Knob, Volume Knob.

It's curious thing. My boredom with the James Bond film series is matched only by my love of the James Bond soundtracks. Live And Let Die? Nobody Does It Better? Yes, yes, yes.

Another Way To Die is a worthy entry to the list. And not just the James Bond list, but the Jack White list as well. Mr. White spends so much time in the realms of minimalism, its an interesting change to see what he does with the big band bit. I think he pulls it off, and then some.

Another Day To Die (a nice, high quality version). - Jack White and Alicia Keys

REPOST by popular (& timely!) request

Ed Note: We originally posted this entry last year, but oh what a crazy year it's been. Those of us in the States have been overwhelmed with election coverage that rivals reality TV in its absurdity. We got Obama, McCain and a little lady from some Alaskan bridge to nowhere who essentially parodies herself. Might as well throw some rock stars into the mix. Oh and yeah, Don't Forget to Vote!

This is what happens when you have new graphic design software, not a lot of creativity, and a lot of time on your hands. (If you can think of any other great pairings or campaign slogans, pass 'em on and I'll see what I can do with it.)



















This last one is for the greatest mashup of all time:
R. Kelly/Jens Lekman mashup - If I Could Rock (It Would Feel Like This).mp3

I know, it's truly difficult to imagine that Jens himself didn't write lyrics like, "the way we fuck gon' lead to chil'burfin'," and, "girl your booty so swole, how you get dem jeans around it," but it's true! You learn something every day.

Finally a good use for your old REO Speedwagon LPs

Don't worry we're not about to get all art critic-y on you, but we do want to fill you in on this awesome new exhibit, which happens to contain albums that look better then they sound.

The brand-spanking re-opened Museum of Arts and Design (the awesomely acronymed MAD) in New York has an inaugural exhibition entitled "Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary". Basically it features mundane, household objects that have been imaginatively transformed into works of art. But needless to say we were most enamored with the butterfly records. Look at all those albums just flying away!



More info on MAD here

Don't make yourself unhappy...

Sometimes all it takes is a line. Just one lyric and you're totally won over. The latest song guilty of conquering my heart - "Hey Love" by The Piano Creeps.

"Every day means one less happy ending"

I'm not exactly sure what a disillusioned music box would sound like, but I'm pretty sure the Piano Creeps come close. I can almost see the ballerina doll twirling before the jewelry box's lid shuts tight leaving her alone in the dark. Or to put it in more concrete terms, think Martha Wainwright fronting Beach House, except less funereal and more music-boxy. Their album is also aptly entitled Future Blues (For Me and You) and is due out this October on the Kora Records.

Hey Love - The Piano Creeps

Ridiculous Cover of the Day

So you know that goofily bombastic anthem, the one with the crazy catchy/annoying synth riff that defies "earworm". Well some band I've never heard of called The Social Services completely reinvented it Beirut style. We're talking waltzing horns and lilting piano and a chorus of la la las, not to mention coyly girly vocals. It's a transformative work of staggering vulnerable beauty. My mind is blown. I wonder what Gob Bluth would think.

The Social Services - The Final Countdown (Europe cover).mp3

Super fun bonus video, Arrested Development style!

When correlation and causation are close bedfellows

Our intrepid correspondent Katie forwarded a little gem to us today: A chart graphing music preferences related to SAT scores.

Here's a tiny peak at the chart (the vertical axis means nothing):

Click to make HUGE!

Might I take a moment to smugly note that the forerunner after Beethoven's commanding lead is... why, it's none other than Sufjan Stevens! Huh! How about THAT! Guster, Ben Folds and Radiohead also take strong and unsurprising leads on the intellectual front.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are people who list Lil' Wayne as their favorite artist. We also see a cluster of people too disinterested in music to narrow down anything more specific than an entire genre: pop, jazz, gospel, rock. Clearly, the people who just say "classical" without being able to conjure up a single name only want to appear smart. Tsk. (Apparently, if you want to appear smart, you should just tell people you listen to Sufjan.)

Also of interesting note are certain artists who are very tightly clustered at a certain point (John Mayer) while others enjoy a considerable spread (OutKast). Draw your own conclusions.

There're more than 1350 schools listed here from which these results were culled, including the Top 10 rankings in music for each school. Schools are ranked according to SAT scores.

