Lyrics by John Lennon, music by John Lennon and Radiohead (mp3 link), courtesy of the always entertaining Go Home Productions.

Watch the video for "Redemption Song," from Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros Streetcore album.

Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley appeared in a 1984 Toys R Us commercial, here's the video.

Entertainment Weekly talked to Jeff Tweedy about the next Wilco record, the band's followup to the critically successful Yankee Hotel Foxtrot:

"Our goal with this record is to sound like five guys sitting in a room playing music."

It's getting colder, time to grab some Cardigans. Two 2003 shows are available, one from June 28th live at Roskilde Festival and the other from October 28th live in Helsinki.

In honor of the United States holiday of Thanksgiving, this year I am grateful for:

1. Family and friends
2. The Thermals and the Postal Service
3. My wife
4. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
5. DC++
6. Plummeting approval ratings for our sitting president
7. My yoga teacher
8. Natalie Maines (F.U.T.K., indeed)
9. Good health
10. The Life Of Pi

Chorus and Verse interviews Guided By Voices axeman Doug Gillard, who makes his view on filesharing quite clear:

I don't think it is right to make examples of kids who are downloading, and the myth the RIAA perpetuates about it hurting artists smacks of bullshit, as any record label contract, especially the major labels, is stacked so heavily against the recording artist it's unreal. Been going on for decades, and hasn't changed much, except the independent labels who have set up a more fair way of contracting artists. Downloading in a case like ours only helps bring people to the live shows who may not have been familiar with the band otherwise.

If you're headed to the airport, train station or the open road this long holiday weekend (in the US) and looking for some traveling music, I have a few suggestions. These discs will make the road shorter and less windy:

Magnetic Fields, The Charm of the Highway Strip: You might think an album about the road is an odd choice, but this album of sad love songs about the open road will make the miles fly by.
Drive-By Truckers, Southern Rock Opera: A good concept album will hook you in, and even force you to enjoy your time in the confinement of your transportation. This is one of the best.
Sleighed, The Other Side Of Christmas, Various Artists: It's never too early to start thinking about the holidays, and "Santa Doesn't Cop Out On Dope" by Sonic Youth always puts me in the spirit.
Sloan, One Chord To Another: Powerpop keeps me awake, and few bands do it better than these Canadians.

For sharing this Stone Roses Glasgow show from 1990.

Did you know that Kurt Vonnegut was selling screenprints these days? Even more amazing, when he was asked to create "an album cover that never was" for a favorite band for charity, he chose Phish.

As you may have noticed, I've added some Google AdSense banners to largehearted boy (see the bottom of the left-hand column or any permalink). I'm not selling out to the man, just looking to create some revenue to buy bandwidth for GBV Radio.

Looking for live Radiohead? Download DC++ and head over to Radiohub, a Directconnect hub serving up lossless Radiohead shows, rarities and video.

Suicide Girls (I go to the site to read the articles...) interviews Lemmy of Motorhead, who feels the same way about birthdays that I do:

DRE: Are you turning sixty soon?

Lemmy: Yeah, I’m going on holiday alone somewhere. I hate fucking birthdays. It’s the day of the year that is the least in your control and the least that you enjoy. You’ve got to do things other people expect you to do, birthday shit. So, I’m not very keen on birthdays and my birthday is on Christmas Eve and so, it's like crap all of the time.

Lemmy at sixty, now I really feel old.

Is anyone taking advantage of 1 And 1's free webhosting offer? I signed up (a remarkably simple form that didn't require a credit card) to gain backup space for this domain as well as server space for my weekly mp3 offerings. I haven't moved a domain to the account yet, so my URL is http://s89707527.onlinehome.us/, but for backups and data that's fine.

The Mountain Goats new album, "We Shall All Be Healed," has leaked (hint: Soulseek). Really fantastic stuff. Seek it, download it, then buy it. As I've said before, John Darnielle is the epic musical storyteller of our generation.

Check out the slide show of John Vanderslice, John Darnielle and friends tracking and mixing the album at Bear Creek in Woodinville, WA. Here are more photos from the recording session.

Chan Marshall is mesmerizing on plastic, all smoothness and lilting voice. It's to her recorded persona that I dedicate this week's post of downloadable tunes, not the difficult, put-out live performer that I've seen twice and vowed never to waste my time on again.

Chan Marshall is known for her cover songs, even putting out an album, The Covers Record, consisting solely of them. At her Atlanta show this year she covered the White Stripes' "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground."

Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood's self-released solo album, Killers and Stars, includes an ode to Ms. Marshall, "Cat Power." Enjoy.

The Seattle Weekly's Brian Miller defends Martin Amis's new novel, "Yellow Dog":

Certainly, Dog is not a novel to be liked, but neither is it a book to be disrespected. It's both vile and virile, crude and well crafted; all of its affronts to taste and language are perfectly calculated and weighted for effect. And Amis goes down swinging, which is more than most gutless, polite American novelists would do.

Amis is also interviewed by Nerve:

In the book, you seem to want to reserve sex for its original purpose.

No, that would be a ridiculous project. But one would suggest that it can’t be deprived of meaning without a price being paid. To think that it’s meaningless is actually not the case. When you’re young, you certainly try to behave as if it’s meaningless, but it isn’t. It catches up with you.

I read Yellow Dog, and though I wouldn't call it one of his best, it was still a good read, exploring violence, sex, gender, and even the royal family with an elegant savagery that is Amis's trademark.

John Vanderslice has made many of his songs available online in mp3 format, including official releases, b-sides and live material, and releases from his old band, MK Ultra.

"John Vanderslice - Bill Gates Must Die" (mp3)

Have you been visiting Last Nite for their live Strokes show of the week? If so, visit and, if you can, donate a dollar or two.

Get outside of the box and download some remixes of PJ Harvey, Ani DiFranco, Nine Inch Nails, Garbage and others.

Of The Record has the entire Guided By Voices Grog Shop show from 2002 online, well, almost complete. Tracks 22, 26, 29, 34 are missing, but I'm sure you can find them somewhere.

DVDRhelp is a great resource for anyone transferring video to CD's or DVD's. I've been converting my music video collection, making it playable in my DVD player, and this site has walked me through several snags (codecs, VDC, SVCD questions) that I've encountered.

Does anyone have recommendations for a DVD recorder, preferably external (though I could always put it in an external enclosure)? So far I've been looking at the LG 8080 (the budget end) and the Plextor PX-708A ((high end).

Kraftwerk was a band that escaped my attention (and ears) during the 70's and 80's. I'm slowly delving into the band's back catalog, and am currently enjoying the band's third release, Ralf and Florian.

Here's a treasure trove of album covers, audio/video, and articles about the band. The audio downloads include a 1981 Tokyo show.

Citizen Erased has shared two British Sea Power shows with the world: an Amsterdam performance from March of 2002 and three songs from their BBC sessions from June of this year.

I have to admit that I'm enjoying their album, Decline Of British Sea Power. It's wondrously guitar-driven and simply rocks.

Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all time. Take these with a grain of salt, of course...

In yet another arbitrary list, Q magazine has chosen the top 1001 "greatest songs of all time," with U2's "One" taking top honors. The Sun exposes the top 100. In case you're wondering, the jury was made up of "music critics, musicians and celebrities."

Jay Farrar's website has several videos and mp3's available. Three alternate takes from Terroir Blues and one each from Third Grotto Slack and Sebastopol.

For LA Weekly, Franklin Bruno reviews two current releases that predominantly feature the ivories: Randy Newman's Songbook 1 and Elvis Costello's North.

Michaelangelo Matos plays Jukebox Jury with Ben Gibbard and Christopher Walla of Death Cab For Cutie, and after being played the Mountain Goats' "Fall of the Star High School Running Back," Walla says:

"I can't listen to the Mountain Goats. I don't mind lousy recordings until they get in the way of what's happening. As much as I love some of the songs that are on, like, [Guided by Voices'] Bee Thousand or Alien Lanes, I listen to them just long enough to memorize them, and then when I want to listen to them, I just run them in my head."

Download Low's November 7th, 2003 show from Piazza Castello, Ferrara, Italy.

Actually, Destiny e-mailed me some interesting holiday music suggestions. I already owned a couple of her recommendations: The Sinatra Christmas Album and the surprisingly interesting Cyndi Lauper effort, Merry Christmas... Have A Nice Life.

Destiny (proprieter of the happiest blog on earth) did let me know that the Ventures released another Christmas album last year, Christmas Joy. Then the entertainment bombshell of the evening: Christmas songs from a Bonanza cast album. Samples are available, that Little Joe sure can belt them out (RealAudio).

