new shins vid

I like the song, of course. The video is sorta dumb, though...

who knew...

...that big ol' dorks could rock your face off?



Seriously, if you are not in possession of The National - Alligator in some form already, you are dead to me.

the umbrella sequence

Sometimes, you find yourself composing a blog post as you cut and paste the links and put together the material you want to post. And sometimes, when you hear these fledging blog posts, you want to punch your own teeth out for use an analogy that, by now, ought to be outright illegal. Treasonous, even. Alas, it's something I have to do in this case.

So, The Umbrella Sequence (The US) sound a lot like Radiohead. Radiohead playing a show on valium. Well, at the very least, the lead singer sounds a lot like Thom Yorke.

They have a little shockwave radio on their website I'm going to try to embed here. Let's see if it works, shall we?



Check out their MySpace for more samples.

rodrigo y gabriela

Finally, some "World" music you can hang your hat on! Great skill, catchy tune, the snobbery of culture that comes with pointing out you're listening to international music not from the U.K...

So, here's Rodrigo y Gabriela (from Mexico) playing Tamacun:




All I can is poor We Are Scientists...

Disclaimer: I chose Jools Holland because of the song they were playing. There are other clips over at YouTube if you care to see. I'd have picked a Not-Televised one if I weren't so intellectually honest...

not visible, like smallpox...

Not exactly music, but poetry, perhaps...? ;-)

old crow medicine show

Okay, loving them! Here's a music video of them. I'm trying to convince the Tiger-part to take me to their show when I visit him next week. :-) Oh, and here's their myspace.

ack! FF 2.0

Okay, so Firefox 2.0 doesn't seem to like the embedding technique for a couple of the non-YouTube videos on this page. Until I figure out why, here are the links to the videos in the now-disabled posts.

Geek-apella

Gay Boyfriend

can i just say...

that I think they have just about the best harmony two voices can enjoy? Tegan and Sara, I mean...

explodingdog.com

Somdays you make me so sad

love??

I would just like to point out I've done a fine job of blogging this month. I think I need some comment-lovin'. Also, GALLE! (That's all I have to say about that...)

sufjan ward

You guessed it: another strained Pooh-analogy... But tell me I'm wrong, go on! This is totally a good one you guys. It's Sam Amidon. I like him. I found out about him because, oddly, I was browing Icelandic music festival lineups. Never fear, though; I think he's from Pennsylvania. And he totally sounds like m.ward singing for Sufjan Stevens...

Sam Amidon - Another Man Done Gone

administrivia

Sorry for a couple of broken links on here. For some reason, box.net is now giving me grief for linking directly, but it worked fine when I tested it. Perhaps it was because I complained to their support personnel that the links didn't have file type, so the snifty little "playTagger" function wouldn't work.

Well, their interface is far better than EZArchive, and site response time much better, so I'll probably transfer my subscription in a few days. In the meantime, the links will be doomed to failure...

wooden wand...

...and the Vanishing Voice.
...and the Sky High Band.
...and the Omen Bones Band.

Which ever name they're using today, they're fun psychedelic folk from the awesome KillRockStars stable. And theirs is another show (along with Joseph Arthur's) that I'll be missing tomorrow in Austin. Check them out!

Being broke-like sucks. Being broke-like and in College Station sucks more.

Wooden Wand - Portrait In The Clouds

Wooden Wand - Eagle Claw

back on final fantasy for a moment...

Here's a video of the song posted below being performed live. His live shows look great. Watch how he builds the song up, etc, etc... Yeah, whatever. We all know the real meat of the show is the bitch in the bun doing visuals. Check this out. It's hilarious :-)

the format

A New Friend (more later if you're I'm lucky) recently recommended The Format. Naturally, since I had never heard of them before, I was intrigued. Then he said they were opening for Fallout Boy (hiss) on tour soon...

But nevertheless, not wanting to disappoint New Friend, I checked them out. I was shocked to discover some smart, tolerable - nay, enjoyable - power-punk-pop. Good hooks without getting gimmicky or overly commercial. Perhaps just the right amount of angsty whine. (Okay, to be fair, they've had the benefit of seeing Dashboard Confessional wring that dishtowel dry...) Literate - if not demonstrably literary - lyrics...

Continuing a trend, I'll stab at a most-likely-bad analogy: they're like what Jimmy Eat World might sound like if the Postal Service couldn't touch an instrument but were in charge of all production. And helped write the songs, too, but only after a night of drinking and rowdy showtune-singing... Umm, and that's early Jimmy Eat World, for all you post-Bleed American posers.

The Format - She Doesn't Get It

Don't be afraid to like this song. The album is diverse...

Note to the Tiger half of this blog: I gave you Static Prevails in 1999, which I had claimed from the demo bin. I need to be cool for that.