Tuesday's New Music Releases

Big decision day here in the U.S. tomorrow for music fans, with highly recommended releases from Andrew Bird, LCD Soundsystem, and Modest Mouse, as well as buzzworthies from El-P, Panda Bear, and the totally sexy Ponys, Willowz and uber-babe Joss Stone. Hope you saved your money.

Adult. - Why Bother
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
J Dilla - Ruff Draft (Dlx)
El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid - Tongues
I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends US release; already out in Europe
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Living With the Living
Low - Drums & Guns
Jesse Malin - Glitter in the Gutter
Willy Mason - If the Ocean Gets Rough
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
The Ponys - Turn the Lights Out (Dig)
Radical Face - Ghost (Dig)
RTX - Western Xterminator
Joss Stone - Introducing Joss Stone
Tracey Thorn - Out of the Woods
The Willowz - Chautauqua
Young Buck - Buck The World
The Zincs - Black Pompadour

Andrew Bird, Live at SXSW, on MPR, 3-16-2007

Andrew Bird played three songs from SXSW for Minnesota Public Radio' The Current on Friday. He scintillates live. I can't wait to see him this year.

Andrew Bird, Live at SXSW, on MPR, 3-16-2007 (mp3s):

Plasticities
Imitosis
Scythian Empires

Sit down with Armchair Apocrypha.

The Good, The Bad, and The Queen: Live on Letterman and NPR

The Good, The Bad, and The Queen "project" played at the 9:30 Club this week, and the nice people at NPR have made the entire show downloadable as an mp3 here (right click-save as).

The project also played a song on Letterman the night before last.

The Good, The Bad, and The Queen - Herculean (Live on Letterman 3-13-2007) (mp3)

Own The Good, the Bad & the Queen.

Earl Greyhound @ SXSW, Live on KEXP, 3-14-2007

Long live the gargantuan guitar amp and drum. Long live epic rock.

Earl Greyhound @ SXSW, Live on KEXP, 3-14-2007 (mp3s):

Monkey
Yeah, I Love You
Fashion
It's Over
Good
S.O.S.
Interview

Own Soft Targets, and get yourself to their live shows, of which The New Yorker's Sasha Frere Jones wrote “Whether or not Earl Greyhound are the Next Big Thing is irrelevant—watching them will convince you that they are,” and “Ricc Sheridan is the most exciting drummer in New York. His arms are as big as fire hydrants, his timekeeping is implacable, and the force of his playing would make any reasonable drummer cry.”

The Indie Rock May Be In Austin

...but today we're bringing you red-hot soul from Houston. Come on, now. Let's do the Football, baby. Move those shoulders, baby.



Acres of Grass - Football (mp3)
Charles Berry and the Cherries - Ain't That Something (mp3)
Ovide All-Stars - One Number Cancels the Other (mp3)

You gotta move to the sweaty southern funk on Funky Funky Houston.

Amy Winehouse, Live on Letterman, 3-12-2007

Amy Winehouse performed Rehab on Letterman last night. She appeared more conservative than I expected in her U.S. live television debut, but her voice was spot-on.

Amy Winehouse - Rehab, Live on SNL, 3-12-2007 (mp3)

Own Back to Black.

Grinderman.

File this under testosterone.

Nick Cave has had a long creative affair with the primeval, the base instincts of man. He is a primate's primate, and his music projects the depths he channels. Wit Lyre of Orpheus/Abbatoir Blues, he's nearly perfected the art of bringing forth the animus, and his latest project, Grinderman, kicks it up a notch, and grabs hold of those dark corners of the mind with rusty grappling hooks and yanks them into clear view.

It all starts with Nick Cave calls "a lament for the messianic rock 'n roll hero," the startler Get It On, "a statement of intent" that conjures images of mice, dogs, baboons, and an primitive, unrefined animal born of the primordial ooze of early blues. Cave's guitar appropriately grinds and howls throughout.

The ubiquitous No Pussy Blues follows, beginning, like its predecessor, with a stream of consciousness presented as an announcement, delivered like a preacher: "My face is finished. My body's gone and I can't help but think standing here in all this applause and gazing down at all the young and the beautiful with their questioning eyes that I must above all things love myself, that I must above all things love myself..."

Electric Alice (mp3) slows it down for a moment, but the song is still in the wilderness. A nod to the improvisational wonder Alice Coltrane and to Larry Young, the song wanders and veers, a semiconscious dreamscape meandering, or a midnight lamentation, or maybe both.

Fast forward to Honey Bee (Let's Fly To Mars)(mp3), which Cave describes as "Joseph and Mary's flight into Egypt, but you know, reworked." Listen to the guitars wail as Cave buzzes with stinging fury, the narrator begging them to carry him away, "literally repulsed into orbit by the banal horror of the world..."

Others have posted Love Bomb, because it's certified badass, propelled by demonic rage. Or something similar.

Own Grinderman by clicking on the link to the right under "The Smudge Recommends."

New Figurines Vid - Back In The Day

Here's a new video for the Figurines' Back In The Day. It's the album cover come to life, spare and mysterious.



And two reasons that I still love Skeleton:

The Wonder MP3
Rivalry MP3

Still Beat.

Check out this brilliant, eerie yet comforting video from Harlan. According to promo notes, "the guy behind the band basically left his job in NYC and moved to a small cabin in the hills of his native Kentucky to paint and write music."

Respect.



The LP comes out next month. The pop dreaminess sounds like this:

Computer Games Under The Sun
Days of Delirium
Sons and Daughters

Be the first to own the Still Beat Lp.

