Thanks to d. & Jeff, all the bands, and the staff of Union Hall -- the Neon Lights show Saturday was a great time, and we look forward to entertaining you with our weird records again sometime. (We've shared some of the good bits below, but some things we only have on vinyl...)

Neon Lights @ Union Hall 7/7/07

Teresa Stratas -- Yukali // Marlene Dietrich -- Laziest Gal in Town // Edith Piaf -- Milord // Goldfrapp -- Boys Will Be Boys // Sparks -- Ladies // Sparks -- Moustache // Depeche Mode -- Flexible // Siouxsie and the Banshees -- Burn Up

Japan -- Life in Tokyo // Interpol -- The Heinrich Maneuver // Sheila E. -- Glamorous Life // Duran Duran -- Fame // David Bowie -- Let's Dance // Wire -- The Queen of Um and The King of Ur

10,000 Maniacs -- Scorpio Rising // Brian Eno -- King's Lead Hat // Berlin -- No More Words // Kid Creole -- Annie I'm Not Your Daddy // James White and the Blacks -- Contort Yourself // Liquid Liquid -- Optimo // LCD Soundsystem -- Jump Into the Fire // Celebration -- War

The Rubettes -- Sugar Baby Love // Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse -- Valerie // Supremes -- Back In My Arms Again // Chi-Lites -- Are You My Woman? (Tell Me So) // Chiffons -- One Fine Day // Bette Midler -- Chapel of Love // Laura Nyro and Labelle -- Jimmy Mack // Camera Obscura -- If Looks Could Kill // Sandie Shaw -- Jeane // Voxtrot -- Stephen //Orange Juice -- Rip It Up (The Intermediate Mix)

Li'l Mama - Lipgloss // Echo and the Bunnymen -- Bedbugs and Ballyhoo // The Last Night -- Some Sensation // Spoon - The Underdog // Wire -- Serious of Snakes // Ultravox -- Dancing (With Tears In My Eyes) // Sparks -- Angst In My Pants // Cocteau Twins -- Donimo

**

Meanwhile, we hear those Interpol guys and some band called ... Spoon, I think, have records out today? (Haha.) Seriously, we'll have reviews up tonight later this week. That being said, we won't be at the free Spoon show at Battery Park on Wednesday (wotcha -- it'll be at Stuyvesant High in case of rain!), nor at the Interpol cd release "party" at Sweet and Vicious either. No, gentle readers, we will be at the very sold-out Mark Ronson show at the Highline Ballroom. His new album Version, full of great guest appearances (Amy Winehouse! Lily Allen! Robbie Williams! Kenna! That guy from Maximo Park!), is out today too.

Stream: Interpol, Our Love to Admire
Stream: Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Stream: Mark Ronson: Version

**

I keep forgetting to post about this; now's a good a time as any! The Speigeltent is back for the summer in NYC, and there's a few shows that we're really excited about -- including the Shout Out Louds, Ute Lemper (!!!!), and Weimar New York -- I'm sure none of these selections surprises our regular readers. The rest of the schedule sounds great (except, maybe, the aberrance of our very least favorite band in NYC, O'Death) -- Lady Sov's come and gone, but the Spiegeltent will be around thru August.

7/07: Lady Sovereign
7/16: Shout Out Louds
7/17: Weimar NY: The Spiegel Sessions
7/19: Shout Out Louds
7/24: DeVotchKa
7/25: DeVotchKa
7/31: Ute Lemper: ‘Voyages’
8/07: Lila Downs
8/08: Lila Downs
8/13: Badly Drawn Boy
8/14: Badly Drawn Boy
8/21: José González
8/28: Weimar NY: The Spiegel Sessions
8/26: O’Death
9/05: An Albatross
9/11: Penny Arcade’s “Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!”
9/18: Weimar NY: The Spiegel Sessions
9/22: Dan Zanes and Friends: Sea Music!

