New Music

• Jay-Z, The Blueprint 3 (Sept 11th), full stream at MTV
  
• Editors, "Papillon," In This Light and On This Evening (Oct 13th), Ultra8201
• Massive Attack (ft. TVOTR's Tunde Adebimpe), "Pray for Rain," Splitting the Atom EP (Oct 6th), P-fork
• Rain Machine (aka TVOTR's Kyp Malone), "Smiling Black Faces," Rain Machine (Sept 22nd), P-fork

If you want to check out short teaser videos of Them Crooked Vultures tearing it up, head over to Brooklyn Vegan.

TV on the Radio - 9:30 Club (6/9/09)

It's been a long time coming for me seeing TVOTR in concert. I had a ticket to see them at the 9:30 in'07, but crapped out for some reason (I still have the unused ticket). When they announced their first go-around of the states in support of Dear Science, I was bummed to say the least... but they were kind enough to include DC as a stop on their 2nd leg. I was more than a little anxious to hear how all of their sounds came across in a live setting. Plus I wanted to see Kyp Malone's afro and beard in person.

Lead man Tunde Adebimpe has what seems like boundless energy. He bounces around the stage and sings every line like it could be his last. The sax player was definitely feeling the music as well. Other than those two though, there wasn't much movement by the rest of the band... but you could still tell that they were giving it their all.

I found myself doing the same thing last Tuesday that I did for the first few months I listened to Return to Cookie Mountain - trying to piece all of their "noises" together instead of taking it all in as one sound. And with all of the different "noises" TVOTR makes, taking them in individually quickly becomes overwhelming (and exhausting). I had to remind myself on a few occasions that night to step back and just enjoy the experience. And once I was able to do that, it just made me want to see them over and over and over again, until I got it just right.

Hooray Friday!

- Check out Shearwater perform four songs as part of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series. Last year's Rook got a lot of high praise, but not from this guy... just couldn't get into them.

- From another concert series, this one over at P-fork. the Hold Steady performs four diddies on Don't Look Down.

- I thought I had figured out our newly installed DVR, but woke up last Sunday AM to find that SNL hadn't recorded (stupid technology). Initially, I was bummed because I wanted to see TV on the Radio perform... especially since they dissed DC in their first set of tour dates. I later saw on quite a few sites/blogs that they sounded like dung, apparently due to SNLs union fetish. Then the world got a little better when I caught their interview/performance later in the week on The Colbert Report. And then the coup de grace... another round of tour dates, this time with DC getting some love. Ahhhh.

- Listen to Antony and the Johnsons perform three songs on MPR's The Current.

Hooray Friday!

- Miss Radiohead and the USC Marching Band at the Grammys or just want to see it again? MOKB has the hook up.

- Wanna be depressed? Well then take a gander at the amount of greenbacks that the top musicians made in '08. While looking at this list, a few things:

• How can the Jonas Brothers rake in $62 million? Even if 12 year old girls think they're the bees knees, they don't have much talent. Jealous? You bet your sweet bippy I am.
• $242 million?? I can't even fathom that amount of money. Oh wait, I forgot how much Madonna concert tickets cost.
• I don't want to ever hear any of these characters complaining about the hardships of the music business or life on the road.
• The Jonas Bros??? Seriously??

Thanks to Brooklyn Vegan for the swift kick in the nuts.

- TV on the Radio's been getting a lot of love over the past few weeks, appearing on SNL and the Colbert Report just to name a few. Check out their interview (begins after 2nd line break) and performance (3rd line break) on the Colbert Report website. I'm still waiting for their DC dates to be announced...

War Child Heroes compilation

I probably won't be available on Friday so here's a mid-week delight...

War Child, a Canadian based charity is releasing a compilation album (Feb 24th) where rock legends choo... choo... choose new bands to cover one of their songs. Pretty cool concept if you ask me and from the looks of the tracklist, the elders really know how to pick 'em. Kudos to P-fork for hooking us up with the stream of the TVOTR track. Honestly, I'm kinda lukewarm about it after only a few listens, but if it's like their other stuff I'm sure it'll grow on me.