Midlake, Live, KEXP, 3-7-2007

Yesterday, KEXP aired four songs that Midlake performed for them on the 7th. This is an unusually lush, rich, and full in-studio.

Midlake, Live, KEXP 3-7-2007 (mp3s):

Bandits
Van Occupanther
Roscoe
Head Home

Own The Trials of Van Occupanther.

Ted Leo, Live, WOXY's Lounge Act, 2 March 2007

Ted Leo played some songs in a great performance for WOXY's Lounge Act last week (the podcast is available here).

Ted Leo, Live for WOXY's Lounge Act, 2 March 2007 (mp3s):

Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?
The "Nice People" Argument
A Bottle Of Buckie
- interview -
The Living Kind
Me And Mia

Own Living With the Living, and for a limited time, get a five-song bonus EP.

Je Suis.

Delphine Desyeux unconvincingly sings of being a tigress. But you know what? Look at that photo down there. She can be whatever she wants to.

Delphine Desyeux - Je Suis la Tigresse (I'm a Tiger) (mp3)



And Christine Pilzer, whose tone is less innocent, sings of Café Crème, because she just enjoys that warm milk in her coffee.

Christine Pilzer - Café Crème (mp3)




These songs and more are on the impressive Swinging Mademoiselles: Groovy French Sounds from the 60s

Georgie James, Live on WOXY, 3-5-2007

I've had the Demos At Dance Place EP for a long time now, and the forthcoming Georgie James album is one of my most anticipated releases. Their live performance for WOXY's Lounge Act yesterday was a nice teaser. The podcast should be posted on WOXY soon. Meanwhile, there's this:

Georgie James - Live on WOXY, 3-5-2007 (mp3s):

Look Me Up
Places
Cake Parade
Interview
Need Your Needs
More Lights
Only 'Cause You're Young

Land of Talk.

Montreal's Land of Talk is touring with Menomena and Field Music this spring. Yes, I said Menomena and Field Music. Make sure you get there early enough to catch them. Listen to the electricity in this track. It's going to be an overload of mania. Hope to see you there...somewhere.

Land of Talk - Speak To Me Bones (mp3)

Get the Menomena and Field Music by clicking over there on the right, and own Applause Cheer Boo Hiss (Dig) for the trifecta.

Au Revoir Fallen Snow

Lovely.


Own Au Revoir Simone's Bird of Music

Peter Bjorn and John, Live on AOL's The Interface

Download the podcast here.

Own Smudge-recommended (as listed over there on the right) Writer's Block (LTD Edition with Bonus Disc)

Your Kingdom For A Song

Kaspar Hauser knows that you really can't go wrong when you set the 66-key Casio to "Harpsichord," add a good measure of some hand claps, sing about trading "your kingdom for a song," and top it all off with repeating falsettos and a harmonica at the end. It's a recipe for success every time. You try.

Kaspar Hauser - King Pop (mp3)



It's also hard to go wrong when you're a North London trio like Fatels, pleasing the kids at live shows with a hot drummer/background singer giving it up like this, and propelling a lead singer that sounds sort of like Robert Smith, and lead guitar that gets turned up at just the right time, like this:

Fatels - Sunni Cher (mp3)

Tough Luck Kid will be available for download April 10th 2007.

I Love Things.

This two-pack came in the e-mail yesterday. First up is the catchy title track from the Lucky Soul album. It's an energetic pop construction that takes a dark turn when the chant "It's your body, you can die if you want to, die if you want to, die if you want to" comes in.

Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted (mp3)


The closing question was "what do you think of these lot - they're called Buen Chico." My answer: Oh, yes. Please send more.

Buen Chico - Things (mp3)

Silversun Pickups' iTunes Session

Just wanted to say: the Silversun Pickups' Live iTunes Session sounds very, very good. That's all.

Depression Blues

These are depression-era blues from the 20's and 30's. You won't find insincerity here.

Charley Jordon - Starvation Blues (mp3)
Bo Carter & Walter Vinson - Times Is Tight Like That (mp3)

From Hard Times Come Again No More, Vol. 2.

I Just Wanna Be (Like Moi).

How deep do you feel that piano in this live cover of Hey, Jude, by Overton Berry Trio? Sooooo deep. And the title I Just Wanna Be (Like Myself) surely signals a song that is about as shallow as the singer's narcissism, right? Or does it?? Listen closely. And the way the drums roll out the red carpet for the other instruments to strut over in Cissy Strut, only to roll all of them up into a relentless drum solo, and then slowly let them squirm out again. Feel this.

Overton Berry Trio - Hey Jude (Live) (mp3)
Robbie Hill's Family Affair - I Just Wanna Be (Like Myself) (mp3)
Johnny Lewis Trio - Cissy Strut (Live) (mp3)

All from Wheedle's Groove: Seattles Finest in Funk & Soul 1965-75

Pan in the Full Moon

Chorus of Night Voices

This is the night of revelation. This is the night the dolls wake. This is the night of the dreamer in the attic. This is the night of the piper in the woods.

From Enchanted Night, by Millhauser.

Ofelia: My name is Ofelia. Who are you?
Pan: Me? I've had so many names. Old names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce. I am the mountain, the forest and the earth. I am... I am a faun. Your most humble servant, Your Highness.

From Pan's Labyrinth.

