FULL STREAM: Jack White Live at Webster Hall

Watch Jack White's entire performance at Webster Hall in New York City tonight. The webcast will be directed by Gary Oldman as part of American Express' live Unstaged series and airs at 9 PM Eastern time/6 PM Pacific time. It's the same series that brought us the amazing Terry Gilliam-directed Arcade Fire webcast from Madison Square Garden.

Here's another promo video featuring Jack White and Gary Oldman together. There are four or five of these, but this one's my favourite:

Skrillex with the Remaining Members of the Doors - "Breakin' a Sweat"

This song makes me want to soak up all of the music in the world - whatever the fuck that means. Watch the trailer for the documentary it's from, and download the entire soundtrack at http://regenerationmusicproject.com/. It's a cool concept that shows what happens when past and present musical styles/thought processes in music-making collide. The documentary also features Pretty Lights, the Crystal Method, Mos Def, Erykah Badu, LeAnn Rimes, the Dap Kings, the Funk Brothers and more.

FULL STREAM: The Dandy Warhols - This Machine (The End Records, 2012)

For a presumably limited time on their website at http://thismachine.dandywarhols.com/. This Machine hit stores yesterday.

"The Edible Mixtape, Vol. 1"

"The Edible Mixtape, Vol. 1" from Jackson A. Ragg III on 8tracks.

49 min, 47 sec

1. The Books - "The Lemon of Pink"
2. Rebekah Higgs - "Apples"
3.Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Spinning Cotten Candy in a Shack Made of Shingles"
4. The Eels - "Hospital Food"
5. Robert Pollard - "U.S. Mustard Company"
6. The National - "All the Wine"
7. Yo La Tengo - "Crispy Duck"
8. Beat Happening - Fortune Cookie Prize"
9. Nodzzz - "I'm a Lemon"
10. The Kingsmen - "Jolly Green Giant"
11. Luie Luie - "Tortilla Touchy"
12. Leadbelly - "Corn Bread Rough"
13. Zoe Boekbinder - "Chocolate Chips"
14. Man Man - "Spider Cider"
15. Strong Arm Steady feat. Planet Asia - "Chittlins & Pepsi"
16. Borgore - "Ice Cream"

Five Shows in Portland

(Four of them in a row), two shows in Seattle, one show in Calgary, zero shows in Vancouver. Japanther, you're breaking my balls!

Favourites, Favourites, Favourites!

Virginia's jangly dream-poppers Eternal Summers cover "A Salty Salute," one of my favourite Guided by Voices songs from the 1995 lo-fi classic Alien Lanes (Matador Records), one of my favourite albums of all time. And, as you'll hear in this playlist, "A Salty Salute" is one of my favourite album-openers too. Eternal Summers' version can be found on their album The Dawn of Eternal Summers (Kanine Records, 2012).

Note To Self: Next Year, Book Off Record Store Day

I'm not missing it three years in a row. Here's a list of some of the FREE shows going on in Vancouver:

Zulu Records: 
Hannah Georgas - 5:30 PM
Damien Jurado - 6 PM
SISKIYOU - 6:45 PM
No Sinner - 7:30 PM

Redcat Records:
Ladyhawk - 2:00 PM
Apollo Ghosts - 3:00 PM
Hard Drugs - 4:00 PM
White Ash Falls - 5:00 PM

Neptoon Records:  
Elliot C Way and The Wild North - 11 AM
Rio By Night - 11:45 AM
Greenback High - 12:30 PM
Highway Kind - 1:15 PM
The Beladeans - 2 PM
Ballantynes - 2:45 PM
Rags To Radio 3:30 PM
B-Lines - 4:15 PM
Vicous Cycles - 5 PM
Shitty Neighbors - 5:45 PM
The Get Down - 6:30 PM
Hallow Moon - 7:15 PM

Levon

Dick Clark Interviews Devo on American Bandstand

Oh, the First Kraftwerk Song I Heard

Kind of changed my life.

