Headlines! Beatles, Paramore and more

There's not a ton going on today, but everyone (it would seem) is talking about the Beatles remastered albums coming out tomorrow.

I'm pretty interested to see if Apple will announce the Beatles catalog being available on iTunes.

Personally, I'd go to Homer's and pick up a remastered Beatles CD for $9.99 before I'd pay $10 or more for the lower-fidelity iTunes files. But I don't think iTunes is focusing on me. I think they're after the guy who just wants a copy of "Yesterday" and either doesn't care about the sound quality or doesn't want to spend 10 bucks.

Would you buy the Beatles on iTunes? Post below in the comments.

Onto headlines!

• The Daily What explores how to pick your favorite indie band. This one made me crack up a few times.

• All of that Beatles stuff (remasters and Rock Band) comes out tomorrow. Pitchfork reviews all of the remasters. Chuck Klosterman wrote about them, too.

• Entertainment Weekly featured the Beatles (seemingly with every other news outlet on the planet). They ranked the fab four's albums.

• Spin.com features the best "summer songs" from this year. I'm not sure if they mean the best songs that came out this summer or the best "summer jams," so to speak. Either way, here it is. Can't say there's a song on this that I don't like (yeah, even the Brad Paisley one).

• Paramore's got a new song out. Here's an acoustic version. Spin also reviewed the band's new album.

• The "best-named festival ever" award goes to the Fuck Yeah Fest. Apparently the festival, in its sixth year, went pretty well.

• Paste ponders what the hell is going on with Iggy Pop. A valid question.

• Forgot to mention this earlier, but Jay-Z's album came out today. It was scheduled for release on Friday, but I guess it leaked or something.

• Today's unrelated to music feature: I don't care much about Dragon-Con, but the picture that goes with this post is priceless.

Today's Mail

Usually I post this as a portion of the daily headlines, but I got a ton of stuff today. Here's how it breaks down:

Boys Like Girls, "Love Drunk"
Haven't listened to it yet, but these guys became super popular over the last few years with tunes like "Hero/Heroine" and "The Great Escape." It's pretty poppy rock stuff and seems like the sort that's super-popular with 14 to 18-year-old girls. This will inevitably sell a ton of copies.

Sea Wolf, "White Water, White Bloom"
The second album from Sea Wolf, who will be in Omaha on Sept. 28. I honestly don't know a lot about this band, other that seeing its name pop up from time to time. Will be listening.

Pains of Being Pure at Heart, "Higher Than The Stars"
They play here Thursday. I'm going to do my best to be there because these folks are fantastic. This disc is an EP from the shoegazy, indie-poppy band, who released its much buzzed about full-length in February. Go to the band's MySpace, listen to its songs, come to the show Thursday. (Oh, and if you want to know more, look for my interview with the band Thursday online and in GO).

After Midnight Project, "Let's Build Something to Break"
I have nothing on this group other than what's in the press release. They're on Universal Motown, but the release said they broke into L.A.'s "indie scene." These seem like opposites. We'll see.

Bon Iver, "For Emma, Forever Ago"
Justin Vernon, the guy behind the band, isn't doing interviews. But his press people kindly sent me the CD, which was on several best-of 2008 lists. His show in a few weeks is sold out, so sorry if you didn't get tickets yet. Saw Bon Iver at Lollapalooza and, despite the rain, the show was outstanding. I'll be at Slowdown next week to watch.

Monsters of Folk, "Monsters of Folk"
Well, this is the biggie... Out Sept. 22, the new album is the brainchild of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, M. Ward and Jim James (still going by the solo moniker Yim Yames... weirdo). I haven't heard more than the few tracks that were released early ("Say Please," "Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)" and "The Sandman, The Brakeman and Me"). I liked those, but they seem pretty dissonant, like one guy was obviously the writer of each track even though each song is credited to the whole band. I also can't help but think of the Traveling Wilburys when I think of this band. Here's hoping this album is just as good (or better) as the Wilburys. I'll find out later this afternoon when I give it a spin.

