John Winston Ono Lennon

in our thoughts always...

coming up roses

Feeling Feelies

Lee is Free

Sonic Youth have seemingly always been in the forefront of my musical landscape. I've seen them too many times to count and been fortunate enough to work with a few of them on projects over the years. Always happy to hear them extol their craft as Lee does in this interview as part of the BBC's The Story of the Guitar series.




Make sure to visit the BBC site for the series for a virtual tour of the great guitarists of our day (Les Paul, Johnny Marr, Pete Townsend, The Edge, Richie Havens, Mark Knopfler, and even Jack Black!) speaking openly and lovingly about their own personal affair with the guitar.

Live Neutral Milk Hotel!!!!

The Merge blog is dishing out some tasty goodness to celebrate the re-release of the Neutral Milk Hotel classics In an Aeroplane Over the Sea and Live on Avery Island on 180 gram vinyl in the form of two live videos shot at the Knitting Factory back in 1998. So good, here's my fave:

Doc Ellis and the LSD No-No

I like this song, nothing's wrong...

Children are singing...

Beck's stellar Record Club just keeps getting better and better. The project has proved an enlightening exercise and proven out the possibilities of the musical community post-Major Label crappiness and demise. The tantalizing array of musicos making their way Beck-ward for these sessions is dizzying and just plain fun. This go round the crew are taking on the cult classic Oar record by Skip Spence. And what a crew it is: Wilco is on hand as is Leslie Feist and supplying the beats is James Gadson who kept time on many of the Bill Withers classics as well as songs as notable (and huge!) as Express Yourself and I Will Survive!

Record Club: Skip Spence "Little Hands" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Got Blood?

TV on the Radio frontman Kyp Malone keeps it raucous and trippy with the teaser clip for "Give Blood" off his excellent Rain Machine solo effort. Who knew the creatures under your band could also be your backing band!

Method Acting

Monsters of Folk take their big star video turn for the catchy lead single "Say Please" off their tasty new slab.

in the hood

Sesame and me turn forty this year! Happy Birthday!

Sew and Sew Sew And Sew from Wherever Wherever

Lisa Hannigan performs at in-store appearance in Denver. She quite simply has one of the most hauntingly beautiful voices around.

Going Rogue

A few years back Pat Sturgeon, drummer for the awesome Rogue Wave, was diagnosed with a failing kidney and forced to deal with the realities of that fact on his career as a musician. He also had to struggle through the process of securing a replacement for his failing organ. The heart wrenching struggle to deal was caught on film (along with some great music in support of his cause!) in the newly released documentary D Tour. You can view a trailer and other goodies over at PBS's site (they'll be airing the doc in some markets) and the full piece will be steaming through November 17 at . You can also grab a free mp3 from the soundtrack from Rogue Wave by signing up for their e-list:

the future is now

When an apple falls from a tree in another galaxy, will there be a pie in the sky? Could you eat it?

Get 'em why they'r hot!

The new LCD Soudsystem cover of Alan Vega's "Bye Bye Bayou" leaked so fast that the band and their label Parlophone have decided to get out in front of it and offer up free legal downloads to the first 20,000 takers. It's a great teaser for those of us chomping at the bit for the follow-up to the seminal Sound of Silver LP whihc Sir Murphy has been in studio developing for an early 2010 release. Goodness all around!

Head over to the LCD Soudsystem site for yr free goodies!

Do Heartstrings Mend?

Miles Kurosky of the much loved Beulah is set to return to action with a solo debut at the top of 2010 out on Shout Factory! Good news for everyone indeed. You can keep tabs on his cheerful psychedelia at his(how do you say?) minimalist website:

mileskurosky.com with some tunes to follow on myspace

Eraserhead

We told you about the new Thom Yorke supergroup just a few days back. Now we've got video and mp3 evidence via You Ain't no Picasso and the youtubes!

MP3: Thom Yorke – Judge, Jury, & Executioner (live, new)
MP3: Thom Yorke – Lotus Flower (live, new)
MP3: Thom Yorke – Open the Floodgates (live, new)
MP3: Thom Yorke – Skirting on the Surface (live, new)

Whack White

Jack White's only lead turn on the excellent new Dead Weather debut gets the full art school film treatment and the results delight. Enjoy, "I Cut Like A Buffalo":

and on and on and on

The great news just keeps on rolling in as word comes out of an exciting new collaboration between The Shins mastermind James Mercer and Sir Danger Mouse, Brian Burton, who have secretly worked together to form a new band called Broken Bells. Rolling Stone has the scoop including a handful of song titles ("The High Road", "The Ghost Inside", "Sailing to Nowhere/Deviant Sister") and news of a release via Columbia in early 2010. It all sounds just a little dark from those titles. Mercer adds "there’s some really sinister, nasty shit going on in there". Can't wait. There's a band site that's worth lurking around in the coming months over at BrokenBells.com.

Something Great

First, Thom Yorke announces a new band to support The Eraser material and now we have word of new material and a tour from LCD Soundsystem. I love Autumn in 2009! Apparently, James Murphy just got access to the band's own Facebook page and has had a flurry of "announcements" since then:

LCD Soundsystem is currently finally getting control of this inane facebook page which we didn't even know about. boo. it's fun to be on yr heels! yay!
Tue at 4:10pm

LCD Soundsystem to respond to stuff: i think new album in march. so there. in studio as we speak (type) waiting for something to get edited and got an email that i can now access this thing. so there. thanks for the niceness, etc. blah j
Tue at 4:15pm

LCD Soundsystem will totally tour next year also. as many places as we can. places we've been to a bunch (hello, dearest glasgow!) and hopefully places we've never been (mexico? serbia? china?) with what i think will be the best version of the band yet. ... there will most likely be a single before the new year, and the new 45:33 remixes are coming out right now.
Tue at 4:33pm

LCD Soundsystem should be a certain number of free downloads of the new single when it's ready. i must say, though, that we're trying to make the vinyl include a free download, so i recommend that. mainly because we worked really hard on the art and the mastering, and we're proud of it.
Tue at 4:33pm

LCD Soundsystem the art is photos by ruvan Wijesooriya and graphics by dfa superdesigner mike vadino of bureau. the mastering for the vinyl (and digi) is by my engineer hero, original mentor, and best vinyl cutter ever, bob weston of shellac at chicago mastering. i'm honestly really excited.
Tue at 4:35pm

LCD Soundsystem record: march. tour: after.
Yesterday at 1:52am