“Headache” Video

You gotta love randomly typing “Frank Black” into a youtube search and getting an awesome video you never knew existed for one of your favorite songs. This thing is hilarious, (especially those back-up singers). Still have to pick up that new mini-album, heard it’s pretty great. Enjoy…

Big Dipper!!!

If you listen to The Best Show On WFMU, you may be familiar with the Boston rock band Big Dipper. Not only has Tom Scharpling sung their praises on his show, he also contributed to the liner notes in the box set. That solid endorsement coupled with the tracks posted on their myspace page was all I needed to go out and buy the beautifully packaged 3-disc set. The compilation collects all their minor label albums along with a whole disc full of unreleased material. "That's all fine and well Danny, but how's the music?" you ask. Fucking awesome! Just song after song of pop rock gems. There's 49 tracks here that are thankfully rescued from obscurity and so far I'm loving them all. Honestly, there's nothing I can say here that Scharpling doesn't put perfectly in his liner notes, so after you sample these tracks, I HIGHLY recommend you pick up the very reasonably priced box set. And if you just want to listen to the tunes, you can download all 49 of them on Amazon for a mere $9. I'm posting All Going Out Together, Loch Ness Monster and Faith Healer from the particularly strong first disc, but rest assured, there's lots more where those came from!

Unhalfbricking

For the last week or so I've been completely hooked on Unhalfbricking, the album from the influential British Folk Rock band featuring Richard Thompson and a bunch of other amazingly talented musicians. The whole album is just beautiful, but these two tracks are my favorite: Million Dollar Bash, one of three Dylan covers here, and the long jam A Sailor's Life. If you think I'm out of my mind during the first couple of minutes of A Sailor's Life, please hang in there, you'll know what I mean when Thompson and fiddler Dave Swarbrick take over. I'm expecting the follow up to this album, Liege & Lief, in the mail any day now, if it's anything as brilliant as this, I'll be a happy man.

50's & 60's Magic, Part 2 of 2

As promised, here's the second installment! Keep those oldies alive!

Zip!

50's & 60's Magic, Part I of 2

So my friend Pedro, (aka memofromturner) put together this really great compilation of 50's and 60's songs. I've been listening to them all morning and it's fantastic. It's like listening to Magic 104.3* without the lame car commercials, but there's also stuff in here Dick Biondi would never play. Enjoy Part 1, check in tomorrow for the next batch.

*On a side note, I just learned that the Oldies Station I grew up listening to in the Chicagoland Area has recently changed to a Jack FM, is nothing sacred?

Zip!

Unit 4 + 2 - Concrete and Clay

I'm hooked on this song right now! And this video just rules, such a simple, straightforward concept that thematically ties in with the song's chorus. Why can't more things be this easy to digest?

Get It!

New Smoking Popes Musics!!!

While sifting through the news section over at Pitchfork, my jaw hit the keyboard when I saw that Smoking Popes had a new album in the works. And while it's not coming out until early next year, they've put a few tracks on their myspace page, and they're sweet!

Growing up in Chicago, I got to catch these guys play their hearts out at the Metro all the time. I'm reasonably sure that they headlined the first show I ever went to without my parents. I came home with the near perfect punk pop ep Get Fired and played it to death on my shitty boombox. Here's two of my favorite tracks from that ep, Not That Kind of Girlfriend and Let's Hear It For Love.

Beck's New Video

Beck's video for Timebomb is pretty awesome, but I couldn't help but think of another socially conscience video (see below) I thought was totally awesome back in the day! Here's a hint... Crystal Pepsi anyone?

The Dead Trees

Any band that cracks the top 4 on Malkmus's myspace (check out sweet tracks from his new album while you're there) is definitely worth checking out. Run over to daytrotter and download the four songs from their session, you won't be disappointed. For your listening pleasure I'm streaming Television, a beautiful slice of Wilco-esque folk that's destined to find a home on many playlists.

On Myspace
6 Song EP - Fort Music

CO-OP

Depending on what song you’re listening to, CO-OP is either making your toes tap or making the earth shake, and occasionally, both. Mixing elements like upbeat keyboards and Eno-esque vocals with grind core guitars sounds like it’d be a tough trick to pull off, but that’s just what they do, exceedingly well. Below I’m posting a track more on the toe tapper side of things called Lo Volume. I often find myself visiting their myspace page just to hear this song. They haven’t released anything official yet, but I’ll be sure to post something when they do. If you’re in the LA area tonight, be sure to catch their show at The Scene.



