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I like Jack Johnson's music. As solace said, it is what it is and I like it for what it is. I don't pretend that it's profound or groundbreaking, and I don't think all music has to be either of those things. I am a recovering music snob, and Jack Johnson is part of that recovery! For whatever reason he's become one of those artists people have decided to hate, and some people hate him with a passion that seems weird/undeserved. I don't think I'd ever go see him in concert, but I like throwing his music on every once in a while. And I agree that it seems weird to choose him as a headliner

I think the song that most sounds like "Recovering" is "Cowboys" (which is also my favorite song on the record). I think to a lesser extent "1492" and "Insignificant" also sound like "Recovering" songs, although I'm not sure 1492 would have made that record. (Recovering the Satellites is my favorite of all their records.) I didn't like 1492 the first five or six times I heard it, but now hearing it on the record I actually really like it. As I said before, I like the Saturday Nights part a lot more than the Sunday Mornings side, and that kind of surprises me. I thought for sure I would hav

I've only listened to it twice, but I have been very pleasantly surprised. I think it's really good, and I like that a lot of it has a Recovering the Satellites sound (especially the Saturday Nights half). I like the Saturday Nights half better so far, but it's all pretty good. And "Los Angeles" was co-written by Ryan Adams...so let the flaming begin!

I've seen him twice (once in Charlottesville and once at the Black Cat in DC) and the shows were kind of hit and miss for me. I thought he was great in Charlottesville, but the Black Cat show didn't do a whole lot for me. I totally agree with your slacker assessment. He didn't seem to put a whole lot into the Black Cat show.

I really love Wainwright's version, but then again I love most everything he does. I saw him and his sister Lucy do this at the 9:30 Club a few months back and it was gorgeous. As for AI, if anyone was going to do that song on the show, I'm glad it was Jason Castro. I think with any of the others it would have come off as disingenuous. Still, it's hard to hear that song and not compare it to all the beautiful versions that have gone before it.

For those looking to hear the new single, you can listen to it at their website. (Unless I was missing something, it wasn't up at Stereogum's site.) Click on this link and then scroll down to the 3.18.08 post.

I finally got the new album in the mail yesterday and it was totally worth the wait. There's not a single song on the album I'd skip over. Come to think of it, I don't think there's a song on any of Malkmus's solo discs I'd skip over. After four or five listens "Gardenia" might be one of my favorite Malkmus songs of all time. The lyrics are really incredible. The guy just has an amazing control of the English language. How great are the lyrics? This is the first verse, and it's not even the best verse of the song:

I just ordered the new Stephen Malkmus album online because the only store I could think of that would have it in Northern Virginia (Best Buy) didn't have any copies at any of the six or seven locations closest to where I live. This seems to be a more common occurrence these days when I try to buy new albums. If Best Buy doesn't have it, I have to buy it online. We used to have a Tower Records (with it's outrageous prices), but it went out of business. So does anyone know of any independent stores in Northern Virginia?

The first song sounds like it could have been on Recovering the Satellites and that is a very good thing. Haven't listened to the other songs yet. Thanks for posting this.

Very interesting. I definitely like this stuff better than Zeitgeist. It reminds of me of the B-sides to the Mellon Collie singles. Does anyone else think that the guitar in "Sunkissed" sounds like the opening guitar part of "Radio King"?

In no particular order...would change day to day...yada yada yada The Beatles - Rubber Soul Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood The Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera emmet swimming - Wake Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Cursive - Happy Hollow Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album Weezer - Pinkerton Paul Simon - Graceland That was a lot harder than I would have thought. Some others I would include on a different day... Ryan Adams - Gold Nirvana - Nevermind They Might Be Giants - Flood Tegan & Sara - So Jealous John Mayer - Continuum (it mig

I think it's a near certainty that they'll never make anything that ever approaches the greatness of the Blue album and Pinkerton again, but I'm always interested in what they're doing. It seems Rivers has finally changed his position on Pinkerton, which is nice, but in the same interview (over at Pitchfork) he talks about being more "conservative" in his writing these days. Anyone hoping for anything like Pinkerton is going to be disappointed.

No idea if it's true or not, but EW.com is reporting the next Weezer album will be called The Pure Sound of Weezer. Not a bad title, but I just hope the music lives up to the title. EW.com's 15 most anticipated albums of 2008

Actually, now would be the only time to declare it an "instant classic." Wait any longer, and it will only be "classic."

I'm kind of surprised no one's commented on this album now that it's officially out, but I guess such is the nature of today's listening timeline/experience. Anyway, four of the guys over at Nine Bullets did a song-by-song review of the album that I dug. I'm cross-posting here what I posted over there. I know some of you frequent that board as well... I like the song-by-song rundown, so I'm going to humbly submit my opinions now that I've got a copy in hand. I'll admit that when I first heard the 30 second clips on Amazon I was kind of underwhelmed. How dumb of me to make an opinion based on

Despite my love for their albums, I've never seen them live, mostly because I've never heard anything good about their live shows. And yet I love their Storytellers performance.

The Counting Crows have always been one of my guilty pleasures and I think August and Everything After and Recovering the Satellites both hold up really well a decade or more later. It's hard to believe they haven't put out a new album since Hard Candy, which came out in 2002. They're finally releasing a new album this year and it's called Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings. Side A (Saturday Nights) is the "heavier" side--as heavy as Counting Crows can get anyway. Side B (Sunday Mornings) is a lighter acoustic set. You can now download a song from each side on their website: http://www.coun

CMT.com is streaming the album for free: http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/drive_by_tru...676/album.jhtml

Cooley!

The Weakerthans "Left & Leaving" My city's still breathing (but barely it's true) through buildings gone missing like teeth. The sidewalks are watching me think about you, all sparkled with broken glass. I'm back with scars to show. Back with the streets I know will never take me anywhere but here. The stain in the carpet, this drink in my hand, the strangers whose faces I know. We meet here for our dress-rehearsal to say "I wanted it this way" and wait for the year to drown. Spring forward, fall back down. I'm trying not to wonder where you are. All this time lingers, undefined. So

I'm listening to the show right now and I like the new songs so far. Does anyone know what song he's referring to before he launches into "Brainwashed"? I'm sad to hear about Ben's divorce and even sadder to hear how down he seemed at the show. His shows have always been really fun.

I think "Marching Bands of Manhattan" stands up with their best songs. Add me to the Photo Album and Transatlanticism are their best records contingent. I really learned to like Plans, but it was a grower for me. It just couldn't live up to the two previous albums, which were awesome.

I hadn't ever really heard any DCFC before I saw them tour with Ben Kweller a couple of years back, and their live show won me over. What was great about it was that you could tell they were having a great time playing. You could see how happy they were to be playing together, and that was really cool. Since then I've picked up all the albums. No name yet for the new album, but it does have a release month: May 2008. You can check out a little video of them in the studio on their website.

Although the album still won't be released for a little over a month, DBT has released an EP that you can pick up at iTunes and other fine digital music establishments. The BTCD EP includes: "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife" (heard Patterson play this at a solo show in Alexandria, VA a year ago) "3 Dimes Down" "The Righteous Path" "The Purgatory Line" (Shonna on lead vox) They've also got three songs from BTCD up on their Myspace page: "The Righteous Path" "I'm Sorry Huston" (Shonna again) "A Ghost to Most" (kickass Cooley)