Javier Navarrete - The Labyrinth
Javier Navarrete - Pan and the Full Moon
Javier Navarrete - Pan's Labyrinth Lullaby

Tom Brosseau - Live on KEXP, 1-19-2007

Singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau sang four songs for KEXP last month, his shimmering voice accompanied by his gently fingerpicked acoustic guitar and Grammy-winning classical violinist Hilary Hahn. I wish there were video of this.

Tom Brosseau - Live on KEXP, 1-19-2007 (mp3s):

Brass Ring Blues
Blue Part of the Windshield (with Hilary Hahn)
Jane & Lou
Fork In The Road (with Hilary Hahn)

Own Grand Forks.

Arcade Fire, Live on SNL, 2-24-2007

If you somehow missed it, and your Tivo or VCR malfunctioned, this is the glorious sound that Arcade Fire made on SNL last night.

Arcade Fire - Intervention (Live on SNL 2-24-2007)(mp3)

Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running (Live on SNL 2-24-2007)(mp3)

Own the forthcoming Neon Bible.

Down In Black Bottom

What is best in life?

Sometimes, it is to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.

Other times, and this is one of them, it's scratchy old piano blues static.

Freddie Nicholson - You Gonna Miss Me Blues (mp3)
Speckled Red - The Right String, But The Wrong Yo-Yo (mp3)

From Down In Black Bottom: Lowdown Barrelhouse Piano.

Sparklehorse - Live on MPR, 2-20-2007

Mark Linkous' Sparklehorse recently played three songs for Minnesota Public Radio's The Current. Linkous' lyrics dig into the hidden corridors of the brain, and his music is the slow drill that lets them in.

Sparklehorse - Live at MPR, 2-20-2007 (mp3s):

Return To Me
Saturday
Spirit Ditch

Own Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain

Soul Searching

Here's a pick-me-up. If you don't catch some of the spirit in this rousing gospel music, at least you'll be standing up and moving.

Violinaires - What He Done For Me (mp3)
Troy Ramey and the Soul Searchers - By The Power Of God (mp3)

From the Hyena Records Compilation, Gospel Music.

Take Your Winterpills And Fall Into Your Nightmares Gently.

I would normally argue that words this tormented should be complemented with minor chord dissonance, scratchy vocals, and miscellaneous sounds from gutters, dark alleys, sinister labyrinths, and dungeons. Winterpills have convinced me that despair can be just as forceful when done sweetly, with lush vocal harmonies and tender melodies set in a dreamy pop backdrop. Listen to how gorgeous heartbreak can sound.

Winterpills - Angels Fall (mp3)
Winterpills - Broken Arm (mp3)

Order their new album, The Light Divides, out February 27th.

Grizzly Bear, Live on KEXP, 2-16-2007

Grizzly Bear's Yellow House made scores of best-of-year lists in 2006. My bet is that if you stashed those lists away for another year or two, and then pulled them out again, you'd find that Yellow House is one of the few albums you still listen to regularly. The songs resonate; they still hit me as hard as they did the first time I listened to them, especially when they perform them as powerfully as they do here. This version of Knife owns me.

Grizzly Bear (Live, KEXP, 2-16-2007) (mp3s):

Easier
Knife
(Interview)
He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) (The Crystals Cover)
On a Neck, On a Spit

Get the original version of He Hit Me... on the Grizzly Bear Blog.

Own Yellow House.

Dig My Taters and Face the Consequences.

I was going to go all Lilith with today's post, but then I had a change of heart and decided to go the other way. I feel like a better man for it.

Memphis Slim - Digging My Potatoes (mp3)
Memphis Slim - When I've Been Drinking (mp3)

From Memphis Slim: Favorite Blues Singers, available at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

I Love The Way You Do Your Thing.

Simply stated, Neal Hemphill was a blue-collar worker with a deep passion for music. But peeling away the layers of his history reveals so much more. In a time when other studios focused solely on country, gospel or jingles, the Sound of Birmingham was the only with an open door policy, willing to record any type of music by anybody who happened to stop by.

Some called Neal an innovator – a man in constant search of a sound or "the sound", experimenting heavily with strange microphone placements, homemade echo chambers, and unique instrumentation like vacuum cleaners and 2x4"s. The downbeat on the gold record ‘I've Been Lonely for So Long’ was a 2x4" being hit on a drum stool.

Some simply knew him as a man with a heart and mind as open as the doors of his studio, which he built in the basement of his plumbing shop on Bessemer Super Highway in the working-class suburb of Midfield in the mid-60s.

-from Birmingham Record Collectors.

Folks, that's a perfect example of the healthy kind of obsessive love. Sweet soul sound, will you be my valentine? And this is how that passion, that spirit, and that energy reflects:

Cold Grits - Funky Soul (mp3)
Pat Peterman - I Love The Way You Do Your Thing (mp3)

Own Birmingham Sound: The Soul of Neal Hemphill, Vol. 1.

The Dark Chamber

Camera Obscura played another live set for KEXP yesterday, just as pop-dreamy as their performance in July of last year.

Camera Obscura, Live on KEXP, 2-12-2007 (mp3s)

Come Back Margaret
Let's Get Out Of This Country
I Love My Jean
I Need All The Friends I Can Get

Own Let's Get Out of This Country.

Bracing for the Storm.

Salt truck, salt truck, clear my path
All my dreams have frozen fast
I want roads that I can drive on
I want a love I can rely on.

Salt truck, salt truck, it’s a shame
Driving in the freezing rain
I want roads that I can drive on
I want a man I can rely on.

Salt truck, salt truck.

Salt truck, salt truck, after hours
Spinning in the snowflake showers
I want roads that I can drive on
I want a friend that I can rely on...