Simian Mobile Disco, "Temporary Pleasure"
The fourth album from the electro duo, "Temporary Pleasure" has so far garnered good reviews. I've never heard a lot from this band/group/whatever, to be honest.

Rodrigo & Gabriela, "11:11"
This disc has a DVD with concert footage and interviews as well as "tutorials." What that means, I'm not entirely sure. I like their last album, so hopefully I'll like this one too.



Sooooooo... Lots to listen to today. I'll probably do reviews of some of these eventually.

Headlines! No assholes, Monsters of Folk and more

Today, I got stood up by the guitarist from Flogging Molly. But, it's OK. I have two weeks to interview the guy. We'll get to this eventually.

Anyway, I finally got around to catching "(500) Days of Summer" last night. (Two viewings of "Inglourious Basterds" and a few other films came first.)

Not only was it a funny, cute-in-an-indie-sort-of-way movie, but the soundtrack is fantastic. I got it a few weeks ago and enjoyed stuff from Regina Spektor, The Smiths, Black Lips and Hall & Oates (yes, seriously), but it gets even better when you hear it in the film.

If you pay no attention during the rest of the film, wake yourself up when you hear the opening notes of "You Make My Dreams" by Hall & Oates. You'll see what I mean.

Onto the important part: headlines!

• ATP in New York is coming up soon. Apparently, they have a "no assholes" policy.

• In the name of all that is awesome, Beck and MGMT do a Leonard Cohen cover. Wow. I guess Devendra Banhart was there too.

• This has actually been up on the band's site for at least a few days, but Stereogum has a thing on Monsters of Folk's album art. I would have preferred the block-lettered image that was on the band's site before.

• Paramore did a cover of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" for BBC. It's a pretty straightforward cover (although on acoustic guitars), but female vocals from Hayley Williams fit perfectly on that song.

• Pollstar asks if this was the best concert summer ever. I suppose it's possible, but I only made it to shows here and to Lollapalooza. Seems like festivals are taking over, which end up being amazing experiences — if you can afford to go. Check out the discussion thread.

• Jay-Z announced his fall tour. Guess what. Omaha ain't on it. Are you surprised? I'm not. In related Jay-Z news, they did a track-by-track review over at Spin.

• And today's "completely-unrelated-to-music" feature: The top 10 weirdest moments on "The Muppet Show." Enjoy.

That's a wrap, folks. Enjoy your long holiday weekend!

OEA Award Noms

If you haven't gone and nominated your favorite local band (or artist or theater or whatever) to win an Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award, you still can. They extended the deadline to Sept. 7.

Live Music is on the fourth page of the ballot. All you need to give is your name and an e-mail to fill out the form.

May the best man/band win.

Eli's new project

I guess Eli Mardock doesn't have enough to do.

The guy from Eagle*Seagull has a new solo project, Eli Mardock Is An Idiot.

A few weeks ago, Mardock told me about why it's taken so long to get Eagle*Seagull's newest album released. Last I heard, the band still doesn't have a U.S. release date.

Anyway, you can catch Mardock's solo thing at the Waiting Room on Sunday. He's opening for Fortnight and Yourself and the Air. 8 bucks.

Headlines! Conor Oberst, Thom Yorke and more

Welcome to the blog, for those of you who wandered over here from Tim McMahan's lazy-i. Thanks to Tim for linking to the blog and my Twitter. Go ahead and peruse the blog and leave comments where you wish. I like getting feedback.

Anyway, today has been a day full of interviews, edits and writing. I'm mostly working on stuff relating to the Beatles remasters coming next week and next week's GO section (comedian Rodney Carrington, Gaslight Anthem and Pains of Being Pure at Heart).

In this week's GO, I have a story on Matt & Kim and a short thing on pop-punk group Straight Outta Junior High's CD release.

Anyway, onto the headlines!

