The Daily Flashback: Run DMC - Christmas In Hollis

The Raveonettes - Come On Santa

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays, everyone.

The Raveonettes - Come On Santa (mp3)
Bell X1 - How Your Heart Is Wired (mp3)

via Filter.

Love Makes the World Go Round

...instead of just making the big rock in space go round.

Johny Osbourne with Bunny Brown - Love Makes The World Go Round (mp3)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

About Us

This is about that time of year where we start to draw a collective blank. Distractions are flung at us from everywhere: do we have everything that we need for the holidays what do we need to finish at work they already have too much maybe we've been eating too much lately we hope she likes what we give her the economy sucks and we're so close to our limit and our jobs are not as secure as they were... ... ... ...stop.

And so, something random.

But still, something good.

And keep in mind, as the late David Foster Wallace might say: It's not about us.

Throwing Muses - Juno (mp3)

Boss Hog - Live on WFMU 12-20-2008

It seems like ages since those racy (Cristina Martinez, hello!!) Boss Hog videos were played on late-night MTV. And here's the band now, sounding as racy and unfiltered as ever, live in studio for Terre T's Cherry Blossom Clinic on WFMU.

Before you listen, a bit of history, from their web page:

Cristina Martinez and Jon Spencer met on the feast of Immaculate Conception in 1985 at a Jesus & Mary Chain show at the original 9:30 club in Washington, D.C...Boss Hog started in 1989 as a last minute fill in for a cancelled group at New York’s famed CBGB’s. Cristina assembled a group of rag-tag players to form the original all-star line up of Boss Hog. It included members of Pussy Galore, the Honeymoon Killers and Unsane. A constantly rotating cast of misunderstood misfits. Very angry, very volatile. The perfect medium to express their rage, their confusion, their sense of humor, their love of music...

Boss Hog - Trouble (Live, Cherry Blossom Clinic, 12-20-2008)(mp3)
Listen to the rest here.

And a racy vid:

Top 10 of 2008.

1. Beck - Modern Guilt

As bleak and penetrating as it is groove-suffused, Modern Guilt is at its surface beat-heavy danceable psych pop, but at its heart, it's an exploration of spiritual emptiness set in a labyrinth of illusion and routine. It is an album of good music and hard questions.


2. TV On The Radio - Dear Science

Some of this year's most arousing rock and soul/funk sounds are herein, from this 'post-racial' college favorite.


3. Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins

A line in any of Will Sheff's songs says and implies more than most entire albums by ordinary songwriters. The Wrens' Charles Bissel allows for an added dimension and extra punch to their songs. The Stand-Ins proves that poetic rock isn't necessarily an oxymoron.


4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Raw, Reader, Raw!!!


5. The Kills - Midnight Boom

Listen to Midnight Boom.
Get a room.


6. The Raveonettes - Lust, Lust, Lust

Hands down the year's best road album. Too bad I have the wrong car for listening to this album - something like this would be more appropriate:



7. The Submarines - Honeysuckle Weeks

Suspiciously sunny, and at first listen, maybe too bright to be taken seriously. Confirmation: You, Me, & The Bourgeoisie was in an Apple commercial. But taken in the context of their marital reunion, it becomes just the substance that we need.


8. Vivian Girls

...which has more balls than the boys have.


9. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely

Worth the price of the album just for the Zep-like vocal break in the title track. The rest of the album is a riot of riffs, licks, and hard luck drama. And though I didn't see them live, I heard them on the internet radio live, and I could swear that my computer started sweating.


10. R.E.M. - Murmur (Deluxe Editon) - Disc 2

I would have placed this at #1 if I weren't already cheating. I'm not blaspheming when I say that I'd rather listen to the live bonus disc than the remastered studio album, which many critics regard as both R.E.M.'s best album AND the best album, period, of the 1980's. This is a reminder that yes, they were that good.

The Daily Flashback: Sonic Youth - Drunken Butterfly (Live on Jools Holland, 1992)

Band of Susans - Too Late (Wire)(1989 Peel Session)

From 1989. Band of Susans, who do not exist on iTunes, were a noise guitar band with a tendency toward the epic. Here, though, is a live, tight Peel Session version of Too Late.

Band of Susans - Too Long (Wire)(1989 Peel Session)(mp3)

The Daily Flashback: Q and Not U - Last show at Ft. Reno, Washington, DC

Okay, this didn't exactly happen ages ago, but it was sooo good, it's blogworthy, and I was there. I think I see myself up there near the front.