Eleni Mandell - Salt Truck (mp3)

Mandell conjured up the road song "Salt Truck" as she and her bandmates were trying to get from Detroit to New York on the I-80 during a treacherous winter storm. “It was just harrowing,” she remembers, “and any time a salt truck would appear to lay down the salt on the road, we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. So it became a kind of metaphor for life and love.”

- Starkult Promotion

Eleni Mandell's new album, The Miracle of Five, has the kind of smart, honest songwriting that makes records endure for decades. She articulates and bares insecurities like no one else.


Here's a video to an equally brilliant song from the same album:



I wonder how you look when you sleep
Do you still dream about girls from your street
Do you still dream about girls from high school
Do you still dream about girls girls girls?

And one more:



Singing like he could be crying, leaping or lying,
Looking for love to keep him from dying.

Standing On The Corner Watching The Foxes Walk By

Mighty Mike Lenaburg is the latest compilation in Numero's Eccentric Soul series, and it might be the most raw. Here we have Michael Liggins opening up a song with some falsetto whoo-hoo-hoos, ungracefully seguing into the subject matter of standing on an L.A. corner, watching foxes walk by. Then we've got Lon Rogers & the Soul Blenders, talking up his girl to his friends by telling them "she's full of soul/from head to toe" and "she's full of soul/from head to feet."

Michael Liggins - Standing On The Corner (mp3)

Lon Rogers & Soul Blenders - My Girl Is A Soul Girl (mp3)

All You Need Is A Moment

Bebel Gilberto's latest album, Momento, will be out soon, but we need a good injection of hot neo-Bossa now more than ever, don't we. From her myspace:

On Momento Gilberto also comes into her own as a songwriter, writing or co-writing the majority of the songs, and delivers three impressive covers ­ “Caçada” (mp3) (written by her uncle and famed songwriter Chico Buarque); “Tranquilo” (mp3)(written by young Rio producer Kassin) and a heart-stopping Bossa-Jazz version of Cole Porter’s classic “Night And Day.” “I take total responsibility for this album,” Gilberto says of Momento. “I took a lot of risks: trying different approaches, experimenting with sounds and getting away from the perfectionism of the studio. This one is more about my feelings and views. It reflects who I am now, as a person and as an artist.”

DESCO

I know, I missed yesterday's post. I'm still alive, though maybe just a little seasonally affected. It's damn cold outside. All this calls for a counteractive force, hence the hot funk.

So the first little upper is this one, in which Lee Fields flaunts her funk sensibility and her wisdom simultaneously with the sage advice for modern times, Let A Man Do What He Wanna Do (mp3).

And the second one is a brainwash of sorts: Sharon Jones' Damn, It's Hot (mp3), who could convince me that it is if my bones were Bose condensate.

Both mp3s from the Spike's Choice, Vol. 1: Desco Funk 45 Collection.

Deerhoof, Live on KEXP, 1-31-2006

Deerhoof is more than a band. They're an unconventional adventure, constantly pushing and blurring musical boundaries. Around every corner, there's a guitar lick or some sort of yelp, or, or something that screams, "Hey, look at me!", and you look, because dammit, it's unpredictable, and you love that, don't you. Yesterday, they played these five songs for KEXP as though they were trapped in them and wouldn't rest until they tore their way to freedom.

Deerhoof, Live on KEXP, 1-31-2007 (mp3s):
Milkman
Twin Killers
The Eyebright Bugler
81+/Wrong Time Capsule


Buy Friend Opportunity.

God's Atomic Bomb

The Swan Silvertones move me. I was just reading their page on the Vocal Hall of Fame website (they were inducted in 2002), which says:

THE SWAN SILVERTONES are a premiere gospel group and one of the great music experiences awaiting anyone who has never heard them. If you are not a fan of gospel music or "religious" music of any kind, don't let that fact deter you from having this unique listening experience. This is pure music at the highest level.

...

The a cappella quartet Four Harmony Kings was created by tenor Claude Jeter in 1938 in Coalwood, West Virginia, but the name was changed to the Swan Silvertones when they began a 15-minute radio show sponsored by the Swan Bakery Company on the Knoxville station WBIR in 1942.

...

Perhaps their greatest hit was "Oh Mary Don't You Weep," released in 1959 -- an incredible listening experience. It is in this song that Claude Jeter intones the phrase "I'll be a bridge over deep water, if you trust in my name" that inspired Paul Simon to compose "Bridge Over Troubled Water" some years later...

Again, these guys never fail to move me. These three tracks do it in different ways.

The Swan Silvertones mp3s:

Oh Mary, Don't You Weep

If You Believe Your God Is Dead (Try Mine)

Jesus is God's Atomic Bomb

Amazon.com has a treasury of Swan Silvertones.

2 Spooky

Doubly Spooky.

Cal Tjader - Spooky (mp3)
(from Mambo Sangria)

REM - Spooky (Live, 1991) (mp3)(from KCRW Studios, Santa Monica, California, April 3, 1991.)

...and here are a couple more tracks from the same REM performance.

Love Is All Around (Live, 1991) (mp3)
Fall On Me (Live, 1991) (mp3)

We Might Not Sleep At All This Year

I just noticed that 75 or Less Records released the full-length follow-up to Rhode Island's A Passing Feeling's self-titled EP. For a mere 5 bucks, you get a limited edition, numbered disc with a hand screen-printed cover. Inside, you'll find a band who memorized and could probably rewrite the Guitar Grimoire, with chord progressions and hooks that are backed by a driving rhythm section.

