am/fm

Nellie's Life talks about (and has tracks from) the new Elliot Smith CD, "New Moon," due out May 8.

Here's a preview: "Angel Snow"

—eh, www.amNY.com

Jill Scott - 2007 Tour Dates
Thu, 06/14/07 - Radio City Music Hall, NYC w/ Chaka Khan & Robin Thicke

via, Brooklyn Vegan.

— eh, www.amNY.com

Well, I'm back from my blog-cation ... just needed to live in the real world for a week.

But that Jack White, he never takes a break. About two seconds after he finished up the new White Stripes — "Icky Thump," which is out June 19 — he's announced that he's back in the studio with his side-project the Raconteurs, working on their next album. They hope to be ready for a 2008 release, which means the threesome needs to work fast, as Jack is going on tour to promote "Icky Thump" (which is kind of a dumb name, by the way) this summer.

WS have only released a handful of European dates so far, in addition to their appearance at Bonnaroo (A brief tangent here: While I understand in theory the appeal of a three-day camping/concert weekend, I don't think that it actually would be very much fun. I also don't really love camping, which is a major part of that equation, but even just attending a three-day show, I think would get tiring. And cranky. And claustrophobic (who can deal with that many people for so long?). Anyway, feel free to speak up in defense of festivals, and let me know what I'm missing (or not missing).)

Back to the program: If you can't wait that long for some new Stripes action (their European tour schedule means they won't be back in the US until mid-June at the earliest), tonight, or rather tomorrow morning at 12:01am, iTunes is releasing their title track as the album's first single.

— eh, www.amNY.com

I was going through my notes from the Lily Allen concert last Wednesday (a review of which is forthcoming), and I had scrawled at the top of one page: "Major Tom." Not, in fact, a reference to Bowie's "Space Oddity," but to Peter Schilling's 1983 masterpiece "Major Tom (Coming Home)."

I loved this song when I was younger, and always thought it was interesting that there were so many songs about astronauts ("Rocket Man," "Space Oddity") released at the same time — that time being before I was born/aware of pop music. It wasn't until much later that I realized that there was an approximate 20-year gap between Bowie/Elton John and Peter Schilling.

-eh, www.amNY.com

You may know this song as the theme to "That 70s Show" (as recorded by Cheap Trick) but it actually was originally recorded by power pop group Big Star — which is one of those groups that you know that you know, but you can't always think of exactly why. Elliott Smith was a big fan, and their lead singer Alex Chilton was immortalized in a Replacements song of the same name (although if you're a Replacements fan, you probably already know that). Chilton and Jody Stephens, another original member of the band, recently teamed up with Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer (who are better known as The Posies, which has a story of its own that I'm not going to tell you here) and released a record in 2005 under the Big Star name, "In Space." While the album doesn't capture the band's earlier indispensable-ness, it does have it's moments.

Enjoy.

-eh, www.amNY.com

This was going to be a simple shout out to my friends Adam and Brandi; I promised them I would post this track that I told them about last night, a mashup of Golddigger and Mahna Mahna by Lenlow. But there are some interesting details to the story behind the song, so I figured I'd do a full on entry about it.

The video above, obviously, is the classic Muppet skit. But the original version of that song — yeah, surprise!, it's a real song — was written in 1968 by Piero Umiliani for an Italian soft core porn, "Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso". By all accounts, Jim Henson was aware of the connection when he Muppetized it. There's also a version recorded in French by Henri Salvador in 1969, called "Mais Non, Mais Non."

Come with me, then, to almost 40 years later. Guitarist Joe Pisapia records a version that ends up in a (commercial watch!) Saturn commercial (it's the video called "Other Dealerships"), which is what reminded me of the Kanye mashup. How this came up last night, I don't recall. But A and B, this one's for you.

-eh, www.amNY.com

I've liked these guys for a while (you can check out some of their tunes at Barsuk's website). Lead singer John Roderick successfully straddles the line between plaintive and whiny, and he also seems to be quite a personality, as well. Not one you necessarily want to work with (check out the preview of "Through With Love," a forthcoming documentary on the band, below), but Roderick has a fascinating story, which includes a cross-continental walk across Europe.

And it seems they're finally getting some mainstream attention, in the form of the commercial for "In the Land of Women" (starring indie rock snob Seth Cohen, aka Adam Brody). "New Girl" plays over the last 10 or so seconds. That's no guarantee that the song will be in the movie (it's not on the soundtrack), but it's still hitting millions of new ears. (Check out a live version at Bradley's Almanac.)