So we didn't get down to J&R Computer/Music World on Park Row (place of all things wonderful that plug into an outlet, where I bought my computer and my window unit...) this afternoon to have our Dylanesque CDs (yeah, yeah, we know the cover's super ugly) signed by Bryan Ferry himself. Instead, I had to interview potential assistants -- one of whom came in dressed in all in black with pinstripes and a vest (yes, in this heat!); if only his samples had been as impressive as his attire. Anyway, I totally wanted a fangirl picture with Mr. Ferry (probably the only one I'd ever stand for!), but I would have been too hot and sweaty -- the weather has finally turned muggy -- and I would have wanted to look more, well, pulled together, so maybe the fact that we missed the big event was for the best.

Still, we caught him, accidentally, really, on Letterman last night, doing his cover of Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" -- all uh, Roxy-fied. Check the castanets and the harmonica!



**

Dang it! When we heard E. Elias Merhige (Shadow of the Vampire, a few Marilyn Manson videos) was directing the video for Interpol's first single, "The Heinrich Maneuver" we thought, "Woo! Paul Banks dressed as Nosferatu? Carlos D. in a cassock for the first time this century?" Instead, this right here is some fucked up, bitter shit. Well, come on, now -- were you expecting something soft and foofy?



(in the event this is taken down from YouTube, the 'official' premiere is on the MTV site)

**

Call and response: Fluxblog 6/22/07

We were kind of busy doing other stuff on Friday and didn't get to our usual trawl of daily reads, which means we totally missed the kerfuffle over The National (via Pageblank) and the posting of former Sugababe Siobhan Donaghy's "Ghosts."

The Amazon.co.uk reviews of her album of the same name are a near-riot of people up in arms over the fact that she's "ripping off" an array of sources from Kate Bush to the Cocteau Twins to Tori Amos. Upon further listening, we agreed, to a point. Ms. Donaghy's definitely influenced by Liz Fraser's vocal stylings -- but not from her time with the Cocteau Twins that spanned a good part of the 80's into the early 90's; instead, she's clearly more influenced by Fraser's mid-90's guest turns with Future Sound of London and Massive Attack. Indeed, one song in particular on Ghosts, "Halcyon Days" samples Massive Attack's "Teardrop," better known in this day and age as the theme to "House, MD."

Cocteau Twins -- Carolyn's Fingers
from Blue Bell Knoll

Kate Bush -- Heads We're Dancing
from The Sensual World

The Future Sound of London (feat. Elizabeth Fraser) -- Lifeforms
from Lifeforms

Massive Attack (feat. Elizabeth Fraser) -- Teardrop
from Mezzanine

Tori Amos -- Caught A Lite Sneeze
from Boys for Pele

**

Did we mention it's hot here? Well, the Bermuda High finally broke and it's raining now, but ... we were inspired to make one concession to all this "Summmer of Love" 40th anniversary hoo-ha with the following video:



Big Brother & the Holding Company -- Summertime.

Variation Three of A Prelude to Interpol's Our Love To Admire: Waving, Not Drowning (the final installment, see Tuesday's post for the (cranky) introduction).

[There's a poem, by Stevie Smith, about a man, far from shore -- the spectators on the beach think he's waving, when he is in fact drowning: 'I was much too far out all my life/And not waving but drowning.' What's presented here means to convey the inverse of that melancholy statement. ]

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds -- (I'll Love You) Till The End Of The World
from The Soundtrack to Until The End Of The World

Hank Williams Sr. -- They'll Never Take Her Love From Me
from American Legends: Best Of The Early Years

Calexico -- The Black Light
from The Black Light

Johnny Cash -- Cry, Cry, Cry
from American Music Legends: Johnny Cash

The Beach Boys -- Sloop John B
from Pet Sounds

Sarah Vaughan -- What'll I Do
from Benny Carter Sessions: The Lonely Hours

Laura Nyro -- New York Tendaberry
from New York Tendaberry

Sugar -- A Good Idea
from Copper Blue

Cursive -- The Night I Lost The Will To Fight
from Domestica

New Order -- Regret
from Republic

The Hope Blister -- Hanky panky nohow
from Smile's Ok

Big Star -- Nighttime
from Sister Lovers/The Third Album

This Mortal Coil -- I Am The Cosmos
from Blood

Roxy Music -- Avalon
from Avalon


[Public Service Announcement: Hey, New York area readers! I know a lot of you are in bands -- our lovely pals The Bellmer Dolls need to go pick up a new board for their studio and their transport plans just fell through this morning. The catch is, it's out in Iowa! Have a van you're not using right now and would like to hire out for a side trip in return for some quality studio time? (Secret Machines used the Dolls' facility to record and mix their latest effort.) It'll be your good deed for the day week month year! Drop them a line (bellmerdolls AT yahoo DOT com) if you can be of assistance. Thank you!!!]

