Galactic: Hey Na Na

Seeing this live at The Park West with B was one of the most euphoric live concert moments of my life. A vast room of people losing their freaking minds. Wow. I just got goosebumps remembering it. They are. Just. Too. Damn. Good.

Lucero: Women and Work

Their last album, Overton Park, was one of my very favorites of 2010. The addition of the horn section blew their sound up and added soul to the angsty blues/alt country sound they already had down pat. The new album is just as good, and I'm stoked to see them at Metro on April 7. This video is really just an audio track, but still worth it 'cause the song is so dang good.

And even more cool is that frontman Ben Nichols is from Little Rock, y'all! One of the best voices in rock today, IMHO.

In Honor of Chick's Leaving Atlanta (for the last time...)

The first single from Gentleman Jesse's new album, Leaving Atlanta. He's all Elvis Costello and Marshall Crenshaw and like that...so of course I love it. (Though it is not the best video.)

C'est la Pop!

After Phoenix exploded the myth that there could never be a French pop music, Damien Robitaille takes it even further and sings...in French. Sacre bleu! But he does put in down with soul.



What's up with Canada? Is it trying to be the new Australia?

Edmonton, AB: restoring intelligence and humor to hip-hop...

You read that right: Edmonton. First, Mitchmatic. Haven't heard anything this funny, breezy, and smart since De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising."



Buy/download Mitchmatic here.

And through Mitchmatic, I discovered another gem of the Edmonton hip-hop scene (that still sounds weird), The Joe.



Buy/download The Joe here.

Now, back to post-punk...

Prinzhorn Dance School Challenges You to a Duel

So happy this sound is coming back. And that art school dropouts still want to make pop music rather than apps for cell phones. Sharp, aggressive, jangly, spare.



Also check out Household.

Resolution

A page from Woody Guthrie's diary, 1942. Hard to improve on: "31. LOVE EVERYBODY."

Do your best in 2012. Fail. Try again. Fail better.



HT: The Daily Dish

For Holiday Rockin', You Can't Do Better Than...

JD McPherson. Most seriously. Can't stop dancing to this...

Grover + Beastie Boys = The Beastie Beasts!

I feel like my video skills are gonna need an upgrade so I can do cool stuff like this.


Sesame Street breaks it down from Wonderful Creative on Vimeo.

"Clever, Tasty Words"

You really should take half an hour and enjoy the All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen's attempt to interview pop's legendary enfant terrible and antagonist, John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, of The Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited (PiL). Boilen was well prepared for the exercise, but even then he was left speechless by Lydon on more than one occasion. (Not that anyone else could have done appreciably better.) It was bracing to hear Johnny still so full of brio and opinion and humor.

You Can't Handle the Rotten

Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 4: Sensitive iPods

If your iPod is like mine, it can sense when you’ve had a rough night--one of dark brooding thoughts and existential questions that banish sleep when you most want it--and it looks at you and thinks, “That one needs a bit of cheering up.” And out of that generous spirit it delivers you, out of 3,000-plus songs in the playlist you’re shuffling, this obscure bit of aural sunshine:  Ian Dury and The Blockheads’ “Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3.”

Reasons to Be Cheerful



And, god love the internet, some hapless souls have taken the hours from their lives to type out the lyrics for us to all sing along. Ahem...

Why don't you get back into bed (x 10)

Reasons to be cheerful part 3
1-2-3

Summer, Buddy Holly,
The working folly
“Good Golly Miss Molly”
And boats.

Hammersmith Palais,
The Bolshoi Ballet
“Jump back in the alley”
And nanny goats.

18-wheeler Scammels,
Domenicker camels
All other mammals
Plus equal votes.

Seeing Piccadilly,
Fanny Smith and Willy,
Being rather silly,
And porridge oats.

A bit of grin and bear it,
A bit of "Come and share it.
“You're welcome, we can spare it.”
Yellow socks.

Too short to be haughty,
Too nutty to be naughty,
Going on 40,
No electric shocks.