• Radiohead's Thom Yorke released two new songs. In the official e-mail I got, he wrote, "'FeelingPulledApartbyHorses' is written & played by Jonny and I and is a radical rework of an old tune that's been kicking around without a home since 2001? i think. 'The Hollow Earth' is a bass menace that was born out of the Eraser period but needed a little more time."

• At Outside Lands last week, the guy from Deerhunter didn't know who Conor Oberst was. Apparently he said "Oh, you mean Bright Eyes?" after a fan clued him in. Good work, dude.

• Speaking of, a bearded Conor alluded to the Mystic Valley Band being done with during the group's two sets at Outside Lands. (Here's another short review.) Does he mean the end of the band forever? It is the last date on the tour, so he might have meant "for now." But, it's possible he's done with the MVB. He does have Monsters of Folk album and tour coming in a few weeks. Then presumably he'll record for next year's Bright Eyes album and do a tour or two for that. We'll see.

• I mentioned Say Anything yesterday. Well, frontman Max Bemis played some acoustic tunes for Spin, including a new track.

• Tim Kasher from Cursive did some acoustic songs for The Tripwire's Backyard music thing.

• TV on the Radio is taking some time apart. It appears they're keeping pretty busy though. Kyp Malone is going on tour as Rain Machine and the rest are up to other projects.

• Today's "it's not related to music" feature: There's a trailer up for the new "Boondock Saints" movie. Probably won't be as good as the original, but I'm still stoked.

Fighting over a family tree

Update (10:15 a.m., 09/04/2009): There's also a thread over on Slam Omaha, which gets even more involved. I'll say it again: I could have written a book on Omaha music (hell, I'd like to), but it's not going to fit on one page of a newspaper. No way, no how.

Sorry if you got left out. Sorry Luigi Waites got left out. Sorry we called it the "Omaha Music Scene" instead of the "Saddle Creek Connection." But I'm not stupid. I know there's more than indie rock here and I know who Preston Love is.

It is my pleasure to cover as many of you worthy local folks as possible along with the wealth of music that passes through town. Let me know what you're up to. Tell me when you're playing. My e-mail: kevin.coffey@owh.com. My phone: 402-444-1557. My address: 1314 Douglas Street Suite 700 • Omaha, NE 68105-1811

Now, back to the original post....

* * *

If you picked up Sunday's paper, you could read a little thing called the "Omaha Music Scene Family Tree." It's still online.

There's been some discussion about it at Tim McMahan's lazy-i including people saying it's a letdown, misrepresentation or any number of other things. I understand exactly why people say that, mostly because it starts with Saddle Creek and includes (for the most part) a bunch of Saddle Creek bands, people and those closely related to them.

Would "Six Degrees of Saddle Creek" been a better headline? In hindsight, yeah.

I will say that there was a disclaimer in that thing for a reason, which was (as stated) that there wasn't nearly enough room for everything. No freaking way could all of that fit on one page and still be readable.

Well, we started with SC because they're the big guys. It's a logical starting point. But anyone who pays any attention to music around here knows that they're not the only thing in town.

You should see the original draft (hand-scrawled across a few pages of a legal pad). It includes Kyle Harvey and Slo-Fi. Names like Scott Gaeta, Steve Bartolomei, Adam Hawkins and Marq Manner show up. So does Hotel Frank, Dan McCarthy and Simon Joyner (come to think of it, Simon Joyner is on the final draft).

There's even a list of bands, people, stores and venues that I hadn't found a home for and was looking for a way to incorporate.

But I work for a newspaper, and it was time for editing. You could make an entire 8-page section out of the Omaha music scene, but I only got the cover of ETA (our Sunday entertainment section). Lots had to go. More than half, probably.

Lastly: As for the suggestion that I don't go to shows, those claiming such don't know what I look like. I've watched several of those complaining perform and/or standing in the crowd at the same shows I'm at — many times.

I don't walk up to everyone in the room and say, "Hi, I'm Kevin. You know, the guy from the newspaper?" But I love live music. I'm out there as much as I can be.

