In this sixth season, however, we’re finding it harder and harder to look past Michael’s flawed actions. It’s been a long season (it started all the way back in September if you recall), so let’s do a little recapping. Early on in the season and shortly after Jim & Pam’s wedding we find out that Michael didn’t just hookup with Pam’s mother on their wedding night, but is currently dating her. It’s unfair to look at the storyline of a sitcom through the eyes of reality, but even in the TV world this was overstepping an established boundary. As if Michael’s actions weren’t already atrocious enough, two episodes later the writers have the new couple briefly win over Pam’s approval only to have it all come tumbling down within minutes as we suffer through Michael painfully breaking up with Pam’s mom during her own birthday lunch.

For whatever reason, most of us forgave him and we went on watching. Only a few episodes later and the writers tested the audience again. This is of course the Scott’s Tots episode. Ten years prior, Michael made a promise to a class of underprivileged kids that if they graduated high school he would pay their way through college. He originally made this promise on the basis that he would be a millionaire by then. By now we all know Michael is pretty much broke. In the season 3 episode The Negotiation we find out that he’s barely making more than Daryl in the warehouse. Not to mention sinking who knows how much money into both Jan in season 4 and then his own paper company in the season 5.

Needless to say after much thanks from the students as their graduation day comes near, Michael has to break the news that all he can provide for them are laptop batteries. We’re just about halfway through the season and I really don’t know how we can like this character any longer. Yes, Michael does try to make good by telling one kid that he’ll pay for his books every year and the characters he screws over were never developed in a way where we had a true emotional tie to, but come on. He was the driving force of these kids’ lives for 10 years! As much as we can blame his stupidity on such a blunder, this one comes at a cost that cannot be reversed like so many of his previous missteps.

Finally we reach last week’s episode, the second to last of the season. Also know as the death of Michael Scott as a human being, or The Chump if we’re going to go by episode names. After Michael previously found out that Donna wasn’t cheating on him, but she was in fact cheating on her husband with Michael, they continue their relationship. This in itself is actually not the worst thing he has done. I was almost okay with it within the context of the show. Maybe Michael would learn some great lesson at the end of it. But that was not to be. The writers had to make the whole situation that much more appalling, putting Michael Scott in a hole I don’t think he can redeem himself out of. He gets called out by his office and only rebuts that Stanley and Phyllis had their own stint with infidelity themselves. And even slams Andy for being oblivious to Angela, his fiancée at the time, and Dwight’s relationship from the previous season. The last straw is when Michael returns from being forced to interact with Donna’s husband and shows even less remorse, eventually referring to himself as a James Bond type of guy. His return below.

All the way from the town that Dan Marino built (he did that, right?), Miami’s Lil Daggers are in Brooklyn over the next few days on some pretty stellar lineups. The track above, “King Korpse”, is off of what seems to be an upcoming 7-inch from Livid Records. Honestly, there’s not a whole lot of hard info on these guys besides that they are from Florida and put on a good show. And what else do you really need? It’s lo-fi garage with an organ! An organ!

Personally, I’ve had the new Harlem record in heavy rotation and Lil Daggers is fitting in nicely to keep me from running that album into the ground. So if you too are riding the lo-fi garage wave as of late, or you’re just looking to check out some great bands (locals Shark?, The Sundelles, and of course Wild Yaks come highly recommended from me), then check out the tour dates below. I’m going to try to convince my girlfriend’s entire birthday party to walk down to Don Pedro’s on Saturday because that looks like a show I should not miss.

April 9th @ Don Pedros- Lil Daggers, Medication, White Mystery, Girls at Dawn

April 10th @ Don Pedros- Brown Ghost, Naked Beach, Lil Daggers, Estrogen Highs, Wild Yaks

April 11th @ Glasslands- Dream Diary, The Sundelles, Lil Daggers, Shark?

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Talk about timing. Brooklyn-based Twin Sister released their second EP Color Your Life on Tuesday. The same day they get a respectable 7.5 from Pitchfork. On Wednesday they are named one of The L Magazine’s 8 Bands You Need to Hear. And today just started, so who knows. Maybe they are taping for Letterman this afternoon.

Twin Sister is offering a free download of the album for two weeks. So if you haven’t heard about it and downloaded it by then, then I don’t know what to tell you. It’s apparently everywhere. You can sample the album with the song Lady Daydream above. This is the one song I clearly remember when I saw them at the Creekside Lounge during my hazy SXSW, and after a few listens through this EP I can see why, it’s a standout track for sure.

