The Constantines: Live at Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco, June 9, 2006.

My current favorite Canadian indie rock band bring their usual brilliance to this set. If you haven't checked this guys out already, you're probably missing some of the best music to come out of Oh Canada since the new millennium. If you doubt still, maybe the critical raves will convince you. Shine A Light is still one of those albums I never listen to in bits - always from start to finish. Add The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust to that list.

Draw Us Lines
Hotline Operator
Young Lions
Working Full Time
Arizona
Thieves
Sub-Domestic
Soon EnoughNighttime Anytime (It's Alright)
Good Nurse
Lizaveta
Shine A Light
Justice
Seven A.M.
Young Offenders
I'm A Man

Louder, Pussycat has a review of this gig and some photos.
Read this Pitchfork interview, and a review of their recent Seattle gig.
Buy Constantines music.

New Outkast Single

For those of you who care, here's "Mighty O", the new single from OutKast's forthcoming album, Idlewild, due out August 22nd. None of the smooth party flow you'll expect from an OutKast song due out in the summer, just André and Big Boi rapping with some annoying chorus and the usual yeah yeah yeahs. It's just another hip-hop jam. All the "cool" kids would love it though. I hear the album is going to be "an old-school (real old school) fusion of swing, blues and hip-hop" - let's hope there's less of this and more of that.

Mighty O

The Flaming Lips Live: Circus, Stockholm, Sweden, May 2, 2006.

Found this great sounding & recent Flaming Lips set over at my Singaporean friends' place. Better still, this gig photo, testimony to why folks say this is a band to see live before you die. Enjoy.

Intro
Racing For The Prize
Free Radicals
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt.1
Vein Of Stars Intro
Vein Of Stars
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
In The Morning Of The Magicians
The W.A.N.D.
The Spark That Bled
Do You Realize?
War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover)

Chinchilla Makes Contact, Macaca Mulatta Demos.

So I am going through my emails after a productive morning working on a paper on commercialization and conflicts of interest in biomedical research and I come accross an email from Chris Chinchilla, ex-band member of my favorite britrock band of last year, the jamtastic punkrawkadelic Art Brut. Suddenly it hit me - I am finally going places with this blog thing! So here I am replying Chris Chinchilla's email, you know like I do this everyday, that is, maintain contact with some hot indie band guy. Well, Chris is saying hello and telling me all about how he's the guy from Art Brut and how he now has his own band called Macaca Mulatta and how he could send me a cd to listen to. Well, since he's keeping his cool and all, I knock together a reply that goes somewhat like this:

Oh my God! Oh my God! Huge Fan! Huge Fan!

No need to lose my cool. It's just the guy from Art Brut after all.

Anyway, for those of you who don't read Pitchfork, here's the gist. Chris broke up amicably with Art Brut via LiveJournal and "formed a band" called Macaca Mulatta with Jim Rhesus and Arran J Lovechild of imploded London band, Rhesus. Together they've put together some demos collectively called the "Prince Evil Demos". The music is still raw, raucous, punk-y, and arena-ready. But don't expect any "I've seen her naked! I've seen her naked, twice! This guy obviously has no "rusted guns of milan", just words of wisdom, at least for now. However, with the sonic landscapes built around these songs, all you krazy kids may still see a need to lose yourself.

Dancing On A Week Night (recommended)
Defeated
Change
Welcome To The Real World

Visit the Macaca Mulatta site.
One Louder has an email interview with Chris. Read.

Have Love Will Travel Mix

Sorry I've been gone for so long. I've just been bogged down with my waitressing shifts lately. Perkins has me rotating between dinner and bar shifts, so when I am awake I'm kind of groggy. But anyway, this is the first day of my three day hiatus... so here's a new mix for all of you patient readers who have supported my last few entries. I'm going to make it a habit of taking on any mix challenges I get from you readers, so keep giving more ideas. I'd be more than happy to accept your challenge; I throughly enjoying brainstorming ideas for mixes.

This idea comes from a suggestion I recieved; songs made for traveling and roadtrips. Its summer, and if time and money weren't an issue I'd love to traverse the nation. I would hitch-hike like the hippies did, but its not the peace and love generation anymore, is it. Too many chances some psycho would pick me up and I'd be hacked into pieces in some ditch. I apologize for the graphic visual there, but this world we live in makes one cynical sometimes.

I make this list for those of you lucky enough to "head out on the highway and get your motor running." All of the songs I chose have traveling as a theme. I tried to keep a good balance between tried and true favorites (you have to have songs to belt along to) and a few lesser known tracks ("1000 Miles" by the Hoodoo Gurus). I chose to end with Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Comin' Home" as a reminder that no matter how far you travel, your home will always call out to you. Yes, I even miss my boring state of Iowa whenI leave if you can believe it.


Bonus Video: "Have Love Will Travel" covered by The Black Keys

Have Love Will Travel by The Sonics
Chicago by Sufjan Stevens
Country Road by James Taylor
1000 Miles Away by Hoodoo Gurus
On the Road Again by Canned Heat
Route 66 (Get Your Kicks On) by The Cramps
500 Miles by Peter, Paul, and Mary
Train Whistle Blues by Jimmy Rodgers
Roadhouse Blues by The Doors
The Passenger by Iggy Pop
I'm Bound to Pack It Up by The White Stripes
Leaving On a Jet Plane by John Denver
Ramble On by Led Zeppelin
Comin' Home by Lynyrd Skynyrd

From My Inbox: The Chocolate Swim EP, CWL Remix Sebadoh.