Kokolo - Girls on Film (Duran Duran)

Yes, it's the Duran Duran song. And yet, it's not.

Kokolo - Girls On Film (Duran Duran)(mp3)

Here's a golden little Wiki nugget:

Girls on Film was originally written by Andy Wickett, Duran Duran's previous singer before Simon Le Bon. The original demo of the song has a very peculiar sound that differs somewhat from the final album version recorded in 1981. When Wickett left the band, Duran Duran bought the song from him for £600 and made him sign a waiver removing his rights to the song.

From the Soul Shaker, Vol 5 compilation that I posted from yesterday.

The Daily Flashback: Radio Shack cellular phones that you can take with you! Liberating!

Deeper Funk.

Heavens, me.


The Diplomettes

Diplomats of Solid Sound - Trouble Me (mp3)
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Keep On Looking (Kenny Dope Remix)(mp3)

From Soulshaker, Vol. 5, a recently released new deep funk compilation.

..."to meet him at the pier by way of the Green Line bus. As always, she was late."

For Tom.

The Kills - Live in Tokyo 12-8-2008

The Kills - U.R.A. Fever (mp3)
The Kills - Pull A U (mp3)

Download the entire concert as a torrent here.

Also:


Midnight Boom
is one of the year's best albums.

Lizzy Grant - Kill Kill video

Lizzy Grant, you got it. I'm transported.

Lizzy Grant – Kill Kill @ Yahoo! Video

Motown Gifting

The Complete Motown Singles, Volume 11A: 1971, is out now, the perfect gift for the classic soul addict. Level up the gift with the Classic Motown Block Tee:



mp3s from The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 11A: 1971:

Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out
Letta - I Won't Weep No More
Smokey Robinson - Crazy About The La La La

Sara Lov - My Body Is A Cage (Arcade Fire)

Sara Lov, formerly of Devics, is doing her own thing nowadays, like this cover of Arcade Fire's My Body Is A Cage.



Download (.mov)
Listen to more on her myspace.

Long Winters concert film

The Long Winters have a limited edition concert film out, called Live at the Showbox, recorded in 2007, in support of their excellent album, Putting The Days To Bed.

Here are a few tracks from the DVD:

Scared Straight
Clouds
Cinnamon

Get the DVD here.

The Daily Flashback: Have you played Atari today?

How do you get the entire family together for an afternoon of interactive fun??!!!

Y La Bamba

A young lady keeping herself company, shooing the pain away with a song, a lone guitar, and a voice recorder.

Y La Bamba - Alida St. (mp3)

From Alida Street

The Daily Flashback: GH - Frisco sings "Lady of My Heart" to Felicia at their wedding

Here are some of the YouTube comments on this clip:

Why don't they have this on I Tunes?

I used to sing this song to my ex wife, just like this, and she had the same look in her eyes that Felicia did. I miss that look so much it hurts...even after a couple of years without her, I can't stop thinking about her...I'll always love her!

does any one have a clip when frisco sang to felicia while she was with colton back eposide 89?

Felicia is an Aztec Princess. That's why she is dressed that way.

Frisco & Felicia were the all time BEST supercouple ever!...

Aren't they all dead now?

So sweet. I'm gonna cry now. I loved Frisco and Felicia.

Depeche Mode - Live, FM, Amsterdam, 1983

Depeche Mode - Live in Amsterdam, 1983 (FM Broadcast)(mp3s):

Everything Counts
Just Can't Get Enough

The Daily Flashback: Earth, Wind & Fire - Come on Children, Live in CA, 1974

School Disco

Wasn't that last video fun?

Here's the mp3. Reminisce. Clear some space. This is music for action.

Bis - This is Fake D.I.Y. (mp3)
Bis - School Disco (mp3)

From This Is Teen-C Power!

The Daily Flashback: bis - This is Fake D.I.Y.

A classic that you might have forgotten about.

I am such a bore. I can't take it any more.

It's not easy knowing when to let go
When you want to hang on, when you write a bad song
So simple saying the things you believe
But no one knows what I mean. No one knows what I mean.

I am such a bore
I can't take it any more
But school's out forever
And I'm never gonna let it go. I'm never gonna let it go.

Dear Nora's songs are fleeting numbers, with unadorned electric guitar baring simple chords and melodies beside the heartbroken harmonies of bared adolescent pain. Cheers to that.

