REM - I've Been High (live @ the Hollywood Bowl)

Gorgeous acoustic version of this criminally underrated song from Reveal. One reviewer rightly called I've Been High "as close to a standard" as REM has ever written. The melody is breathtakingly beautiful.

The original version is semi-electronic but what's wrong with that? Get over it folks!

MP3 REM - I've been high (from 2001's Reveal)

B-52's - Love Shack in NYC

If this isn't fun I don't know what is. What a hoot. They also did Rock Lobster and the hilarious new single, Funplex. See 'em here courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan.

Prince covers Radiohead at Coachella

by KILLMEAGAIN60

Quite amazing seven-minute cover of Creep in which Prince plays both Thom AND Jonny...he followed this with, of course, a Sarah McLachlan cover. I still remember seeing him booed off the stage after 10 minutes opening for the Rolling Stones at the LA Coliseum in the early 80s, before Purple Rain. People were not ready for him at that time.

NOTE: Prince and his mad legal team ordered this video pulled from youtube even though RADIOHEAD obviously owns the copyright to the song and THEY thought it was funny and wanted it to stay up! How does this happen?

Radiohead - All I Need video

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.

RIP Danny Federici of the E-Street Band

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.

REM on the Colbert Report - Supernatural Superserious

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.



MP3 REM - Supernatural Superserious (from 2008's Accelerate )

Shearwater- Leviathan, Bound

Shearwater is the side project of Jonathan Meiburg and Will Sheff of Okkervil River. In Shearwater the songs are quieter and mostly piano-based, and Meiburg handles the vocals. The sound is completely different from OR, you would never know it was the same two guys at the helm. Meiburg is overeducated like Sheff with a master's in geography. He's a bird freak thus the name of the band.

This is from Shearwater's upcoming album Rook, to be released this June (and leaked well before, I guess I don't have to keep repeating that...)

MP3 Shearwater - Leviathan, Bound (from 2008's Rook)

Easter songs

How about some rabbit and bunny tunes for Easter?

MP3 Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins - Rabbit fur coat (From 2005's Rabbit Fur Coat)
MP3 Magnetic Fields - Let's pretend we're bunny rabbits - (from 1999's 69 Love Songs)
MP3 Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit (from 1967's Surrealistic Pillow)
MP3 Of Montreal - Bunny ain't no kind of rider (from 2007's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?)
MP3 Echo & the Bunnymen - Lips like sugar (from 1983's Echo & the Bunnymen) When we saw Coldplay in Paris in 2002, they covered this song as an encore and Chris Martin said it was his favorite song ever.

The Breeders - Bang On

Musicblogland is all abuzz with anticipation for the new record from this important late 80s/early 90s band featuring Kim Deal of Pixies and Tanya Donnelly of Throwing Muses (which she founded with her stepsister Kristin Hersh). This advance cut sounds great.

MP3 The Breeders - Bang on (from the upcoming Steve Albino-produced Mountain Battles)

She and Him - I should have known better (Beatles cover)

She and Him is the collaboration between indie rocker M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel, beloved most recently from her hilarious turn as Andy's crazy ex-girlfriend in Weeds.

MP3 She and Him - I should have known better (Beatles cover, from 2008's Volume One)