This is our first show in seven months…
It’s been a while.
And we decided to record it.
We’re idiots.
- The Get Up Kids

Live albums are an interesting phenomena. It’s mostly listening to your favorite band play the songs that you already own, except in a live setting. This gives them time to improvise; time to jam a bit. There are definitely bands where buying a live album makes a lot of sense, because they purposefully play their songs differently.

Then again, there’s bands like, oh I don’t know The Bravery who I don’t think strayed from their album once in their forty-five minute set. I wouldn’t recommend owning any live albums from The Bravery.

Bootlegs seem to be the bread and butter of the indie community before they were the indie community and were just guys who liked to dig through albums at the local record store. For those of you unaware, there used to be these things called your local record store that only sold music (and possibly music-related paraphernalia). Not many exist any more. If you see one, you should check it out.

Around the year 2000, Pearl Jam decided that there were too many bootlegs of their albums, usually selling for $30 a pop, and, depending on which side of the side of the fence that you’re sitting on, either decided that that was too much money for a fan to be paying for a live album, or decided that they’d like a bit of the cut, and decided to record all of their live shows and sell high-quality albums.

Personally, I’m on the side of the fence that believes the fan loyalty option, but only because of their past battles with Ticketmaster, etc.

Today’s song comes from a live album from White Rabbits. Live in Spaceland to be exact. Check out a previously unreleased track, Sea of Rum.

And the drums,
The drums,
The drums,
The drums.
- The Ting Tings

Can you tell the difference between a 128 Kb MP3 and a 320 Kb MP3? That’s what mp3ornot is asking. Granted, the song they chose to compare the two bit rates wasn’t the best choice, but I was able to figure it out. Without telling you which song is the lower bit rate, try and focus on the high or low range of notes, because these are the frequencies that are cut out of a lesser quality MP3.

To determine which one is which, try and hear reverb in the upper notes. Did you catch it? Like I said, the MP3 choice isn’t great to figure that sort of thing out. I also noticed that when I listened to the lesser quality one through my headphones, my head felt like it was swimming a little bit. I dunno. It’s an interesting 30 seconds.

89.3 The Current and the Walker Art Center are throwing a shin-dig up in Minneapolis on June 21st. Artists include, Andrew Bird, The New Pornographers (sans Neko Case), Cloud Cult, and Bon Iver. It will be held in their sculpture garden. And to top it all off, Chipotle and Summit Brewing will be there with refreshments. How great is this?

Tickets are on sale now for MPR and Walker Art Center members only until April 15th. Then it’s a free-for-all.

Speaking of The Current. I have heard this song being played four times in the past week and a half, and finally had to figure out who it was and where I could buy it. It is Great DJ by The Ting Tings. I like songs that forgo the need to always sing actual words. The opening track of The LK’s album contains the lyrics, “Aah wah eee. Ahh wah ooo,” and it’s awesome. Enjoy!

Yabba Dabba Doo!
- Fred Flintstone

I know what you’re thinking. This is going to be another random post, but I’ll try and stay on topic as much as possible. Today’s song is coming from a band called The Dodos, which made me think of The Flintstones for some reason.

I found out about The Dodos because of a positive review on pitchfork, and I thought I’d bring up the topic of hatred of pitchfork amongst the general indie community. For some background, check out the end of the post on stuffwhitepeoplelike. Actually, you don’t have to, unless you like to laugh. Then, by all means, check out that blog.

At the end of the post, he writes:

…do not substitute Stereogum for Pitchfork, as this is one of those things that used to be cool, but is now not cool.

There is this feeling amongst hipsters* that Pitchfork has “jumped the shark” because it’s not this tiny website that only the coolest of the cool know about. It’s amusing to see this anti-corporate rhetoric thrown at pitchfork, just because they didn’t like the album that you find awesome. It’s also because of the “sheep” who read pitchfork and say, “Hey, did you see that pitchfork gave an 8.0 to the new Plant and Animals album? I had never heard of them before and I haven’t bought the album, but they’re my new favorite band. They rock.”