Notes of personal interest: Jess' school, Vassar, is highly ranked (#32) but lists only three artists from the list as favorite. Ask her, and she'll no doubt claim it's because they're all listening to amazing under-the-radar stuff that doesn't gain enough cumulative popularity to make rank in a list like this. [insert eyeroll here] My own alma matter, Western Washington University (#414) has a strong showing for local heroes Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie--the members of which are all WWU alums themselves.

This allows us to consider certain degrees of "favoritism" among band-university relations: Christian bands are very popular at College of the Ozarks; Electronica and experimental music of all sorts is popular at, well, most schools with "technical" in its name.

This list could be a handy, handy tool. Can't choose between schools? Take a quick peek at rankings, then at music choices. (Hmmm, Maybe St. Paul's College, at #1351, wouldn't be such a good fit, listing only R&B, Rap and Lil Wayne).

Anyway. This was a long, narcissistic and perhaps somewhat irritating way of implying that this "proves" our Sufjan love somehow correlates with our high intelligence. Feel free to negate me, but I have to get back to thesis writing. It makes up for the low self-esteem.

Making the world safe once again for tra-la-la-ing

I'm still shocked that the Pale Young Gentlemen come from Wisconsin, with their eclectic Eastern European instrumentation and gypsy-like theatrics. Like how is this geographically possible? It's like the same sorts of doubts people voiced when they first learned Beirut's Zach Condon was from New Mexico and not the Balkans, but hey they took to him, so now it's PYG's turn to be embraced. Seriously Who gives two craps about authenticity when the French horn and viola are being played this melodically??

The Pale Young Gentlemen's sophomore album Black Forest (Tra La La), out October 7th is even lusher, albeit a bit more subdued then their rollicking self-titled debut. The strings are especially gorgeous. The cello swells and violins sway in such an intricate way. Andrew Bird himself would be proud. They even manage to sing "tra la la" in a way that makes me totally forget Euro-trash phenomena Gunther exists. That ladies and gentlemen may be their biggest accomplishment yet.

Listen for yourself. Lots of songs streaming on their MySpace now

And download the catchiest of the bunch here:
The Crook of My Good Arm - Pale Young Gentlemen

I'm particularly fond of the coloured hearts on their chests.

…with a tone deaf singer. Honestly, these are the most annoying vocals i have ever had the displeasure of experiencing…”

Ah, this is like a siren call to me. The disgusted listener warning others not to buy an album on account of the vocals. It almost always makes me dive for my wallet (or the download button, whichever the case me be). I love the guy who “can’t sing.” Give me the Conor Obersts and the Alec Ounsworths; you can keep your pitch perfectly boring Chris Martins and Thom Yorkes. Because you know what? The dudes with the different voices have the better lyrics. I can’t explain it, I don’t know why, but the fact remains. (Which is not to say that guys that can sing don’t have good lyrics. Sometimes they do. Except Chris Martin. I hate that guy…)

The above review is taken word for word (and lower case i’ed) from an eMusic user’s review of “Puddle City Racing Lights.” It’s a 2007 album from a mob called Windmill. I’d never heard of them before, but the quirky album cover caught my eye. (Seriously, how cool is that cover?) And I figured with every review mentioning his voice (not all were as nasty as the above) I couldn’t go wrong. And I was right.

The lyrics are equal parts gritty confessional and dreamily surreal, and I love it. The music is gorgeous. The delicateness of Sufan Stevens meets the sweeping grandeur of Rufus Wainwright. And his voice… Well, yeah, it’s definitely different. The beauty of the music only amplifies his flaws, but, for me at least, it works. It creates a tension that is echoed in other parts of the album. In the pull between soft strings and heavy drums, in the pull between the real and the absurd in the lyrics.

I am at a loss as to how this album managed to slip under my radar last year. My only real beef with it is that’s its far too late to add it to my best of 2007 list, where it most assuredly deserves a spot.

Windmill - Tokyo Moon.mp3
“the drugs were doing things you already could…”

Windmill - Boarding Lounges.mp3
“you don’t want me, I don’t want you.”

Ahoy! Here Be What ye Volume-Knobbe Be For!

Yar, it be Talk Like A Pirate Day here in the New Dutch West Indies. To be celebratin', me salty dogs, being the saucy wenches we be, hast compiled a wee list of tunes worthy of guzzling grog to. Weigh anchor!

