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Last night I went to see the lovely Alexandra Scott play at the equally lovely Rockwood Music Hall. She played full band, a first for myself, and managed to stand up even with a soon-to-be-operated-on bad knee. Always enchanting through her strong and charming stage presence she convinced very easily. She played a very different sounding and original cover of Madonna's Ray Of Light which I am dying to hear again. Her drummer, one of the few female ones I've seen, was quite excellent and so was her bass player. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again soon when she plays a Cross-Pollination July 11th at Piano's with the wonderful Liz Moore.



After Alexandra we got a little surprise with yet another low profile Norah Jones sideproject. This time it was a lovely collection of country-tinged diddies putting the spotlight on some real crafty songwriting. The Sloppy Joanne's, as they called themselves, featured the talents of three ladies of the LES songwriting scene. Sasha Dobson on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Norah Jones on backing vocals and lead guitar (charmingly clumsy but interesting and with a lot of feeling), and Daru Oda on backing and sometimes lead vocals and bass guitar. Quite a few covers were included, all played in an original way and Stir It Up (Bob Marley) stood out most with wonderful audience reception. My favorite song played however featured Daru on lead vocals and was an almost Tin Pan Alley-ish crafty song with Hawaiian elements. I am not sure if it was a cover, or what the title is, but I'm going to be looking for it to share on these pages. A lovely group to see! Recommended. They mentioned they played some pool hall every Sunday night, which I found to be amusing, but I have yet to discover which pool hall that is.



Download of the Day
Alexandra Scott - Good Goddamn (MP3)
Alexandra Scott - Good Girl (MP3)

Go back to the main page HERE

Last night I saw what was probably the best Hip Hop concert I have seen. Perhaps aside from, and brace yourself, the Black Eyed Peas in 2000 pre-Fergie and pre-Wow They Suck. (Don't even get me started on how extremely far the BEP have strayed from their pure bred hip hop beginnings.) At the end of the night I had to conclude that however good a Hip Hop show is, it will never be as good as a great rock or folk show. And that is coming from a huge hip hop fan, it was my first musical love and the number of hip hop albums owned by me outnumbers any other genre (total albums owned somewhere up from 1700). (Picture by StJohns/VaBeach)


Last night was a night with The Roots that featured Nas, Talib Kweli, Big Daddy Kane and Common. There wasn't any real opening act and the night started with just ?uestlove on the drums and Black Thought ripping it up with at least 100 bars straight. No hook, no chorus, just bars and bars. It was a great start in a perhaps half filled, yet sold out, Radio City Music Hall. Oh those snobby New Yorkers and their BS fashionably late routine. 5 minutes in, and with Black Thought still going, the rest of the Roots walked out and joined in. I was surprised at how the sound was kinda shitty. I had imagined it to be excellent, and when it was just drums and vocals it was fine but then as soon as the rest of the band joined in it became muddy and many of the guest appearances featured faulty mics and half the stuff Big Daddy Kane rapped wasn't audible.(Picture by StJohns/VaBeach)


About 20 minutes in Nas came out to bless us with a handful of classic with the Roots acting as his backing band and the audience reaction was very strong. He did a great job performance wise and his songs were wonderfully enhanced by the Roots playing all the music live. DJ Jazzy Jeff was a wonderful addition to the band also with the scratching and cutting. (Picture by Bakinakwa)


After Nas left the stage again and the room had filled up nicely the Roots went into another song or two of their own and were then joined by Common who was the most energetic element of the night on stage. He was a very decent performer and gave it his all with hits like I Used To Love H.E.R. and Go. John Mayer didn't show up for the latter.

Talib Kweli joined next and dissappointed with poor breath control. Everything the music started on a Talib song the crowd got rowdy in anticipation, for he has many so-called bangers, but was inevitably let down by Talib not being able to say all the words in his rhymes due to a lack of mic control. That made me sad. I just know he is a very genuine performer and wants to give the people their money's worth, but he kinda just didn't do that last night.

In their final Roots section their guest guitarist ruined a perfectly fine version of You Got Me by going off into solo land for a good 15 minutes straight in an attempt to be Prince and Jimi Hendrix. It was pretty awful. Rahzel, the Godfather of Noize, then got his own little bit and though he never ceases to amaze me with his antics (beatboxing and singing at the same time? whoa!), it got old after 10 minutes and seriously he should've left the Touch It beat alone.

