First up, the UK's Patrick Wolf with the excellent title track from his otherwise decent, most recent album The Magic Position (iTunes, Amazon). Next was two tracks from the new album from Sweden's Shout Out Louds, namely the intensely-Cure-like "Normandie" and the also great "South America" both from Our Ill Wills (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon MP3). Then was London-by-way-of-Canada's Caribou (formerly known as Manitoba) with two excelent songs "Melody Day" and "Sandy" both from the fantastic new album Andorra (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon MP3). Another TSiMH favorite The Go! Team's new album Proof of Youth (iTunes, Amazon) is out, and while it's perhaps not AS good as their debut, it's pretty great. We heard "Doing it Right" and "Patricia's Moving Picture". Next was a new song from NYC's Nellie McKay's new album Obligatory Villagers (iTunes, Amazon MP3) called "Identity Theft" which is better than most of the songs on the new album, but still not her best work. And finally Brooklyn's own Beirut's new album The Flying Club Cup (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon) is out, and from it we heard "In the Mausoleum".This episode featured a clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart informing Bush he needn't feel obligated to provide charity soundbytes for their show. Also were clips from Real Time with Bill Maher which you can watch here (podcast).

(SPECIAL BONUS GUEST-HOSTED AUSTRALIA EPISDOE WITH DOUG!) First up, Kevin Mitchell AKA Bob Evans did "Darlin Won't You Come" from the album Suburban Songbook (iTunes, Amazon). Next Gerling with "Ghost Patrol" from Children of Telepathic Experience (Amazon). Then Ben Lee did "Nothing Much Happens" from Breathing Tornados (Amazon). Then Josh Pyke did "Middle of the Hill" from Memories & Dust (Amazon). Next was Perth's Eskimo Joe with "London Bombs" from Black Fingernails, Red Wine (iTunes, Amazon). Next the disco sounds of Sneaky Sound System with "Pictures" from their self-titled record (iTunes, Amazon) from last year. Then The Waifs did a song I'd never heard call "London Still" from 2003's Up All Night (iTunes, Amazon). Then Paul Kelly did "Every Fucking City" from his Roll on Summer EP (Amazon). Next was Steven Peace doing an untitled song which is unreleased. Then Augie March did "Bottle Baby" from Moo, You Bloody Choir (iTunes, Amazon). Then Pete Murray did "Opportunity" from See the Sun (Amazon). And finally ex-Lemonhead (and little-known-favorite-of-Daniel) Evan Dando did a cover a Ben Lee's "Hard Drive" from Baby I'm Bored (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon). NOTE: I should explain... Doug is a longtime listener of the show who hails from Australia (tho he's currently in the UK). We have corresponded over the years, and following last week's special Australia and New Zealand episode, he went all out and created a special episode just for me. It was so good it warrented being heard far-and-wide, so I'm posting it as a bonus, guest-hosted show. Now enjoy!

(SPECIAL EXTRA-LONG, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND EPISODE!) First up, Melbourne's Architecture in Helsinki have a new album out called Places Like This (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon) and the best song on that album is "Heart it Races" which they released as a single, and on that single (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon) are several covers of the song, including the one we heard by Philidelphia's Dr Dog. Next two songs from New Zealand's comedic Flight of the Conchords' awesome HBO series by the same name, we heard "If That's What You're Into" and "Beautiful Girl" (iTunes). Then Western Australia's indie folk band The Waifs did "The Waitress" from their album Sink or Swim (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon). Next Sydney's 90's era Spdfgh did "Swingsong" from their 1995 Grassroots EP (Amazon). Next Melbourne's young indie pop guru Julian Nation did "Press Gang Kids" from his debut We Are All Writers (order online). Next TSiMH favorites Aukland's The Brunettes did "If You Were Alien" from their recent Structure & Cosmetics (iTunes, Amazon). Then Brisbane's pop/punk The Grates did "Science is Golden" from their debut album Gravity Won't Get You High (iTunes, Amazon). Next Australian country-folk hero Slim Dusty did "Click Go the Shears" which can be found on his album Australian Traditional Collection (Amazon). Then Melbourne's Sally Seltman (a sometimes guitarist for Spdfg) aka New Buffalo did "Emotional Champ" from her brand new record Somewhere, Anywhere (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon). Next Sydney's jazz parody master Frank Bennett did a cover of Depeche Mode's "Everything Counts" from his 1998 album Cash Landing (Amazon). Hearing Frank Bennett made me have to play the prolific American follow up, Richard Cheese with a cover of Coldplay's "Yellow" and The Clash's "Rock the Casbah" both from his 2004 I'd Like a Virgin (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon). And finally 50's/60's era pop musician Jimmie Rodgers did a cover of the traditional Australian tune "Waltzing Matilda" which you can get on The Best of Jimmie Rodgers (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon). This episode features clips from comedians Todd Barry (iTunes) and Bill Hicks (iTunes) discussing Australia, as well as clips from various episodes of HBO's The Flight of the Conchords.

First up Los Angeles' Rilo Kiley have a new album called Under the Blacklight (iTunes, Amazon) from which we heard "Silver Lining" which had to grow on me, but ended up being my favorite song on the record. Next Amsterdam's Alamo Race Track did a song (that reminds me of Ideal Free Distribution) called "Kiss Me Bar" followed by the title-track from their album Black Cat John Brown (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon). Then Baltimore's "absurdist electronic music composer/performer" Dan Deacon did "The Crystal Cat" from his most recent release Spiderman of the Rings (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon). Next "the thinking person's Lilly Allen" (as listener Sam described her to me) aka Britain's Kate Nash did "We Get On" from her debut album Made of Bricks (Amazon). And finally Canada's The New Pornographers have a new record from which we heard the title-track Challengers (iTunes, Amazon). This episode features clips from Real Time with Bill Maher talking about eating meat and it's effect on the environment (podcast).