You can find the band in New York a few times this month. Tonight they play Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn with Holiday Shores. On April 9th they are opening up for Xiu Xiu at Bowery Ballroom. And finally on April 11th they are at Silent Barn in Queens with Alex Bleeker & the Freaks.

The boys from Ireland have released yet another great video to go along with their great album, Tourist History, which was released at the beginning of the month. Something Good Can Work will be the third single off the album and will be out on May 3^rd with remixes by The Twelves and Crookers, among others.

The band is currently on tour with Phoenix, a band that first comes to mind when searching for comparisons even though Two Door Cinema Club doesn’t have a human drummer. A more apt association may be a mix of more typical UK indie rock, like early Bloc Party, and putting them on a label like Kitsuné, which they just so happen to be on. The French label is more known for its electronic acts like Simian Mobile Disco, Yelle and Classixx, but the mix of electropop from the band helps them fit in nicely.

Two Door Cinema Club will be headlining the Bowery Ballroom on May 12^th, but be sure to check their dates with Phoenix in April and their headlining dates in May to see if they are coming to a town near you.

SXSW finally came to a close in Austin, TX on Sunday. Two days later, I finally made it home and had a chance to piece together the week (thanks Twitter!). Here’s this year’s recap of a badgeless show-goer.

Hit – Longbranch Inn

Impose Magazine owned the Inn for three nights. In a mostly Brooklyn band showcase on Wednesday, Nashvillians JEFF the Brotherhood stood above the rest very literally, as they brought their set to a climax with Jake on top of the bar and Jamin holding down the drums as usual.

Miss – Longbrach Inn’s bathroom

Watch out for the dark, sewage-filled hole as you enter. Not the kind of liquids you want your socks soaked in for sure. I somehow managed to pirouette around it each time, but there were a couple close calls especially as the Lone Stars added up.

Hit – Scotland

Mainly, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Frightened Rabbit. The AV Club probably put on one of the better start to finish showcases of the entire week, which included the two bands mentioned as well as Tobacco, Wooden Birds (who played “Aaron & Maria” and made my day), and The Rural Alberta Advantage. And free Brooklyn Lager! As awesome as all that is, I don’t think anything touched the performance put on by We Were Promised Jetpacks, but Frightened Rabbit came damn close. The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit was released at the beginning of the month, and is a great record.

Hit – Brooklyn Vegan

They were everywhere! Fantastic Twitter presence too. If there was a huge line or I was just looking to go elsewhere, I would just check my feed and there would be info on the line, bands and free goodies at the current BV parties. Saved my ass on Saturday when the crowd at the Cool Kids left me with a bad taste in my mouth and I headed over to see Black Milk and Buckshot. And I couldn’t think of a better way to start my Thursday than eating fajitas and listening to La Strada, The Sandwitches and Or, The Whale.

WTF – Duchess Says

I haven’t seen such a large group of males so intimidated by a cute, 5-foot-7 female since the Sadie Hawkins dance in eighth grade. By far the most awkward live performance I’ve witnessed in my life. Lead singer Annie-Claude Deschênes would stare directly into specific members of the audience’s eyes while she was on stage. And when she wasn’t, well, she was doing that face to face or taking the hands of people and laying them all in a big pile with her on the floor. Or sweeping their legs out from them.

Miss – Cheer Up Charlie’s/Todd P

Thinking back I’m not sure why I went there on three or four different nights because the sound was easily the worst of the week. I don’t know if the sound guys were to blame or the bands just didn’t properly sound check, but it would go from bad to worse every other night. If you were away from the stage you could hardly tell a live band was playing and as you got close you realized you couldn’t even hear the vocals anyways. The few songs I caught from Tanlines one night defied all odds and were perfect, but straining to hear even a bit of vocals from Woods was all too typical for Cheer Up Charlie’s.

Hit – Lawn Party

Other Music and company put on two great days of music that included The xx, Dum Dum Girls, Real Estate, Thurston Moore, Mayer Hawthorne and more. It didn’t hurt that Thursday and Friday were the two best days to be outside, sitting in the sun taking in some tunes as you sipped on some Magic Hat. Listening to Real Estate in that setting was well worth the sunburn.

Miss – House of Guys/21st Street Co-Op

House of Guys had a stellar lineup on Tuesday night that included a must-see of mine, Harlem. While the nearby 21st Street Co-Op was (allegedly) host to Andrew WK and Maps & Atlases on Friday. I only say allegedly because I didn’t stick around to see if Andrew was showing. Both places put on a good effort and probably do a decent job when there’s not a bunch of people in town for SXSW, but they were terribly organized clusterfucks this week.

