As previously mentioned, Jimmy Eat World will unleash Clarity Live, a digital-only release recorded from the band’s Clarity x 10 tour finale at Marquee Theatre in Tempe. (I wondered how JEW would incorporate its home stop on the live release, but who knew it would use the Tempe show in its entirety? Pretty great if you ask me, especially considering I missed the show for a friend’s wedding.)

The album comes out April 7 at jimmyeatworld.com in multiple formats ranging from DRM-free MP3 to 24 bit/48K sample rate WAV files. And thanks to a connection here and there, I’m happy and humbled to be able to present the live-album version of A Sunday here for download. (This might be what some would call a “premiere” or “exclusive.”)

Enjoy. See below for the full tracklisting of the album (not that it’s much of a surprise if you’re at all familiar with Clarity).

• Jimmy Eat World | A Sunday (from Clarity Live)

Tracklisting for Clarity Live:
Table For Glasses
Lucky Denver Mint
Your New Aesthetic
Believe In What You Want
A Sunday
Crush
12.23.95
Ten
Just Watch The Fireworks
For Me This Is Heaven
Blister
Clarity
Goodbye Sky Harbor
What I Would Say To You Now *
No Sensitivity **

*Original studio version on split single with Jejune (1998)
** Original studio version on split EP with Jebediah (2000)

Related:
Jimmy Eat World: Goodbye Sky Harbor (live)
Review: Jimmy Eat World at Terminal 5 (NYC)
Guest list: Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World

Thanks to Jimmy Eat World posting Ashley’s review of the NYC Clarity show on Twitter, we got some fresh eyes on the site.

So it seems appropriate to follow that up with news that on April 7 the band will release Clarity Live, a digital-only release through jimmyeatworld.com that will feature DRM-free mp3 and lossless format options and a digital booklet containing pictures of the Clarity x 10 tour.

The press release did not contain a track listing (though that seems pretty obvious) or information about which show(s) on the tour the songs would come from. They gotta include some stuff from Saturday’s Arizona show, right?

To tide you over, here’s a live version of Lucky Denver Mint from the Sweetness CD single (2002), which also includes a live version of If You Don’t, Don’t; the video for sweetness; and live video of Goodbye Sky Harbor (probably my favorite song off Clarity, all 16:11 of it). Per the liner notes, this track was recorded live at La Scala, Nov. 10, 2001.

• Jimmy Eat World | Lucky Denver Mint (live)

In more Clarity news, Phoenix New Times’ Up on the Sun blog is posting a recurring feature leading up to Saturday’s homecoming, Reflections on Clarity, in which they ask musicians/fans/etc. for their thoughts on the album.

Lastly, here is the story I wrote on No Knife that I mentioned on Monday.

Kinch has taught me a valuable lesson: pay attention to e-mail. You see, guitarist Brian Coughlin e-mailed me about two years ago to let me know about his band, a piece of correspondence I kept (because Kinch is from Phoenix) but one I failed to act on with a post.

Well, that was pretty dumb.

Kinch, whose Advances was named the best local album in 2008 by Martin Cizmar of Phoenix New Times, appears to be on the verge of breaking out. There’s upcoming West Coast tour dates with fellow Phoenicians Dear and the Headlights and an appearance at SXSW in March (including the I Heart AZ showcase curated by Psyko Steve).

On Friday night at Modified, Kinch celebrates the release of a three-song EP, The Economic Chastisement, copies of which will be given out with admission ($10) and made available online as a free download (or, you know, see below). Speaking of free, Advances also is available for no charge.

And that’s the thing about the guys in Kinch. They are savvy – in how they craft piano-driven hooks, in how they market themselves, in how they have built a fan base (someone from the band will ask you to sign up for the mailing list after a show, and you will). They make their breaks, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the pop-rock know-how to back it up. (I heard nothing but praise from friends and other bands after Kinch opened the Birdmonster show I put on in October.)

Download The Economic Chastisement EP below.

• Kinch | The Economic Chastisement
• Kinch | C.V.
• Kinch | Handclap.

A couple weeks after telling us about Towncraft, Jason Woodbury checks in again with some insight on another Phoenix musician. Check out Jason in Cardiac Party and Hands on Fire.

Ugly Unknowns, the new album from Stephen Steinbrink and the first released under his given name, is now available from Tempe, Ariz.-based Gilgongo Records. If you aren’t familiar with Steinbrink’s work, now is a perfect time to get acquainted with his low-fi bedroom pop. While he’s put out a ton of releases in varying formats over the past few years, his 2008 full-length French Quarter garnered some pretty serious press: hard-earned praise from Doug Mosurock at Dusted Magazine in his “Still Single” feature, a glowing review over at Coke Machine Glow and even a sanctimonious write-up from Thurston Moore (!) and Byron Coley in Arthur Magazine.

