(a note: I’m not posting any mp3s here because the album isn’t out yet – you can and should pre-order it here if you like physical things like CDs and 7″s and vinyl, and here if you don’t care about that and/or want two extra songs.)

When I was 15, I listened to Poison and Warrant and Guns n’ Roses and Def Leppard and Bon Jovi and Prince. Now I’m 35 and I listen to LCD Soundsystem and Los Campesinos and the Mountain Goats and Yo La Tengo and Neutral Milk Hotel and Prince. Whether that’s an improvement, I suppose, depends on your personal tastes, but either way, I’ve spent the intervening 20 years searching for music, expanding my horizons (or at least discovering their boundaries), and generally learning more and more about what I like and why. Read More…