Let your voice be heard about Boston's crackdown on Boston's subway music and musicians. Sign the online petition and attempt to make life better for both commuters and the musicians.

Fark has Photoshop fun with one of my favorite bands, Drive-By Truckers, and as Farkers are wont to say, hilarity ensues.

For lucky Boston residents, the International Pop Overthrow started last night and runs through Sunday evening. Catch seven or more bands a night for about a buck apiece and support your local music scene.

The Shins' excellent video for "So Says I" is available at MTV, locked in combat with Sara McLachlan and the darkness for "Viewers Choice Video." It's a fantastic video, I'd say more but words do it little justice.

"So Says I" (mp3)

With a Talking Heads' box set, Once In A Lifetime in stores this week, David Byrne talks to NPR's Bob Edwards about the band's legacy.

Get your Seinfeld fix at the Seinfeld Blog, complete with scripts, quotes, episode guide and forum. Most impressive is the ability to search scripts from your desktop (Windows only for now, utilizing the Google Deskbar).

<-- lotsofco, mix cd master

What do you wash down Thanksgiving dinner with? Turkey & Gravy Soda, of course!

Thanks to Information Leafblower for compiling a list of the top 40 US bands, as opposed to the Guardian's recent list. I know this list is definitive, since I participated...

Yesterday, two Flaming Lips releases hit the stores: the Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell EP and a deluxe edition CD/DVD of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The EP includes a two mixes of the title track as well as four brand new songs including the holiday song, "A Chance at Christmas (Say It Isn't So). The CD/DVD has the entire album remixed in 5.1 surround sound, along with six Lips videos, a trailer for the upcoming Christmas On Mars movie, and six rare audio bonuses, including "If I Go Mad," "Up Above The Daily Hum," and two versions each "Do You Realize" and "Yoshimi Pt. 1."

Playlouder pointed out two downloadable Cex shows from Alfred, NY and Northhampton, Ma for fans of the rapper. More downloads (outtakes, live sets, etc.) are also available at Cex's website.

Speaking of good Cex, he released his latest album, Maryland Mansions on Jade Tree records yesterday.

Have you made out your holiday list yet?

John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats has (a donation to Farm Sanctuary or books).
My four year-old niece has (anything with Barbie or a princess)
I have (electronics, books, music, prayers to the diety of your choice for world peace)
My wife has (books, music)

What do you want for the holidays? What are you giving the ones you love?

John Darnielle tackles Radiohead's Hail To The Thief in the Last Plane To Jakarta.

There's a different live Evanescence show at Evan Whisper every month.

Twelve Imaginary Months offers a different Cure bootleg every month (change the file extension on the downloads to "mp3").

Glorious Noise is giving away an iPod along with a Charmed calendar, Charmed hat and a Charmed cd. Second prize is the same package, but with two each of the Charmed memorabilia (just kidding).

A live performance of "Poor Places" by Wilco is online, along with a Nickel Creek version and some David Gray songs in the same directory.

The New York Times has a nice piece (registration required) on Guided By Voices and their devoted (some would say obsessed) fans. Largehearted friends Jeff Warren and Breck Rowell are prominently mentioned:

Mr. Pollard's impressionist songwriting style seems to attract fans with a, well, fanatical bent, Mr. Warren said. "You probably get a lot of people who are more, I wouldn't say artistic, but creative," Mr. Warren said. "Or maybe just anal-retentive."

I was moving some older video files yesterday (music videos, by the way), and found a clip of the Amps on Conan O'Brien, playing the title track, "Pacer," to their 1995 album. I've mentioned before that this is my favorite album of all time. Kim Deal's pet project (besides her other pet project, the Breeders), this band's only album captures a rawness and spirit that amazes me with every listen. An added plus for me is the Guided By Voices connections: Nate Farley (who played guitar for the Amps) is currently playing rhythm guitar for GBV; Jim "Hillbilly Boy" Macpherson played drums for GBV; Kim herself produced several songs for the band; Bob Pollard co-wrote "I Am Decided."

The first song this week is Kim's demo of the title track from the album. The second mp3 is the Breeders performing Tipp City at the 2002 Reading Festival. As an added bonus, the aforementioned video is offered in all its lo-res, grainy glory, worthwhile if only to see a very young Nate Farley bobbing his head from side to side and thoroughly enjoying himself.

The radiohead discography site RadioheadCDs lists their "Top 22 rarest Radiohead CD's."

