Some Quick Updates From the Break

During the brief hiatus this blog has just experienced, music has seen some significant moves.  Spoon’s got a new song out, Beck is channeling his inner-Lou-Reed, and of course…MJ. Check out the details below:

Spoon

No album details here, but web sites and blogs have got their dirty paws on a new track from the band. The song is an immediate stand-out, like “The Underdog” was when first leaked from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. The more plays this one gets, however, the more you can begin to recognize the grooviness of the sounds they combine here: subtle ’70s guitar riffs played against shoe-gazing guitars that create a uniquely dissident sound, plunking and driving keys that have given Spoon nice weight in the past, and Brit Daniel’s half-rebelious, half-hopeless voice singing about having “nuffin to lose.”

MP3: Spoon-Got Nuffin

Beck

Beck, the man who has more genres than Joseph has colors in his coat, has taken up a new project called The Record Club. In this exercise, Beck and his bandmates get together and record a cover of an entire album in one day’s time.  Then, they slowly post the videos onto the internet, one song at a time. Their first effort has produced some beautiful results, as they have been working releasing their work covering 1967’s revolutionary work, The Velvet Underground and Nico, the Andy Warhol-produced debut album from The Velvet Underground. Thus far, Beck has unveiled three tracks: the opening track “Sunday Morning,” the Harlem/drug dealer-inspired “I’m Waiting for the Man,” and the song Warhol asked Lou Reed to write about Factory Girl Edie Sedwick “Femme Fatale.”  All three are worth repeated listens, and I am very excited to see how this is released in some sort of purchaseable/downloadable format once the entire project is released.

MP3: Beck-Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground cover)

MP3: Beck-I’m Waiting for My Main (Velvet Underground cover)

MJ

Too much has been said already. Just enjoy the video, and if that isn’t cathartic enough, head over to NME to vote for your favorite MJ songs.

MP3: Jackson 5-I Want You Back

MP

M@M: Maxine Nightingale-Get Right Back To Where We Started From

Someone, in a moment of bizarre genius, combined the dance tune star’s song to a montage of clips featuring orca whales.  Free, Willy!

MP3: Maxine Nightingale-Get Right Back To Where We Started From

MP3: Michael Jackson-Will You Be There? (from the Free Willy soundtrack)

MP

Usher, stealing Michael Jackson’s moves, is SNL’s musical guest

One of the goals of IIG,IG is to support music without assessing its commercial success or its status as an indie hit.  The blog attempts to parse through the image crap.  Sometimes this requires us to defend popular musicians who indie fans wouldn’t necessarily like.  This is not one of those times:

I guess someone forgot to tell Usher, Saturday Night Live’s season finale musical guest, that he is not Michael Jackson.  Nor will he ever be.  I’m sure youtube clips will surface soon. Until then, chill out to Usher’s “Confessions.”  Don’t expect anything too juicy.

In the meantime, something a little bit more tolerable in a novelty gimmick way: Yeah.

MP

M@M: Michael Jackson and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Reverend Doctor would be 79 today.