Track Listing 1. Nothing Like You 2. Good Arms vs Bad Arms 3. Swim Until You Can't See Land Download Download the full interview & session

Track Listing 1. Nothing Like You 2. Good Arms vs Bad Arms 3. Swim Until You Can't See Land Download Download the full interview & session

Hey, look at that - we're still alive! Complete truth: I meant to post this a good week earlier, but was having server troubles. 2009 was a rough year, personally, for your poor webmistress, but it would take quite something to stop the compiling of year end lists. Though, 2009 wasn't such a competitive year for music, either, since this list wasn't the battle it was last year. No agonizing "I can't believe I have to leave this out!" cut offs, no close calls. Just 10 (... 11) albums that seemed to be the only things worth gracing [...]

2009 was another great year for live music , slightly edging out last year for me with a grand total of 97 shows, in 26 different venues for 251 sets of music by 215 different bands, with 26 bands logging in 2 or more. Continuing to be one of the best live music venues anywhere, Johnny Brenda's topped the list with 25 visits. The other places where you could have found me hanging out this past year being World Cafe Live (15), The M Room (11), Kung Fu Necktie (7) and The Khyber , The [...]

For ramblings on how I came to compile this list go here . And for commentary on previous selections: [ #50-46 ] [ #45-41 ] [ #40-36 ] [ #35-31 ] [ #30-26 ] [ #25-21 ] [ #20-16 ] [ #15-11 ] So how exciting it this 'eh? We're about to embark on my top 10 selections for the 2000's and I, for one, am very surprised at the difference a countdown makes to a blogger's readership. Maybe I should throw a few declining numbers in front of my opinions more [...]

Okay it was over a week ago really, but I think I can be afforded some poetic license for the sake of an Indeep reference. The Internets Celebrities had been invited by Checkmate co-star Ben Popken to attend the first Consumerist meetup, show some of our videos and talk to the crowd. The event was indeed a " great success " as we definitely won over some new fans that night. Meanwhile, just outside the private room, Botanica bar was crawling with attractive marketing folk peddling their [...]
Okay it was over a week ago really, but I think I can be afforded some poetic license for the sake of an Indeep reference. The Internets Celebrities had been invited by Checkmate co-star Ben Popken to attend the first Consumerist meetup, show some of our videos and talk to the crowd. The event was indeed a " great success " as we definitely won over some new fans that night. Meanwhile, just outside the private room, Botanica bar was crawling with attractive marketing folk peddling their [...]

[Photos by Merry Swankster] For what its worth, I'm firmly placed in the camp of believers calling Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca as one of the best albums of the year. There is a magical cohesion from track to track that elevates the album's song collection into something more special as a sum of its parts, even in spite of standout songs. Bitte Orca keeps pulling me back even as I flirt with other tempting releases that hover in my orbit. Last Sunday's show at the Blubird was the first time I've [...]

Okay it was over a week ago really, but I think I can be afforded some poetic license for the sake of an Indeep reference. The Internets Celebrities had been invited by Checkmate co-star Ben Popken to attend the first Consumerist meetup, show some of our videos and talk to the crowd. The event was indeed a " great success " as we definitely won over some new fans that night. Meanwhile, just outside the private room, Botanica bar was crawling with attractive marketing folk peddling their [...]

I am so grossed out just by typing that title that I don't even know where to begin. Apparently someone thought that it wasn't bad enough that she was actually sexing up Jon Gosselin , that they decided to commemorate the occasion with a video. The source is also claiming that he's seen Jon hoovering in the coke like he was a vacuum. This ought to play well for the court in his case against TLC . Kate's [...]
click here to watch WIDESCREEN POP – The Sound of Arrows By Neale Lytollis The rise of „real", some-might-say-intellectual electronic music in recent years (see Justice, Hot Chip and Digitalism) and bands moving away from traditional indie rock and venturing into more experimental territory (Telepathe, Crystal Stilts, Health being perhaps three of the main contendors), has all contributed to the word „pop" being more or less on par with „cunt" or „fuck" in terms its offensiveness. Pop is shallow and disposable; pop doesn't topple [...]
Free Chicken and Beer did a great piece on the funkiest jams of all time. Great article, and I don't think I can dispute any of it, but I was struck that with the sole exception of Handsome Boy Modeling School the songs were all...old. Like, dozens of years old. Makes perfect sense, since the golden age of funk was the 70s, but it made me sad to think that funk as a style has passed on. Defunkt , if you will. When did that happen? I can't think of any good, solid funk [...]
Friday night R. Kelly performed in New York at the former Felt Forum, now a theater named after a bank that went belly-up because of the excesses of the previous decade . The tour was Kells' "Ladies Make Some Noise Tour," in which the default mode for the evening involved a) ladies b) making some noise, particularly when lyrics involving doing the nasty were thrust from the stage. Oh, and there was also thrown underwear -from both sides of the stage. The show kicked off with Kells covering Kanye West's "Flashing Lights" and [...]

