I’ve been borderline obsessed recently with the Fleet Foxes EP Sun Giant, a five-song precursor to a self-titled full-length record that I am eagerly awaiting (due out June 3).

On the way to dinner on Sunday, I played the EP again in the car and Annie says: “You’ve been listening to this a lot lately. Who is this?” And it’s those kind of moments I love – and probably the kind Annie dreads … me rambling incessantly about this band or that. And, hey, I’ll just go ahead and put it on your iPod for you, mmmkay?

Yes, the Fleet Foxes push is on. As such, the folks at Sub Pop have made available the first mp3 from the full-length record. It’s called White Winter Hymnal and it’s as gorgeous as anything on Sun Giant.

At Daytrotter, singer Robin Pecknold had this to say, in part, about the song: “On the record it starts with a tongue-in-cheek harmony thing that we hoped would make people laugh or something but I think it just confuses them.”

That actually does make me laugh, because the beginning of the song makes me think of the harmonizing on Row, Row, Row Your Boat for whatever reason.

Fleet Foxes elsewhere:
English House live video at Muzzle of Bees.
Fleet Foxes at Daytrotter.

• Fleet Foxes | White Winter Hymnal

Try as I might to trim some of the fat out of my music collection, one of my goals is to acquire some of my favorite albums on vinyl. To that end, I’m quite happy to see Merge Records reissuing Spoon’s Girls Can Tell on 180-gram vinyl on May 6.

A Series of Sneaks and The Magnetic Fields’ The Charm of the Highway Strip also will be reissued. Pre-order them for $15 apiece right here. Each includes a digital download coupon.

If you’re into making arbitrary/meaningless lists, here’s one: The Fitted Shirt and Anything You Want definitely rank in my top 5 of back-to-back songs on an album. Seriously, The Fitted Shirt? That riff is hard to top. “I long for the days, they used to say, ma’am and yes, sir.”

• Spoon | The Fitted Shirt

I’ve been really intrigued by this piece at The Morning News that argues – maybe somewhat facetiously – that 2:42 is the perfect length for a song (via).

Clearly, this is an arbitrary matter. However, I’ve long been a proponent of the 3-minute song. Get me in and get me out. My daily commute is no more than 15 minutes one way; let’s maximize that time, shall we?

That’s not to say I don’t appreciate a longer song (check Ear Farm’s 8+ feature if you do). But I’m not sure I understand this thinking that favoring shorter songs somehow makes the music (and the listener) less pure or less authentic, that a song under 3 minutes isn’t as genuine as one that is 6 minutes. (Witness the first comment: “The decay continues.”) Look at Buddy Holly, a rock pioneer. I don’t own a song by him that’s longer than 2:36. (Could be that had something to do with the 45 format, too.) Also consider Guided By Voices, a band whose songs traditionally hover at the 2-minute mark.

Like anything in music, it’s purely subjective. But, as it’s often said in my line of work at newspapers: Everyone needs an editor.

Out of curiosity, I sorted my iTunes library by time. I was surprised at how many songs (41, to be exact) I had that clocked in at 2:42. (I didn’t count any vinyl or live radio rips, excluding my own audio editing as a factor.) Nothing really stands out, other than there being two Jimmy Eat World demos from the band’s Futures album and two songs apiece by Matthew Dear and Pete Yorn.

Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein also weighs in on the issue at Monitor Mix.

The Morning News article author, Joshua Allen, created a Muxtape of 2:42 songs.

My list of 2:42 songs from my iTunes library after the jump with a few mp3s:

Continue reading 2:42 … the perfect song length? →

I feel like I’m probably part of some weird blogging experiment: How long will it take for this new track from My Morning Jacket to get posted from the time it arrives in bloggers’ e-mail boxes?

I rarely operate that way, but I’ll bite this time. Hey, when a record label offers an mp3 instead of stream of a fairly big band, you’ll take it.

So here ya go. I’m digesting it at about the same time you are. So far, I love it. Jim James’ voice is really reaching into the upper, upper register here.

• My Morning Jacket | Evil Urges

As you might already know, Saturday is Record Store Day, a celebration of and, perhaps for the younger generation, an introduction to independent record stores. (Some blogger types are discussing it here.)

NPR’s All Songs Considered blog recently discussed going all digital, a prospect I’m not ready to consider just yet. I still spend a ton of time in record stores (Stinkweeds and Zia, mostly). For all the convenience digital music offers, nothing beats stumbling on a rare find – maybe a CD single, a 45, whatever – at a record store. That’s not meant to sound all weepy and nostalgic. Sometimes I just enjoy having a tangible piece of the music. After all, the packaging – the art, liner notes, lyrics – is part of the price and part of the vision for the artist.

I curse my CDs and records whenever I move – they get damn heavy – but it’s oddly thrilling to re-sort them (alphabetically, of course). And it’s a joy to see guests look through my CDs on shelves, something they couldn’t do if I kept everything digitally. I love thumbing through CD/record collections of others; how else am I supposed to judge them?

Anyway, without romanticizing this too much, I’m happy for Record Store Day. Check out Zia Records and Stinkweeds for events. Read a story at azcentral.com.

The great Pete Rock discusses independent retailers:

LASTLY: Big thanks to Tim at The Blue Walrus for updating my blog to the newest version of WordPress. I didn’t stand a chance without him.

I have about a couple hours to decide if I’m going to head over to the Tempe Marketplace (sigh) to see MGMT (for free!). (You might recall Rogue Waving playing there, too.)

Before I go any further, can somebody clarify something for me? Do you pronounce the band’s name like the word “management” or do you actually spell out the letters M-G-M-T?

In any event, MGMT’s Time to Pretend EP (2005) was rereleased by Cantora Records. Maybe you should pick it up on Record Store Day (more on that on Friday).

• MGMT | Destrokk