I’ll admit, it is amusing that any time pitchfork recommends an album, it automatically shoots up the Power Charts at emusic. Right now, I see six albums that received at least 7.5 on Pitchfork in the past month on the chart, along with Taylor Swift, who has been on that list for over a year now. I wonder where Plain White T’s went? Oh, I see. #13. Poor showing for them today…

I’d just like to come out and say that I don’t hate pitchfork. I get a lot of good music from them. Granted, I usually try and listen to it prior to buying it, but that’s just my prerogative. Crap, now I’ve got that Bobby Brown song stuck in my head, and I don’t know any of the words.

As I said above, today’s song comes from The Dodos. Check out Fools.

P.S. I’m heading out of town for the weekend on Friday afternoon, so there may not be a Monday post until Tuesday, if at all. My bad.

*hipsters are the coolest of the cool who know they’re cool and have no need to be any cooler.

Wow. Great message for the day before my second anniversary. Oh well, Erin understands that I don’t mean it. I just wanted to show off my awesome paint skills again.

Yesterday, I participated in Easter-related activities, went home and took a nap. I then woke up in a very strange mood and wrote this random post. I’d like to blame this all on some sort of easter-bunny related sugar rush, but alas, sugar has played only a small part in all of this. I’ll try and add some breakpoints to make sure you know I’ve started a new thought process.

We’ll start out with some “once in a blue moon” news, and that is this: Wilco is coming to Rochester, Minnesota on April 30th…. and I won’t be in town!

Thanks to the local Post Bulletin for opening the article with the phrase, “One of the biggest bands in alternative rock is coming to Rochester.” I didn’t realize that it’s still 1997 and Third Eye Blind was coming to town. I’ll have to write more about this later, but my brain won’t let me stick to a topic for more than two minutes right now.

Lollapalooza tickets go on sale tomorrow. Only the three-day passes so far. I don’t know how much they’ll cost. Once the lineup comes out, the cost will go up, but the possibility of one-day tickets will then show up. The rumor is that the lineup will be announced on April 7th, so try and pick up your three-day tickets before then!

Has anybody seen that new Walmart commercial where the sounds at the check out lanes start playing that song that every little kid learns to play on the piano? I’m totally blanking on the name of the song.

Did you notice that the only cashier that they show typing numbers appears first hits six, then there’s a different camera angle showing the same cashier appearing to not change the button that he’s hitting, and he hits it three times. Does that mean that the Walmart cashier just typed in ‘666′? I’m not saying that he did, but I could be implying it heavily…

Sweet Sassy Molassy! I can buy MP3’s from Amazon.com with pepsi points. Watch out as I go all happy-go-jacky on that offer like a donkey eating a waffle! On a more serious note, this can’t be good for my caffeine addiction… Check out the link. One of my favorite SNL skits ever.

I had plans to play a different song today, but I’ve really been enjoying this song from Los Campesinos! so I’m going to play a second song off of their new album, Hold On Now, Youngster. Check out My Year in Lists.

Basketball Jones,
I got a Basketball Jones.
Got a Basketball Jones,
oh baby, oo-oo-ooo
- Cheech and Chong featuring Tyrone Shoelaces

I’m writing this prior to the Wisconsin basketball game on Thursday night, so perhaps my hooray for basketball is a little premature, but oh well. Outside of the world cup, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is my favorite sporting event. Now if I could only pick a decent bracket…

Today’s band is from my list of opening bands that I actually liked. Ouch. That makes it sound like I don’t like very many opening bands. That’s not really true. Actually, if you’re an opening band, it’s pretty hard for me to not like you.

Amazingly enough, at the first small show that I ever went to, I absolutely hated the opener – No Knife. The sad thing was that it probably wasn’t their fault. The lead guitarist’s amp was turned up too high and he played some really high notes throughout the show. Ear piercers. Now, if I were to have liked them, I might have picked up their 2002 album, Riot For Romance, which received 4 and a half stars from allmusic.com. Now we’ll never know.

Well, we could know, since their CD is available on emusic, but people, I have 18 other albums in my save for later, and I know you, my audience wants the freshest music around. If I were to come all up in here with an album from 2002, well, I’d have to wear a turtleneck to cover up my steel-plated neck protector, because you people would want my head!

Ok, so I may pick it up to enjoy it myself and not share. That’s also a distinct possibility.

Today’s song comes from the opening band at The Shins concert that Nate and I went to. It was at First Ave. and we stood in the upper level directly above the left side of the stage. Now you need to be a VIP in order to get over there. Oh well, it wasn’t the best place to stand anyway.