These three songs combined add up to just over five and a half minutes.

Dear Nora mp3s from Three States: Dear Nora Rarities 1997-2007:

Up On The Roof
When You Write A Bad Song
Second Hand

The Daily Flashback Extra: Devo - "Whip It" & "Uncontrollable Urge" (Live on "Fridays," 1980)

Perfection.

The Daily Flashback: The Stray Cats - Rock This Town (Live on "Fridays," 1981)

This performance is all muscle and grit, tough as gristle. It must have been so out of place in '81.

From the TV show Fridays.

The Manhattan Love Suicides Sing of Jonny & Suzy

Today I'm thankful for The Manhattan Love Suicides.

Jonny Boy (mp3)
Suzy Jones (mp3)

Calexico, Live on MPR's The Current, 11-25-2008

The Daily Flashback: Elliott Smith - Jealous Guy (Live)

This is the perfect companion to the earlier mp3 post.

Okkervil River - Jealous Guy (Lennon) (Live, München, Germany)

Best thing I've heard this month.

Okkervil River - Jealous Guy (John Lennon)(Live, Die Registratur, München, Germany, 11-18-2008) (mp3)

Also, from the same performance:

Unless It's Kicks (mp3)

Torrent on Dimeadozen.

Order Okkervil River's latest album on the sidebar.

The Daily Flashback: Rick Springfield - The Human Touch

Before Neo made choices in The Matrix, there was...Rick Springfield, who was "The One" in 2016, back in 1983.

Deerhoof - Live on KEXP, 11-21-2008

"San Francisco noise-pop experimentalists Deerhoof play an exclusive set for KEXP at CMJ live from Gibson Studios in New York. Recorded on 10/20/08 - 4 songs: Blue Cash, The Tears and Music of Love, Fresh Born, Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back" - KEXP Live Performances

Download the performance as mp3 here.

Bob & Bill

Bob & Bill explore improvisational possibilities in electronic music. It's a sort of chaos within boundaries - coloring inside the lines, but with wild, free strokes of the crayon.

Bob & Bill - Mr. Rember (mp3)

Bob & Bill - Night (mp3)

Bob & Bill - Maria's Bone (mp3)

The Daily Flashback: Al Green, live on Soul Train, 1974

With Don Cornelius introduction.

Big Bangs, Black Holes and Meteorites

It's all going up in flames somehow, some day, and the dark possibilities keep Love Is All awake at night. Their apocalyptic energy on A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night will help it all go down a bit easier.

Love Is All - Big Bangs, Black Holes, Meteorites (mp3)

The Daily Flashback: Ultraman vs. Verokron

Whew. This was a close one.

The Daily Flashback: Jeff Buckley - Grace (Live on 120 Minutes, 1994)

Frank Black - Wave of Mutilation (Live, solo, 1992)

The metamorphosis of post-Pixies Black Francis into Frank Black.

Frank Black - Wave of Mutilation (Live, solo, 1992)(mp3)
Frank Black - Monkey Gone To Heaven (Live, solo, 1992)(mp3)

From The Dream Is Over bootleg.

The Daily Flashback: Beck - Pay No Mind (Alternate Lyrics)(Live, 120 Minutes, 1994)

Remember when they used to play stuff like this on MTV, late on Sunday nights, and we taped it and watched it on Monday afternoons? *sigh*

Yelle, Live on KEXP, 10-27-2008; Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Live on KEXP, 9-24-2008

Here are two excellent live sets, one from Yelle and the other from Nick Cave, recorded for KEXP, and posted just this past Friday.

Yelle - Live on KEXP, 10-27-2008 (mp3)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Live on KEXP, 9-24-2008 (mp3)

The Daily Flashback: Michael Stipe - The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance (Sinead O'Connor)(Live on VH1, 1996)

This cuts off at the end, which is too bad, because the end was fantastic. This is another performance that I had on VHS, but lost it.

Conor Oberst, Live on KCRW (Video)

He's everywhere lately, isn't he?

Blue Giant (Viva Voce + Decemberist + Sleater Kinney) EP available now.

Blue Giant's Target Heart EP just became available yesterday, and it's already an eMusic pick. I've been listening to their songs on their myspace for several months now. Really, I return for this song, a beautiful southern strum, with melancholy chord changes complemented with slow, steady pedal steel and patiently paced electric arpeggios, and Anita Robinson singing sadly, convincingly, with her husband at her side:

She's a lonely girl
needles and pins
the weight of the world
oh
she's thinking about
that lucky break
that's all it takes
i'll leave in the morning.

talk
talk of the town
always in love
but it's never enough
oh
she keeps thinking about
what they might say
and leaving anyway
in the morning.

