Kicked in the Shins

Through the wonder of Rudnik's blog, I found a page at Metacritic that I think has to be an immediate addition to the Favorites menu: Upcoming CD Releases. I always get excited when I find out that bands I like are going to be putting more music out soon. So the good news rolled in, with one exception.

First, the good news. All of the following groups have scheduled upcoming releases in the next nine months or so:

Doves (sometime in 2007, though I suppose it could be over a year away)
Fountains of Wayne (late 2006)
The Killers (October 3)
The Postal Service (sometime in 2007)
Spoon (early 2007), plus Britt Daniel appears to have a solo album due later this year, unless that just ends up being the soundtrack to Stranger than Fiction

Now, the bad news: the Shins are listed as "early 2007." Early 2007! Whatever happened to earlier this year, when I made a list of bands from whom I was anticipating new albums and heard that the new Shins album was supposed to be coming out in August? Every other artist delivered on schedule: Snow Patrol, Guster, and the Long Winters all have their albums out. (Although Ganging Up on the Sun has disappointed me so far and Putting the Days to Bed, while decent, is no When I Pretend to Fall. Although neither are a lot of albums.) Get with it, Shins! Your albums are only 34 minutes long, for crying out loud. (I'm kidding, of course. Considering how great Chutes Too Narrow is, how can you just turn right around and follow that up no problem?)

In other pop culture-related news, I've been trying to pick up the Netflix viewing lately. The problem is that I'm now five movies in the hole, review-wise, and I won't have much time this coming week to write reviews either, since I have to clean my room (seriously), do laundry, and I have three 10pm conference calls for work (again, not kidding). It's going to be hectic.

In other other news, Drew, Karen and I wanted to head out to Twin Links for some mini golf on Saturday... but when we got there, we found that it had closed! For good! This continues a long Flaxman family tradition of having places we like close and products we like get taken off the market. Frankly, it's amazing that Twin Links lasted as long as it did with a kiss of death like my endorsement. Better check your accounting ledger, Par King.