I'm finally getting around to putting up this week's mp3's. In honor of my favorite show of the year, here are two live tracks from the Kill Rock Stars band Deerhoof. Taken from their September 15, 2002 show in Berkeley are "This Magnificent Bird Will Rise" and "Dummy Discards A Heart." These are great songs to start the new year.

Deerhoof is one of a short list of bands that I berate friends to see live. Their live shows are a musical fireworks display that simply should not be missed, full of deconstructed pop masterpieces and bursting with sloppy energy.

More Deerhoof mp3's courtesy of the Puzzling Music Archive

A new Who Direct Connect hub has appeared. The hub will facilitate trading of lossless shows only (SHN, FLAC, WAV, etc.).

I strongly recommend DC++ as a Direct Connect windows client and the Neo-Modus Client for Mac OS X.

Boodles of Bjork
Three Cure shows
Evanescence zipped mp3's of EP's, live shows and interviews
Garbage covers

Here's the perfect gift for the person who has everything: bedpan art. Give your friends and family "Ann B. Davis - Bedpan of Lust," "David Koresh - King of Bling," "Free James Traficant," "Ernest Borgnine - Our National Pal," "Bill O'Reilly Bedpan of Doom," and my personal favorite (of course), "Robert Pollard - King of Drunks."

Acid Casualties is still doing music lovers a great favor by hosting live shows. The current show is Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks March 28, 2003 Rotterdam performance, available both as mp3 and the lossless FLAC format.

Sick and tired of "Auld Lang Syne" or, worse yet, "Another Auld Lang Syne?" My favorite New Year's Eve song, the Dismemberment Plan's "The Ice Of Boston," is available in People Talk Too Loud's Share The Love directory, along with an eclectic assortment of other songs.

Wal-Mart has jumped into online music sales. Unfortunately, their music store seems to echo their retail stores' record selections with only the most popular artists available. It will be interesting to compare sales with Apple's iTunes and the new Napster when all are mature. I'm pulling for iTunes. They carry more of the music I'm likely to buy.

Here are some downloads for all the Beth Orton fans (of which I am one). Some live songs, the full Fordham December 4, 2003 show, as well as a Ryan Adams cover.

Included are a couple of songs from the Largo show in LA this year, with Ms. Orton accompanied by the talented M Ward. I saw them perform together in Austin this year, and am hoping for a duet project combining two of my favorite musicians, especially since Beth Orton seems to work best in collaboration with another artist.

Strokes live mp3's and video (a performance of "Take It Or Leave It") ara available at this French site.

Just Concerts has studio and live sessions by Chore, Peaches, Manitoba, Ted Leo and others (unfortunately in RealAudio and RealVideo).

The Bill Hicks Bootleg Archive, in mp3 format. <-- metafilter

A great early Guided By Voices live show has been seeded at Sharing The Groove, the October 1st, 1994 performance in Chicago.

For a limited time: Rilo Kiley, live at Emo's, August 9th, 2003.

Here's a largehearted present of classic Christmas songs to download. Here's hoping to a year filled with peace and love for everyone.

For those of you who have been extra good, here's another.

For the very best, check out the Bryan Adams Reggae Christmas single.

Mizz Uffish has some wonderfully offbeat Christmas songs to download. While you're there, read her blog (and be prepared to laugh). She's fighting the good fight against discrimination, and having a great time doing it.

In the spirit of Christmas Eve, here is a wonderful, if slightly unsettling telling of the Santa Claus myth, via the imaginative mind of Finnish director Jalmari Helander. (Quicktime)

How would your favorite Seattle band fare against that red and white clad pugilist, Jack White? The Seattle Weekly's Death By Mixtape explores the possibilities.

Ever wonder how pagans spend the winter holidays? The Pittsburgh City Paper examines pre-Christian Yuletide and the people who celebrate it:

Local Pagans hold mostly small group and solitary rituals. There are no public Pagan places of worship here in Pittsburgh -- unless you count all of outdoors. Most Pagans share holidays each year, four of them based on the solstices and equinoxes. Samhain -- the Pagan holiday honoring the dead that’s a Halloween precursor -- is the holiest Pagan day, but it is the Pagan winter solstice festival, Yule, that gets the most attention because of its obvious connection to Christmas.

The song referenced in the title is one of my favorite holiday songs, preaching tolerance and the power of love:
"The Christians And The Pagans," Dar Williams (mp3)

Since Christmas is two days away, here are two Christmas songs from the wonderful Kindercore Christmas In Stereo compilation.

The first track is "Why They Chose The North Pole," by Gritty Kitty, an alternative to sickly sweet holiday songs. As an added bonus, blogger Lil' Pea was a member of the band...

Of Montreal's "My Favorite Christmas (In A Hundred Words Or Less)" is the second holiday offering, a quirky song that only Kevin Barnes could pull off.

In the spirit of these songs, I'm off to hang out at Wal-Mart (and the mall) and finish my Christmas shopping. Feliz Navidad, baby.

Thanks to Lil' Pea for pointing out these, err, unique Christmas songs by Red Sox announcer and former major league second baseman Jerry Remy.

Sunsquashed is serving up still more live Yo La Tengo covers, including four Velvet Underground songs (one with Penn Gillette on bass).

No Love For Ned has posted his Christmas show this year, and even thrown in last year's show as a bonus! Grab the eggnog, turn up the volume, and enjoy!

The new Courtney Love single, "Mono," is up on her website. To my ears it sounds like a continuation of Celebrity Skin, which isn't a good thing. Ordinary music for an ordinary musician. This disappoints me to no end, because I love Hole's first album, 1991's Pretty On The Inside, as much for its raw approach as for Kim Gordon's production.

The last download link for today: Sonic Youth at Bonnaroo this year, a 2 CD set.

The Strokes Halloween 2003 show in Lowell, Massachussetts is available.

This one's for Uncle Grambo: Dido live, b-sides and rarities.

Grab some of former Verve member Richard Ashcroft's rarities, b-sides and live preformances.

Here's a Polish site with a Roger Waters and two Pink Floyd bootlegs.

The 100 highest-selling albums on Amazon.com that are RIAA-safe.Although it's skewed by holiday records, it's still lists many more interesting records than the Amazon top 100.

Here are a couple of matt mond PA shows for you:

WRCT FM - Pittsburgh, PA - August 6, 2003
Buffalo, NY - November 4, 2002

It's never too early to start making summer plans: just added to Chattanooga's June Riverbend Festival: Drive-By Truckers. Pollstar lists several other bands committed to play.

For fellow north Alabamians, note that the band is scheduled to play the Crossroads Cafe in Huntsville January 29th and a Muscle Shoals high school on January 31st.

Also from Kevon, here is a Neutral Milk Hotel show, a Jeff Mangum acoustic show, some other Mangum collaborations and NMH rarities.

Thanks to my friend Kevon for mailing me this Mountain Goats WFMU set from October 19, 2000. You can never have enough live John Darnielle. This set is interesting, with covers of both Franklin Bruno ("The Irony Engine") and Radiohead ("No Surprises").

An extra Mountain Goats cover: Neutral Milk Hotel's "Two-Headed Boy" (mp3 link)

Former Guided By Voices bassist Tim Tobias has emerged from his cloud of secrecy and offered up two mp3's of his new band, bloom, on the Viva Caramel label:

"All The Pharmacies" (mp3 link)
"Tomorrow Might Change" (mp3 link)

The band's debut album, Clouds Forming Crowns, is due to be released January 27th. Check out bloom's website and their bio.

In Boston this Sunday at T.T. the Bear's, an all-ages Elliott Smith tribute featuring Mary Lou Lord (who also coordinated the event), a showing of "Strange Parallell," and other short films will be an event not to miss. The show will benefit the Elliott Smith Memorial Fund, which provides financial support for children who are victims of abuse.

This week's mp3 selections pay tribute to two departed American musical icons, and both are taken from a September 2003 Drive-By Truckers show at the Abbey Pub in Chicago.

The first track is a cover of "Play It All Night Long," originally by Warren Zevon. If the only familiarity you have with Zevon is "Werewolves of London," you owe it to yourself to examine the catalog of this talented, dark and witty American songwriter. A good place to start is his greatest hits package, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. Rest well, Warren.

The second song is "Carl Perkins Cadillac," one of my favorite songs of the year. I heard this song for the first time after reading Carl Perkins' autobiography, "Go, Cat, Go!: The Life and Times of Carl Perkins, the King of Rockabilly." Imagine a tour consisting of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis... Johnny Cash was a true friend to Carl Perkins for most of their adult lives, so this song pulled a lot of heartstrings, especially after the death of the man in black. The studio demo of this song (mp3 link) can be found on the DBT website.

Flagpole lists "holiday songs that aren’t terrible; they’re out there," including some largehearted favorites:

Of Montreal "Christmas Isn't Safe For Animals"

"Grandma won't take me skating, and my cousin won't score me no dope..." are the Truckers' sorrows on this Holiday cut off the 1996 Flagpole Christmas Album. "Need a new rifle to kill me some squirrels, need me a slingshot to shoot at the girls." Been there, brother.

Speaking of DBT, Stephen King recommended the band in his December 5th column for Entertainment Weekly (according to Flagpole's Music News & Gossip). Of course, he also mentions Kid Rock as a good listen, so take his recommendation with the requisite grain of salt.

Múm is in the studio and mastering their new album for an April release, according to múmweb. If you can't wait, download this BBC DJ set from April, 2002 (mp3 link) and cover art.

Matador and GBV.com are posting two Guided By Voices mp3's concurrently:

The Best Of Jill Hives, from the band's most recent album, Earthquake Glue, as well as the greatest hits record, The Best of Guided By Voices and recent box set, Hardcore UFO's. My only beef with the greatest hits record (and the box set) was the inclusion of songs that had been out (officially) three months.

Of Mites And Men (alternate version), an alternate take from the "Nate Farley sessions," recorded in August.

In other GBV news, the band was in Waterloo Studios last weekend working on their next album. Conspicuous in these photos of the sessions is the appearance of Tobin Sprout.

Grab the Radiohead Atlanta 2003 show in mp3 format.

Download The Strokes' five song EP that was included in the November 23rd copy ofThe Observer.

This was on Metafilter a while back: drunkmenworkhere's automatic blog generator. Just input a couple of settings and a weblog is created and updated for you. Robot Largehearted Boy is up and running if you want to see an example of this mindless (but technically impressive) fun.

NPR's All Things explores Steve Earle, his music and his upcoming new documentary, Just An American Boy, for which the soundtrack is currently available..

Thanks to Jules Dale, a 1995 Suede show as well as the band's appearance on Jools Holland are online (you'll have to change the file extension to mp3).

Assorted Radiohead mp3's are available at Drooling Looney, including several live versions and a demo of "Where I End And You Begin."

Three Ryan Adams shows are online in mp3 form:

Nashville 2002
Love Is Hell (NY Sessions)
Nashville 2000

We finally finished our 2003 holiday mix CD's yesterday:

A Big, Rich Compilation of Old-Fashioned Christmas Music: for everyone from eight to eighty, this serves as our holiday card.

Merry Christmas From The Largehearted House 2003: a collection of indie songs with a couple of entries from disparate genres, this is for friends and

A Flying V For Christmas: A harder rock compilation than "Merry Christmas...," but fun nonetheless.

Trivia question: one of the bands in the above mixes had a member who is listed in my "online reads" category in the right sidebar. First correct guess gets a copy of these mixes.

Looking for a great bargain Christmas gift? My pal Craig is auctioning many CD's on eBay and half.com. There are some rare CD's available, including a couple of pre-Guided By Voices' Tobin Sprout and his band Fig. 4.

Before you grab Wilco's September 4th show of this year, read the warning, then enjoy.

When I read about iTunes gift certificates the other day, redeemable for online music downloads, I thought it was a great idea and a perfect gift for any techie music lover on your Christmas shopping list. Imagine my surprise today, when in a Kroger in Decatur, Alabama, is a carousel of Napster gift cards near the checkout! Is Napster going after middle America? I may have to browse around the service, anyone have any experiences, good or bad?

I've previewed many songs and albums at the iTunes music store, but have so far declined to purchase any online. I'm no fan of digital rights management, and have become attached to album artwork. Has anyone used both services? Which was your favorite, and why?

P.S. This is not a plea for downloadable music gift cards. I'll save my pleas for an iPod. My wife, lovely as she is, argues that I really don't need an iPod, that I'm usually within ear's reach of a computer, CD or CD/MP3 player. My usual retort is, "What do any of us REALLY need..." That never works. Steve Jobs, are you reading this? Help a needy man...

Jealous Butcher has a second pressing of the Decemberists' Her Majesty The Decemberists album. Not owning a turntable, I'll have to miss out on this red vinyl gem, and be forced to enjoy the wonderful CD from Kill Rock Stars.

SF Weekly examines the curious career of California punk rock pioneers The Weirdos as well as previewing their show Saturday at Slim's.

By the way, does Boz Scaggs still own Slim's?

Here's a live Mogwai show from 11-22-99 in Japan.

Troy at Of The Record is printing some shirts for the Disarm The Settlers bulletin board. Today is the last day to order one, grab them while you can, and show your love for Guided By Voices with the world.

Tons of Sonic Youth mp3 and video downloads are available at diRty.

Here's another compendium of "best of 2003" lists, from Victory Briefs.

I'm not much for Jam Bands, but if you are, check out Ibiblio's index of live shows and videos from Phish, Ani DiFranco, Dave Matthews Band, Moe, Slipknot, Keller Williams, even a Radiohead show and a Jimi Hendrix recording from his apartment!

Ibiblio also hosts the Puzzling Music Archive (which I've mentioned before, download the Deerhoof and get hooked) as well as TuneTree. TuneTree has shows from the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir, Ratdog, Phil Lesh and Friends and others. Surprisingly, this section also hosts a Norah Jones show available from December 2, 2002 in San Francisco.

SHN Slingers is another part of the site, devoted to "disseminating live concert recordings by artists that are not as widely traded as your phish and dead-type bands.'

All downloads are encoded in the lossless SHN format, except for the Puzzling Music Archive (which are mp3).

In memory of a great songwriter and performer, download this Elliot Smith Brooklyn show from June 6, 2003.

Baltimore's City paper gushes over the Raveonette's album, Chain Gang Of Love:

The Raveonettes' single glorious trick is marrying the tuneful faux-naif wonder of early girl-group pop to the soiled bluster of vintage New York postpunk.

Download the out of print The Benevolent General Hershnov EP by Oingo Boingo and relive the past!

The Cleveland Free Press talks to Billy Bragg about music, politics, and the concentration of ownership in media:

Billy mentioned to me in Nashville that “I asked an English booking agent of mine not to work with Clear Channel. Next time I turned around, Clear Channel had bought his booking agency. They're expanding, horizontally and vertically.”

When I said to Billy that “this sort of thing goes beyond the music industry; it affects international politics,” he replied, “Right. Look how the American people haven't been given accurate information about the Middle East. In America, they think there's a connection between Saddam Hussein and the events of 9/11. In Britain, we don't believe it because we have access to more diverse news sources.”

If you're a Radiohead fan, you'll probably want this copy of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood live and acoustic from a September 12, 2003 performance at Maida Vale.

Take a trip down memory lane and download some demos from The Alarm.

Citizen Erased has shared another good indie show, this one Interpol's September 23, 2003 Denver performance. Visit Citizen Erased, click on the "Listen" menu item, download, and enjoy.

I mentioned the 20th century anniversary of A Christmas Story yesterday, now you can dress up your desktop with icons from the movie. Designed by Anthony Piraino for the iconfactory, they are available for both Mac OS X and Windows (a boon for those of us who use both platforms).

Download several shows and rarities by The Darkness, my latest guilty pleasure. Included are a Norwich 10/12/2003 gig, the MTV2 birthday tracks, One Big Weekend from 2003, the Reading 2003 performance, some covers and one-offs.

Everyone needs a little glam metal in their life, and the band's 2003 release Permission To Land makes me want to grow a mullet, buy a rusty Camaro with a loud stereo, and break some sound ordinances.

The seminal holiday comedy, "A Christmas Story" is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. A double DVD release of the film has been released especially for the occasion, and if you hurry to Target, you can get a Ralphie bobblehead free with purchase! Even action figures of the characters are available, as is the infamous lamp.

Have you ever shared a favorite book, movie or album with your holiday gift recipients? In the past I've been guilty of this, often giving five or six copies of the same gift to friends and family.

This year I'll probably give copies of The Best Of Guided By Voices: Human Amusements At Hourly Rates to the few friends for whom I haven't already made a GBV mix . Many of the rest will get either Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #1, The Life of Pi or one of Rachael Ray's cookbooks.

There's a lot of breaking indie news and LA scene info over at Burned By The Sun, but what caught my eye was the Wilco mp3's, including live versions of part of the band's next album.

Royal City covers the Strokes' "Is This It?" (mp3 link)

If you had the extremely good fortune to see The Mountain Goats this year, they probably closed their set with one of the two mp3's this week.

First up is "The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out Of Denton," the opening track from the band's 2002 release, All Hail West Texas. To see a crowd chanting along the chorus, "Hail Satan," at the end of a show is a truly mesmerizing experience.
(from Carrboro 2002-11-08)

The second track is a Furniture Huschle cover, "Terror Song," a simple song filled with vivid, horrifying imagery.
(from Orlando 2003-04-09)

Saddle Creek has again made Bright Eyes' A Christmas Album available for online purchase. All proceeds benefit a great cause, Nebraska AIDS Project.

If you're looking for live music online, archive.org's live music archive is a wonderful resource. There are over 380 artists and over 7,400 shows represented, all available for download in glorious lossless formats. Artists range from Billy Bragg to Howie Day to Zwan, I spent yesterday downloading an assortment of shows from the site, I can guarantee you'll find something that interests you.

24 Reasons Record Geeks Are Different From Other People

Vinyl 7" single sales are on the rise in thge UK, according to The Scotsman:

Spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: “With the huge amount of interest in dance music a few years ago it gave added impetus to the interest in 12-inch singles as people became bedroom DJs.

“That has helped to create a wider interest in vinyl generally and the seven-inch has benefited. There has always been an attachment to the format among indie and rock fans and now younger buyers are finding an attraction.”

Robert Christgau examines the current indie scene for the Village Voice, focusing on indie music's disdain for pop, and has some well-deserved kind words for the Wrens:

For the Wrens, pondering how far talent and dedication have gotten them, growing older brings with it the temptation of hermeticism. Only what a denouement—then they can't help buoying, pacing, shaping, and articulating their obscurities till they mean all over again. The Meadowlands is a real winner and a magnum opus. It's the Wrens' way of convincing us they're too good for actually existing pop.

Rough Trade checks in with some year-end lists:

top 100 albums
top 20 compilations
top 20 reissues and collections

Cheers to Rex at Fimoculous for collecting the "Best of 2003" lists in myriad categories online. Is your list (or your favorite bloggers') represented?

Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor sing "Here's To Love" (mp3 link) from the film. "Down With Love."

It's never too early to start making New Year's Eve plans. The choices this year are pretty amazing:

The White Stripes and Flaming Lips in Chicago
Guided By Voices in San Diego
Josh Rouse in Nashville
Drive-By Truckers in Atlanta
The Strokes and Kings of Leon in Las Vegas
Grandaddy and Polyphonic Spree in Los Angeles

If we can't make the DBT show in Atlanta we'll probably celebrate locally, without live music. What are everyone else's plans for the evening? Anything else astounding happening on other parts of the planet?

I think the folks at Saddle Creek Records are pretty bored... witness their latest video release of Rilo Kiley watching the infamous Paris Hilton tape (and I'm not talking about "The Simple Life").

Grab some John Cage mp3's and RealAudio files at Ubuweb.

Yoko Ono & Yo La Tengo, Fred Schneider & Sleater-Kinney, Cyndi Lauper & The Minus 5? These unlikely musical combinations, along with tracks by Frank Black, the Breeders, the Polyphonic Spree and others make Wig In A Box, Songs From & Inspired By Hedwig & The Angry Inch an interesting project.

Somehow this slipped under my radar until (due to unforeseen circumstances) I found myself listening to the neverending stack of CD's that forever grace our computer room today. If you loved the film, Hedwig & The Angry Inch, you'll enjoy this charity album of cover songs from the movie, benefitting the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk School.

Subtitled "The Iraq War Stories You Don't Hear," this Philly Weekly cover story doesn't give the carbon copy war stories sent to daily papers earlier this year, but a true account of the horrors of war.

From the Radiohead message board, a constantly updated list of 2003 shows that are online and available for your downloading pleasure.

Kim Novak (the other famous one) has posted a list of her favorite Christmas songs, many having mp3 downloads available. Check out some of her own music as well as her weblog while you're there.

Creative Loafing lists the best of this year's holiday albums, reviewing:

Johnny Cash, Christmas with Johnny Cash
Whitney Houston, One Wish: The Holiday Album
Various artists, Maybe This Christmas Too?
Various artists, hOMe for the Holidays
Kenny Chesney, All I Want for Christmas is a Real Good Tan
Harry Connick Jr. , Harry for the Holidays

Someone has posted the entire Shins show from the Austin City Limits Music Festival, September 21, 2003. Good sound and a great show, it's highly recommended.

Dean Clean of the Dead Milkmen is publishing his 1985 tour diary online.

With Yo La Tengo in Japan (and forsaking their Hoboken Hannukah shows the one year I was planning to attend), the Daily Yomiuri previews the Japanese tour with an interview with Ira Kaplan:

"I think even though William Parker and all these people (from ODM) are unquestionably jazz musicians, I'm not so sure that 'Don't Have to Be So Sad,' even though they play on it, is particularly a jazz song. 'Let's Be Still' to me is what I would term the 'jazziest' of the songs (on the album), but even that is more of a 'groove' than jazz," Kaplan stresses from his home in Hoboken, N.J.

A David Bowie live show from Paris this year...

Congratulations to the takeoff.to/rilokiley Rilo Kiley fan site, celebrating their first anniversary this week with a slightly new layout and (as always) a mp3 rarities.

The Darkness cover Radiohead's "Street Spirit," download the mp3.

Baltimore's City Paper interviews Cleveland's Rocket From The Tombs, and the band rages against today's popular music:

"We rage against the ordinary of the underground-- people like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Manic Street Preachers," Thomas says. "Britney Spears is weird avant-garde. Mainstream is the flow of history. Madonna and [Christina] Aguilera are a stagnant pool beside the stream of history. You want to be in the main stream, not in the scummy backwater--you want to be where the water is pure and vibrant."

The band's 2002 release, The Day The Earth Met The..., should be named a national treasure for its influence on rock musicians of the 80's and 90's.

Delve into the plethora of Weezer live shows (both audio and video).

Wilcofilm is back up and again serving video clips from the Wilco documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, now on DVD. This would make a great gift for the music fan on your list.

Junior Senior's drummer kept a tour diary of their recent US trip. The photo captions alone make it a fun read.

Troy at Of The Record lists his top 25 albums of 2003, including at least one mp3 from each album. His number one is an excellent choice, I had it on my list last year.

Download the Darkness's holiday nugget, "Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)" (mp3 link). The bookies have made the single the early favorite for the BBC's coveted Christmas Number One.

The Plea For Peace Tour is taking shape for April through June of 2004. Desaparecidos, Cursive and Mike Park are currently slated as feature acts, which means my lovely wife and I will be traveling to a show. The Desaparecidos album (along with the Mountain Goats "We Shall All Be Healed") is one of my most anticipated 2004 releases. (<-- buzzgrinder)

Check out the Plea For Peace Foundation, they are promoting "the ideas of peace through the power of music."

1. The Postal Service, Give Up
When a project includes Ben Gibbard of DCFC (Largehearted Indie Man Of The Year) and Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel) and draws on the services of Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley for backing vocals, expectations are high. Fortunately, the end result doesn't disappoint, blending Gibbard's pop sensibility with Tamborello's melodies and beats into my favorite release of the year.
mp3 mp3 video (Quicktime)

2. The Thermals, More Parts Per Million
From my contribution to donewaiting's Tuesday Three: This record allegedly cost only sixty dollars to produce, but like most great art, its value lay in the substance, not the trappings. Fuzzed out pop with glittering hooks and danceable rhythms, the songs are a testament to a lack of pretense, no demographically calculated post production here. This band is all circumstance and no pomp. The first single, "No Culture Icons" gets repeated regularly at full volume in my car, where I scream along with the lyrics, "Hardly art, hardly starving, hardly art, hardly garbage," to the consternation of passersby who just don't get it.
mp3 video (Quicktime)

3. The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow
The Shins' sophomore effort found them recording in a basement and working with a producer bent on paring down their sound. The net effect was frontman James Mercer's songwriting being pushed to the forefront, and a pop masterpiece was achieved.
mp3 video (Quicktime)

4. New Pornographers, Electric Version
Sugary pop hooks saturate the sophomore effort from this Canadian supergroup.
mp3 mp3 video (Realmedia) video (Quicktime)

5. Bishop Allen, Charm School
From my 75 or Less review: Bishop Allen brings to mind at different times the Kinks, the Velvets and the Pixies, but with strong songwriting and crisp production (and a whole lot of talent), "Charm School" is simply amazing on its own merits without seeming too derivative. Clever lyrics, jangly guitars and soothing harmonies make the band's debut album a pop masterpiece, solid from the first track to the last. This is pop music that makes the perfect summer soundtrack.
mp3 mp3 mp3 mp3

6. Deerhoof, Apple O'
Deerhoof added a second guitarist, Chris Cohen, for this album, but two guitars didn't just add to the systematic joyful noise meltdown that is this band. Instead, he helped pare down the sound, making this album slightly less cacophonous than Reveille, but more approachable.
mp3 mp3 mp3 mp3 mp3 mp3 mp3

7. Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day
From my 75 or Less review: Here in the American south, decoration day refers to placing bouquets of flowers on loved ones' grave sites. A more fitting name couldn't be found for this brilliantly crafted collection of songs covering dour and depressing topics with southern boogie, insightful lyrics and country wisdom. Whether it's a song about an incestuous brother and sister ("The Deeper In"), an ode to a father and his advice to an unheeding son ("Outfit") or the reaction to a friend's suicide ("When The Pin Hits The Shell"), "Decoration Day" manages to flesh out its stories while never losing its dignity.
mp3 mp3

8. Blackberry Belle, Twilight Singers - Greg Dulli returns with his second Twilight Singers album and focuses on songwriting while bringing in experienced session men to handle the musical load. The resulting album makes me fondly remember the Afghan Whigs, but look forward to Dulli's growth as both a songwriter and arranger. Look for the third Twilight Singers in this spot next December.

9. Exploding Hearts, Guitar Romantic
Powerpop with an edge, this record was most likely to make my wife ask me to turn down the volume. The band tragically lost of two band members this year in an automobile accident, and they will be missed.
mp3

10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever to Tell
This was the most anticipated album of the year for me. Slightly less gritty production (compared to their EP's) actually works in the band's favor, and the band continues to be greater than its estimable parts.

11. Wrens, Meadowlands
It took the Wrens seven years to record the followup to Secaucus, and Meadowlands is worth the wait. Intimate and strong from the opening song to the last, you'll be hooked from the first listen.
mp3 mp3

Apparently, she'd vote for Howard Dean. Joan is running as a convention delegate for the Democratic candidate in the New York primary.

Will she wear one of these shirts to the convention? I hope so...

The first mp3 this week is Belle & Sebastian covering the James Brown classic, "Santa Claus, Go Straight To The Ghetto." The song was taken from last year's December Peel session, which included a liberal sprinkling of holiday tunes.

I've been listening to a lot of Pavement lately, especially the remastered Slanted and Enchanted. Steven Malkmus has always fascinated me, and when he formed the Crust Brothers with the members of Silkworm, I was excited at the musical possibilities. The band focuses on classic rock covers, including "Mississippi Queen," which I've made available this week from a 2000 New Year's Eve show in Seattle.

Bishop Allen has a demo of "Ghosts Are Good Company" (mp3 link) on their website.

Billy Bragg, Jenny Toomey and Steve Earle talk about the American media focus, American media apathy to protest, and individual accountability, respectively, before their recent Tell Us the Truth Tour show in Atlanta.