First up, Danish disco-revivalists Junior Senior have just released a new (well, in the United States anyway) album which is very listenable called Hey Hey My My Yo Yo (iTunes, Amazon), from which we heard "Take My Time" and a little bit of "Dance, Chance, Romance" just to illustrate how much I think it sounds like "Feelgood By Numbers" by The Go! Team. A second dance-party worthy track followed by France's The Faint-esque electronica act Justice who did "Phantom" from their recent debut album Cross (iTunes, Amazon, SoundFix). Next we heard two songs from the new album ...and the Family Telephone (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon) from Maryland's Page France. First "Hat and Rabbit" then "Here's a Telephone" both of which have lyrics about 'blue eyes' and 'rabbits' as do many other songs on the record. Then two songs from the debut album Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink (iTunes, eMusic) from Los Angeles one-of-a-kind band Bodies of Water, first "Our Friends Appear Like the Dawn" then "I Heard it Sound". And finally, Portland's generous indie pop act The Leaning Towers did their fantastic "Rich Enough to Ignore It" from their The Eleventh Hole EP (download for free here).This episode featured a clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (watch it) which featured clips from this interview with Dick Cheney circa 1994. It also featured Rob from The ANC Podcast (subscribe).

(SPECIAL ALL-TALKING THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, KELLI, AND DANIEL EPISODE!) Like the "30 Hours in Prospect Park" episode from December 2005, on this episode I tell a story. It's about the band They Might Be Giants and how they have intertwined with my life. The music heard in the show is, as follows, in this order whether in the background of my talking or more prominently featured, unless otherwise noted the songs are all by TMBG: "No Plan B" from the bonus 2nd disc from The Else (Amazon) titled Cast Your Pod to the Wind; "Put Your Hand on the Computer" also from Cast Your Pod to the Wind; "The Theme from Flood" from, well, Flood (iTunes, Amazon); "Empty Bottle Blues" from They Got Lost (eMusic, iTunes, theymightbegiants.com, Amazon); "Dig My Grave", "I Palindrome I", and "Turn Around" all from Apollo 18 (iTunes, Amazon); "King of Wingo" recorded from their Dial-A-Song service (tmbw.net); "Lincoln, Washington & That Jefferson Guy" from McSweeneys #6 (Amazon, tmbw.net); "Dig My Grave" from They Might Be Giants Live in NYC!! - 10/14/94 (tmbw.net); "Mr. Me" from their Other Thing (tmbw.net); "Jessica" from Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) EP (iTunes, Amazon); "Brain Problem Situation" from Cast Your Pod to the Wind (Amazon); "The Famous Polka" from Miscellaneous T (iTunes, theymightbegiants.com, Amazon); "Drinkin'" from Long Tall Weekend (eMusic); "New York City" from Factory Showroom (iTunes, Amazon); "She's An Angel" by Plymouth State University Vocal Order from this free download; "She's An Angel" from They Might Be Giants (iTunes, theymightbegiants.com, Amazon); "Space Suit" and "The Day That Love Came to Play" both from Apollo 18 (iTunes, Amazon); "Louisiana" by John Linnell from the die-cut Montana single (tmbw.net); "The Sun" from Live at Trees in Dallas, TX - 7/18/04 (theymightbegiants.com); "The Other Side of the World" from The Spine Surfs Alone EP (theymightbegiants.com); "We've Got a World That Swings" from S-E-X-X-Y single (Amazon); "Love is Eternity" from Venue Songs (iTunes, theymightbegiants.com); "Siftin'" from the I Palindrome I single (Amazon); "Don't Let's Start" from They Might Be Giants (iTunes, theymightbegiants.com, Amazon); "Be Kind and Gentle" from McSweeneys #6 (Amazon, tmbw.net); "The Rock Show" by Blink 182 as covered by Honeywagon from Grass Stains (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon).The clips of Ira Glass were from Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) (Amazon, Netflix), and This American Life: Telephone episode which is also where Flansburgh's clip was from. Linnell's clip was from an episode of NPR's Talk of the Nation. And the 1990 songs I sampled briefly were "Step by Step" by The New Kids on the Block, "I Don't Have the Heart" by James Ingram, "Opposite Attracts" by Paula Abdul, "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette, "Janies Got a Gun" by Aerosmith, and "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer, in case you were wondering, which I can't imagine that you were.

First up, Dallas' The Polyphonic Spree did "Mental Cabaret" from their new album The Fragile Army (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon) which I like a lot less than I wanted to. Next two songs by NYC's indie pop band The Ballet. We heard "I Hate the War" and "In My Head" both from their debut album Mattachine! (iTunes, Website), which can both be downloaded from their site as it turns out. Then two short songs from Sweden's Quit Your Dayjob, first the title track from their album Sweden We Got a Problem (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon), then "Vlado Video". Next two songs from the UK's other Saint Ettiene, that would be Black Box Recorder, doing "Start as You Mean to Go On" and a cover of the old "Seasons in the Sun", both from their b-sides collection The Worst of... (eMusic, Amazon). Then we heard Cat Stevens' "Tea for the Tillerman" from his album by the same name (iTunes, Amazon) as well as from the ending of each episode of the BBC series Extras (Amazon, Netflix S1, Netflix S2) starring Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Ashley Jensen, from which we heard the version of the song performed by Coldplay for the show. And finally Los Angeles' (by way of Scotland) Alexi Murdoch did his great "Song for You" from his debut album of Nick-Drake-esque songs called Time Without Consequence (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon). This weeks show features clips from Extras S2 which just came out on DVD (Amazon, Netflix), as well a clip from Air America Radio's The Rachel Maddow Show about the FDA.