Titus Andronicus to rock the record store.

I missed Record Store Day last Saturday — I had to travel down to a friend’s Patoka Lake cabin to help him celebrate his final week of bachelorhood. I wouldn’t trade the beer-sippin’, gun-shootin’, meat-eatin’ weekend for anything, but I regret missing out on the special releases, in-store performances and other trappings of this nascent (and most excellent) holiday.

If you missed Record Store Day (or even if you didn’t) make up for it by checking out Titus Andronicus’ in-store performance at my favorite Indianapolis record store, Luna Music, this coming Friday (April 24).

Titus Andronicus is in town for a Radio Radio gig with the southern rock outfit Lucero (a really excellent double bill, and quite the sleeper since no one is talking much about it), and in what has become a regular trend, Luna snagged them for a show-before-the-show.

It’s no stretch to say Luna’s in-store gigs are among the best music events that happen locally during any given year — especially if you’re a fan of Pitchfork-endorsed rock. Sometimes, the gigs are well-attended (Bill Callahan’s recent Easter evening performance packed the place) and other times you wonder why more people didn’t get the memo (when certifiably legendary British popster Robyn Hitchcock stopped by a couple of years ago, I was shocked when only about 25 people showed up). Other recent national touring artists who have dropped in to play at Luna include Nada Surf, Camper Van Beethoven, Asobi Seksu, John Vanderslice…the list goes on.

Here’s the kicker: These performances are free. You come, you listen to great music in an incredibly intimate setting in one of the city’s best neighborhoods, and then you leave, with exactly as much money you arrived with.

Titus Andronicus should be an exceptionally interesting spectacle. The young New Jersey quintet generally plays explosive, distorted, garage rock anthems that sound like the Replacements-meet-Springsteen-meet-Bright Eyes. The CD racks in Luna are sure to be shaking. See what I mean:

Primitive radio gods.

John Darnielle and John Vanderslice. Photo by Swatson Images.

Tonight I’ll go to Bloomington, Ind., to see the final date of John Vanderslice and John Darnielle’s (of the Mountain Goats) “Gone Primitive” tour, where the pair will perform individual acoustic sets at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

According to my Last.fm stats, Vanderslice and the Mountain Goats are among the five artists I listen to most on my computer, so this billing is a match made in heaven. I’ve long counted Darnielle among my favorite songwriters, but in the past couple of years I’ve grown increasingly fond of Mr. Vanderslice and his crystalline, heartrending recordings.

Vanderslice will release his first full-length album in two years, Romanian Names, on Bloomington’s Dead Oceans label on May 19. The label has posted a preview MP3, “Fetal Horses,” which you can download here.

Among those familiar with his work, Vanderslice is known for his studio chops — a not altogether surprising fact when you learn Vanderslice owns a highly regarded recording facility, Tiny Telephone, in San Francisco. Vanderslice has recorded albums for a number of household-name indie artists, including the Moutain Goats, Spoon, Death Cab For Cutie and others. Along the way he pioneered a signature style using all-analog equipment that either he or somebody else coined “sloppy high-fi.” Vanderslice’s own recordings have grown increasingly less sloppy over the years, culminating with his 2007 release “Emerald City,” which sounds downright pristine, almost as if it was dipped in chrome.

According to Dead Oceans, Romanian Names marks a new direction for Vanderslice, who wrote all of the songs on piano or guitar in a makeshift basement studio prior to even setting foot in Tiny Telepone. The result, Dead Oceans says, is a Vanderslice album that’s unusually light on knob-twiddling-as-songwriting and features a renewed “emphasis on melody and structure.”

To these ears, “Fetal Horses” doesn’t sound appreciably different from prior Vanderslice recordings — and that’s cool with me. I’ll buy it regardless, as Vanderslice is one of only three or four artists whose new releases inspire me to head to the record store on release day. In the meantime, I’ll continue promoting him to anyone who will listen (or read). He’s an underappreciated talent whose songs — narratively compelling, beautifully sung and, more often than not, uncommonly moving — burrow into your brain like poetry.

Consumme 4.2.09

Americomedy. Slate offers up an elegant, suprisingly affecting 25-frame picture gallery of American comics, including portraits of everyone from Lucile Ball and Lenny Bruce to Woody Allen and John Stewart.

Duke boys. In the 1980s, British popsmiths XTC pretended to be psyschedelic dandies with names like Sir Johns Johns and Red Curtain, and released two amazing recordings under the name Dukes of Stratosphear. Pitchfork gives the new reissues their due.

