This week's late night tv lineup

SNL - Kings of Leon

Kimmel

• Tues - Mumford & Sons
• Wed - Die Antwoord

Letterman

• Tues - Gorillaz
• Wed - Jamey Johnson

Leno

• Tues - David Gray

Daly

• Tues - Menomena
• Wed - The Morning Benders
• Thurs - Japandroids
• Fri - Los Campesinos!
  

The Black Keys = Rodney Dangerfield

[The Black Keys' Facebook photos]

Wonder if the brainiac in charge of the plaques on the VMAs this year still has a job. Priceless...

This week's late night tv lineup

Kimmel

• Mon - The xx
• Wed - Mark Ronson
• Thurs - Nas & Damien Marley

Letterman

• Mon - Mark Ronson
• Tues - My Morning Jacket

Leno

• Wed - M.I.A.
• Thurs - Pete Yorn
• Fri - John Legend

Daly

• Mon - The Walkmen
• Tues - Broken Bells
• Thurs - City and Colour

The Story of Stuff

A few weeks ago, I finished reading The Story of Stuff. It was referenced during a professional development event at work and peaked my interest - specifically, the speaker threw out one stat from the book that it took 34 gallons of water to make 1 cup of coffee. Impossible, I thought! Apparently not...

The book spawned from a 2007 short-film of the same title and tackles America's obsession with all sorts of material things (referred to as "stuff") and the cycle of life of this stuff. Each stage of the cycle has it's own chapter - extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. While it's extremely informative, the facts and figures can be overwhelming (there are probably between 80-100 citations per chapter) and the environmental, economic and social issues seem damn near impossible to reverse. There were many times I found myself wondering, "well where the hell do we start?"

There are many thoughts and ideas I came away with, but I'm not posting this to hop up on my soapbox and preach. But what I will do is pass along what I believe is an informative and useful site that I think will, if nothing else, make you a more informed consumer - GoodGuide. Referenced numerous times in The Story of Stuff, GoodGuide rates over 65,000 products based on health, environmental and social factors. Hell, they even have an iPhone app. Here's a bit more on the ratings from the site:

GoodGuide ratings range from 0 to 10 and indicate how a product performs on a comprehensive set of health, environmental and social metrics. The higher the score, the better the product. If you are looking to switch to a better product, GoodGuide’s summary rating can be used to easily identify the best products in a category.

Pretty nifty if you ask me. Plug in a few of the products you use on a regular basis and I bet you'll be surprise. Oh yeah, and if you decide to read The Story of Stuff, save a tree and get it from the library.

This week's late night tv lineup

Kimmel

• Tues - Phoenix
• Wed - Band of Horses

Letterman

• Tues - Mavis Staples with Jeff Tweedy
• Thurs - Gorillaz
• Fri - Antony and The Johnsons

Daly

• Mon - Janelle Monae
• Wed - Weezer

This week's late night tv lineup

Kimmel

• Wed - Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings

Letterman

• Thurs - Tired Pony

Leno

• Thurs -Rodrigo y Gabriela

Daly

• Tues - Menomeno
• Wed - The Morning Benders
• Thurs - Japandroids
• Fri - Los Campesinos!

This week's late night tv lineup

Kimmel

• Mon - Phoenix
• Tues - Band of Horses
• Thurs - Trombone Shorty

Letterman

• Mon - Chromeo
• Tues - Maroon 5
• Wed - Tom Jones
• Fri - Jimmy Eat World

Ferguson

• Fri - Willie Nelson

Leno

• Thurs - Brian Wilson

Daly

• Mon - The Walkmen
• Tue - Nas & Damien Marley
• Wed - Alberta Cross
• Thurs - Janelle Monae
• Fri - La Roux
  

The summer of hip-hop

It only took 33+ years, but with my first rap/hip-hop concert finally under my belt, I got to thinking how much of that goodness I listened to this summer. Even with quality releases from The Black Keys, the National, Arcade Fire, Ray LaMontagne and Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, I still found myself listening to more and more rap and hip-hop. And it was hard not to, with Eminem, the Roots, Big Boi, Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek) and Janelle Monae dropping some serious bombs this summer. My favorite cuts? Start with a litle "No Love" by Eminem and Lil' Wayne, add a dash of Big Boi's "Tangerine"(featuring T.I. & Khujo Goodie) with a twist of Janelle Monae & Big Boi's "Tightrope" and you have the beginning of a sweet ass good time.