Have you heard? People are dating! The economy must be improving, because boys and girls are getting together and trying insertion games with one another. So says CNN (via Judy McGuire at The Frisky ). The news website ran a syndicated column this weekend about what different text messages mean when you're dating. Personally, I had no idea about this new craze. SMS is just another newfangled technology I can't be bothered to understand. Eh, who am I kidding. I'm in on it. I send short messages to friends and on my phone all the time. I wish I [...]
![Simon Joyner: Out Into The Snow [Album Review]](http://cache.elbo.ws/posts/1990931_lg.jpg)
I may get railed on for making a Dylan comparison here, but Simon Joyner and the master himself share a few points. There's the minimal acoustic guitar and equally minimal accompaniment in songs like "The Drunken Boat" and "Sunday Morning Song For Sara". There's the traditional folk element rampant throughout each of his songs. And there's a slight vocal similarity as well. Sure, Joyner may not be the songwriter Bob is, as that feat would truly be amazing, but his songs have that same timeless folk quality that dabbles in Americana. [...]
Ehrrr... I'm sorry, but August 2009 has been a total drag regarding grime artists I used to love. First it was Kano 's unnecessary jump on electro and flirt with rock'n'roll, then Bashy's unmentionable and totally embarrassing 'Your Wish Is My Command' ft. H-Boogie (which I never wrote about cause it was too bad to even waste hate on) and now JME jumps into the big pile of shit... I'm still asking, what the fuck is wrong with the sorry lot of the grimescene? JME what the FUCK are u doing? Stop this [...]

Swedish songwriter El Perro Del Mar (Sarah Assbring) returns on October 10th with her third record Love is Not Pop coming out on the Control Group label. El Perro Del Mar will play two headline US shows in NY and LA and tour with Peter Bjorn and John on their N. American dates in November. Assbring's first two full-length efforts, 2006's eponymous debut and 2008's From the Valley To the Stars , were sweetly melancholy affairs showcasing Assbring's charming voice and solid songwriting talent. The [...]

In the years following the Beatles' breakup, the only member of the Fab Four to start a real group of his own was Paul McCartney. Wings, which included former Moody Blues member Denny Laine and Paul's wife Linda, had its moments but more often the music was distressingly bad - especially for someone who just a few years before wrote and sang some of rock's greatest songs. Wild Life , the 1971 album that introduced Wings, was the worst. To be fair, McCartney was still struggling to get a handle on his post-Beatles career, and [...]
Label: 100% Records Release date: Out Now! Website: http://www.killakela.com/ King of the beatboxers and "joining the band on stage" whore, Killa Kela has come out his corner to thump the crap out of his music lineage. Built like an Amplifier, is Kela's new track and he's taken a brave departure from anything closely resembling his hip-hop collaborated past. The fact is that this is essentially a pop song. On the tin it may say it's an electro/guitar mash-up and [...]

Eugene & the 1914, borne from the Long Beach scene, is fronted by none other than Eugene, a big, gentle guy with a cool whisper of a voice and mean guitar. Branding their own style of rock'n'roll, Eugene & the 1914 casually references a slew of influences from Dylan to Marley to Led Zeppelin. Though the band goes by the lead singer's name, as a whole the group (JP, drums; Michael J, guitar; Timmy, bass; Alfred, keys & tambo; Eugene, vocals & guitar) succeeds in creating a sonically pleasing, well-balanced palette pickled with hooks. [...]