Warning: total supergoodness overload...

March 15.. doing anything? Cancel it. Put this in your diary with a great big curly border all the way round it: Rilo Kiley headline at The Borderline. Does it get any better? Well, actually...

..and reallyrather is not making this up, how about a Jenny Lewis solo record with Matt Ward - as in Matt Ward! - producing? It's happening, probably right now this moment, at Portland's Jackpot! Studios. Larry Crane the owner said so last week: "Right now I'm working on a project with Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley and Matt Ward's producing it, and it's just a pleasure, it's totally awesome. Jenny is a great singer and has great songs and we've had some cool musicians come in and play on it." Bereft, basically...

..a condition also brought on lately listening to Matt Pond singing lines like this:

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place

Tell me about it, Matt, tell me about it. Not his words tho', Jeff Mangum's; Neutral Milk Hotel's In the aeroplane over the sea is one of several covers on matt pond PA's deliriously attractive 20-minute 7-track mini-album Winter songs. Following up last year's near-flawless Emblems, the band are clearly on a roll and here they set about nailing their wintery inclinations. Aah, snowiness and cosy confinement - in nothingy London's so-called winter this blog has had to improvise with the only props to hand: Craig Thompson's illustrated novel Blankets and a little snowscene shaker thing.
In the aeroplane.. is wrapped in a glorious swirl of cello and spangly arpeggio guitar. Lindsay Buckingham proves another v. compatible source, his Holiday road here decked out with jingling bells. A couple of short, mood-enhancing instrumentals bookend the blockier 4/4 strum of Neil Young's Winterlong, it's heavier tread making deeper snowprints, helped by lines like 'You seem to be where I belong'. But even in this sort of company Snow day, the only new original in the set still stands out with it's crisp melody and motive, pattering drums. Get Winter songs now, before the leaves start to appear...

And if you like mpPA you'll be predisposed to Sky signal, the debut album from Audible. This band's formed around ex-mpPA'ers Mike Kennedy and Jim Kehow; listen to something like Sunday bell and the DNA is clearly traceable...
Audible / sample tracks

And here's a stack more new sounds worth hearing:

Absentee - Rainy days swimming [site/sound]
Seen live earlier this year peddling a hybrid Willard Grant Conspiracy-meets-The Tyde sound, this is a mildly addictive sliver of narco-twang, the singer's baritone offset by delicious girlie bv's...

Hotel Lights - I am a train [site][sound]
Which will jolt you comfortably back to life in a Gingersol/Pete Yorn kind of way...

Kate Sikora - 10 hours [site/sound]
Check out this scuzzy, chunky, low-slung little mover.. more tidy goodness mined from MySpace.com...

Norfolk & Western - From the interests of few [site]
Sort of where we came in with Absentee.. woozy, woody folk-pop from the upcoming new record...

..and Bosque Brown - Still affraid [site/sound]
Oooooo! A quick web search shows that reallyrather is still the only one in the queue for this Damien Jurado-produced debut from Texan Mara Lee Miller, due April 5. Listen to Still affraid and get in line...

And if you like the sound of that you'll definitely want that Shelley Short record, Oh, say little dogies, why, a big scorer round here in '04 [buy]. Here's a lovely pic of Shelley doin' it for the people somewhere last month. Twinkle, twinkle etc...

Featuring a cute dog, a cute kid and - it gets worse - Dave Matthews.. yes, the new Wayne Wang film Because of Winn-Dixie (which opens next week in the US) has all the makings of an utter, utter, utter DOG! Literally. So why bother mentioning it? Well, Opal's blues, the lead-off song on the soundtrack is the first new material in a couple of years from The Be Good Tanyas...

In bed, do you lay under an afghan
Humming and wait to find if the day ends
Without a massive array of self-deprecations
Oh no, wait.. it's me who does that
Wistful, yearning and cello-powered, Carolyn Berk aka Lovers has a new-ish website - look & listen...

Viva Voce's Lovers lead the way was a nearly album a couple of years ago. The brightest part of everyone, that was great (still is, I checked). If all the songs had been cut down to three minutes it could've been a contender. But they mostly outstayed the amount of welcome this blog extends to this type of eclectic synth-sizzled indie pop. But what's this? Their latest ep Alive With Pleasure has been picked up by yet another UK indie label reallyrather has never heard of (Full Time Hobby) and Kevin and Anita are a-comin' over. The Water Rats will do nicely (shame about Tegan&Sara, tho'):
Mar 1 London Water Rats (w/Tegan & Sara)
Mar 3 Rough Trade Records, Covent Garden (Instore)
Mar 5 London Hope & Anchor, Islington
Viva Voce and their no-nonsense tambourine-wielding

So you've read this now read these: new mags galore! Out now, Plan B magazine with them Smoosh kiddies on the cover... Out next week, an all coloured-in Comes With A Smile.. and a new Chickfactor with a great pic of 'Girl of the Year' Joanna Newsom and other tasty, tasty features...
Oh, and there's something else reallyrather was mildly bursting to tell you about.. next time, next time...