Quick weekend recap -- the only music I experienced was last night's Songs for a Cure benefit at The Waiting Room, which drew a pretty good crowd for a Sunday night. Of course the bands that I saw -- Dan McCarthy, It's True and Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies -- were exceptional, as per usual. Bonus for all who attended and will attend The Waiting Room in the future -- the club just got a new high-efficiency cooling system, so you'll never sweat at their shows again.

A couple news items of note:

Saddle Creek sent out a press release last Friday where they announced a couple new releases for the fall. First is a new Orenda Fink album called Ask the Night, slated for Oct. 6. According to her publicist (Cobra Camanda Publicity), "Ask The Night was primarily recorded live to 8-track by Stephen Bartolomei (Mal Madrigal) in Orenda's former Omaha, NE, basement (she is now based in Los Angeles, CA), as well as by Andy LeMaster in his Athens, GA, living room." The album features a number of guest performers, including Bartolomei and LeMaster, Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse, Dan McCarthy and Adrianne Verhoeven (Dri, The Anniversary, Art In Manila).

Orenda is one busy lady. This album comes just a few months after her last album, O+S, was released, and she's also reunited with Maria Taylor for Azure Ray, with the duo apparently working on a new Azure Ray album. Prolific.

Also tucked into the last Saddle Creek press release was an apparent new signing by the label -- Old Canes, who will be releasing their album Feral Harmonic on Saddle Creek Oct. 20. Who is Old Canes? Well, Cobra Camanda, who's also handling their press, hasn't sent out the info yet, but according to their Myspace page, Old Canes "is Chris Crisci (Appleseed Cast), Jordan Geiger (Minus Story), Tyler French, John Anderson (Boy's Life / White Whale), Kelly Hangauer (Save The Whales), and Kelsey Richardson."

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