Download audio file (bpb-horses.mp3) Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Horses I don't know, Pitchfork, but I really like Sings Greatest Palace Music . I guess I just like my Bonnie "Prince" Billy slick and rowdy . It's as though they viewed Sings Greatest Palace Music as an affront to the original material, as if Oldham, by redoing his work as Palace with Nashville session players that he was trying to replace/erase them. Although comparisons between versions are probably inevitable (like the obvious: [...]
I don't know about you, but these new Beck songs leave me cold. I love Beck. He's great. Maybe they'll grow on me when I pick up the album when it comes out (October 3rd). But frankly, he's better when he's sad. Beck's zanier side might be what gained him noterity, and he certainly does "zany" better than most, but it's those quiet moments that were overshadowed on Mellow Gold , made-up the overlooked space-filler Mutations and breathed life into Beck's one-true classic Sea Change . Knowing what he's capable [...]
Go buy them. If you already own the classics, His N Hers , Different Classes and This is Hardcore and are familiar with the britpop wonder that lives in each of them, then there are three bonus discs of demos, b-sides and live tracks to fill that void left when Pulp disbanded / went on hiatus in 2002. Never heard of Pulp? Well, I don't believe you, but here are five reasons good enough to warrant spending the near-hundred dollars it'll cost you for all three: Download audio [...]
Download audio file (tscm-dryyoureyes.mp3) The Streets - Dry Your Eyes (feat. Chris Martin) I think that Mike Skinner of the Streets is at his best when occasionally strays into the territory of the ballad. His uptempo stuff is fun, but he really distiniguishes himself as expertly balances schmaltz and genuine poetry, never stumbling over purple proses, as a lesser white-boy rapper might. The highlight for me of Original Pirate Material was that moment when on "It's too Late," Skinner sings, "Now nothing holds significance [...]
Listening to their debut EP, All Night , there is a sense that they might be aliens, traveled back in time to kidnap Spacehog's Royston Langdon to use their wildly advanced technology to steal his mojo. Of course, the Portland band has the luxury of not having (yet) teased the American mainstream with a single that downplays a greater talent (and the sad misfortune of never having touched Liv Tyler's sweet, sweet flesh). I like them. There's a grandiose nature to their music, like the music that plays during a sweeping camera pan over a metropolis [...]
From the current Rolling Stone : (Music) makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it. ..You must realize that the priceless gift that African - Americans gave us musically is now almost the only reason many foreigners still tolerate us. That specific remedy for the worldwide epidemic of depression is the blues.
While scouring the net for MP3's of the unknown Dylan masterpieces mentioned in Jonathon Lethem's article on Rolling Stone, I came across the Supper Club bootleg posted a while back on San Diego Serenade . It was supposed to be, apparently, the MTV Unplugged album but was rejected due to the lack of recognizable hits, but the remaining bootleg is pretty clearly superior. There's a lot of wonderful lesser known favorites on the boot, as well as strangely exciting versions of "Lay Lady Lay" and "My Back Pages," complete with an elder Dylan sneer that [...]
Listen to this song: Download audio file (ad-therifle.mp3) Alela Diane - The Rifle Her name is Alela Diane. Her album, The Pirate's Gospel , comes out October 24 on Holocene Music It's not surprising that she's friends with Joanna Newsom. Granted, there's more Beth Orton in Diane's Joanna Newsom, but the result is a great addition to newish class of literate musicians, such as the Decemberists, Newsom, and [...]
This song makes the new Decemberists' album for me: Download audio file (td-yb.mp3) The Decemberists - Yankee Bayonet The Crane Wife , the Portland band's major-label debut, is going divide their fans. The lesser-intelligent fans will use words like "sell-out" (an instinctual reaction to any hipster favorite going tip-toeing towards the mainstream), and some just won't know what to make of it, which will result in unneccessary comparisons with their prior albums. Standing alone, though, [...]
How Paris Hilton weeds out her worthless friends [ here ] -------------- I just saw BRICK . I liked it. The stylized film-noir tone turned me off, in theory, but they made it work. Watching it, I found myself wishing that VERONICA MARS adopted a similiar tone, rather than the sort of half-erect BUFFY homage it sometimes comes of as. -------------- Rolling Stone has a great article about overlooked Dylan songs on some of his lesser known albums. Good. [...]