Amazon has released their top 100 editors' and customers' album lists. I can't quibble with the editors' list, their top ten includes at least five records that will get serious consideration for my top eleven list come December. Drive-By Truckers' Decoration Day at number ten on the editors' poll, that's Alabama representin'...

Grab some live sets from The Kills, Jane's Addiction, and Manu Chau.

I recently mentioned how much I like Evan Dando's solo album. Yesterday I found this recording of his Village Underground NYC February 12, 2001 solo show, playing with two-thirds of the Bens (Ben Kweller and Ben Lee). The show is courtesy of Dark Corner, who also has several other shows available by Ben Lee, Jets To Brazil, Built To Spill, Superdrag, Orbit and Modest Mouse.

No Love For Ned had singer/songwriter Parker Paul in the studio for his weekly internet stream. The playlist, as usual, was varied and exciting. A new show is posted every Monday, it's a great way to explore some new, interesting music off the beaten path.

Here are some Who shows to pop in the CD player while you're driving around in your Hummer today, Happy Jacks:

London, 1964 (Marquee Club), including a rocking cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me"
Stockholm, 1966-06-02 & 1966-10-25
Monterrey Pop Festival, 1967-06-18
Amsterdam, 1969-09-29
Woodstock, 1969-08-17

My homeboy Max at Lots of Co. kicks in with his top 40 songs of 2003. As always, his song-by-song descriptions are succinct (read in my head in a bad southern Kasey Kasem imitation) and add to my never-ending "what must I listen to next" queue.

As Dave Lowery and Cracker so eloquently put it (here's an mp3, sing along):

I was having a good sleep in my car
In the parking lot of the Showboat Casino Hotel

Happy birthday baby, to me.
Happy birthday, to me.
Happy birthday, to me.
Happy birthday baby, to me.

There are three things that are usually in my messenger bag: a laptop, a legal pad, and a book of poetry. The poetry book is the only item that is single-purposed: to give me brief respites from a busy day. I tend to read twentieth century poets, and just rotated Wallace Stevens' Collected Poems into the bag. Stevens is a personal hero to me. A contemporary of Robert Frost, he was a successful corporate lawyer in the insurance industry while writing verse on the side, causing Hart Crane in 1919 to write, "There is a man whose work makes most the rest of us quail."

For a man born in Reading, Pennsylvania who lived most of his life in New York City and Hartford, Connecticut, Wallace Stevens wrote a quintessentially southern poem (and one of my favorites):

Anecdote of the Jar

I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion every where.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.

Attention fellow Axis of Weevil-ers: Captured By Robots is playing Tuesday night at Cave 9 in Birmingham. The band is unique, an adult version of the Chuck E. Cheese animatronics with a human frontman. The live show has to be seen to be believed, moshy rock with an upbeat heavy metal bent, a true rock and roll epic.

As an added attraction to Alabamians, this segment of the tour's theme is "The Ten Commandments." With our "Ten Commandments Judge" Roy Moore being unseated yesterday, I take this as a sign that we are all called to attend this show.

Captured By Robots video video video
Captured By Robots mp3 mp3 mp3

Bob Pollard's new literary magazine, EAT, is now available at Rockathon. 48 pages filled with poetry, original collages, and band names.

Gratuitous Guided By Voices' "Matter Eater Lad" mp3

Matthew Sweet is one of America's powerpop legends. Delve into an electronic vault of his demos, b-sides, and live performances. Especially worth checking out are the demos from his Girlfriend album.

The Flaming Lip speaks out on filesharing in the Observer (among other things he's learned):

Most people who complain about downloaders used to sell a lot of records and can't admit that they're just not as popular as they were. For Metallica to say, 'You're taking food off of my baby's plate', that's just ridiculous. Instead of making $50m this year they're making $45m. Big deal! If people truly love your music, you can usually find a way to make money off them.

Old news: the Paris Hilton video... New news: exclusive footage of said video dredged up by Zulkey. I was so shocked I dropped my Pop Tart.

<-- whatevs (dot org)

Is it just me, or is this video viral advertisement attracting millions of viewers amazingly coinciding with her upcoming "The Simple Life" reality show? Too obvious a publicity ploy?

When Depeche Mode is inactive, its fans are lucky because both Dave Gahan and Martin Gore remain busy musical men.

Download the Dave Gahan show from May 7th of this year (files are individually zipped), as well as artwork for this bootleg.