Lambchop - Talk Like A Pirate Day.mp3

ye Mountain Goats - Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue).mp3

ye Mountain Goats - Jenny (live).mp3
hi diddle dee dee, goddamn! the pirate's life for me!

Abney Park - Airship Pirate.mp3

And, the single greatest chanty about me scurvy scallowags ever written:
Ben Folds - Pirate Joke Song (live).mp3

Sufjan rumors & gossip

Disclaimer: this is pure speculation! "My sources" say that Sufjan is working on not one, not two, but THREE new state albums right now! Here's what one email to me said:

I've heard that, too, but it doesn't seem to be rooted in anything solid. Can't find a source for it or anything. There was also a big whoop-de-doo about a month ago with someone saying that Sufjan's next album was going to be Pennsylvania. The story behind that was that a girl's relative was the owner of a record shop in Sufjan's home town (or one of his home towns) in Michigan, Sufjan visited him and chatted about a new record he was working on, and let out the secret that it was Pennsylvania under the condition that he tell no one else. Sounds crazy to me for a number of reasons, the biggest being that if Sufjan's been so uber-secret about what he's been up to for the past year I doubt that he'd just let it out during a casual chat in a record store. Then again, we know what Sufjan's humor is like. He's probably been the one planting all those rumors, lol.

At this rate, he could release an album of himself singing in the damn shower and I would spend a whole day weeping openly over it. BUT it does seem like we've been receiving an influx of Sufjan news lately, so maybe that's a good sign.

I still maintain--and am holding out for--the speculative new album "New Jersey Loves You," which will be a piano-based, bird-themed album! (Fingers crossed!)

In other news,
Danielson, Sufjan's old buddies who helped him start his music career, is kicking off a tour with Cryptacize, a band on Sufjan's label (Asthmatic Kitty) in NYC on Halloween. EVEN MONEY Sufjan will be in attendance--probably in some sort of costume. Go to the show if you can. It'll be good for you.

Sufjan Stevens - Toilet Paper Dolls Story (live).mp3

Danielson Famile - Did I Step On Your Trumpet.mp3

Cryptacize - Cosmic Sing Along.mp3

Monster Bobby returns

We first met Monster Bobby last Summer when he opened for The Pipettes. (He conceptually engineered the polka-dotted, British girl group, btw). Just one look at his gleaming eyes and cheeky smile and we were in LUV.

And that was before we even heard his music - an infectious, yet brooding blend of lo-fi electro-pop and acoustic singer-songwriter fare.

"Work in the Morning" is his latest single off a split 7" EP. And it's just as strong as anything off his debut release Gaps. Also, for those of you lucky enough to live across the pond, Bobby's about to head out on a nice little jaunt across Europe. Wish I could make it. Why, why has teleportation not been invented yet? If it was, I'd catch every show and swoon every night.

Sep 18 2008 8:00P
Cosy Den @ Landet Stockholm, Stockholms län
Sep 19 2008 10:00P
Nationernas Hus Linköping
Sep 20 2008 8:00P
Debaser Malmö, Skåne län
Sep 22 2008 8:00P
Jolene Copenhagen
Sep 25 2008 8:00P
Haus 73 Hamburg, Hamburg
Sep 27 2008 8:00P
Gleis 22 Münster
Oct 5 2008 8:00P
Broadway Cinema Nottingham
Nov 23 2008 8:00P
Fanfulla101 @ CHUTE Rome

Work in the Morning - Monster Bobby
The Postcard - Monster Bobby

More Cowbell!

This is possibly the most BRILLIANT website on the whole wide interwebs:

So here's the deal. You're listening to your fave songs. The ones you've heard a million times before. But sometimes even the best music gets a little old, and frankly a little boring. Well these guys will help you enliven it. They make even the best song better. All you have to do is upload it here:

and it instantly adds...MORE COWBELL

Cause every song is better with the most infamous of percussive instruments (as well as Mr. Christopher Walken sound bites!). Finally, a way to satiate your cowbell needs.

Please use wisely.

Silver Jews @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC September 7, 2008

The Silver Jews only started touring two years ago. But you'd never know it from their impeccably tight and awesomely rocking performance.