Variation Two of A Prelude to Interpol's Our Love To Admire: No Trendy Réchauffé (see yesterday's post for the (cranky) introduction).

[ré·chauf·fé -- n. 1. Warmed leftover food; 2.Old material reworked or rehashed. [French, past participle of réchauffer, to reheat, warm over, from Old French rechaufer : re-, re- + echaufer, to warm (from Vulgar Latin *excalefāre : Latin ex-, intensive pref.; see ex- + Latin calefacere, to warm; see chafe).]

The Velvet Underground -- Venus in Furs
from The Velvet Underground and Nico
The Velvets set the aesthetic imperative.

Robert Johnson -- Hellhound On My Tail
from Cross Road Blues
After you've sold your soul, all you can sing is the blues.

The Vaselines -- Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam
from The Way Of The Vaselines - A Complete History
Then again, you can't miss what you never had -- right?

Nina Simone -- Tell Me More And Then Some
from After Hours
You spin such pretty stories that all end up as lies.

Depeche Mode -- The Things You Said
from Music for the Masses
And yet I always believe every word you say.

Windsor For The Derby - The Melody Of A Fallen Tree
from We Fight Till Death
Rhetorical question: If a tree falls in a forest and no one... Oh, never mind.

Mission of Burma -- All World Cowboy Romance
From Signals, Calls & Marches
Sometimes I think we might have a chance.

The Smiths -- That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
from Meat is Murder
And yet, "I've seen this happen in other people's lives, now it's happening in mine."

Iggy Pop -- Nightclubbing
from The Idiot
And then he had the nerve to say: "Let me buy that for you ... I'm very rich."

Wolfgang Press -- Longtimes
from the Raintime EP
Redux: Everyone at this party has dead eyes. I want to go home.

The Libertines -- Can't Stand Me Now
from The Libertines
And I'll say it again...

Unitard -- Year To Be Hated
from Yes New York
...it's better when you're sleeping. Or just not here at all.

The National -- About Today
from Cherry Tree EP
But it would have made a difference if you'd just taken the time to ask.

Nick Drake -- Pink Moon
from Pink Moon
Care to take another drive?

The Church -- Under The Milky Way
from Starfish
We can take the good mix CDs.

David Bowie -- Strangers When We Meet
from The Buddha of Suburbia Soundtrack
And not talk for hours.

Look, y'all -- We hate to quibble the point, but posting cruddy, "leaked" mp3s of Interpol's Our Love To Admire to raise your profile on The Hype Machine is really, really lame. So is posting track-by-track "reviews" based on the snippets from the website, hoping to imply that you're rad enough to have received a promo. I mean, it's people like you that make record labels paranoid about sending out promos in the first place. Seriously.

Furthermore, while I'm being crabby, you know we've flogged the "stop comparing Interpol to Joy Division" line long enough. Can we ban the use of that tired analogy in reviews of Our Love To Admire? Please?

Anyway, we can't post a review proper, as yet. You know. One of the conditions of getting to sit in a Capitol conference room guarded by junior staffers to have a listen on iPods and Bose headphones. (We don't mind, really -- more time to perfect it.)

So, we're killing two-point-five birds with one stone here. Quit listening to the grainy clips on your headphones and wait for the bona fide release; you need to listen to Our Love to Admire properly -- at home, on your stereo -- in the order intended. Trust us, it will be worth the wait.

And to further the joy of anticipation, we've prepared this little primer for you. We're running it over several days in three parts: Wait for the Elephants, No Trendy Réchauffé, and Not waving but drowning/Not drowning but waving. It's half a handbook to influences, half a little tour through our respective CD collections -- 'cause you know we didn't even get to the vinyl!