Big Boi - 9:30 Club (9/8/10)

Phenomenal show! Big Boi and his crew of 2 packed over 20 songs into just over an hour, keeping the tempo high and the crowd moving. With the buzz Sir Lucious Left Foot... The Son of Chico Dusty has been getting, I was shocked that the concert didn't sell out when tickets first went on sale a few months ago - and even more so that the 9:30 Club was only about 3/4 full. It was probably better though, because Big Boi's energy had damn near everyone in the crowd (even me) bee bopping for much of the concert. Sweet ass!

This week's late night tv lineup

Kimmel

• Mon - Green Day
• Tues - Brandon Flowers (of the Killers)

Letterman

• Wed - Nas and Damien Marley
• Fri - V.V. Brown

Leno

• Mon - Brandon Flowers
• Wed - Weezer

Fallon

• Mon - Roberts Plant

Daly

• Mon - Janelle Monae
• Tues - Black Lips
• Wed - Surfer Blood

New music

Lots of albums being released next week and apparently, it even has a name - Super Tuesday. NPR has an article on why so many albums are released this week every year and is streaming 14 albums until Tuesday, including Robert Plant, of Montreal, Chromeo, the Walkmen, Junip (side project of José González), the Bad Plus and Superchunk to name a few (okay, more than a few). Others you can give a test spin before you decide whether or not to buy them include...

• Grinderman, full album stream of Grinderman 2 (Sept. 14th), Pfork
  
• Black Mountain, full album stream of Wilderness Heart (Sept. 14th), Pfork
• The Black Angels, full album stream of Phosphene Dream (Sept. 14th), Pfork

Time's a wasting, so get to listening!

Calling all guitarists

Here's a pretty cool little idea Jimmy Fallon and Pavement came up with. Deadline for video submittions is tomorrow and the appearance is Sept. 23rd. Another reason why I'm kicking myself for choosing the clarinet over the guitar - that's JV right there...

This week's late night tv lineup

Kimmel

• Wed - Interpol
• Thurs - Ray LaMontagne

Letterman

• Wed - The Black Angels
• Thurs - Jamey Johnson

Ferguson

• Fri - Norah Jones

Leno

• Wed - Ray LaMontagne
• Thurs - David Gray

This week's late night tv lineup

Leno

• Tues - Norah Jones
• Thurs - Herbie Hancock

Letterman

• Fri - Spoon

Ferguson

• Mon - Chief

Kimmel

• Mon - The Swell Season
• Thurs - T.I.

This week's late night tv lineup

Letterman

• Mon - Big Boi
• Thurs - The Specials

Ferguson

• Tues - Wlico

Leno

• Tues - Sharon Jones
• Thurs - Robert Cray

Fallon

• Mon - Big Boi
• Thurs - Titus Andronicus

New music

• My Morning Jacket, "Circuital," TBD, You Ain't No Picasso
• Klaxons, "Echoes" and "Flashover," Surfing the Void (Aug 23rd), Stereogum
  
• The National, "You Were a Kindness," Live on MPR's the Current
  

This week's late night tv lineup

Kimmel

• Wed - T.I.

Letterman

• Tues - Interpol
• Wed - Steel Train
• Thurs - Alejandro Escovedo
• Fri - Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Ferguson

• Fri - Mumford & Sons

Fallon

• Thurs - Of Montreal
• Fri - Green Day
  

This week's late night tv lineup

Leno

• Thurs - The Whigs

Fallon

• Mon - Menomena
• Thurs - The Walkmen

Letterman

• Wed - Jay-Z and Eminem
• Thurs - The Dead Weather

Ferguson

• Mon - Vampire Weekend
  

Here come the wolfman

Here is my favorite of the handful of trailers out there propping Grinderman 2 (Sep. 13th). Seven days earlier, Grinderman will release "Heathen Child" on vinyl and for download (listen to it now here). Details, to include tour dates, are at their website. I've got a feeling Nick Cave & Co. will kick of the fall season just right.

This week's late night TV lineup

Letterman

• Mon - Nas and Damian Marley
• Wed - The Dead Weather
• Thurs - VV Brown

Leno

• Tues - The Black Crowes

Fallon

• Tues - Spoon
• Thurs - Titus Andronicus