On the other side of the Mode, there are plenty of Martin Gore videos at his website, as well as audio samples and the occasional full mp3 track.

Download the Strokes "Whatever Happened," video from Conan, courtesy of The Strokes Fan.

I missed this a couple of weeks ago, but Tuscaloosa's Chukker closed its doors for good. When I lived in Birmingham, I visited friends in T-town every couple of weeks, often planning my trips around the music at the club. I had a lot of good times there, I'll miss it.

Joerg pointed out this Swearing At Motorists video. The band covers Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak.

Into every day a little metal must fall, and Rob Halford makes this possible today with a couple of Judas Priest concerts from the early 80's.

Rich of GBV.com fame mentioned the new Devo book, Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! a couple of days ago. I previewed a chapter at the book's website, it looks like a great read for any casual or serious fan of the band.

The Verve's Reading show from 1993 is available, complete with cover art.

A Christmas album with Rufus Wainwright, Rilo Kiley, The Flaming Lips, and Badly Drawn Boy??? Put me in the harness, Santa, and call me Rudolph! Preview every track of Maybe This Christmas, Too,

Rilo Kiley - Xmas Cake (mp3 from the album)

If you like The Brian Jonestown Massacre, this collection of albums, live performances, interviews and videos is invaluable.

Have you ever wished that The Onion only covered sports stories? Welcome to Sports Goons (via the woefully unappreciated SportsFilter).

Robert Crosbie offers a fine collection of Evan Dando & The Lemonheads B-sides, live tracks and miscellaneous tracks.

If you like these, check out Dando's solo album, Baby I'm Bored. It's a strong collection of exquisite songs enlightened by a strong supporting cast of performers and songwriters.

Several indie musicians were asked: "What Is Your Worst Memory of
Playing with Yo La Tengo?"

The Shins appeared on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic yesterday, listen or watch the video of their performance.

The theme for this week's mp3 selections is simple: my birthday on the 15th. Saturday begins yet another year filled with wine, women and song (well, good song, at least; one great woman; and a beer or two).

Bjork has always been fascinating, I remember hearing the Sugarcubes' Life's Too Good for the first time and falling in love with her vocal instrument. For your listening enjoyment, I've unearthed a copy of the band's Icelandic, vinyl-only version of "Birthday."

Since the early '90's Mary Lou Lord has been wowing audiences and listeners with her heartfelt folk rock sensibility and an innate sense of perfect cover songs. At home on stage with just her acoustic guitar for accompaniment, her shows are intimate and wonderful. This week I'm sharing her cover of Ween's "Birthday Boy," from Mammoth's Jabberjaw Compilation, Vol. 2: Pure Sweet Hell.

Here's a present for everyone: the January, 1993 Rio sessions by Nirvana. (some background on these recording sessions)

Jason Loewenstein may be a wanker, but Sebadoh usually puts on a good show, as evidenced by this 2000 Dallas performance shared by the band's official website.

Dan Zanes, former frontman of Del Fuegos, visits NPR's Day To Day and talks about his new album, House Party, a collection of kid-friendly tunes.

This is his third album released under the moniker of "Dan Zanes and Friends." These "friends" include Deborah Harry, Philip Glass, and Bob Weir. His previous family releases, Night Time and Rocket Ship Beach have had guest artists like Aimee Mann, Lou Reed, Dar Williams, Sheryl Crow and others. The albums are easily enjoyed by both children and parents, a lifeline for moms and dads with the ABC song constantly rattling their brain.

Indie Rock Live takes care of music lovers again with live shows from Calexico and Spiritualized, and continues to be a valuable resource for live boot fans.

Gilles Friday Boot is up at Kill Ugly Radio, featuring part one of Frank Zappa's November 18, 1973, Waterloo, Canada performance. Every week a new Zappa bootleg is posted along with cover art.

If you like Coldplay, you'll love these videos, rarities, covers and interviews available for download.

The Shaggs onstage again, even if it's just a play in Hollywood:

POWERHOUSE THEATRE COMPANY
THE SHAGGS: PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD
A musical play by Joy Gregory
with music by Gunnar Madsen

Masters Of Lethargy is posting another Pixies bootleg, this time from the band's last tour in 1993.

Read my review of Hardcore UFOs at 75 Or Less. I'll post a more in-depth review of the Guided By Voices box set when the magnificence of it all sinks in. Preview the audio discs on GBV Radio, they exclusively make up the playlist until Monday morning...

