who's going to see Thom next week?

I know what I'm doing on Oct. 4th and 5th. And you will too on Oct. 6th when I post video (i hope!) of Thom, Nigel, Joey, Flea(!) and Mauro(?) High anxiety this morning hitting refresh on Ticketmaster. TM has been the mortal enemy of all concert-goers more often than not but my experienced fingers (and those of my friends) were able to score Orchestra seats. The scoreboard now reads Eric/Friends 1 - Ticketmaster 1,541. Victory!

Here's a TM tip: For the most part I've noticed that you don't have to get the reCAPTCHA words spelled correctly...just make sure you have the same # of letters and spacing down

Thom Yorke - Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses (.mp3)

We the Living - Black Swan (cover) (.mp3)

Frightened Rabbit and the Kiddies

In honor of me wasting my tickets to the Frightened Rabbit show at the Knitting Factory last Sunday I post this video of my favorite song Head Rolls Off (fun wedding in Catalina = too tired for concert). I had never seen it before...and its actually kinda cute. Reminds me a bit of La Blogotheque's Menomena takeaway show where a lil french boy passing by spontaneously breaks into dance. I propose a new blog series where indie bands play in classrooms with little kids. We already have the TakeAway shows in France, the Black Cab sessions in the UK and of course the Garden Party, so lets start up Kindergarten Kuts!

Age of Stupid Premiered w/ Thom Yorke

Attended the 64 country "world wide satellite premiere" of Age of Stupid last night at The Bridge theater. More on the message of the movie soon...but for now check out the trailer as well as the performance of Reckoner by my favorite environmentalist, Thom Yorke, which was part of the live post-screening festivities.

BlakRoc

Just another reason for me to love November...The Black Keys will release an album's worth of collaborations with some Hip Hop icons (RZA, Raekwon, Q-Tip, Mos Def, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard to name a few) on Nov. 27th. Looking forward to the BlakRoc project. Apparently its 11 artists on 11 tracks recorded in 11 days...

Total Eclipse of the Chart

My buddy Glen often sends me links to the site FlowingData.com which he hearts for its entertaining use of charts and graphs to describe just about anything. I have to say, their post of a Total Eclipse of the Heart flowchart (by Jeannie Harrell) might be my favorite. That is, until I made my own alternative version...with lyrics by The Dan Band:

Just saw The Dan Band at Club Nokia on Saturday night (Thanks LosAnjealous.com!) and they were hilarious. I highly recommend seeing their next show in town on Nov. 6th. And of course, go rent or rewatch Old School, Starsky & Hutch, Hangover, etc.

Office Charts Realized

Each time Thom posts them, I'm gonna try to translate his Office Charts into something we can listen to...

Check out Thom's 'office chart for grey dewy mornings'

1. Hull Drum and Bass by Ceephax from Exidy Tours
2. Huyendo Pt.2 by Alex Cortex from Huyendo EP
3. Bad Organs by Hate Hello Darkness/Bad Organs
4. Becalmed by Brian Eno from Another Green World
5. J&W Beat by Floating Points from J & W Beat
6. very 2 (bonus) by Lucky Dragons from Dream Island Laughing Language
7. L'Ascension: IV. Prière Du Christ Montant Vers Son Père by Messian / Marius Constant
8. Estampes, L. 100: I. Pagodes Pascal Rogé/ Debussy

Sounds like Thom loves his Drum n Bass with a topping of Classical on grey dewy mornings in Oxford.

Tiesto feat. Jonsi of Sigur Ros [Pitchfork]

I'm a HUGE Sigur Ros fan so I wanted to help promote a new Tiesto track featuring lead singer Jónsi Birgisson. Of course I started this post about 2 min. into listening to it and like most 'techno-esque' songs, I still had 5 1/2 minutes to go. Now that doesn't mean its horrible...it just means that its a techno song, which at my age is starting to get less and less interesting. Jónsi's part is of course wonderful and perfect for this type of collaboration but I don't know if I can handle 7 1/2 minutes of boom-ist-boom-ist-boom-ist...I am interested to hear the other tracks from Tiesto that feature Bloc Party's Kele Okereke and Metric's Emily Haines. I will be seeing Metric and Phoenix at the Greek Wednesday night! Tiesto's album will be on iTunes tomorrow.

Last.FM/(CBS) to Launch HD Radio Stations

One of my favorite music websites, Last.FM, which was bought by CBS a couple of years ago, will start broadcasting on HD Radio in NY, LA, SF and Chicago on Oct. 4th. The appeal of the music streaming site to me is that it's software tracks what songs users play (via your iTunes, Winamp, etc.) and shows you who your favorites are, who your friends favorites are, suggests new music and a whole bunch more.

Last.FM radio will apparently "feature an eclectic mix of music aggregated and influenced by the service’s user-generated weekly charts, combined with live performances and interviews". It would be really cool if once in awhile they chose individual users playlists to broadcast almost like satellite radio's XMU station and their blogger DJ'd programming or the old Indie 1031 Coup D'etat. Even though NOBODY is gonna buy an HD Radio at this poing, its good to know there is an alternative to the serious mess that is crappy commercial radio in LA. I will be listening online and my cellphone.

Division Day Bleeds Azalean

New (and fairly gross) promo video from Division Day (on my fav Dangerbird Records label). Azalean is one of my favorite songs right now and already has a place secured on my upcoming Fall sampler CD :) Division Day put on a great show last week at Spaceland with label mates Bad Veins.

Swell Season: Tiny Desk Concert (NPR)

Well I'm about 4 weeks late on this but Glen and Marketa of Swell Season stopped by to play an acoustic mini-concert at the desk of NPR's Bob Boilen. Thanks to podcasts, my ipod and a recent roadtrip up to Monterey, I've become a big fan of NPR's All Songs Considered. In this edition, Swell Season showcase six new songs off their upcoming album, Strict Joy...one I'm really looking forward to getting on Oct. 27th. If you haven't seen them live (or the movie Once), I highly recommend. Great musicians and very sincere people.

Swell Season will be at the Wiltern Nov. 18th (tickets) and elsewhere

New Thom Yorke 12"

New vinyl singles coming from Thom (via deadairspace):

"FeelingPulledApartbyHorses is written & played by Jonny and I and is a radical rework of an old tune thats been kicking around without a home since 2001? i think.

The Hollow Earth is a bass menace that was born out of the Eraser period but needed a little more time."

Pre-order now at WASTE before the 9/21 release

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And from Jonny Greenwood...a small interview on MP3 digital recordings in the New Yorker:

SFJ: What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of the MP3 age?

JG: The downside is that people are encouraged to own far more music than they can ever give their full attention to. People will have MP3s of every Miles Davis’ record but never think of hearing any of them twice in a row—there’s just too much to get through. You’re thinking, “I’ve got ‘Sketches of Spain and ‘Bitches Brew’—let’s zip through those while I’m finishing that e-mail.” That abundance can push any music into background music, furniture music.

Mew @ The Troubadour [9.01.09]

Comforting Sound - Mew (courtesy of mysugarspun)

Third time seeing Mew and they are still my favorite Danish band that likes freaky, abstract background videos of mutant animals and children. Of all the bands that go that extra mile by making their shows just as much of a visual experience as a musical experience, Mew are by far the freakiest. Perhaps this is just how the worlds 'least corrupt' country (2008) lets out its repressed rage. Mew is opening for Nine Inch Nails this week in its last 4 shows in Los Angeles.