Message placement? The New York Times writes about how the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation is using its money to influence storylines in popular shows in an effort to push healthy choices and education.

Everything’s dead but the Internet. The Ad Contrarian — funny, scathing and smart, like always.

Consumme 3.30.09

Not like Mike yet. This ESPN The Magazine article takes an in-depth look at rising Indiana Pacer star Danny Granger, arguing that although he has shown flashes of greatness, he hasn’t reached superstar status.

Insult to injury. As if the housing crisis wasn’t bad enough, now banks are beginning to refuse to take possession of foreclosed homes, leaving the costs of upkeep and maintenance up to the foreclosed owners.

Dead meat eaters. Would you participate in this study? It found that maggots help certain wounds heal faster, thanks to their appetite for dead tissue.

Consumme 3.27.09

‘Prince’ poses. Will Oldham — who just released a bombastic new country album, and who will visit Indianapolis soon — reveals himself to be just as idiosyncratic, odd and evasive as you’d imagine in this rare long-form profile published in the New Yorker a couple of months ago.

Sick state. Indy Star columnist Matt Tully writes a depressing, makes-you-wanna-move-elsewhere column about Indiana’s low rankings when it comes to the environment, health (of both the physical and emotional varieties) and work quality — and how little our state government is doing to correct the problems.

Take that Mac. Microsoft takes an overt slap at Mac users in this new commercial, which calls out both the exorbitant prices of Macs and the allegedly snobby culture that surrounds the brand.

Don’t give me what I want. “Made To Stick” authors Chip and Dan Heath explain why soon, customers may be willing to pay companies to keep them from buying stuff.

I well up watching this.

John Vanderslice sings “The Parade” while walking around the streets of Seattle. Can’t wait to see him with The Mountain Goats in Bloomington in a couple weeks.

Consumme 3.16.09

Beer me. Lots of photographs of great vintage beer cans here. Props to Design Observer for the Tweet link.

Change-up. When Pitchfork launched its redesigned web site last week, it also introduced a newer, button-down version of its logo. Brand New breaks it down.

Don’t dream, it’s over. Citing a new MetLife study, Kimberly Palmer at U.S. News & World Report explains how the recession/depression has all but killed the American Dream.

Thick-cut and marbled. This video explains the Internet bacon meme in 60 seconds.

The insufficiency of irony.

“Look, man, we’d probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is?” -David Foster Wallace.

Consumme 3.10.09

Not Bard-looking. According to Shakespeare scholars, this newly unveiled painting is the only likeness of the bard created during his lifetime. From NY Times: “[It] shows a head-turner of a man…this Shakespeare has a fresh-faced complexion, a closely trimmed auburn beard, a long straight nose and a full, almost bouffant hairstyle.” Many have their doubts about its authenticity.

Bayh the way… Indiana congressman Evan Bayh, who recently penned a WSJ editorial urging Obama to veto the spending bill, is the least liberal of all Democratic senators according to a new study by the National Journal.

Poor Pacers. Literally. As the Indianapolis CIB announcee a $400,000 cut in grants to arts and tourism yestersday, CIB board VP also announced that the Indiana Pacers are losing about $30 million this season, and have lost money every year except two that the Simons have owned the team (It begs the question: What’s the big deal, then?). Early went to say that the Pacers would probably leave or shut down if the CIB didn’t assume those costs.

Bad paintings of Barack Obama. It is what it is.

Consumme 3.9.09

Pitchfork 2009 line-up. Just announced this morning: Yo La Tengo, Built To Spill, The Walkmen, The National and Grizzly Bear are among those who will play the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago this year. Also noteworthy: Friday night will no longer feature bands playing classic albums. Instead, those acts (Yo La Tengo, Built To Spill, Tortoise The Jesus Lizard) will play sets voted on by ticket-buyers.

Changing Facebook. New features are coming to the popular social media site this week, including a newsfeed that’s updated in real time (look out Twitter) and new company profiles that will let brands act more like individual people.

iPhone envy. This super-useful app that lets you track your mileage, speed, pace and elevation while you run — and uses GPS techonology to show you a map of the route you took — is enough to make Consumat just give in and get an iPhone already.

The Media Misery Index. These stats should convince even the most optimistic newsprint cheerleader to admit that a change is on the horizon, and that it’s coming soooner rather than later.