Variation One of A Prelude to Interpol's Our Love To Admire: Wait for the Elephants

[Deep, wide songs that threaten to swallow you whole somewhere in the middle -- when the elephants, dinosaurs and goblins come tromping through. NB: Please listen in order, would ya?]

David Lynch -- Battle and Aftermath
from Lux Vivens
Who better to set the mood of what lies beneath the glossy, perfect exterior?

The Hope Blister -- Spider and I
from .....smile's ok
Brian Eno and Ivo Watts-Russell set the aesthetic imperative.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead -- Let It Dive
from Worlds Apart
Let's go for a long night drive. (Bring snacks -- preferably Twinkies.)

The Walkmen -- We've Been Had
from Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone
First we need to pick up the stowaways. Is there room in the back seat? Just move the cooler.

Sinéad O'Connor -- Troy
from The Lion And The Cobra
Rhetorical question: Is there anything more loaded, metaphorically, than relating the Fall of Troy to the death of a relationship? Thanatos and eros, kiddies.

Siouxsie & The Banshees -- Party's Fall
from Tinderbox
Everyone at this party has dead eyes. I want to go home.

Echo & The Bunnymen -- The Cutter
from Porcupine
You can keep the party going, you just can't party here.

Placebo -- Pure Morning
from Without You I'm Nothing
"Day's dawning, skin's crawling..."

Television -- Marquee Moon
from Marquee Moon
I'm on the fire escape, having a smoke. Leave me alone, for fuck's sake.

Tanita Tikaram -- You Make The Whole World Cry
from Eleven Kinds Of Loneliness
I'm sorry too.

(photo courtesy of i drop bøms)

Interpol.
June 5, 2007.
Bowery Ballroom, Delancey Street, NYC.

The woman to my left was texting Kenna, the kids on right were clandestinely taping the proceedings. I suppose it's to be expected when you basically crash (ok, legitimately, but still) an event that was thick with Capitol Music Group staffers and rabid superfans, as we did last night at Interpol's appearance at Bowery Ballroom.

Every time I see Interpol, I'm reminded of a line from The Commitments -- "All the Motown brothers wore suits -- it's neat, dignified. You play better in your suit." (In that film, of course, the downfall of The Commitments' unity is presaged by the fact that they don't play their best-attended gig in said suits...)

And Interpol is, above all else, a neat and dignified band. And I've always felt, even in the face of Carlos' more outrageous accessories (or any other article of clothing created for him by Craig Robinson), that it wasn't ever pretension or a pose that drove Messrs. Banks, Kessler, Fogarino, and Dengler to take the stage in suits. (Because, naturally, they played better in their suits -- and they knew it.) It was, instead, their signal to us, the audience, that they were playing serious music. Indeed, Interpol is the closest thing to high art currently residing in the indie rock pantheon.

If you're from Austin you probably have a personal apocryphal story about how you totally meant to go to the time they played outside at Emo's on the Bright Lights tour, the night of the big ice storm in 2003. But, like me and Pinkie, you were trapped at the top of a steep driveway (yes, really) or were too skittish to try driving again after a stressful trip home from work, so you didn't make it. I remember sitting in my apartment wondering if it would be foolish to walk the mile or so to town in my thin coat and stupid shoes. I decided it was too cold, even though I was secretly obsessed with Turn on The Bright Lights and was too embarrassed to tell my indie-pop loving friends about it -- that I had a crush on these sharp men from NYC and their driving, embittered and mournful songs.

I didn't have a chance to see them again until the spring of 2005. When they played outside at Stubb's on Election Night 2004, on the first leg of the Antics tour, Pinkie was in attendance (we didn't know each other all that well then); I hate seeing bands in Stubb's outdoor amphitheater, always have. I went to see our pals Cue over at Beerland (it was actually the first time I saw them live) instead and then attended the strangest, most painful Shearwater show on record at the late show inside at Stubb's. I was a little giddy though, over the fact that Carlos and Paul were shooting pool in the room adjacent. I remember stopping to watch them -- all name-calling and long fingers and clinking beer bottles -- and marveling at the sight. There were no men like that in Austin -- not that I knew, anyway. They were rarefied, unreal. Real glittering and hard rock stars, not a thing like my sweet friends in bands I'd seen earlier in the evening, or who were on the stage at that time. And oh, the irony that Shearwater eventually ended up on Matador, Interpol's indie home!

