FANTASTIC WEAPON

I fucking hate mondays. I hate them so much that I'd rather not participate in them at all, but this morning was cool cause while I was driving with one hand/tweeting/facebooking/smoking in shitty traffic, I came across the following news: Manchester post-punk act The Durutti Column will release and perform A Paean to Wilson - a tribute to Factory Records co-founder and Hacienda nightclub manager Tony Wilson - in January next year. Source: Durutti Column to release and perform tribute to Factory Records co-founder - Fact Magazine

I'm not really sure whether I'm all that into Norah Jones, but Sunday marks her return to Soundcheck. This time, she's back to promote her upcoming record, "The Fall" which was co-written by the dude from Okkervil River and Ryan Adams, and which you can preview via NPR's exclusive first listen. According to NPR, "It's best to disregard much of the pre-release attention surrounding

I don’t really remember how we found out about this guy, but it’s (kinda) true what they say – that he’s “the funniest man in america” – actually, right now I don’t agree with that at all but if I did this would be my proof:

He has a few records out but a couple years ago he put one called Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners and it’s basicaly the funniest thing ever. Los Angeles (and other parts of the country),
Neil Hamburger will Continue reading The Funniest Man In America: Neil Hamburger...

Checkout this clip of Nirvana performing "School" at the 1992 Reading Festival - I guess it was recently made available for fans and comes from the CD+DVD Nirvana Live At Reading which hits stores November 17th. (CD only version arriving on November 3rd.) Nirvana's performance at the Reading Festival in 1992 was one of the greatest Nirvana shows of all time (not that I've actually ever seen them live on anything other than video/tv) - but it was the one where Kurt Cobain came on stage in a hospital gown. Ring any bells? If not, don't fret - fans can now own a color-corrected video from the original film with audio sourced from the original multi-track masters. Thanks to the guys at totalassault for sending this over.

Let me preface by saying I have not heard any songs by any of these artists except for the ones posted below. I kinda feel like the rest of them will probably suck, so at the risk of losing esteem for the presented tracks, I think I’ll choose to remain ignorant.
Owl City – Fireflies – This guy sounds exactly like The Postal Service, which I guess is ok, kinda. I just like this song cause it tickles my brain and the lryics are freaking adorable. Like this video. I don’t Continue reading 3 Songs I Kinda Love (By 3 Artists I Really Don’t)...

The Associates released 'Club Country' on April 26th 1982, which appeared on their third album, Sulk. The B side was a non-LP track. The 12 inch version added "Ulcragyceptemol" (added as a bonus to Sulk when it was re-released) and a remixed version of "Club Country". The single reached the #10 spot on the U.K. singles chart.

Yes I know it’s Sunday, so what? Since I haven’t been vibing on any music lately, except for Shellac (obviously), and I can only post the same 5 Shellac songs so many times before someone’ll throw a brick at my head until I can’t lift it anymore, I had to come up with something. So these are my 3 favorite songs written before 1970. At least, they are for right now and probably still will be tomorrow. Did anyone else almost by that video game that used ‘White Rabbit’ Continue reading FLASHBACK FRIDAY: The Box Tops, The Buckinghams, and Jefferson Airplane...

Even though I'd say the readers of this blog are probably not interested in Shakira, the REMIX FAIL post got shit tons of traffic so some of you MUST be interested. Shakira stopped by Soundcheck a couple weeks ago and performed 3 tracks from her new release, "She-Wolf." The exclusive interviews and performance videos will be live on the soundcheck website on September 28th. Until then, here's some other stuff:

Brand New are gearing up for the release of their new full-length album, Daisy, out September 22nd, featuring the first single "At The Bottom." The album, which promises to be another boundry breaking assault, is the follow-up to The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, an album that earned critical acclaim from SPIN, Blender, NY Times, LA Times and Billboard, among others.

This is a fucking super group if I’ve ever heard of one. The band consists of HR from Bad Brains, Norwood Fisher of Continue reading Thursday 10.08.09: MR. GREEN ALL STARS (HR – Bad Brains, ROCKY GEORGE – Suicidal Tendencies, NORWOOD FISHER – Fishbone, THE SCIENTIST) @ echoplex...

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Photo Credit: Camilla Stephan
Early last week, The Raveonettes unveiled an ode to overdosing and/or love called “Last Dance,” the first proper single from the Danish noir-rocker’s October 6th Vice release, In And Out Of Continue reading The Raveonettes – Chelsea Sessions Clip and Last Dance MP3...

A German spider specialist told the Observer newspaper he named the new species after Bowie — whose album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was a huge hit in 1972 — because he wanted to raise awareness about the discovery.

I coulda sworn that my old roommate mentioned this years ago - that Belding does Karaoke at all the dives in like Glendale and Burbank. I wonder if this was the plan the whole time? Either way, he fucking does JOURNEY. Anybody remember that episode of family guy where they have to save the clam and peter and quagmire and cleveland and joe start singing 'Don't Stop Believing' and then all of a sudden everybody cruises out and the bar is packed again

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The Jazz Butcher, also known as The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy and The Jazz Butcher And His Sikkorskis From Hell, are a British musical group founded by Pat Fish. Their oeuvre is blackly humorous with such topics as Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, an unrequited crush on Shirley Maclaine, and an ode to SF writer Harlan Ellison. Continue reading THE JAZZ BUTCHER IS PLAYING PTP FEST 2...

Every cover this band pick just seems to get better than the last. Or, better than the last one i found, and since I already blasted your brains with VU covers twice today, Let's go for PTV covering the fucking Beach Boys.

IAMSOUND records really scored with these dudes. I hear steel drums, and pretty much anything with steel drums scores points in my book. Seems like they're gonna put on a pretty entertaining show at the Little Radio shindig on Sunday. Be there or be really, really, really square.

Psychic TV performs "Foggy Notion" by The Velvet Underground. Filmed by Howard Wuelfing at WXPN at The University of Pennsylvania for NPR's "World Cafe" with David Dye on February 21, 2008. Engineered and recorded by Chris Williams. Full audio version available on Psychic TV / PTV3's "Mr. Alien Brain Vs. The Skinwalkers" on Cargo/Sweet Nothing Records.

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Dude, The Jesus Lizard are touring again! I mean, obviously they’ve already played Pitchfork fest and a couple other shows but that’s all the way over THERE and I’m all the way over HERE. Howcome I’m always like, the LAST to find out everything? You wanna see the reason I’m so stoked??? (Among other things) It’s (mostly) cause of this right Continue reading The Jesus Lizard in LA – October 2009...

Beck's website is pretty bitchen. Back in June he launched a section called "Record Club" that features weekly videos of Beck and his friends re-recording entire albums. The first one is The Velvet Underground & Nico. Here's what he has to say about it:

So I’m not sure how I missed this, but I just heard from my guitarist yesterday that the drummer from Lit had passed away about 2 weeks ago. The band released the following statement on their MySpace:
Allen Shellenberger, drummer for Orange County rock band Lit, lost his battle with brain Continue reading RIP Allen Shellenberger, 1969-2009...