Bonus Video, this is older and their sound is moving in a different direction, but who can resist a video about two misunderstood friendly robots…

From The Fire: Part 2

Jimmy Smith, Midnight Special



I was really happy to see this one in the box of burnt CDs. I've owned it for years on vinyl along with it's companion piece, Back At The Chicken Shack; both of which were literally recorded on the same day in 1960 (ahhh, the golden days of Blue Note!). And even though Chicken Shack is probably the better of the two, Midnight Special gives it a run for it's money. Smith, along with Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Burrell and Donald Bailey, sounds loose and relaxed on these long playing jams. You can just feel the good times. My favorite is the opening and title track Midnight Special, check it out below.



*Bonus Track, while trolling around imeem I found this awesome Jimmy Smith cover of Suicide Is Painless (The Theme From M.A.S.H.), not sure what album it's off of, but it's really good!

California Girls

Oh man, the new The Magnetic Fields album, Distortion, is just beautiful, but so far the stand out track for me has to be California Girls. I'm not sure if Stephin Merritt penned this song or not, but the lyrical wit really shines on this one; taking the well defined notion of what California girls mean in popular culture, and turning it on it's side. And musically, it's shimmering guitars and far away vocals make the whole thing feel like a dream, (that pretty much goes for the whole album too).

Private - My Secret Lover

I learned about these guys from my friend Kyle over at Side Selecter (great new playlist this week btw) and I keep forgetting to post about them. I don't know much about them other than that they're from Copenhagen, Denmark and that they sound a ton like Thriller era Michael Jackson. Really though, what more would you need to know, right? Below is the title track from their album My Secret Lover. It's so infectious and fun you won't even bother wondering why they keep saying "my bullets in the gun".

Okay, now the bad news, this album is impossible to find for a reasonable price anywhere, and it's not available through download on Amazon or iTunes. So if you need a copy... well, you know.

From The Fire: Part 1

Brian Eno and John Cale, Wrong Side Up


So, me and some folks I work with found two full boxes of smelly, ash filled, smoke damaged CDs on the WB lot yesterday. It turns out that once you ditch the cases and wipe off the discs, not only are they perfectly fine, but there's a lot of great albums in there! So I'm starting this little series and I'll update it as I absorb this new found music.

Today's installment is the 1990 album from art rock figureheads Brian Eno and John Cale, Wrong Side Up. I've had it on repeat all morning and I don't think I'm going to break that cycle anytime soon. This album lives up to the promise of the two names on the cover and I HIGHLY recommend picking it up, ideally in a box of scorched CDs. Here's the link!

For your listening pleasure, here's the first two songs off the album, they'll win you over immediately.

Jake Shimabukuro On Conan

What a performance! I have to get this album right away!

Jake Shimabukuro's Website
Gently Weeps - Åmazon Link

My friend Pedro has a last.fm page where he's recently started posting quick hit recommendations. This guy is a music expert, so you're bound to discover some gems! Here's the link...
memofromturner's last.fm

Groovallegiance

One Nation Under A Groove came out near the end of Funkadelic's unstoppable reign of creative output, and to me at least, Groovallegiance is one of the most remarkable tracks among their numerous accomplishments. It's laid back Caribbean vibe mixed in with melodic keyboards and Michael Hampton's guitar work make this song pure magic. It's one of the only songs I can honestly say feels short at 7 minutes.

Devon Williams - Elevator

This video isn't going to be set the world on fire any time soon, but the song Elevator more than makes up for it. This fella's opening up for Destroyer in May and from listening to the tracks on his myspace he's very worthy. While you're there you can download Elevator as well. He was also in a pop punk band called Osker that's worth a listen.

The World's Greatest Music Collection (Seriously, it is)

Got an extra $3,000,000? If you do, you may want to pick up this RIDICULOUSLY GIGANTIC music collection that ebay user jpaulhenderson5a4e has put up for auction. If anyone's up for splitsees let me know. Here's a bit of his description...

From Thomas Edison to American Idol, this is the complete history of the music that shaped and defined five generations. 3 million records and 300,000 CDs containing more than 6 million song titles. It's the undisputed largest collection of recorded music in the world. About half of the recordings are new and never played, and every genre of 20th century music is represented. There are countless rare recordings worth hundreds, or even thousands of dollars each on the collectibles market. Organized and cataloged, the collection is meticulously maintained and housed in a climate-controlled warehouse. The estimated value of this amazing collection is more than $50 million.

Pret-ty amazing. Pret-ty pret-ty amazing. See the ebay page here!

Grizzly Bear and the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Talk about the ultimate indie rock date night! I'm really excited for this show, it should be something special. The only other time I've been to the Disney Concert Hall is to see Brian Wilson perform SMiLE and that was just about as good as it gets. The sound quality there is nothing short of amazing, it's almost as if you can hear every individual note. Information and ticket links below.

Disney Concert Hall

Ticket Link - Hopefully this one works, it may be one of those randomly generated ones.