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

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Daily Round-Up

• Pitchfork, never disappointing, got the inside scoop on a live performance by Vampire Weekend at some exclusive room at their alma mater, Columbia University.
• We previously posted on Adele, and now she is birthing a U.S. tour [not implying a causal relationship] (MP3: Cold Shoulder)
• Peter, of the whistlin’ dixies PeterBjornandJohn, stopped into the Daytrotter studios to lay down some “drum and bass shit.“
• iguessi’mfloating, a great mp3 blog (although a little sporadic on posting lately), has been nailing me with unbelievable songs lately.  Check ‘em out
  • Spoon-Don’t You Evah (Ted Leo’s I Want It Hotter Remix)
  • Barenaked Ladies violating Public Enemy’s classic “Fight the Power”
  • Lupe Fiasco-Superstar (Live/Acoustic

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Good News for New York

Slow posting lately, was in Washington, D.C., Jumpin’ at Capitol…

• Madonna will be playing a so-called “intimate” show at the 3,000 capacity Roseland Ballroom on April 30. (MP3: Hung Up (Diplo Remix)
• Via Brooklyn Vegan, Vampire Weekend and Crosby, Stills, and Nash will be among the performers at Central Park’s Summerstage series these coming months. (VW MP3: Punk Your Mind (Vampire Weekend vs. Styles P); CSN&Y MP3: Suite Judy Blue Eyes)
• …and not New York, but check out Spoon’s interview with Pitchfork, then download this MP3: You Got Yr Cherry Bomb Demo (5 points to anyone who can name the jazz standard played at the end of the mp3.)

Target Practice

In 1902, a businessman named George Dayton built a six story building in downtown Minneapolis, MN. He convinced another businessman to move his department store into the building. Within the year, Dayton had acquired the business, which he eventually turned into the second biggest discount store in the world, Target, trailing only Wal-Mart.

Some like the company better than Wal-Mart, some see no difference: “Aesthetically, we all like Target better, but their wages are in many places low or just as low, and they all represent the Wal-Martization of our economy, which is the exchange of low prices for poor work conditions.” –Liza Featherstone

Such discussion, however, is irrelevant to today’s playlist, save for the name of the company. Our top three “Target” songs (MP3s below):

3. Citizen Cope-Bullet and a Target.

2. Trampled By Turtles-I’m a Target Too. The opening track from the bluegrass group’s amazing sophomore LP, Blue Sky and the Devil. One of the best mandolin solos on the disc. “I ain’t gonna be that way no more; I ain’t gonna be that way.” Yeah, right.

1. Spoon-Don’t Make Me a Target. “Nuclear dicks.” Reminds me of Dr. Strangelove.

Buy Trampled by Turtles/MP3: I’m a Target Too

Buy Spoon/MP3: Britt Daniel-Don’t Make Me a Target (Live at Swedish American Hall)

Buy Citizen Cope/MP3: Bullet and a Target

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