Whatever country music is, was, or is supposed to be, this is what I would love to hear more of - songs that target the heart, not with oversentiment, but with simple declarations of regret or yearning.

Blue Giant - Lonely Girl (mp3)

The Daily Flashback: Doublemint Gum Commercial (1985)

For no particular reason. Just because.

Conor Oberst, Live at the 9:30 Club, 11-10-2008 (NPR podcast)

Conor Oberst played the 9:30 Club this weekend, and NPR was there to broadcast and record the show. Listen to it here (mp3).

The Daily Flashback: Heart - Barracuda (Live on Solid Gold, 1984)

Heart performed "Barracuda" live on everyone's favorite network countdown show with scantily clad dancers, Solid Gold. Seeing is believing.

The Raconteurs - Live on KCRW 11-10-2008

Recorded a few weeks ago, broadcast on Morning Becomes Eclectic on Monday.

Watch:


Listen:
Salute Your Solution (Live KCRW 11-10-2008)(mp3)

Buy Consolers Of The Lonely

Blitzen Trapper, Live on The Current, 11-8-2008

Jessica Lea Mayfield

Pitchfork gave Jessica Lea Mayfield's With Blasphemy So Heartfelt a solid 8.2 rating, meaning that a lot of people are going to be looking into her. A good place to look is WOXY.com, where she played a live in-studio set a couple of weeks ago. Download here (mp3).

The Daily Flashback - 21 Jump Street: Brad Pitt & Johnny Depp

Yes, Brad Pitt guest starred on 21 Jump Street, as a high school kid in a letterman jacket.

Laura Marling - The Captain and the Hourglass

Behind every tree is a cutting machine and a kite fallen from grace
Inside every man is a heart of sand; you can see it in his face.
He’ll tick tick tick tick tick tick tick away.
Another second lost with every fallen grain.

Laura Marling - The Captain And The Hourglass (mp3)

From Alas I Cannot Swim

Conor Oberst, Live at Other Music, Summer '08

For you Conor Oberst fans, you know who you are, this is an amazing performance from summer 2008. Josh Modell from OtherMusic says:

The band rolled into the shop during a short promo tour when the album came out this summer. We raffled off 100 tickets, and hundreds more fans showed up on the off chance that they could sneak in, or even just sneak a peak at their hero. For a shop like Other Music, where fans and artists tend to casually mingle on a daily basis, it was more than a little overwhelming, as Oberst was mobbed at every turn.

But that is just hype, the real story was the performance, which, especially in the confines of our tiny space, was simply stunning. Raw and passionate and hauntingly beautiful, that band ran through much of their new album and added in a few surprises, and I don't think that anyone who saw the show could have been unmoved.

The Daily Flashback: Family Ties - "The Real Thing"

Alex and Ellen/Michael and Tracy. Yes, it was an 80's sitcom, and yes, there was a script, but at the same time, you could tell it was real.

The Dears, Live on KEXP

The Dears went acoustic for yesterday's in-studio on KEXP.

Here it is:

The Dears (Live on KEXP, 11-6-2008)(mp3s):

Crisis 1 & 2
Dream Job
Lights Off
Money Babies

The Kills - Tape Song (Video)

Video for single Tape Song, taken from the album Midnight Boom, which is out now. The video contains footage filmed by the band while on tour in the US with The Raconteurs.

The Daily Flashback: Pete Townshend - Let My Love Open The Door (Live, Solo on VH1)

I watched this as it aired, taped it, and then lost it. This Thanksgiving season, I am thankful for YouTube.

The Dears and The Secret Machines on KEXP today.

The Dears and The Secret Machines are performing live in-studio sets for KEXP today, at 12:00 and 3:00 (3:00 and 6:00 Eastern). Be there.

The Dears - Demons (mp3)

Order their brand-new albums, The Dears' Missiles and Secret Machines

The Daily Flashback: "V: The Final Battle" - The Birthing Scene

Awwww, twins!!

Umalali Live

The Smudge has gone quirky today.

