Jenny Lewis' New Album, Acid Tongue, out 9/23/08

Sometimes I like to think I'm pretty ahead of the curve on knowing what is out there as far as music goes. And then I find out one of everyone's favorite artists, Jenny Lewis, has a new album coming out in just two weeks, and I wonder: how ahead of the curve could I really be? Two weeks? What a poseur...

No matter, though, because the main point is we should all rejoice in this new hearlding of joy...new Jenny Lewis material! Excuse the Biblical connotations there, but that is the level of my excitement for this news. After all, Lewis does have the voice of an angel, doesn't she?

She does...but Acid Tongue is an apt title for this album, which sees Lewis exploring a grity, blue-collar rock'n'roll sound, something more akin to the gospel-fired blues of the Rolling Stones or Emmylou Harris than anything Rilo Kiley has done (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and White Stripes seem more modern touchstones.) It's a dark angel kind of thing. Also haunting this album are the spirits of Carole King, Carly Simon, Chrissie Hynde and, seriously, Diane Keaton (check Lewis' hat above and compare to the singing Annie Hall).

And check out the amazing list of guest stars on this album! I about died when I realized Elvis Costello had started singing...

The gospel is clearly carried forward from Lewis' work with the Watson Twins on 2006's Rabbit Fur Coat, but the heavy guitar blues fog that cloaks her in this album feels brand new, suitable to Lewis' voice and aesthetics. She seems slightly mysterious and aloof on a lot of this album, which I don't think I'd normally accuse her recordings of, but I like it here. Key tracks for me (on first listen) are: "Pretty Bird," "The Next Messiah," "Acid Tongue" (4.5 stars there), "Godspeed" (5+++), and "Carpetbaggers." And everything else, too.

But, friends, do not take my word for it!!! You can listen to all of the album at:

Jenny Lewis' Myspace.

And then on 9/23/08 we'll have another entrant for album of the year!!!

UPDATE: Today, Sept. 16, I doubled-back to the MySpace to listen to the new album again...and sadly found that they've taken most of the new album down. It was apparently a limited-time thing only. Still, you can check out a couple new tracks, at least!

Here & Now

Unable to sleep overnight, restless in my mind over many questions, eventually a musical one occurred to me: "Steve, what is the best music of 2008 so far?" Looking over my collection, I noted several artists that will likely make my year-end best-of list--Vampire Weekend, Basia Bulat, Ra Ra Riot, and Mason Jennings among them--but I also realized that there are a lot of gaps in my knowledge of what has come out in 2008. It seems that for a long while now, most of my mixes have spanned many decades...which is great in a lot of respects, but at the same time, I have always enjoyed making mixes of brand new music that I just discovered that very same day. And so, thinking these thoughts, I set out to make another mix that had "Here & Now" written all over it.

Now not all of this music is from 2008: the Alton Ellis is from the 60s, Moxy Fruvous came from the early 90s, and a few other tracks are from 2003-2007. But 11 of 18 songs here were released this year, so that's not so bad. And from those, two artists especially stand out here: Thao and Santogold. Thao is Thao Nguyen, a female singer-songwriter whose songs are beautiful, quirky, and effervescent. Itunes compares her to Cat Power, which I might buy if Cat Power were on some really really good anti-depressants! Santogold is composed of various musicians but always fronted by Sandi White...and I'm not sure what I think of the band's complete body of work yet, but I will tell you I love her voice and I freaking love the song on this mix, "L.E.S. Artistes," like a fat kid loves cake. Oh man, that song's so awesome(!)...the Santogold, not the 50 Cent I referenced there, that is.

As is most everything here! Let me not mince words: If you're going to perhaps download only one mix this month, it should maybe be this one.

Here & Now
1. M79, Vampire Weekend
2. Bag of Hammers, Thao
3. Your Heart, Donovon Frankenreiter
4. L.E.S. Artistes, Santogold
5. Ghetto Pop Life, Danger Mouse & Jemini
6. Blue and Gold Print, Mates of State
7. Never Knew Your Name, Mason Jennings
8. Each Year, Ra Ra Riot
9. Good Arms Vs. Bad Arms, Frightened Rabbit
10. Whiter Shade of Pale, Alton Ellis
11. Run Off, Breathe Owl Breathe
12. Memphis, Tennessee, Mason Jennings
13. You've Really Got a Hold On Me, Thao
14. Stephen, Voxtrot
15. My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors, Moxy Fruvous
16. How Deep Is That River, Mason Jennings
17. Touch the Hem of His Garment, Basia Bulat
18. I Wish I Was the Moon, Neko Case