What I didn't know then was how much harder and more glittering that facade would get over the next few years. (For it was, after all, just a facade, but even the wisest can be fooled -- because as we discovered later, yes, really, they were as sweet and unassuming as our friends in Cue and Shearwater.) They seemed always to be on the road, touring first with the Cure, then circling the globe on the strength of Antics and its pumping, danceable singles "Evil" and "Slow Hands" -- with proper videos and everything! They were famous; the suits went from vintage or serviceable, solid brands to better, sharper, bespoke. The hard sparkle was on. By the time I did finally did manage to see Interpol live at the Austin Music Hall in February 2005, they were razor sharp and deadly sexy. Sleek and almost a horrible, terrible force to be reckoned with. Watching them was like watching "porn directed by Leni Riefenstahl," I famously quipped after the encore. Offensive yes, but it was all I could manage to stammer out in response to what I'd just seen. I was shell-shocked by the white-hot light rig; the blistering, textured guitars; the relentless, hypnotic rhythm section; Paul's dour vocals.

That fall, Pinkie and I drove all over east and north Texas to see shows on multiple nights as our favorite bands rolled through our corner of the world, running ourselves ragged -- unhappy women recently extricated from painful relationships, fleeing from the reality of adulthood. We bonded on those long drives, became fast friends, learned each other's favorite songs, cursed the men who'd betrayed us. We drove to Dallas, where we interviewed our friends The Double when they opened for Interpol. We drove to Tulsa to see them too, just because they played, much to our collective delight, at the venerable, old ballroom that was home to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.

Lots of things have changed for both of us in the past year and a half, but not our deep admiration for this band. So, when we had the chance to see them play that holy grail of NYC venues -- the beautiful Bowery Ballroom, last night -- we couldn't stay away. How could we? (It was impossible to turn back time all the way -- Brownies is now the Hi-Fi and home to El DJ instead of a grotty stage frequented by up-and-coming baby bands.)

We'd already heard the new record, Our Love to Admire, last week at the Capitol offices (no, it won't leak -- we had to listen on iPod with headphones). We knew things were different. And it wasn't just that Carlos and Sam were almost exclusively wearing suits onstage made by our friend Anthony S. Malat at Sinner/Saint, looking like the spiritual son of Johnny Cash and a Five Points pugilist, respectively. It wasn't the rumors that Paul had been to rehab. It wasn't the fact that Daniel was insisting in interviews that listeners shouldn't look for too much meaning in the songs, despite the fact that there was clearly meaning to be mined. It wasn't that they were playing small, sometimes seated venues to mixed reviews in old theaters and ballrooms across Canada, Europe, and the US in between festival gigs. And it wasn't about the dog, either.

Forget the rumors you've heard -- maybe some were true, maybe some weren't, but that's in the past. Give up complaining about the suits, or that they're a Joy Division ripoff. This is a band that's very sorry if your relationship with them started out on the wrong foot, and would you mind very much starting over from square one? Because they'd like to try again too.

Last night, some things were immediately evident: Gone are the sharp edges, the things that made you want to hold them at arm's length. Think the eeriness of the Marfa lights, the loneliness of long nighttime drives on lost highways. The flashy, bitchy Carlos D. has most definitely been usurped by Carlos Dengler, part-time film composer, who smiles when he plays now. Paul's heart may or may not have been broken -- in any case, his voice is improved and comes from a shadowed depth only previously hinted at. Daniel still skitters around in his version of the Chuck Berry/Elvis Costello box step, ever more convinced that he can turn a guitar into a percussion instrument, perhaps by sheer will alone. And Sam's still calmly driving the boys to town, the band's elder statesman, but by no means too old to understand that a good rock show is good for the soul.