Steve Malkmus has a fascination with covering other people's music, as evidenced by his work with The Crust Brothers. Dig through this collection of Pavement cover songs.

My wife tells me that as you get older, your birthday lasts longer. Well, my birthday week started yesterday as we hurdled into the twenty-first century with our first DVD player (thanks to my mother-in-law).

My wife has her hands full shopping for me, so please do us both a favor: comment on this post and give her some gift advice. I promise not to read the comments until after my birthday. If she uses anyone's hints, I'll mail her little helpers largehearted surprise packs on the 17th...

If you're looking for a wide array of live shows taped in lossless formats, then check out Sharing The Groove, a community built around show trading in both audio and video formats.

Most of the files are shared using BitTorrent, a distributed file distribution network with clients fo Windows, Mac OS X and third-party clients for Linux.

By the way, can anyone recommend a client for Bittorrent other than the official one? I'm looking for a client that will restart torrents automatically as well as cap upload and download speeds, and would like one for both OS X and Windows XP.

Every camp meeting has its elder preachers make an appearance to rouse the faithful into a frenzy. Indie Evangelism Week (trademark pending) is no different. We give you Yo La Tengo to wow you into submission with their feedback riffs, clever songwriting, bargain bin covers and amazing breadth of style.

Yo La Tengo - Little Eyes (from Summer Sun)
Yo La Tengo - Don't Have To Be So Sad (from Summer Sun)
Yo La Tengo - Danelectro 3 (Kit Clayton remix) (from Danelectro EP)
Yo La Tengo - Saturday (from And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
)
Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater (Kevin Shields remix) (from Autumn Sweater EP
)
Yo La Tengo - Nuclear War (Sun Ra Cover) (from Nuclear War EP
)
Yo La Tengo - Love Life Of The Octopus (from The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science
)

Visit Sunsquashed for live YLT mp3's.
The official YLT site (currently mirrored by the fine folks at Sunsquashed) hosts many live performances.
Download several songs from YLT's December 12th, 1999 radio performance.

Syd Barrett was a genius... here is a vault of his work, as well as other bands covering his songs.

This one's for all you Meat Puppets fans... Meat Puppets Live Repository, sixteen shows and growing! I was thrilled to find a show I attended: the May 1985 show in Atlanta at the 688 Club (home to much of my misspent, but enjoyable, youth).

Now this is art: recreating album covers with Lego.

Welcome pop culture diva Stevie Nixed back to the online world with her new blog, Zero Interrupt.

Frank at Chromewaves gave me an idea: indie evangelism week. Today's sermon features Omaha's precious LA transplants, Rilo Kiley. With smart lyrics, sensual vocals and musical talent, I'll let their music do the preaching through the voice of an angel, Jenny Lewis:

Rilo Kiley - With Arms Outstretched (from The Execution Of All Things)
Rilo Kiley - The Execution Of All Things (from The Execution Of All Things)
Rilo Kiley - Paint's Peeling (from The Execution Of All Things)
Rilo Kiley - Science vs. Romance (from Takeoffs And Landings)
Rilo Kiley - Always (from Takeoffs And Landings)
Rilo Kiley - Bullet Proof (from Takeoffs And Landings)
Rilo Kiley - After Hours (from The Execution of All Things 7" Single (Import))
Rilo Kiley - After Hours (from The Execution of All Things 7" Single (Import))

Several live songs, a radio stream, and covers at RKnet

The Strokes' October 3rd, 2003 show is available, thanks to those cool folks at Last Nite.

Newbury Comics has their new website back online, for those of us too far away to visit their retail locations. Cool item of the week: Joey Ramone action figure.

Looking to start a special Thanksgiving tradition? Recreate the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving! Of course, you could just watch the holiday special, released on DVD this year.

The ILM thread.

Ever since Liam Lynch's "United States Of Whatever" started airing in a video game commercial, I've been getting a ton of hits to my post about John Darnielle and I agreeing that it's a wonderful tune.

If you're looking for the song, it's on Lynch's "Fake Songs" album, as well as an import single. The album comes with a bonus DVD, and is a very fun listen.

Watch the video for the song.

R. Crumb isn't known for his musician portraits, but he created a set of trading cards in 1980 called "Heroes Of The Blues." Based on artists mainly from the Yazoo label, these illustrations make a good accompaniment to Crumb's comic book biography of Charlie Patton.