Notes:
Vampire Weekend is probably going to be the band that gets my blog shut down, seeing as how I have given away virtually their entire album here...I had to buy the entire Thao album, it is so impressive!...this Frankenreiter song made the original mix of Vacation Song, then I cut it, so had to add it here...OMG I LUV "L.E.S. Artistes." Maybe the single of the year thus far? Or am I just infatuated?...I also love anything produced by Danger Mouse...still having trouble getting all the way in to this Mates of State album, but I dig this track...Mason Jennings should get lots of props here, too, as this mix features 3 beautiful songs from his newest album, In the Ever. I've purchased the whole thing now and it's really substantial work. Mason Jennings is seriously going to end up with a lifetime's body of work that will rival anybody's...Ra Ra Riot ra ra rules!...Frightened Rabbit seems like a band to keep your eyes on; love the guy's voice...I really love old reggae covers of old American pop songs, and this cover of "Whiter Shade of Pale" may be my favorite...I like how this "Run Off" song picks up steam, esp. with the "roo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" chorus...big shouts to Memphis, TN!...okay, you can hear the Cat Power in this Thao version of the old standard, "You've Really Got a Hold on Me"...Katy gave me this "Stephen" song by ultra-cool Voxtrot a while back. Is it self-absorbed to put it here?...Vanessa gave me this Moxy Fruvous song. So funny...a nice gospel-ish duet here with Mason Jennings and Basia Bulat..."I Wish I Was the Moon." Neko Case, how I want a new album from you!!!

Two Sides to Every Story

So, here's a mix I made this morning, when I should have been writing. Somehow it came to me that I needed to rock a bit harder than normal...it seems twice or thrice a year the need to listen to loud guitars overtakes my usual urge for well-crafted pop melody. Not that these songs aren't all well-crafted...and not that there isn't plenty of pop to be found on this mix. Just that there's a certain rock swagger that cuts through the whole mix, I think.

Man do I love that word: "Swagger."

Two Sides to Every Story

1. Beyond Belief, Elvis Costello
2. Stadiums and Shrines II, Sunset Rubdown
3. When the Levee Breaks, Led Zepplin
4. Nature of the Experiment, Tokyo Police Club
5. Mockingbirds, Grant Lee Buffalo
6. I Think I'm Going to Hell, My Morning Jacket
7. The Future, Leonard Cohen
8. Walcott, Vampire Weekend
9. Consequence, Incubus
10. Shady Lane, Pavement
11. Changes, David Bowie
12. Killing Lies, The Strokes
13. The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine, Spoon
14. Waitin' On A Friend, The Rolling Stones
15. You Don't Know How It Feels, Tom Petty
16. Turn My Head, Live
17. Life In A Glass House, Radiohead
18. Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine (Live), Bob Dylan

Notes:
"Beyond Belief" is one of my favorite Elvis Costello joints...and speaking of guitars, this Sunset Rubdown track features some weidly excellent axe work...is "When the Levee Breaks" Led Zep's best work? It's up there...Tokyo Police Club is a very interesting group, check out their body of work..."Mockingbirds" by GLB. This song got me through Fall 05 all by itself...man does MMJ rock!--and in a variety of styles...Leonard Cohen still equals God...Vampire Weekend is surely positioning themselves to take home Steve's Album of 2008 Award...this morning I realized how much I miss listening to Incubus..."A shady lane / everybody wants one / a shady lane / everbody needs one." So true Mr. Malkmus...I tend not to give Bowie enough credit, but that guy is as seminal as anybody to me...I can't wait for a new Strokes album, whenever that will be..."He makes love to the duke, he swordfights the queen / he steals the whole show in his last dying scene / no one sees the two sides of Monsieur Valentine"...speaking of swagger, ladies and gentlemen, Mick Jagger!...remember the video to this Tom Petty song? Awesome...I don't think people think of the album Secret Samadhi when they think of Live, but that's my favorite from them...still groovin' on Radiohead after the concert...Bob Dylan swaggered sometimes, too. When he felt the need.

TuneUp: An Essential iTunes Utility

So, I've posted two blogs related to my trip thus far...and here's one more. While I was in Salem, Amy introduced me to TuneUp, which is, essentially, a companion program for iTunes, one that searches your music and matches your improperly labeled song files with the correct labels. In the creators' own words: "Your music is dirty, clean it up!" So if you've got a mix cd someone gave you (someone like me, say), and you want to know all the song titles and band names, TuneUp will do that for you. It's pretty incredible! Yesterday I cleaned up about 400 messed-up tracks in my computer, and I feel like I just got 40 new albums now. Happy happy happy...