While the term “singer/songwriter” usually calls to mind polished production and boring presentation, Steinbrink’s work is far more varied, often balancing out biting lyrics with gorgeous harmonies and lively, Built to Spill-like arrangements. Ugly Unknowns finds Steinbrink expanding his range ever further; the intertwining guitar work bares the influence of former tourmates and local stunners My Feral Kin, and tracks like Overpassing reveal a shared heritage with Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

Steinbrink with be performing at Modified with Anni Rossi tonight (Feb. 9); at the Trunk Space with Jason Anderson on Feb. 18; and will do a live on-air interview and set on the Basement, on the Blaze 1260 AM on March 1.

• Stephen Steinbrink | When It’s Easier
• Stephen Steinbrink | Huachuca City

It seems pretty clear that Phoenix’s Miniature Tigers are on the verge of a big year.

Aside from the physical release of the excellent Tell it to the Volcano (out now digitally) on Feb. 17, the band recently was picked up for an East Coast/Midwest tour with Ben Folds. Pretty heady stuff — and well-deserved. After the Ben Folds tour, the Mini Tigers will hook up with another Valley band, Dear and the Headlights, for some dates out West. And they’ll be doing all this with a new member — guitarist Darren Robinson, late of Phantom Planet.

So if you live in the Valley area, you’d do well to check the band out Wednesday night at Yucca Tap Room, where they played in October for a show I put on with Birdmonster. Though the crowd skewed pretty young when I saw Miniature Tigers at Modified a couple weeks ago, I have a feeling they’ll be fine at the 21-and-over Yucca.

• Miniature Tigers | Cannibal Queen

Related:
Guest list: Charlie Brand of Miniature Tigers
Miniature Tigers: Cannibal Queen (video)

Tucson’s Calexico will make a visit to the Phoenix/Valley area for the first time in more than two years when the band plays April 4 at Heritage Square, an outdoor city block in downtown Phoenix that should make for an amazing evening.

Also on the bill are 12-piece Latin jazz ensemble Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta and longtime Calexico collaborator Salvador Duran.

Tickets ($20) for the 21-and-over show go on sale Thursday (Jan. 22) at Zia Records, Stinkweeds, Hoodlums, Pizzeria Bianco and TicketWeb. Doors for the show open at 7 p.m. and it starts at 8 p.m. According to Stateside Presents, the concert will be over before the final light rail departure, which gives people a great chance to test out the newfangled public transit system in our city.

Calexico (follow ’em on Twitter) currently is touring overseas behind 2008’s Carried To Dust, an album to which I didn’t give as much attention as I would have liked when it was released. But I’ve since purchased it on vinyl and have enjoyed taking some well-deserved time with it.

• Calexico | Two Silver Trees

Related:
Calexico on LiveDaily Sessions
Calexico: Two Silver Trees (video)
New Calexico: Two Silver Trees
Video trailer for new Calexico album

Local artist and art teacher Chad Knapp is organizing a benefit show to help keep Art One gallery open in Scottsdale.

In Chad’s own words:

“The gallery has helped countless young artists and schools, please come down and see the bands and the art work. The gallery is going to start setting up shows and you are more than welcome to contact them about setting up shows. It’s going to be run similar to the way the Modified is run.”

The benefit starts at 7 p.m. and costs $5. Scheduled bands include Source Victoria and Art for Starters; one more band will be announced.

The gallery is located at 4120 N. Marshall Way in Scottsdale.

• Source Victoria | Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948

I’ve been meaning to post on Mostly Bears for some time now, so the trio’s session at Daytrotter was an excellent reminder that I’d pretty much failed to do that. (If it makes anyone feel any better, I had a draft of a post – well, a title for a post – that I started in May.)

I’m mostly torn on Mostly Bears, who hail from Tucson, Ariz., not Tuscan, Ariz, as spelled in the Daytrotter write-up. While I love their Arcade Fire-meets-At the Drive-In prog rock on 2008’s The Ed Mitchell Clinic, I’m far less keen on the band’s public image, which seems forced and a little pretentious. For live shows (at least the two I’ve seen), the three band members go shirtless and wear day-glo paint/grease on their skin, which is illuminated by black lights attached to their mic stands. It’s one thing to want to stand out, but it’s another when the whole getup threatens to overshadow the music. They’re an excellent band, so why the big production? (Even the press photos are a bit much for me.)

I’ll leave it at that, lest I actually prove my point and draw unwanted attention to anything other than the music, a vibrant prog style that you wouldn’t expect to be birthed in Tucson (or even Tuscan).

• Mostly Bears | Digital Divide (Daytrotter session)

I assume that waking up with a medley of about four different Little Joy songs mashed together in my head, seamlessly melding from one chorus to another, means I’ve started to become a fan.

I hadn’t been totally sold on the band’s self-titled debut, but the live show helped uncover some of the charm I think I was missing in the album.

Advertised as a trio, Little Joy suddenly was five – and sometimes six or seven – strong with Todd Dahlhoff of the Dead Trees standing in on bass. Add that to Rodrigo Amarante’s slightly raspy voice, and there was a little more heft and texture to the sound. By the time the show was ending, both opening bands – the Dead Trees and Red Cortez – were on stage to lend their help for a feel-good sing-along to Brand New Start, its head-over-heels chorus – “There ain’t no lover like the one I got” – a perfect closer for a night of uplifting vibes.