David Berman’s facial expressions were almost as charming as his acerbically witty lyrics. He cast multiple smirks toward his wife, bassist and back-up singer Cassie, with an occasional wink to the audience. “How much fun is a lot more fun? Not much fun at all,” he sang in his dry, trademark tone. Berman sure fooled us.

My only complaint: they only played for an hour and fifteen minutes. For a band that tours as infrequently as the Jews I was hoping for a bit more. Oh well, maybe next time around. Whatever, I still love them to the MAX!

Strange Victory, Strange Defeat - Silver Jews
I'm Gonna Love the Hell Out of You - Silver Jews

The Death of This Summer

It's past Labor Day, the weather has turned suddenly cool (with no small thanks to Hurricanes Hannah and Ike drenching the western Atlantic coasts), Primary election day is tomorrow, and students have begun to settle into their routines.

So, two songs: a rather silly but totally appropriate one, especially for those of us who have returned to finish a post-bac degree several years after our peers have completed theirs. *cough.* This one's for us you:

Avenue Q - I Wish I Could Go Back to College.mp3

Finally, a 26-minute dance mix, made by Jens Lekman. It kicks off with a remix of his own song, "Into Eternity," then magically transitions intro almost a dozen other songs and looped samples--familiar cuts from the 70's, Afro-Caribbean beats, even soft and languid acoustic guitar. But the nonstop beat will keep you on your feet enough to barely notice or care that our warmest season has once again slipped away.

Jens says:

Sometimes I get stuck in the recording and writing but instead of cutting my wrists I open the window, bring out my records and put together little mixes for my friends. This one is a mix of some of my favourite songs from this summer and previous ones, some are cut up and put together into new songs, new remixes or whatever. They form a perfect response to the death of this summer.

Jens Lekman - The Death of This Summer.mp3

This just in: You have low self-esteem

The BBC just released this gem of an article:

Music Tastes Linked to Personality

No, reeeeeally. Thanks for clearing that up BBC!

The article goes on to dissect personality by genre, claiming those who prefer "indie" music have "low self-esteem, are creative, and not hard-working and not gentle". Of course this begs the tired question: what exactly is "indie". Some argue it's an aesthetic, while others claim it's mode of economics and business ethos. My cynical self is convinced it's neither. "Indie" is nothing but a marketing niche and consumer identity that's been co-opted and re-appropriated by mainstream media outlets for crass commercial purposes.

I'd normally take offense to being told I'm not hard-working and have low self-esteem on the basis of vague and flawed terminology and write an articulate letter to the editor. Perhaps I'll do that later. For now I'm just going to sit here alone, mope in my room and listen to The Smiths.

Miserable Lie - The Smiths

Results of experimenting with sleep deprivation on bloggers.

Sometimes you need only the slightest, most vacuous reason to post something you love. For me, it's this endlessly amusing picture, leading into a serious of "things I found while Googling NMH for the umpteenth time":

Draw your own conclusions about deep meaning. In the meantime, here's a random live cut for you:

Neutral Milk Hotel - Mother (live with Chris Knox).mp3

This you have (probably) seen:


...but if not, BREATHE INTO A PAPER BAG IF YOU NEED TO; I'M SURE IT IS PHOTOSHOPPED. I mean, it just HAS to be, right?? Paris probably thinks "Holland, 1945" is a perfume. ZING!

Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945.m4a

OH SHIT. NO. WAIT:



for the love of God, they better BOTH be photoshopped. Otherwise, I might either have to start liking Paris, or disliking NMH. Both are too intolerable to consider.

...and these two are just plain WRONG:



I am soooooo going to sleep now.

Nothing makes my heart swell like a cello.

It's not due for release until September 9, but if you see a copy Horse Feathers' album "A House With No Home" floating about the internet, pounce on it. It's a beautiful and complex album, the kind that grows richer with every listen. And the interplay between rich, atmospheric string arrangements and accoustic-y guitar is amazing. I mean, seriously, download this album for the strings alone. Fans of the 'Firefly' and 'Serenity' score will especially love them. Gorgeous stuff. (And don't forget to actually buy the album on September 9, the band deserves your pennies).

Curs of Weeds

Working Poor

(For more Horse Feathers, check out their Daytrotter Session).

