Iron & Wine

Iron & Wine's new album The Shephard's Dog is really great.

I associate Iron & Wine with putting me to sleep, but this album has me awake and listening.

I feel just like a child

Last night I saw hippie love god Devendra Banhart at La Zona Rosa in Austin. (No, I didn't wear a dress. Or did I?)

He's been calling his band "Spiritual bonerz" (The z is silent--as he put it: "Its an endless z, therefore silent") but last night they were called both "Sorry we're pancakes" and "The fat boys."

The show was generally great and occasionally transcendent. He started the show soft and very gradually began to melt face. Everyone sang, and he gave a lot of room for folks in his band to play their own songs, some of which were excellent, others not so much. They hit a lot of Santana and Doors-type grooves, and there were a couple harder rocking tunes that blew me away. If anyone in the band was tripping balls (likely), they didn't let it affect their performance.

He did let someone in the audience come up and play a song--"Has anyone here written a song recently they want to share?" It was a cute gesture. Of course the song sucked, but whatevs.

Anyway, if any of y'all haven't checked out Devendra, I recommend giving him a fair shake. His albums are sprawling, and there's always a lot of throw-aways, but his songwriting is more clever than peeps generally give him credit for.

Look at this

and

this.

without much convincing...i was suede

this is old news but i'm listening to a lot of suede lately 
(or the london suede which sounds a bit more sheik if that's possible)
a friend of mine recently made fun of me for how much of a sucker i am for power pop
but if you are similar harken back to the early 90s with me
this and this are fun

i'd say they are SO 90s but rock videos really haven't changed at all since the promos of the 60s
for every 'fell in love with a girl' there are about a thousand bands fakin' the funk in a white room
(ie last strokes video...all strokes videos...the strokes...haha just playin strokes, you know i love you)

what's really unique is the band's dalliance with androgeny!
of course oasis blew up, they did this just less...faggy


i am psyched for darjeeling but also i fear this may be the breaking point at which i finally tire of the quirky-as-fuck world of wes anderson
i was almost groaing watching the trailer
even if i'm disappointed it will likely be in the manner that i think 'walking in your footsteps' is tiresome.  that is to say, still totally enjoyable and awesome by any other standard.

(on a mostly unrelated tip i believed i could not hate the outkast movie idlewild but thought that truly sucked...thoughts? or did it just suck?)

Wain etc.

Today Youtube featured the newest episode of David Wain's internet TV show, Wainy Days. Its funny, but some of the earlier episodes were better. This one features Rob Corddry doing his best David Wain impression.

Related recommendations: The Ten (obvs), Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story (especially the DVD extras).

Unrelated recommendations: The Mike Leigh movie "Naked" (especially the Criterion DVD extras), the most recent Pharoahe Monch record, "Desire" (taste).

Anyone seen the new Wes Anderson movie yet? Anyone excited?

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Daft Punk related recs:

1. my desktop background



2. the band Justice (I'll link it later)

3. Justice's music video for D.A.N.C.E.

Cold blooded clarity

For the past week I've been obsessed with this Smog (Bill Callahan) song called "Cold Blooded Old Times."

Here's a video clip of Callahan and Smog playing it at Emo's in Austin. The quality of the audio is excellent.

My current band is covering this song. For a long time I didn't know where it came from, and referred to it as, "that song with the Sister Ray jam at the end." (We generally jam the shit out of the G/G7 chord for a good 8 minutes at the end, and I usually play the song with mallets.)

Along with the clips of Smog on Youtube, I recommend checking out Bill Callahan's new(est) record, called "Woke on a Whaleheart."

Also, Callahan is dating Joanna Newsom. Add that to your list of power-couples-of-coolness.

These little guys can mellow-rock with the big boys

To assuage your burning anticipation of the new Radiohead album, I recommend you check out this little band from Marblehead called Gears. The lead singer/songwriter/drum programmer used to play in a band called Purpl Kool-Aidwith my cousin when they were in middle and high school. He's gotten much more mature since then.

These tunes--especially "Ask Me Questions"--sound like they were written by a younger version of the older Jeff Tweedy. I mean old as in age, not school. These guys approach songwriting so differently than I would have as a high schooler. My approach was much more about having a chord progression I could jam on long enough to bend my E-string into the stratosphere. These kids use glockenspiel!

P.S. Posting from work=bonus points!