The band played New York quite recently, but I didn't get to go. Did anyone see them? Any good?

-eh, www.amNY.com

Hello, lucky readers. This is AMFM's 100th post, believe it or not. I was thinking about doing something special for it, but, as happens so often in life, thinking never really led to action, and so all I have for you is links to other blogs. Oh, well. C'est la vie.

Anyway, Al Gore's foray into concert promotion is coming to New Jersey. His Live Earth climate change-awareness raising shindig will hit Giants Stadium, starring Kanye, Kelly Clarkson, Fall Out Boy, The Police and others (Gothamist has the full lineup). Something for everyone, so no one will really be happy all day. Not to knock an event addressing such an important issue, but I really can't imagine someone who would be all that excited that Luda and Bon Jovi are finally sharing a stage. But maybe it makes senses in a (snob alert) top 40-listener kind of way. I do have to say that I am jealous of the British lineup, which includes The Beastie Boys, Bloc Party, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna (exciting, if you're into that sort of thing) and Duran Duran, among others. Equally eclectic as the American lineup, but with far cooler tent poles.

In more positive news, 17 Dots has compiled a list of the 20 best Pavement songs ever. I love Pavement, and so should you.

And, Stereogum has the news that American Laundromat Records (who? doesn't matter) is assembling a Pixies cover album. They've got Mogwai, They Might Be Giants, OK Go and J Mascis on board already.
Listen to TV on the Radio's cover of "Mr. Grieves."

-eh, www.amNY.com

(via flickr)
Gothamist went, Brooklyn Vegan went. I did not go, to my regret.

Washington Height's United Palace, recently reborn as a Bowery Presents music venue, looks like an awesome place to catch a show, and they've got some really cool acts coming up: Isley Brothers, Modest Mouse, Bjork, Arcade Fire...

-eh, www.amNY.com

Idolator has a demo by someone who sounds an awful lot like Rivers Cuomo.

-eh, www.amNY.com

Another song that's been following me around of late is Arlo Guthrie's classic tale of littering and draft exemption "Alice's Restaurant." (It's a long one, but if you've got 20 minutes, it's a good tale.)

Wikipedia, that bastion of totally true knowledge, has the story behind the song, which is quite interesting.

And for you "Arrested Development" (the canceled television show, not the canceled elevendy-billion strong music group) fans, compare the above song with "Big Yellow Joint," which basically functioned as Oscar's theme music. (Thanks to The O.P.)

-- eh, www.amNY.com

Being a pretentious asshole about music is not strictly a New York phenomenon. Check out this Australian clip lampooning overly made-up scensters:

-- eh, www.amNY.com

Apparently, reporting on music used in commercials is not actually that original idea; Stereogum has also made it a regular feature on their blog. But so anyway, they've got a great one up today on the New Pornographers' song used in a University of Phoenix commercial. Check it.

-- eh, www.amNY.com

The annual festival that brings all kinds of crazy (and FREE!) entertainment to parks around the city has announced this summer's lineup, and it looks like a good one. With Animal Collective June 1, Bang on A Can Allstars June 2-3, The New Pornographers July 4, Fuji and Miyagi July 6, Spoon July 11, Menomena July 13 and Battles August 31, there's something for everyone. And that's only the music part of the program. There are also film screenings and dance performances. It's gonna be a great summer.
The complete schedule will be up at the River to River website on May 18.

-- eh, www.amNY.com

Fitting my total nerd status, not only do I listen to and write about music, I also enjoy reading about it. John Sellers' little memoir about how he's become the biggest Guided by Voices fan in the world (if you take issue with that, tell him, not me. Unless you too have a well-written, quick-readin' autobio, I don't care) charts a lifetime of indie rock discovery. If you're already hip to his jive, it's fun to play along and recognize his references (It's pathetic how excited I got after reading this description of discovering a new band: "A voice spoke of a girlfriend who's 'eating her fingers like they're just another meal.'" "It's Pavement! It's Pavement!" I wanted to announce to the entire LIRR train I was on at the time. Too bad nobody cared.). But his tone is friendly, not snobby, and even outsiders to the scene with a passing interest in the music are welcomed.