From the KEXP podcast site:

Umalali is a group of musicians from Belize, Honduras and Guatemala that blends the vocal stylings of the Garifuna women with rock, blues, funk, African, Latin and Caribbean music. The Garifuna people are descendants of African slaves who intermarried with the Carib and Arawak Indians of the Caribbean. You’ll be amazed by the unique beauty of this live KEXP performance.

Umalali - Live on KEXP 10-31-2008 (mp3)

Ra Ra Riot Ukelele Session

The mood today is giddy and strange - a full moon mood. The posts will accompany the mood.

The Daily Flashback: Election 1988

With today's election, the negative presidential campaigning will be over. At least until 2012. Check out this CNN exploration of the 1988 campaigns:

The Daily Flashback: Patty Smyth & Scandal - The Warrior

They're on tour now, playing at Ram's Head in Annapolis on Friday.
Yes, seriously.

Electric Owls - These Days (Jackson Browne)

About a year before Hot Fuss was released, The Killers played in front of about two dozen people at the Black Cat in DC. Nobody knew what they were seeing, but most of the people in the crowd were visibly stirred before their show ended. The band opened for Stellastarr, and TV on the Radio played the backstage downstairs. The Killers left the stage with moderate applause from not-yet adoring fans.

Fast-forward to this weekend: on Saturday night, Electric Owls (aka Andy Herod of The Comas) played the Black Cat, almost solo acoustic, opening for Bishop Allen. His accompaniment was his laptop, placed neatly on a comfortable-looking wooden chair on stage. A few people in the audience quipped "He should be called Electric OWL." If you paid close attention, though, and if you used your imagination, you could see and hear a full band behind Andy, who reminded me of a young Lindsay Buckingham playing solo, confidently hitting the chords and singing with the passion of a man singing to a sold-out venue. Nobody even flinched or crinkled a brow as he sang what was likely the most macabre verses any of them heard all Halloween week, from Cannibal Superstar:

Reflected too long on a cannibal's life,
And I found myself obsessed with thoughts of eating my wife
Oh, I am
Not an evil man
She came home and I shot her dead
And I pulled her favorite pillowcases over her head
Oh, then I
Faded and cried
Whoah, what have I done?
Get in the car
I am a cannibal superstar

I suspect that in six months or so, not too long after Electric Owls' debut LP release date, that the people I shared the floor with on November 1st, 2008, will then, and not sooner, realize that they witnessed a very special half-hour of live music, and make a good fuss about it.

Here's a Jackson Browne cover from the show:

Electric Owls - These Days (Jackson Browne)(Black Cat, 11-1-2008)(mp3)

Get the Electric Owls EP from their myspace.

By the way, if you wondered, yes, Bishop Allen was absolutely fantastic.

General Makeup of Techno Songs

The Daily Flashback: You May Come To Me Now

From Buck Rogers In the 25th Century - "Space Vampire" episode.

Electric Owls EP available now.

The Electric Owls EP, which I've had on repeat for two days now, will be released next week. It plays like a tapestry of atmospheres passed through in a dream state, adrift on arpeggiated chords, synth, and an acrobatic, yet intimate vocal delivery from the Comas' lead singer. You can get it now when you order a limited-edition, hand-stamped copy directly from Andy on his Myspace. Electric Owls will be playing at the Black Cat in D.C. this Saturday. I'll see you there.

Electric Owls - Magic Show (mp3)

The Daily Flashback: This Is Spinal Tap - "This Piece Is Called 'Lick My Love Pump'"

(Funk) Court's In Session

Judge, I got a boy that can't dance.
Can't dance??
Can't dance, your honor.
Well, that's 30 days. 30 days for the Boogaloo. And 30 days for the Shingaling. And 30 mo' for the Afro Twist.

Larry and Tommy - Here Come The Judge (mp3)
Ann Alford - Gotta Get Me A Job (mp3)

From SuperFunk, Vol. 1

Of Montreal, Live on The Current, 10-25-2008

The Daily Flashback: Spies Like Us - Cheating on the Foreign Service Exam

The Daily Flashback: Over The Top (Stallone)

The Daily Flashback: My Bodyguard - "You Broke My Nose."

Live from NYC: Sonic Youth, Broken Social Scene, and Fujiya & Miyagi

Broken Social Scene, Live at CMJ, 10-24-2008 (via KEXP)(mp3)
Fujiya & Miyagi, Live at CMJ, 10-23-2008 (KEXP)(mp3)
Sonic Youth, Live at Battery Park, 7-4-2008 (WFMU)

Vivian Girls, live at CMJ on KEXP (podcast)

From Gibson Showroom, 10-20-2008. Download the KEXP podcast here (mp3).