WTF – Perez Hilton Party

Speaking of clusterfucks, here’s this year’s award winner. The Twitter world was buzzing with bad information as the line started to form some three hours before doors were supposed to open. The news was they were requiring printouts of RSVP confirmations, which I suppose is easier than looking through a 300-page guest list and finding out who is on it. Things went more to shit when they started actually letting people in. Not to mention it was 35 degrees that day with the wind-chill.

Hit – Stereogum Party

I was only there for the comedians and Ben Gibbard, but I have to give props to a properly thrown party. Quality free booze, great line control, great sound inside, no complaints from me whatsoever. Gibbard played a solid mix of oldies and new songs, honestly just so good all-around. I’m gushing a bit here, I know.

Hit – The Food

I was going to highlight places individually but that would take far too long. Torchy’s Tacos was a must for me going into Austin and did not disappoint. Try the Baja Shrimp Taco next year if you didn’t get a chance. Winner of the week for me though was Ken’s Doughnuts. It helped that it was across the street from where I was staying, but every time I walked in (and they are open 24 hours a day) there were always fresh donuts and/or samosas coming out. $1 samosas! Thank you for saving me from being hungover everyday of the week.

WTF – Spider House

Spider House was great when all you were looking for was a drink and an amazing atmosphere to take in music (see: Brooklyn Vegan), but I did not think it was humanly possible to take up to 70 minutes to make two egg sandwiches. I wish that was an exaggeration. 70 minutes! You know how long it takes to cook a few eggs? Like 18x less than that. If you’re staying by campus next year, this is not your quick breakfast spot before you head downtown.

With the music portion of SXSW kicking off a week from today, it’s time to start scanning the various free shows Austin has to offer and picking out some must-see bands. If you can’t catch one of the five shows they will be playing then, check out The Sandwitches Myspace page for more tour listings.

The San Francisco-based band released one of the most criminally overlooked albums of 2009. The Sandwitches’ How To Make Ambient Sadcake is a true throwback to girl groups from the 1960s. And with so many bands as of late borrowing the sounds and style of garage rock from that decade, this just seems like the next logical step. I would be selling these three ladies short, however, if I were to just leave it at that. The album is much more than an ode to a decade.

On “The Revisionist”, the band taps into their inner Stevie Nicks. The blues of a band like Fleetwood Mac mixed with gritty southern folk is the bedrock of the album. It’s something the Watson Twins have been trying to pull off for a number of years now and just haven’t been able to do over the course of a full album. I listen to the next track, “Strangers Shadow”, and think “I bet the Twins wish they wrote this”.

Here I am backing myself into another corner though because as we go on through the album, we find The Sandwitches can’t do it over the course of an album either. Mainly because they aren’t trying to. The opener “Back to the Sea” puts the album in a gear it never returns to, almost tricking that lo-fi, beach bum vibe fan into listening on. Instrumentally, “Mary Me” sounds like it was written in a 10^th grader’s garage after binging on the Vivian Girls, but lyrically I can’t decide if it’s super cheesy or admirably adorable.

The album continues to jump from folk to blues to garage, to combining one here with another there and yet it’s cohesive. This isn’t a record that comes off as a band not knowing what direction to head in and hoping by throwing everything they have at it, something sticks. It all sticks. “Fire”, above for you to sample, is a track that leans more garage than the folk/blues of some of the others.

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Fan Death, why did you leave us? Originally from Brooklyn, the now Vancouver-based disco-pop duo just released their first EP, A Coin for the Well, on Pharmacy Records. In 2008 they released their first single Veronica’s Veil, and while it was the string-driven disco I’ve now come to except from them, it still felt right playing it alongside the likes of CSS and Yelle. With the release of this EP, however, I’m not sure I still feel comfortable saying that. A Coin for the Well is straight, unadulterated disco.

Their second single and the first off this album, Cannibal, displays this best. Actually the first five seconds may be the most disco part of the album, and if for some unfathomable reason that is a turn off for you I insist that you listen on. Just before lead vocalist Dandilion Wind Opaine chimes in, a somehow fitting, Middle-Eastern influenced violin line drops to conclude the opening. Opaine’s blasé voice carries the rest of the most pop track on the record.

