September 2007

Radiohead announced today that they’re releasing their new album In Rainbows on October 10th. Right now the only way to order it is from their website. That’s where the interesting part kicks in. If you pre-order the Download version through the site it asks you how much you want to pay.

That’s right; there’s no price. You decide how much it’s worth to you. It’s an interesting concept. And not necessarily one that will lead to people paying less than they would otherwise. There’s a story in Freakonomics about a guy who sold bagels. When he stopped charging a fixed price for the bagels and started asking for people to give whatever they thought was appropriate people actually paid more.

Anyway, I digress. It’s great that Radiohead is forgoing a record label for this release AND playing with new pricing models. Unfortunately I still don’t understand the hype about their music…

You know what would be a great idea for a concept album? A collection of songs about six-legged robot horses who think they’re real horses. No, seriously. Stop laughing. Come on, give it a chance.

Ok, so on its surface it seems that robot horses won’t make for a strong album. Luckily for Canadian indie rockers Rock Plaza Central and their enigmatic frontman Chris Eaton it’s really difficult to tell that’s what the songs on their latest album Are We Not Horses are about. Eaton’s songwriting is opaque enough to prevent you from discerning what’s truly going on inside his mind, yet accessible enough to draw you in. The quirky instrumentation and anthemic melodies glue the songs into your head. The whole package, while rough around the edges, is endlessly fascinating.
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NBC announced that they’re making a pilot/made-for-tv-movie that will update the 80’s classic Knight Rider. Sorry, no Hasselhoff in this one. But it will be directed by Doug Liman, the man who’s brought us Swingers, The Bourne Identity, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The project sounds like it will be kind of a mashup of Knight Rider and Transformers, with the cars being able to change shapes. If the movie is successful the show will likely be picked up for NBC’s 2008 schedule.

Some old-school Knight Rider goodies after the jump:
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And to celebrate here’s a montage of some great moments from the series:

This, um, odd looking feller manages to put together a perfectly decent cover of Charles Mingus’ “Better Git it in Your Soul” (the opening track to one of jazz’s greatest albums, Mingus Ah Um).

Amazon.comAmazon.com has finally opened their long-awaited MP3 store. It looks like most songs are priced between $.89 and $.99 and are encoded as 256kb MP3s. Right now there’s 2 million songs from 180,000 artists up. Kick ass!

Being the intrepid reporter I am I just had to try it out. I bought two tracks from The Bird and the Bee’s latest EP Please Clap Your Hands. The setup process is a little strange (you have to install a program from Amazon to download the tracks). But once you get that out of the way it’s a snap. I have a feeling this is going to give iTunes a serious run for its money.

Link to the store. And here’s the press release Amazon put out.

Last week at the legendary Ryman Auditorium the fans who showed up to see Bob Dylan got a special treat. Not only did they get a surprise opening set from Elvis Costello, but none other than Jack White showed up to sing with Bob. To top it all off it wasn’t just any song they performed, but “One More Cup of Coffee”, a song Dylan had never performed live. Gee, that would have sucked to see. Behold the power of YouTube…

In 2004 Ben Gibbard, lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie, discovered lo-fi indie rockers Aqueduct in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Since then the band has singed with Death Cab’s label, Barsuk Records, released two full albums and an EP, and toured with The Flaming Lips, The Shins, and The Apples in Stereo. Not a bad couple of years.
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Judd Apatow is on a roll. Since 2004 he’s been involved in Anchorman, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, Knocked Up, and Superbad. Not a bad resume. His next project is a mock biopic. It’s called Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and it looks like a pretty direct spoof of Walk the Line. John C. Riley plays Dewey Cox, a country singer whose rise to fame, tribulations, and ultimate redemption make up the story. Check out the trailer:

This kid plays us a cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” (from The White Album) on a banjo. And surprisingly it works somehow…

Got a chance to go see The Apples in Stereo at DC’s 9:30 Club last night. As usual they put on a great show, mixing in old favorites with the exceptional songs from their latest album New Magnetic Wonder. Frontman Robert Schneider proved once again you don’t have to be “cool” to lead a rock band (it’s hard to be cool when you’re trying to do a guitar power stance in flip flops…). At one point he used a beer bottle to fret his guitar, which would have been cool had the bottle not been full. Oops.

Seriously though, the nerd-rock vibe is part of the band’s charm. They speak to the everygeek in all of us.

NPR did a live webcast of the show, and you can hear it on their site.

Videos after the jump
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Apparently The Sex Pistols are a little jealous of Led Zeppelin, so they’ve also decided to get together for one show. They’re performing in honor of the 30th anniversary of their seminal album Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols. Presumably The Pistols will have original bassist Glen Matlock, since more famous but far less talented bassist Sid Vicious died in 1979.