And the utterly deafening roar of the crowd as they wrapped up the first part of the set with the killer, underrated "Not Even Jail," cemented it all. The new songs are still a little weak and may not even play out well in the live setting, and they're clearly sick of playing their 'hit' "Evil" -- but that's no matter. These are men don't just enjoy playing music, they enjoy playing it together, with a common aim. It may not always be entertaining, or easy to watch -- but it is almost always something beautiful to behold.


Interpol -- Specialist
Interpol -- Not Even Jail
Interpol -- Slow Hands (Britt Daniel Remix)
Interpol -- Leif Erickson

(photo courtesy of packratticus)

It's summer in the city, finally -- and NYC is bursting at the seams with shows we're intent on catching over the next few weeks. We finally broke down and Craigslisted tickets to The National's sold out stint at the Bowery; we'll be at the Friday show. Also on the bill, the tomb-gloomy song stylings of ubersupergroup (producer Peter Katis, full-time dad and studio/label namesake Tarquin Katis, and label and multi-band project impresario Adam Pierce) The Philistines Jr. (Austinites in the house can catch Mr. Pierce in his Mice Parade guise a few days later at Emo's on Sunday June 3rd. Such a jetsetter!)

Also, next week packs the one-two punch of the Bellmer Dolls' free show at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (107 Suffolk Street) Monday the 4th; Piker Ryan, Dimi Dero Inc., and Preacher and the Knife are also scheduled to appear. And in what seems to be an unprescedented feat, we'll be at the "secret" Interpol show at Bowery (it's not even on the calendar at press time) on the 5th. According to our sources, it sold out in a few hours with roughly zero promotion. Welcome home, buckaroos!

[Also not to be missed: Lavender Diamond (June 3), The Clientele (June 8) and The Long Blondes (June 9), also at Bowery.]

Relatedly, all this unbridled man-howling (the ladies and more mellow choices mentioned above notwithstanding, of course), hot rhythm sections, and pwanging guitars have given us Television on the brain. That lead us to reread Lester Bangs' "free jazz punk rock" to get ready for our hot hot hot summer of nouveau blues. Get on board!

Television -- Marquee Moon.

Our secret fave Magazine's also popping up all over; the quintessentially bitter "Song From Under The Floorboards" has appeared over a handful of blogs lately, much to our delight; afternoons just aren't complete these days without a listen.

As you know, from time to time, Cindy or I may pose you--the reader--a question; answers to which may inform us of your coolness and of places where she or I may need to be. No, we don't want the phone number for Milk & Honey. What we--well, I, speaking specifically--want is to know if where, if anywhere, in our fair city there is cabaret going down. Not jazz revues, not simple drag revues (though we like those too), not burlesque, but straight up cabaret. Torchsongs, dancing, depravity...just like Liza brought it in everyone's favorite musical about the Weimarer Republik. And, well, Milk & Honey quality cocktails and boys in dashing menswear. You know...like a Bellmer Dolls show with a chorus line. (For the record, that was Cindy rather than myself who described the Interpol live experience as "porn directed by Leni Riefenstahl.") All cabaret tipsters email your top sekrit answers to elegantfaker at gmail dot com.

ETA: Cafe Carlyle is a little bit beyond the reach of the TRGAW budget. I'll put that on my Christmas 2007 wishlist. Right next to that other thing... Also, this is the best set of tags. Ever.

Thank you. In other other related news, go see Glitter and Doom at the Met.

There are times we wish we were 22 year-old, independently wealthy scenesters. This would be one of those nights. Heartbreak specialist extraordinare, nouvelle cabaret chanteuse Billie Ray Martin is performing live at Room Service. Doors are at 10:30, show's at 1. Believe me, if we can figure out a way to a) get in and b) actually crawl out of bed on time tomorrow, we'll be there. Maybe.