The show went from 8pm sharp til 11pm exactly and like I said was probably the best Hip Hop show I've seen, aside from Jay-Z's retirement show (which I saw only on DVD, go figure), but I still ended up coming out a little dissappointed, but in a state of acquiescence. Also, no Jay-Z appearance! And Dave Chappelle showed up too late so all he did was walk onto the stage at the end and say: wow the Roots! how about the Roots? (He was scheduled to do an opening monologue.)

Download of the Day
New Roots songs
The Roots - Please Don't Go (Demo) (MP3)
The Roots - Don't Feel Right (MP3)

PS all pictures of different shows, not last night. But they look like they could've been.

Craigslist is always a source for amusement. I was just forwarded this post: I was asleep from too much booze and for some reason got onto the J train???? Someone wrote in magic marker on my forehead:: Meow!!

Please let me know who you are... I'd love to buy you a drink because it was one of the funniest things when I got home, and saw it in the mirror.



Another REALLY funny thing I came across is the following classic and hilarious mistake made by the BBC a few days ago. A taxi driver was interviewed by mistake instead of the high level executive he was waiting for in the BBC lobby. The 10 o clock news people were in such a rush they didn't ask the right questions and just dragged the taxi driver from the lobby into the studio, fitted him with a mic and ear piece and went live on air. Watch the video (WMV) by clicking HERE. Read the full article HERE. Excerpt below.

With the seconds ticking down to a studio discussion about a court case involving Apple Computer and The Beatles' record label, a floor manager had run to reception and grabbed the man, thinking he was Guy Kewney, editor of Newswireless.net, a specialist internet publication.

Actually, he was a minicab driver who had been waiting to drive Mr Kewney home. Baffled, but compliant, the driver was fitted with a microphone and allowed himself to be marched in to the studio. Cameras rolled, and he was quizzed live on air by consumer affairs correspondent Karen Bowerman - who missed the cabbie's panic-stricken expression when he realised he was being interviewed.

Despite knowing nothing about the case - a judge ruled that the computer company could continue to use the Apple symbol for its iTunes download service - the man gamely attempted to bluff his way through and, speaking in a strong French accent, sustained a (somewhat illogical) form of conversation. Meanwhile, the real Mr Kewney watched indignantly on a monitor in reception.

The BBC apologised, saying the mistake occurred because the man was wearing Mr Kewney's name tag.

Download of the Day
Jon Brion - Here We Go (MP3) Via MusicIsArt
Neil Young - Lets Impeach The President (MP3)

Last night I taught an international rockstar how to pronounce Jens Lekman's name. Before that I went to see french rockers Phoenix at Bowery Ballroom, and before I went to see Beirut at the Knitting Factory.

To start of with Beirut, the latest mega blog buzz wunderkind of today. The MP3's are better than the live show, but hey this packed to the brim first nyc show, wasmaybe his 5th show ever, and he's 19 and this was only the second time he played with a band. So it's ok, because he showed promise. It was somewhat monotonous, there was way too much tuning going on (damn those ukelelkjkjels), but the trumpet playing was very nice and his vocals have a little something special about them. MP3s below.

Picture by Kathryn.



Phoenix was unexpectedly awesome. Not that I expected bad thing, I just had no idea who they were. Well they rocked, they made me dance, they were fun and they were super tight. I was wildly impressed by their drummer, which I then found out isn't their real drummer (or something like that). But he was SO in the pocket. Just scary. I will include an MP3 below.

Picture by BV.



Download of the Day
Beirut - "Postcards From Italy" (MP3)
Beirut - "Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)" (MP3)
Phoenix - If I ever feel better (MP3) Via BV

Last night us Undisputed Heavyweights had a grand time at Pianos playing at our friends Kinetic's CD release party. They rocked the house, and so did Wynn Walent, Hula and El Jezel. Really fun and packed night of music. I saw lots of flashes going off so sometimes soon perhaps I will stumble across pictures to post. For now I'm just really excited about Friday's show at Crash Mansion for Rachael's graduation party. For more info see the flyer below. I thought I'd make an appropriate one for the occasion. :) Click on the picture to see it full sized.