Download audio file (bpb-seedling.mp3) Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Seedling "The Seedling," the first track I heard from Bonnie "Prince Billy's upcoming album The Letting Go , perhaps unfairly raised my expections. The sweeping, apocolyptic chorus seems to suggest a Jim Steinman-esque theatricality that fits with Oldham's soft-spoken warble so well, I hoped that this album marked a style-shift for him from quiet-literate folksie numbers into loud-literate epic rock songs. He's teased us with this sort of experimentations before-his daliences in electronica and heavy metal, [...]
Just in case you were waiting for my instructions, you should all go buy the new Mountain Goats album, Get Lonely. It's officially my favorite album of the year, thus far. It's available on vinyl and CD , and it's well worth it. Album reviews are all fairly subjective. Some albums are pretty clearly bad, despite the fact that you can probably find someone somewhere that likes it, and some albums are pretty clearly great, despite the fact that there are going to be people that hate it. [...]
The tracklist for Tom Waits' much ballyhooed rarities collection, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards has been announced. Sadly, in the three CD's and 54 tracks of hard-to-find Waits goodness, his classic, "Annie's Back In Town" from the 1978 film Paradise Alley (a soundtrack where Waits shares the bill with both Sylvester and Frank Stallone). It's really a great song, and I'm pretty disappointed it's not there. Granted, the album has many other wonderful things (like "A Little Drop of Poison," rendering my copy of the Shrek 2 soundtrack useless, and his [...]
I hear that, if you're a Belle & Sebastian fan, this was the show to go to... Belle & Sebastian Live at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic Los Angeles, CA. July 6th, 2006. Download audio file (10.mp3) ( intro ) Fuck This Shit I Fought In A War La Pastie De La Bourgeoisie The Model Sukie In [...]
I don't like The Raconteurs. I have no good reason for it. I've liked every White Stripes album quite a bit, and fully believe Jack White is a pretty fantastic musician, but anything I've heard from them has left me kind of cold. EXCEPT... The Raconteurs covering Gnarls Barkley. That I like, even if there are probably more novel things for them to cover than the moment's current big hit. Head over to Culture Bully to hear Jack White's B-Side group covering "Crazy," and the rest of their set from this [...]
Here's the full Iron & Wine show from Saturday's Lollapalooza. More knowledgable people at PassingAfternoon.com have said the show wasn't his best, but I liked it quite a bit. It's got some great alternate versions of "Jezebel," "Sinning Hands" and "Woman King," the aforementioned new song, and some truly wonderful moments, like that part towards the end of "Upward Over the Mountain" where his voice goes so high he blends in with the slide guitar. The audio cuts out on "Evening on the Ground" and "The Trapeze Swinger," and it seems that the Lollapalooza [...]
An exceptionally furry Sam Beam and friends performed at Lollapalooza yesterday afternoon and debuted a new song. Thanks to AT&T's Blueroom and some wonderful people at PassingAfternoon.com , the MP3 is here for you to listen to. The title is unknown, although I'm pulling for "Juggernaut Heart and Japanese Cars." Even though my opinion doesn't matter. Download audio file (iw-new.mp3) Iron & Wine - New Song (Live @ Lollapalooza) It was a great set, and I hope the full concert [...]
So. Much thanks to Arnulf for pointing out the two-fold problem with my entry, " All Up Your Trunk ." The first problem was the ridiculous ommision of Devendra Banhart's cover of "Doo Wop (That Thing)" which was the point of the entry in the first place. Download audio file (db-doowop.mp3) Devendra Banhart - "Doo Wop (That Thing)" (Lauryn Hill) The second problem was my complete ignorance to Icelandic band, Thorir's cover of Outkast's "Hey [...]
When I was a young film student, I considered James L. Brooks to be my favorite director. He's only directed a few films, most notablely BROADCAST NEWS , TERMS OF ENDEARMENT , AS GOOD AS IT GETS , and is primarly known as a television producer and writer for such shows as MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW , TAXI and THE SIMPSONS . His films were far from perfect. Even on the best films (the aforementioned three), they seem problematic. They tend to be overly-sentimental, and are a [...]
This morning, the Mountain Goats performed on Gideon Coe's Show on BBC6, proving that the British radio is better once again. Below are the MP3's of a couple songs. I think that's it, but if I get a hold of the full show (banter and all), I'll update the post. The audio quality isn't fantastic, but you can pretend that they're "lo-fi" and be more hip. The Mountain Goats August 3, 2006 Live on BBC 6 (Gideon Coe's Show) Download audio file (wildsage.mp3) [...]
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