I only leave mp3s up for a short while. Most of the MP3s I post have been made freely available by the artists. If you represent the artist and you want an MP3 removed, please email me and I will remove it immediately.
Support the artists you love. Buy their music (you can legally download most stuff you find here very reasonably from eMusic), attend live shows, and if you can afford it, get the T-shirt.
The great and powerful Radiohead have put out a new video for one of the best songs off In Rainbows, the stellar All I Need. It's an anti-slavery video. Using a split screen the band show a young Western boy going through his fun day of school, sports and art, while the young Asian boy who makes his shoes toils in misery on the other side of the world. The tag line: Some things cost more than you realise.
I join Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan (my two daily MUST READ music sites) in noting the death of Bruce's keyboard player of 40 years (ages 18-58) Danny Federici of Flemington, New Jersey. You can't think about Bruce's music without the keyboards. RIP Danny, thanks. More on Bruce's official site.
On Wednesday night, for the first time ever, Stephen Colbert had a band on the show, and he started right at the top with my beloved REM. Above, watch them tear through the lead single off Accelerate, Supernatural Superserious, the one that "sounds like REM" complete with jangly guitars, Mike Mills' sweet backing vocals, and muscular drumming for the first time since Bill left, courtesy of Bill Rieflin from industrial metal band Ministry (superseriously). Sure, Pitchfork will smirk "REM can write a song (like this) in their collective sleep" (instantly catchy, viscerally empathic--"now there's nothing dark and there's nothing weird/don't be afraid i will hold you near"--, unmistakably REM) but that doesn't make it any less great.
Also check out Stephen's interview, it's hilarious (Colbert asking Peter "How much mandolin is on this record?"). I'm so happy for REM everybody's liking Accelerate. As Colbert asked, "People are calling this your ‘comeback’ album. When you hear people say that, do you want to tell those people to go fuck themselves?" (yep, Stipe says, he does) Nice numbers on Amazon boys, by the way:
#1 in Music > Alternative Rock #1 in Music > Rock #1 in Music > Pop #! in Music
and on iTunes:
It's amazing to contrast the performance video above, which features a bunch of 50ish rock veterans whose place in music history is assured, with the performance below. This is their television debut on Letterman in 1983, playing Radio Free Europe off Murmur. Peter and Mike did a LOT more jerking and jumping around back then, they're absolutely frenetic, and MIchael was so shy and enigmatic. Watch, he can't even look Letterman in the eye at the end, and quickly puts his hands behind his back while Mills has to step up and be normal with Dave.
I saw them four times in 1983-4 before they were famous; they were so obviously great. The song itself is of course phenomenal and sounds fresh as a daisy. Interestingly, all the youngsters posting comments on youtube are amazed to see how punk REM was back in the day.
Also check out an acoustic version of Supernatural Superserious live on the BBC here, along with an acoustic cover of Editors' Munich. Good as well were the boys' live performances of Supernatural Superserious and the outstanding Hollow Man on the Today Show. And don't miss Vincent Moon's Takeaway Show featuring the band doing acoustic versions of five new songs (including the gorgeous On the Fly, left off the album) in random locations around Athens.
The new album is phenomenal. It's a concise distillation of all their sounds since 1981. Very enjoyable, thank you guys. Truly one of the greatest bands of all time. The week is better because of this album.