Download of the Day
Seth Kallen - All I Need (MP3)
A Brief Smile - Kitchen Floor (MP3)
The Head Set - Enemies (MP3)
The Undisputed Heavyweights - Money (Live At Rockwood) (MySpace)
Kinetic - Incandescent (MP3) Via Underrated

Last night's Cross-Pollination was our two year anniversary and it was a great one! UK/NYC band The Primms and NYC faves The Upwelling played great great sets and the cross-pollinating led to 4 gems including a Neil Young cover and Jay's guest vocals on John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance. Beatrice tooks some amazing pictures. Check our her Flickr page HERE.







Download of the Day
The Upwelling - In Her Arms/Sam (MySpace)
The Primms - Blind (MySpace)

Oh boy am I excited! ALmost as excited as I am for the new Sufjan album (downloads below). Maybe even more! The Undisputed Heavyweights have a new website finally! Woohoo! Built by Schram Industries' design arm Schram Design with help on the initial conceptualization and infra-structure by the Petrol Club. Check it out at BetterThanElvis.com and let me know what you think. :)



Now, who decided to hire Stephen Colbert to speak at the White House Correspondents dinner? Who thought that was going to be a good idea? The speech was spectacularly ballsy and razorsharp. The President was sitting two seats next to him and plenty of eye contact was made. Watch it on YouTube (Via StereoGum):

Part 1 HERE
Part 2 HERE
Part 3 HERE

Read Jon Stewart's reaction and Stephen Colbert lookback HERE. Colbert made fun of his mixed reception at the dinner, re-running the tape of one of his jokes with the audience barely reacting. He described this as "very respectful silence," and said that actually the crowd loved him. "They practically carried me out on their shoulders," he said, "even though I wasn't ready to go."

Download of the Day
More new Sufjan! Via BV via StereoGum and Pitchfork
Sufjan Stevens - Dear Mr. Supercomputer (MP3)
Sufjan Stevens - The Hennybuggy Band (MP3)

With Neil Young's upcoming political manifest against President Bush coming soon (read about that HERE at BV), I thought I'd highlight two interesting recent songs in the same vein. Bright Eyes is supposed to be the "new Dylan" and this generations protest/sincere folkie and he took a pretty good swing last year while on Jay Leno. He played a song called When The President Talks To God, which when preaching to the choir comes off as quite successful. Click HERE to view a video of the performance. That which weakens this songs however is the fact that it's very easily dismissed as crazy left wing liberal nutjob type of stuff by those who are on the other side. It's very black and white lyrically and the energy inside of the performance screams fury and anger. Bright Eyes wears a cowboy outfit to deliver his rant against the cowboy President in a feat of irony. Download the song below.



Then there is the pop singer with little credibility in the indie scene, Ms. Pink, and she actually manages to upstage Bright Eyes and most other folkies with a song targeting the President in a much simpler and more human way. She asks genuine questions, she doesn't attack blindly, she makes points. Line for line it's a hardhitting and real emotional inquiry. Sure it starts off sounding a little lame, especially the early background vocal, but listen to the full song and take in the words, and realize a song like this hits much harder and deeper than the Bright Eyes. This is a song that if the President heard it, might even trouble him and it might even make him think. It's much easier to dismiss Bright Eyes' song as some crazy talk. And sure artistically it might be more credible. But listen to the Pink song, view a live acoustic video HERE. The bridge is my favorite part. Bridges generally are though. Read Pink's lyrics behind the cut below.

( Lyrics )



Download of the Day
Bright Eyes - When The President Talks To God (free on iTunes) (MP3)

To watch R&B singer fumble while singing the national anthem in front of Michael Jordan and thousands of other people, he forgets the words, click HERE

To read about Tapes 'N Tapes being signed to XL Recordings click HERE. Via Coolfer

How awesome is this picture by Virginia Belle of last week's Undisputed Heavyweights show at Arlene's Grocery?



More albums added to my iTunes.



Ludacris - Word Of Mouf (2000) :: What a great introduction of one of the best modern rappers out there. Ludacris brought back a certain old school mentality and sense of humor back to hip hop and though it took a long time for New York to accept this Atlanta artist, a show stealing featured spot on a Nas finally sealed the deal, he is now one of the most widely respected rappers out there. Lots of funny word play, great punchlines, light hearted topic matters. Later he would release tighter albums with more hits, but I still love this one.

