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Her CD came out in late 2006, and she hasn't made a big splash (though she was nominated for a Grammy, in the Best Urban/Alternative category), but I was listening to Alice Smith's "For Lovers, Dreamers and Me", and I remembered how much I really liked it. Sometimes, I think that women singer/songwriters get marginalized unfairly; stuck on Starbucks compilations and largely ignored. But Smith is cooool. Her sound is easy and soulful, and she's got a strong voice that doesn't try too hard. Listen.

Completely coincidentally, she's playing Terminal 5 June 26.

"Dream"

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This video is a little rough, but it's a good example of Josh playing live. (The song is "You Can't Shake Me.")

As I said yesterday, Fix can be kinda cheesy, but it's fun glam cheese. Last night, I caught the last show of his month-long residency at Arlene's Grocery. It was quite a crowd, too. I suspect a lot of the people were on the list or personally knew Josh, but whoever they were, they were genuinely enthused to be there.

As was I. Besides being a fan, I was wondering how Fix's larger-than-life sound would translate, well, to real life.

To open the show, the band came out and vamped with a feedback-laden riff while the audience awaited Fix's appearance. He bounded on stage through the audience and started tossing T-shirts out to the crowd. (I didn't get one; they said "Rock and Roll Slut," not something I really want to proclaim across my chest.) He wailed on the vibraslap (a future installment of the Weird Instrument series, for sure), and we were off.

As expected, he sounds slightly different live than on CD, but still really present. The guitar sound is massive, and his guitarist and second keyboardist (he's the first) sing backup vocals so we don't lose that magnificent harmony (which I think is all him on the album).

A few songs in, he starts off on "Don't Call Me in the Morning," the first single from his recently released debut, "Free At Last." He picks up the vibraslap again only to cast it aside (literally), which is maybe appropriate for a song called "Don't Call Me in the Morning."

Later in the evening he says that he's often accused of having a sailors mouth, "but I was a sailor at one point," he says, tossing out an expletive and then going into a song he wrote about his time as an oil rigger ("Rolled in from the South"). Some of these songs betray a slight country influence, but it's ok. It's also at this point that I decide that he kind of looks like a mash up of Moby and Elton John.

more after the jump...

Here are a few good bands that I've come across recently.

We Are Scientists, "After Hours"

I love these guys. Their output is a little uneven, but when they're good, they're good, and their live show is so much fun. They downsized from a trio to a duo sometime last year, and their new album "Brain Thrust Mastery" is out now. Hear samples here. They'll be at Music Hall of Williamsburg July 31, and Bowery Ballroom August 1.

Josh Fix, "Don't Call Me in the Morning"

I have been really digging this guy recently. Yeah, it's cheesy glam rock, but that's what makes it good. He's playing Arlene's Grocery tonight! I'm going! Listen here.

The Submarines, "Peace and Hate"

This band, my friend Ted turned me onto. This duo initially got together, both musically and romantically, in 2000ish and played with each others' bands. Then they broke up and wrote songs about that. Then they got married and wrote songs about that. Cute. Listen here.

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I don't know why I was thinking about these guys the other day, but I was. And, you know, we haven't really heard a whole lot from them ever since they revived rock 'n' roll back in 2004. (Yeah, they put out a sophomore album in 2005, but it didn't really get the attention of their debut.)

So what are they up to?

Well, according to their MySpace page, they're hitting the festival circuit in Europe, and they've posted a few new songs. According to bastion of truth Wikipedia, they're busy at work on a third album, due in October. The band's official website just says "not yet."

So that's the word on Franz.

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• Best Week Ever dug up this Italian version of the theme song from "The Fresh Pince of Bel Air." Watch it. It's awesome. (They also have some Japanese "Diff'rent Strokes" featuring Mr. T.)

• Music nerds love showing off their music knowledge. Quantify your musical geekery at this new quiz. (I got 111/180.)

• Yesterday we brought you New York Magazine's song of the summer musings. Today we have Idolator's Summer Jam Tournament. Go vote for Fergie. You know you want to.

• Brooklyn Vegan has the line up for the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival.

• Stereogum has a new Tricky video. You probably remember Tricky, even if you think you don't. He was trip-hopping all over everywhere at the turn of the century.