Pidgeon: California (Is For F**kers)

Lsat month, Pidgeon quietly released Might As Well Go And Eat Worms (on Absolutely Kosher), their follow-up to 2004's From Gutter With Love. Lucky for us, that is likely the only thing they will do quietly.

Pidgeon - California (is for F**ckers)(mp3)

Also: the original version of Mania in Lithuania, of which they said "We didn't put in on the record because we think we can do it better someday." An updated version is on the new record.

Careful Love

Listen to Jimmy Liggins and His Drops of Joy swagger. You believe the man. Originally released on Specialty records.

Jimmy Liggins and His Drops Of Joy - Careful Love (mp3)

Funk obscuritee

If you like the funk, you will love YouTube user obscuritee, AND her sister, obscuritee23. And to love them is to love their father, from whom they inherited their impeccable taste.

Here's one of the treasures posted by obscuritee:



And the mp3:
Bobby Womack & J.J. Johnson - Harlem Clavinette (mp3)

Lizzy Grant - Kill Kill

I remember hearing Thom Yorke in an interview a few years ago, talking about the power of ambiguity in words and phrases. Lizzy Grant's lyrical connotations are at once sexy and sinister, while her vocal delivery carries a slinky, determined innocence straight from the trailer park, supported by throwback grooves evocative of Nancy Sinatra, with a jazz attitude. Her visual messages are dangerously alluring. You won't be able to leave her songs without assigning your own personal meaning, and you are likely to be disturbed with what you come up with.

Lizzy Grant - Kill Kill (mp3)

See her at CMJ on the 24th, before she starts filling arenas.

Ra Ra Riot - live, Black Cat, 10-12-2008 (podcast)

The Ra Ra Riot show from the Black Cat on Sunday night is up on NPR.org. Download the podcast here (mp3).

Age of Rockets - What Story Down There Awaits Its End?

Here's a multilayered lullaby from a haunted future, courtesy The Age of Rockets. Listen for the mechanical music box notes near the end of its wind, and distant muted synth organ harmonies--floating languorously toward sleep, but somehow, keenly aware. Perhaps the most daring thing about it: it's the first track on the album.

The Age of Rockets - What Story Also Awaits Its End? (mp3)

Ra Ra Riot, Live at the Black Cat, 10-12-2008

Listen to Ra Ra Riot's inspired, impassioned live performance from the Black Cat in Washington, D.C. from Sunday night on NPR.org.

Here are the first four (mp3s):

Each Year
St. Peter's Day Festival
Oh, La
Winter '05

Of Montreal, Live at the 9:30 Club, 10-9-2008 (mp3 podcast)

Download here; stream it here. Of Montreal's Skeletal Lamping is receiving intense universal love right now, and everywhere.

Subscribe to the All Songs Considered podcast.

Juliette Commagere - Queens Die Proudly

Juliette Commagere was joined by Ry & Joachim Cooder on her forthcoming album, Queens Die Proudly. You'd swear that she also recruited Owen Pallet (aka Final Fantasy) for the looping string work that you hear at the beginning of this study in transformation, which explores pop, new wave, and disco, blending high synth notes with hyperarpeggiated chords and simple, sweet vocal melodies.

Juliette Commagere - Queens Die Proudly (mp3)

You dance to Tom Jones now.

...guaranteed, you will dance to this crossover classic soul surprise. The beat, the brass, the smoothness of it all.

Tom Jones - If He Should Ever Leave You (mp3)

Tom Jones' forthcoming album, 24 Hours, is out in the US on November 25th.

Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt, Live on The Current, 10-10-2008

Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville (Live) Podcast Download

I just noticed that Liz Phair's live L.A. performance of her classic Exile In Guyville is up on NPR's podcast site. You can download it here (mp3). Not sure how much longer it will be up - it may soon be replaced with shows from Ra Ra Riot at the Black Cat and Of Montreal at the 9:30 Club.

Related Videos: Frank Black - Goodbye Lorraine (live acoustic) & Bruce Springsteen - Brilliant Disguise

Frank Black - Goodbye Lorraine (live acoustic)


Bruce Springsteen - Brilliant Disguise (live vocal)

Jean On Jean, Tonight!

