MJ Demos

The great thing about posting stuff like this is that you don't really need to say anything about it.

I have a question, though: Which Michael Jackson album do you prefer - Thriller or Off The Wall?

Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough [Michael Jackson's Original Demo Record] (mp3)

Michael Jackson - Working Day and Night [Michael Jackson's Original Demo Recording] (mp3)

Rare Soul Vinyl.

Uncommon soul, uncommonly good.

Sam Baker - Coming to Bring You Some Soul (mp3)
Clarence Carter - Getting the Bills (But No Merchandise) (mp3)

Check Out Dean Farrel's (of WHUS) Homemade CDs.

Andrew Douglas Rothbard

Andrew Douglas Rothbard's debut solo album, Abandoned Meander, is loaded with organic, trippy, psychedelic, spiritual headphone music. Colorful noise effects come at you from all directions, but it stubbornly holds on to its folk heartbeat. This is the first of a series of five CDs, but don't wait for the collection - you'll want to take each leg of the trip, one inventive step at a time.

Bull in the Dell (mp3)
Rabbit Hole (mp3)

Josef K on Domino

This is why we love Domino:

In our continuing series of releases documenting the best of avant Scottish pop of the early '80s, Domino is privileged to be releasing Entomology, a comprehensive anthology of Josef K, the Edinburgh quartet whose legend has far outlived grown well beyond the band's own brief lifespan.

Excerpted from the liner notes for Entomology, penned by the inimitable Paul Morley:

There needed to be a gloomy remotely intimate glam pop group named after a character created by Franz Kafka who detuned their pained, pining guitars like the Velvet Underground, who screwed up dance beats with as much nimble knowingness and/or amateurish exuberance as Devo, who faced up to long lasting reality with as much sad, mad grace as Magazine, who got stuck into logic as defiantly as Pere Ubu, who had spent a lot of time watching Television and listening to the first six or seven songs written by Buzzcocks.

They took themselves very seriously whilst circling the idea that fun was a very peculiar notion.

They were The Sound of Young Scotland, together with Orange Juice, whose guitars were also radiant and brittle, whose rhythms were also scrubbed and blunt, whose vocals were also proud and serious, but who sounded like another group completely.

A touch more rational. A little less glaring. A splinter less uptight. Lacking, perhaps, the art for art’s sake element that some of us swooned over, and which we see explicitly echoed in they way, say, the popular Franz Ferdinand express themselves.

Their own men.

In their own special time.

Who would know when it was time to quit.

Sorry For Laughing (Postcard 7" single version) (mp3)

Probably the band's best-known compositions, it's definitely the most-covered, most recently by Nouvelle Vague.

It's Kinda Funny (Postcard 7" single version) (mp3)

Released in the autumn of 1980, "It's Kinda Funny" was their third single and a haunting tribute to Ian Curtis of Joy Division, who had passed away the previous spring.

Also download Chance Meeting on Epitonic.

BoySkout - Live at The Talking Head, 20 Nov 06

Christina, Piper, Leslie, and Ingrid want you to do a bad deed.

Looking for a rock show to energize you to the bone, something more Hives than Hem? Go see BoySkout. Watching their live show is like getting laid. I saw them with my friends Randy and Uncle Tom (if you were there, we were The Three Obviously Straight Guys) on Monday night, and I'm still buzzing and smitten. The San Francisco girl group jolted the small crowd at Baltimore's Talking Head Club with some hard feminine electricity. I read good things about their live shows, but I didn't expect to be sold, heart and soul, at a late-late night Monday show in a venue the size of my living room.

It all started before they took stage, with the bandmembers warming each other up by frolicking like Hobbits during performances from androgynous opening acts Pariah Piranha, The Degenerettes, and Baby Aspirin. Singer Leslie Satterfield, keyboardist & violinist Christina Stanley, and guitarist Ingrid Dahl (also of the band Lismore) danced in every corner of the club, brushed up on or touched almost everyone in the venue at least once, shared more than a few kisses with each other, and copped more than a few generous feels. Unbeknownst to the crowd, this behavior boosted its collective arousal, like feeding chum to a school of fish.

This went on for hours, a long and cruel tease. They didn't start playing until after midnight. But once they started I was wide awake. Leslie was fantastic. She has that rare ability to sing in a downcast style with clarity, like Elastica's Justine Frischmann. Christina and Ingrid are the band's sex appeal and presence. Their perfect smiles are pure innocence, but their eyes are the yang to the yin, sending the message: "I'm bad news." Their play is feverish and furious. Bassist Piper Lewine and their drummer held it all together with rhythmic power, and it held together for the entire set.

Mayhem ensued when the band requested that the crowd remove their shirts before the encore. Predictably, the drunk people up in front of the stage did just that, and became a mass of bobbing boobs and man-boobs. The mostly sober people paid almost no attention to them, though, because Christina stole the crowd's attention and sent it into a frenzy when she laid into her plugged-in violin with orgasmic fervor during their untitled closing song.