Dave Matthews - Some Devil (2003) :: I didn't like this record very much, until I saw him perform it live at MSG with his band of '& friends'. I much prefered the friends to the actual band he plays with usually. Much more fun and entertaining. Trey Anastacio was one of those friends and though I am not a Phish fan I loved his performance that night as well as on the record. Emmy Lou Harris is another on of the friends who did a great job and the list goes on. More brooding, less jammy, seemingly somewhat deeper, more personal, all round a good album with the title track being the highlight for me. The African influences come a little more to the forefront that in the DMB catalogue and the jamband stigma is left behind on a mature record by a musically confident songwriter.

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (1964) :: Hahahaha what am I going to say about this album aside from: you must own this.

Download of the Day
Gnarls Barkley - the boogie monster (MP3)

Soon again I will have a camera, Lord willing, and I will take up where I left off a few years ago when I was taking pictures more often and they were actually pretty decent. Last night I got to borrow Ms K's camera to take pictures of Cross-Pollination featuring Ivana C and Lost Boy. They were lovely.













Download of the Day
Ivana C - Pet Sounds (MP3)
Ivana C - Lindenhurst (MP3)
Lost Boy - Penny Igo (MP3)

Just a quick entry to say wow on my part for how awesome Cloud Cult was last night. Very impressive how different their acoustic set was last Tuesday during Cross-Pollination and how nicely the songs stand up in both formats. Heavyweights played to one of our most fun crowds ever with the most amazing sing-a-long during Roll Your Windows Down towards the end of our set. I was kind of in awe as to how good their voices sounded mixed in with our singing. Ms K took a nice video clip of the end of that song that soon I will be able to share. She also took some great pictures. More on her Flickr page.



Cloud Cult below.






Download of the Day
CC songs via one of my favorite new blogs RySpace who actually records audio at the shows he attends to share!
Cloud Cult - Chemicals Collide (Live at the Knitting Factory) (MP3)
Cloud Cult - Washed Your Car (Live at the Knitting Factory) (MP3)
Undisputed Heavyweights - Roll Your Windows Down (Demo) (MP3)

Cloud Cult was obviously wonderful and so were the M Shanghai String Band. Read about it on the Underrated Blog, NoYetiDance, and BrooklynVegan. It was wonderful night and though there were a lot of camera's present for now all I can find are some great pics by BrooklynVegan. Come see them with Heavyweights at Arlene's Grocery at 8pm this Friday. It shall be a fantastic night.







More albums added to my iTunes.



Tears For Fears - Everybody Loves A Happy Ending (2004) :: Come back record of the very obviously Beatles loving men that brought us some of the 80's best pop anthems (Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World). Though they're actually quite good, It's a bit easy to forget all these news songs just because what came before them was so much better. They also seem to have lost the originality in their songwriting with some overly Lennon/McCartney-ish sounding songs on this one. Not the worst people to copy, but still.

Amos Lee - Amos Lee (2005) :: I can't wait for this guy's second album, later this year around September I think. This is a fantastic little jewel of a record. His voice is soulful more than any other new musician out there, his lyrics capture a few simple moments beautifully inside deceptively simple compositions. Norah Jones and her production team are to be found all over this record, but they never sound as if they are trying to duplicate Norah's success or even sound. One of my most played records of last year. Highly recommended.

LL Cool J - Todd Smith (2006) :: It's kind of sad when artists try so hard to stay relevant by alligning them with the young guns in charge. That is kind of what it feels like on the first track of this album where LL calls out Juelz Santana's name on the hook over a very Roc-A-Fella type of Just Blaze beat. Just not so convincing though. He does a lot better over classic sounding 90's RnB Rap combos with Mary J Blige and J-lo. I deleted most of these songs after the first listen, kept the aforementioned plus the Freeway assisted old school sounding What You Want, and a couple more. Overall a pretty mediocre offering.