A Passing Feeling mp3s:

From We Might Not Sleep At All This Year:

Red/Gold


From the A Passing Feeling EP:

Book of Matches
Probably

Buy their stuff at 75 Or Less.

Gary Young - Plantman (video)

A classic. The quality is poor, but wasn't it always, sorta?

Alcohol, Let's Get On Down.

TGIF.

This is how today's gonna go:

Robert Jay - Alcohol, Pt. 1 (mp3)

The Black Aces of Soul and the Eyes of Ebony - Let's Get On Down (mp3)

From Searching for Soul: Rare and Classic Soul, Funk and Jazz (Luv N Haight)

The Theme.

Art Blakey drummed so mindlessly and efficiently that he appeared inseparable from his set. It's that kind of intimacy that turns talent into art, earns one the title 'late great,' and guarantees that people will still be listening to this long after most of our names have been forgotten.

Art Blakey (with these Jazz Messengers: Billy Harper – tenor sax, Julian Preister – trombone, Ronnie Matthews – piano, Bill Hardman – trumpet, Lawrence Evans – bass)- Theme (Live at Slug's, NYC) (mp3)

From the essential Live! At Slug's NYC.

Watch this Art Blakey drum solo:

The Shins (With Anita Robinson) - Turn On Me, Live on Letterman 1-23-2007

The Shins scintillated on Letterman last night, with Anita Robinson of Viva Voce on accompanying vocals. I hope you were able to pick up their new CD yesterday - I could be wrong, I haven't checked my facts - but I think it's the latest Maslow's need. Here's reason for you to pick up concert tickets as well.

The Shins (w/Anita Robinson) - Turn On Me (Live on Letterman 1-23-2007) (mp3)

Own Wincing the Night Away.

Nellie McKay - Live on Letterman 1-22-2007

Just as Nellie McKay falls off the radar, she works her way back in with a late show appearance, and looks and sounds fabulous. Last night she refreshed her status as a blip on Letterman.

...and a couple of weeks ago, she had NPR's Song Of The Day.

Nellie McKay - Happy Flower (Live on Letterman 1-22-2007) (mp3)

Own the Pretty Little Head 2-disc set.

Annuals, Live on Conan 1-18-2007

Annuals made their network TV debut on Conan last Thursday. This is how good they were:



And, of course, the mp3:

Annuals - Carry Around (Live on Conan, 1-18-2007)

Own the acclaimed Be He Me.

Emily Haines, Live on The Current, 1-13-2007

...and then she played a Neil Young cover and two other songs for Minnesota Public Radio's The Current on a snowy January afternoon. I think it was snowy, anyway. That voice, though, could melt an ice cap.

Emily Haines, Live on The Current, 1-13-2007 (mp3s):

Expecting To Fly (Neil Young)
The Last Page
Reading In Bed

Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, Live at the 9:30, 1-10-2007

Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton played the 9:30 Club last week. NPR and the 9:30 Club have made the show available as an mp3 download. This is how she introduces Winning:

I can just tell that you know that my record is not depressing...it's another sing-along, people...it's a song for people who cry in the bathtub, where no one can see your tears.

Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, Live at the 9:30, 1-10-2007 (mp3s):

Our Hell
Winning

Own Knives Don't Have Your Back.

Robyn Hitchcock with REM (Live, Oxford, 1-7-2007)

Michael [Stipe] and Mike [Mills] joined Peter [Buck], Scott, Bill Reiflin and Robyn Hitchcock during an encore from Robyn and the Venus 3's set in Oxford, England tonight. The band (basically the touring party minus Ken) played Hitchcock's Arms of Love, I'm Gonna DJ, and Byrds standard Eight Miles High.

Thom Yorke, an Oxford native, was in attendance.

-from Murmurs.com

Robyn Hitchcock with R.E.M. (Live at The Zodiac, Oxford, 1-7-2007)(mp3s):

Mills on Peter Buck's Rickenbacker:
Electrolite
Arms Of Love

Mills on base:
I'm Gonna DJ

Mills on guitar, minus Stipe:
Listening To The Higsons
Give It To The Soft Boys

The entire concert can be found at dimeadozen.org.

Live R.E.M.

On REM HQ last week:

Excitement is already beginning to build for a Berry, Buck, Mills, Stipe performance in New York City on March 12th with yesterday's announcement of R.E.M's selection as one of five inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In other news, the band surprised Oxford Sunday night with a couple of songs at the Zodiac during a Robyn Hitchcock gig. It also appears that recording plans are shaping up. Mike and MIchael have spent a few days in London where they met up with Peter (playing with R. Hitchcock) to discuss the things bands tend to discuss prior to rehearsals, which, according to Bertis who is also in the UK with the guys, incidentally appear to be taking place in late January/early February.

It's exciting, but it would be even more so if Berry worked with the band in studio.

Here are two live classics. The first is twangy and fun, and the second indisputably rocks.

R.E.M. - (Don't Go Back To) Rockville (Live on IRS' The Cutting Edge, 1984) (mp3)

R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe (Live on The Tube, January 1983) (mp3)

And the Radio Free Europe live clip:


Own the When The Light Is Mine DVD.

Robyn Hitchcock & Peter Buck, Live on Sound Opinions, 1-14-2007

Robyn Hitchcock and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, a member of Hitchcock's backing Venus 3, were interviewed on Sound Opinions this weekend, and played this song, the first track from Hitchcock's excellent Ole! Tarantula.

