OK Computer?

Radiohead - Exit Music (For a Film)
Radiohead - Let Down

Posting the weekend's entry early. Hopefully the next time I post it will be from a working internet at home. Until then, here are some Radiohead tracks from OK Computer.

Otis Taylor - Live Your Life

Otis Taylor - Live Your Life

Otis Taylor has made one of my favorite albums of the year in Recapturing The Banjo, a blues album featuring the banjo. This is my favorite song of the bunch. I love the juxtaposition of the bass against the high twang of the banjo, as well as the juxtaposition of Otis Taylor's deep voice against the female vocals. I believe both the bass and the backing vocals are from Taylor's daughter, Cassie Taylor.

De Novo Dahl - Means To An End

De Novo Dahl - Means To An End

De Novo Dahl's songs are as fun as their album cover. Means To An End, however, is a little slower and introspective than the rest.

p.s. Our internet is down until they send a tech out on Saturday. This is really testing my internet addiction...

Nada Surf - From Now On

Nada Surf - From Now On

Before I head home, one more song for today. I knocked Nada Surf over the weekend, so to balance it out, here's my favorite song off their latest album, Lucky.

Suicidal Tendencies - Instutionalized

Suicidal Tendencies - Instutionalized

Nada Surf's Popular reminds me of Suicidal Tendencies' Instutionalized; the song was also featured in Iron Man.

So this post is actually making up for a missed post on Tuesday, because our internet went down! I'm exchanging my cable modem today for a new one; hopefully we'll be back online at home tonight. Internet withdrawal is difficult!

Radio Indie

Archers Of Loaf - Web In Front
Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
Pavement - Cut Your Hair
Nada Surf - Popular

Way back in the day, before the internet, mp3s and iPods, there was radio. Q101 was the reigning radio station in Chicago when I was growing up. "The new rock alternative" is their slogan; I never figured out if it was the "new rock" alternative, or the new "rock alternative".

This was when "Alternative" was the new rock, and Q101 was the station that brought it to us. They would fill the airwaves with Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, and Stone Temple Pilots. In fact, I think Q101 is stuck in a time warp: on a recent trip home I still heard the same songs from Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots.

But buried among these mega alternative superstars there would be one song from a band I've never heard of. Archers of Loaf's Web in Front is an example; I heard this song once and fell in love. From that point on, I'd cross my fingers that today would be the day I heard Web In Front. It was a treat I seldom enjoyed, until eventually they stopped playing it.

The Pixies' Here Comes Your Man is another example of this. It got heavy radio play, a video on MTV, it was even one of the first songs I figured out for myself on the guitar. But I can't remember another Pixies song on the radio since.

As "Alternative" became "Indie", these bands became the elder statesmen; there are few bands more influential now than Archers of Loaf, The Pixies, or Pavement. And these songs were the tip of the iceberg, offering a whole new world of music to those who were listening. Here are some of my favorite bands, and its all thanks to small moments from the radio.

The one exception to this Nada Surf's Popular. This song was popular for Nada Surf, but I hated it. Absolutely hated it. It really turned me off to Nada Surf; only recently have I conceded to revisiting their stuff. Though they haven't had a hit as big as Popular, they've continued with a solid career. Their latest album, Lucky, came out earlier this year.

Oh yeah, its a long weekend, woo hoo, I'm taking some time off, enjoy these 4 songs, have a great Memorial Day, see ya Tuesday!

The Frames - True

The Frames - True

This is the other song that really stuck with me from The Swell Season show the other night. It is originally credited to The Frames, but with Glen Hansard on vocals and many of his Frames bandmates on backing instruments, I don't think it matters.

Tori Amos - Famous Blue Raincoat

Tori Amos - Famous Blue Raincoat

I just recently got around to reading this amazingly in-depth piece on Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. It traces the evolution of the song and its various covers in exacting detail. Hallelujah is a great song, but my favorite Leonard Cohen cover has to be Tori Amos' version of Famous Blue Raincoat. I had this song on repeat for like a year; but that was about 10 years ago, and I haven't thought about the song again until now. Its from an album called Tower of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, which sadly is all but extinct now. Its not available new, its not on Amazon MP3, not on iTunes. The best bet for finding it is buying it used off of Amazon or Half.com. And they thought CDs were dead!

Bon Iver - Skinny Love

Bon Iver - Skinny Love

The Bon Iver buzz continues to go strong; for me this song is the pinnacle of a great album.

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

We just got back from The Swell Season show. This is the second time we've seen them; this time at the much larger Radio City Music Hall. From the movie Once to their Oscar win, this group has come a long way from, as Glen Hansard said tonight, "2 years ago, playing for 150 people at Pianos". He had a great story to frame their success, specifically for the song Falling Slowly. I paraphrase:

"Its like you're kicking a ball in your yard, trying to see how far you can kick it, maybe to the end of the yard. But one day you kick it and it goes to the end of the yard, over the wall, beyond the town, over the river and then over another river... And you're happy for how far you kicked it. But then sometimes, you just want your fucking ball back."

One of the highlights of the show was Glen's solo version of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. His intensity during the chorus was matched only by his ferocity on the guitar. Dare I say, I like his rendition better than the original!

Two Songs

Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You
Yelle - Ce Jeu

My wife has been obsessed with these songs recently. I'll admit, they don't skew towards my regular taste, but they are a lot of fun! I don't know anything about Yelle, but her Wikipedia entry is interesting: "She rose to fame on MySpace when she posted a song titled "Short Dick Cuizi", dissing Cuizinier, a member of the Parisian hip-hop group TTC." Black Kids on the other hand have been enjoying an incredible amount of internet buzz, and subsequent backlash, without even a proper first album.

