The Current Music Blog: March 28, 2008 Archive

The Stream 03/28/08

Posted at 8:59 AM on March 28, 2008 by Barb Abney

Led Zep to play more live gigs?

Dinosaur Jr., Jarvis Cocker, Mission of Burma and more join the Pitchfork Festival line-up.

She & Him announce a few dates.

Today In Music History:
1945 - Chuck Portz (The Turtles) was born.
1965 - Steve Turner (Mudhoney) was born.
1976 - Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup died.
1981 - Blondie's "Rapture" was #1.
1995 - Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts announced they were separating after less than 2 years of marriage.

Live Blogging 03/28/08

Posted at 9:19 AM on March 28, 2008 by Barb Abney

Tunes On The Telly Tonight:
Sondre Lerche on Conan
Tomorrow
Wilco on SNL

11:45 a.m. The Raconteurs
"Salute Your Solution" is the first single from the band's 2nd album Consolers Of The Lonely.
Dates and more here...

11:30 a.m. The Kills
They're playing The Triple Rock on May 11th.
More...

11:15 a.m. The Breeders
Mountain Battles will be released on April 8th.
They're playing First Avenue on May 30th.
More...

11:00 a.m. Ladytron
Ladytron will release Velocifero on June 3rd.
Learn more and download a new tune here.

10:50 a.m. CD Of The Week - The Heavy
Listen to their SxSW performance in our archives.
Great Vengeance & Furious Fire is our CD Of The Week.
Get your copy when you support The Current online.
More...

10:40 a.m. Joseph Arthur
Could We Survive is the first of the 4 EPs that he is releasing between now and late June.
More...

10:25 a.m. Mike Doughty
See/hear his recent in-studio appearance here.
More...

Song Of The Day Info - Local Music - Mute Era
Today on our Song Of The Day Podcast we're featuring Mute Era with the tune "Quarter Moon" from the EP Light Dreams of Darkness, part of the double EP release along with Night Dreams of Day.
Hear from them again this Sunday night on The Local Show with Chris Roberts.
Tonight's CD Release show is at The Whole, Coffman Union w/ Blind Shake, Birthday Suits and MC/VL.
Tomorrow night's CD Release show is at Big V's w/ Daughters of the Sun, Vampire Hands, and Sarah Johnson.
More...

9:45 a.m. Vampire Weekend
They're playing The Triple Rock on April 3rd.
More...

9:30 a.m. Carbon/Silicon
Listen to their SxSW performance in our archives.
They're featured on our SxSW highlights video.
They're playing The Varsity this Sunday, March 30th.
More...

9:20 a.m. Lightspeed Champion
They have upcoming dates with These New Puritans
Listen to their SxSW performance in our archives.
More...

9:10 a.m. White Williams
Listen to his SxSW performance in our archives.
More...

A Look Inside Andrew Bird's Noggin

Posted at 12:07 PM on March 28, 2008 by Steve Seel (1 Comments)

Here's a really cool blog post Andrew Bird wrote for the New York Times. A handful of different singer-songwriters are sharing insights into their process of writing songs, and it looks like it will be a really fascinating read looking at the different approaches and accounts of how songs emerge and congeal in different artists' minds.

Just one more thing that gets me fired up to see Mr. Bird on June 21st at Rock the Garden.

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Do the Shuffle

Posted at 12:02 PM on March 28, 2008 by Tony Lopez (6 Comments)

Behold the power of sock puppetry!

"Let's Stay Together," Al Green
Yeah, you've heard it a million times, but have you ever heard a couple of sock puppets do it?

"I.C.B.," New Order
This is a song from New Order's 1981 debut, Movement. This album doesn't get much respect but I think it's pretty good. Yes, it sounds like Joy Division with lasers but it's still a decent bridge between JD and the sound New Order would perfect on their next album, Power, Corruption & Lies. Here's some live footage from Berlin in '81. It's not the best quality, but still may hold interest for fans.

"Al Bine," Ali Farka Toure
I think this was the first song I heard by Toure. I love the lazy saxophone on it.

"Right Out of Your Hand," Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave rules.

"Everything Man," Talib Kweli
The opening cut from Eardrum has a nice shot out to The Treacherous Three, the group that launched Kool Moe Dee into the hip-hop stratosphere.

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"My 3 Songs" for Friday

Posted at 12:48 PM on March 28, 2008 by Steve Seel

Here's a great Friday set, coming in long distance from Bryan Harmelink of Malvern, PA. He says, "They are the perfect way to get pumped up about life without sounding like a cheesy life coach."

1) Stars, "Take Me To The Riot"
2) The New Pornographers, "Use It"
3) Calvin Harris, "The Girls"

Which got me wondering: what music would a cheesy life coach recommend anyway? "Shiny Happy People?" John Tesh? Kitaro? Depends on the coach and the client I guess ...

Guest DJ Set 3-28-08

Posted at 4:02 PM on March 28, 2008 by Mark Wheat

The Winter Music Conference is happening in Miami this wekend. It's the SXSW for the dance music community, the biggest coming together of the worlds best DJ's of the year.
There's an awards show, panels and DJ events in every available cornor of the city
culminating in the Ultra Music Festival

To celebrate I thought we'd feature a classic session from the DJ that has probably done more than any other to promote dance music across the globe through his weekly radio show on the BBC...Pete Tong
He is so famous in the UK that there's a phrase created using his name, based on the idea of cockney ryhming slang; "It's all gone..Pete Tong" meaning, it's all gone wrong. This is tantamount to becoming the embodiment of a Dickens character, your name enshrined in the language in such a way, immortality of a special kind. Unfortunately the phrase was used as the title of a film depicting the life of a DJ. It was too painful for me to watch all the way through, but detailed the amount of partying that is possible to do as a world famous DJ! It struck me looking at the line up for the WMC that a lot of the big name DJs are...getting on a bit! The community has grown old rather gracefully too, not many drug casualties that I know of, correct me if I'm wrong, despite the fact that dance music has often been terminally linked to a drug culture! It is not easy to stay at the top of your career for as long as someone like Pete Tong, and still be respected by your peers and the many aging DJ's deserve some respect for showing that specialising in a hedonistic entertainment business doesn't neccesarily mean burning out fast.
Everything in moderation people!
Have a safe and happy weekend!!

Here's tonight's mix, available as a cd in the 'Essential 'collection;

'Essential Selection Ibiza 1999'
Disc One...tracks;
05 Moloko - "Sing It Back"
06 Full Intention Presents - "Hustle Espanol"
07 Paul Johnson - "Get Get Down"
08 Summer Daze - "Samba Magic"
09 High Steppers - "I Will Follow"
10 De Funk - "Pleasure Love"
11 Supakings - "Back and Forth"