Edit: Changed my life.*

Jack White ... RAPPING!?!?

Well, not quite but pretty damned close. And he sounds great and refreshing, whatever you want to call what he's doing.

Track #3 off of Jack White's upcoming solo album Blunderbuss is "Freedom at 21" (I guess someone caught one of his hot air balloons). As much as I've instantly loved this song, I actually don't have too much to say about it right now except that anyone who says Jack White sounds "uninspired" on his new songs/as of late can fuck off.

I realize this post is kind of moot now, considering Blunderbuss is streaming in full on iTunes (I'd originally planned to post this two days ago), but I'd might as well draw attention to an awesome song.

FULL STREAM: Jack White - Blunderbuss (Third Man Records, 2012)

Stream Jack White's upcoming album in full a week before its release by clicking here, unless you're like me and are waiting to buy the album. For a limited time only!

FULL STREAM: Azealia Banks Live at Coachella 2012

20-year-old Harlem rapper Azealia Banks' debut album Broke with Expensive Taste (Interscope) doesn't have a release date yet, but she's already been the hottest thing going for the last year; she has an EP coming out today called 1991 though (edit: due to managerial shifts as recent as three days ago, 1991 has been delayed yet again). Banks' Coachella set features covers of Prodigy's "Firestarter" and Amy Winehouse:

Free Download: New Dandy Warhols Song: "Well They're Gone"

From their upcoming seventh full-length album This Machine, due April 24 via the End Records (the same day Jack White's debut solo album Blunderbuss comes out. DAMN, that is going to be a good day!). Just click the top left of the Dandies' website to download.

One word: Wow. For the first time since Welcome To the Monkey House (Capital, 2003), the Dandy Warhols sound like they're trying something new - and pulling it off. Moreover, they sound like they actually give a crap about what they're doing; "Well They're Gone" is deliberate - meticulous - a clear change of pace from the Dandies' recent habit of of banging out mediocre pop-rock or cobbling together failed aimless, droning, ambient experiments.

"Well They're Gone" falls somewhere between the farmer's tan complexion of Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (Capital, 2000) and the light, dreamy electronic swirls of Welcome To the Monkey House, specifically "Insincere Because I" blended with the melody and rhythm of "I Am Sound" sedated by horse pills. "Well They're Gone" also exudes a bit of a haunting Gorillaz gloam as well, perfectly conjuring an image of a dead Western town - tumbleweeds and saloon doors gently blowing open and closed at sunset. Even This Machine's cover art and promo shots imply an earthy, pastoral, slightly deathly mood.

Considering folky, whimsical songs like "Big Indian" and "The Gospel" from Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia rank as some of the Dandy Warhols' finest work (their finest examples of song-writing for sure, excluding "Genius"), if "Well They're Gone" faithfully represents the album to come, This Machine will definitely be the Dandies' best album in nearly a decade. And long-time Dandies fans won't have to breathe yet another sigh of disappointment.

Oh, and there's this. BOOYAH!!! Dandy Warhols round 2! Happy Almost-Birthday to myself:

Hits Aren't For Squares

Thurston Moore's solo work is pretty hit or miss for me, but when it hits, it's out of the park:

Damn It, Santigold.

Why do you have to play the night between Bon Iver and Jack White?

"My Favourite Colours"

One of the most tedious, mind-numbingly painstaking parts of making a playlist is deciding the track-order. On the flip-side, one of the most rewarding parts is creating a seamlessly flowing playlist. Despite my original intention to create sequenced playlists on 8tracks, so far, "My Favourite Colours" is the only one I've had the patience to sequence. And featuring house, Japanese indie pop, minimal techno/dark ambient, ambient noise, hard rock, hardCORE rock, acoustic, Spaghetti Western, banjo jams and lo-fi rap, it's one of my favourite playlists I've made:

"My Favourite Colours" from Jackson A. Ragg III on 8tracks.

