The Hooters - "And We Danced" Video

I had to post something Hooter-related having seen 'em this past Saturday. Very good show - the guys are good musicians, and Rob and Eric's voices still blend together really well.

Jamie McLean Band @ Velvet Lounge 4/1

Former Dirty Dozen Brass Band guitarist Jamie McLean has got his own thing going these days with the aptly titled project, the Jamie McLean Band. Funky and bluesy with some surprisingly soulful vocals, he’s got a new album, American Heartache, due out in April. I’m really digging the rollicking track “Home Movies” off of his previous CD. Definitely give it a spin, and you can go catch him live at Velvet Lounge in DC Tuesday, April 1st for a little Widespread Panic after-party action.

MP3: Home Movies – Jamie McLean Band

A Couple of Rick Springfield Pix

The on-stage lighting at the Rick Springfield show was pretty cool, and they had a lot of smoke to bounce it off of. Too bad I wasn't up really close w/ my new camera to take advantage. But I actually shot a silhouette of Rick while he was out in the crowd.

He's very fond of coming out into the audience so all of the ladies can hold grab his...err....hand. He was climbing all over the chairs, and went right by us, grabbing CC's hand as he went by.

Rick Springfield @ The State Theatre / Jessie's Girl

Yep, we did indeed see Mr. Springfield this weekend, and he put on a pretty good show. And, thanks to some good work by my dad, CC and I got to meet him and get a couple of autographs afterwards, much to her giggly delight!

Family Guy - Speaking Italian

I've suddenly become addicted to "Family Guy."

Honor By August / The Influence @ IOTA - Acoustic

If you’re looking for rock/pop with strong vocals – unplugged – stripped-down versions of The Influence and Honor By August (above) will be at IOTA, along with Dan Ferrari, this Sunday night, March 30th.

MP3: Ocean of Mine – The Influence
MP3: Hometown Heroes (live) – Honor By August

A Very Eighties Weekend

It’s going to be a very 80s weekend, as CC and I head off to NJ to see Rick Springfield (CC’s favorite singer evar) Friday night. If all string-pulling goes well, we’ll get to go back stage and actually meet Dr. Noah Drake himself. And then Saturday we continue the retro trend, returning to Virginia to catch The Hooters, which should be pretty interesting. They’re pretty good songwriters.

MP3: Love Somebody – Rick Springfield
MP3: All You Zombies – The Hooters

Threefer

ROSY: Philly’s Pawnshop Roses have got a new retro-sounding EP, Versions, coming out shortly, and you can stream a few of the new tracks on their myspace site here

CAPTURE: A shout-out to Information Leafblower, who shot the Jay-Z/Mary J. Blige 3/26 Baltimore show for Pitchfork – check out his damn fine pix here

GET DAMN: For you fans of The Damnwells, Gilly has got a bunch of live shows and demos up here – it’s very cool!

A Case of the Fridays

I’ve been knocked out for over a week with a big cold but I’m finally getting back in the groove. And I’m really digging the glorious driving, glammy pop-rock of the UK’s Switches. It’s exemplified by their track “Drama Queen,” and those whirring synths and woo-hoos don’t hurt either. Take a listen.

MP3: Drama Queen - Switches

And we close out with a little bit o’ country from Kathy Mattea. She’s returning to a rootsier sound on her new album Coal, and the first single, “The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore” has got that Appalachian folk sound. She’ll be in the area three nights next week, with two shows at the Barns at Wolf Trap April 1 & 2, and then one show at Ram’s Head Tavern April 3rd.

MP3: The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore – Kathy Mattea

The Raconteurs - "Salute Your Solution" Video

I'm really digging this new video for "Salute Your Solution" by The Raconteurs. Directed by respected rock photographer Autumn de Wilde, it's actually a series of over 2,500 photographs strung together - kind of like animation with photos instead of drawings. It's pretty rocking song, too, with some nice jagged guitar riffs.

racingpaperplanes

The other day I got an email from a band from Sweden called racingpaperplanes. When I went to check out their stuff, I thought I’d be hearing bubblegum pop or Euro-techno. Much to my pleasant surprise, it was heartfelt alt-country, and I was digging it. The Richard Wilson-led project has got a new CD due out in 2008, and the first single, “In and Out of Coma,” has a bit of a Tom Petty jangle to it. “In the Company of Ghosts” is from a previous album, but I really love its gentle dreaminess and how it descends into lovely harmonized choruses.

