Poi Dog Pondering - Complicated

Poi Dog Pondering - Complicated

Things are going to get complicated over the next two weeks, first with a trip home to Chicago followed by a work trip to California. Posting will probably be light, but I'll try hard to keep this up daily. Poi Dog Pondering in particular remind me of Chicago in the summer; for a while it seemed like they'd always have a free show over the Taste of Chicago. Like clockwork, they played a show at the Ravinia on Sunday.

The 2000s on Shuffle

The Essex Green - By The Sea
Fountains Of Wayne - Mexican Wine

I made a mega-playlist last week of all the songs I have from the year 2000 til now. Here are a few random songs that came up.

King Khan & the Shrines - Welfare Bread

King Khan & the Shrines - Welfare Bread

King Khan & The Shrines play a free show at South Street Seaport today. BrooklynVegan has a calendar of free shows; the sheer number of these shows in NYC each summer is staggering!

Plants And Animals - Bye Bye Bye

Plants And Animals - Bye Bye Bye

Pete & The Pirates - Knots

Pete & The Pirates - Knots

My posts are going to be light on the commentary over the next few days. Enjoy the music!

Girl Talk - Play Your Part (Pt. 1)

Girl Talk - Play Your Part (Pt. 1)

Girl Talk's latest album, Feed the Animals, came out earlier this week with the same Radiohead In Rainbow's pay-what-you-want model. Its sure to earn comparisons to last year's immensely popular Night Ripper. Reviews will weigh the relative merits of each. But all that is irrelevant. This album is so much fun!

Girl Talk, aka Gregg Gillis, takes hip-hop and mixes it with popular songs. Wikipedia has a list of all the samples on this album. It may seem formulaic, but I could listen to this for hours. He has a definite science that makes his work much more than a mixing of different genres.

First, he knows how to play off the strengths of different songs. Good music takes you to a higher plane. Rock songs, generally, get you there through instrumentation: think intros, outros and raging guitar solos. Hip-hop, generally, is all about language: think "throw your hands up" and Yeeaah!" Gillis combines the best moments of both of these, like the intro to Pete Townshend's "Let My Love Open the Door" with Unk's "Walk It Out", or the outro to Journey's "Faithfully" with Huey's "Pop, Lock & Drop It".

Second, Gillis rarely gives up the best part of the song. Take his sample of the Jackson 5's "ABC"; he warms you up to belt out the chorus "A-B-C. As easy as...", but then suddenly switches gears. This happens time and time again. With its quick samples, the entire album is one big tease that leaves you dripping with anticipation for that next moment.

With this combination, Girl Talk creates its own moments and takes you to that higher plane in a way that wasn't possible with each of the individual songs. Who would have ever thought The Bands' "The Weight" would work in a club! Its an album full of samples, but its highly original.

Eric Clapton - Lay Down Sally

Eric Clapton - Lay Down Sally

We saw the play August: Osage County on Saturday and absolutely loved it. I haven't seen very many plays, so I can state without a doubt that this was the best play I have ever seen. In fact, I think its the best "thing" (movie, tv, music etc) I've seen in a long time! Eric Clapton's Lay Down Sally has a bit part in the play, so I thought I'd feature it today.

From new albums to oldies

The Notwist - Chemicals
Wolf Parade - I'll Believe In Anything

Sometimes I'll be really excited about a new album, but I won't have the time to listen to it for weeks or months. Such was the case with the Centro-matic album last week. And I feel the same way this week about The Notwist and Wolf Parade. Both great bands with new albums out this week. So here are a few oldies from them that I like. This may become a regular trend; its fun to share a song that you know and love, rather than one with which you have yet to form an emotional attachment.

The Breeders - Divine Hammer

The Breeders - Divine Hammer

Divine Hammer is one of my favorite songs, but this recording has always sounded flat to me. Those beginning drums should leap out of the speakers. Is it just me? With The Breeders selling out shows across the country, I'd love to see a remastered rerelease of Last Splash.

Modest Mouse - Float On

Modest Mouse - Float On

Props to Modest Mouse for playing a 1:30 AM show tonight in Brooklyn. The show comes after their opening gig for R.E.M. at Madison Square Garden.

Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space

Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space

This song is like a lullaby, easing you into relaxation after a long day. I have no idea where this live version came from, but I like it better than the original.

The Clash - Train In Vain

The Clash - Train In Vain

You see a lot of celebrities in New York City. I'm generally not star struck, but we walked right by Mike Myers today! He was wearing a black Clash t-shirt. There's something exciting about passing a guy who's face is plastered on every billboard in town.

The Twilight Sad - Climbing Up The Walls

The Twilight Sad - Climbing Up The Walls

I'm proud to share a birthday with Radiohead's OK Computer; the album came out on June 16, 1997. This track is a cover from The Twilight Sad, off Stereogum's tribute album to OK Computer.

The Prolific Will Johnson

Centro-matic - Supercar
Will Johnson - Closing Down My House

Centro-matic played a show with the Grand Archives on Friday at the Bowery Ballroom. I was surprised the show didn't sell out; I'm so use to all shows selling out these days. Will Johnson is the central figure in Centro-matic, and South San Gabriel; the two bands released a dual album this week called Dual Hawks. I haven't listened to this album yet, but here are two of my favorites from Will Johnson and Centro-matic.