TV on the Radio - "Heroes" (David Bowie)
Beck - "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Bob Dylan)
The Kooks - "Victoria" (The Kinks)
The Hold Steady - "Atlantic City" (Bruce Springsteen)
Hot Chip - "Transmission" (Joy Division)
Lily Allen ft. Mick Jones - "Straight to Hell" (The Clash)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" (The Ramones)
Franz Ferdinand - "Call Me" (Blondie)
Duffy - "Live and Let Die" (Paul McCartney)
Estelle - "Superstition" (Stevie Wonder)
Rufus Wainwright - "Wonderful & Song for Children" (Brian Wilson)
Scissor Sisters - "Do the Strand" (Roxy Music)
Peaches - "Search and Destroy" (Iggy Pop)
Adam Cohen - "Take This Waltz" (Leonard Cohen)
Elbow - "Running to Stand Still" (U2)
The Like - "You Belong to Me" (Elvis Costello)

Hooray Friday (a few days late)!

Internet connectivity has been a bitch over the last few weeks. And excuses are like assholes so let's get after it...

- New music:

• Rachel Yamagata (w. Ray LaMontagne), “Duet,” Elephants… Teeth Sinking Into Heart (available now), I am Fuel
• Ben Sollee (w. Jim James), “Only a Song,” Something Worth Keeping EP (only available on tour), I am fuel
• Wilco (w. Fleet Foxes), "I Shall Be Released," recorded live this summer (available for download on Wilco's website if you pledge to vote), thanks to LBJ

- Listen to some old TV on the Radio songs live and acoustic thanks to Aquarium Drunkard.

- A couple of remixes of Tapes 'n Tapes' "The Dirty Dirty" courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan.

- NPR is at it again, this time with an interview and 4 song set list from Okkervil River on World Café .

Hooray Friday!

- This definitely warrants the top spot this week. Listen to the new TV on the Radio track "Golden Age" off of their upcoming release Dear Science (Sep 23rd) on the band's website. Thanks to Metro D for the heads up.

- Get ready for a superfecta from I am fuel...

1. fun is Nate Ruess' (former Format lead man) new band and "Benson and Hedges" is their demo. Take a gander.
2. Sounds like Wilco is looking eyeing the spring of '09 to release their new album, which I couldn't be happier about. Over the past few weeks, they've been testing the waters with two new songs: "One Wing" and "Sunny Feeling."
3. More new stuff, this time from the National apparently titled ""A Thousand Black Cities."
4. I am not a big Smashing Pumpkins fan, but understand that I am in the minority here. Flashback to 1997 when they played the Bridge School Benefit.

- Even more new music, this one from Bloc Party's latest Intimacy (digital - now, CD - Oct 27th) entitled "Trojan Horse." Thanks to Ultra 8201 for the K.

- And the last bit of new music news, could this be a new song from Radiohead that they performed during soundcheck recently?? You Ain't No Picasso has us scratching our noggins.

TV on the Radio - Dear Science

[The Brothers Brick]

So far 2008 lacks an album that blows the effing doors off the hoopty from top to bottom. Will Dear Science fill that void? Man, I hope so. But we'll have to wait until Sept 23rd to find out. Wonder if this sucker's gonna leak...

Tracklist and tourdates are out (courtesy of Filter-Mag). Uhhh fellas, no love for DC?? Oiy.

Dear Science Tracklist
01 Halfway Home
02 Crying
03 Dancing Choose
04 Stork & Owl
05 Golden Age
06 Family Tree
07 Red Dress
08 Love Dog
09 Shout Me Out
10 DLZ
11 Lover's Day

Tourdates
September
5 Portland, Or - Roseland
6 Seattle, WA - Showbox
12 Boise, ID - Big Easy
13 Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue
14 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks (Monolith Festival)
19 San Diego, CA - Street Scene
20 San Francisco, CA - Treasure Island Festival

October
10 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
11 Providence, RI - Lupo's
13 Boston, MA - Wilbur Theatre
14 Brooklyn, NY - Masonic Temple
15 Brooklyn, NY - Masonic Temple
18 Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's
19 Indianopolis, IN - Vogue Theatre
20 Minneapolis, MN - First Ave.
21 Minneapolis, MN - First Ave.
22 Chicago, IL - Riviera
24 New Orleans, - LA Voodoo Festival
25 Atlanta, Ga - Tabernacle
26 Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theatre
28 Dallas, TX - Lakewood Theatre
30 Austin, TX - Stubb's
31 Oklahoma City, CA - Diamond Ballroom

November
6 Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern
8 San Diego, CA - 4th and B