MP3: In and Out of Coma – racingpaperplanes
MP3: In the Company of Ghosts – racingpaperplanes

Threefer

LOVE SONG: Rolling Stone has a pretty cool Q&A and video snippet with “Love Song” singer Sara Bareilles here; and this video of her doing a live recording of “Gravity” is absolutely beautiful

DON’T…PANIC: Or perhaps you can, since Pretty Much Amazing has three tracks from Panic At The Disco’s latest album, Pretty. Odd., up right here

L/R: I was emailing with NOAAgirl regarding her potential move across the pond – which means she might have a left-hand drive Bug in a country that drives on the left – this cool map shows which side of the road the world’s countries drive on

Matt in Video

One of my favorite acts, Matt Nathanson, has got a new video out for “Come On Get Higher,” a bouncy, sing-songy sort of catchy pop song. You can check it out here. He’ll be rollin’ into town April 4th opening for Lifehouse at the 9:30 Club in DC. Tickets are already sold out, so you better go to stubhub, kids.

MP3: Come On Get Higher – Matt Nathanson

photo by Chapman Baehler

Threefer

YO JOE: I’m not sure how I feel about the upcoming G.I. Joe movie – the Snake Eyes character (above) looks interesting, though the linked story incorrectly states that Storm Shadow’s chief adversary is Snake Eyes, when I believe it was usually Spirit

COMEBACKS: Is American Idol bringing back the Wild Card policy? Well, only for charity, apparently…

STIPISH: If R.E.M. is still your thing, you can stream their new album, Accelerate, over on iLIKE here

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers @ The State Theatre

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers will be rolling into town this Thursday, March 27th for a show at The State Theatre. You might remember Roger Clyne as the lead singer from The Refreshments back in the 90s – they had their moment in the sun with a little one-hit wonder “Banditos.” Clyne is an accomplished songwriter and engaging performer, and he and the Peacemakers have been spreading their southwest-flavored Americana rock across the country.

MP3: Banditos (live @ The Aggie Theatre 8/20/05) – Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers

Peter Frampton - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Not feeling too good today, but I wanted to post something. I'm kind of in a Beatle-y mood after watching American Idol, so here's Peter Frampton getting his guitar on big-time (minus the talk box) on a searing live version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Alas it cuts off near the end...

A Quick Tres

RAUCOUS: Yep, there’s a new album by The Raconteurs dropping soon, and I Am Fuel, You Are Friends has got a live show by The Raconteurs from 10/15/2006 in Manchester up here

MUMBLING: Captain’s Dead has got a Dylan show from 11/12/1981 in Houston up here

MADGE: Pretty Much Amazing has got the new Madonna track, “Candy Store” up here

photo credit

Waitress

I finally saw the movie Waitress, and wow, it was one of the best little movies I've seen in awhile. The writing was sharp but sweet, and the acting (especially Keri Russell's) was superb. I highly recommend renting it.

Threefer - Sick Edition

DESIGN: The top 20 most beautiful cars of all-time here, as chosen by the readers of the UK’s The Daily Telegraph – personally, I’d go with the Miura or the 288 GTO (above)

PEPPERONI: Why have beer and pizza when you can have Sprecher Brewing Company’s pizza beer?

GUITAR: I tried to post the video of this, but it doesn’t seem to be working – anyway, I’ve been in a Beatles mood recently, and check out Peter Frampton getting his guitar on (without the talk box) on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” - Parts I, and Part II

Bellman Barker @ Black Cat Tonight

Yeah, I’m quarantined at home with some mutant cold or flu type thing, but others can still roam the streets unfettered. I had written about Bellman Barker awhile back, and I’m still obsessing a bit over their jangly acoustic-pop track “Pockets.” It sneaks up on you, and if you’re not careful, it’ll sink its harmonious little hooks into you. They’ll be at the Black Cat tonight w/ LeLoup and The Ruby Suns.

MP3: Pockets – Bellman Barker

Sick Day

Well, I'm home sick today with some sort of cold/flu - bet the office thinks I'm home to watch the start of the NCAA Tournament (which I really don't care all that much about), as opposed to blowing my nose and feeling achy.

