Vampire Weekend – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Yeah, I know they’re super-derivative. I owned Graceland, too. Still, they’re enjoyable.
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Some Kind of Monster

If there’s one thing Daniel Merlin Goodbrey knows, it’s vodka.

If there’s two things Merl knows, it’s vodka and the weirdest comic book stories this side of Alan Moore, whom I’m pretty sure raised Merl in his beard. Necessary Monsters is Merl’s newest Web comic, and the first that I’m aware of with another artist putting images to Merl’s crazy-ass ideas. Once this is done, the awesome folks at AiT/Planet Lar will be sticking the results between two covers.

Still, you don’t need to wait until then to be exposed to deadly killers with the heads of chickens.

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They Might Be Giants – Fake Believe

If Never Go to Work convinced me to buy They Might Be Giants’ Here Come the 123s, this tune is making me want to pick up the previous album, Here Come the ABCs. (It doesn’t hurt that James loves the 123s music video DVD included with the CD.)

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Exile on Vinyl

I think this is the first time that it’s been available on an LP, but better late than never for the record-lovers, I guess: Exile in Guyville on vinyl. Amazon seems to be unclear at this point about whether this comes with the DVD or not, and they neglect to mention the additional tracks being added.

You can, of course, also get it on CD. Both are set to be released on June 24.

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MTV’s The Paper

I’m not naturally comfortable watching an MTV reality show — I have to draw the line somewhere — but I have to say, The Paper is improbably entertaining. (iTunes has the first episode available as a free download, which is how I became aware of the show.) It’s all the ridiculous drama of a newsroom combined with all of the ridiculous drama of high school.

Heck, it even makes me sympathetic for an editor-in-chief. Inconceivable!

Very much a guilty pleasure.