Ebony Bones

Ebony Bones opened for Yo La Tengo at the pool last week. They kind of played the same song over and over again - yet that song sounded like a electro-soul punk M.I.A. Boy were they colorful. I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.

blip.fm

Blip.fm... It's kind of like if Twitter and Last.fm hooked up and had a baby. It's also a very cool, quick and painless way to hear new tunes. Not to sure about the whole "props" system though. Anyway, I'm all signed in as megan_d, how about you?

Besnyo - Olympic.m4a
Besnyo - Wait.m4a

Everything in, and not in, its right place

Eds. Note: Today we have a very special treat for you readers and Radiohead fans: a guest blog from our friend, journalist and fellow blogger Jeremy Edwards. Here, he reports on the experience of the Radiohead show recently performed just south of Seattle, WA. This was originally published August 24th and is reprinted with gracious permission. Please check out his great Music Review blog, "Don't Fear The Reaper," at http://therecordreaper.blogspot.com. Enjoy!

I felt bad for the people on the lawn. It was Radiohead's first Seattle-area show in five years, and it had been raining for way too long. And it wasn't a brush-it-off-or-ignore-it kind of rain; it was a wind-driven, spoil-sport kind of rain. I was chilly but relatively dry in my 200-level seat of Auburn's White River Amphitheatre, but those people on the lawn were beyond the shelter of the venue's roof. Those people looked pained. Even Thom Yorke, playing hundreds of feet below, must have noticed, because he announced to the lighting technicians, "We have one request: Please, if we could see everyone on the lawn." Floodlights flashed on, illuminating a sea of bodies. The 20,000-capacity amphitheater had sold out in what seemed like only minutes back when tickets went on sale in April. Yorke looked at the sea of humanity; he looked at the people on the lawn. "I hope you're warm and dry," he said.

It was August, but it sure didn't feel like August on Wednesday night, when Radiohead brought the masses to Auburn, nakedly out of place among the big cities on their world tour itinerary. Opening band Liars spoke to as much when lead singer Angus Andrew commented on the area's history of "Native Americans and such" in accordance with the fact that the venue was on the Muckleshoot reservation. "We want to tap into that with a little drumming and a little screaming," he said, before testing the limits of his vocal cords.

Liars played to a scattered crowd of maybe 5,000, churning out their polyrhythms and guitar spirals as large bald patches wound through the seated sections. With a 7:30 start time and Radiohead not due till more than an hour later, any band would have found it challenging to hold people's attention. Liars didn't really try. Andrew bounced up and down on the stage and, perhaps channeling the schlock-metal denizens the amphitheater is more known for, slobbered out banter that could have come from Spinal Tap: "We wanna get you warmed up"; "Wow!"; "Are you guys excited?"; "Go get your popcorn and get ready." Needless to say, it was at odds with their image as provocateurs.

When Radiohead took the stage at 9:05, after stringing together a network of chime-shaped tubes, the contrast couldn't be overstated. Yorke handled the banter, and his stance was definitely "less talk, more rock." The tubes their crew had erected refracted live video feeds of the band, throwing closeups of their expressions, arms or instruments onto giant screens. The screens to the left and right of the stage were split up into four sections, a la The Beatles' "Let It Be" album cover. The one in the center of the stage had six. As the show progressed, panels moved and footage changed hue with the lighting effects, ensuring that no matter how high up someone was sitting, there was plenty to look at. (I'd like to show you what this grand display looked like, but apparently no photographer bothered to scale the stairs to take a perspective shot.) Perhaps the most powerful convergence of visual and audio came during "Lucky," when the overhead lights burst into bright red as the band hit the chorus. It was as if their guitars flipped the switch.



Naturally, "In Rainbows" figured heavily into the set, with the band playing all of the album tracks except "House of Cards." "Reckoner" inspired a huge cheer from the audience members, but it also revealed that a large minority weren't intimately familiar with the song, thinking it was over after the bridge and applauding prematurely.

"Kid A" material took up the bulk of the rest, with twice as many songs coming from that album as the next. This cut "The Bends" out of the loop except for the keening "Street Spirit (Fade Out)," a curious decision, considering that "The Bends" is filled with traditionally structured rock songs and would have fit in well with the "In Rainbows" selections. "Hail to the Thief" also was given short shrift, but that was understandable, given Yorke's comments in interviews about not being entirely satisfied with it.

Most songs were immaculate technically but felt restrained, although Yorke loosened up somewhat after false starts on "Faust Arp." A few longed for their studio touches. "The National Anthem," for instance, really missed its squall of horns. Overall, though, the set was solid.

