The Beatsteaks in "if you move, I shall be quite injured."

Got a sure to be hilarious interview with one of America's best up-and-coming punk bands, No Brass, coming soon. That should be up soon, if I can stay sober long enough. Speaking of inebriation and rock 'n' roll, going to see the rad JP McDermott and Western Bop kick out the rockabilly and honky tonk jams tonight. It's gonna slay, so come on down and have some Old Rasputin with me. Also, the new Against Me! video is killer. It's anti-war without being some whiny Sheryl Crow Hollywood preach fest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFrrLXkFHPg&mode=related&search (Sorry for not just embedding it, but youtube is fucked right now for some reason.)

Anyway, on to my main point, which is to say when the fuck did the Beatsteaks comes out with a new record? I've been a big fan of the German group since I saw them back in the summer of 2000 (if you do the math and a little internet digging you'll realize I'm a total whore and went to WARPED TOUR when I was in high school omg wtf). They were the first live band I'd ever deliberately gone to see, and what a show it was. They rocked HARD, just the kind of punk-influenced alt-rock I was listening to at the time. What sent them over the top for me was the absolute showmanship of their frontman, Arnim. He strutted and flailed like Iggy, hurled himself from the top of PA stack, and even broke out a cane and top hat for their lounge-rock cover of Manowar's "Kings of Metal." The high point came when he surfed the crowd on a guitar case while not missing a note.

Despite being on Epitaph, on of the largest indie labels in the country, they never found a real American audience, despite cultivating a sizable following in Europe, a land known for pulsing beats and people with shitty taste in furniture. Hell, their new joint, Limbo Messiah, debuted at #3 on the German charts. It's pretty good, but more than a little different from their previous records. They still have the bracing rockers that are their bread and butter, but the dancey "Meantime" and Jackson 5-esque "She Was Great" are left field tricks that surprisingly work very, very well. Not every experiment on the album hits like those two, but it's better than their disappointing last album, Smack Smash. Still, the best place for noobs to start is either their tour-de-force Living Targets or junk food alt rock classic Launched.

For people who wore out their Foo Fighters CDs.

Demons Galore: http://www.mediafire.com/?2c05vtcz4av

Meantime: http://www.mediafire.com/?0h0mlmdm43x

She Was Great: http://www.mediafire.com/?8vdwj4hl0m3

Monster: http://www.mediafire.com/?bax0jecd9bz

Shut Up, Stand Up: http://www.mediafire.com/?12mn3mab7mx