Born Ruffians - Foxes Mate For Life

Born Ruffians - Foxes Mate For Life

Born Ruffians. Foxes Mate For Life. TGIF!

Built To Spill - I Would Hurt A Fly

Built To Spill - I Would Hurt A Fly

Tickets go on sale today for Built To Spill, Dinosaur Jr. and The Meat Puppets. The shows are on September 25th and 26th; I wonder if they'll sell out in a day.

Built to Spill will be playing their album Perfect From Now On in its entirety. Each song on that album is epic; the shortest song is just shy of five minutes (Made-Up Dreams at 4:52). Built to Spill squeeze more riffs into one song than most bands can muster on an entire album. With these openers and these songs, this show is going to be a real blast from the past!

Jay Reatard - It's So Easy

Jay Reatard - It's So Easy

This song has no fat. It starts fast and ends in an explosion of guitars and drums, all in the span of just over a minute.

No Kids - The Beaches All Closed

No Kids - The Beaches All Closed

Not to be confused with No Age, here's No Kids; this song reminds me of Justin Timberlake.

No Age - Teen Creeps

No Age - Teen Creeps

Right from the opening bars of No Age's Teen Creeps, I heard echos of Archers of Loaf, and I love it! I'm downloading the album off Amazon MP3 right now!

Two Songs: Black Lips & Leadbelly

Black Lips - O Katrina!
Leadbelly - Alberta

I love O Katrina! for its simplicity; it steers clear of social commentary and sings of the grief from Hurricane Katrina in only 5 lines:

O Katrina why you gotta be mean
You broke my heart way down in New Orleans
I can't believe what I saw on the TV screen
O Katrina why can't you be serene
I Katrina why you gotta be mean

It reminds me of Wilco's Hate It Here, where in the face of sadness we only ask "why". It also reminds me of countless other blues songs about a girl and heartbreak, such as Leadbelly's Alberta. The song was made famous by Eric Clapton on his Unplugged album, but Leadbelly's original is much darker.

The Black Keys - Strange Times

The Black Keys - Strange Times

Keeping with yesterday's theme, The Black Keys' new album, Attack & Release, came out earlier this year.

The Constantines - Trans Canada

The Constantines - Trans Canada

With recent posts from Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Hold Steady, and Les Savy Fav, I've been in a real rock mood lately. So I thought I'd finish out the week with songs from bands that bring the rock to indie rock. Yesterday's Frightened Rabbit was one example. Today its the Constantines, who's album Kensington Heights just came out last week. Their album Shine a Light was one of my favorites of that year. This new album is their debut for the larger Arts & Crafts label.

Frightened Rabbit - Modern Leper

Frightened Rabbit - Modern Leper

Frightened Rabbit's debut album Sing the Greys was rereleased just this past October, and now they return with The Midnight Organ Fight.

Les Savy Fav - Yawn Yawn Yawn

Les Savy Fav - Yawn Yawn Yawn

It was 2am New Years Day. Should I? Shouldn't I? Should I? In the end, I did not. But I really wish I went to the 3am Les Savy Fav show on New Years.

Now that show has been released as a live album: After The Balls Drop (Live NYE). But these songs don't do justice to the insanity that is a Les Savy Fav show. You have to imagine lead singer Tim Harrington flailing about, screaming into the microphone, jumping into the crowd, and causing general havoc all in the name of rocking out. Its a fun, thrilling, and a little scary experience.

The Hold Steady - Knuckles

The Hold Steady - Knuckles


As mentioned earlier, we went to The Hold Steady show on Friday. The show was a part of the Tribeca Film Festival and sponsored by Target. We missed the Bad Veins because they played only a 15 minute set at 6:45pm! The Hold Steady played a 45 minute set and didn't return for an encore. The crowd left that show cursing the film festival, Target and Webster Hall.

All frustration aside, The Hold Steady put on a fun show. The crowd knew every beat and every lyric. I love seeing that sort of unbridled energy; its something missing from a lot of indie shows these days.

Knuckles is from The Hold Steady's first album. The show mostly consisted of songs from their last two albums, but this first album is my favorite of their three.

And a word of advice to the film festival, Target and Webster Hall for next year: if you are going to put on a show, put it on for the fans, do it right and let the bands PLAY!

Two Songs: Covers @ Coachella

Pixies - Cactus
Radiohead - Creep

The 3-Day Coachella Festival wrapped up last weekend out in California. There were a ton of performances; check out Pitchfork and BrooklynVegan for highlights and pictures. My two favorite moments were both covers: The Swell Season doing the Pixies' Cactus (in honor of Kim Deal), and Prince doing Radiohead's Creep. I've linked to videos of both performances. While The Swell Season's performance is raw and endearing, Prince must not have liked his performance leaking out; the video has been deleted from YouTube, but it can be found on other mirrors.

Bad Veins - The Lie

Bad Veins - The Lie

We're going to a show tonight as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. The lineup includes Republic Tigers, The Virgins, and one of my all time favorites, The Hold Steady. It would be easy to just post a Hold Steady song today, but another favorite, Bad Veins, will be opening the show as winners of Target Music Maker Award. The band only has an EP out right now, but The Lie was a favorite song of mine last year, and even made Suraiya's best-of-2007 mix. Hopefully we'll get more new stuff from them soon.

Dodos - Fools

Dodos - Fools

This week's Sound Opinions coined the term One Note Wonders: bands that may only do one thing, but they do it really well. I thought this was a neat concept; rather than deride these bands like One Hit Wonders, they praised them for their singular sounds. Examples included The Ramones, Stereolab, and The Strokes.

I picked up this Dodos album after the stellar review from Pitchfork. I really enjoy the songs, but they flow together in a way that makes one song sound like the next. It sounds like another One Note Wonder to me, but I say that as a complement.