And Radiohead played not one, but two, encores. (The stagehand wheeling the piano out after the first encore was a good indication that another was to come.) The first featured a surprise appearance by the band's longtime producer, Nigel Godrich, introduced by the always economical Yorke: "This is Nigel. He makes our records." Godrich took up tambourine on "In Limbo." In the second encore, we learned that Yorke's favorite thing about Seattle is the way protests sprouted up during the World Trade Organization conference there in 1999. That remark kicked off "You and Whose Army?" And then, solidarity built (if it wasn't already), Yorke looked up to the people on the lawn and made his request. "No Surprises" followed, tailor-made for sing-alongs, and everybody clapped unprompted--the best kind--to the final song, "Everything in Its Right Place."



After that, however, everything got out of hand. Everyone headed for the parking lot(s), a large contingent of us toward the school buses we took on the 30-minute ride to the venue. Now, one would think that if an amphitheater sold some 20,000 tickets and if the band was environmentally conscious (like, say, Radiohead), the coordinators might want to have plenty of buses available. Instead, venue staff herded our alternative-travel army out to the plaza, then stopped us, shoulder to shoulder, in a giant logjam. Hemmed in by the concrete walls and shuttered food booths, we could only stand there, wondering what could possibly be preventing us from moving forward. Raindrops gleamed ominously on barbed wire atop the wall to my left, separating the venue from what appeared to be a trucking business.

The mood was positive; it would take a lot to dim the post-concert glow. A few folks tossed around an inflatable shark, giving it the beachball treatment. Still, as 10 minutes stretched into 20 and 20 stretched into 40, people began to grumble. They were tired. They were hungry. They were thirsty. They were wet. They were cold. With the show on a weeknight, many had to be up by 7 a.m. or earlier for work. Some enterprising souls decided to cut through the trucking business, aiming to hop a fence, but supervisors turned them back. One fellow in front of me braced two friends, hobbled by a leg or foot injury. "Freeeeeedommmmmmmmm!" he cried in mock exasperation. And so it was that I became who I pitied, one of the people on the lawn, soaked and cold. Except we all were on blacktop now.

An hour went by. The nearest parking lot had emptied. It began rain harder. Two people in uniform made their way through the crowd. "There's really not a lot going on up there," one said, informing the questioners. "They're just standing around, waiting for the buses." Clearly, each bus was making several round-trips, burning up fuel at its 6-miles-per-gallon rate. How was this better for the environment than simply carpooling? Surely, Radiohead, whose merch booths had trumpeted "you can make a difference" in regard to $40 T-shirts made from reclaimed plastic bottles, would be aghast.

At the 75-minute mark, I squeezed onto a bus, 3,000 people, or possibly 4,000, still stranded. Directing people to the buses, a testy traffic guard instructed the driver, "It's a charter; they can stand."

Setlist
15 Step
Reckoner
Optimistic
There There
All I Need
Pyramid Song
Talk Show Host
The National Anthem
The Gloaming
Videotape
Lucky
Faust Arp
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Climbing Up the Walls
Dollars & Cents
Nude
Bodysnatchers
[Encore]
How to Disappear Completely
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Idioteque
In Limbo
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
[Second encore]
You and Whose Army?
No Surprises
Everything in Its Right Place

Radiohead - Nude (live).mp3
Radiohead - Reckoner (live).mp3

But, like, he sounds like a girl?

Jeff Hanson’s latest album is soft and melodic, but filled with sharp contrast. Which, I guess, it’s a contrast in itself. Twisting, lilting violin refrains sliced by sharp, harsh string sounds. An Eastern European atmosphere, of caravans traveling through dense woods, shattered by januty banjos. And his voice. Soft and high and sweet like a girl’s, but with an unbending vein of bravado filled masculinity running through its core.

Listening to ‘Madam Owl’ you can never relax. It’s ‘Bon Iver-ish’ vibe might try and lull you, but that sense of conflict is too strong. And it’s not a bad thing. It’s like those early photographs, of the stiff backed people in stiff clothes with stiff faces. They’re vaguely unsettling, but damn if they don’t have something that modern snapshots lack.

