In Particular, In Particular

This song. It gets. Stuck. In my head. And I can't get it out. It's been stuck in there. Swirling around, off and on. For probably three years. Other songs by this band? Not so much. Just this one.

Blonde Redhead - In particular

Truly Dismayed, Horrified And Amused

In the Virgin Megastore at Union Square over the weekend minding my own business as per usual when all of a sudden the music playing in store intrudes on my consciousness and ... it's a reggae version of a Radiohead song. A pretty terrible one, that got horribly stuck in my head.

Come to find out, it's not the only really bad Radiohead cover album to appear this month. There's also "Rockabye Baby," in which Radiohead songs are turned into xylophone-y melodies for babies. All I'll say about this one is that I'm reminded of a study someone did where they played Radiohead songs to elementary school kids and asked them to draw pictures of whatever came to mind, and most of the kids drew pictures of, like, cars driving off cliffs. Although it's probably better than the Metallica CD this label also has coming out.

And then there's, aaaaahhhh, "A Crunk Tribute To Radiohead," featuring such ingenious titles as "Creepin On Dat Ass" and "Talk Show Hoes." Which I have to say kind of makes me laugh.

You can listen to Rockabye Baby clips, which is probably all you want to listen to anyway, here. The Radiodread I will not post because it looks like they're keeping an eye on the blogs, but Web-savvy folks can find it. And here's one off the crunk album.

No Sizzuruprises

Lest We Forget

George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People

The Art Of Writing

These are some of my favorite lyrics. Brownie points for you if you can guess who sings them. A couple of links at the bottom.

"You want me? Come and find me. I'll be waiting, with a gun and a pack of sandwiches."

"Just when you think you have enough, enough grows."

"Boys and girls in America, they have such a sad time together...crushing one another with colossal expectations, dependent, undisciplined and sleeping late."

"We're keeping busy, yeah we're bleeding stones. With our machinations and palindromes. Anything but hear a voice, says we're basically alone."

"Star, star, teach me how to shine, shine, teach me so I know what's going on in your mind, cuz I don't understand these people, saying we're all asleep when they talk and talk forever but they'll just never climb."

"These walls are paper thin and every one hears every little sound. Everyone's a voyeur they're watching me watch them watch me right now...everyone wants two of them and half of everyone else was around. It's been agreed the whole world stinks so noone's taking showers anymore."

"I rock ruff and stuff with my afro puff."

Radiohead: Talk Show Host (TATR Version)

The Hold Steady: Stuck Between Stations (Live on The Current)

This Truck Runs On Freedom

Doubletruck is a group of local NYC fellas, including a friend of mine, who are performing their second show at Otto's Shrunken Head on Friday. You can check them out at their vertigo-inducing Myspace page, here. They may not be polished, but they indisputably rock. And, if I dare say, the lead singer sounds a bit like Kurt Cobain.

This is my favorite so far.

Not Quite A Lie

Life Lessons Learned

These are some lessons I learned at a really terrible show at a really terrible club last night.

If I ever have a club with a slanting floor, I will make sure that the band is at the bottom of the slanting floor, rather than the top, so that people other than those in the very front row will be able to see what's going on.

If I ever have a very small club space with very low ceilings in a basement, the only musicians I will book there are acoustic singer-songwriters. If I do book a full band, I will make sure all their equipment is not on at full volume. Nor will I play the set-change music at deafening decibel levels.

If I am ever in a band that decides to organize its sound around harmonies, I will first make sure that I am confident I can sing in tune with the person with whom I am harmonizing.

If I am ever in a band, I promise not to rhyme the words "cry" and "die" unless I wish to be scorned.

If I am ever in a band that is pretty clearly stocked by indie kids from major metropolitan areas, I will not sing songs about how I was put in jail in Arkansas. Even if it is a cover song. I just won't.

Tempo. Maintaining it. Important.

And finally, if I am ever in a band, I will not play spaces such as those described above, for fear of a) driving my fan base away with a headache or b) making my fan base go deaf so that they can no longer hear my music.

Following such a show, it is necessary to listen to something very, very quiet to cleanse the soul.

Arvo Part: Kanon Pokajanen, Ode 1

Arvo Part is an Estonian composer who writes the most peaceful music I have ever heard. He describes it thus: "I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played."

Ssssssnakes On A Plane

Five favorite general Snakes On A Plane-related moments:

5) Word 'Snakes' appears on screen during opening credits; obsessed audience member throws arms in air and cheers.

4) Air bags deploy - with snakes!

3) "I've got a snake - on my dick!"

2) "This plane's going to go down faster than a Thai hooker!"

1) Air of unbearable anticipation is finely relieved as Samuel L. Jackson unleashes can of whoop-ass on motherf**king snakes on motherf**king plane.

The Cobra Starship song on the soundtrack [singing the next word] SUCKS! But the Cee-Lo Green song, which I shamelessly stole from another blogger, rules. Just as tongue-in-cheek as the movie itself is.

Ophidophobia

Holy S**T

I'm not sure how I feel about Ariel Pink himself - a little too weird for me, mon - but I'm kind of digging this Holy Shit collaboration with Matt Fishbeck, another artist about whom I know nothing.

