It didn't feel like a choice. I bought the CD after the movie was over, and listened to it on the way home. It was impossible not to. The guy had almost begged us to buy it—said he needed the money to help pay his sister back, because she financed the album. It was their thirteenth record. The guys from Anvil had been making music and recording songs without success since almost before I was born.

So, Grizzly Bear has a new album, Veckatimest, and people are freaking out about it almost as much as they'd freak out about, like, an actual grizzly bear. We just heard it clocked in at #8 on the Billboard chart for its first week of sales, 40% of which came from the Internet. Paste's own Matt Fink called it "a masterpiece" in his review last week. By all means, it's shaping up to be one of the biggest albums of the year—although when it comes time for the Paste staff to duke it out for our Best of 2009 list, we might have a real fight on our hands. The general consensus seems to be that it's a lovely piece of work, though Web Warrior Austin has made no secret of his disinterest in the band. Rawr.

And now, a look at some notable trailers lighting up blogs and message boards:

And now, a look at some notable trailers lighting up blogs and message boards:

The day that The Decemberists gathered at Portland's Newspace Studios to get all dolled up and shot for Paste's May cover by Chris Hornbecker and his crew, no one could believe the weather. After months of sporadic blizzarding and general wintertime malaise in the Rose City, the sun was shining, the mercury was inching up towards 55 and shirt-sleeves were getting gleefully rolled up all over the place. "It was snowing this time last week!" one dumbfounded PA exclaimed, standing out in the parkinglot, squinting up at the cloudless sky.
 

And now, a look at some notable trailers lighting up blogs and message boards:

And now, a look at some notable trailers lighting up the blogs and message boards:

Last night at the Paramount, a historic downtown Austin theater dating to 1915, mad genius Diplo screened his new documentary Favela On Blast, a valentine to the Brazilian baile funk scene.  

I’ve just returned from our day-party with Brooklyn Vegan, which threw down with a headlining set from one of my favorite new bands, Passion Pit. It’d be easy to say that the Cambridge, Mass. quintet makes dance music for people who hate dance music, but these guys also make dance music for people who like dance music, so here’s the new paradigm: They make dance music for people who like music.