New York Times: ‘Office’ Songs in the Unhip Keys of Life and Karaoke: “If a song is popular now, don’t expect to hear it on ‘The Office’ until late next year.”
Author: Andrew Raff
Jazz: The Lost Years Wiki
Behearer: “An interactive archive of jazz and creative music recorded between 1970 and 1989. Who says jazz died in the seventies? This is a database for documenting and discussing one of the richest—most overlooked and underrated—eras.”
NY Times: In the Blogosphere, an Evolving Movement Brings Life to a Lost Era of Jazz: ” But over the last six months, a far-flung contingent of musicians and aficionados has made an effort to upend that prevailing notion, armed with stacks of vinyl, high-speed Internet and a shared conviction that [jazz in the 1970’s was] really far from moribund. Along the way, they touched off the year’s most animated public discourse on jazz, a democratic exchange that culminated last weekend in the debut of behearer.com, an interactive database devoted to the music’s most conflicted period.”
The Bosch, Hymns, Mancino @ Mercury
All in all, a fun show on Saturday at the Mercury.
Mancino:
Hymns:
The Bosch:
I was very impressed with Mancino, who go to great lengths to recreate the studio sound live, with all three members picking up extra instruments as the songs demand. Their new album, Manners Matter is out today.
We in The Bosch just finished recording for a new EP last week:
The recording journal recounts the process in detail.
Mancino
Mancino is yet another band from Brooklyn. The three piece is set to release their new full-length, Manners Matter next week, preceded by a CD release party at the Mercury Lounge on Saturday, Jan. 27.
Here’s the fun and clever video for the catchy (if hard to spell) song “Hetchie Hutchie Footchie.”
Battlestar Bloopers
The second half of season 3 of Battlestar Galactica began on Sunday night with Rapture. Despite some weaker standalone episodes in the middle of the first half run, the Eye of Jupiter/Rapture cliffhanger didn’t disappoint. Welcome home, Mr. President.
The show has already wrapped filming for season 3. The blooper reel has found its way on the the internets:
Venues Shuffle
Luna Lounge is opening its new space in Williamsburg this weekend. As you probably know by now, the new space will be a larger venue than the Ludlow Street version. This venue will be larger than Mercury Lounge, but smaller than the Bowery Ballroom and close in size to Northsix The Williamsburg Music Hall. Luna will be open on weekends only for the first few weeks.
Sin-é is expected to close this spring. Oh well.
Poor Gary
Van Halen, the Ronettes, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, R.E.M. and Patti Smith will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. The Times reports that both David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar will be inducted with the Halen, but that there will be no love for interim sub Gary Cherone: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Backs New Members.
7 Favorite albums of 2006
I’ve been alerted that if I don’t post one of these before the end of the year, the music blogger community will shun me. Even more.
Eh, what the heck. Here are 7:
- Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
They’re not as good as the hype would make them out to be, but this album is still excellent. And it’s their debut album? - The Bamboo Kids – Feel Like Hell
Is this a cheat? Most of these songs were released on “This Ain’t No Revolution” in Europe last year. Whatever. It’s still a lot of fun. - The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
Prog-rock sea shanties. Put that way, it sounds really unappealing, but it’s actually all kinds of awesome - Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere
“Crazy” is this year’s “Hey Ya!” How can you not like it? - Earl Greyhound – Soft Targets
Have I mentioned how Earl Greyhound is all kinds of awesome? - The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America
They don’t sound alike, but thematically, this is the cool uncle to the Arctic Monkeys album - The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers
Straight-up straight-forward fun
And the “It was released last year, but I didn’t get it and listen obsessively until this year” album of the year is Devin Davis – Lonely People of the World, Unite!
Elsewhere; 2006 Music Bloggregate
Peter Frampton! It’s a Christmas miracle!
The battle of words between The Decemberists and Stephen Colbert boiled over into the rock battle of the century was fought on The Colbert Report, with Stephen Colbert and The Decemberists’ Chris Funk battling in a guitar competition: Rock and Awe: Countdown to Guitarmageddon.
Eliot Spitzer, Henry Kissinger, Anthony DeCurtis, Jim Anderson (NYU), Peter Frampton, Morley Safer, Robert Schneider (Apples in Stereo) and Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick) were on hand to make this the best final episode of the Report this year, and one of the best episodes of the series to date.
Henry Kissinger, are you ready to rock?
The Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan recaps: ‘The Colbert Report’s’ guitar shredathon brings in the big guns
Agents of Good Roots
Agents of Good Roots, my favorite underappreciated band of the late 90’s, is playing a couple of their occassional reunion shows this week in DC and Richmond:
Thursday, 12/21/06
Iota Club
2832 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201
Friday, 12/22/06
Alley Katz
10 Walnut Alley
Richmond, VA 23223