Rather than go on about my total ignorance, I shall simply post. So here it is, a song that I like. Behold.

Written All Over Your Face

Seashells And Fudge At The Seashore

Back from Delaware. Yes, Delaware, where I could not post - or do anything - because I was exceedingly busy planting my face in the sand. Beaches are good things.

Most beach towns - within easy distance of New York, anyhow - seem to have certain things in common. Cotton candy and hot dogs. Boardwalks. Cheesy amusement park-style rides. Meatheads and other frightening elements of humanity. Souvenir shops selling boxes covered in shells. Oh, and fudge.

The only part I don't really get is fudge. Ice cream, yes. Key lime pie, yes. But fudge in the hot sun? Ookie.

Semisonic apparently disagrees.

Sunshine and Chocolate

Beach!

I will go to a beach this weekend. I do not know what beach it will be, or even in what state. Perhaps Delaware, perhaps just down the Jersey shore. But it will be a beach, and there will be a road trip, and it will be summery good fun.

No one beats Don Henley for summery road trip beachtime music. No one.

Boys Of Summer

Everyone Falls On Hard Times

Wow, is all I can say.

I was sitting on the couch tonight pretty much doing nothing, and what popped into my head but this old song by Brooklyn band The Boggs, called Hard Times. It was on an album they put out in, oh, 2002? I bought it. I liked it. I promptly forgot about it. And then, apropos of nothing, tonight, The Boggs.

I came online to post Hard Times. But linking around, I found all sorts of new good stuff. Looks like they have a new, different lineup, and an album coming out sometime this year, if one is to believe their somewhat discombobulated MySpace page. And judging by this track, which may or may not be inspired by The Muppet Show, it rules.

Forts

Also from their MySpace page, they're playing a show at Cake Shop on the Lower East Side on August 19.

Every Lisper's Nightmare

Stephin Merritt is undeniably a genius, but sometimes genius gets a little tiresome. Don't get me wrong: I love 69 Love Songs. But after a while, it's just him, going on and on.

That's why his side projects are nice. You get the genius of the man, but with a little variety thrown in.

Take The 6ths. That is, if you can pronounce their name. Same dead-on funny, sarcastic, thought-provoking lyrics - new singer!

The Dead Only Quickly Decay, with Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy

This One's About A Three-Legged Dog

Those familiar with The Frames will know that their lead singer Glen Hansard often introduces songs by saying, "This one's about..." and then telling some insane, absurd story that has little to do with what the song is actually about.

My favorites are the ones he tells about dogs, and he told one about a dog before playing a newish song called 'Falling Slowly' at Central Park Summerstage on Thursday. As best I can remember, it went something like this (insert lilting Irish accent here): "This one's about a three-legged dog...that's on a boat...it's on a boat in the middle of the ocean...and the boat is sinking."

I love these guys, and they were in rare form Thursday. It was so hot when the show started, and Hansard was doing silly rain dances all over the stage - and then it rained, and everyone in the crowd was ecstatic, and the band was happy, and they sounded so good.

There's nothing quite like rediscovering a band after a few months away from them and finding out that they've been busy making new music that I will soon be able to enjoy. Their lead singer seems to have produced a semi-solo album this year, and there's a version of Falling Down on it that you can listen to here. And there's a new Frames album coming out in September!

Here's another one from that solo album.

The Swell Season

Too Darn Hot

So I wanted to post a song about snow because it's so freaking hot. So naturally I looked through my Russian songs, and even found one with snow in the title.

But upon sitting down and really listening to the lyrics, it turns out the song isn't about snow at all, it's about relationships. But it's a cute little song, and I've gone to all this trouble to sorta kinda translate it, so here you go. At least it feels kind of cool. It's by a band called Akvarium (or Aquarium, if you must).

S Utra Shel Sneg

Turn out the light
Leave a note that we're not home
Tiptoe past the open doors
There where everything is light
There where everyting is silent

And you can be haughty like steel
And you can say something's not quite right
And you can pretend that you're just acting out a movie
About people under lots of pressure

But snow's been falling since morning
You can still do something
If you want to

You remember i was sure of myself
(untranslatable something about how sure of himself he was)
I was certain that I was right
But now snow is falling
And again I don't know who I am

Someone is broken and doesn't want to be whole
And someone is full of themself
And you can be right up against something but still not see it
But there's something better, it's that simple

Snow's been falling since morning
You can still do something
If you want to
Snow's been falling since morning
You can be with someone else if you want to

Blogs Are The New MTV

(Yet another strange picture of musicians inexplicably posing with animals.)

I don't really care that MTV is 25.

Remember back in, oh, 1988 when MTV was good, and you could actually hear new music from listening to it? On 120 minutes, maybe? What a great show that was.

Now not even MTV2 shows good videos. Or videos at all for that matter.

You'd never hear a song like this on MTV any more, and that's a shame. Because: the joy of hearing this song played on the radio (on a college station, not mainstream radio, of course), and then sort of keeping one eye out for it everywhere you went, and then finding it in the used bin at Princeton Record Exchange for $1.99.

Band of Bees - Minha Menina