Idolatry

AMANDA: I’m feeling queasy this morning, and AO’s serial Janis Joplin butchering of yet another song (“Back In The USSR”) didn’t help. Take my nurse. Please.

KRISTY LEE COOK: Three names – perfect for an assassin, but unfortunately, not for an American Idol. Better than last week, which is not saying a whole lot. Though I don’t really like “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” much, she screwed with the hook too much.

RAMIELE: Pretty much a middle school talent show version of “I Should Have Known Better” – a producer on the show should have known better than to let her either (a) choose that song, (b) that arrangement, and (c) that crazy ensemble. Her voice deserves better than that.

MICHAEL JOHNS: Had some OK moments during “A Day In The Life, ” but for the most part it was a compressed, confused mess of a song.

CHIKEZIE: A lot of pitchiness, dawg – but I was kind of digging the initial pseudo R&B arrangement if it had more appropriate percussion. Then his harmonica jag from hell practically gave me a seizure (or maybe it did), and “I’ve Just Seen A Face” went into a hot mess of an arrangement.

BROOKE: I felt like she was performing a kids show version of “Here Comes The Sun,” with her crazy yellow dress and hippy-dippy mannerisms. And I didn’t like this kids show.

DAVID ARCHULETA: The Josh Grobin lookalike (while singing) reaffirmed himself with a perfect maudlin version of “The Long and Winding Road” – Vegas, here he comes!

JASON CASTRO: Not a fan of “Michelle,” and it was a bit of a snoozer for me – but I’m sure the girlies will love it.

SYESHA: Her performance of “Yesterday” was my favorite of the night. She finally toned it down quite a bit and showed her vulnerable side, performing a quiet, yet powerful rendition of the classic while accompanied by acoustic guitar.

CARLY SMITHSON: I think I liked her version of “Blackbird,” though that trucker keychange was a bit odd, and she started belting a bit too much at the end for my taste.

DAVID COOK: I had no idea Whitesnake ever Coverdaled “Daytripper.” Anyway, David Cook did a nice slowed-up, bluesy, funky version – with an unnecessary talkbox interlude. Confidence was not lacking in his performance, I must say.

Threefer

HATCH: Alfa-lovers in the US, you may have an affordable hatchback coming your way in the near future – the Mi.To

GLASSES: Pop Candy’s got a most excellent interview with…Moby…right here

CUTER: New Death Cab For Cutie over at Stereogum here

Didn't Kipling Have A Slammin' 'Stache?

I’ve wanted to do one of those “See Which Celebrity You Look Like” things for awhile, and I finally did it. I snapped a picture of myself and ran it through the big woog machine. According to the widget, I look the most like the current Prime Minister of the Netherlands (Balkenende) and some random South Korean actor (Yong-Jun). I apparently also bear a slight resemblance to Anne Frank, but I’ll just leave that one alone. Anyway, the results/lookalike-ness…

• Jan-Peter Balkenende 71%
• Bae Yong-Jun 71%
• Greg Lemond 58%
• Rudyard Kipling 57%
• Jude Law 57%

And yeah, I want your top 5, too. Don’t be shy.

Wonderwall / Noel's Solo (2000)

Noel Gallagher, the Oasis bro who's usually behind the scenes, performs a nice stripped down version of "Wonderwall," and I'm king of digging it.

Threefer

ANGER: I’ve always wondered what a live Rage Against the Machine concert would be like – the raw power, the righteous indignation, etc. – anyway, Captain’s Dead has got a 2/2/1993 show from Stockholm here

ANIMATE: Those lazy bastards in Radiohead don’t even feel like making a videos for their songs, so they’re going to have the public earn all those free copies of IN RAINBOWS that they downloaded – check the contest here

EDITORIAL: Are you tired of the onslaught of unnecessary quotation marks in today’s signage? This blog has taken on the responsibility of pointing out the flaws of others. And there’s nothing quite as enjoyable as that.

Star Wars (Sweded): A Cardboard Hope

Star Wars - on a very low budget!