What? You want to actually know the band and song name? Fine. Check out Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth by The Brunettes. Go New Zealand!

Why can’t you see?
That a life in art,
And a life of mimicry.
It’s the same thing
- Destroyer

Ever been to a poetry reading? If so, you’ve probably seen the guy walking up to the mic with a nice glass of red wine, quietly rambling what seems like to himself, waving his free hand in a swirling motion to add life to his imagery. That’s Dan Bejar a.k.a. Destroyer when he comes on stage during a New Pornographers show.

If I were to create a chart of my feelings about the members of The New Pornographers’ side projects, it would look similar to the above paint-created monstrosity. Don’t be confused, though, Destroyer is quickly growing on me. He’s the one pushing the boundaries of The New Pornographers.

The new Destroyer album came out yesterday. It’s called Trouble in Dreams, and, like most Destroyer albums, it’s going to take me a couple of listens before I can get a better idea of how I should listen to it in order to enjoy it.

This happened with his previous album as well. I bought Destroyer’s Rubies and just couldn’t get into it. It opened with a nine-minute song that was pretty average, and I’d be ready to change to a new band before the album really got started. My brother told me that I should skip the first song, because the rest of the album was actually pretty good. You know what? He was right. So now I’m willing to put a little effort into listening to Destroyer, and I hope you do, too.

Switching topics, apparently it has become trendy to surprise release an album, simliar to what Radiohead did this past year with In Rainbows. Well, today the new Gnarls Barkley was apparently released, three weeks earlier than expected. Next week, the new Raconteurs comes out. That one is a complete surprise. Nobody knew it was coming. Honestly, I don’t see myself rushing out to pick up either album.

Back to Destroyer. Today’s song comes from his new album and is called Foam Hands.

Got a Machinehead,
It’s better than the rest,
Green to red,
Machinehead.
- Bush

Wait, it’s Monday? When did this happen? What’s up with those funny mid-90’s lyrics above? These questions and more will be answered today.

Yes, at 12:00 AM, March 17th, and I’ll explain it later.

Emusic has recently added their own “label” where they “give props” to some nice unsigned artists. They describe it better than I could, perhaps because whoever wrote it is probably getting paid to write the description. From the webpage:

eMusic Selects is a highly-curated boutique music space on eMusic that showcases unsigned and underexposed new artists. Each month, eMusic’s staff handpicks up to two deserving artists that are featured prominently on eMusic’s homepage and receive in-depth editorial coverage on the eMusic Selects page.

There are a couple of reasons why I like this idea:

1. I have a hard time finding signed bands. Now I get to find unsigned bands, too.
2. Emusic is doing all the work for me, thus making my blogging more efficient.
3. Since I’m more efficient at blogging, I have more time to find new bands.
4. Since I have more time to find new bands, I can find better ones for my blog.
5. ???
6. Profit.

The end.

One of February’s bands on the emusic selects label was Breathe Owl Breathe. They have a very Andrew Bird sort of feel, if you’re into that sort of thing. I know I am. Ha! Andrew Bird? Breathe Owl Breathe? Get it? Good stuff. But really, they do sound alike. It’s not just that parts of their respective names could be grouped together a la six degrees of separation.

Still curious about the lyrics? Well, in the Bush song, Machinehead, the lyrics “Breathe in. Breathe out.” are used extensively. Today’s band is named Breathe Owl Breathe. Perhaps if the word “out” were replaced with the word “owl”, Bush would have been singing about today’s band. I do have it on record, however, that they were not. How’s the for some great online reporting?

Today’s song is called Drop and Roll. Enjoy!

Everybody wants to be naked and famous,
Everybody wants to be just like me,
I’m naked,
And famous.
- The Presidents of the United States of America

In case you’re wondering. No, I’m neither naked nor famous. If I were, I have little doubt that the above lyrics would apply to me.

Not much going on today. Nate sent me a link to a page that contains 3.5 GB of free music from SXSW (South By Southwest if you’re not familiar with it). I’m kind of struggling to keep up with the music that I do have, so I’m unlikely to pick it up myself – that and I’m in the stone age and don’t actually have bitTorrent.

In other news, a new album from The Notwist, called The Devil, You + Me, is coming out in June. This is big news, since their last release was in 2002. Woohoo!

Today’s song comes from a band I found thanks to Stereogum. Check out Stop Being Perfect from The LK.

