Get Your Foundation Laid People
Remember that Hearsay Exceptions movie that Energy Spatula gifted us with a few months ago? Well, if you enjoyed that, then check out the new Evidence Song, also courtesy of Energy Spatula. Yes, she had a really talented evidence class!
So again I'm thinking that this should be a whole series. There must be lots of musical talent running around law schools these days—why not set more legal lessons to music? I'll set up lawschoolrocks.com if you people will bring the noise. Maybe we could get Andrew Raff to rock something up for us. His band certainly rocks (I especially recommend Teenage Symphony—I love that song), so why not?
Posted 08:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Women, Listen to Your Mothers
We saw the White Stripes last night at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. Cool venue, great show. Look, that's them in the pic at the right. Really. Ok, no need to enlarge that photo; you'll just have to trust me that we were there. Hey, and check it out, you can be there, too! NPR recorded the show and it's now available for your listening pleasure! Or if you subscribe to NPR's All Songs Considered podcast, I believe today's download will be this show.
As you can tell from the recording, for two little people, Jack and Meg sure can make a lot of great noise! Before the show L wondered whether the Jack and Meg ('cause, you know, I'm on a first name basis w/both of them, now that I've seen them play live) were going to play everything themselves. I figured they'd be using taped loops or whatever to augment their own instruments; I was wrong. It was just the two of them the whole time, and that was awesome!
They also did a great job of adding variety to the set—keeping the big hits recognizable, yet jamming them out to keep reminding you that this is live. (I hate it when bands just play their songs exactly as they were recorded; that always gives me the feeling I might as well just be listening to the CD at home.) The two of them are also relentless—they just kept playing and playing and playing at this frenetic pace (they played almost all the songs much faster than the recorded versions) w/out pause for water or even catching their breath. Pretty impressive, really.
Watching these two perform, I was thinking that maybe one of the reasons they're so popular (besides creating catchy rockin' tunes, of course) is that they sort of seem like humble, normal people. I don't know why this is; maybe it's just that they don't both look like supermodels or something, or maybe it's because I know Jack used to be a manual laborer (a furniture upholster) before he became a rock star. They're just cool people who like to rock out. At least that's the vibe they seem to project.
Anywho, good show. Worth a listen if you're even a sort of fan.
My Doorbell
Last year at the beginning of the summer I heard a song that was so catchy and infectious I just knew I would play it all summer long -- that was Float On, by Modest Mouse. This year, now that the summer is finally over, I've got another song of the summer: “My Doorbell” by the White Stripes (lyrics/iTMS). Catchy. Infectious. Great when played very loud.
So when you gonna ring it?
And since y'all gave me so many great recommendations last summer (Killers, Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand and more), what should I be listening to now to make Paris Hilton say “that's hot”?
Oh, and speaking of listening to things, check out the latest Legal Underground Podcast for some great bits about John Roberts, blawgging, and podcasting. But also listen to check out how polished and professional the podcast sounds—it's amazing! When I said I was going to try to record more podcasts I didn't realize the quality bar had been raised so high since the early early days when I was just playing around. Yikes. But, well, I'm thinking I'll remain an amateur and just leave the pro field to Evan.
(Note: None of those old podcasts are currently available b/c of a server issue that is supposedly being fixed. I'm going to move them all soon to eliminate this problem and then I'll post the new links. Sorry about that!)
Posted 07:16 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
The Hits Just Keep On Coming
It's been about two weeks since Half-Cocked wrote an excellent short history of Nebraska indie rock, specifically the Omaha and Lincoln scenes, since those seem to have been hotbeds of great sound in recent years. Check out his post for some great inside perspective on how little bands get big and what's cool and new and coming to a heavy rotation playlist near you. To his post I would also add a mention of Elevator Ride, a friend of mine who was also part of the Omaha/Council Bluffs music scene in years past. Excellent stuff.
And speaking of little bands that become big, I recently acquired “Give Up” by Postal Service as a wonderful gift from my bestest of friends. (She makes beautiful books—yes, every one unique and crafted lovingly by hand—that would make wonderful gifts for those smart and discerning peeps in your life.) I've been listening to it nonstop for the last couple of days and am enthralled. 
If you want to listen, too, get yourself an Audioscrobbler account, then login and visit my user page. Once you've added me as a friend (b/c you love me, I know you do), you can click on the “Personal” radio link on the top right of my user page and you'll start hearing streamed versions of songs in my recently-played list. I tried this at work the other day and it was awesome—like having my cd/mp3 collection w/me wherever there's a networked computer w/a web browser. I have no idea how they do this (the songs clearly don't stream from my own machine, so I don't know where they're coming from), but it's so cool I don't want to ask many questions for fear of messing it up.
