Remembering The Great War with Radiohead

This song absolutely floored me.

Read this note from Thom Yorke if you don't understand why.

You can download this track here for £1.00 (or $1.66). Proceeds go to the Royal British Legion.

Remembering Michael Jackson... Being Harrassed By Jarvis Cocker

If they haven't already, the bad taste police will undoubtedly soon ban any speech about Michael Jackson that is not stomach-churningly positive, much the same as they did with Ronald Reagan after his death.

But if it's not already too late, here's how I best remember MJ: A freaky dude with a god complex being protested by Jarvis Cocker circa 1996.

So enjoy this footage; it was hard to find for a number of years, and who knows when they'll remove it due to "copyright issues" again...


As the story goes, Jarvis felt that a bunch of 5 year-olds worshipping Michael Jackson was "inapproppriate". And the British public and Melody Maker agreed with him.

Fanfarlo: Soft Rock for Hard Times

Ok, so that title is a little misleading... Fanfarlo is not to be confused with Michael Bolton, (or Fandango, or farfalle, which is a type of pasta).

In addition to sounding completely different, Bolton was definitely in it for the money, whereas Fanfarlo is letting you buy their new album and 4 bonus tracks for a dollar.

Also, Fanfarlo doesn't suck.

What they are is a friggin' good British band with one of the coolest tempo-changes in recent memory, and quite possibly they may be the spiritual successors of Belle and Sebastian. You can tell me I'm wrong, but I'd say it's at least worth a dollar to find out.


Bringing back the melodica!

Fact-Checking The National

Last night's sold-out show at the Lincoln Theater once again confirmed my theory that The National is quite possibly the best band in America.

I don't want to rub it in your face if you weren't there, so instead of going on and on about how freaking rad it was, I'll take a minute to fact-check the drunken idiots who were standing behind us at the show.

Claim: The singer and the bass player are brothers.
Status: FALSE.
Explanation: The guys in the band who look like each other are brothers. Matt Berninger, the singer in the band, doesn't look like anybody else in the band. Also, you'll notice if you look in your CD liner notes that nobody else in the band is named Berninger, but there are only 3 last names between the 5 guys in the band.

Claim: That's an e-bow dude. It's an ebow. It's an ebow, dude.
Status: It's not an ebow, dude.
Explanation: Anybody with half an eye could see that Bryce Dessner was using an actual violin bow on his guitar, but that didn't stop the fat guy behind me from swearing it was an ebow over and over again. A few songs later Bryce Dessner went on to use an actual ebow, an odd-shaped little black plastic thing with a blue light on it, which looks quite different from that long stick with the strings on it that he was using earlier.

Claim: Why don't you do anything fun? You're so boring.
Status: FALSE.
Explanation: It is a well documented fact that listening to a good band play live is fun. That's why the show sold out. That's also why everyone around you was pissed at you for running your damn mouth the whole time. The idea that talking is more fun than listening to rock music is somewhat less credible, and the more you try to prove it, the more people will write mean things about you on their blog the next day.


The audience at Late Night with David Letterman doesn't talk through this performance. Paul Shaffer would kick their ass if they did.

Further Complications Out Tomorrow (barring further complications)

Further Complications, the second solo album by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, is out this Tuesday, but if you can't wait that long, Jarvis is streaming the entire album at guardian.co.uk and on his website, and has also released a video for the first single, Angela.

I'm glad to see him back once again, but let's take just a moment to remember how Jarvis launched his solo career: playing Harry Potter's prom.


Yes, that's Jonny Greenwood

Radiohead and Philosophy: Exclusive Interview - Part 2

For those of you whose tragic flaw is thinking too much, here's part 2 of the interview with Brandon W. Forbes regarding the new book Radiohead and Philosophy: Fitter, Happier, More Deductive.

And for those of you whose tragic flaw is not reading enough, Open Court Press was thoughtful enough to put a chapter in podcast form that you can download for free here, so you can make your iPod do the reading for you.

Light Through Veins? Of Course It Sounds Familiar...

For those of you who've wondered what those "samples" that Coldplay "sampled" on Viva La Vida would sound like without Chris Martin and those other guys, I give you Jon Hopkins.

Well, actually I'm not giving you anything, but Jon Hopkins, the guy who wrote that song they sampled, Light Through Veins, is giving it away for free in its original format here.

Also, you can't be too down on Coldplay for sampling it. Turns out they're all friends, and also it's the best free advertising Jon Hopkins could ask for, and there's a good chance the royalties from Viva La Vida paid for his house.


This song is the calm center in the vast and stormy sea that is your social life.