Midlake - Roscoe

Acoustic version of the fine single Roscoe from Texas band Midlake's 2006 album The Trials of Van Occupanther. These guys are great harmonizers.

MP3 Midlake - Roscoe (acoustic)
MP3 Midlake - Roscoe (from 2006's The Trials of Van Occupanther)

Kevin Barnes covers Neil Young

Lovely! Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal covers Neil Young's Harvest Moon. Note rare shot of Barnes wearing men's clothing and no makeup!

MP3 Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal) - Harvest Moon (Neil Young cover)

!!! - Heart of Hearts The Knife - Silent ShoutThe Rapture - Get Myself Into It

I am not a huge follower of dance music but every year there are a few things I like. Here are three great recent dance tracks.


MP3 The Knife - Silent Shout
(brother-sister act from Sweden)

MP3 !!! - Heart of Hearts
(pronounced Chk Chk Chk)

The Rapture - Get Myself Into It
From NYC! They and !!! are considered "dance punk."

Black Kids - I'm not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You

Super-catchy song by unsigned band from Jacksonville, FL named Black Kids. Lifted right from Pitchfork.

MP3 Black Kids - I'm not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You (from 2007's self-released Wizard of Ahhhs)

Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear - Graceland

Wow, I love this! Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear (yet ANOTHER great band from Brooklyn) gives Paul Simon's Graceland a very different treatment.

MP3 Daniel Rossen - Graceland (Paul Simon cover)

Sigur Rós - Glósóli video

Another all-time favorite video, the single off 2005's Takk...by the best band ever from Iceland. Children, nature and magic always figure in Sigur Rós videos. Watch till the end!

Elvis Perkins - All the Night Without Love

Speaking of Daytrotter, here's Elvis Perkins doing a fantastic version of this beautiful song off Ash Wednesday earlier this year in the Daytrotter studios. It's the new folk, folks. (And yes, this is Tony Perkins' son.)

MP3 Elvis Perkins - All the Night Without Love (acoustic from Daytrotter session)
MP3 Elvis Perkins - All the Night Without Love (from 2007's Ash Wednesday)

Johnny Cash - Hurt video

Time for another video. I'm just putting this up because it needs to be here. Best music video ever. Johnny Cash covering Nine Inch Nails' Hurt.

If you've never heard Trent Reznor's original, it's way different.

MP3 Nine Inch Nails - Hurt (from 1994's The Downward Spiral)

Doveman does Radiohead

OK, gotta get off my National kick that's lasted all summer. So here's Doveman, another Brooklynite who plays piano on a couple songs on Boxer (the ones where it's not Sufjan) and joined the boys for part of the set in Philly (he opened).

MP3 Doveman - Airbag, from Stereogum's OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer on its 10th anniversary. Doveman took the first song off the record and did a splendid job.

MP3 Doveman - Honey (so you can hear what his own stuff sounds like, it's not Radiohead)

The National - Lucky You, 2007

From the Daytrotter Session, 2007. Original version ends 2003's Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers. This just might be my favorite National song ever. They almost never play this live anymore, but Daytrotter got it out of them.

MP3 The National - Lucky You
MP3 The National - Lucky You (from 2003's Sad songs for Dirty Lovers, without piano)

The National - Apartment Story video

The video for The National's new single, Apartment Story, is basically an expansion of the album cover, though that was real and this is staged. The B-side to the single will be a live cover of Springsteen's Mansion on the Hill which makes me so happy.

Tired and wired we ruin too easy...