Madonna Demos

It's always interesting to hear original demo versions of relatively famous songs by the actual songwriter. Maybe We Ain't That Young Anymore has got a few original songwriter demos of three of Madonna's hits - "Like A Virgin," "Open Your Heart" and "Crazy For You" - right here.

Weekend Live Archives Mix

It’s the weekend, so here’s a mix of various live performances culled from Archives.org.

MP3: Billie Jean – Robert Randolph & The Family Band @ The Stone Pony, 7/2/2004
MP3: Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong – The Spin Doctors @ Mann Music Center, 7/11/1993
MP3: Lawyers, Guns and Money - Warren Zevon @ The Record Plant, 7/27/1978
MP3: Son’s Gonna Rise (solo acoustic) – Citizen Cope @ Borders, 9/17/2004
MP3: Kingdom Crumbled – Getaway Car @ The Birchmere, 2/18/2005

Photo by Paul Parks

Threefer

HARRY TIMES TWO: Looks like the final Harry Potter movie will actually be the final two Harry Potter movies…

MOCKERY: I love me some NFL Draft – and in the meantime, here’s SI’s Don Banks’ Mock Draft, Version 4.0

IDOLATRY: Did you dig David Cook’s alt-rock take on Eleanor Rigby on American Idol? You can download it here

Nashville Star Open Auditions In DC This Friday

Think you could be the next Miranda Lambert or Buddy Jewell? Nashville Star is having open auditions for its sixth season in DC this Friday, March 14th from 10am-6pm at The Westin Grand. It’s located at 2350 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20037. You’ve got to be at least 16 or older to audition, and you’ve got to sing a song off of the approved song list. For more information, check out the site here.

Bizarre Foods Commercial

Love this commercial for Bizarre Foods!

Hotspur - "Her Majesty"

It's the weekend, so I figure I'll put up a live performance clip to kick things off. Here's a nice slice of power pop with "Her Majesty" from locals Hotspur.

Rampant Idolatry

Syesha: Opened up Lennon/McCartney night with what could be described as a Motown-ISH version of “Got To Get You Into My Life” – but it didn’t have the pop it should have had.

Ramielle: Did a straight-up version of one of my favorite Beatles songs, “In My Life.” It’s a tough one to sing, and she hit it pretty well, but unfortunately it just seemed a bit listless.

Chikezie: Who woulda thought he had that in him? Chikezie came out guns blazing, nailing what I’d consider one of the lesser Beatles canon (“She’s A Woman”) in a fiery performance, building the song up from backwoods banjo to a raging rocker.

David Cook: His prog-rock version of “Eleanor Rigby” was one of my two favorite performances of the night – he had a few pitch issues at beginning and end, but was in the vocal groove for the most part in this very cool arrangement of one of my Beatles faves.

Carly Smithson: Frankly, I didn’t like it as much as the judging triumvirate – I thought she came on too strong too early with her vocals (like, immediately), and didn’t leave herself enough room to build things up…but perhaps it’s just cause never really did like “Come Together”

Brooke: Brooke did her Paul imitation, playing the piano, accompanied by the string section with a very heartfelt version of “Let It Be.” No frivolous vocal runs (she most likely couldn’t pull ‘em off anyway) - and it worked.

Jason Castro: The Jack Johnson of this season gave an acousta-snoozer of a performance on “If I Fell,” but you know the girlies will be digging it and dialing up.

David Archuleta: It’s tough to cover Stevie covering The Beatles, especially when you forget the words. I don’t know if David really fit into this funkified version, and this week’s performance of “We Can Work It Out” was his weakest so far.

Kristy Lee: She arranged “Eight Days A Week” into a revved-up countrified train wreck, though her vocals on the not-so-difficult song were OK. It would have been interesting to hear a slowed-down countrified version…

Amanda Overmyer: Please please me and vote this one-trick Janis Joplin pony off! No, she actually sang “You Can’t Do That,” but you can pretty much assume how that sounded, right?

Michael Johns: I saw him standing there, just singing “Across the Universe,” and not doing much else. Not memorable, and I think it was a wrong song choice. But I’m sure the chicks dig him anyway.

David Hernandez: His stop/start arrangement of “I Saw Her Standing There” robbed this electric rocker of its energy, and his showy vocal arrangement didn’t help things either. He’s got chops, but bad song choice.