Robyn Hitchcock & Peter Buck - Adventure Rocket Ship (Live on Sound Opinions, 1-14-2007) (mp3)

Two Pianists In Paris.

It's a natural fact that when you put two piano greats together in the same room, only good things can happen. Memphis Slim and Jean-Paul Amouroux prove it with these songs recorded in Paris, November 1981.

Memphis Slim & Jean-Paul Amouroux - Boogie For Two Pianos (mp3)
Memphis Slim & Jean-Paul Amouroux - Low Down Harpsichord (mp3)

From Boogie For 2 Pianos, Vol. 1, available on emusic.

Samples of Everything.

So this is what happens when jazz, blues, old school soul, and underground hip-hop merge. Sure, that was said about Arrested Development 15 years ago, and De La Soul almost 20 years ago. And yes, post-Licensed to Ill Beastie Boys. No matter. It's always refreshing to hear samples like the ones in these tracks in the context of hip-hop songs. Nightshift offers slick, smooth keyboard improv, and lyrics that come across as just as much blues as rap. The socially conscious Learn achieves a classic feel with heavy effects and deeply soulful female vocal accompaniment, and is a beautiful lament on making mistakes, minus the learning that should come with it.

Finale/Thaione Davis - Nightshift (mp3)
One Be Lo/Longshot - Learn (mp3)

Both songs from EV Records [Chicago] Presents: Everything, out 30 Jan.

You Is One Black Rat.

Remember the part in Almost Famous, where Russell pines at the high school party for something "real?" This is real.

Lighnin' Hopkins mp3s:

You Is One Black Rat (from Straight Blues)
I'm A Crawling Black Snake (from Soul Blues)

Without Nipple.

Franco-American duo The Berg Sans Nipple's Along The Quai arrived in my mailbox last night, and I immersed myself in its rhythms until I went to sleep. The melodies are simple and solemn, the beats are heavy, and the within-song transitions have a mysterious seamlessness about them. The lyrics are translucent; in Ghost, the band laments, "are there no roots or is there just nothing to cling to/liberty is a ghost who hasn't severed his shadow..." Penetrating.

The Berg Sans Nipple mp3s:

Ghost
Mystic Song

Grizzly Bear Live Smorgasbord

I don't do reposts, but I've been getting requests for these since EZ Archive went down. Grizzly Bear has also been getting e-mail requests, so I'm leaving them up indefinitely.

These are the best live in-studio performances of last year from the band that released one of the best albums of the year.

Grizzly Bear mp3s - Live, in Studio, at:

KEXP (9-14-2006)
Plans
Shift
On a Neck, On a Spit
Knife

KEXP (10-4-2006)
Plans
Service Bell
Little Brother
Knife
Interview

Minnesota Public Radio's The Current (10-8-2006)
Plans
Shift
Knife

Own Yellow House.

Heavy Funk Rarities.

TGIF: Thank God It's Funk.

Detroit Sex Machines - The Stretch (edit) (mp3)
Kashmere Stage Band - Scorpio (mp3)

From Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rarities 1968-1974, Vol. 1.

The Book Of Knots

Traineater, The Book Of Knots' follow-up to their 2005 self-titled debut, will be out in March on Anti-. It features appearances from Tom Waits, Mike Watt, John Langford, and others. On it you'll find waves of dissonance, bursts of noise, spoken word, and things that sound like the kitchen sink. That's not to say that it doesn't have tender moments, though.

Traineater (mp3) reveals the result of an angelic voice paired with acoustic guitar chords from beyond the grave. It's a marriage of the sweet and the bizarre, the same elements that characterize the rest of the album, except that "sweet" is mostly replaced by "harsh."

At first listen, Pray (mp3), which features the great Tom Waits, comes across as impressively ugly, but let it play for a little while, and you realize that it's damn catchy. The song has a rhythm and force that drive you past the harsh note combinations. Part of you will want to turn it off. But you won't. It's like drinking hard liquor. None of it goes down easy, yet you keep raising the glass.

Own Traineater in March.

Ben Gibbard - I Will Follow You Into The Dark (Live on Conan 11-8-2006)

Here's another live artifact from late 2006 - it's Ben Gibbard, solo with acoustic guitar, on Conan. Hopefully 2007 brings us the new Postal Service album.

Ben Gibbard - I'll Follow You Into The Dark (Live on Conan 11-8-2006) (mp3)

Own Death Cab For Cutie's Plans.

Lily Allen, Live on Kimmel, 12-5-06

Was 2006 Lily Allen's year? Will she have the staying power to remain popular through 2007? I hope so.

She played on Kimmel last month. Here' the mp3:

Lily Allen - Smile (Live on Kimmel, 12-5-2006) (mp3)

And here's the YouTube vid.

Own Alright, Still.

Good God! Help us to be less identical.

For the past two weeks, The Smudge has featured soul, gospel, and funk. How to end this smorgasbord of spirit and groove? If I were obvious, totally lacking in thought, utterly inflexible, and incapable of going off on a creative tangent, I'd wrap it up with a combination of the three.

Okay, I'm obvious.

But first, since I probably won't be posting again until Jan 2, here's a New Year's toast: To the mp3 blogs - the providers of beautiful obscure music downloaded mostly by other mp3 bloggers, growing exponentially in number circa the birth of our forefathers Fluxblog, Said The Gramophone, and Teaching The Indie Kids To Dance Again (RIP) - may we collectively venture out of our little circles of comfort, tap into our e-muses often, and may we find many treasures not already posted and write things not already written, without making the majority of any album available via a simple Hype Machine search.