Reposts from the Archive:

Billie Ray Martin -- I Don't Believe
Billie Ray Martin -- Big Tears and Make-Up

I feel it's my duty to warn you off of the new tribute album devoted to the songs of The Band. In fact, I also feel that the person responsible for the fact that this collection tipped the most loathsome jam bands and jam band manques around (Guster, Blues Traveler, My Morning Jacket, Widespread Panic, Gov't Mule, Gomez) to cover The Band's best material should be taken 'round back and shot or something. The offerings from mainstream-ish country stalwarts Lee Ann Womack and Roseanne Cash are
sort of tolerable; as were the predictably bland tracks from Jackob Dylan, Jack Johnson, and Bruce Hornsby. I had high hopes for the out-of-left-field contributors like The Roches, Death Cab for Cutie, and Joe Henry -- but they really let me down -- especially Death Cab's sluggish, dull take on "Rocking Chair." I sat on this record for days, wondering if maybe it would all make sense to me eventually. Alas, this has not happened, save for my unabashed enjoyment of Josh Turner's straight-ahead country take on "When I Paint My Masterpiece." This collection would have been a lot more exciting (or at least a little more pleasant to listen to) if it included a few big-name indie-ish artists who owe more than a little to The Band -- like Neko Case, Wilco, Josh Ritter, or M. Ward, or maybe some of the Freak Folk crowd? ('Cause you know, Devendra's got nothing on these old beardos...) The Magic Numbers? The Earlies? I mean, surely someone out there realizes that jam bands aren't the only beneficiaries of The Band's legacy. Right? Right? Okay, I'm done complaining now. Endless Highway, The Music of the Band is out on Jan. 30. Read more about The Band at Wikipedia.



The Band -- "The Weight"

Let's see now... We really weren't ready for the scene at Sin-e Friday night -- not at all! The show was packed to the gills, but we weren't the only ones who spotted Karen O. and Nick Zinner bailing after Daylight's For The Birds' set. We were completely blown away by Mahogany, but were decidedly less impressed with the faux-backwoods shenanigans of O'Death. As a matter of fact, I found them to be incredibly offensive -- it was nearly as bad as watching, say, white kids rap in blackface. No, I'm not kidding. (I was still ranting about this at the subway platform later when I unwittingly drove a rather unamused Daniel Kessler to the other side of the platform. I guess I was being rather loud -- I'm still embarrassed after the fact. Someone tell him I'm really sorry about that, 'kay?)

Here's what's in HIGH DEMAND today:

Love of Diagrams -- The Pyramid. We know not to question the motives of Matador Records. We really do. EXHIBIT A: New signees Love of Diagrams. Angular? Check! Nice melodic bassline? Check! Dueling girl/boy vocals? Check! Welcome to the Nouveau New Wave, now with extra punchy No Wave action, courtesy of Australia! Early review track "No Way Out" was already picked up and loved on by Pitchfork -- though, if you're like me, you totally missed that. "The Pyramid" is more polished but no less affecting -- if we weren't absolutely sure this was new, we'd think it was a lost Raincoats track, or maybe, even more accurately, a misplaced Waitresses or Romeo Void downer. (BTW, it looks like Matador's also just taken on Lavender Diamond! Will wonders never cease? I happen to know they will not. Ha!) (MySpace)

Girls Aloud -- Androgynous Girls (Tweaked Mix). "I had a dream last night that you turned into money, I tried to save you, but I wasn't even sorry." "I saw my spirit fly with angels dressed in leather..."WHO WRITES THESE LYRICS? THEY'RE BRILLIANT! This is not sarcasm. I myself have dreams of dropping this in the middle of an otherwise staid dj set. Viva Girls Aloud! (MySpace)

Sophie Ellis-Bextor -- New York City Lights. If only our lives were really this glamorous! And this cold and sterile! And bleak! This one's for 5500 (his post of Spiller's "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" a few weeks ago got me back on the SE-B bandwagon) -- congrats on your impending move! I'm so proud of you! (MySpace)

[BONUS: DJ Spiller -- Groovejet (Solar's Jet Groove Dub Mix) (wordless and chopped from the middle one of the best disco house mixes ever from Robbie Rivera)]

The Magic Whispers -- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. When only the very best retro-pastiche indie-pop will do -- you clearly need the dark-spangled, near-dour song stylings of The Magic Whispers' new album, which consists entirely of covers of obscure-ish pop gems. Don't miss this one, seriously. (label site)