The Crown Salesman : Andrew Bird

Here's one for you this fine Friday. It's a new song from Andrew Bird, called "The Crown Salesman." It's a bit of a slow burn, and honestly there's no big payoff, but the guitar distortion is pretty interesting in back of Bird's violin. Guess we're trying new things.

Break it Yourself comes out March 6.

Bonnaroo 2012 Lineup Announced

What, you can't read this? Click me!

It's usually worth noting when the (real) Bonnaroo lineup gets announced. This year it looks pretty strong, including THE BEACH BOYS, Radiohead, The Avett Brothers, Foster the People, The Roots, Punch Brothers, Fitz and the Tantrums and Dawes, to name a few (and if I were to make a list of acts I wanted to see).

Anyway, there's that. Oh, and I have no idea who this John Anderson fellow from ESPN is, but he did the video announcement and it's pretty funny. Check it out.

Pentatonix Covers Gotye

It's only a matter of time before Glee gets their angsty little hands on this, but until then, you can add another entry to growing list of Gotye covers. Pentatonix, an a capela group from NBC's the Sing Off, release their take on the Aussie's infectious "Somebody That I Used to Know."

Better than the original? That'll probably never happen, but it is worth a quick listen. If you were curious how five voices and one guitar could tackle a song with so many strange sounds, subtract the guitar. The kids do alright.

The only way I can explain this rash of covers is that the song itself has a certain quality that makes you want to dive inside it– and what better way to drench yourself in a song you love than by learning to play/sing it–  and it covers a sentiment that's familiar to many.

Whatever the case, I hope you like Gotye, because this guy's nowhere near peaking in the U.S.

This Week: Music on TV

It's been a pretty exceptional week for music on the TV. Here are a few of the highlights in case you've been spending your nights apart from the idiot box.

Dawes guest spot on NBC's "Parenthood"

Parenthood may have been one of the last shows you might think of when considering cool, taste-making soundtracks, but over the course of its run, the show has featured songs by The Avett Brothers, The Head and the Heart, and Josh Ritter to name a few. Last night, LA band Dawes made an appearance on the show as themselves.

Alabama Shakes play Conan
With debut album Boys and Girls on the way April 10, we can't wait to hear more from the Shakes. Until then, here's the video of their performance of "Hold On," plus a second song, "I Ain't the Same."

Austin City Limits airs Wilco performance
Popeye (see post below) was nowhere in sight, but Jeff Tweedy & Co. held it down pretty well. Check out the episode, which featured eleven songs from various albums. No doubt Olive Oyl was in the front row.

Watch Wilco on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Popeye Should Beat Up Jeff Tweedy

In the weirdest collaboration since Jack White teamed up with Insane Clown Posse, this week we saw the release of a new Wilco video for "Dawned on Me" featuring none other than Popeye the Sailor. (Well, blow me down Olive Oyl!)

Apparently there's some mad cross connection with the band and the old cartoon, as Huffington Post noted Wilco's been in a comic strip (I know... there's a weekly Popeye comic strip. Who knew?) and the two share a website (www.wilcospinach.com).

As we join our heros, Jeff Tweedy, Bluto and Popeye are all competing for the love of the beauteous Olive Oyl. Expect appearances from Whimpy and Swee' Pea.

My childhood hasn't decided what to do with this video. Decide for yourself.

Watch Gotye on Jimmy Kimmel Live

When a friend first tipped me off to Australian artist Gotye a few months back, I didn't know he was on the brink of breaking through in America. Apparently he was, and I learned this steadily through December by catching his tunes playing in a favorite restaurant of mine, seeing his picture featured on Lighting 100's homepage, and now by watching his American television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Gotye (né Wally De Backer) didn't just make a little studio appearance, he had a gigantic stage and a (newly, I'm guessing) devoted crowd.

Check out Gotye and Kimbra singing "Somebody That I Used to Know."

Area 52 : Rodrigo y Gabriela

This is not an album. It’s an assault. It’s an assault by a troop of incredibly deft musicians taking everything they’ve got and charging forward with all the zest and dexterity they can muster.

And some how, there’s that danger that Rodrigo y Gabriela’s latest album, Area 52, might wind up in a bin somewhere under the label “World” music.

That’s in no way a dis on the genre, but rather a lament that broader American audiences don’t generally take to popular music from abroad. Unless it’s British. That’s a shame, because Area 52 in many ways represents that “melting pot” ideal we sling around.

Case in point: Rodrigo y Gabriela are a pair of Mexican musicians, flamenco guitarists, specifically, who first made it big in Ireland, playing on the streets of Dublin outside of pubs. On their third album, Area 52, they forgo their typical two-some of intricate acoustic guitar work in favor of exploring Cuban music and playing with a 13-piece mini-orchestra aptly named C.U.B.A. The album features everything from Cuban folk to salsa, blended with jazz, backed by sitar, run through wah-wah pedals, and oh, did I mention they were in a metal band?

While that all may sound like a mess, it’s not. It’s an exhausting (in a good way) emersion in polyrhythms and an enveloping and gregarious sound born of a culture that is itself, enveloping and gregarious.

Take “Hanuman.” It’s relentless– bursts of Santana-esque guitar, fast jazz piano and a jabbing horn section, spinning around. Every instrument, every beat, every little piece of influence are held together, but just so, right up to the breaking point where everything should fall apart, but it doesn’t.

Area 52 is somewhat of a departure for Rodrigo y Gabriela because of all the extra accompaniment. While it is more difficult to get the full effect the duo’s guitar playing, nine of the songs on the album are featured on earlier albums in their original bare arrangements. “11:11,” for example, is the title of Rodrigo y Gabriela’s previous album, but the track is fleshed out and re-arranged to fit C.U.B.A.

In 1999, David Byrne wrote a piece in the New York Times about why he hates world music. To start, he talked about the odds and ends that make up a world music bin– it’s the stuff that “just isn’t ‘us.” He summed it up saying “exotica is beautiful but irrelevant.”

A record like Area 52 that’s such a synthesis of styles, techniques and influences says most about a world where cultural isolation is becoming less feasible and less desirable. The sounds on Area 52 are definitely exotic, they’re anything but irrelevant.