(Note: You do not have to add me as a friend to do this; you just have to get a free account, login, then visit my page. But now that you can hear everything I hear, don't you want to share with me what you hear? Yes? I thought so. Thank you!)
Posted 12:25 PM | Comments (2)
Audio Addictions & Sidebars
As I continue to swoon over “Bright Eyes,” I have also fallen head over heels in love with Annie, and specifically with a song called “Me Plus One” which I just happened to get ahold of through a serendipitous online find. The album ( “Anniemal”) hasn't been released in the U.S. yet, but it's described here as “electro, synth pop.” If you'd like to hear it, check out the website where you can hear it streamed just by loading the page (I assume that's the magic of Flash?). For a super strange, um, musical experience, try listening the “Annie FM” stream; it seems to be a very eclectic mix of music, possibly handpicked by Annie herself (she seems to be DJing, since she introduces some of the tracks and comments from time to time).
I'm obviously a sucker for breathy vocals over relatively spare pop foundations. I am not a complicated connoisseur, to say the least. Plus, well, Annie is apparently Norwegian, so you just know it's gotta be good.
I am also a big fat sucker for The Arcade Fire. As my very own most magical musical friend indicated when she told me about this group, The Arcade Fire is best played very very loudly, possibly in a place where you can jump around a lot. Especially “Rebellion (Lies).”
Oh, and if you'd like to see what music is spinning the ambivalent head at any given time, you need only glance at “ambivalent musics,” one of the new sidebars here on the imbroglio. (It's way down on the right—scroll scroll scroll past all those links and you'll run into it.) The tracks are what I've played most recently in iTunes and they appear here via an RSS feed generated by Audioscrobbler, thanks to the magic of the MT RSSfeed plugin. The “musics” sidebar is joined by the new “voices” sidebar, which should always show the most recent podcasts I've created via Slapcast.com. That list may never change, depending on whether I figure out exactly what I want to do w/podcasts, but, well, it's there for now, just in case.
Posted 09:00 AM | Comments (3)
Audioscrobbler: Also very cool
Yet another sound-related toy to play with raises a question for all you audiophiles: Why have you been holding out on me w/the Audioscrobbler scoop? This is muy cool! You create a free account, download a plugin for your favorite music-listening app, install it, and then the track names of everything you listen to get streamed to your user page on Audioscrobbler (like this). Over time it will tell you what your favorite songs and artists are (according to how much you play them), and connect you to other people who like the same music, through which you may find other music you'll also like. Pretty freakin' awesome, if you ask me. Many moons ago I installed iTunes Watcher here, and it also uploads track and album info for recently played tunes, but it doesn't have the “social networking” features and it's also more complicated to set up. The developer posted on his now-defunct blog that he wanted to give iTunes Watcher a lot of the features Audioscrobbler now has, but it looks like that ship has sailed. The one advantage I see for iTunes Watcher is how it allows you to customize the display of your recently-played page. Of course, that's something I never got around to doing, so maybe it's not that valuable. One problem with Audioscrobbler: I don't really listen to music on my computer all that often. More frequently I listen to the ipod through the stereo, or to the iPod itself, or just to a regular cd. Still, this is fun. It will be even more fun when you all set yours up so I can browse your musical collections. hint. hint. Now, could someone please explain to me (or point me to) the easiest way to get an RSS feed to display as a sidebar here on this blog? I futzed around with the RSS Feed plugin the other night and couldn't get it to work, so.... other options or tips for making RSS Feed work? Thanks!Posted 08:06 AM
Bright Eyes
I'm not sure why, but I'm just addicted to Bright Eyes recently. Maybe it's because “Conor Oberst” is such a cool name, or maybe it's because I've mostly missed all the hype surrounding him so all the music sounds fresh and new and real to me. Or maybe it's just the plain greatness of lyrics like this:
— “Road to Joy” from I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, courtesy of Super D., the bestest friend ever. I hope Mr. Oberst is right.No one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter. Sometimes that's just the most comfortable place. . . . So when you're asked to fight a war that's over nothing, it's best to join the side that's gonna win. And no one's sure just how all this got started, but we'll make 'em goddamned certain how it's gonna end! Oh yeah we will. Oh yeah we will!
