Brooklyn’s Dirty On Purpose are in town next week and are faced with the somewhat daunting task of playing a large-ish venue (Lee’s Palace) on a Monday night (March 6) in a city they’ve never been to, following their performance the night before closing out the Under The Snow festival in Montreal. They’ve been getting some well-deserved hype in certain corners, but I’m not sure how much of it has trickled up here yet. I’ve been a fan of these guys since catching them at SxSW last year, so I’m going to do what I can to plug their show and encourage y’all to get off your duffs, tape 24 and catch a terrific band on the rise. Cover is $7 at the door and they’re on at 10:15. You can be home by midnight!

The band has been riding their excellent Sleep Late For A Better Tomorrow EP for over a year now, but have just announced their first full-length, entitled Hallelujah Sirens, will be out in mid-May. This is a record that Hearsay listed at the top of their “most anticipated albums of 2006” list, and it’s up near the top of mine as well. I’m not sure if departed vocalist/keyboardist Erika Forster appears on the album, but with or without her contributions I’m sure it’ll be a superb slice of fuzzed-out indie-rock goodness.

But sounds speak louder than words, so I direct you to their MySpace page, this live recording of a show in Boston last year and the video and MP3 for “Mind Blindness”, from Sleep Late:

MP3: Dirty On Purpose – “Mind Blindness”
Video: Dirty On Purpose – “Mind Blindness” (MOV)

Check out the ecard for the new Ambulance LTD EP, New English, out March 14.

Sigur Ros return to Massey Hall on May 13! Happy birthday to me. Tickets go on sale Friday, bookmark here for presale action.

Johnny Marr of The Smiths reflects on making The Queen Is Dead for The Belfast Telegraph. Via Coolfer.

While Nellie McKay’s new album is still missing in action, a video for “Real Life”, which would have presumably been the first single, has surfaced. It’s kinda weird. Via Antville. Newsday has a fast chat with the singer/budding actress.

The New Zealand Herald predicts 2006 will be a very good year for Jenny Lewis. Lewis is at the Opera House on March 16.

Metric’s Emily Haines drops The Toronto Star a note following their show at the Kool Haus on Friday. The Star reciprocates with a show review.

Billboard reports that Rhino will be adding to the Dinosaur Jr reissue landslide started by Merge last year by putting out expanded editions of Green Mind and Where You Been, two of my fave Dino Jr albums, by the by. This comes on top of news that the band is hitting the road (again), working on new material (which you won’t hear on the aforementioned live dates) and putting together a DVD (of their previous reunion tour).

So I’ve been officially shut out of the SxSW press pass action but am actually feeling pretty good about going down there with no wristband or nuthin’. If the opportunity to get one for a fair price comes up, great, but the more I look at the schedule, the more I’m thinking I can happily exhaust myself with just the day/free shows. I’ll probably pay cover for the Kork/Polyvinyl showcase Wednesday night at Emo’s and Emo’s Jr, but besides that, God bless the Eastside Scootenanny. Anyone wants to find me, I’ll probably be there most evenings. Yeah, feeling much better about this whole thing. Bring it on.

24: It’s kind of fun watching Sean Astin come undone. He looks like a fat little boy having a temper tantrum. We also have the same laptop and I know for a fact that it can’t handle having every workstation in CTU funnelled through it. No way. And could it be we’ve seen the big bad for season five revealed? Jack Bauer may finally meet his match in Robocop – but come on, how awesome would it have been if he led him down into that subbasement to reveal… ED-209! But a bomb works as well. Somewhat surprising that he’d have a clipboard bomb handy, though. Finally, weirdest thing I’ve seen on TV in a long time? Logan and Novick getting on their knees and praying. I think it’s the suits that make it weird. Um, wait a second – in my travels around the interweb, I’m getting some chatter about this week’s ep being a two-hour one. What? What hour are we on now? The one I just watched ended at 5:00PM – am I up to date, or do I have to torrent hunting again?

np – Trespassers William / Having