I'm A Sucker for Time Lapse Videos

And this is no exception - plus it has a good soundtrack from the Kingpins, who I've never heard of before. Check out this crazy German chap who decided to walk a gazillion miles over the course of a year. Blimey.

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

Surprise Singer Wows... Famous at 47?

Something completely unexpected from a singer on Britian's Got Talent. YouTube or someone awful has disabled most good embeds of the video, but worth checking out. So stunning!

YouTube Funky Mashup

So this dude decide to make an album mash-up of dozens upon dozens of unrelated YouTube clips and turn it into one rockin' album (with ready made videos). Check it out.

November's Raining Some Good Tunes

It's New Music Monday and I thought I'd share with you some hot new bands. Check out DC's own Middle Distance Runner, CMJ stars the Spinto Band, and some other highly recommended song spinners: the Muslims, Passion Pit, Tobacco and Delta Spirit.

Doggone Good

Setting up my Apple TV yesterday (finally), started watching this podcast from All Songs Considered. I'm really digging the Dr. Dog. Check em out their set.

Pour Me Some Sugar, Man

ACL 2008, Redux

Alright, alright. Another successful Austin City Limits Music Festival. Great tunes were heard, yummy food was consumed, an overabundance of queso was ingested, and the dust made a bit of a reappearance.

Here's a recap of the highlights and the lowlights:

Yeasayer - caught the tail end of these boys from Brooklyn. Having seen them twice now, I think they're more of an indoor venue band, but they can still bring it.

Vampire Weekend - the prepsters know how to put on a good show. A hot, sticky afternoon, a cold, sweaty beer, and some "Cape Cod, Kwaasa, Kwassa" - ain't nothing wrong with that. Plus, discovered that "Blake's got a new face".

M. Ward - maybe I was offput by the dust storm off to the side of the WaMu (yes, that WaMu) tent, but couldn't get too much into him. The boys went "in" and enjoyed the show more thoroughly, but I was digging the folding chairs at that point.

Hot Chip - I was all about the Hot Chip, but here's where the sound bleed was a bit of an issue. They just didn't seem loud enough.

Jenny Lewis - We headed over to catch the tail-end of Ms. Jenny "Short Skirt" Lewis. Not too bad, but not too memorable either.

Swell Season - While mellow, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening performance of the new band, formed by Glenn Hansard and Markéta Irglová of "Once" fame. Glenn is such a charming Irish bloke, and Marketa is just plain adorable. Would definitely see them again live.

Manu Chao - A great cap-off to Friday evening. Manu Chao brought a frenetic energy to the festival. We danced through to the end.

Old 97s - Saturday's start to the day with a little hottie Rhett Miller and the Old 97s. Enjoyable, but I actually prefer Mr. Miller's solo acoustic performances of many of the songs. Much more original sounding.

Frattelli's - We checked out the tail end of the Frattelli's - the cute bro trio from Scotland, and of iPod commercial fame. Their songs are uplifting, but best suited to running mixes.

CSS - We skipped off to dip in Barton Springs pool, which was much needed and completely restorative, but I was kicking myself for missing to much of CSS. They kick ass and I'm going to have to find a solo show when they're back state side. Bonus: CSS, which stands for CanseiDeSer Sexy, means "I'm tired of being sexy". Amen.

MGMT - These guys are definitely the band of 2008, but deservedely so. They kick ass, and take names. A racous - if young - crowd, helped the show along and the sound was just right.

Conor Oberst - He's not for everyone, but I really like Conor Oberst (also, performs as Bright Eyes). The kids got heart, and lyric-writing charts. He definitely doesn't break out of genre, but he's got stuff to say, so I'll keep listening.

Iron & Wine - These guys won points for being best show of ACL 2006, but this year they sounded a bit too spacey. I'll just keep my memories of yesteryear in tact and continue to listen to them in a dark room with my ear phones in.

My Muxtape Is All Tangled, I'm Going Old School with 8tracks

Yup, word on the street is that Muxtape has been shut down by those cretins at the RIAA. Good thing my buddy DP is on the case, having officially launched his great new service, 8tracks just last week. Best thing about 8tracks - aside from all the great music - is that it's completely legal taking advantage of some obscure provision from the DMCA. Take that, whitey! Check out my 8track mixes here or here.

We Got The Spirit, Yes We Do, We Got The Spirit, How 'Bout You?

A and R and B and I went to see Spiritualized on Saturday night at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Hadn't listed to the band much before, but now it's on permanent rotation. Spacey, rocking, soulful, Spiritualized is incredibly uplifting. Frontman Jason Pierce got in a terrible car accident while recording their latest album, Songs in A&E, and the songs reflect the pain and triumph of recovery he must of gone through. I think you all should get some Spirit. Or at least listen to a live set here.

I Told You Sweden Rocks...

everyone's doin' it... everyone's going there...

What I Learned This Week in Hotlanta...

