So to anyone who was curious what the answers were in my now-closed Mojave 3 contest (congrats to winners Chris, Dimitri and Paul by the by), Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell’s first band – preceding Slowdive and Mojave 3 – was called The Pumpkin Fairies and was formed when they were the tender ages of 18 and 17, respectively. There’s an excellent writeup about the duo’s formative years here as well as a couple of MP3s from their original demo cassette tape which I’ve posted below.

Also below – the radio session Mojave 3 performed for KCRW on October 2, generously ripped, encoded and donated by Kevin at So Much Silence. Dude, next time I’m in Arizona I’m buying you a Coke. Anyway, interesting setlist for the session – only two of the eight songs are taken from Puzzles Like You, the rest come from throughout their whole discography. As I understand it, this “greatest hits” song selection has been par for the course the whole tour as well as including some of Neil’s solo material. Also note that the female backing singer is not Rachel Goswell – her medical condition has kept her back in England for this tour and on the West Coast dates, at least, the band conscripted someone to cover her parts. She’s not trekking cross-continent with them, however, so expect their show at the Mod Club on Monday to feature only Neil on vocals but perhaps they’ll call on Bob Egan, formerly of Wilco and currently of Blue Rodeo, to sit in on pedal steel with them as he has in the past. But whatever the band configuration Monday, reviews of the tour to this point have been positive enough that I’m sure it’ll be great regardless.

Passing notes – Lunapark 6 has an interview with Halstead about Puzzles Like You, the current tour, Alan McGee and emails. Also note that a second single from the new record will be the album’s title track and be released in 7″ form on November 6 in the UK. “Puzzles Like You” will be b-sided by “Bad World”.

MP3: Mojave 3 – “Kill The Lights” (Live at KCRW – October 2, 2006)
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Who Do You Love” (Live at KCRW – October 2, 2006)
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Starlite No 1” (Live at KCRW – October 2, 2006)
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Breaking The Ice” (Live at KCRW – October 2, 2006)
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Prayer For The Paranoid” (Live at KCRW – October 2, 2006)
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Puzzles Like You” (Live at KCRW – October 2, 2006)
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Sarah” (Live at KCRW – October 2, 2006)
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Some Kinda Angel” (Live at KCRW – October 2, 2006)
MP3: The Pumpkin Fairies – “Stephanie Says” (Velvet Underground cover)
MP3: The Pumpkin Fairies – “What’s The Matter With Me”
MySpace: Mojave 3

NOW talks to New York chamber-folk combo Hem in advance of their show at the Horseshoe on Monday night. They’re touring with a 10-piece orchestra (!) so if for whatever reason you’re not at Mojave 3 and are still looking for something to do Monday night, this would be an excellent choice. Glide also has an interview with the band.

Billboard reports that Maximo Park have completed their follow up to A Certain Trigger, still untitled and slated for release around March of next year.

Music For Kids Who Can’t Read Good interviews Headlights, discovers they’re very excited about the Wham! reunion.

PopMatters chats with Mac McCaughan about the many faces of Portastatic.

Bradley’s Almanac has an MP3 from the forthcoming Tanya Donelly live-but-all-new-material album This Hungry Life, out next Tuesday. Scroll down about halfway through the post.

Cat Power is the latest artist to stop in at AOL’s Interface, who are offering streaming songs and interview from the session. Chan is back in town November 22 with the Memphis Rhythm Band for a show at the Phoenix – at $35.50, not a cheap ticket by any means but everyone I’ve talked to seems reasonably confident that it’ll be a great show and the crazy will be kept to a minimum. Fingers crossed.

Went to see Little Miss Sunshine last night – very enjoyable if kinda slight. Steve Carell was great and Greg Kinnear is always reliable. But the DeVotchKa score was probably my favourite part of the whole thing. I love DeVotchKa.

Video: DeVotchKa – “Til The End Of Time”

np – DeVotchKa / How It Ends