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NY Mag is on the hunt for the Song of the Summer, and they've got eight likely contenders. I just have to say I hate that Leona Lewis song, so I hope that's not the one that dominates the airwaves until Labor Day.

Personally, my vote is for this guy:

Gnarls Barkley, "Run"

One day this band will make it big. I just know it.

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A Chris Crocker appearance and an "All Your Base Are Belong to Us." That, plus Rivers' Earl mustache make this video awesome.

Also, the "shoes" guy. Apparently there are 15 YouTube references in the video. Can you find them?

This song is really growing on me.

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On a recent episode of NPR's All Songs Considered (this one, as a matter of fact), the show opened with a one Miss Laura Gibson. The song, as played on ASC (her MySpace has a different version), features a certain familiar haunting whine ... but I don't think it's a theremin! Her cast of characters includes a saw player, so as far as I can tell, that's what this is.

Whatever it is, her music is beautiful. You can here more here and here. As Daytrotter (the second link) puts it: "Without getting too mushy, Laura Gibson makes you want to cuddle. She makes the sort of soft sound that feels like bedding and comforters and logs crackling above a tame, but toasty fire."

eh.www.amNY.com

More on Islands ...

From their latest album, "Arm's Way," check out "In the Rushes" (in addition to all of the other tracks) on the band's MySpace page. The multi-part song ends with an homage to The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away." But the lyrics are all Thorburn-ed up, of course.

The original here (Part VI: You Are Forgiven).

Island's lyrics:

Cellos, cellos, cellos, cellos (x2)

I can't believe it
Believe that I had seen it
Remember who was in my arms
Remember when I had arms

It's like a dream the way that it unfolded
Like I'd been in the rushes without knowing

I kissed it but I must admit
I missed it now I do forget

Like I had been in the rushes without knowing

You are forgotten (x100)

Ah ... I remember fondly those days, back when I had arms ...

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"The Arm"

I interviewed Nick Thorburn of Islands the other day. I had previously said that Thorburn seems like a difficult guy to work with, given his many fights with different band members over the years. I still think that might be true, but I want to add that he is a lovely and earnest guy over the phone.

Of course, for my story, which will be in tomorrow's paper, not all the nuggets of deliciousness made it in. So I'm giving you some here.

(Just a quick refresher/context: Islands is a Canadian group that grew up from the remnants of PItchfork-annointed Unicorns, who were totally awesome. You should love them and everything they do. Thorburn (who had been calling himself Nick Diamons at the time) started the band with Unicorn Jamie Thompson (J'aime Tambeur) after they had split with the third Unicorn Alden Penner (Alden Ginger). After Islands' first album, "Return to the Sea" Thompson left Islands.)

EH: For your first Islands album, there were still a few Unicorns ideas hanging over. Is that correct?
NT: Yeah. Even on this record ["Arm's Way"], one of the songs is a Unicorns’ song, “Abominable Snow.” They weren’t fully formed, in that former life, but I still felt like they needed their moment in the sun.

EH: With each album, it does sound like it’s coming from the same band, but the styles are very different. Do you feel like you are searching for your style, or is it that you just like to experiment with different kinds of sounds?
NT: I guess we wouldn’t want to be pigeonholed into having one distinct sound, or have this genre-specific band. To me, there’s nothing more depressing, to be just classifiable. As a result of being someone who loves music, and who loves a wide variety of music, it ends up sounding a little more varied, I suppose. The band is so multi-instrumental. Our bass player comes from a tradition of African music, he’s from Ghana originally; the string players grew up solely on classical music, and the other two guys have different musical upbringings, too. When you throw that all together, that also adds to it. That’s the kind of the world we live in these days, where everyone’s taking pieces from everywhere else. It’s the postmodern existence.

EH: You and Jamie are still collaborating occasionally?
NT: We are, yeah. We had a tough spot that we got through. We’ve been through so much now that I don’t think that there’s anything that could keep us apart creatively for very long. We’ve been doing it for so long. I was very hurt when he initially announced his departure, and one of the songs on the record is about that.

EH: Did you ever get to a point where you were like, “This is enough. I don’t want to do this anymore”?
NT: I definitely felt like I was being pushed into that corner. When he left, I felt like it had been a series of trials and challenges that I wasn’t sure I was able to meet. What it did, I guess, was inevitably make me stronger and more capable of continuing and not being so reliant on other people, and being able to write songs without so much guidance; I felt that I really needed that before.

