Years Go By and I Still I Think of Random Car Commcericals

Early this decade, there was a commercial that showed a car full of twenty-somethings cruising around some city at night, grooving along to a really infectious, pulsating song. I thought it was cool. It felt young.

This morning, I was listening to NPR's All Songs Considered podcast. This particular episode centered around defining the decade and one of the contributors mentioned a song that really grabbed him in 2002, mainly because of its video. They played a clip and I had a 'holy crap, it's that song!' moment.

So, here's "Days Go By" by Dirty Vegas. I don't know anything about the band. I barely even remembered the song, let alone knew the title. Random, right?. Check it out.

Click me!

Also, here's the commercial I was talking about. Not as cool as I remember. Pretty sure my folks thought it was really annoying. Anyway, enjoy.

Bob Dylan - Must Be Santa Video

Rolling Stone brings us the premiere of Bob Dylan's latest, "Must be Santa"(plus non embeddable video) from his new Christmas album, Christmas in the Heart.

I am fairly certain that if Santa actually showed up at this chaotic Christmas house party, he'd either get gang mugged or wind up too drunk to finish making his deliveries. Also, the relationship between Bob Dylan's age and level of creepiness on a graph looks like this.

And why, yes. That is an exponential growth rate. Thanks for noticing.

Beatles on a Stick

Looking for a Christmas gift for your favorite Minimalist/Beatles fan? EMI is releasing the entire re-mastered, 14-album Beatles collection in stereo on-- get this, on a flash drive this coming Dec. 8th. Yes. A flash drive. An Apple-shaped flash drive, to be exact.

Can this possibly be the same thing? Granted this is about as close to digital as EMI is going to allow the Beatles catalogue to get any time soon, but seriously, a flash drive? This feels wrong.

Obviously I still advocate the tangible album, be it cd or vinyl, but this is way beyond that. Album art in itself was integral to the outward signs of the band's growth. Meet the Beatles was miles away from the Revolver cover, and that's part of the experience of the band as a whole-- it's the progression. Digital tracks exist in a vacuum, I don't care how iTunes is starting to package digital liner notes. The Beatles on a flash drive are The Beatles without context.

Fortunately, only 30,000 flash drives will be made, so it will probably only be the die-hard Beatles fans who spring on it, but I don't think it bodes well.

I cringe to think that some 12-year-old kid's first experience with The Beatles would be getting handed a flash drive with everything already on it. No context, no collecting-- it's too easy. The rest of us had to wait for holidays and birthdays to get new albums. Or, if you're old enough, you had to wait for the band to release something new.

Is it not sweeter that way?

Birds and Whales, Plus Assorted Misc.

I took this at Grimey's New and Pre-Loved Music back in June.

First up, last Saturday Andrew Bird and St. Vincent played at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville-- I decided no to do a full blog post about it because that would have required me making notes and such through the concert, and it was all too perfect to do anything else but melt into the seat. I was dead center, only a few rows back from the stage. 'Nuff said. It was an experience.


Speaking of Andrew Bird, while on a short car trip last Friday, my friend played for me a band called Noah and the Whale. Noah and the Whale hails from the UK and has a lot in common with The National, sound-wise. Throw in more Andrew Bird-like instrumentation and you've got a pretty good picture. From the first song, "The First Days of Spring," to the epically orchestral "Love of an Orchestra," they had me. Their debut album, which came out Oct. 6th, is also called The First Days of Spring. It's lovely, layered orch pop, for lack of a better term. Like The National, Noah and the Whale has a certain entrancing quality and swells and flows like the music. Truly, it took a few bars before I thought to myself, "I have to have this."

Give it a listen, the album comes courtesy of my Googling skills and NPR.


Finally, in case you hadn't heard, Ben Gibbard is involved in a project to put words from Jack Kerouac's Big Sur to music. He partnered with Sun Volt's Jay Farrar to create One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur, a 12-song album set for release on October 20th. For more, you can click here for NPR's All Songs Considered blog write up. The entire album is also being streamed by NPR up to the release date. I'm listening as I type, in fact.

Flight of the Conchords's I Told You I was Freaky also comes out on the 20th, so budget yourself accordingly.

Cheers.

Vampire Weekend : Horchata

As Vampire Weekend's new album, Contra nears its release date, we bring you their first single, courtesy of Drowned in Sound, one of my fav British music websites.

"Horchata" is exotic, syncopated goodness. This bodes well-- not a watery continuation or a divorce from their signature sound. Take a listen.



You can catch Contra January 12th.

Hope for AT 40?

Just a quick post, this morning I had the shower radio tuned in to American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest and was a little more than shocked when "Say Hey" by Michael Franti & Spearhead came in at no. 21. "Say Hey" was featured a while ago in a Paste sampler CD and I just assume that if a song is in any way worthy of Paste, it probably won't be getting anywhere near Seacrest & co.

If you haven't heard it, the video is below. The song is really catchy, has great energy and good lyrics. It'll make you want to move. Enjoy.

John Mayer Goes Pop. Again.

A few days late, but regardless, John Mayer announced that his next album is just about ready for release.

The last issue of Rolling Stone had a brief write-up describing Mayer's new effort. This time he's spinning himself back into the pop realm with Battle Studies, an 11 track disc that will be released on November 11th.

Mayer is pretty solid-- even Room for Squares is surprisingly good despite the teen ridiculousness of "Your Body is a Wonderland." So hearing he's shifting gears is a bit disappointing. Personally, I was really pleased with the direction he took on Continuum. It was like he managed to scrape off the bubble gum and turn himself into a legitimate musician who as more to offer than moody, breathy singing.

TMI won't count him out until the album has been played to satisfaction, but let's hope that he elevates the standards of pop rather than regresses to 2000. We've been there. let's not go back.

The first single, "Who Says" was released just a few days ago on the 24th. Look for a review soon.