This Week From The BBC: Wire, The Hives, Liars

Wire, Peel Session, Broadcast 17 Sept, 2002

70's Punk stalwarts, Wire, bring it to Maida Vale 4 studios. If you haven't heard their seminal and totally essential 1977 debut, Pink Flag, you should take a Rock 101 class. At the Varsity nearest to you.
Spent
I Don't Understand
First Fast
99.9

Next up, YOUR NEW FAVORITE BAND, THE HIVES FROM SWEDEN! Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, Nicholaus Arson, Vigilante Carlstroem, Dr. Matt Destruction and Chris Dangerous in full effect. Your reference points: Barely Legal & Veni Vidi Vicious.
Hate To Say I Told You So
Lost & Found
Barely Homosapien
Howlin' Pelle Talk to the British People

Lastly, playing selections from their second album, The Were Wrong, So We Drowned, the fantastic Liars. Of course, many of us got to know them from Drum's Not Dead, so this is an excellent opportunity to hear what was.

There's Always Room on the Broom
If Your a Wizard Then Why Do You Wear Glasses?
We Fenced Other Gardens With the Bones of Our Own
Bugman Needs A Hugman

MP3 Brunch: The Good The Bad And The Queen "History Song"

Here's a track from the forthcoming eponymous album from Damon Albarn's (Blur, Gorillaz) new project, the curiously named The Good, The Bad and the Queen. TGTBATQ is Damon with Paul Simonon on bass(The Clash) Simon Tong on guitar(The Verve, Gorillaz) and Tony Allen on drums(Africa 70, Fela Kuti).

The album, produced by DJ Dangermouse, is due out January 22, 2007. The second single "Kingdom of Doom" will precede the album on January 15.

History Song

The track has got a real nice melody to it, with neat bass grooves, and lots of distorted effects that complement rather than sabotage the sound.

For those interested:
Pre-order album here and here.
Single here.

Stephen Colbert vs. The Decemberists: Guitar Challenge

The only you haven't heard of the Colbert - Decemberists Guitar Challenge up till now is if you have no TV, no internet, hate Pitchfork, can't stand The Decemberists, abhor comedy and have no indie music-professing friends or colleagues. A simple google search for "Colbert Decemberists Challenge" could make you a member of the elite group that does all of the above, and for good reason too. The Challenge turned out to be all it was expected to be - over the top, funny as hell, and very interesting musically. You can read all about it here, watch it here, and if you hate choppy videos, grabs mp3s of the entire thing below.

Chris Funk for the Decemberists Chris Funk
Stephen, Crank It Up Stephen Colbert feat. Nobel Laureate Henry Kissinger
Frampton for Colbert Nation Stephen Colbert and Peter Frampton
Judgment Anthony DeCurtis, Jim Anderson, Eliot Spitzer, Henry Kissinger and Stephen Colbert
The Colbert Report Theme Stephen Colbert, Peter Frampton, Chris Funk, Rick Nielsen and Robert Schneider

Update

Folks,

First of all, happy holidays everyone. This is the period when I normally kick back and listen to lots of music. This should mean shitloads of posts. However, as most of you have guessed, bandwidth has become a major issue for me. Here the situation:
1. I have tried every free site and every unlimited bandwidth site out there (thanks to those who sent in wonderful suggestions on what to try). Thing is, unlimited bandwidth is a myth. Just a business trick to get you sucked in to the payment web. I get nicked after a while. Most I have seen is 25GB for free sites. And that's the daily consumption on this blog.
2. Looks like I have to pay to feed the high consumption. I need about a 100GB a month and a great deal of recycling or removal of posts for this amount to suffice. However, a 100GB bandwidth, where it does exist, costs tons - $99 and above. Amount of money willing to spend of this blog max = 30 bucks, Canadian.
3. In the final analysis, I love blogging. So I am going to keep sticking the files in the free places until I find a permanent solution that is cost friendly. And it will not be sendspace, megaupload, or rapidshare. I need a file host, not a file store.

Cheers.

Silversun Pickups: KCRW MBE Session, Dec 13, 2006

Silversun Pickups are one of the essential new indie bands out there. This fantastic set on KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic proves the point.
Intro
Well Thought Out Twinkles
Rusted Wheel
Little Lover's So Polite
Interview
Future Foe Scenarios
Lazy Eye
Common Reactor
Outro

Buy their fantastic debut LP, Carnavas.

Lou Reed & Nico: The Bedroom Tape

Lou Reed and Nico rehearsing in Nico's hotel room. Lots of false starts, very loose. Strictly for the following categories of persons:
(a) Velvet Underground hardcore fans.
(b) Rock Historians.
(c) Those of you whose fathers were very much and are still probably in love with Nico (hint: Christmas gift).
(d) Those of you who'll never bid for this.
(e) All those in (a) to (d) who own earphones other than ipod stock earbuds and equivalent.

All Tomorrow's Parties (various attempts)
These Days (various attempts)
I'll Keep It With Mine (various attempts)
Little Sister (various attempts)
All Tomorrow's Parties (one attempt)
I'll Be Your Mirror (one attempt)
Femme Fatale (one attempt)
I'll Keep It With Mine (various attempts)
Little Queenie (one attempt)
Little Sister 2 (various attempts)
All Tomorrow's Parties 2 (various attempts)
Somebody (one attempt)

Flacs for these exist on the series of tubes. Go find them if you are interested.

Regina Spektor: Live at Hotel Cafe, Los Angeles, CA., Jan 26, 2005

Since Begin to Hope (#4 on my Top 10 Albums of 2006, and the most listenable this year), I have set myself to scavenging for Regina Spektor stuff. Here's one of my favorite finds. Enjoy.

Ezra Pound
Carbon Monoxide
All the Rowboats
Poor Little Rich Boy
Open Up
Bobbin For Apples
That Time
Uh-Merica
High Fidelity
Prisoners
Reginasaurus

Limited bandwidth, go to the Hype Machine to listen if the links here stop working. Or buy some Regina Spektor records.