The rest of the album leans more disco on the disco-pop spectrum. Power Surge is the unheralded anthem, which I hope turns into the next single. Sans the retro synth, Soon plays like a R&B ballad that ends with a sax that can’t settle on being too cool or too sultry, a problem this album has in droves. Instrumentally, The Son Will Rise is the closest Fan Death gets to Hi-NRG, but Opaine remains unmoved even as the synths beg her to kick it up a notch during the chorus. Finally, the first track, Reunited, may be my favorite thanks to the epically eccentric video below. What can I say? I’m a sucker for any Purple Rain shoutout.

The duo, now with backing band, is currently on tour overseas opening up for Vampire Weekend. If you’re heading to Austin next month you can catch them during SXSW though. Their debut album Womb Of Dreams is scheduled for a May release.

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The summer of 2009 will forever be remembered as the summer of fuzz. Blissed-out lo-fi was – and I suppose still is – all the rage. I’ve never been a fan of the most blatant offenders (see: Wavves), but I’ve also always known that beneath all that hazy distortion are usually some pretty great pop songs. Case in point: Dum Dum Girls.

At the height of the summer craze in July, Dee Dee aka Kristen Gundred played her first show as Dum Dum Girls with a makeshift lineup. By the middle of the next week, she was signed to Sub Pop Records. Now with a solidified lineup, the band put out their first single this week Jail La La, which you can find in the A&SB Jukebox to your right. The 7-inch comes with a cover of “Play With Fire” by the Rolling Stones on the B-side. This is all in anticipation of their full-length I Will Be, due out on March 30th.

In the meantime, you can catch the band tonight at the Mercury Lounge before they head overseas. Drummer Frankie Rose’s own band, Frankie and the Outs, will be one of the openers, along with Happy Birthday and Coasting.

Sometime last year I found myself in the rare situation of driving a car and with that comes the inevitable listening of top 40 radio. “Tik Tok” came on like I’m sure it has millions of times over the last year and I immediately thought two things, “Holy shit, Uffie has a new song” followed by “Holy shit, Uffie is getting paid.” The chorus made me second guess my initial reaction, but it wasn’t until the DJ came on and told us listeners this was a new track by Ke$ha that I was fully convinced otherwise. “Who the fuck is Ke$ha?” was my next thought. (I obviously said it without the dollar sign in my head, because I didn’t realize her name was that awful at the time).

Before Ke$ha was even dreaming of ruining the morning of commuters all across the United States, Paris-based Uffie was the queen of quirky, mostly party-related rhymes with an electro foundation. She hit the scene in early 2006 when French electronic label Ed Banger Records released two of her most recognized tracks, Pop the Glock and Ready to Uff. After a couple more EPs released, Uffie found her way onto Justice’s debut LP † on the track “Tthhee Ppaarrttyy”, which as far as the vocals go sounds fairly similar to “Tik Tok”.

Well, Uffie is back! With her full-length debut Sex, Dreams & Denim Jeans scheduled for this spring, she hits us this week with the 12-inch release of MCs Can Kiss produced by Mr. Oizo. It contains the original, which you can find on her MySpace, and the Starkey Re-Did, which you can find here. Two mixes by Zombie Disco Squad are also on the EP. The re-did is missing the instantly classic saxophone breakdown she performs at the end of the original, but it still may be my favorite of the tracks. Oh and she’s totally cuter than Ke$ha.

When The Soft Pack (at the time still called The Muslims) released their self-titled 12-inch I thought to myself, “This is garage rock.” The San Diego-based band had no intention of reinventing the genre. In fact, it played more like a Best Of. No surprises, but everything you could ask for in 10 garage rock songs, all in one place. Fast forward two years and the band is once again releasing a self-titled album, this time under their new, less controversial name The Soft Pack.

The problem with doing something so — I guess — unoriginal, is that you need to completely nail it. Unfortunately, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, they missed the mark here. Matt Lamkin, whose nonchalant vocals have always been a part of the band’s apparent Cali vibe, sounds much more like he doesn’t care at all versus being too cool to care. It’s really hard for me to call the lyrics uninspiring because I’m well aware that’s sort of what they are going for, but strictly going through the motions doesn’t become acceptable just because you admit to doing so. There needs to be something to justify repeat plays of the album that isn’t “because I’m reviewing it.”

Of course, if The Soft Pack come to town I would be more than happy to pay the 10 bucks to see them live and not just because I want to hear them play their old songs either. I can see this record translating much better in a live setting. Partly because it’s a little overproduced, but after seeing them at Don Pedro’s I have a feeling they can pull these tracks off. As long as they play Extinction too. Answer to Yourself, one of the better tracks off the album, is embedded below.

The Soft Pack ‘Answer to Yourself’ from Felipe Lima on Vimeo.