I'm so Flipping Special, and Chrissie Hynde is a Creep

Thank. God. It's. Friday.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy a couple of live mp3s.

The Pretenders - Creep (Live) (mp3) (from Pirate Radio)

Joseph Arthur - In the Sun (Live) (mp3) (from the UNCUT compilation REM Presents: The Michael Stipe Collection)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Video: Live on Letterman 3-29-06

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion (.mpg)

NOTE: I condensed the file I uploaded to YSI earlier, and saved it to ezarchive. This link should work.

Top Ten Reasons To Visit The Smudge: And Number One Is...

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs brought a punishing thunder to the Letterman show about a half hour ago. This is what they sounded like:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion (Live on Letterman, 3-29-06) (mp3)

The video is uploading on YSI as I type. I'll link to it on my way to work.

Stipepearances

I wish Michael Stipe would appear on my cd. When I make one.

Faultline with Michael Stipe - Greenfields (mp3)

Stephane Pompougnac with Michael Stipe - Clumsy (mp3)

Billy Bragg, Bingo Hand Job, and Michael Stipe - Tom's? (mp3)

And on the 4.6 billion and somethingth day God created Art Brut, and lo, it was good.

A mere two hours after the Belle & Sebastian set, KEXP aired a live performance from Art Brut, who put out one of my favorite albums of last year, Bang Bang Rock & Roll. Post Soothing Out is a new non-album song they've been playing live. And the words to Emily Kane are different - he's now seen her at Christmas and realized he's not in love with Emily. He's in love with the idea of being in love with her.

Art Brut (Live on KEXP, 3-25-2006) (mp3s):

Formed a Band
Emily Kane
Post Soothing Out
Good Weekend

Belle & Sebastian Live on KEXP 3-25-06

This Saturday on KEXP, Belle & Sebastian treated us to a live in-studio performance of a couple of classics, a cover, and a song from one of my favorite albums of the year, The Life Pursuit. This version of A Century of Fakers, from the 3-6-9 Seconds of Light EP, is fantastic.

Belle & Sebastian (Live on KEXP, 3-25-06) (mp3s):

A Century of Fakers
She's Losing It
To Be Myself Completely
Anything You Do

Watch the video for The Blues Are Still Blue.

Dan the Destroyer is the New Dylan

His voice is too weird, his music too glittering-strange a species of rambling glam-folk for mass consumption. Bejar is a queer duck and a critic’s darling, and queer duck and critic’s darling he’s likely to remain.

That’s too bad, because that seventh album, Destroyer’s Rubies, is not only his best by far, it’s also a bona fide masterpiece of opaque genius bullshit—overblown, overwrought, and all the better for it. It’s Bejar’s rare gift to be able to spring beautiful lyrical booby traps, startling non sequiturs that somehow perfectly set off all the instrumental glitz surrounding them, mined from such diverse influences as Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane–era David Bowie, Neil Young, French pop, mellow West Coast rock circa 1972 or so, and, of course, Dylan himself, acoustic and electric versions.

...

It’s genius; it’s bullshit—which means that some heedless music critic will inevitably dub Bejar the new Dylan and end up looking like an idiot. Well, Bejar is the new Dylan, and I’m that idiot.

From Sense You Been Gone, in Friday's Washington City Paper.

Made You Listen

She's [still] watching him with those eyes.
She's loving him with that body, I just know it.

Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl (acoustic) (mp3)

From Karma.

Jazz for Nords

This is how Nordic people keep warm. Just add a hot steamy bath and your favorite beverage for the perfect indoor combination.

Kusuumun Profeetta - Kovin Lentaen Kotiin Kaipaan (mp3)

Embee - Shibuya (mp3)

From Jazzflora 1 and 2.

A Cure for the Bossa Deficient

We used to post some hot bossa once in a while, but we've gotten away from it.

Our bad.



Maria Creuza, Toquinho, and Vinicius de Moraes - Canto de Ossanha (mp3)

Maria Creuza - Voce Abusou (mp3)

From Live In Buenos Aires and Voce Abusou.

What Is To Be Done

This is non-suburbanite Haitian folk music, real campfire music, the voices warm as the flames, and it feels so damn good.

Ti Fi-A (Hey, Little Girl) (mp3)
Dodinin (Rocking) (mp3)

From Smithsonian Folkways' Haiti: Ki Sa Pou-N Fe? (What is to Be Done) (Various Artists)

Hives Lives.

You know what the world really needs now? Another Hives tour. Can I get an "Amen?"

The Hives - Two Timing Touch and Broken Bones (Live, from the Tussles in Brussels DVD) (mp3)

The Hives - Main Offender (Live, Jools Holland) (mp3)

XLR8R Presents

Music for the subconscious ear.