More after the jump ...

You can't really generalize about a given label's sound any more; the big labels all sound alike, and the "indies" sound alike, just in a different way. What makes a Sub Pop act different from a Touch and Go or a Barsuk or a Merge these days? (I'm not even going to get into the idea of indies owned by majors.)

That being said, I pretty much always like the stuff Ghostly International puts out. Their identity is predicated on electronica music that's a little bit weird, as far as I can tell.

This is all to say, I really like The Chap — who claim to "have never been influenced by anyone or anything at any time, ever."

Their new album comes out July 1, but there are already a few tracks making the rounds.

"Ethnic Instruments"

(I like the use here of what Pitchfork refers to as "some kind of boinging instrument.")

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In one of the most fun publicity stunts since he staged the PEHDTSCKJMBA press conference, Tom Waits interviews himself.

A sampling of Q&As:

Q: Can you tell me an odd thing that happened in an odd place? Any thoughts?
A: A Japanese freighter had been torpedoed during WWII and it’s at the bottom of Tokyo Harbor with a large hole in her hull. A team of engineers was called together to solve the problem of raising the wounded vessel to the surface. One of the engineers tackling this puzzle said he remembered seeing a Donald Duck cartoon when he was a boy where there was a boat at the bottom of the ocean with a hole in its hull, and they injected it with ping-pong balls and it floated up. The skeptical group laughed but one of the experts was willing to give it a try. Of course, where in the world would you find twenty million ping-pong balls but in Tokyo? It turned out to be the perfect solution. The balls were injected into the hull and it floated to the surface, the engineer was altered. Moral- solutions to problems are always found at an entirely different level; also, believe in yourself in the face of impossible odds.

Q: How would you compare guitarists Marc Ribot and Smokey Hormel?
A: Octopus have eight and squid have ten tentacles, each with hundreds of suction cups and each have the power to burst a man’s artery. They have small birdlike beaks used to inject venom into a victim. Some gigantic squid and octopus with one hundred foot tentacles have been reported. Squids have been known to pull down entire boats to feed on the disoriented sailors in the water. Many believe unexplained, sunken deep-sea vessels, and entire boat disappearances are the handiwork of giant squid.

Q: What is a gentleman?
A: A man who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.

Read the whole thing here.

eh.www.amNY.com

She's got more here (including original stuff).

eh.www.amNY.com

• Scarlett Johansson's album is out today, and Idoator rounds up the critical reaction. Pretty mediocre, everyone seems to be saying. Hear for yourself here.

• In better music, download a new Aimee Mann track at Brooklyn Vegan. She is so awesomely awesome and she totally downplays it, making her awesomer still. The song is a lament for turning 31 and she totally nails the slacker depression of a tail-end Gen Xer. Also, she was recently part of a New Yorker article about L.A. club Largo, that made me alternately want to be in with that crowd and punch them in the face.

• Also from the New Yorker, a list of 100 Essential Jazz Albums, jumping off from David Remnick's excellent piece on Phil Schaap a local jazz expert/historian.

• Spinner.com has their own Commercial Watch: Kraft Salad Dressing with "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," by the Flaming Lips.

• Today on Stereogum, Death Cab for Cutie guest blogs. First up, a long-winded discussion of Roger Waters and "Dark Side of the Moon." It's the kind of thing that's deeply interesting to a specific audience, and impenetrable to everyone else.

• Beck gives us a taste of his forthcoming Danger Mouse-produced album with the single "Chemtrails." It sounds like something (not Beck), but I just can't place it. The bass line is really nice.

• Check out Aquarium Drunkard for some Replacements tracks.

So Amstel Light & SPIN threw a little party last Thursday at the Boat Basin — which is a nice little venue for concerts, by the way. They should do that more often.

Up front, I should admit that while I recognized the name, I don't actually know Pete Yorn's sound so well. But I did know his first song, "Life on a Chain." As did the entire audience, who sang along.

He had a one-man-band set up, with an acoustic guitar and a harmonica around his neck, and an enthusiastic core of supporters ringed the stage. Towards the edges of the crowd people were less into the music, but enjoying themselves nonetheless.