The remastered version of the New Pornographers' Mass Romantic was released a couple of weeks ago, and Matador Records has released an mp3 of the re-engineered title track. The band also has released the second video from their The Electric Version album, "All For Swinging You Around," (Quicktime link).

Some other New Pornographers mp3 downloads from around the web:

New Pornographers - The Laws Have Changed (from The Electric Version)
New Pornographers - The New Face Of Zero And One (from The Electric Version)
New Pornographers - Mass Romantic (from Mass Romantic (remastered))
New Pornographers - Letter From An Occupant (from Mass Romantic)
New Pornographers - Body Says No (from Mass Romantic)
New Pornographers - Slow Descent Into Alcoholism (from Mass Romantic)
New Pornographers - When I Was A Baby (from Letter From An Occupant single)

The Guided By Voices Database opened yesterday, an exhaustive online reference with a detailed discography, gig list, and extensive search options that should please even the most rabid fan of Robert Pollard and his many recording personas. Two beers up to all involved...

Grab this May Radiohead show while it's up, as well as a 1992 performance from the band and some miscellaneous live songs.

Also, there are two videos of the band on Later With Jools Holland from 2001.

This week's mp3's celebrate the first annual "Largehearted Musician Of The Year," Ben Gibbard. Not only did he continue the string of great albums with his band (Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlanticism), but he also worked with Jimmy Tamborello and put out my favorite album of the year, The Postal Service's Give Up.

In his solo shows, Ben is known for his unique choice of covers. He adds a subtle poignancy to the Kirsty MacColl-penned, "They Don't Know," which was made a hit by none other than the comic Tracey Ullman.

The Postal Service toured this year with largehearted hearthrob Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley on backing vocals, and the second mp3 of the month is this band covering "Against All Odds," the Phil Collins classic from the movie of the same name.

More BG... here is a ready to download and burn mix cd of Benny love from around the web:

Death Cab For Cutie - The New Year (from Transatlanticism)
Death Cab For Cutie - Title & Registration (from Transatlanticism)
Death Cab For Cutie - Photobooth (from Forbidden Love)
Death Cab For Cutie - Song For Kelly Huckaby (from Forbidden Love)
Death Cab For Cutie - For What Reason (from We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes)
Death Cab For Cutie - Company Calls (from We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes)
Death Cab For Cutie - The Employment Pages (from We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes)
Death Cab For Cutie - Lowell, MA (from We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes)
Death Cab For Cutie - Hindsight (from You Can Play These Songs with Chords)
Death Cab For Cutie - Wait (from You Can Play These Songs with Chords)
Death Cab For Cutie - Bend To Squares (from something about airplanes)
Death Cab For Cutie - Sleep Spent (from something about airplanes)
Death Cab For Cutie - President Of What? (from something about airplanes)
Death Cab For Cutie - Champagne From A Paper Cup (from something about airplanes)
Death Cab For Cutie - A Movie Script Ending (from The Photo Album)
Death Cab For Cutie - I Was A Kaleidoscope (from The Photo Album)
The Postal Service - Such Great Heights (from Give Up)
The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (from Give Up)

Today is Ben Gibbard day (for me, at least), and here is an in-house interview/performance he did at Seattle's KEXP from June of this year.

Sift through a batch of Bright Eyes mp3's.

I saw these t-shirts the other day, and decided that the "Fight Terror, De-Select Dubya" would be perfect for my never timid, often outspoken mother. Though my mom has my respect and love for many reasons, number one these days is whenever our president is mentioned, she proclaims, "I hate that goddamned sonofabitch," often leading to a discussion about our failed foreign policy and domestic issues. The apple, largehearted as he is, doesn't fall very far from the tree.

Are you a punk rocker waiting to be told how to vote? Hop on over to Punkvoter and catch the Flash video for "Idiot Son Of An A-Hole."

Here's a couple of Enon videos:

Carbonation
In This City

The band ends their North American tour in support of Hocus Pocus in Brooklyn tonight, you lucky NYCers. Luckily for those on the continent, the European tour starts Tuesday in Utrecht.

In comparing Ari Fleischer's White House memoir to the Story of O, Low Culture wins the "morning OJ expelled through my nose" award for cleverness beyond the call of weblogging.

Starting today Otis Fodder (of 365 Days fame) is releasing an online album, Two Zombies Later, strange and exotic music from the Exotica mailing list. This is release number 001 from his label, Comfort Stand Records, and I wish him many more.