Molly Schnick, formerly of the edge-dwelling leftists Out Hud, embarked on a solo journey as Jean On Jean, with a tinny acoustic guitar, Casiotone (wah and all), intimate whispers, Spectoresque vocal/hand-clap interplay, and dark cello. It feels like living room music from an empty abandoned inn, a sweet blend of innocence and eeriness born of new independence.

Jean On Jean - Tonight (mp3)

The Dead Trees

People are raving about The Dead Trees' live shows. Not surprising, since their music swaggers, drenched in young southern guitar-driven vigor. They're on tour now, and you should catch them while they're still in their little room.

The Dead Trees - Shelter (mp3)

Their Daytrotter interview is here.

Juana Molina - Un día

Somewhere between her last album and this one, Juana Molina shifted from spare, electronically tinged bossa and folk to experimental, complex rhythms and alternate acoustic guitar tunings, at times off-tune. Conventional notes and chords are used sparingly. Musically, it's a continental drift - sexy, urban South America to the dark corners of jungle islands. With this album, she has broken ground on untread soil.

Un Dia, available tomorrow, was recorded entirely by Juana at her home outside Buenos Aires. It is essential.

Un día (mp3)

Rachael Yamagata - Live on The Current, 10-3-2008

Rachael Yamagata performed for Minnesota Public Radio's The Current yesterday, and despite a case of the flu, or maybe even because of the flu, her set was magnificently hard and saw-toothed.

Songs performed: "Faster," "Accident," and "Sunday Afternoon."

Get her double-cd Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart.

Beck - Back Stage Interview On The Current, St. Paul, 9-30-2008

...I was very frustrated at my early attempts to play blues and old country because I just sounded like a 12-year old...maybe I was always a little bit of an old man, you know...

Final Fantasy - The Butcher (Video)

Okkervil River, Live on KEXP

These are from an in-studio KEXP show, recorded on Sept 17th. All three mp3s are from The Stand Ins, one of the very best albums of this year.

Okkervil River - Live on KEXP, 9-17-2008:

1. On Tour With Zykos
2. Singer Songwriter (mp3)
3. Pop Lie (mp3)
4. Starry Stairs
5. Calling And Not Calling My Ex (mp3)
6. Maine Island Lovers
7. Blue Tulip
8. Lost Coastlines (mp3)
9. Our Life Is Not A Movie, Or Maybe
10. Unless It's Kicks

Organs On The Kitchen Floor

The Jealous Girlfriends' Holly Miranda

Next Saturday, October 11th, The Wedding Present and The Jealous Girlfriends will play at the Black Cat in D.C., and at North Star in Philly on Friday. I wouldn't miss either band's performance, especially after watching these clips of live performances of songs from one of this years most overlooked and underrated albums:





Thanks to myspace music, you can easily preview the album.

And here's the mp3 for the first video:
The Jealous Girlfriends - Organs on the Kitchen Floor (mp3)

Order The Jealous Girlfriends.

Seconds Away...

The Legends' Seconds Away (mp3) is piercing, punishing noise, a ferocious bark on the surface, but underneath, there's a tender pop melody, with vocal harmonies that would sound at home in one of Yo La Tengo's more upbeat selections. The noise is almost overbearing, but like a Tarantino movie, it compels you to handle it for the sake of its accompanied beauty.

Single out November 5th from Labrador.

Megan Fox and Black Lips, Summer Glau and Hot Tubs

Q: Where can one find brilliant music videos?
A: GQ.com, of course.

...though I must admit, I'd rather see the shoot in which Summer Glau, as my favorite Terminator ever, displayed her mettle as she pulled the exploded Jeep shrapnel out of the back of her head. Now, there's a woman.

Cheers to the GQ Music Editor Guy, whoever you are. We all want your job.

Megan Fox + Black Lips' Veni, Vidi, Vici (mp3) (from Good Bad Not Evil):


Summer Glau + Foxboro Hottubs' Red Tide (mp3) (from Stop Drop And Roll):

Backbeat Band - Money/Long Tall Sally, Live on the 1994 MTV Movie Awards

Thurston Moore took major liberties in Long Tall Sally, delightful liberties.

From 9 June 1994:



Backbeat Band:

Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs)
Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum)
Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)
Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters/Nirvana)
Don Fleming (Gumball)
Mike Mills (R.E.M.)

May The Schwartz Be With You.

...and also with me.

Lucy Schwartz is a little pop, a little jazz, a big beautiful voice, and hell of a lot of agreeable.

Lucy Schwartz - Paper Plane (mp3)

From Winter in June