After leaving a BoySkout show, there's only one question for the remainder of the night: snuggle or just sleep?

Boyskout - Spotlight (mp3)
Boyskout - Untitled (mp3)

Stream the BoySkout e-Card, where you can also buy Another Life, which was one of my 20 favorite albums of this year.

Jamie Lidell, Live on MPR's The Current, 11-11-2006

Jamie Lidell bared his soul for Minnesota Public Radio's The Current on the 11th of this month. You'll have a hard time finding a more genuine live soul sound than you will on this live version of Multiply.

Jamie Lidell - Live on MPR's The Current, 11-11-2006 (mp3s)

Game For Fools
What's The Use
Multiply

Own Multiply and Multiply Additions.

Yes, I Realize.

Beck played a surprise show at the Black Cat on the 30th of last month. I wasn't there, because surprises like that just don't happen to me.

Here's the setlist, with two songs recorded from the show, including an essential version of Do You Realize?:

1. Black Tambourine
2. Devil's Haircut
3. We Dance Alone
4. Think I'm In Love
5. Go It Alone
6. Nausea
7. Motorcade
8. Scarecrow
9. Minus
10. Nicotine Gravy
11. Hollywood Freaks
12. Paper Tiger
13. Do You Realize (Flaming Lips)(mp3)
14. Guess I’m Doin’ Fine
15. Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games (Of Montreal) (mp3)
16. Ghost Range
17. Girl
18. Horrible Fanfare / Landslide / Exoskeleton

Freaky.

Former Sugababe Siobhan Donaghy pastes together elements of Kate Bush-style new age, pop, and creepy underwater ghost triangle sounds in this track from the netherworld, the aptly titled "Ghosts," from her forthcoming album with the same title. Feel the eerie factor rise when she blends in a dark Gregorian melody at the end. This is dark, edgy euphoria from a planet more evil than ours.

Siobhan - Ghosts (mp3)

Hot Chip, Live on The Current, 11-11-2006

Hot Chip played three songs in an intimate, subdued, yet shiver-inducing in-studio performance for Minnesota Public Radio's The Current this past weekend.

Hot Chip, Live on MPR's The Current, 11-11-2006 (mp3s):

Whistle For Will
Graceland
Careful

Own The Warning.

Trouble Everywhere.

NYC's Daylight's For The Birds create lush melodic layers, dreamy atmospheres, and sweet vocal purity on their debut, Trouble Everywhere. Daylight blends synth, guitar, drums, and voice seamlessly into little pop dreams. And yet, there's a sadness in them, and something that digs its way into you and reminds you that not everything is right. These are beautiful songs.

Daylight's For The Birds - To No One (mp3)
Daylight's For The Birds - For Now (mp3)

Stream the full album on the E-Card.

Own Trouble Everywhere.

Captain Amazing

The Lame Drivers are Matt Lemay, Joe Posner, and Jason Sigal of Get Him Eat Him, with guitarist Kevin Sparks. The Rhode Island quartet's 2005 Captain Amazing EP has been reissued by 75 or Less Records, and you can get a limited edition hand silkscreened copy with 5 bonus tracks, all for 5 bucks. It's well worth it - these guys make a noise big enough to overflow their tiny state, and with hooks infectious enough to get all 1,048,319 of its heads nodding in unison.

Lame Drivers mp3s from The Captain Amazing EP reissue:

Let Me Get Those #s Down
Wits Out

Own Captain Amazing.

Also download Hangman's Code (mp3) (basement version) from their never-released They Expand EP.

PJ Harvey Peel Sessions Listening Party

Stream the entire PJ Harvey Peel Sessions CD here. Now. Do it.

Body And Soul

Art Tatum - Body And Soul (Includes Intro For Fighting Forces) (mp3)

Dinah Shore - You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To (mp3)

Harry James With Kitty Kallen - It's Been A Long, Long Time (mp3)

Viva Voce, Live on KEXP 11-8-2006

Viva Voce played three songs in the KEXP studio yesterday. If you're like me, you love Get Yr Blood Sucked Out for its raw power and no-nonsense attitude. They hit you with all that from the beginning of this performance.

Viva Voce - Live on KEXP, 11-8-2006:

1. So Many Miles
2. Believer
3. Special Thing

Stream the full Get Yr Blood Sucked Out album, and buy it.

Fuck All Y'All (The EP)

Now that we have your attention. Here are some mp3s from Applied Communication's free EP:

Operation: Load Up On [Tang] (mp3)
Infinite BJ (mp3)
Echo Boom (mp3)

Download the other 2 songs, and Awesome Fantasies (mp3), because you can never have too many, and because it goes like this:

do you know you've never known how i've really felt?
i've only felt what i've felt you've felt i should feel.
i only give you what i think you want to be given; only tell you what i want to tell you
based on my understanding of what you want to be told.
you're getting nothing but convoluted blankets of repetition--
repeating your body, surrounding your body.

here are some drum beats, i made them myself.
here's a package- it's got my heart, my stomach, my soul.
here's my trust. i believe you, understand you.
here's my hope. i'm glad i see you every day.

