If I’m doing my math correctly, the Cursive CD downloads are now at their full price of $9, which means it’s drop day for Mama, I’m Swollen. And with drop day comes plenty of press, starting with this AZ Central interview that’s so good that if I ever get a chance to interview the band for this album I’ll only be left with the stupid questions (what else is new?) like “Why did you call the album Mama, I’m Swollen?” (Oops, Stereogum beat me to it). The best quotes of the piece: “I didn’t realize when I was 20, that to be doing what we’re doing, playing rock and roll essentially, in its broadest sense, really does give you this kind of leniency to stay young, which I would love to uphold for as long as I can. In that sense, I really embrace immaturity,” and “But this is the first time in my life where if I have some sort of ailment, then, the thought can cross my mind that I’m degenerating. My body is now degenerative. I don’t even want to get into my 40s because I think I’ll probably go insane.” Don’t worry, Tim, you’ll survive intact… probably.

In case you missed it, here’s the Pitchfork review, which gives the album a flunking 5.2 rating and concludes with this: “There is of course a huge market for their kind of angst-ridden emo, and in many ways– particularly lyrically– this album sounds like it’s been lifted straight from the emo handbook, which may well satisfy many listeners. For the less committed, however, the lack of the band’s usual wit and musical inventiveness will be missed.” Somewhere along the way (some) critics confused “emo” with “confessional,” so now any indie music that’s even slightly angry and personal is considered “emo” (along with anything on Saddle Creek, which somehow had an emo blanket thrown over all of its artists sometime around 2001). And in case you were wondering, emo is never used as a compliment.

Rolling Stone, on the other hand, gave the album 3 stars (here), and said, “Cursive haven’t sounded this crazed and inspired since their breakthrough album, 2003’s The Ugly Organ.”

I stand by my earlier statement: This is the best Cursive album since Domestica.

Don’t forget: Cursive’s network debut is this Friday night on Late Night with David Letterman. Set your DVRs…

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Surprising news of the day yesterday: Bright Eyes has scheduled a show at The Waiting Room on March 18. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. for $20 a throw (limit 4). Just when people were beginning to think that they’d seen the last of Bright Eyes, Conor pulls this rabbit out of his hat apparently as a way of saying “I haven’t forgotten where I came from.” Hopefully that’s all he’s saying. We won’t know until next Wednesday night, which also happens to coincide with the first day of the SXSW music festival — I don’t leave until Thursday, so I’ll be at this show…if I can get a ticket.

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At the same time that Little Brazil was recording its new record, Pete Yorn was working at ARC Studio on his new album, Back and Forth. Sony announced today that the album will be released June 23 on Columbia Records. The record is being touted with the headline “Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley) produces with additional creative consulting from Rick Rubin.” Among the guest stars on the album are Bright Eyes’ Nate Wolcott and O&S’s Orenda Fink.

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Tonight at The Barley St., perennial noise-rock favorites Perry H. Matthews takes the stage with Stress Ape and The Contrails. $5, 9 p.m.

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