There are a lot of other good things about TuneUp: one is that it also downloads album cover art to your computer. Another is the pricing: as of now, you can get 500 song file "TuneUp"s FREE...and beyond that one year is 11.95 and, for a limited time, a lifetime subscription is only $19.95. (I expect that truly will be a limited offer...I plan on buying in soon, as soon as I use up the rest of my free ones.) TuneUp also doesn't appear to be particularly invasive (everything is drag & drop by you, the user, so it's not like it just worms its way into your files...only the files you choose), which is very nice. Finally, TuneUp has only been public for about a month, so it's just kind of nice to get on the ground floor of something...right??? It's so new I can't even find a downloadable graphic for them. If these guys start trading publically, I am buying that stuff right up (just like Alex bought those Iraqi Dinars over the phone...but I digress...)

I have, on the other hand, found two negatives thus far: one, TuneUp does seem to get a fair percentage of stuff wrong (I'm gonna guess it's about 10-15% at this early stage?); and two, it's only available for Windows users right now (hey, didn't the Mac folks invent all this iStuff???). To both concerns, however, it seems fairly likely TuneUp is going to make these guys a lot of money, so they seem rightly ambitious and dedicated to getting all their bugs worked out. Hey, they made a pretty great product...good for them, good for us!

As I said, yesterday I cleaned up 400 songs, and this morning I am enjoying them all. I have to say, however, my absolute favorite song I've listened to this morning is "Then the Morning Comes," by--of all the freaking bands I thought I'd plug on here--Smashmouth!!! You remember this song, if you pay attention to pop music: the one that goes "It's just the way that you are / It's just the way that you talk, like it ain't no thaaang..." Yeah, I can't believe I'm saying this either, but it's true. So...if you dare, here's the song file. Enjoy...and go download that TuneUp so you don't have to type that terrible word (Smashm**th) yourself!

Radiohead! In Auburn! With Bootleg!

[Ed: So, as I've mentioned below, while on vacation Alex & I saw Radiohead play a show in Auburn, WA. Below is a zip/.mp3 bootleg of the concert, graciously taken from www.inrainbowsremix.com, a Radiohead gigography site. Also below is my quickie review of the show, which I originally posted here, at Green Plastic Radiohead. Oh, and the above photo--which shows the awesome light display the band played under, although this actual photo comes from the Boston show--comes courtesy of Ryan's Smashing Life. God the Internet kicks ass sometimes, doesn't it?]

I loved this show, it was fantastic. I was on vacation to see a buddy in Salem, OR, and we cruised around the West Coast for two weeks, with this concert being the crowning achievement. It was great!!! Second time both of us have seen them, having seen them in Red Rocks just after Amnesiac. I have to admit I was a bit of a bad fan recently and wasn't as knowledgeable of In Rainbows as I should have been ahead of time, but this concert gave me the song "All I Need," which, as other reviewers have said, was the one of the big turning points of the show and AMAZING. Their renditions of "Optimistic," and "Pyramid Song," "Talk Show Host," and "The National Anthem" (back-to-back-to-back!) were sooo good, their extreme fuck-ups during "Faust Arp" were hilarious and good-natured (come on, we all knew Thom was human...painfully human!!!). Both encores were awesome, with a jaw-dropping "You and Whose Army" dedicated to the WTO protests in Seattle from 1999 (as everyone has already said...but this has to go on my blog too :-), with a heart-rending "No Surprises" following. At that point I thought things were done, and pulled my buddy out of the crowd, only to be turned around for "Everything in It's Right Place," which everyone must agree is a seminal Radiohead tune. They blew me away; they are two-for-two. For whatever reason, it rains everytime I see Radiohead and I love that.

The parking and getting-out situation sucked (hours in the parking lot!!!), but the venue itself was cool. Like I said I was visiting from Alaska, and it was awesome how great everyone there was to us, especially the cool hippie guys in front of us that "hooked us up" :-). My friend got really messed up and danced his ass off, in a fashion hilarious to all around us but endearing to me (okay, also hilarious to me), and the girls were adorable all-about us. Thanks Seattle! Thanks Radiohead! You all rocked!!!

P.S. Thom and Johnny were amazing. Those guys are incredible.
P.P.S. I am always, always impressed by Phil Selway's drumming. That guy is awesome.