1 hr, 2 min, 53 sec

1. Man Man - "White Rice, Brown Heart"
2. Shugo Tokumaru - "Green Rain"
3. Axel Boman - "Purple Drank"
4. Pantha du Prince - "White Out"
5. Queens of the Stone Age - "The Bronze"
6. Hüsker Dü - "Pink Turns To Blue"
7. Thurston Moore - "Silver > Blue"
8. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppe - "Black"
9. Candy Bars - "Violet"
10. Cass McCombs - "Robin Egg Blue"
11. Leadbelly - "Yellow Gal"
12. Roy Brown - "Black Diamond"
13. Jon Spencer Blues explosion - "Magical Colours"
14. Old Man Luedecke - "Salute To the Gold River"
15. Beat Happening - "Don't Mix the Colours"
16. Peaches, Bitch Lap-Lap (Feist) & Gonzales - "Red Leather"
17. Noveller - "Brilliant Colours"

Sharon Van Etten with the War on Drugs Live at the Biltmore Cabaret

All photos by Ashley Tanasiychuk

March 24, 2012
The Biltmore Cabaret
Vancouver, British Columbia

Of course, as soon as I say, "I've learned to always go to shows as soon as doors open," the doors for the next show I go to open half-an-hour late. At least the show itself wasn't delayed at all.

The likely reason for the delay was because the War on Drugs, the night's opening band - the band I went to see - had finished a free half-hour set at Zulu Records a mere two hours before the doors were supposed to have opened at the Biltmore. I guess soundcheck took the band longer than they'd expected, despite their sound guy's confident (cocky, even) declaration, "It's our job," when he overheard my friend question how they'd ever make it to the Biltmore on time.

And thank God the show started on time, because after the WoD's brief thirty-minute set at Zulu, sweetened especially by the store's great sound system, I couldn't wait for the full show. For the longest time, it seemed as if the WoD were just going to play Slave Ambient in its entirety (though not in order), but then, they busted out a song from their Future Weather EP. Sometime following that came my favourite WoD songs including "Buenos Aires Beach," "Taking the Farm" and "Arms like Boulders," all from their first album Wagonwheel Blues. Unfortunately for me, though, the live versions of those three songs were more languid and melodic than jumpy and anthemic. They were still good in their own ways, but I just wanted to hear them in their original forms, the forms I knew how to sing along to; I was glad the band at the very least retained its militaristic drumming for those songs.

After a short recess (A.K.A. nap-time because I hadn't had a chance to sleep since two mornings earlier), Sharon Van Etten took the stage and delivered what was, up until that point, the third most surprisingly good show I'd ever seen. Before seeing her, I'd really only liked her song "Serpents," though I loved it. "Serpents" was so good live - so powerful - that it didn't matter that her vocals on that song were almost completely drowned out by the rest of the music. And speaking of her voice, it was way higher than I'd expected, considering that her voice is pretty low on record.

Also unexpected was the Sonic Youth-style, feedback-drenched breakdown during one of Sharon's songs. The WoD's single noisy freakout wasn't surprising (especially since they were the band that managed to pack blistering guitar solos into almost every one of their songs even if the song didn't originally have a solo), but only having heard Sharon's albums and a solo acoustic set (also free at Zulu last year), I never saw it coming.

To draw a final parallel between the WoD and Sharon Van Etten, both were surprisingly social, especially Sharon. The WoD always struck me as a rustic, "git 'er done" kind of band, but frontperson Adam Granduciel joked with the crowd a lot. And I'd always expected Sharon to be pretty introverted, given her dark subject matters and introspective music/lyrics, but again, she was a lot of smiles that night, despite her brief song introductions such as, "This song is about quitting smoking," and "This song is about moving to New York." That was the Sharon I'd expected.

Finally, even the crowd surprised me. I expected a lot of drugged out dirtbags, plaid and denim at the War on Drugs and mostly young girls at Sharon Van Etten. However, the bands brought out one of the most weirdly mixed crowds I'd seen in a while: severely aged, smelly and wasted rockers who "danced" with absolutely zero shame; skinny boys in suspenders, slacks and bow-ties with pompous hair (think Janelle Monae as a boy who just turned old enough to go to the bar); towering nerds; and mustache-obsessed intellectuals.

