Ra Ra Riot - "Ghost Under Rocks"

The first video from Ra Ra Riot's Barsuk Records debut, The Rhumb Line.



They were on Conan the other night too:




RaRaRiot.com

Spinto Band: New Song + Video

I love this band. "Summer Grof" appears on the forthcoming Spinto Band release, "Moonwink".

www.spintoband.com
www.myspace.com/thespintoband

for higher res version visit
www.albertbirney.com

Kid Sister: Pro Nails (Ft. Kanye West)

I love this video.

Four Eyed Monsters: Entire Film on YouTube

The last I knew the entire film was only supposed to be up for a week. However this has since been extended through August 15th. Pretty awesome. You should definitely check it out, I probably will this evening or tomorrow sometime. You can watch it right here [below] if you'd like.

Four Eyed Monsters:

Real World: San Diego's Frankie Dead At 25

I was never a big fan of MTV's "The Real World"-- until the San Diego season in 2004. I have some very fond memories of RWSD- my roommates [7W3] and I would always make a point of watching it. I realize that probably sounds ridiculous; an apartment full of dudes in there 20's being stoked on MTV's "R-Dubs". But it's completely the truth. There was something about that cast that we loved. We must've felt like we could relate to them somehow. Maybe it was the way that they were all such different people but still managed to get along pretty well in spite of their obvious differences, maybe it was all of the 40oz beers that they drank? Also they weren't exactly your typical RW cast in that they weren't really whores, at least I don't remember them that way. I don't know, but there was just something about those kids that made us want to keep watching- Jacquese, Brad, Big Ran, Cameran, Frankie, Robin, Jamie, and Charlie (a later addition to the cast brought on to replace Frankie when she eventually left the show - not pictured above).

[Just to clarify- I haven't watched that show since season 14, except for maybe the following season for a few episodes. It just wasn't the same though.]

In any case, I'm sorry to report that over the weekend Frankie passed away. Even though she would sometimes make things more interesting on the show, we were never huge fans of her. I can remember coming home from an evening class the night that the episode where she got caught cutting herself aired. One of my roommates at the time had recorded the episode for whoever missed it, and the label to the VHS cassette read "FRANKIE THE CUTTER" in big black marker. Somehow her self-mutilation became a joke around the apartment after that (not to say that people cutting themselves is funny- at all). But let's be realistic - this was the same girl who had cystic fibrosis and still smoked cigarettes all of the time. It's hard to take someone like that very seriously.



"Frankie Abernathy, the punk rock-adoring former "Real World: San Diego" housemate whose struggle with cystic fibrosis helped to further raise national awareness about the chronic lung disease, died Saturday evening in her mother Abbie Hunter's Shorewood, Wisconsin, home. An official cause of death has yet to be determined; Abernathy was 25."
Read more at MTV.com: 'Real World: San Diego' Alum Frankie Abernathy Dead At 25

Queens of the Stone Age

Queens of the Stone Age have confirmed two weeks of U.S. tour dates in support of their forthcoming album, Era Vulgaris (out June 12th via Interscope Records). The "Duluth Tour", as it has been coined, starts July 22nd in Costa Mesa, CA. The small venue tour then makes its way to the north, heading east to such places as Missoula, MT, Fargo, ND and of course Duluth, MN. The fun doesn't stop there! Queens of the Stone Age continue to make their way to the south with stops in Little Rock, AR and Oklahoma City, OK. Apparently Boston will just have to wait for it's turn.

The Duluth Tour
7/22 - Costa Mesa, CA - OC Fair
2/24 - Chico, CA - Senator Theater
7/25 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater
7/27 - Boise, ID - The Big Easy
7/28 - Missoula, MT - Wilma Theater
7/29 - Billings, MT - Shire Auditorium
7/31 - Fargo, ND - Playmaker's
8/01 - Duluth, MN - DECC Arena
8/04 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room
8/07 - Memphis, TN - New Daisy Theater
8/08 - Little Rock, AR - The Village
8/10 - Tulsa, OK - Cain's Bathroom
8/11 - Oklahoma City, OK - Diamond Ballroom

In addition to touring this summer, Queens of the Stone Age are also releasing renditions of songs by Tom Waits and Elliott Smith. These are available from their European online store now, the limited edition single of "Sick Sick Sick" features covers of Tom Waits' "Goin' Out West" and Elliott Smith's "Christian Brothers" as B-sides, along with a remix of "I'm Designer"-- (a track from the forthcoming Era Vulgaris LP). [pf]

Stream: Queens of the Stone Age: "Goin' Out West" [The limited edition digipack can also be purchased here.]

Video for "Sick Sick Sick":


Queens of the Stone Age have also released an alternate video for their first single "Sick Sick Sick". I don't like it as much as the original. I think it sort of looks like a racy low-budget iPod commercial or something. If you're interested you can check it out here: YouTube.com

MP3: Queens of the Stone Age: "Sick Sick Sick" [feat. Julian Casablancas of The Strokes]
MP3: Queens of the Stone Age: "Era Vulgaris" [feat. Trent Reznor] - Not actually on the album.
MP3: Queens of the Stone Age: "3's & 7's"

Website: qotsa.com
MySpace: myspace.com/queensofthestoneage

Best of YouTube - May '07

Ted Leo on The Human Giant 24 hr special
Ted's amplifier comes unplugged at one point during "Me and Mia". It's a great moment in live television - not to be missed.


Beirut [with Final Fantasy and other members of the Arcade Fire]: "The Gulag Orkestar"
Beirut and Final Fantasy performed Sunday, May 6th at New York's Bowery Ballroom and, not surprisingly, the bloggerati and seemingly every other indie musician in NYC was out for the show. As Brooklyn Vegan described it: "Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett) played first. Beirut came out to play with Final Fantasy for one song. Beirut played second. Final Fantasy played with Beirut for about half of their set. Four members of the Arcade Fire, Final Fantasy, and even more musicians who I didn't recognize, came out to play a song with Beirut during the encore. Sufjan Stevens, members of the National and Grizzly Bear were in the audience." [Pitchfork / Brooklyn Vegan]

Same performance (a little easier on the ears):

Clark and Michael: The Series - Preview
Internerd comedy series written and directed by-- and co-starring Michael Cera (George Michael from Arrested Development) with Clark Duke (Check IMDB if you care). The series debuted May 23rd on clarkandmichael.com it's pretty funny, but they definitely have room to grow. Some really great people are involved with the project (David Cross, Martin Starr, Tony Hale, Andy Richter, John Francis Daley, Patton Oswalt, Joe Lo Truglio), so I'm looking forward to see how this series progresses for these guys.

LCD Soundsystem + YACHT 5/11/07

Before Friday night I had never seen LCD Soundsystem live and really had no idea what to expect. Listening to DFA co-founder James Murphy's studio jammms I had always wondered how they would translate to a live performance. I'm happy to report that the entire performance was off the wall (with the exception of ending a dance-punk show with a ballad- odd choice). The audience danced start to finish- Mr. Murphy had them in the palm of his hand while the rest of the band backed him up with an incredible wall of sound. Touring with James was keyboardist Nancy Whang and drummer/Mr. Rosso lookalike Pat Mahoney with Phillip Skarich on bass and Hot Chip’s Al Doyle on guitar.

Quote of the evening: "Hey you guys down there dancing, and banging into each other [James to dudes slam-dancing in the audience]- take a look to your left and to your right; if you don't see a girl within three feet of you, you're dancing wrong." (or something to that effect)

Unfortunately this electro-dance-punk shindig was held at the Avalon. This meant that it would be an early show so that those a-holes could get all of us cleared out of there by 10PM- only to refill it with the sites and smells of the Jerseyesque club crowd; blow-out hairdos, alcoholic Red Bull drinks, and most likely way too much cologne. If I'm sounding bitter it's because as a result of this "no fun" policy that Avalon has, show-opener, YACHT (electro-pop project of the Blow’s Jona Bechtolt) went on at 7PM!! Needless to say, we missed this part of the evening.

Video I shot at the show:




Video footage that YACHT/Jona threw together from the LCD tour:


Website: LCD Soundsystem
Stream: LCD Soundsystem: "All My Friends"

Website: YACHT: Maker of Fine Grunge Musics & Hugs.
MP3: YACHT: "See a Penny (Pick It Up)"

Arcade Fire 5/10/06

Right now I'm listening to the set that Arcade Fire played at TT the Bears Place [Cambridge, MA - 11/12/04] which you can find AND download for your listening enjoyment here: Bradley's Almanac

John and I just saw Arcade Fire the other night at the Orpheum Theater in Boston and it was easily one of the best live performances that I've seen in a very long. (I can only imagine how incredible it must've been to be at the TT's show back in 2004.) They played with so much enthusiasm and had a really fantastic stage set-up with about a dozen live feed cameras, 6 small projection screens, and they were projecting onto the velvet curtain behind them as well. Very fucking cool and completely worth every penny. The only thing that I found annoying about the show [besides how unbelievably hot it was inside the theater] was that the audience felt the need to clap along with almost EVERY song that Arcade Fire played. Normally I like clapping along with a band, but it made it difficult to hear the band a lot of the time, and these people were clapping along with songs which required 0% audience participation. A little annoying, but still nice be with a crowd that was exited about the band that they payed to see. (If you were there, and you were a constant-clapper, no offense!)

Video that John shot from where we were sitting [balcony seats]:

Video from MUCH better seats:

Here's a link to a good photo set from the show that I found on Flickr. Which were actually taken by Brad from the above mentioned blog, Bradley's Almanac: bradsearles