The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have posted five new recordings on their MySpace page–including a jam called “Young Adult Fiction” (lyrical snippet overheard by your SAK correspondent: “Don’t check me out”) and a new recording of title song “The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart”– all of which sound significantly different from buzzier recordings past.

Wisdom has it that these tracks are from a forthcoming full length LP. You’ll be able to enjoy said songs in a live setting when TPOBPAH rock Brooklyn’s Dead Herring this Friday:

Twee As Fuck, the renowned London Indie Pop Dance-A-Thon, is coming to New York City’s Cakeshop on June 26th. Your SAK correspondent is extra tweeked, as the party is being headlined by the beloved Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

If you can’t wait to have a potentially-fatal dose of twee pumped into your veins, you a can catch The Pains at The Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight, playing part of the L Magazine’s New Music Festival.

In the short time your SAK correspondent has spent interviewing New York City bands, he has come to understand just how important finding a decent and affordable practice space is to local musical talent, and how New Yorkers have to go that extra mile to rock (bands in Portland have houses with basements that they can practice, after all).

Beat The Devil recorded an interview with me in their tiny, triangular Greenpoint rehearsal space, which was a bit smaller than the average Manhattan bedroom, and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart used to practice at their employer’s Chinatown offices after hours.

Hence the New York Times story on the subject, with an economic breakdown (some groups, who one assumes have never heard of Bushwick, pay $40 an hour for a place to practice). One more reason to pay the $7 cover Tuesday night at Glasslands (instead of having your bassist friend put you on the guestlist).

The Ballet

Beat The Devil

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Vampire Weekend / The Harlem Shakes

Jens Lekman

Greg Burgett

Though it’s arguably best to start fresh with a new year upon us, the wise scribes of the web, always eager to list, compile, and debate the merits of a recently closed calendar year, invariably leave us with unfinished business: telling you about the best stuff that inexplicably evaded the concluding ‘07 ‘net hype.

They range from artists well-known to nearly un-known, and several of the tracks here-in found some acclaim at the time of their release, but just didn’t have the steam to make it to December. So SAK humbly presents: 7 songs that should have rocked your face in the last calendar year. (more…)