Download of the Day
Great band to check out. The Casey Shea recommended Appolo Sunshine.
Appolo Sunshine - Conscious Pilot (MP3) Via LargeHeartedBoy

Today a Cross-Pollination of grand proportions will be taking place. One of my favorite out of town bands, Cloud Cult, and one of my favorite in town bands, M Shanghai String Band. Cloud Cult is in town from Minnesota and played the Knitting Factory Moveable Hype show last night. Rave reviews all over. Come see them tonight in a rare acoustic performance and then Friday with the Heavyweights at Arlene's Grocery. We're psyched to play with them. :)

Via BV: Everyone who played was great, but Cloud Cult truly was the headliner at last night's Movable Hype show at Knitting Factory in NYC (April 17. 2006). By the time the band took the stage, the room was packed with a surprisingly attentive audience that mostly-stayed until the 11:30-end of the moving performance. Everyone I talk to says the same thing - Cloud Cult's live performance is rougher than their nearly flawless album. I think it's more an observation than a complaint though. Afterall, we don't go to live shows to hear the equivalent of a CD being played over a fancy sound system.



Also playing are our friends M Shanghai String Band who recently got signed to Red Parlor. what can I say about them? How about 13 people around one microphone. Don't believe it? Come check them out tonight at Pianos during Cross-Pollination



Naturally you should also of course stick around for DJ Rachael on the wheelz of steel with her Get On Your Dancing Shoes Underrated Magazine dancing party that starts at 10pm!

Download of the Day
Cloud Cult - Living on the Outside of Your Skin (MP3)
Cloud Cult - Car Crash (MP3)
M Shanghai String Band - Devil, You And Me (MP3)

Click HERE to go to the Main Page

I return gloriously after a little break. Who did I perform see in the mean time? One of the bands is Elvis Perkins. His performance was worth the hype. I saw them perform at the fabulous Rockwood Music Hall. Several people including Julia Vibe and the everpresent Jerry Yeti urged me to come and since it was nice and early and it was my favorite venue in town, I couldn't refuse.

Jerry:The venue was p-a-c-k-e-d to the gills. Opened with a bit of “Good Friday” straight into “May Day.” Book-ended the set and closed with an outgoing version of “Good Friday.” His voice kind of reminded me of Damien Rice's though his lyrics were much less emotional. It seemed more traditional observant story telling type of music, than the kind where the singer bares their soul. Except for one very touching song halfway through the set which he dedicated to his mother. I wish I knew the title. Recommended. They're coming through May 22nd at Joe's Pub. Go HERE to read Jerry's review of their album Ash Wednesday. Download below.



Download of the Day
Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday (MP3)

I don't know what is happening but celebrity after celebrity is dying these past weeks. Some might not be known to you but a little memorial run down of the past 3 weeks. So many young people seem to be dying of cancer now also. OR maybe that isn't true and it just seems that way because a few young celebrities died.




And then also one of my favorite neo soul artists on yesteryear. David Lyndon Hall also passed away of cancer. American audiences might not be so familiar with him but he made a big impact in the UK music scene and was very talented. You might have seen him inLove Actually as the wedding singer singing All You Need Is Love.



More albums added to my iTunes.



Various Artists - Irving Berlin:A Hundred Years (1988) :: Artists from the 30's and 40's like Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor, Fred Astaire, Benny Goodman, Dinah Shore, Tony Bennett, and Johnny Mathis pay tribute to one of the greatest songwriters of all time: Irving Berlin. Supposedly he is actually the world's most successful songwriter, not bad for a guy who could only play the black keys on the piano and only in one key. Great stuff.

Racoon - Another Day (2005) :: There are not many Dutch bands that really make it happen in English and though this is not a homerun by any means, it's a promising little fun pop band that wears their Beatles influences on their sleeve. Im going to try to do a "Dutch post" with MP3's sometime soon. For the 2 people interested. ha.

Prince - Sign 'O The Times (1987) :: Prince is a genius in my humble opinion and this might be my favorite album of his. One of the few double albums that really stand up with single after single and a diversity hard to really understand. From funk to folk to rock n roll to soul. Prince is all over the place on this one with all of it coming together around the theme of oppression and fear and then partying to forget about it on the other side. Highly recommended.

Download of the Day
New movie theme to Pt III of the Tom Cruise movie. It's really not THAT different. Via AshenFluf
Kanye West - Mission Impossible (Remix) (MP3)

Monday night was a good old night of way too much music crammed into too few hours and not enough sleep. Ah how I remember many of these nights when I used to hang out at the Sidewalk cafe for hours on end watching mostly crappy music with some good stuff here and there.

First up was my good friend and partner in crime Jay Mankind. He played at the fabulous Rockwood Music Hall and he did a great job. I haven't always been a fan of Jay's music but throughout the last year and a half he has really won me over. His show is always entertaining and fun to watch and his songs have a way of getting stuck in ones mind. Definitely try to catch one if you can sometime. In terms of recordings he only has a few demos right now, but I believe he is working on some more. One to be found below.