His set, as you might expect, was comprised of early millennial singer/songwriter tunes. Simple but effective. I didn't actually recognize a whole lot. He played a low key cover of "Unchained Melody," which had a slacker vibe but was really pretty.

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As Gawker (and their clever commenters, excerpted above) points out, graphs about stuff are awesome. Check out GraphJam for more. Here are some of my favorites.

more song chart memes

more song chart memes

more song chart memes

And, of course, there's always Rob Harvilla's graphical dissertation of Mims' "This is Why I'm Hot."

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Another entry in our series that looks at non-traditional rock instruments rocking. Today we go to the bagpipe. For purposes of this list, I ignored groups like Seven Nations and Dropkick Murphys who make the Celtic sound part of their shtick in favor of those groups that pull out the instrument as a delightful surprise. Is it arbitrary? Yes. Is it my blog? Yes.

AC/DC "It's a Long Way to the Top (If Ya Wanna Rock 'n Roll)" The king of all bagpipe rockers. That searing whine kicks in at a little over a minute and doesn't quit.

The Roots "Do You Want More?!!!??!" It's not surprising that the band that'd also be on a "More Tuba" list has used bagpipes in the past.

Paul McCartney & Wings "Mull of Kintyre" OK, Paul's going for a Scottish folk song sound on purpose here, which could disqualify it, but it marks quite a departure from Wings' established style.

The White Stripes "St. Andrews (The Battle is in the Air)" Same deal.

Peter Gabriel "Come Talk To Me" Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" is the greatest video ever made. That's really it. I don't have anything to say about this video.

The Darkness "Hazel Eyes" I believe in a thing called BAGPIPES! This song is awful. From the Guardian:

Elsewhere, however, One Way Ticket to Hell ... defies you to take it seriously. Hazel Eyes may be unique in the canon of popular music. It is a rock record featuring bagpipes, on which the bagpipes are not the worst sound. The worst sound on Hazel Eyes is an electronic effect that makes the lead guitar resemble bagpipes. For purposes of comparison, the song helpfully offers up a duel between the bagpipes and the lead guitar that resembles bagpipes. The latter is thus revealed not just as the worst sound on Hazel Eyes, but incontestably the worst sound you will hear this year, or indeed any other year the Darkness chose to deploy it.

The rest of that review is delightfully vicious. I recommend it.

Belle & Sebastian "Sleep the Clock Around" I don't know what the deal is with that cat. Anyway, don't get faked out by the synth. The real bagpipes are at the end of the song.

Heard of more? Let me know (with audio citations, please) in the comments.

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• Here's Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla" shilling for Autotrader.com. Is it me, or does it seem like commercial music supervisors are playing a lot of Guitar Hero lately. (Speaking of, check out this list of songs that should never be on Guitar Hero at Pink Godzilla.)

• OK, Videogum is making me eat my words right away. They've dug up a commercial for Atlantis Resorts that totally bastardizes the Moldy Peaches "Anyone Else But You," aka that song from "Juno." Like the Peaches or not, this commercial is terrible.

• Fortunately, Idolator has the word on a study about which wines to pair with what type of music. "Unfortunately, Boone's Farm wasn't mentioned in the study's findings, perhaps because any classic rock automatically makes it taste 'totally freaking awesome' to all the college students embarking on long, dark nights of the soul who were surveyed."

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Speaking of William Shatner, he's had quite a singing career in addition to his acting career. And he's not the only Trekker to have made a go of it. Here's a selection of singing Star Trek alumni.

Leonard Nimoy sings "The Legend of Bilbo Baggins." Is your mind blown?

George Takei makes quite a country singer.

Tim Russ (Tuvok from "Voyager") has released several albums.

Brent Spinner (Data from TNG) released an album of jazz standards called "Ol' Yellow Eyes is Back." This cut, "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie," features a cameo by Patrick Stewart and supporting vocals from the rest of the TNG crew.

Know of any others?

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Today's story on William Shatner awoke a memory from my ska-ed up past. Long Island band The Scofflaws penned an ode to the man way back in 1995. Hear a live version here. Sadly, that's pretty much all the internet has to offer of that song. It seems mid-'90s, Long Island ska bands don't have videos on YouTube.

