Ah, music my great distraction. You wouldn’t believe all the things I should be doing right now. I’ll spare you the boring details. I put it all aside to prove to the world that 3hive is the pinnacle of uncool. The Mount Everest of square. There are an umpteen number of cooler music blogs than this place. “Umpteen?” I told you. We’re dorks (I speak for myself here, shouldn’t drag the rest of the guys into this). Birdmonster is living proof of our cool-lessness. The cool blogs were talking up Birdmonster a year ago. Some blogs tried to be as uncool as us, but they’re eight months cooler. So Birdmonster, a year later and they’re still great, still holding up under the pressure of being the next “thing.” “Resurrection Song” has been their introduction to the world. Its spare production and the band’s playing bring an immediate sense of urgency, like there’s no tomorrow for these boys. When Peter Arcuni’s singing hits three-fourths the way in you get Malkmus-smart lyrics, and a similar delivery. More agressive and less pretentious than Pavement. That’s the soundbite. If you haven’t heard Birdmonster yet, well, you’re in good hands with 3hive.
*Note: Tune in today at 4pm Eastern at WOXY.com for a live performance of Birdmonster. More upcoming shows available here.
When Jan suggested The Book of Daniel a few months ago, my first thought was of E.L. Doctorow’s novel of the same name, which was my least favorite of the texts we read in my most favorite grad school class, Prof. William Veeder’s “Contemporary Historical Fiction.” Every year I try (and invariably fail) to teach Eudora Welty’s wonderful and little-known short story “Where is the Voice Coming From” as finely as Bill did. Oh well. Anyway, here’s what Jan had to say about The Book of Daniel: “Daniel Gustafsson (who is the brother of Swedish Bright Eyes-type singer-songwriter Boy Omega) has written some awesome songs recently. Imagine John K. Samson of the Weakerthans playing beautiful jazz versions of Buckley or Wainwright songs.” Exactly. I’ve included three of the six songs available for free and legal download from Gustafsson’s EP; the rest are available at 
They’re back! After a rather long hiatus, the Rentals are playing shows and starting to record a new album. So while we wait until 2007 for said third album, enjoy these alternative remixes of two songs from their past. Oh, and check out their website for brilliant footage of Blur covering “Friends of P.”
We’ve been enjoying 
Austrian singer/songwriter Max Tertinegg, a.k.a. max Min, writes romantic, modern pop (that’s right, I’m on a pop kick… I’ll soon recover) replete with dreamy strings, horns, synths, harmonies, flawed English…whatever the moment calls for. It’s rather magical stuff. He’s got a political side, too, having crafted this amusing device that allows you to 
Available in its entirety for free download from 
Someone left a tip for Penny Century in the comments to my 
This Liverpudlian marsupial is a distant cousin to the sorely missed Los Angeles marsupial, Possum Dixon. Note the similar lyrical delivery, a kind of snotty, melodic talking. The two species also share a certain jerky jangle in their guitars. The resemblance is most notable on “Derail and Crash.” The Wombats are known to travel as a trio and were first spotted in the wild, open myspace. Everyone here at 3hive looks forward to this fine specimen arriving to this continent for a prolonged stay.
Look at the cover. Look at the band name. WYSIWYG (a little tech nerd reference of my own there). Warm, synthy pop with sweet, disposable lyrics. Perfect for an analog road trip with your windows down.
Irish and Swedish bands. I’m a sucker for them. Irish caused I lived there for two years (even saw Bono’s house/castle/mansion on a road nicknamed, what else, Millionaire’s Row). Swedish cause they have some unexplained disposition to creating great pop music. Is it nature or nurture? Personally, I blame ABBA.