That being said, if you don't care about the music, you probably won't care about the book. It's basically a chapter by chapter chronicle of Sellers' obsession with different bands (and how each obsession affected how he lived his life, i.e., a love of Joy Division causes him to take a pilgrimage to Manchester), starting with the few "cool" tracks that made it through the Top 40 noise during a childhood growing up outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan, culminating in an ecstatic, drunken meeting with his idol, Bob Pollard. It's a good book for those of us who wear our music geekery proudly on our sleeves at an age when we should know better. It's also probably recommended reading to those trying to understand us. He's entertainingly self deprecating while simultaneously defending his right to a life of extreme fandom.

If nothing else, according to John Hodgman's blurb on the back cover (and this is partly what caused me to pick the book out of my slush pile), Sellers is a Donkey Kong champion.

via Idolator

Nena covers Peter, Bjorn & John's "Young Folks," in German! Nice.

-- eh, www.amNY.com

Photos by Lane Johnson.

When I got to the show, openers The Mooney Suzuki were playing their last song, which was really too bad, 'cause they're a fun live show, but, eh, I've seen 'em before.

About half an hour later, Mr. Hammond and his band came out to the strands of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn," a song that's been following me around lately.
The new album, Yours to Keep," has been getting heaps of praise, along the lines of, "This is the album the Strokes should have released after 'Is this It?'" And Hammond's music does sounds like a first cousin to his main band's. But this music is all his. Instead of Julian Casablancas' drunken (and then not drunken) ennui, Hammond's songs have real heart.

Although its heart with gleefully evil intentions — in "Call an Ambulance" he lusts after a girl whose boyfriend went home sick, singing "His baby stayed where she was, I go talk to her, 'cause I wanna sleep with her." While The Strokes are a bunch of bad boyfriends and general layabouts (for example: "I never show up on weekdays, that's something that you learned yesterday," "Barely Legal"), Hammond makes me think of one ex-bad boyfriend in particular, but that's neither here nor there — I think we've all met that guy, the charmer who makes it perfectly clear his intentions are bad.

Anyway, Hammond and his band totally commanded the audience; everyone knew the words to almost every song. And though from looks alone you wouldn't think it — with his heavy lidded eyes, unruly hair and guitar held uncoolly high — the man exuded sexy cool. It might be fair to say that I'm a little in love with him, well, rock and roll love, anyway. And I don't think that's just me. There were a fair number of girls in the audience (and girls who were not just tagging along with a boyfriend, but actually there for themselves), which is a rarity, I find, at rock shows.

But if I can just control the drooling, I'll get back to the actual show. Like I said, the whole room was psyched to be there, and it seemed Hammond was too. His banter between songs was low-key and friendly. He's been touring with this album for a couple of months and he and his band were really together and energetic. At some point someone in the crowd started throwing dollar bills on stage. It was kind of weird, but just a part of the whole spectacle. I think maybe the boys were in rock and roll love with him too.

He finished off the show (with a cover of Frank Black's "Old Black Dawning" towards the end) and said a simple good night, scooting off stage sans encore. Just like The Strokes used to.

See more of Lane's gorgeous photos after the jump...

-- eh, www.amny.com

It's not quite time to panic, but it looks like one of my favorite venues in New York is destined for closure. The building that houses the Knitting Factory is for sale, and though the rock club has a lease through 2009, it's fate after that is uncertain.
From BV:

"If the buyers will want to continue having them there, and they want to stay after an increase in rent, hopefully it will work out for everyone," Polsinelli said.

-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com

This is almost unlistenable, combining as it does the tragic (albeit it ironic) whining of Alanis with the inanity of Fergie's "masterpiece," but it's pretty funny.

-- EH, www.amNY.com

I've been enjoying the new Apples in Stereo video, "Can You Feel It?"

The retro pastiche feel of both the song and video reminds me of something, though it's probably just me.

-- EH, www.amNY.com

So I was watching some MTVtres this past weekend (an MTV station that actually plays music videos, believe it or not), and I came upon this video, "Yo Era Tan Cool" by Polbo. I liked the look of it and the song is quite catchy. It's even better when you realize the lyrics are saying stuff like, "I was so cool when I had money, but now that I have nothing, all I can do is call my mommy." Perfect, bizarre pop fluff.

-- EH, www.amNY.com

Sin-e and Tonic are closing. With any luck, it's to make room for more badly needed luxury condos on the LES.

-- EH, www.amNY.com