Jeff Hanson - Night.mp3
Jeff Hanson - If Only I Knew.mp3

September's coming soon

Come this time of year every year, My mind falls heavily on this song. So many years ago, a former lover said this song made him think of the Catskills in late summer, when the nights can be muggy or chilly, when the leaves are just starting to turn. Small creeks and low waterfalls, trickling through backyards, the occasional rope swing, begging to be used.

Michael Stipe had a different vision when he wrote the song, however: about sneaking into a hotel pool in Los Angeles and going skinny dipping. "The fear of getting caught." Either way, this gorgeous piano piece is a jewel in the album Automatic For the People.

For the love of this song in its purity, here it is, plus a few covers:

R.E.M. - Nightswimming.mp3

Coldplay - Nightswimming (with Michael Stipe).mp3

Dashboard Confessional - Nightswimming (R.E.M. cover).mp3

Gene - Nightswimming (R.E.M. cover).mp3

The Wrens - Nightswimming (R.E.M. cover).mp3

You Say Party! We Say Die! - Nightswimming (R.E.M. cover).mp3

Nightswimming (kissy sell out bmore re-edit).mp3

Yo La Tengo @ McCarren Park Pool, August 24, 2008

This weekend marked the last free concert of the summer (and possibly ever) at McCarren Park Pool. A triple bill headed by indie mainstays Yo La Tengo (the most redeeming group to come out of New Jersey since, um…ever) proved a perfectly rocking way to bring the season to an end.

Thousands gathered to hear the trio of Ira, James and Georgia play a nearly seamless set, eclectically segueing from epic 10-minute jams to mellow acoustic fare to sunshine and-rainbow pop (complete with brass backing band!). This is a band that’s maybe older than half the audience’s parents and yet they play with more energy, vitality, and not to mention relevance of bands half their age. They could definitely teach the young'uns a thing or two about rocking out. As their album title insists, they are not afraid of you and they will beat your ass, indeed!

Titus Andronicus and Ebony Bones opened (look for subsequent posts on them) while fans filled up the usual dodgeball courts and piled on to the slip ‘n slide between sets marking the end of a sweet and short-lived era.
For those unfamiliar with the venue, McCarren Park Pool is a long-since abandoned watering hole built during the Great Depression in 1936, waaaaay before the advent of indie rock. However, over the past three years, the empty pool has served as home to some of New York's largest concerts during the year’s sunny months, many of them free as part of Jelly NYC’s pool party series. But looks like water, not music will be filling the pool in coming years, with discussion of reconstruction and a $50 million overhaul in the works for next year. The future of the venue is in jeopardy, and will almost certainly to come to an end.

All this sadness begs one question: where will all the hipsters play dodgeball now?

Mr. Tough - Yo La Tengo
Stockholm Syndrome - Yo La Tengo

Channeling Roger Painter* for this post

Gary, I know you're not reading this, so what's the point of keeping a blog if you're not going to see it? So I can say anything I want to. For example, the RIAA can blow my ass for taking Muxtape away from me, even if it's only temporary.

Thankfully I already snuck into the nurse's station and dug up a fair replacement in the meantime: http://8tracks.com/

It works much the same way, except uses are limited to eight tracks (get it?) or fewer, instead of Muxtape's 12. YOU HEAR THAT GARY! YOU ARE MAKING ME SETTLE FOR LESS DUE TO YOUR STUPID COPYRIGHT LAWS WHICH EVERYONE HATES.

To help smoooooove out your bumpy transition, here're a few songs ABOUT mixes to inspire:

Ted Pauly - Your Mix Tape Broke.mp3
Los Campesinos! - It Started With a Mixx.mp3
Avenue Q (Original Broadway Cast) - Mix Tape.mp3
Butane Variations - Mix Tape Honey.mp3
The Brand New - Mix Tape.mp3
Art Brut - Nag Nag Nag Nag.mp3
A record collection reduced to a mix tape, headphones on I made my escape...

And in the meantime, a few choice words directed to the RIAA itself:
FUCK YOU ALL. GO TO HELL.

*For more of Roger's thoughts, please buy and read Master of Reality by John Darnielle.

We bear the music lover's burden.

Dude, we totally feel your pain.

Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend's Too Stupid to Know About - Tullycraft

Read Dustinland

The bears are back in town

...and look what they're singing this time!


