baseball and sam beam

beautiful night for a ballgame and anyone's guess and bro (or as they say in california, "brah") are just back from the giants game. were we in chicago, seeing the cubs play, we might have been treated to something like this:

ed vedder - take me out to the ballgame

in other news, sam beam's new album, the shepherd's dog, much awaited in some quarters - like mine - found its way to shelves this morning. which made today a good day (didn't even need to use the a.k.). much more of a robust sound for beam this time around, closer in kin to the great in the reins ep he made with calexico than the stripped-down lo-fi folk songs of his earlier disks. just, just way more instruments. anyway, have a listen to these two tracks below, then high-tail out to your local tuneage depot and pick yourself up a copy of this excellent disk. (the cover art? um, not so much...)

iron & wine - pagan angel and a borrowed car
iron & wine - the devil never sleeps

also, iron & wine plays the paramount theatre in oakland come november. pencil it in.
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lastly, check out this nice little feature on lucy, daughter of the devil mastermind & all around creative genius loren bouchard. there are a couple clips from the show embedded, the second of which, concerning dj jesus's near-icles, is especially hysterical.