Posted 05:15 AM | Comments (3)
CVB Still Amps the Rockage
I just got back from the Camper Van Beethoven show at the 9:30 Club and it was really everything I could have hoped for. Simply a great show. They're touring in support of their new album, New Roman Times [iTMS link], so they played a number of tracks off of that, including “The Gum You Like Is Back In Style,” “Might Makes Right,” and “Hippy Chix” (with funky dance moves and backing vocals from one of their opening bands, The Gaskets. I was trying to keep the playlist in my head but it just wasn't going to happen. I know they opened w/one of my all-time favorites, “All Her Favorite Fruit,” followed pretty closely by the title track from “Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart,” and “Eye of Fatima.” That last one holds a special place in my heart because it's about cowboys on acid (and who wouldn't love that?) and declares that “no one ever conquered Wyoming from the left or from the right; you can stay in motel rooms and stay up all night!” I think the whole song is dripping in irony, but it could just be me. They also slipped in what sounded like a slowed-down, campered-up cover of “White Riot” by The Clash. (Which reminds me, I really need to get some Clash back in my musical collection; all I have is on tape, and the tapes just don't get much listening anymore.) They also played an insanely fast and raucous version of “Club Med Sucks” (there may be no other way to play this song, actually), and afterward David Lowery gave a short political lesson. To paraphrase, he said one of the lines in the song is “I hate golf! I wanna play lacrosse!” Bush is golf, Kerry is lacrosse. And he didn't want to tell anyone how to vote, but he said it should be pretty clear from that. This was a very minor theme of the evening; Lowery opened the show by saying the new album is out today for the first time and they felt it was appropriate to do a show in D.C. on the album's release date because the album is something of a commentary on the times. But this was no big Bush bashing show; these are the only things they said along these lines. Other songs I know CVB played: Border Ska Tania Ambiguity Song The Day Lassie Went to the Moon Take the Skinheads Bowling Pictures of Matchstick Men She Divines Water (possibly my favorite favorite, in close competition w/All Her Favorite Fruit) Tina Sad Lovers Waltz Sweethearts Shut Us Down Wasted One of These Days Interstellar Overdrive (a crazy amazing 10-15 minute version that shook the whole place to its foundations and closed out the encore) As that huge list indicates, the show was packed with goodness. They rarely stopped between tracks and just played and played. Still, they managed to fit in some jokes with each other and Lowery told a good story about seeing Micky Dolenz in a bar and overhearing him tell some people his whole life has been one long night of karaoke or something like that. They looked like they were having a great time. So go see them! And buy their music! (The new disc is only $9.99 at iTMS for 20 tracks compared to $17 at Amazon.) It's fun, it's smart, and it rawks! UPDATE: Here's a photo from the show. Not a good one, but it's a photo. That's another thing to love about the 9:30 Club—they don't take cameras away at the door (but I think you're not supposed to use a flash).Posted 02:15 AM | Comments (4)
Coolness Coming Up
Lots of cool things (mostly bands) are coming to D.C. Like, for example, Snow Patrol will be here Friday for $15. It appears that tickets are still available. No one really raved about them when I was looking for summer Rawk!, but they keep coming up in places I hear about good music. So, would you go? Next, the Green Festival will be in D.C. next weekend (Sept. 18-19) at the D.C. Convention Center. It costs $10 for lots of cool speakers (Amy Goodman! Jim Hightower! Greg Palast! Barbara Ehrenreich! Naomi Klein! William Greider! And more!). Or, they're still looking for volunteers to help out, and if you give them four hours of help, you get a free all-access pass for the weekend (plus a t-shirt!). Back to the music, The Killers, who nearly topped my summer Rawk! list, will play the 9:30 Club Sunday, October 3rd, for only $12. I'd love to see that, but Sunday!? And then, crazy joy of joys, who knew Camper van Beethoven was back? Apparently, they are, and their new album, "New Roman Times," will be out Oct. 12, which is also the night they're playing, you guessed it, the 9:30 Club. For $20, it's a pricey show, but how worth it! And how is it possible not to love this—according to lead singer David Lowery, the new album is a rock opera!I'm so there! If you can't wait for the album, the iTMS (iTunes Music Store) has an exclusive 3-song EP (that link will open in iTunes), which Lowery describes (iTunes link) as:
Gotta love it. (Note: No purchase necessary, void where prohibited, please see your local dealer for complete details. All plans, either express or implied, mentioned herein are subject to change w/out notice, depending on the exigencies of law school. Bleh.)
Posted 06:54 AM | Comments (3)
Notes for Votes
"Let no medium go unsaturated" seems to be the motto of this year's election season. First it was the web w/the campaign blogs, flash animations, dueling videos, and convention bloggers, and now it's all about the music. First there's the Future Soundtrack of America from the MoveOn PAC featuring 22 big songs for only a $25 donation to the MoveOn PAC. Then there's Rock Against Bush, Volume II, featuring 28 crazy punk rockers for only $6! I hope this kind of thing catches on; I could get used to this.
Posted 07:54 AM | Comments (1)