The juice of the carrot,
The smile of the parrot,
A little drop of claret,
Anything that rocks.

Elvis and Scotty,
Days when I ain't spotty,
Sitting on the potty,
Curing smallpox.

Reasons to be cheerful part 3 (x 4)
1-2-3
Reasons to be cheerful part 3

Health service glasses,
Gigolos and brasses,
Round or skinny bottoms.

Take your mum to Paris,
Lighting up the chalice,
Wee Willy Harris!

Bantu Stephen Biko,
Listening to Rico,
Harpo, Groucho, Chico.

Cheddar cheese and pickle,
The Vincent motorsickle,
Slap and tickle.

Woody Allen, Dali,
Dimitri and Pasquale,
Balabalabala and “Volare.”

Something nice to study,
Phoning up a buddy,
Being in my nuddy.

Saying "Okey-dokey,"
Singalong a’ Smokey,
Coming out of chokey

John Coltrane's soprano,
Adi Celentano,
Bonar Colleano.

Reasons to be cheerful part 3 (x 4)
1-2-3

Yes yes,
Dear dear,
Perhaps next year
Or maybe even never...

in which...case...

[awesome sax break] 

Reasons to be cheerful part 3 (x 9)
1-2-3
Reasons to be cheerful part 3 (x 4)
1-2-3
Reasons to be cheerful part 3

[repeat to fade]

If you’d like to get a rundown of all the references here--some veddy British, some silly, others just obscure--may I refer you to this helpful page at the BBC website:

Will This Make You Cheerful?

Yes, someone did this, too. Vives les interwebs!

The Year I Almost Didn't Make It

My inner music-dork does love to create playlists in iTunes. Normally I just put a best-of together at the end of the year. But this year I decided to also create a monument to my turbulent emotional year with an iMix so you, too, could enjoy the experience of a strangely personal, uncomfortable, and largely inexplicable  experience, like visiting the The House on the Rock, but in my head.

So: explore, enjoy (if that's the right word).

Parsing Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” with Maggie (7) and Henry (5)

O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad
O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad

Maggie: Why are they saying Superman?


Hi. I'm not home right now
But if you want to leave a message
Just start talking at the sound of the tone

Hello? This is your Mother
Are you there? Are you coming home?
Hello? Is anybody home?

Well, you don't know me, but I know you.
And I've got a message to give to you.
Here come the planes.
So you better get ready.
Ready to go.
You can come as you are, but pay as you go
Pay as you go

Maggie: Why are they saying that?
Henry: Their mom sounds weird!

And I said:
OK. Who is this really?
And the voice said:
This is the hand, the hand that takes
This is the hand, the hand that takes
This is the hand, the hand that takes

Maggie: What is the hand taking?
Henry: It takes anything, Mags!
Maggie: I have to know what it takes!!

Here come the planes
They're American planes
Made in America
Smoking or non-smoking?

Maggie: You can’t smoke on a plane.
Henry: You smoke, Dad.
Me: A little. I smoke a cigar now and then.
Maggie: Smoking will make you die.
Henry: You don’t smoke too much, right, Dad?

And the voice said:
Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night shall
stay these couriers from the swift completion
of their appointed rounds

Henry: What is that?
Me: Gloom? That’s like darkness.
Henry: The dark freaks me!

'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice
And when justice is gone, there's always force
And when force is gone, there's always Mom


Maggie: What is force?
Me: Force is making people do something.
Henry: Is force bad?
Me: Not always. Sometimes it is bad. Sometimes force makes people do what is good for them.
Maggie: It seems to me, because the hand can take anything, that this force is bad force.
Henry: It is freaking me.

Hi Mom!
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms
In your automatic arms
Your electronic arms
In your arms
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms
Your petrochemical arms
Your military arms
In your electronic arms

Maggie: This is where the woman is running from the bad hand.
Henry: I think it is a wolf in the woods.

...

Maggie: Is it over yet?
Henry: Play it again, Dad.
Maggie: Yeah, again!