MUSIC THREAD

Saw a bunch of good acts at the XPN music festival this weekend - The Hold Steady, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Strand of Oaks, Dawes, Ryan Adams, J. Roddy Walston and the Business, Band of Horses, Beck, etc. My favorite act of the weekend, though, was Jenny Lewis. She rocked it and has me really excited for her new album to come out tomorrow.

 

How was Strand of Oaks? They're (He's?) playing down the street from me Thursday.

 

If tickets can be had, go see them. They put on a good show. Not quite The Gaslight Anthem good, which is my gold standard for current rock bands playing live, but still worth seeing.

J. Roddy Walston was really good as well. They had great energy.

 

Went to see America with Christopher Cross warmup last night.

I get so disgusted when bands force their own agenda instead of playing the hits the people came to see. America played 3-4 non-hits off their first album, covers of old Joni Mitchell and Gin Blossoms songs, and skipped about four of their top-10 hits.

 

I'm seeing them on August 7 in Boston. Strand of Oaks is my example of why I always like to see opening acts. They opened for Phosphorescent last year and blew me away. I've been hooked since then.

 

People who prefer Licensed to Ill, I've found, never got past that record (probably never got past Fight for Your Right). Very unaware of Paul's Boutique and anything beyond it.

LTI is a fun, but I remember being in high school and buying a copy of PB (cassette, mine was green!) putting it in the tape deck of my '81 Malibu and being absolutely blown away by what I was hearing.

 

I find Weird Al having the No. 1 album on the Billboard charts as an affirmation for irreverence everywhere.

Some of those videos he released last week are outstanding.

"Word Crimes"

"Foil"

"Tacky"

 

In a year almost barren of great new music, a new Spoon album is a godsend.

 

The copy editor in me chuckled at a few things in the 'Word Crimes' video ... but I almost doubled over in laughter at the second half of the "Foil" video. Great stuff.

Weird-Al can still hit the target sometimes.

 

Thanks to the recommend of Strand of Oaks ...

Listening to it this morning. It's really freaking good. How have I not heard of this?

 

His earlier work was more gimmicky.

GQ named My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as the best album of the 2000s thus far. I'm not a big fan of the list, but here it is: http://gqm.ag/1s44Jhs

 

Yeah, while I like most of those albums, that just felt like they randomly picked albums from different musical genres and called it a day. The first album to come to mind that I was surprised wasn't included is Funeral. That would seem to be a no-brainer for a list like that. Also, they picked the wrong Kanye and Fiona albums. And if they're not limiting themselves to one album per artists, then the Black Album needs to be on there.