The Flaming Lips - Watching the Planets live on Conan

Absolutely hilarious and who doesn't wanna bang that gong? Funniest live rock show I ever saw, well worth the price of admission. New double LP getting fantastic reviews.

MP3 The Flaming Lips - Watching the Planets (from 2009's Embryonic, featuring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs)

The Beatles vs Radiohead

So let us review...this week the Beatles' remastered albums were reissued and reviewed by Pitchfork, who rated them as follows:

1963 Please Please Me 9.5
1963 With the Beatles 8.8
1964 A Hard Day’s Night 9.7
1964 Beatles for Sale 9.3
1965 Help! 9.2
1965 Rubber Soul 10.0
1966 Revolver 10.0
1967 Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 10.0
1967 Magical Mystery Tour 10.0
1968 The Beatles (the white album) 10.0
1969 Yellow Submarine 6.2
1969 Abbey Road 10.0
1970 Let It Be 9.1

Compare these numbers to the numbers for Radiohead, the most critically acclaimed band of the last 15 years:

1993 Pablo Honey 5.4
1995 The Bends 10.0
1997 OK Computer 10.0
2000 Kid A 10.0
2001 Amnesiac 9.5
2003 Hail to the Thief 8.6
2007 In Rainbows 9.7

In their 8 years of recording together, the Beatles put out 12 studio albums (not including the soundtrack to Yellow Submarine, which Pitchfork rightfully calls the "only minor album" of their career), including the double white album. They released at least one album every one of those years, and most years they released TWO. In contrast, in 18 years of recording, Radiohead have put out just seven studio albums, and no doubles.

Now I love me some Radiohead, but there is no overestimating the significance of the Beatles' catalog on popular music.

Of course there is a major difference between the bands. After 1965, the Beatles were strictly a studio outfit. They did not tour or perform live at all (except for that rooftop last-gasp thing), which gave them lots of time to write and record. Bands can no longer pull this off and are now forced to tour relentlessly, as recorded music is something most people don't pay for anymore.

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother

Super cool video by The Dead Weather, Jack White's new project with Alison Mosshart of The Kills. If you've ever wanted to mow down an ex...

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother

X - We're Desperate (live in Philly)

I posted this clip to youtube! My favorite band of all time X played a great requests-only set last night at WXPN's World Café on Walnut Street in Philly, a fantastic venue that seats only a few hundred and serves excellent food to boot. Mark went to his first punk show in 30 years. Openers Twisted Hearts (featuring Steve Soto of Agent Orange and the Adolescents) were also very good. And the World Café actually has free parking now right across from the club, it's amazing!


X - White Girl (from 1981's Wild Gift)

RIP Jay Bennett, 1963-2009

Bennett smoking one of millions of cigarettes during the filming of IATTBYH.

Mark and I watched I Am Trying to Break Your Heart last night in honor of Jay. We're seeing Wilco July 18th at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, NY, with Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.

Chicago Tribune obit
NYT obit
BrooklynVegan tribute

MP3 Wilco - I'm Always in Love (from 1999's Summerteeth)

Sigur Rós video on Pitchfork TV

MUST-SEE incredible 48-minute behind-the-scenes documentary on Sigur Rós, this week only on Pitchfork TV.

Rivers Cuomo and Rainn Wilson - One of Us

Recording was done for this weekend's "takeover" of Sirius Radio's AltNation by Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and actor and Coconut Records frontman Jason Schwartzmann (two Coppola posts in a row, what are the chances?). They don't actually start the song until 4:40 but Rivers sings it quite beautifully, and Rainn does a more than serviceable job on bongo.


MP3 Joan Osborne - One of Us (from 1995's Relish)

Phoenix - Love Like a Sunset

Like Air and Daft Punk, this French band is from Versailles, but unlike their neighbors, Phoenix are not a techno outfit, but more of a straight-up indie rock band (though with some techno elements), who sing in English. In other words, they sound like they could be from Brooklyn.

Frontman Thomas Mars (looking right at you, above) is director Sofia Coppola's boyfriend and father of her two-year-old daughter. They met when Mars was helping with the music for Coppola's directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides, one of Anneliese's favorite movies when she was a teenager.

Below, this seven-and-a-half minute opus off the nicely titled new album starts out instrumental and ambient, morphs into a (still wordless) dance number at about 3:45, and then at 5:45 completely folds on itself to become a lovely rock ballad (with vocals).

And while these vids are still up, catch the band on SNL last weekend, doing Lisztomania and 1901. As somebody said, they couldn't be from Brooklyn because they actually looked like they were having a good time on SNL, lol.

MP3 Phoenix - Love Like a Sunset (from 2009's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)

M. Ward - For Beginners (aka Mt Zion)

You really have to read 35-year-old Portland, OR native M. (Matt) Ward's Wiki to get a feel for the kind of people he has worked with in his 10-year career. He is an absolute top-shelf songwriter with a warm, sexy voice, and his records are impeccably produced. The latest is fantastic, and features Ward's She & Him collaborator Zooey Deschanel, the great Lucinda Williams and Jason Lytle of Grandaddy. Highly recommended.

Very nice recent Vanity Fair interview with Ward here.

MP3 M Ward - For Beginners (aka Mt Zion) (from 2009's Hold Time)

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr - A Little Help from My Friends (live at Radio City)

I'm very grateful I've had the chance to go to spectacular venues like Radio City Music Hall, so when I see a video like this, I can really imagine what it was like to be in that very big and very beautiful room participating in this communal spectacle of half-a-Beatles-reunion. Quality is poor but this is a must-see anyhow. Paul (66) and Ringo (68) share a mic and everybody knows all the words.

There's a better quality video of just Paul doing Drive My Car over here. And Ringo reaches WAY back into the catalog for Boys, here. The whole gang (including Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Sheryl Crow, Donovan, and Mike Love of the Beach Boys) does I Saw Her Standing There, here. This was a benefit for transcendental meditation organized by movie director David Lynch.

The thunderous applause that follows is of course a thank you not only for this performance but for almost 50 years of art and entertainment from these guys. It's basically a thank you for rock and roll as we know it.

I have a feeling Sir Paul is going to actually kill headlining at Coachella in eleven days. And with Morrissey (49), Franz Ferdinand (Alex Kapranos, 37), and Leonard Cohen (74) playing right before him, night one is quite excellent, if a bit on the older side for the festival. I wonder what the kiddies will think of all these geriatrics...