They say the heart of rock and roll is still beatin’
And from what I’ve seen I believe ‘em
Now the old boy may be barely breathin’
But the heart of rock and roll, heart of rock and roll is still beatin’
-Huey Lewis and the News

Have you been at the edge of your seat since I announced on Monday that I have lollapalooza news? I sure hope so. I won’t waste your time. I’ll get right to it. Because at the end of the day, your time is precious. You’ve spent all day feeling Like Spinning Plates and if by typing this news right now, you are able to get to bed thirty seconds earlier tonight, then I hope that you do.

Because sleep is very important. Trust me, right now between daylight savings time and schedule meetings earlier than I normally would get to work, I really need a Morning Bell to wake me up. My bad. Sorry for being such a Creep.

According to this Chicago Tribune blog, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails will be two of the headliners for this year’s lollapalooza! So, if you were planning on getting one-day passes on the day that either of these bands is playing, especially the day that Radiohead is playing, you may need to work just a little harder to get those tickets.

Speaking of Nine Inch Nails. They have recently released a new 36-track instrumental album, Ghosts I-IV which is available for digital distribution here. There are many options available:

• A free download of Ghosts I
• $5 for all 36 tracks
• $10 for a 2 CD set
• $75 deluxe edition package, which includes 2 CDs, a DVD containing multi-track versions of the songs, and a BlueRay disc containing high definition audio
• $300 ultra deluxe limited edition package, which I think included the above as well as LPs signed by lead singer Trent Reznor. These are sold out.

What do I think about the digital releases from Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails? I’m not sure. It has shown to work for well-established bands, but I’m not sure that it would work for the up-and-comers. Added to that fact, I’m wondering if the popularity of these digital downloads is slightly increased due to the entertainment factor of trying something new. Like all the people who watched the first game of the now-defunct XFL and then proceeded to not watch it any more.

Meh, I’ll write more about this later. This post is already long enough.

Today’s song comes from a new band called She & Him, which is made up of actress Zooey Deschanel and musician M Ward. Zooey was the woman who played opposite of Will Farrell in the movie Elf. She & Him’s new album, Volume One comes out next week, but I picked up a copy of the first single off of the Merge Records website. Check out Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?

You’ve got the brains,
I’ve got the looks,
Let’s make lots of money.
- Pet Shop Boys

On Sunday, MTV was showing a marathon of last season’s Beauty and the Geek. While watching the five minutes of commercials that MTV plays, I noticed a pattern. Apparently MTV has a man-crush on Vampire Weekend, or at least whatever kind of crush can be had between a television network and an afro-pop inspired rock band.

Ok, so looking more into this, apparently Vampire Weekend is MTV’s Artist of the Week. Anybody know how long this has been going on? I rarely watch MTV and really don’t go to their website. Why? Well, because their music world and my music world rarely collide.

Anyway, before I got sidetracked, today’s post was going to be about interesting band names. This all started when I picked up the new album from Say Hi To Your Mom, which has apparently been recently shortened to just Say Hi. In the allmusic review of their debut album, the reviewer writes:

Between Say Hi to Your Mom and Dogs Die in Hot Cars, 2004 is likely to go down in rock history as The Year We Officially Ran Out Of Good Band Names.

I then went on the ol’ iPod to see what sort of funny names I could find there, and lo and behold, here are some of the weirder band names that I own:

• Murder By Death – This band seems to be fairly popular, but I’ve never met anybody who will come out and say that they actually like them. I picked up these CDs from my brother after he saw them open for a different band and enjoyed the way the female cellist was playing her instrument, if you catch my drift.
• The Sea and Cake – I like the sea. I also like cake. But, this just sounds like a bad day at the beach, leaving a birthday cake too close to high tide. Perhaps it’s a sponge cake? (har dee har har!)
• The North LaBrea All-Star Conquistadors – Ok, so technically, this is a band name for a group of four solo artists putting together a couple of shows in L.A. This is probably one of my favorite obscure albums that I own.

I’ve got more, but these stand out as the top three after a quick glance. Today’s song comes from Say Hi’s new album, The Wishes and the Glitch. Here’s Bluetime.

Check out Wednesday’s post for a big rumor regarding lollapalooza and a highly anticipated new album from a band who haven’t put out a new album in 5 years.

Sweet, my blog now has a cliffhanger.