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

Thurston Moore, Guitar God, 1996.

Sonic Youth - Starfield Road (mp3)

From Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star

The Gorgeous Colors - Miss You

Miss you, the things you do.

-The Gorgeous Colors

One of the beautiful ironies in pop music is the bright arpeggio from the yearning.

The Gorgeous Colors - Miss You (mp3)

Own The Gorgeous Colours.

Liz Durrett - The One I Love

Also, "Not Running," with Vic Chestnutt:



Liz Durrett's new album, Outside Our Gates, is a haunting search in the center of dark woods, a story of the lost looking for the lost.

Liz Durrett - Wild As Them (mp3)

Beck - Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Bob Dylan)

Beck - Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Bob Dylan)(mp3)

From his performance at The Independent, San Francisco, 8-31-2008.

Yer Cheatin Heart

Beck - Your Cheatin' Heart (Hank Williams)(mp3)

From Timeless: Hank Williams Tribute

The Walkmen, Live on The Current, Today.

From MPR. Listen here.

Taking my bat for a fly

Beck - Vampire Voltage no. 6 (mp3)

From Chemtrails 7".

Motown 1970

The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 10: 1970 was quietly released last month. If you don't have the hundred bucks to spend on the 6-disc treasure, individual singles and alternate mixes are available to pick and choose from on iTunes.

Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)(Alternate Mix) (mp3)
Stevie Wonder - Somebody Knows, Somebody Cares (mp3)

Radiohead NPR Podcast

I just finished listening to Radiohead's concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl (Sep 5), thanks to NPR, and I'm still in a blessed post-Radiohead state. This is about as good as a live podcast is going to get.

The 2-hour show is still available for download here.

Okkervil River - Blue Tulip

Hats off to my distant hope
A little lie, a puff of smoke...

The Stand Ins, Okkervil River's follow-up to their critically rejoiced The Stage Names, is out today. The words are signature Will Sheff; he lives in the songs, and the songs exhale his tragic spirit. This one begins with his voice comfortably accompanied with piano and acoustic guitar, probably his tour favorite Martin D15. But if you started the song at five minutes rather than at the beginning, at this song's soaring height, you'd be surprised if someone claimed this were from the new Okkervil River, with that searing guitar shredding and distorting the upper register. Will Sheff can make a song soar on his own, but the addition of Wrens' guitarist Charles Bissel takes some of the songs on The Stand-Ins to a whole new level. The band follows Blue Tulip with a sardonic upper/downer, a tough, devastating guitar/synth pop song about the artificiality of pop songs and/or pop stars. The Stage Names was my top album of 2007, and The Stand-Ins will occupy a position at the top of my 2008 list.

Okkervil River - Blue Tulip (mp3)

Ben Gibbard with Zooey Deschanel: (All I Have To Do Is) Dream

40 seconds of their performance at the Manifest Hope Gallery in Denver is all I could find.

Sonya Kitchell: For Every Drop

Surely Sonya Kitchell is not 19 years young, that must be a typo. I refuse to believe it after listening to this. She sounds so seasoned and experienced, yet controlled. Her new album, This Storm, is out today on Decca/Velour.

Sonya Kitchell - For Every Drop (mp3)