Not sure how or why, but my Wheat posts – which seem to be an annual happening – tend to be expansive. Which is interesting considering that the band hasn’t really done much of anything in the past couple years. But that is changing – they will be releasing their fourth full-length Everyday I Said A Prayer For Kathy And Made A One Inch Square in Spring of next year but will be preceding that release with a new mini album, That’s Exactly What I Wanted… Exactly That, which will be out December 15. It will include one track from the new album and four others and being acquainted with the creative space that the band is in now, I can say that old-school Wheat fans will probably be pleased with what the boys from Taunton, MA have been up to.

I say “acquainted with” because I’ve had an unmastered copy of Prayer For Kathy for a few months now and can say that it sounds exactly like what you’d expect a band that recorded a charming lo-fi debut, an amazing mid-fi sophomore effort and an excellent third album shelved in favour of an over-glossed major label failure (Billboard says it sold only 29,000 copies) would sound after losing a guitarist/songwriter and spending a couple years regrouping. Seriously. Now down to the duo of Brendan Harney and Scott Levesque, Wheat sound like they’ve taken a conscious step back from all the factors that nearly destroyed them a couple years ago. The production is rougher and the songs less overtly pop and more experimental – it’s like they’ve happily shed the ill-fitting suits that they were wearing during their Columbia tenure and are getting re-familiarized with their frayed jeans and dirty Cons. I’m not feeling the songs as much as I did with Hope & Adams or even the Nude Per Second Per Second Per Second Every Second but there’s definitely a sense of energy and creativity throughout that bodes well for the future.

But if you’re not familiar with their past, I direct you to This Wheat – a fansite that acts as an expansive audio repository. Fully sanctioned by the band, they have available to download the entirety of Wheat’s debut Medeiros, their magnificent Hope & Adams (both sadly out of print), the long-lost Nude version of Per Second Per Second Per Second Every Second and a slew of b-sides, live recordings, demos and anything else you could think to shake a stick at. It’s your one-stop, Wheat-indoctrination stop. Go to it.

MP3: Wheat – “Death Car” (from Medeiros)
MP3: Wheat – “Don’t I Hold You” (from Hope & Adams)
MP3: Wheat – “World United Already” (from Per Second Per Second Per Second Every Second Nude)
Mp3: Wheat – “What Everyone Keeps Telling Me” (from Everyday I Said A Prayer For Kathy And Made A One Inch Square)
Video: Wheat – “Don’t I Hold You” (YouTube)
Video: Wheat – “I Met A Girl” (YouTube)
MySpace: Wheat

Pitchfork talks to Alan Sparhawk about Low’s new album, The Violet Path, due out early next year.

And some bad news from Pitchfork – Rainer Maria are calling it quits. Alas.

Harmonium asks Spoon-man Britt Daniel if he likes to score. With Will Ferrell. Hey, who doesn’t? Stranger Than Fiction opens this Friday and you can hear both the soundtrack and new Spoon single from said soundtrack below:

Stream: Spoon – “The Book I Write” (Quicktime)
Stream: Stranger Than Fiction soundtrack (Flash)

Being There wants to introduce you to Sloan – Sloooooo-aaaaan to their friends. They’re at the Kool Haus November 30.

Exclaim offers up an entertaining interview with the eminently quotable Noel Gallagher, who apparently shops for his own groceries.

Anyone who thought Todd Haynes was crazy for casting Cate Blanchett (amongst others) as Bob Dylan in his upcoming biopic I’m Not There, check these out – kinda works, doesn’t it? This will certainly be interesting. The man himself (and not one of his doppelgangers) is at the Air Canada Centre tonight.

np – Ohbijou / Swift Feet For Troubling Times