From XLR8R Presents: Wanted, Vol 2 compilation:

Blockhead - Sunday Seance - (Loka Remix) (mp3)

Ulrich Schnauss - Monday Paracetol (mp3)

Boltsmoking Tennesseeans

I like these Tennessee Boltsmokers, and not just because their name sounds a little dirty. It's a little folk country, a little bluegrass, and whole lotta smiles.

Tennessee Boltsmokers - Angeline (mp3)
Tennessee Boltsmokers - Shotgun Wedding (mp3)

From Hydro Radio.

Figurines, Live on KEXP, Take 2

I received some e-mail requesting these tracks that I posted the other day, but then my dog ate them with my homework.

Figurines (Live on KEXP, 3/12/2006) (mp3s):

I Remember
Silver Ponds
The Wonder
Other Plans

Mp3s down

Most mp3s are down, but the recent ones will be back up this afternoon. You can't keep good fluff down.

Figurines, Live on KEXP!

It has only been a few days since I posted I Remember, by Figurines. But it just so happens that my favorite Danes since Claire opened their tight, lively KEXP in-studio set with the song yesterday. My anticipation of their live show is ginormous.

Figurines (Live on KEXP, 3/12/2006) (mp3s):

I Remember
Silver Ponds
The Wonder
Other Plans

Cocaine Done Killed My Baby

The album cover says it all, really.

Mance Lipscomb - Cocaine Done Killed My Baby (mp3)
Mance Lipscomb - Police Station Blues (mp3)

from Texas Songster, Vol. 2 : You Got To Reap What You Sow

Stellastarr is Long for You

The track is called "Love and Longing," but the tour announcement e-mail reads:

stellastarr*...are coming back to tour the US in late March and April to support the new single "Long and Loving."

I'm pretty sure that's two different things.

stellastar - Love and Longing (mp3)

Bullette Returns

Bullette, everyone's fave self-promoting darling last year, has a new band, The Sky Drops. They drop some heavy payload with their two new free downloads. The moody double single is here.

The Sky Drops - Now Would Be (mp3)
The Sky Drops - Green to Red (mp3)

Mind Your Figurines

I've moved in, and now that I have phone and internet, I feel complete again.

I thought I would share my obligatory "Now Playing" list of CDs I've been listening to since I arrived at the uber-metropolis that is the capital city of Delaware:


Figurines - Skeleton

And that's about it. And this is one of the reasons:

Figurines - I Remember (mp3)

Just try to deny that. Try to turn away from it, and it only digs its riff-claws deeper into your brain. And there's that "I remember everyone you know/It's eerie oh oh oh" - do they mean:

I remember everyone. You know?

or is it:

I remember everyone [that] you know.

Eerie.

Figurines have been getting mad hype since the release of Skeleton. Seriously, if you like your rock driven by spiffy guitar hooks and earworm-inducing melodies, then this Danish lightning bolt of an album is for you. Stream the entire album here.

By the way, I'm getting to the e-mails. Give me a day or two.

Matt Pond PA on KEXP

This is ridiculous.

We've gone overboard, fellow mp3 bloggers. It's time to stop the silliness. After this post.

Matt Pond PA (Live on KEXP, 3/3/2006) (mp3s):

So Much Trouble
Halloween
Several Arrows Later
From Debris

So, yes, I'm adding to the insanity, but I wouldn't post it if it didn't move me.

I'm not back from the move, by the way. Just poking in for a moment. See you toward the middle part of this week.

Hump Day Was Good

Rosanne Cash played an arresting live set on KCRW, nicely coinciding with the Walk the Line DVD release, and Polysics rocked out on KEXP. We've got both, except for the first two songs the Polysics played. As always, you can listen to the live sets, including the interviews, at the stations' web pages.

I'm moving this weekend, and I won't have internet service until sometime next week, so no posts until I'm back online. It hurts me more than it hurts you.

Rosanne Cash (Live on KCRW, broadcast 3-1-2006) (mp3s)

Black Cadillac
Radio Operator
God is in the Roses
House on the Lake
The Good Intent
Hope Against Hope
Burn Down This Town
Loverly

Polysics (Live on KEXP, 3-1-2006) (mp3s)

Baby Bias
I My Me Mine
Coelakanth is Android/Black Out Fall Out

John Songs

Hello. My name is John. Here are some songs.


Stay Away From My Johnny - Freda Gray & The Rocketeers (mp3)

From Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label


Blossom Dearie - Hey John (mp3)

From Whisper for You

Two Hours of Pushin' Broom

Before you start to listen to this Roger Miller cover and say "No, no, NO! That's not how it's supposed to sound," you have to understand that it's off the OST for the Oscar-nominated Brokeback Mountain. The vocals, especially Rufus' delicate timbre, appropriately soften, and dare I say lubricate, the song.

Teddy Thompson & Rufus Wainwright - King of the Road (mp3)