New Gaslight Anthem - just in time for top down driving

One of my favorite sounds of summer returns with a new release. The Gaslight Anthem evokes everything great about Jersey rock. You can listen to NPR's stream of the new release American Slang here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127405836.

This is a great band that you just love more and more each listen. and for those of us who really enjoy rock history, they recall characters and lines from great songs by springsteen and counting crows. I'm sure the new album will add to the storytelling.

Below i pasted an article from NPR last summer about Gaslight that really captures their spirit. Enjoy!


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105778626
June 23, 2009 - Nearly a year after its release, The Gaslight Anthem's The '59 Sound is still winning converts one at a time: Released with little fanfare, it took off at a pace that seems glacial amid so many instant phenomena. Often compared to Born to Run-era Bruce Springsteen — or maybe Jimmy Eat World performing Replacements songs — the New Jersey band sounds best on car radios during long drives, when gutty rock 'n' roll benefits most from an air of life-and-death profundity.

There's no shortage of life, death or profundity in "The '59 Sound," a mile-wide, top-down, hook-laden beast of a summer anthem. But as swollen and adrenaline-infused as it is, it's really a song about the last music each of us gets to hear in our lives — and, by extension, what it means to die young without having to "hear the rattling chains in the hospital walls."

It's that air of tragedy that makes "The '59 Sound" seem like more than a simple rock barn-burner: When Brian Fallon sings, "Ain't supposed to die on a Saturday night," he captures the way a summer night behind the wheel can positively burst with youthful abandon, ever-present danger and fragile promise. With almost overpowering intensity, the song does exactly the same.

1st listen - new gorillaz; Black Joe Lewis

hey all - take a vacation on the plastic beach

Gorillaz, the cartoon superband fronted and created by Blur's Damon Albarn is back with a 3rd album that continues whatever it is that was started by Clint Eastwood back in 2001. Blending elements of hip hop, trip hop, chillout vibes, and beach music from some strange future, "Plastic Beach" pleases and provides a completely different soundtrack to your day. i'm going thru my first listen courtesy of npr.org and i find it completely enjoyable and totally unexpected.

certain to be heard all summer, streaming this week until the album drops next week

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124114812

oh - and if this form of electro-trip hop isn't your thing; go old school with my current favorite song "Boogie" by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. It's like watching James Brown, Otis Redding, and the Blues Brothers all at once. if i could hire those guys to play my 40th birthday party, i would do it in a heartbeat.

http://www.blackjoelewis.com/

vampire weekend preview

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122213523

wow. it's as much fun as i hoped it would be. vampire weekend's new album contra lives us to expectations. sounding like a cross between paul simon's graceland, talking heads '77, a touch of Yaz (in a good way), a sprinkling of english beat, a flashback of the clash's sandinista (a great lp if you don't already have it) and a touch of spoon - its a fresh way to start 2010.

or, just listen to it here...

New Decade - New Posts - New Commitment?

ok fans, its been sometime since i regularly posted to these pages, but that doesn't mean i listen to less music, nor does it mean i haven't stopped answering (or asking) the question

what are you listening to?

so - i'm back, hoping to at least post once a month and share it with all of you - sounds like a noble exercise and resolution right?

to start off the decade, i want to share and implore all of you to listen to the great podcasts out there. your ipod will automatically download and sync up, or you can go straight to the source.

my 2 favorite podcasts are by npr's genious bob boilen (mad props to you bob) - npr's all songs considered and npr's live podcast. he definitely has one of the great jobs in the universe. where else can you get discussion, recommendations, and tracks of the great new music each week. the live podcast is a weekly concert that you wish you could be at. it's fun on your ipod while walking the dog or driving in the car, even better on your home system.

right now, i'm listening to ray davies of the kinks and his live version of the KinKs Choral Concert. Other than his dumb kkk remark in the beginning (englsh humor?), its an incredible collaboration and reinvigoration of one of the great catalogues in rock history. i only wish my own temple's choir could sound like this (and do the same music). the choral version of you really got me is just mind blowing. its all gorgeous and fun and makes you recall how great the kinks are.

listen today
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510253

watch a clip on you tube here


and if you are looking for my single of the moment - it's edward sharpe and the magnetic zero's "home". a delightful little song that is very poi dog / polyphonic spree like and its a treat to listen to. watch the live podcast here and then download the single today.

and although i listen to a lot less kids music at home now that the kids are all disneyfied - i do want to give congratulations to our friends at milkshake for their first grammy nod for "great day" which really is a great kids album. if by some chance you know or are a grammy voter, please consider this great album.

look for vampire weekend to come out in 2 weeks and spoon the week after that,

till next time,

adam

Where did the decade go?

Best of the decade, already? Where did the decade go? It seems so anti-climatic after the millenium turnover. But reviewing music from the last 10 years is much more manageable. Maybe because its only 10 years, maybe because i can sort my itunes by decade and most often played. maybe its because i listen to far less then i used to.

that said - here's the first stab at the decade in review - your thoughts are always appreciated.

in no current order:

Radiohead - In Rainbows
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Thievery Corporation - Richest Man In Babylon
Death Cab For Cutie - Plans
R.E.M. - Accelerate
Vampire Weekend
U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Green Day - American Idiot
Mark Ronson - Version
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Bebel Gilberto - Tanto Tempo
Robert Plant & Alison Kraus - Raising Sand

topless driving

perhaps i had premature midlife crisis. in any event, i have a great wife and she gave in and encouraged me to buy it. so now, we own saab convertible. its great to be back in a saab. ignition in the middle, and drives like no other car - regardless of what GM did to it, good and bad.

but with xm, and cd, and ipod inputs - what to listen to? what are your topless driving songs?

sure - i love Webb Wilder's Tough It Out, most anything by Springsteen, last year's REM Accelerate. But what am i missing - help me build the play list

return of the fire

I was reminded of a great band this morning - The Arcade Fire. I heard them on Morning Joe as background music (and Ageless Beauty by Stars yesterday, maybe right wing Joe Scarboro likes the Canadians?). Anyway, listend to Funeral today and still stands out as one of this decade's best recordings.

read the NYT article from 2007 here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/magazine/04arcade.t.html

apparently, a new album could be forthcoming sooner than we all thought. arcade fire must be in the air as this was released this week: http://www.nme.com/news/arcade-fire/45573

but if you can't wait - here's a mp3 posted of their cover of the clash's guns of brixton: http://tasteslikecaramel.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/the-arcade-fire-discuss-album-3/