• Hotlanta isn't always hot (merely in the high-60s today)
• ScarJo may be a better singer than Paris Hilton, but I ain't going to go see her live anytime soon
• JE hearts BO
  
• David Archuletta is the toothache that will never go away
• There's another music web site that will inevitably fall short of my music mecca
• I really should bring nail polish remover with me

Never Been Accused of Being a Slacker, but...

I think I'm digging on this new personal music/radio station site, Slacker. Just put in the names of your fav artists, and out pops a custom station. Simple as that. Here's my rockin' station.

Do the Wave

xTian and I went to see Oakland band Rogue Wave at the very excellent venue Fillmore East (a redubbed Irving Plaza) on Saturday eve. For me, the show started out slow - despite a rowdy prophylactic balloon bandying about - but worked up into a crescendo. The centerpiece set was an enthusiastic rendition of "Bird on a Wire" straight into a drum frenzy, followed by a raucous "Lake Michigan". Chatty (in a good way) frontman, Zach Rogue, also played a couple of great acoustic songs in a callback set (including a beautiful "California"), and it rounded out will the full band "Love's Loss Guarantee". Overall, I'd give it a 'B', which might have been a 'B+' after free $20 iTunes gift card giveaway on our way out of the show, except that it's just a bunch of $20 worth of club tunes that I probably don't want anyway. Fech.

Haven't We All Worn Saturday's Shoes on Sunday Morning?

... oh, really? you haven't. Well, never mind, then. I'll just tell you about a really charming singer-songwriter that I had the pleasure of listening to this afternoon: Richard Julian. He played a live show today in the new webcast series, Live @ FYI (they've also hosted another fav, Jenny Owen Youngs) -- plus the host is utterly adorable. Richard's new album is entitled none other than Sunday Morning in Saturday's Shoes. The album has plenty of clever ditty's including corporate hegemony inspired "Syndicated" and the heartbreaking "If You Stay". A smart, funny, low-key and humble showman (except when it comes to describing his crossword puzzle skills), Richard has a perfect Sunday afternoon listening key, and the appropriate soundtrack to this Spring season. An upcoming low-key show at Rockwood Music Hall in the next couple of weeks.

Do You Say 'Bless You' When I Sneeze?

A while back, I offered up a few simple questions, which when proposed to a lady's gentlemanly suitor after the first date or two, can help said gal save a lot of unnecessary time, pain and heartache. Yesterday, I was listening to one of my fav new Muxtapes, and I heard Hello Saferide's The Quiz. Undoubtedly a case of simultaneous inspiration as opposed to out and out stealing, Hello Saferide offers up some additional pertinent questions. And her tunes are kinda fun too.

I Just Made You the Raddest Mux

Old skool updated. New start-up, Muxtape, allows you to make 'tapes' for your friends and share them online. Here's one for my peeps. This is gonna rock... they just need to add a few bits and bobs: sign-up to your friends mixes, overall favorites/most popular, links to buy, other songs to same artist, upload multiple tracks at once, etc. C'mon... make me a mix, yo.

Set the Music Free!

For the love of all things holy, the beneficent folks at Pitchfork Media have announced plans for a 24-hr online music channel - Pitchfork.tv. Think MTV circa 1986. Bring back 120 Minutes, will the real VJs please stand up, and Madonna rolling around the floor in a wedding dress.

Words and Lyrics

Here is what is on my reading list these days...

• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers: current book, enjoying
• Frozen - by Jeff something?
• Motherless Brooklyn, or Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethum
• The Power Broker - Robert A. Caro
• CivilWarLand in Bad Decline - George Saunders
• Beautiful Children - Bock

Mickey says to add: The Epicure's Lament by Kate Christensen, and Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Marquez, but I'm not much of a GGM fan. I know the guys love him and all his old-man-having-sex-with-young-women characters, but he's not a fav.

On the magazine, newspaper front, I'm still a fan of New York, New Yorker, Esquire, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and occasionally Page Six.

And of course, what post-modern quasi-technophile, definite geek be without her Blog Reader - almost 250+ per day. VentureBeat, GigaOm, TechCrunch, Valleywag and Alley Insider are the tops.

Musically - The band of 2008: The Teenagers? Christian and I heart Vampire Weekend (and their ultra-dirty openers Plastic Little) but they're all sold out this week. Boo. Going to see Cat Power next week even though her recent covers album wasn't universally adored. Can't wait for the "Coachella" NYC tickets to be announced -- rumor has it that Radiohead will be there.

#1 Fan

I have approximately one loyal reader and therefore it is with great pleasure that I announce that I'm fulfilling his request to link to and expose a recently discovered site that promises to provide minutes of delight and joy to any child of the early 80s. I was a huge fan myself.

Also, my goal of seeing more live music in 2007 has yet to get off to a huge start, but listening to a ton of new stuff (Arcade Fire, reluctantly Hold Steady, old school Ryan Adams, Elvis Perkins, can't get enought My Morning Jacket live, some Jesse Sykes, The Fratellis, Brett Dennon, Deerhoof. Must be more proactive about going to see the shows. Am making a detour to San Francisco this weekend, and shall check out some Ghostland Observatory.

In any case, as Kermit would say, keep it green!