Radiohead, Auburn, WA, 8/20/08
1. 15 Step
2. Reckoner
3. Optimistic
4. There There
5. All I Need
6. Pyramid Song
7. Talk Show Host
8. The National Anthem
9. The Gloaming
10. Videotape
11. Lucky
12. Faust Arp
13. Jigsaw Falling into Place
14. Climbing Up the Walls
15. Dollars and Cents
16. Nude
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore one:
1. How to Disappear Completely
2. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
3. Idioteque
4. In Limbo
5. Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Encore two:
1. You and Whose Army (dedicated to Seattle WTO protests)
2. No Surprises
3. Everything in Its Right Place

So, I Went on Vacation...

...and that's my excuse for not blogging at all recently. I flew from Fairbanks to Portland, and then took a bus to Salem, OR, to hang out with good old pal Alex Pieske for a couple weeks. And great fun we had!--we rented a car (sweet cornflower blue Ford Focus) and road-tripped the West Coast. First we drove up to Portland for two nights, then we went down to San Francisco for three nights, and later we made it up around Seattle for a bit, with plenty of beautiful Salem thrown in the middle. Highlights included, chronologically: Alex getting super-messed up and crazy on my second night there (so much so that he tackled me to the floor, hard, in a grocery store); an Oakland A's vs. Tampa Bay Rays game; a sweet, sweet time at the San Fran Museum of Modern Art (Frida Kahlo exhibit!); a fun time at a birthday party of a new Salem friend (thanks be to Bree); and, the crowning jewel, an AWESOME, AWESOME Radiohead concert in Auburn, WA--my second time seeing Radiohead and simply breathtaking. I saw a lot of cool stuff; I met a lot of cool people. I met a really cool person. You can check out a bunch of photos from my trip here and here.

That's a very cursory review of my two weeks down south, which really felt like a month or so. But as Suzanne's experience with blogging her trip to Alaska shows, trying to fit everything into your writing can be an overwhelming experience...and ANYWAYS, this is a music blog, isn't it??? So I wanted to post here a mix I made just two days ago, after having arrived back from my trip. Basically everything on here is stuff I listened to, or was informed of, or heard on the radio (our car had some sweet SIRIUS going on), during our trip. I plan on blogging the Radiohead show, too, but for now here's a little something I call "Vacation Song". Click on the title to download the entire zip file:

Vacation Song

1. Baby, Now That I've Found You, The Foundations
2. Funny Little Frog, Belle & Sebastian
3. Can You Tell, Ra Ra Riot
4. Swept Away, The Avett Brothers
5. All I Need, Radiohead
6. Into My Arms, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
7. The Kids Don't Stand a Chance, Vampire Weekend
8. Badge, Cream
9. Long Distance Runaround, Yes
10. The Passenger, Iggy Pop
11. I Was in the House When the House Burned Down, Warren Zevon
12. When It Don't Come Easy, Patty Griffin
13. Heavenly Day, Patty Griffin
14. I Want You to Be My Love, Over the Rhine
15. Sleepin' Is All I Wanna Do (Stars on a Sunny Day), The Duhks
16. Bron-Yr-Aur, Led Zeppelin

Notes:
"Baby Now That I've Found You" is such a classic tune; the original is WAAY better than the Alison Kraus version...Belle & Sebastian keep on keepin' on, don't they? "Funny Little Frog" is great and beautiful...Ra Ra Riot is a band I picked up on right when I got back to FAI. This whole album sounds good and I'll blog it soon...this Avett Brothers song may well be the death of me, I fear; it's too good..."All I Need" by Radiohead is a track I didn't pick up on until the concert itself. What a gift from Thom & the guys!!!...lots of Nick Cave listening on the trip...I blogged a bit about this Vampire Weekend song over on myspace..."Badge" by Cream. I heard this on SIRIUS twice I think, and I had to remember how awesome it is. The radio DJ said that the lyrics to this song come mostly from conversations between Clapton and Ringo Starr...when this Yes song came on SIRIUS I loved it instantly and said to Alex in surprise, "Holy crap, I can't believe this, but I'm becoming a Yes fan right now. Never thought that would happen!"..."The Passenger" is, I believe, the first song to make two mixes that were posted here on Mixed Cookies. Congratulations, Iggy!...God this Warren Zevon song kicks ass, and thank god to Alex for making me remember it...Amy told me I should listen to Patty Griffin. I'm semi-surprised that she was right, ha...this Over the Rhine song kills me,and their other stuff is good too...The Duhks are a pretty interesting blend of influences and styles: country, gospel, jazz, & bluegrass...Bron-Yr-Aur by Zeppelin. So apt that there are no words here...