After Jay it was a quick run over to Mercury Lounge with Rachael to see the fun and fresh Voxtrot from Austin, TX. Attended by many a blogger including Gothamist Jen, BrooklynVegan, CentralVillage Jeff and the ever present greatness of Jerry Yeti. Voxtrot was great. Really fun performers and they have a bunch of actual songs. Again, most indie rockbands do not have songs and may sound cool but that doesn't mean they're any good. Voxtrot however, is good. Still a lot of tightness to be gained, but they're good. See them or read about there pretty much everywhere. Picture via baonguyen via Rachael.



After all of that came a late set by Amy Hills who always knows how to touch me. Not like that. Her lyrics and singing always have me drift into day (or rather night) dreams of past occurences or future possibilities of melancholy, love, passion and sadness. Very interesting effect. Not many people can do that to me. She doesn't play out often so catch her when you can.



Download of the Day
Voxtrot - Mothers Sisters Daughters & Wives (MP3)
Voxtrot - The Start of Something (MySpace)
Jay Mankind - Western States (MP3)

I'm not sure if anyone realizes it says Sit Down, Stand Up at the top of this website, but it's a Radiohead reference. Radiohead might be my favorite band. It has been for many years. I think it still is, though a new album would definitely solidify it's lead on other favorites. The great ObscureSound supplied me and all others with a great live show. See below and please download if down for something amazing. What a band! Such the reportoire! Such a great live act! Seriously who can step up to the plate and bring this much? Anyone? Which current band out there is better? Opinions? Via BV. (Doesn't Johnny look creepy?)

RADIOHEAD - 11/26/03 - EARL’S COURT, LONDON, UK



2 + 2 = 5 (MP3)
My Iron Lung (MP3)
Where I End You And You Begin (MP3)
Kid A (MP3)
I Will (MP3)
Myxomatosis (MP3)
I Might Be Wrong (MP3)
Sail To The Moon (MP3)
Lucky (MP3)
Paranoid Android (MP3)
Go To Sleep (MP3)
Sit Down, Stand Up (MP3)
Just (MP3)
Idioteque (MP3)
Fake Plastic Trees (MP3)
There There (MP3)
You And Whose Army (MP3)
The National Anthem (MP3)
A Wolf At The Door (MP3)
Street Spirit [Fade Out] (MP3)
We Suck Young Blood (MP3)
Karma Police (MP3)
Everything In It’s Right Place (MP3)

More albums added to my iTunes.



John Forte - Poly Sci (1998) :: Great album by a great musician that is now unfortunately not about to release an album for about 20 years due to imprisonment. He seems like a real genuine spirit, excuse for the new age-y sounding term, and his album reflects many different talents and influences. Housed in the Fugees camp he brings an earthy feel to many of the songs and a certain spiritualism is pervasive. Good stuff. Find it somewhere.

Tricky - Maxinquaye (1995) :: Brilliant solo debut of the former Massive Attack member. Trip hop at it's finest. Though the genre feels a little dated right now you can still hear Massive attack's influence in everything pop on the radio whenever a starlet wants to sound more credible and edgy. Highly recommended for those dark nights alone at home.

Devendra Barnhart - Cripple Crow (2005) :: Allmusic: Ultimately, Cripple Crow is a roughly stitched tapestry; it is rich, varied, wild, irreverent, simple, and utterly joyous to listen to. Devendra's latest album is really a big step up from all the stuff before. It sounds great, it listens great, it looks great. The songwriting has gotten even more diverse with everything from bossanova and other latin influences to anti-war folk songs. Also highly recommended even though there is one pretty creepy faux pedophelic song on there about wanting to marry little boys. I'm sure he's just being funny.

Download of the Day
I love this song and i love the video with all the baby animals. Via CleverTitles
Weezer - Island in the Sun (MP3)

More and more podcasty interview bloggy type of things keep popping up. Audiovant is easily one of the more interesting ones. Check out these entertaining exclusive interviews. They actually get Alec of CYHSY to say some stuff I haven't read about yet in the countless other interviews they've done. The Tapes boys are charming as always.