But the lyrics are great. If you can't decipher them in the song, read them here.

And if you like what you hear, there's more on the band's (still active!) MySpace page.

eh.www.amNY.com

For those of you following the saga, my computer is now back up. Super.

eh.www.amNY.com

I have no love for my computer, nor it for me, as it is totally NOT WORKING today. At this point, it's only mildy stressful, but I did a lot of work for tomorrow's paper last night and now I cannot access it. I'm not doing that junk again.

So I'm hoping Kraftwerk can spread their "Computer Love" and turn my unweildy paperweight back into a functioning analytical engine.

Oh, yeah, and the song may sound familiar because Coldplay sampled the main riff on "Talk."

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So I saw "Iron Man" this weekend.

Suicidal Tenancies, "Institutionalized"

Apparently Tony Stark is a punk fan. The movie has him listening to this song while he's working on his cars down in his workshop. Nice.

Also, because I know you care, I like that Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts has freckles. I hope she wears sunscreen ...

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"Going On"

Scifi-licious!

I love the supersaturated picture with the '70s-style titles. Neat video, neat song. Yes, there's nothing on "The Odd Couple" as ear-wormy as "Crazy," but I think the album as a whole is stronger than "St. Elsewhere."

If you still haven't heard it, download a backwards version here. And then ...

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This Garmin commercial aired during the Super Bowl this year, but I was among the five people in the U.S. who didn't watch (I don't like football OR commercials, so it seemed the telecast had nothing to offer). Anyway, this song sounds a heck of a lot like Plastic Bertrand's "Ça Plane Pour Moi" ... but it isn't.

Listen.

(Here's a Red Hot Chili Pepper cover)

The Garmin song, I believe, is a jingle written especially for the commercial. Full lyrics here.

(Also, the horn part sounds like an inversion of "March of the Swivelheads" from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (Listen), which itself is a remix of The English Beat's "Rotating Head.")

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We have moths. In our office. Thank goodness it's our Friday. With any luck, by the time we get back on Sunday they'll be gone.

In the meantime, here are some insect-inspired songs for ... well, us, really.

Jethro Tull "Moths"

Tiger Moth

Psapp "Rear Moth"

Black Moth Super Rainbow "Sun Lips"

They Might Be Giants "Bee of the Bird of the Moth"

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks "Dragonfly Pie"

Adam Ant "Goody Two Shoes"

So much more, after the jump ...

The Village Voice Announces Initial Lineup for the 8th Annual Village Voice SIREN MUSIC FESTIVAL™ at Coney Island

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Broken Social Scene, The Helio Sequence, Beach House, Times New Viking, Jaguar Love, The Dodos, Annuals, Film School, Parts & Labor, Dragons of Zynth, These Are Powers and more to be announced!

I totally heart Stephen Malkmus. I guess if you've been reading this blog for a while, that's pretty obvious.

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Nasty Little Man, Beck's PR firm, just sent out a release that confirms rumors that Beck's as-yet-untitled forthcoming album will be out this summer, months ahead of the original fall release date.

Having met a few years ago, Beck and Danger Mouse had planned to work together at some point, finally convening last December to do a few songs. Encouraged by the results, they decided to make an entire record and over the next few months recorded extensively, with the goal of using only 10 pieces in the end.

Yay! I'm excited. I won't hear anything bad about either of these two. Anything they touch separately turns to gold, so I'm sure this project will be ... well, gold-plated gold.

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I don't know if you know this, but it freaking RAINS in New Orleans. And as much of the city is below sea level, when it rains, it floods. We forded our (rental) car through some major water on our way down ... and while we freaked out, local residents did not bat an eye. This is all to set up our rainy Sunday spent at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

But first, though it had rained heavily the day before and the ground was quite soggy, we arrived to sunny skies and stopped in the gospel tent to hear Paulette Wright & Volume of Praise. The ensemble was dressed radiantly all in white, and from their volume (ha!) it sounded like there were far more people on stage than there actually were: Ten singers plus a small backing band. They were joyous and fun. We sat for one song to churchify the start to our adventure, but on the way out, they started in on "Tell Me Something Good," and we had to go back. I don't think the Rufus and Chaka version was talking about Jesus, though. But with a little tweaking, it actually works well as a song of praise.

When we finished up there, we headed across the h