One thing I learned at Seapony/Memoryhouse that did pay off was to grab set lists A.S.A.P. Situated a couple of feet in front of me on the barrierless, nearly floor-level stage, Sharon's set list was probably the most accessible list I'd ever seen, and I sure as HELL wasn't the only person who knew it; I could hear several people around me chatter about the 4x11, plain-type prize, planning their attack like a pack of hungry lions planning its dinner. But alas, I was the swifter, beating them all to the pounce.

The exact set list I grabbed

For more photos of the War on Drugs and Sharon Van Etten live at the Biltmore Cabaret, click here and here, respectively.

"Knock-Knock ...": Slow-Building, Mood-Setting Album-Openers

"Knock-Knock ..." from Jackson A. Ragg III on 8tracks.

52 min, 41 sec

1. Broken Social Scene - "Capture the Flag"
2. The National - "Fake Empire"
3. Yo La Tengo - Return To Hot Chicken"
4. No Age - Every Artist Needs A Tragedy"
5. Blur - "Ambulance"
6. Eels - "Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor"
7. Guided by Voices - "A Salty Salute"
8. Interpol - "Untitled"
9. Jesus and Mary Chain - "Just Like Honey"
10. The Mountain Goats - "Tallahassee"
11. Nick Drake - "Introduction"
12. Nine Inch Nails - "All the Love in the World"
13. The Dead Weather - "60 Feet Tall"
14. The Kills - "No Wow"
15. Constantines - "Draw Us Lines"

Anotha One o' Dem "Dun Wanna Listen To Nuttin' But da Blues" Days

Coming Down with Cynthia Dall

I'd hate to come down to this song.

Listen To "Love Thine Enemy." Feel Cool:

Cass McCombs is totally hit or miss with me (mostly miss), but when he's good, he's great. "Love Thine Enemy" is the opening track from his 2011 album Humor Risk (Domino Records) and only one of three songs from that eight-song album I like (the others being "Robin Egg Blue" and the nearly eight-minute indie jam "Mystery Mail").

"Jack Outside the Box"

Fantastic New York Times article with insights into the White Stripes' decision to break up, why Jack has waited until now to make a solo album, his past and present family life, growing up in Detroit and future projects and a look into his Third Man Records headquarters and even his mansion. This article also reveals that we could have had a Jack White-RZA collaboration - if RZA didn't no-show Jack's house. Holy shit!

New Walkmen Song: "Heaven"

Man, oh, man, the newest Walkmen song "Heaven" from their upcoming album of the same name leaves me weak in the knees. Can they PLEASE play Van soon NOT for over $50 with Florence + the Machine? "Heaven" begins at 3:47:

Sunny Day Music: Cass McCombs Edition

Warm thoughts with today's sunny day song and video Cass McCombs' "Robin Egg Blue." Just try going for a walk while listening to this song without a smile on your face:

Do I Want To See Gob the Night Before My Birthday?

The Intelligence last year, Gob this year? I think so!:

Tonight's Forecast Calls

For thunder:



And lightning:

Rainy Day Music: Joy Division Edition

Well, I Don't Know What To Call This One

Endless whacky/star-studded collaborations, a record store in the form of a tricked out tour van, clear/multicoloured vinyl records including talking "greeting card" gatefolds, 3 RPM records, vinyl discs filled with "psychedelic blue liquid," and now, a release of his newest single "Freedom at 21" on flexi-disc via ..... 1000 helium balloons. The only way to own the single is to find one. Jack White sure is giving Wayne Coyne a run as "Craziest Fatherfucker in Music Today":

Rainy Day Music: Smashing Pumpkins Edition

Since I can't seem to find "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" online except in this video of the entire album the song's from, just watch until 7:20. The two songs I wanted to post ("Mellon Collie" and "Tonight Tonight") are the first two songs on the album: