While I wait for an album to be released in 2008 that is as good as Boxer was in 2007, I’m excited about the news of the National documentary, A Skin, A Night, by Vincent Moon.

A friend and I were talking Sunday night about Boxer and how four months into 2008 no album has come close to it. I think Elbow’s The Seldom Seen Kid stands as the front-runner for me so far. Or it may just be that I’m forced to wait for every odd-numbered year for a National record (2005: Alligator; 2007: Boxer; 2009: ??).

A Skin, A Night is due out May 20 and comes with a 12-song CD called The Virginia EP.

The tracklisting for EP (via):
1) YOU’VE DONE IT AGAIN, VIRGINIA (previously unreleased)
2) SANTA CLARA (UK b-side)
3) BLANK SLATE (UK b-side)
4) TALL SAINT (demo)
5) WITHOUT PERMISSION (unreleased cover)
6) FOREVER AFTER DAYS (demo)
7) REST OF YEARS (demo)
8) SLOW SHOW (demo)
9) LUCKY YOU (daytrotter session)
10) MANSION ON THE HILL (live)
11) FAKE EMPIRE (live)
12) ABOUT TODAY (live)

You can watch the trailer for the film here. You can also see some Vincent Moon-directed National videos here.

Pre-order the DVD/EP at Insound.

Here’s the EP’s namesake (I’m assuming) performed last September on WOXY’s Lounge Acts.

• The National | You’ve Done it Again, Virginia (live on WOXY’s Lounge Acts)

Beggars Banquet is offering up another free mp3 from the new album, Yes, U, by Devastations (previous post).

Check out singer Conrad Standish’s entry in the I Used to Love H.E.R. series, too.

• Devastations | Black Ice

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We made a late reversal on Friday night, opting to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Black Angels at Martini Ranch instead of the Black Keys and Jay Reatard at Marquee Theatre. It’s a good thing, too, because I heard Reatard was sick and didn’t play.

From what I can tell, the Black Angels were a last-minute addition to the lineup for the show, which was sponsored by a cigarette company. (No, I didn’t give them any of my information, thank you.)

The contrast of the night was surreal. The Black Angels – full of reverb and psych-rock revival – playing at a venue in the heart of Scottsdale that also happened to be hosting “Juicy Ladies Night” at an upstairs room. Odd, to say the least.

I’m not sure most in attendance knew what to expect when the Black Angels covered the place like a blanket, a thick fog of reverb and distortion. Certainly anyone who stumbled in from “Juicy Ladies Night” knew right away they took a wrong turn. For those of us who didn’t grow up in the nascent days of psychedelia and punk in the ’60s and ’70s, we can be thankful a band like the Black Angels will show us the way.

The group is preparing to release its second full-length, Directions to See A Ghost (Light in the Attic Records) on May 13. You can pre-order the record a month prior to the release date and receive a bonus EP with four unreleased tracks (details here).

Check out the lead single, Doves, described in the record’s liner notes as “an interpretation of love.”

• The Black Angels | Doves

At least one person didn’t like what I had to say about the first Death Cab single from the band’s forthcoming album Narrow Stairs.

Well, there’s more Death Cab news to announce: The group is scheduled to play Mesa Amphitheatre on June 19. No opening act has been announced for the show, another Stateside Presents production.

Tickets go on sale April 4 via Ticketmaster. How much, you ask? How about $32. They might have priced me right out of going to that concert.

[STREAM]: Death Cab For Cutie | I Will Possess Your Heart (Real | Windows Media)