Aside from the usual organ enlargement solicitations that arrive in my inbox with annoying regularity, here's some other interesting thisandthats from the last time I checked (Note: the following do not represent my views, except where expressly stated - I usually just cut and paste the emails directly when I do these "From My Inbox" features. Obviously.)

1. Cassettes Won't Listen Do Sebadoh

The Freed Pig (Sebadoh cover)

New York, NY - Cassettes Won't Listen has been hard at work, to say the least, in the studio and brings us a brand new cover celebrating the re-release of Sebadoh III, out July 11th on Domino Records. The cover is for the lead track "The Freed Pig". After fans and critics embraced what they believed to be a full band, Casettes Won't Listen has now been revealed as the singular workings of producer and multi-instrumentalist Jason Drake. Not only did he write, produce, and record his Nobody's Moving EP under the name of four different "band members", he has also secured his spot in the world of remixing, working with such artists as Morcheeba, Midlake, and Dr. Octagon. Future remixes will include Asobi Sesku, Honeycut (Quannum Records), The Diggs, and yet another remix for Midlake.

"Sebadoh has always been an influence on me", Drake says. Sebadoh III, Bakesale, Harmacy, etc., have always been in my collection and are a part of the few albums I classify as timeless. It was very exciting to hear Domino was re-releasing III. I felt it was the perfect time to cover one of their tracks. Those who were not exposed to, or to young for, the band may finally get a chance to hear what they've been missing."

CWL recently headlined Pianos NYC on Thursday June 29th and will be playing Sin-e NYC on August 23rd.

For more information, check: CWL myspace.

*My take*
Apparently this guy has done some other interesting covers, including Pavement's Cut Your Hair (download). Nice. For others, check out this page.

2. Chocolate Swim EP

Pierre Elliott Trudeau,

Mike from Cornerstone Promotion here. I saw your blog and am spreading the word on some things. From reading your blog it seems that you, like me, have particular tastes when it comes to Hip Hop music.

In any case, I thought you might like to know.....

Adult Swim and Chocolate Industries have gotten together and produced Chocolate Swim, an EP which is available for FREE! That's right, it is 100% free and features solid music from Kovas, Lady Sov, Ghislain Poirier, Mos Def & Diverse, and Vast Aire (ft. MF Doom).

Here's the link.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Also, feel free to spread the word and let your readers know. See below for more info and/or feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Mike

*My take*
Amen to you, Mike. And to the rest of you, I say go for it. For those who hesitate, I'll have you know that all the musicians on this EP are solid testimonials of what makes the indie hip-hop underground a million times better than mainstream hip-hop. Our very own Ghislain Poirier is of course one of Canada's hottest exports, and the badass Edan holds the remix fort on the Vast Aire/MF Doom track. And the multi-talented Mos Def, matched here fire for fire by Diverse, all set to some Arabian Nights flavored chant. Amen indeed. This is best FREEBIE I have acquired this year!

Browse through the Adult Swim site, lots of good stuff. If you don't like browsing, just grab the EP tracks below. Remember to buy an album if you love a song.

Up In Here Kovas
Hoodie (Spank Rock Remix) Lady Sovereign
Mic Diplomat Ghislain Poirier feat. DJ Collage
Wylin Out (Kut Masta Kurt Remix) Mos Def & Diverse
Ain't Right (DJ Mitsu Remix) Diverse
Super Friendz (Edan Remix) Vast Aire feat. MF Doom

Johnny Cash: Live in Vienna Sept. 9, 1975.

All the classic Johnny Cash songs, live. He's joined by June on some of the songs, including my fav, "Daddy Sang Bass".

These files exist in .flac format, for you nitpickers, formatnazi and audiophiles, so go looking if you don't like mp3s. This is an mp3 blog, wish I had the space to host a .flac blog. In any case, these sound great.

Idea for the future: Start a .flac blog. Call my granny and let her know. Make sure she yells "hooray!" before you hang up. Then build a gazebo in my living room.

Ring Of Fire
Sunday Morning Coming Down
Big River
The Lady Came From Baltimore
These Hands
Another Man Done Gone
I Got Stripes
Picking Time
Look At Them Beans
Give My Love To Rose
A Boy Named Sue
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
City Of New Orleans
Hey Porter
Folsom Prison Blues
Wreck Of The Ol' 97
Orange Blossom Special
Jackson
If I Were A Carpenter
Peace In The Valley
Were You There?
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
I Walk The Line
A Thing Called Love
Daddy Sang Bass

Bob Dylan: Live at the Carnegie Chapter Hall, Nov. 4 1961.

Pretty Peggy-O
In The Pines
Gospel Plow
1913 Massacre
Backwater Blues
Young But Daily Growin'
Fixin' To Die
Idiot Wind
Lily Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts

Notes:

"A great example of the early coffee house shows before Bob was picked up by CBS Records. He was, of course, newly signed at this point, but was still doing the coffee house type show. He jokes and interacts with the small crowd, and sings his young heart out. Two songs of particular interest are Woody Guthrie's 1913 Massacre, (Bob stole this tune for his own 'Song to Woody') and Bukka White's 'Fixin' to Die'. This version is much the same as it would appear on the first album, as it would be only two weeks before the recording would be done. Although the show is a line recording directly from the soundboard, the early 1960's technology is evident in the sometimes muffled sound."