The Modulations - This Old World Is Going Down (mp3)
Trevor Dandy - Is There Any Love (mp3)

From Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal.

Didn't It Rain

It definitely didn't snow, at least not in Michigan, where I spent Christmas.

But there was a Starbucks, where I picked up a compilation called Lifted: Songs of the Spirit, which delighted me with 15 uplifting spiritual songs from several genres - folk, country, jazz, pop...you get the idea. Everything from Thelonious Monk to Alison Krauss to Rufus Wainwright. It also has these:

Mahalia Jackson - Didn't It Rain (mp3)
The Chambers Brothers - People Get Ready (mp3)

You Better Quit Drinking Shine.

I'll take the old, raw gospel classics over the modern polished religious songs, anyday, every day.

Blind Willie Johnson - When The War Was On (mp3)

Rev. I. B. Ware with Wife and Son - You Better Quit Drinking Shine (mp3)

From Blind Willie Johnson and the Guitar Evangelists.

James Brown, Live at the 9:30 Club, Dec 28, 2005 (mp3)

Just a year before his death, the Godfather of Soul reached into his vast catalog of hit songs for a night of music, recorded live from the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Hear the full performance, originally webcast live on NPR.org Dec. 28, 2005 as part of NPR Music’s live concert series from All Songs Considered.

- From NPR Live Concert Series: James Brown In Concert

James Brown, Live at the 9:30 Club, Dec 28, 2005 (mp3) (from the same site)

Stax Southern Soul Sisters

The powerful bluesy organ intro foreshadows Mavis Staples' voice in the opening couplet to Since I Fell For You (mp3) : You made me leave my happy home/You took my love and now you're gone. There are blues in this southern soul, yet Mavis sings with the power and spirit of a gospel song; unsurprisingly, this was the first secular song that Mavis learned to sing. It's a song about loss, and it's devastating, but in the end, you don't feel that this is defeated woman, but one with an enduring spirit.

Mabel John's I'm Running Out (mp3) also has an intro that immediately attracts and holds the ear, but this one does it with play between guitar, horns, and bass. This song, too, is about the pain of bad love, and again, the triumph of a strong independent spirit, rather than a lonely woman's sorrow, is what shines through.

Both songs are from The Stax Soul Sisters.

Anita Robinson of Viva Voce to perform with The Shins on SNL

Viva Voce's Anita Robinson will be singing with The Shins on Saturday Night Live on Jan 13.

From yesterday's Viva Voce newsletter:

The big news around here is that Anita has been asked to sing with The
Shins on Saturday Night Live, Jan.13th. She'll be singing their current
single "Phantom Limb" and their 'next' big single off their new record
- Wincing The Night Away.
Anita sang on the record and those tunes in particular & we're pretty
flattered they asked her to sing on the show. It's NBC - check local
listings for time. Awesome.

We're planning a tour in the states in March - Europe in April - the
states again in May - so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for dates.

The Joy of Stax

Stax Records will be relaunched next year. Let's hope together that their new releases are filled with all the passion and spirit characteristic of their classics. Their first two signees are Isaac Hayes and Angie Stone, so they're on the right track. Also, Concord Records' John Burk old USA Today that "This is an opportunity to fill the void for real soul and R&B."

These are from It's Christmas Time Again, Stax's 1992 Christmas compilation.

Staple Singers - Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas? (mp3)
Albert King - Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin' (mp3)
Rufus Thomas - I'll Be Your Santa, Baby (mp3)

California Steamin'

Here are two more songs from What It Is!, including a funkified cover of The Mamas and The Papas' California Dreaming.

Freddi Henchi and the Soul Setters - Funky To The Bone (mp3)
Eddie Hazel - California Dreaming (mp3)

Work It On Out With Rhino

A few days ago, I posted a few tracks from The Complete Motown Singles, which is the perfect gift for the classic soul lover. There's another perfect gift for the same person - Rhino Records' What It Is! Funky Soul And Rare Grooves is a collection of four discs, 91 rare soul jewels, a glorious overload of soul and funk. This is all the soundtrack you'll need for your post-holiday treadmill workouts.

The Bar-Kays - Soul Finger (mp3)
The Stovall Sisters - Work It On Out (mp3)

New Versions of Georgie James Songs on Myspace

Listen to them now. They blew me away. My appetite for their full-length is now more whettened than a melted Frosty the Snowman.

'66 Stevie

Hip-O released the sixth collection from its The Complete Motown Singles series, last month. It's a treasure. All of the songs are from 1966, including these alternate versions of Stevie Wonder singles:

Stevie Wonder - Someday at Christmas (Alternate Version) (mp3)
Stevie Wonder - Blowin' In The Wind (Alternate Version) (mp3)
Stevie Wonder - Nothing's Too Good For My Baby (Single Version) (mp3)

Own the astounding The Complete Motown Singles Volume 6: 1966.

The Twelve Days Of Soul.

I'm going on vacation from today thru New Years. I'll be away from home, away from my music, and mostly away from the blog. I'll probably get a few posts in. They'll probably be soul. Just wanted you to know. Wherever you are, I hope your holidays are going to be as perfect as mine will be.

Rumba In The Congo

The packaging for the Crammed Records' Roots of Rumba Rock (Congo Classics 1953-1955) double-disc reissue immediately captures the eye, with its scarlet & white lettering hovering atop a Congolese gentleman adjusting the dial of an antique radio. The photographs inside the the disc are just as captivating, with musicians and dancers lost in the rhythm, and they are a reflection of the music on the disc.