For the Tapes N Tapes interview click HERE

For the Alec of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah interview click HERE (picture by Jasper)



Sufjan Stevens is releasing a companion album to his brilliant and successful Illinois release. It will be titled The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album and will features...well...what I just said. This is dangerous! How could stuff that didn't make the album I love so much really not be a dissappointment??? Scary! I have posted a the title track below. Still trying to decide it I like it or if it's a little dissappointing. (Picture via GvB)



More albums added to my iTunes.



Wu-Tang Clan - Forever (1997) :: Follow up to their classic debut Return To The 36 Chambers and it sounds a lot better than I remember. Wow! A double LP with not too much filler, very rare especially in hip hop. If you know and love the Wu there is not too much I can say about this album. It's very Wu. The beats are grimy and dark, filled with piano stabs and static. The rhymes are complicated and intense and often non sensical. Great album.

Sigur Ros - Svefn-G-Englar EP (1999) :: This EP was released after Ágætis Byrjun but before ( ) and consists of two songs from the former and two that do not appear elsewhere. Look at my keyboard skills as I type some of these titles Viðar Vel Til Loftárása, Nýja Lagið" and "Syndir Guðs. Whoa! that alone makes this EP worth the purchase. It's really quite stunning aside from that though. Ethereal, desolate, lonely, sad, intense, uplifting. The fact that I don't know what they are talking about makes it so that I can project whatever I am feeling and it works. Tonight I'll try it while cooking and I'll imagine them singing recipes.

Joy Division - The Complete BBC Sessions :: Turns out Ian Curtis, revered in indie rock all around, can't actually sing very well. This live registration is pretty awful. Just goes to show you that dying is GREAT for your indie cred.

Download of the Day
New Sufjan track off the upcoming companion piece to Illinois! Via the great GvB.
Sufjan Stevens - the Avalanche (MP3)

Via LargeHeartedBoy I found a list that the Onion compiled of songs with "factual or logical mistakes in the lyics." My favorite one was 'N Sync's smash hit "Digital Get Down".

On the surface, 'N Sync's "Digital Get Down" is just another song about mutual masturbation facilitated by webcams, but there's a geography lesson hidden underneath all the "Baby, we can do more than just talk" talk. Turns out the lesson is that 'N Sync doesn't know anything about geography. In the chorus, they sing, "Digital digital get down just you and me / you may be 20,000 miles away, but I can see ya / and baby baby, you can see me." Really? Twenty thousand miles? Well, since the Earth is round, and its circumference is roughly 24,000 miles, that means that at 20,000 miles away, 'N Sync's digital girlfriend would also be, at most, 4,000 miles away. Unless, of course, she's in space, which would make Lance Bass really, really jealous. Read all 7 HERE

More albums added to my iTunes.



Xzibit - At The Speed Of Life (1996) :: Xzibit's overly excellent debut record set the bar high. Unfortunately he never really reached it again. He compromised his lyrics, or at least seems to have changed a lot of his stances of matters like rapping about hoes and clothes. Which is really a shame. This album is a classic though so at least he has one of these in his catalogue. Songs like Paparrazi, Foundation, Plastic surgery, and really I could name any song on here, are proof that modern rap CAN have substance while staying hardcore. Xzibit's flow is wonderful on here, the beats have substance and the words matter. Great stuff. Highly recommended.

Original Soundtrack to Amelie (2001) :: So pretty, so much like the movie, such great background music to clean your appartment to. But then if you live in NYC and your appartment is the size of a shoebox this baby will have enough sweetness on it to clean it twice AND excercise AND read a book to.

Oasis - Be Here Now (1997) :: Not as amazing as their first two albums but still pretty great. Their cocky attitude shines through and they get away with it just by being themselves. Nothing innovative, nothing much different from their general sound, but lots of great cutting and pasting of their obvious influences. Dylan, the Beatles, Zeppelin, and a few others yet still with a certain freshness to it. I have always been a fan of Liam's singing voice and sneer and I think this album probably has him singing his best. After this the dip took place with a few crappy albums. I doubt they'll overcome it somehow. But at least they have two classics and one pretty damn good album in their early catalogue, which is more than most bands can say.

Download of the Day
For once some hip hop! All via KwayaNaKisser
Beanie Sigel - Feel It In The Air (MP3)
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Murder Was The Case (MP3)
Common ft John Mayer & Kanye - Go (MP3)