Like some of you, I suffer from a condition that involves me personally investigating just about every Velvets, or Lou Reed, cover I can get my hands on - I have fuel/friends specifically to thank for this one. After purchasing, and thoroughly enjoying, Jesse Malin's post-D Generation solo debut, 2002's The Fine Art of [...]

Well heck. Here it is Monday night. In addition to the time change creeping up on me, apparently I am also going to forget what day it is and therefore not put the finishing touches on the Monday Music Roundup. Which is now looking like a Tuesday Music Roundup. Terrific! Jesse Malin 's cover of the Lou Reed classic "Walk On The Wild Side" surfaced over on the Times UK site today for free download. It's from his upcoming album of covers, On Your Sleeve [...]
East Village stalwart Jesse Malin's supplementing last year's Glitter In The Gutter with a covers record, tackling influences (Tom Waits, Neil Young) and contemporaries (The Kills) alike. He's not covering Bruce Springsteen because he just did that (and even had the Boss man cameo on Glitter ) ... but tackling Boys & Girls ' "You Can Make Him Like You" is the next best thing. The collection from which it comes is called On Your Sleeve , and it's basically a bedroom project, Jesse putting the covers to tape over a week in [...]
According to the Jesse Malin website : " New record out April 2008 on One Little Indian Records in the UK and Europe, 'On Your Sleeve.' Full-length studio album of covers from Elton John to the Hold Steady, 14 songs plus 3 bonus iTunes tracks. Stay tuned for details ." Iiinteresting. I don't know what he's putting on it, but I would guess that this is the Hold Steady cover, and two other tenuous possibilities below: YOU CAN MAKE HIM LIKE YOU (HOLD STEADY COVER) Jesse Malin at Vintage [...]

The Hot List - Day One: Spotlighting the best music of the year. Check out the review, listen and download a track before you buy. It's 2007 - one record and song at a time! Starting off with... the 15 ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE albums of 2007! Goodbye 2007.... What a phenomenal year for independent music releases, new techniques and return to style artists (flamboyant [...]
The end of the year is in sight and I look back at the music that flooded my ears and lifted me up in 2007. Thanks to friends, bloggers, songs on TV and connections with bands, my musical sphere expanded more than I could have imagined. So in no particular order and without rhyme or reason (well maybe there's some reasoning behind them), I present to you my favorite tracks of 2007: Amy Winehouse - Rehab from Back To Black ( buy ) There was no escaping this song this year. It's way [...]

Alright, I gave in. I swore I wouldn't succumb to the Christmas mixtape pressures of the season. But alas, I am mereley a man of weakness. Enjoy. -- Capt. Obvious SIDE A 1. The Pixies - Holiday Song 2. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Cold White Christmas 3. Adam Acuragi - The Christmas Song 4. The Get Up Kids - Holiday 5. Jesse Malin - Xmas 6. Kevin [...]
dewey cox & the hard walkers are playing a sold out show in town tonight, not sure if they'll bust out anything from it's a cox christmas! , but if that's the kind of music you want to hear, check out our third holiday mix which includes tracks by the staple singers, clarence carter, rotary connection ("don't forget chicago") & harry nilsson...hope you like it. download: the leather canary xmas mix #3.zip 01. jesse malin - xmas [...]
2007 was primarily notable for two things in the music world. First, it was the year Bruce Springsteen became cool again. Not only did the Boss, himself, release Magic, his best album in over 20 years, but also several newer acts heavily influenced by Springsteen released standout albums, name-checked Bruce in interviews and even played live with him. Win Butler from Arcade Fire did a joint interview with the Boss for Spin Magazine and then joined him on stage for a performance in Arcade Fire’s native Canada. The Hold Steady, long the most visible Springsteen-influenced act in the indie world, [...]

[ that's the two-year-old me on the right, celebrating something in fine style - I think it was a cousin's birthday ] Two years ago today I started Fuel/Friends, mostly on a lark, to talk about my passion for music and all the other good things in this world. My how we've grown, and what fun we've had these last two years. I sincerely appreciate each of you guys who stop by each day to see what I have to say, and the attention that you pay to both my writing and my musical selections. It's pretty much [...]

