Oh what the hell, the man put gnomes on his MySpace page, we love him forever, the end.

So, dear little precious indie rock weenies: meet Robyn Hitchcock.

Robyn Hitchcock — “Goodnight Oslo”
Buy Goodnight Oslo from iTunes

GOGEN. (The Giraffe) He cheats. I won’t play with him anymore.

SIMMON. (The Bunny) I’m not cheating. I happen to have hiccups. (He hiccups.)

GOGEN. Then don’t hide where I’m hiding.

Charles Richard Johnson, Olly Olly Oxen Free: A Farce in Three Acts (Samuel French, 1988).

Bishop Allen — Dimmer
New album, “Grrr…”, due 10 March

Yer Cronies — Apollo
Buy When I Grow Up on iTunes

You should have heard of Dungen by now. If you haven’t, you’re missing out on one of the hardest rocking bands of our time, and are advised to immediately check out their entire catalogue. Their latest release, simply entitled 4, first hits the eyes with the type of geometric psychedelic design the band favors. Looking good. As with the rest of the Dungen catalogue, 4 is sung entirely in Swedish, and this is a good thing- they could be singing about anything and it would sound cool. The album opens well, with the atmospheric “Satt Att Se,” boasting guitars that are coated with warm, thick, fuzz, and a very interesting violin line behind the vocals. Things become even more orchestral on the instrumental second track, which reminded me of “Peaches en Regalia” with its melodic drum fills. The flow is smooth into “Det Tar Tid.” But the true heaviness hits with “Samtidigt 1,” a glorious, messy barrage of dirty guitar rock that could be straight from the late sixties/ early seventies. You don’t hear stuff like this anymore.

Other highlights include the interesting tones of “Fredag,” different sound of “Mina Damer Och Fasaner,” which has an Eastern-tinged feel.

It should be noted that 4 is dominated by its instrumental side (half the songs lack lyrics), which may put off fans of Dungen’s more pop-sounding material. The album doesn’t really have a standout track like “Panda” from Ta Det Lugnt, but as a whole it works together quite well, and is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys psychedelia, prog-rock, or simply rockin’ out to some good old-school music. 

Pop Levi — (A Style Called) Cryin’ Chic
Buy The Return To Form Black Magick Party on iTunes

The Decemberists — O New England

I can’t say, however, that I’d be buying them solely for their words, because what’s most striking about Penguin’s collection is the utterly amazing work they’ve put into the design of the books. Modern book design can be some pretty harrowing stuff (seriously, what the hell is this), but Penguin has a significant reputation to uphold. With the Great Ideas series, they prove that they’re still at the very forefront of a branch of graphic design which deserves recognition as one of the ‘legitimate arts.’

I’d like to highlight the work of David Pearson as the pinnacle of this series. What he produces is an incredible reappropriation of past styles that avoids the sort of playing-in-the-dressup-closet postmodern junk that so often plagues designers who borrow from the past. Pearson creates an aesthetic simile of past design moments by condensing them into a single, honed-down, and, most importantly, felt piece of design. In this way, the covers of these ‘great books’ in fact tell something about the moment of their creation by conveying the visual aesthetic—refined and purified through a historic lens—into which they were written. The only way to describe is through images:

And Person is not without a bit of editorial humor, either:

Minus Vincent Kartheiser’s acting, Mad Men is pretty close to perfect. It’s sexy, it’s polished, it has a brain, and it has a heart. In short, it may be the thing that eventually helps me move past how fundamentally outraged I am about having missed the sixties. Try plugging Mad Men into the OVGuide search bar next time you’re planning on a post (or pre, or during) paper-writing laptop TV binge. You won’t be sorry.

Think you don’t want to be Joan Halloway? I think you’re kidding yourself.