am/fm

• This is awesome. It's exactly what Bowie meant.

• NPR's Robin Hilton, a while ago, pointed out this cover of Outkast's Hey Ya, done as a plaintive indie rock ballad. It really highlights the fact that despite the song's upbeat gloss, the words are really kind of hopeless and sad. "So why oh why oh are we so in denial when we know we're not happy here?" Here's the original.

• And speaking of "Hey Ya," Cats and Beer put together a list of "The Top 10 Rap Songs White People Love" ("Hey Ya" only gets an honorable mention, which I'd quibble with). And in the spirit of equal time, they also have "The Top 10 Rock Songs Black People Love, A Post Written By A Black Person", in which they invoke their own version of the Steely Dan principle: "All black people like Steely Dan. Any black folk who claims he doesn’t hasn’t heard them yet."

eh.www.amNY.com

Here we go again...

Bill Callahan "Woke on a Whaleheart"
This is a leftover from last week, when I did CDs that I should have listened to a long time ago. Callahan used to record under the name Smog, but underwent a metamorphosis that made him feel it was time to use his own name. Pitchfork had a really good interview with him about it.

His voice is still as deep as the deepest sorrow. But his outlook is slightly sunnier than it has been on prior records. Which is not to say that this is an upbeat record, just less sad.

Animal Collective "Strawberry Jam"
Another selection from last week.

AC is another one of those bands whose music just makes me a little nutty. (BJork and Yanni are others — NOT that I think their music is comparable in anyway besides the fact that something fundamental in their compositions disrupts my brainwaves.) I remember in, like, 2004, these guys were THE musicians musicians. Every band we would interview would name these guys as "what we're listening to" (at the time, we were encouraged to ask bands a stock set of questions). But try as I might, I just couldn't get into "Sung Tongs."

Leavened with electronic noodling (and a bit more of a traditional pop structure), their twee-tribal experiment is a little more tolerable. Maybe that says more about me than it does about them. But it's aight.

more after the jump.

Here's a baker's dozen of my favorite posts from the last year. They were either fun to write or fun to read, or I just think that they represent the blog pretty well.

1. These are the only acceptable Christmas songs.

2. Songs that feature cowbell prominently, in list form.

3. You should be watching Flight of the Conchords already.

4. I can't include this on my "Great Albums of 2007" list, because it came out in 2006, but The Cardigans' "Super Extra Gravity" is a great one.

5. I saw Calexico! I didn't tag it "live review" for some reason, so I missed it for the Best Shows of 2007 post. It should be on there.

6. I do love Muppets and Kanye, so when I can talk about them both in the same breath, I'm a happy girl. Also, I love imparting random, tangential trivia.

7. Porcupine or Pineapple!

8. The one and only Soundtrack Battle Wednesday.

9. An internet-wide discussion of the worst song ever. I still say not in a million years would it ever be "Ebony & Ivory."

10. Cool music makes the TV shows that play it cool, right? I don't know if I'm noticing it less, or what, but the hipetude of "Gossip Girl"'s soundtrack is less glaringly obvious these days. And, yes, I watch it every week.

11. I liveblogged the VMAs. It's taken me a while to recover, but I think I'll be ready for the Grammys by the time February rolls around.

12. We covered all aspects of CMJ (for which we won an award from Newsday!), including what was in the gift bags.

13. Me and the kids love Pavement.

eh.www.amNY.com

(This has nothing to do with music. I just love Yoda Cat.)

• More Kanye! The album's leaked and everyone's talking about "Good Life."

• David Bowie may appear on Dr. Who.

• For my UK reader (also, from my UK reader) a new database of songs used in British commercials. Now we can all be international commercial watchers!

• Heart on a Stick remembers Hilly Kristal and CBs with some live tracks from back in the day.

• And, finally, surprise! MTV isn't running this year's VMAs once and only once after all.

eh. www.amNY.com

This is really only tangentially related to music, but they're comedians who sing, so I'm going to go for it. New Zealand duo Flight of the Conchords have been all over New York City recently, pimping the start of their new HBO series, which premiered Sunday, although I'm sure it's on like 70 billion times during the week. And, or, you can watch it online here. It's funny as heck. The premise of the show is that Bret and Jemaine are in New York trying to break into show business, but the actual storyline follows their more mundane antics as they crash parties and break hearts. Oh yeah, and they break into song about every two minutes. It's totally absurd, and deserves to find a real audience.

Brooklyn Vegan has a review of their live show at Gramercy Theater from last week. And, to get back to the music, here's the Conchords performing "Bowie in Space."

I love it! Space IS a freaky place.

eh, www.amNY.com