This morning I hopped a plane to New York City for a long weekend visiting three of my best friends from the year I studied abroad in Florence, Italy. I am ridiculously excited. After all those months of spending ridiculous amounts of time together with these gals, seeing mind-boggling beauty and pushing our tenuous edges through hesitant Italian speaking, train rides all over Europe, lots of carbs and gelato and Michelangelo, and questionable Italian dance moves in sweaty clubs, we all went back to our respective lives across the country and the world. The four of us saw [...]

The Best New Music of 2007! 10 Tracks from the Albums You should Know & Love. Don't see great records that came out two weeks ago? No worries... The Best of List will be expanded to 40 at the end of the year! THE TOP TEN ALBUMS ARE THE BEST. THERE IS NO PARTICULAR ORDER. The Handsome Furs - Plague Park. [...]

Jesse Malin takes on Helpless , the Neil Young classic. Recorded live at the Fruitmarket, Glasgow, UK - october 20, 2007. This was the first night of Jesse Malin's support tour with Ian Hunter; apart from some talking during the quiet songs, the audience was appreciative of his music. During "Helpless" he came down from the stage, sat in the middle of the audience, and invited everyone to sit in a circle around him. This went down very well :-) He did sound incredibly like Neil Young. [...]

Happiness is indeed a warm EP, so says reader Russell in his entry (one of 90) on my Ryan Adams contest to win the new EP Follow The Lights . I've randomly drawn 2 winners (I couldn't possibly pick based on the "best" answer for this one) and contacted lucky readers Matt C. and Jon from Dance Hall Hips . Congrats guys, and I absolutely loved reading all the entries. Wanna hear snippets of the two "new" songs on the Ryan Adams EP? [...]

Yours truly did a little bit more talking about music than usual this week. I appeared yesterday on Break Thru Radio - a question and answer piece on the Bloggeratti program with talented host - DJ RachelAndTheCity. The piece is intended, I suppose, to meet traveled music bloggers from all over the country. We did the briefest of profiles, talked about the blog and then I got to spin some records. Pretty cool. [...]

To quote the words of one Mr. Van Morrison "Turn up your radio..." 1 : Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere Buy Magic 2 : Mary Weiss - Cry About The Radio Buy Dangerous Game 3 : Grave Cowboys - Truck Radio Buy [...]

Death + Taxes Tour Last night I was able to catch the Death & Taxes Tour (sponsored by Death + Taxes Magazine) here in Minneapolis. Headlining was Jesse Malin , whom I've known and loved for years, with support provided by LA band Acute and a newly reformed and re-invented Wisconsin band, the Wildbirds . The first set was provided by Acute , who have recently released their disc Arms Around A Stranger [...]

If you really want to be honest, I think we've all asked ourselves about the current whereabouts of characters from various '80s hair metal power ballads. Jesse Malin is no different than you and I. This morning he posits the question to all of us: Sister Christian, where are you now? Night Ranger never sounded like this (although the 'Mats did). This is a b-side off Malin's new Broken Radio single (UK), and has that same anthemic rock and roll [...]

I just picked up Jesse Malin 's latest album, ' Glitter in the Gutter '. I haven't spent a lot of time listening to Jesse in the past, but I've heard good things about him, and he's played gigs with Marah, a Philly band I really like. And the kicker is that Bruce Springsteen makes an appearance on the record, singing along with Jesse on a tune called "Broken Radio". So to start off, I'll admit that for me, Jesse Malin will be an acquired taste. I listened to "Broken Radio" for the first time a few [...]

"With a sky blue sky, this rotten time wouldn’t seem so bad to me now." I was fortunate enough to see the illustrious Wilco perform as the guest musicians on the even more illustrious A Prairie Home Companion (a fantastic Minnesota tradition) this past Saturday. As if I wasn't already running to the store to pick up Sky Blue Sky when it comes out tomorrow, I might just have to be there when the doors open. Exaggeration, I [...]