This isn't something that you're going to pop into your CD player and listen to from beginning to end. It's not Congotronics, though Vincent Kenis compiled the collection. It's a collection with the theme the jubilation of emergence - a satisfaction of living in the moment, a happiness that these people are in a studio, in front of a microphone, or on a dance floor, spending their time inside the music, an escape from the everyday.

Crammed says:

The origins of Congolese rumba, its strange links with traditional music, French crooners and Belgian brass bands… the spectacular reappropriation of Afro-Cuban music by Kinshasa musicians who recognized some of the old likembe (thumb piano) patterns originally brought to Cuba by deported Congolese slaves and proceeded to adapt them to the electric guitar… the social context, the lifestyle of Congolese musicians in the early Fifties… all of that and much more is extensively described in the liner notes written by Kenis and based on interviews with musicians from that era.

Kitenge - Odjali Na Mouchoir? ("Have You Got A Handkerchief?")(mp3)
"Break! Break! (Roll Your Hips) It feels good! What if we die tomorrow? Never mind, cherie! Break! Break!"

Liengo - Tembe Na Tembe ("Fight After Fight") (mp3)

Lisanga Pauline - Menagere (mp3)
A menagere was a white man's concubine - and quite pertinently, this song features the rhythms of two worlds: the tango...and the polka pike...

Frank Black Has A Gay Old Time On The Current.

Have you seen Frank Black's latest videos for Don't Get Me Wrong and Gyaneswar? Yeah, creepy. You never know what to expect from FB, but whether he releases something stellar or not quite, you can always count on him to please his die-hard fans without pandering. Take his performance last month on Minnesota Public Radio's The Current. He plays an untitled song about his father and a tune that he downloaded off of the Smithsonian Global Sound by folk singer and poet Gary Green, once again proving that he'll always be lefter of left field than you can imagine.

Frank Black - Live on MPR's The Current, 11-3-2006:

My Life Is In Storage (mp3) (left-click for video)
Untitled Song About My Father (mp3)
That Burnt Out Rock And Roll (mp3) (left-click for video)
The Black Rider (Tom Waits) (mp3) (left-click for video)

And here's the original Gary Green song, from the album linked to above at Smithsonian Global Sound:

Gary Green - That Burnt Out Rock And Roll (mp3)

Get ready for the 2007 Frank Black CD/DVD release, Christmass.

Lucky Soul

Lucky Soul craft their songs out of Motown, 50's - 60's era girl-group pop, and rock. They have the gift of grabbing the ear and pulling the listener along into the song, like a Pied Piper or a snake charmer. In a recent interview on The Torture Garden, guitarist Andrew Laidlaw describes the perfect pop song:

"Brevity, I think, is the key to perfect pop, and hooks, hooks, hooks. And no clichés."

Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy (mp3)
Lucky Soul - Struck Dumb (mp3)

Their EP will be available in January.

Boyskout - Live on WFMU 11-25-2006

Last month, Boyskout stopped by WFMU's Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T, and put out a solid, spirited set of rock and roll. Have I told you that you really should see their live show? Yes, I have. All hail Boyskout.

Boyskout - Live on WFMU 11-25-2006 (mp3s)

Spotlight
Suicide
Apt. 2A
Blind Eye
The Model (Kraftwerk)
Secrets

Lily Allen - Live on KCRW, 12-5-2006

Lily Allen played a sassy live set on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic yesterday, and it was mind-bogglingly good. I included a funny interview bit, a must-listen if you work in an office.

Lily Allen - Live on KCRW, 12-5-2006 (mp3s)

LDN/Nan You're a Window Shopper
Absolutely Nothing
Knock Em Out
Not Big
Little Things
Smile
Alfie
Interview Bit - I Knew What I Didn't Want To Do

Own Alright, Still.

Devotchka - Live on MPR, 11-30-2006

Devotchka's Nick Urata and Tom Hagerman played two songs for Minnesota Public Radio's The Current last week. Here they remind us that when arranged properly and played passionately, an acoustic guitar, a violin, and a sincere voice can carry all the emotion of a full orchestra.

Devotchka (Live on MPR, 11-30-2006) (mp3s):

Something Stupid
Queen of the Surface Streets

Georgie James Is On Blogger.

Georgie James have finished recording their full-length, and will be releasing a single from it in January. They've also announced a few shows, listed below. And don't forget to check their new blog regularly.

1.11.07 - Washington D.C. - Rock And Roll Hotel w/Tralala - ALL AGES - $8adv/$10dos - 8pm.

1.12.07 - Philadelphia, PA. - Johnny Brenda's - w/Tralala - 21+ - $8 - 8:30pm

1.13.07 - New York, NY. - Mercury Lounge - w/Tralala and Spectacular Bird - 21+ - $10 - 8pm

1.14.07 - Cambridge, MA. - Middle East Upstairs - w/Tralala - 18+ - $9 - 9pm

1.19.07 - Harrisonburg, VA. - James Madison University - w/Antelope, The Wayward and more - ALL AGES - $5 - 6pm

Matt & Kim Battle The Human Banana

Matt & Kim: A 4-Minute Meal

This Matt & Kim video for Yea Yeah (mp3) reminds us that throwing food at people is always fun, and is a good argument for the one-take music video.



Amputation is also great for music videos.



Get Matt & Kim stuff.

Also download:

No More Long Years (mp3)
Verbs Before Nouns (mp3)
Silver Tiles (mp3)