YR BREASTS YR BREASTS THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL.
YR THROAT YR THROAT IS BEAUTIFUL.
YR PROBLEMS YR PROBLEMS ARE A PROBLEM.
MY AWESOME FANTASIES-- MY FANTASIES HAPPEN FREQUENTLY.

ahhh, poetic verse.

If you feel like being emotionally disturbed, watch the video for It Bothers Me It Bothers You I Snore:


Buy Applied Communications stuff.

The Black Angels, Live on The Current, 10-28-2006

The Black Angels played three songs for Minnesota Public Radio's The Current last month. These guys urgently belt out a rock song like it's three and a half decades ago. In some ways, maybe it is.

The Black Angels, Live on MPR's The Current, 10-28-2006 (mp3s)

Better Off Alone
Bloodhounds On My Trail
The Sniper At The Gates Of Heaven

Also download The First Vietnamese War (mp3).

Own Passover.

Beck, KCRW, 10-31-2006 (the rest of it).

For all of you asked for it via e-mail, here's the rest of Beck's KCRW performance, which I partially posted last Thursday. Also, these are in the correct order.

Beck - Live on KCRW 10-31-2006 (mp3s):

1. Motorcade
2. Cellphone's Dead
3. No Complaints
4. Movie Theme
5. Interview
6. We Dance Alone
7. Nausea
8. Dark Star
9. Strange Apparition
10. Think I'm In Love

Get The Information.

Why did the Iraqi chicken cross the road??

Depends on who you ask.

U.S. Army division:
The chicken was not authorized to cross the road without two forms of picture identification. Thus, the chicken was appropriately detained and searched in accordance with [standard operating procedures]. We apologize for any embarrassment to the chicken.

U.S. Air Force:
In the last seven days the USAF has cargo-lifted 732,361 chickens across 852 roads.

Moqtada al-Sadr:
The chicken is a tool of the evil coalition and will be killed.

U.S. Marine Corps:
The chicken is dead.

Other Answers here, in Tom Ricks's Inbox.

The Shins, Live on KEXP, 11-3-2006 (CMJ)

If you're like me, you impatiently waited all week for The Shins' live KEXP performance, which finally happened yesterday. They were astounding.

The Shins - Live on KEXP, 11-3-2006 (@CMJ Music Marathon in NYC)(mp3s):

Kissing the Lipless
Pressed in a Book
Phantom Limb
Girl Inform Me
[New Song]
Turn a Square

Buy The Shins' CDs.

+/- {Plus/Minus} Live on KEXP 11/1/2006 (in NYC)

The hyped and rising +/- played a live set for KEXP before their show for the Absolutely Kosher showcase at CMJ on Wednesday. Check out this version of Steal The Blueprints, which sounds a lot less Postal Service and a whole lot more garage.

+/- {Plus/Minus}, Live on KEXP 11/1/2006, NYC(mp3s):

This is All (I Have Left)
Fadeout
The Important Thing Is To Love
Steal The Blueprints
One Day You'll Be There

Own Let's Build A Fire.

Listen to album version of Steal The Blueprints (mp3).

Beck - Live on KCRW 10-31-2006

Beck's KCRW in-studio sessions are essential. He played one that aired on Halloween, featuring songs from the The Information, including two of my favorite songs of the year, No Complaints and Movie Theme. Here's the setlist:

Beck - Live on KCRW 10-31-2006

1. Motorcade
2. Cellphone's Dead
3. No Complaints (mp3)
5. Interview
6. Movie Theme (mp3)
7. We Dance Alone
8. Dark Star
9. Nausea (mp3)
10. Strange Apparition
11. Think I'm In Love (mp3)

Get The Information.

Check out Amazon's customer images of Beck's customizable cover.

Mika

Mika is unturndownable and unturnoffable. In fact--and it is a fact--you can't listen to him without turning the volume up. His pop compositions have all the right things in exactly the right places as he Freddy Mercuries and Prince Rogers Nelsons his way up and down the octaves. And on top of that, he's so seemingly honest. You hear it in his lyrics, and you feel it in this autobio from his Myspace:

I was born in lebanon and rasied in Paris and London, hopping from country to country like a footloose hippy with my four brothers and sisters.

Coming from different background to most I found no place at school and delved into music from an early age. I started writing songs as a kid, not because of grand ambitions but because it was an easy way to tell a story, a joke and often the truth. Tell the truth in a song and people are less pissed off than if you were to say it to their face.

I sent out my stories to anyone and everyone, not surprisingly I often got no reply. The further I got into music the more attention I was getting for my own song writing, I made a choice last year and decided to go for it...

Mika - Happy Ending (mp3)
Mika - Grace Kelly (asx stream)

Listen to more Mika at his Myspace and on the Mika e-card.