"This ALMOST tops Love in the Club." -Jess

You SHOULD have this song by now, but if you don't... *beats you over the head with a wiffle bat* buy the freaking album already, you freeloaders. IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.

Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).mp3

I'm only 23 yet the sentiment rings true.

Aimee Mann writes the most rational songs. Her thought processes are so logical, yet poignant. She writes the way you wish you could think when you're too busy being a mopey wreck. "Thirty One Today", off the wonderfully titled @#%&*! Smilers is the kind anthem that is sadly all too relatable:

Called some guy I knew
Had a drink or two
And we fumbled as the day grew dark
I pretended that I felt a spark

I thought my life would be different somehow
I thought my life would be better by now
But it's not and I don't know where to turn

Thirty One Today - Aimee Mann

Free + Covers = Awesome

I love cover albums. I also love free stuff. So combine the two and I'm ultra happy. Needless to say, indie-poppers the Morning Benders have really made my weekend as their Bedroom Covers album is available for free download. It's complete with reinterpretations of classics by the Smiths, Velvet Underground, Roy Orbison and more.

Here's my fave track:

I Won't Share You - The Morning Benders (The Smiths cover)

Touch This!

STOP. MC Hammer is on twitter! I keep wanting his every post to end in "IT'S HAMMER TIME!", but alas turns out it's just as banal as yours, but hey it's still pretty wacky. Oh and while you're off stalking baggily panted 90s rappers, you might as well follow your favorite bloggers too.

Whoa Oh Oh:

Sometimes titles say it all...

...And Okkervil River said it best with this one.

Calling and Not Calling My Ex - Okkervil River

We'll have a more in-depth review of The Stand-Ins (It's the yang to The Stage Names yin) closer to its release next month. Because right now we're still too busy marveling at said track's titular dilemma.

Oh and here's bonus video of an acoustic rendition of "Lost Coastlines" via the Norwegian Broadcasting System (off all places, heh!)

Music Go Music, Go Listen!!!

How am I supposed to believe this band isn't from Sweden? Really, they're from LA?? How is that possible? Because "Light of Love" might just be the most perfect pop concoction since uhh anything released by Abba. And I mean that in the best possible way. Really, I've spent way too much time justifying my love of Abba. And even if you disagree with the tastes of yours truly, you should still check out Music Go Music because they've crafted the most infectious thing since SARS. But instead of carrying disease, I come bearing an earworm, that I simply must thrust upon you!

Light of Love - Music Go Music

Yet another song about Paper Planes...

Everyone's favorite 20+ member, geographically confused Swedish pop collective (ok, so the ONLY 20+ member, geographically confused Swedish pop collective) are about to release a new single off their upcoming sophomore album Who Killed Harry Houdini? out October 14th. Well we got the preview. The song's called "Paper Planes" and, get this, it's NOT an M.I.A. cover. Given that this is a band that sings about treehouses, chicken pox and stamp collecting, the subject matter shouldn't surprise you. And while it might not have gunshots for its chorus, it does have a clarinet solo and lots of shiny, happy Swedish people singing about the joys of "throwing paper planes to clear your head".

Paper Planes - I'm From Barcelona

Oh and what the heck, sure you've all heard it before but it's JUST THAT DAMN GOOD:
Paper Planes - M.I.A.

NEW Wilco

Believe it or not some bloggers (cough*us*cough) didn't make it to Lollapalooza this weekend. BUT those who were lucky enough to be at the festival got treated to an all new Wilco song. Check it out.(Via You Ain't No Picasso)

One Wing - Wilco

Bon Iver @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 7/30/08

You wouldn't expect an album as stark and intimate as "For Emma, Forever Ago" to sound so intense and downright rockin' in the live context. But that's exactly how it translated. Justin Vernon's voice is often described as soulful, and rightfully so. However there's something even more powerful to it - a full-bodied intensity that quite literally enveloped the room. That's to say nothing of the pounding, thunderous percussion and electric guitar. If I had synesthesia I bet I would have seen a thick purple fog clouding the entire venue, maybe I could of felt it too. The sound was that palpable.

It's weird to think that such striking songs written in solitude in the Wisconsin woods, were now resounding among a sold-out crowd of 500+. When he asked the crowd to sing along with Part II of The Wolves ("what might have been lost") it was downright poignant. In essence they became all of ours.

The Wolves (Act I and II) - Bon Iver