for me some words come easy, but I know that they don't mean that much."