NME has all the details

via BoingBoing

Quirky writer/director Terry Zwigoff, the man who brought us Ghost World and Bad Santa, is set to bring us his own take on The Six Million Dollar Man. Like the original it will revolve around an astronaut who is badly injured in a crash, only to be rebuilt by the government. Of course, times have changed, and a six million dollar man wouldn’t be so impressive anymore. So Zwigoff is using artistic license to update the story a little. So instead of The Six Million Dollar Man we’re going to get The $40,000 Man. Wait, what? That’s less, not more. Well then, things just got a whole lot more interesting…

Hollywood Reporter has the full story

How can you not like a guy that calls him self Matty Pop Chart? Especially when his music is as whimsical as his name. I don’t know a whole lot about him, but so far the music is eclectic and delightful, with a definite Brian Wilson/Daniel Johnston vibe. Only less crazy. Maybe.
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So the story goes like this:

Bruce Springsteen is playing a show in Copenhagen. Before the show he’s walking around and sees a guy on the street playing one of his songs. So he plays “The River” with the guy. Crazy.

I’m so happy this is WVU…

Oh KT, how you keep surprising me. Here is a positively kick ass looped cover of The Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back”:

A few fun facts about Ms. Tunstall:

• She’s Scottish
• She’s 1/4 Chinese (She’s adopted and her birth mother is half-Chinese)
• She uses an AKAI E2 HeadRush loop pedal

America’s favorite satirical news anchor will be hosting The 2008 Oscars. Jon Stewart first hosted the film awards in 2006, and he was awesome. So congrats to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for bringing him back.

Stewart was apparently thrilled to be offered the gig again, quipping that he is thrilled to be asked for a second time, because the third time is a charm.

The living members of Led Zeppelin will come together to play a tribute concert for late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. The band hasn’t played together since May of 1988. The concert will take place on November 26th at London’s O2 arena.

I know you’re all wondering who’s going to fill the gigantic shoes of late drummer John Bonham. Well the drum set will be in the capable hands of Bonzo’s son Jason. Apparently Jason is also responsible for getting the band back together. Thanks Jason!

Get the full scoop at the BBC

Led Zeppelin - Dancing Days

The first trailer for next summer’s big comic book movie, Iron Man, is out, and for some reason it makes me think the movie won’t be terrible. At least not Fantastic Four or Hulk terrible. Maybe I have too much faith in Robert Downey, Jr.

The film previously referred to only as Indiana Jones 4 or The Film That Should Not Be finally has a real name: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. One of the film’s stars, Shia LaBeouf, revealed the name during MTV’s Video Music Awards. Meaning they must have been trying to keep it secret…

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Iron & Wine is the stage name of singer/songwriter Sam Beam. I first heard of Beam when his great cover of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” was featured in the 2004 indie film Garden State. The song really grabbed my attention, and I quickly tracked down Iron & Wine’s debut album, The Creek Drank the Cradle. What I heard blew me away.

The album was recorded very simply, with stripped down instrumentation and lo-fi equipment. But what really stands out is Beam’s voice. His hushed style makes it seem like he’s whispering the songs into your ear, lending all of the songs an incredibly intimate quality. The album sounded fresh, yet also like it could have been recorded 30 years earlier.
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There’s a new red band trailer out for Robert Zemeckis‘ take on the classic epic poem Beowulf. The movie is a CGI update of the tale which apparently stays true to the poem in most places, but adds some scenes in order to take advantage of Angelina Jolie’s hotness (I know, she’s “digitally enhanced” here, but she’s still hot). Check out the trailer below, or a higher quality version here.

Twisted, but funny…

…by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. That’s right, the punk rockers that have taken the role of cover band to it’s highest form tackle the country masterpiece that’s best known as the theme to Smokey and the Bandit. Genius (or something)!

Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - East Bound And Down

From their album Love Their Country

Last week we got to hear the song. This week we get the video. It’s good, but not very remarkable.

This time it’s by a dude, which makes it slightly creepy…

Usually Wii comes AFTER beer pong, but it seems that Midway is bringing the popular drinking game to the Wii over a year after the console’s launch. Technically they’re actually releasing a game called Game Party, a collection of bar and party games that will take advantage of the Wii’s unique controls. Besides beer pong the collection also includes air hockey, darts, tabletop shuffleboard, basketball, and SKEEBALL! Where do I sign up for Wii skeeball?

More info here

The members of Canadian indie pop/rock band Stars have done pretty well for themselves considering that they all have other gigs. Some are also members of influential indie band Broken Social Scene and one is a relatively successful actor. But despite the other activities in their lives they’ve managed to put out four albums, with material ranging from electronically based pop to more straight ahead rock n’ roll.
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