Headlines! Jay-Z, Cobain in 'Guitar Hero' and more

Another crazy day here in the newsroom. Look for some stuff coming on the Beatles next week.

Wait, haven't you heard? Yeah, the boys from Liverpool are releasing remastered versions of all of their albums. I'm excited to pick up a few of them, for sure. Vinyl versions will becoming next year.

Anyway.... headlines!

• 311 (above) announced a fall/winter tour today, including a Nov. 14 show at the Mid-America Center. Tickets on sale Sept. 19.

• Anyone else excited for the new Jay-Z album, "The Blueprint 3?" I am. If you don't want to wait until it drops next week, MTV is streaming it.

• Paste Magazine is asking for readers' top films of the decade. What are yours?

• Remember that Kurt Cobain "Guitar Hero" avatar that I mentioned? The folks at Spin think it does some weird stuff that Kurt would have never done. Would Kurt have wailed on a Bon Jovi song? Probably not.

• Say Anything has a new single and video. I kinda like it. But it's catchy enough that I'll probably hate it in a few months when I hear it on the radio a few hundred times.

• Jack White is doing some stuff with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

• The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (in town Sept. 10, look for my interview the same day) have a remixed version of "Higher Than The Stars" on the band's new EP. Check it out.

RAA on Daytrotter

I've been waiting for this since I saw the Rural Alberta Advantage at Slowdown a few months ago. After the show, I talked to Nils Edenloff about the band and the show (who, by the way is one of the nicest rock band guys I've ever met).

Anyway, Nils told me they were headed back to Canada the next morning, but they'd be stopping at doing a Daytrotter session while they passed through Illinois.

Well, a few months later, here it is. I guess that's the lag time between bands recording and when it actually shows up on the site. No complaints here though.

The session has "The Air" and "In the Summertime" from the band's Saddle Creek debut, "Hometowns." It also includes unreleased tunes "Two Lovers" and "Barnesyard" (which may be my new favorite tune from RAA).

These are the best?

The Internet is made for top 10 lists (or top 50 or 100 or whatever).

They're great fodder to draw in readers and they provoke all kinds of comments and debate.

In fact, I'm going to fuel the fire with one of them, Pitchfork's 50 best videos of the 2000s.

This is actually one of the worst "top whatever" lists that I've ever seen. Most of the videos are pretty terrible.

Well, terrible in anyone but the minds of Pitchfork's "we're so indie and hip" staff writers.

Example: MGMT's "Time To Pretend." Great song. A personal favorite from last year. That's the song though. The video? It's awful. It's just a bunch of random images and day-glo crap, very little of which is clever or interesting.

In my opinion, a video should be pretty memorable to be in the top 50. This is especially in an era where anyone can film a music video on the cheap with a handheld digital video camera and a copy of iMovie (and quite a few folks have).

Anyway, they did have some good ones. Some favorites on their list: Elton John's "This Train Doesn't Stop There Anymore," Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg's "D*** in a Box," OK GO's "Here It Goes Again" and Justice's "D.A.N.C.E."

What did they miss? A few of my favorites from the last 10 or so years are:

• Matt & Kim's "Yea Yeah" is a great example of cheap and lo-fi, but hilarious and also matches the song's energy.

• Gnarls Barkley's "Smiley Faces" places C-Lo and Danger Mouse within America's musical fabric in pretty clever and funny ways.

• I hate to endorse anything these guys do (and this song is pretty truly awful), but Nickelback's "Rockstar" video is chock-full of great cameos (including several actual rock stars) as well as weird and dedicated fans.

• How about any one of 10 different Foo Fighters videos? "Breakout," where first date goes horribly awry. "Long Road to Ruin" has the rockers posing as soap stars. And "Learn to Fly" was from '99, but it's still hilarious.

• The Pitchfork list has a few fan-made vids, but they forgot to include one of the best of all time: the "hands" video of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger."

Do you have any favorites that myself or the Pitchfork folks missed?