Threefer

RECORD: Back in the day, I used to love paging through my Guinness Book of World Records – but they’ve got a website now – so you can find out useful things online, like who has the world’s longest tongue (alas, it’s not Gene Simmons)

CAMEO: A certain pop/tabloid star with a shaved head will be guest-starring in one of my favorite shows, How I Met Your Mother – HIMYM is really too good for this gimmickry

COOKED: The new season of Top Chef begins tomorrow, March 12, on Bravo, and apparently the chefs are better than ever

Malin Coverage

Jesse Malin’s got a new album of covers titled On Your Sleeve dropping April 7th. Though I’d prefer to hear a new rocked out album of new material, it’s interesting to see how he wraps his Neil Young-with-a-Brooklyn-accent voice around other people’s songs. I’m digging the piano-laced take on Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.”

MP3: You Can Make Him Like You (The Hold Steady cover) – Jesse Malin
MP3: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed cover) – Jesse Malin

Woof

I just got back from visiting my friends in Chapel Hill this weekend. Good time all around, plus I learned about how to watch a UNC/Duke game from the UNC side of things while I was there. My friends also have one of the largest dogs I've ever met - a Newfoundland named Lucy (see above). That's 135 pounds of dog.

Four-Banger

INTELLIGENT: Learn a bit more about the Smart Car in this interesting article here at How Stuff Works

NEW FAILER: Kathleen Edwards just released a new album, Asking for Flowers, and you can download one of the new tracks, “Sure as Shit,” over at Black Balloon here

CURVES: I enjoyed this Time Q&A with baseball stats guru Bill James here

LOUD: Check out Matt Nathanson & Ingrid Michaelson duetting on Matty’s “Loud” at a live show in Borders in Ann Arbor here (thanks, CC)

Lupus Day!

Lupus advocates from across the United States will come together in Washington, DC for the annual Lupus Foundation of America Advocacy Day beginning this Monday, March 10th. Advocates will urge Congress to provide more funds for lupus research to find the causes and cure for lupus, and for education and public awareness programs to improve early diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Threefer

$$$$: The Richest People In The World – and #1 ain’t Bill Gates!

TUBE: Gee, maybe kids shouldn’t watch so much TV after all – this photo project documents what children look like while actually watching TV – with the camera placed in the television (thanks, Roosh)

SHAKES: Can the new Gnarls Barkley video (“Run”) really cause seizures? Watch it on YouTube here, but you might want to pop a few Tegretol first...

DCist Exposed Photography Show

Need some new art for your walls? The DCist Exposed photography show will be taking place from March 7th to the 15th. You can check out some of the winners in advance here.

A Whole Lotta Screen

Apparently the new screen at Nationals Park in downtown Washington, DC is going to be big. Not like your 60" TV big. We're talking 1,300 inches - 101 feet long and 47 feet high. As long as it's ready for opening day...

The Sketches @ 9:30 Club

DC locals The Sketches will be at the 9:30 Club Monday, March 3rd w/ Blind Melon (are they still around?). I’m liking The Sketches’ catchy indie guitar-pop with super-strong vocals and tight harmonies. They’ve put together a couple well-done videos, too, with the sanitarium-themed “Pieces” and the DC-based “Sleeper.”

MP3: Dizzy - The Sketches

Photo by Jonathan Zuck

Threefer

YUM-O: The new season of one of my favorite new TV shows, Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern, starts this Tuesday, March 4th at 10:00 on the Travel Channel – guess I’ll have to record it, since I'll be at IOTA

INAPPROPRIATE: Cracked’s 40 Most Inappropriate Children’s Book Covers – as created by the Cracked readers

SCRAWL: Think your handwriting is the best in the world? Then create a font out of it here!

Jesse Malin @ IOTA Tuesday

One of my favorite acts, Jesse Malin, is coming to town this Tuesday, March 4th at IOTA so I’m pretty psyched. I haven't actually gotten to see him live yet, but his newest album Glitter In The Gutter was one of my top CDs of the past year. He brings the catchy guitar rockers with what’s definitely a distinctive voice. Here’s a video of his track “Broken Radio” (with Bruce joining on vocals), and one for “Don’t Let Them Take You Down.”

MP3: In The Modern World – Jesse Malin