Alison Krauss - Down To The River To Pray

Alison Krauss - Down To The River To Pray

On Tuesday I posted a Page & Plant song. That same night Robert Plant and Alison Krauss played a show in NYC in support of their Raising Sand album. Here's a setlist and recap from BrooklynVegan. It never occurred to me before, but of course they'd play a few Zeppelin songs! They did Black Dog, Black Country Woman, Battle of Evermore and When The Levee Breaks. Alison Krauss also played "Down to the River to Pray" from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. This is my favorite song from that soundtrack. It would have been a fun show to be at!

Al Green - You've Got the Love I Need

Al Green - You've Got the Love I Need

Just look at the smile on that face. Whenever you see him, he always has that smile. Al Green brings that love and happiness to every song he sings.

Andre Ethier - Pride of Egypt

Andre Ethier - Pride of Egypt

The Cubs just wrapped up a series against the Dodgers. Whenever I see the name Andre Ethier, I think of the Dodgers outfielder of the same name. But its also the name of this Canadian artist. Baseball always had a strong connection to music. There's the national anthem at the beginning of every game. Ethier (the singer) sang the Canadian national anthem at a Dodgers / Blue Jays game last year. And then there's the seventh inning stretch. Countless sports figures and famous people have embarrassed themselves with their take on Take Me Out To The Ballgame at Wrigley Field.

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - Wah Wah

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - Wah Wah

One of the fun things about this blog is rediscovering music from long ago. An errant thought leads to Google and Wikipedia which leads to more revelations about a song or an artist.

Today's discovery was triggered by Led Zeppelin: The Story Behind Every Song which I just picked up from the bookstore the other day. For a mere $10, I now hold the secrets to each and every Led Zeppelin song; it covers everything from the first song off their first album all the way to the work Jimmy Page & Robert Plant did after Zeppelin.

I was really excited about finding this song Wah Wah, which was a part of the Page & Plant recordings. I remember hearing the song from their Unledded MTV broadcast, and then never hearing it since. But it has remained one of my favorite post-Zeppelin tracks.

Unfortunately the song isn't available on Amazon MP3 or iTunes, but a video of the song is on YouTube (YouTube must have more music than any online store...) The video itself is pretty cool, which Page & Plant sharing time with Moroccan musicians. From there, I followed these Lifehacker instructions for ripping an FLV to MP3, and then used Audacity to crop the noise from the beginning and end.

It turns out that the track is available on a remastered edition of No Quarter, and it inexplicably leaves off their great version of Thank You (and some other tracks). Why not just release all the songs at once?! I think this experience illustrates just what lengths people will go to to get the music they want, immediately.

Jamie Lidell - Another Day

Jamie Lidell - Another Day

Sorry Jamie Lidell. Though I enjoy your upbeat soul, I was actually running out of time so I had to post something quick. But I'm excited about the song coming up tomorrow, I just couldn't get it ready in time for today...

Summer is here

Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
Summertime - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

Yesterday's cool night in the 60s provided no foreshadowing to today's heat. We are expecting temperatures close to 100 over the next few days. Summer has arrived in NYC!

Death Cab For Cutie - Bixby Canyon Bridge

Death Cab For Cutie - Bixby Canyon Bridge

My wife and I were just reviewing the lyrics to the latest Death Cab For Cutie album. Ben Gibbard has always penned outstanding lyrics, whether its with Death Cab or Postal Service. On this album, I was most struck by how moving and devastating the ending lyrics were, particularly on songs like You Can Do Better Than Me, Cath, and this song Bixby Canyon Bridge. The song follows Gibbard who is following in his hero Jack Keroac's footsteps. He's expecting to discover some sort of revelation, but in the end finds he's "no closer to any kind of truth, as I must assume was the case with you."

New Order - Love Vigilantes

New Order - Love Vigilantes

We heard this song over dinner today. New Order is firmly a dance band, Regret was a staple at high school dances. So it was refreshing to hear them again after all these years; in a coffee shop, stripped of the dance context, I was reminded of just how good their songs are.

Usher - Love In This Club

Usher - Love In This Club

I enjoyed the MTV Movie Awards over the weekend, despite its shameless self-promotion. Its obvious all the presenters were there only to pimp their own upcoming movies, they all admitted as much. At least they are honest.

One of the commercials played a snippet of this new Usher song, and I was immediately hooked. It has a great melody, although I later found out it samples swiped from Garage Band... twice!

But unfortunately I just can't get into the chorus: "I wanna make love in this club" repeated over and over again. Maybe I'm just getting old fashioned in my old age, but that is just not a refrain I can sing to myself. Comparing it to some of last year's summer hits, it has neither the fun of Rhianna's Umbrella nor the soul of Alica Key's No One. It just sounds like a cheap Akon imitation. So although its got all the right sounds, Usher's Love In The Club falls just short of being the song of the summer for me.

Bo Diddley - Hey Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley - Hey Bo Diddley

I was sad to hear that Bo Diddley passed away on Monday. I saw him play about 10 years ago at Bumbershoot in Seattle, and I remember two things about him: 1) he was cranky and 2) he was damn good. I mean rocking-out-better-than-bands-half-his-age good.

Big Dipper - You're Not Patsy

Big Dipper - You're Not Patsy

Yes we have internet! The cable from our building to our apartment was bad and need to be replaced.

Today's song is from Big Dipper, who I knew nothing about until hearing that Merge has reissued their albums as a giant 3-disc set called Supercluster. And amazingly these 49 tracks are only $8.99 from Amazon MP3. So I'm discovering them onw. This track, You're Not Patsy, was apparently one of Kurt Cobain's favorites, and its one of mine as well.