Live Music: Jenny Lewis at Bonnaroo '09

There's a ton of content from Jenny Lewis' Bonnaroo performance, but my favorite was "Jack Killed Mom". How is there a music video for "Black Sand" (mediocre song, boring video), but not for this song? Awesomeness this song is.

Video: Courtney Love announces Hole "reunion"

Oh Courtney, you crazy bitch. You know I love you, and yet you continue to screw me over. Apparently Courtney is re-editing her probably shitty solo album that's been brewing for around four years and calling it the fourth Hole album. Melissa Auf Der Maur's coming back to do some bass and backing vocals, and apparently that's enough to bring back the old name. Goddammit Billy Corgan, this is all your fault. Look, I'll follow "Live Through This" and "Celebrity Skin" to the ends of the earth and worship everything having anything to do with those albums, but Love has done nothing worth praising in the last 11 years, and at this point I can't imagine her releasing anything that won't fuck up Hole's near-perfect(at least in MY mind)discography.

Also, there's no Eric Erlandson, which officially makes this a 100% hollow, exploitative, Pumpkins-style non-reunion.

Here's a ten minute video where Courtney announces Hole's revival with new guitarrist Micko Larkin. She really is kind of amusing to listening to, especially when she gets to the bit about one-armed strippers towards the end. She also claims that Apocalyptica is coming in to overdub their cellos onto some of their tracks, and I'm not sure whether or not we should believe her yet.

New Music: Gossip's entire "Music For Men" now streaming

Go here to listen to The Gossip's new album in its entirety:

http://www.spinner.com/new-releases#/1

It's alright. I felt like "Heavy Cross" is the only truly kinetic song on the whole album, at least on the first listen. Beth and Co haven't completely lost their charm yet, but I feel like I'll never think about this album again after their next album is released.

"Heavy Cross" video. Pretty cool.

Covers: Arctic Monkees > Amy Winehouse

I forgot that I found this and loved this forever ago. Arctic Monkeys owning the shit out of "You Know I'm No Good". Re-live it and re-love it.

Covers: Santigold/Santogold does Adele's "Hometown Glory"

Told ya I'd accomplish five posts this week. I'm gonna get better at this, I swear.

Here's the thing about this version. You have to completely forget about the existence of the original, and only then can you appreciate how quietly, quirkily beautiful this cover is. She took the simplest drum/bass arrangement manageable and truly, genuinely made this song her own. Only recommended for Santogold fans; Adele fans who could give a shit about Sant(i/o)gold will get absolutely nothing out of this.



I don't care what the lawsuit says, she'll always be SantOgold to me.

Remixes: Franz Ferdinand Vs Kelis

File this one under "flawed in a lot of places, but still entertaining as all hell":

Acoustic Covers: Of Montreal do David Bowie's "Starman"

I did done fucked up yesterday and there was no post, so tomorrow there'll be a double post, because this time I AM COMMITTING TO THIS GODDAMMIT.

Anyway.

"Starman" is a genius piece of songwriting, so if you put anyway competent, likeable band behind it, I will probably love it, even if it doesn't have Bowie's flair backing it up. Of Montreal's covers of this song are fun, because they have their own individual quirky charm that captures the original's eccentricity without even coming close to doing a Bowie impersonation. Like in this acoustic version, Barnes does guitar and main vocals while his bandmate just stands there and actually makes the "DUH-DUHDUH-DUH-DUH" pre-chorus sounds with his voice, and then does some backing vocals for the chorus. And then goes back to just standing there. Weirdly awesome.

Music Videos: Newish Regina Spektor

I'm a few weeks behind on this, but I'm posting it now because I'm just now starting to come around on this song. It's "Laughing With" by Regina Spektor, and it did next to nothing for me at first, but it's been growing me on me so much lately.

Live Covers: Amanda Palmer does Ben Folds

My issue with Ben Folds was that I always had all the respect in the world for him as a songwriter, but I never could get that far into his music because his voice didn't do much for me. So here's Amanda Palmer performing the song in Boston. Problem solved for me! It's interesting, Amanda Palmer's voice isn't even that "nice" in the conventional sense in this video; it's probably about as rough as Ben's is in the original, but this just totally works for me so much more. Who knows why.

The Return of Audioclash

After a nine-month hiatus that will be left mysteriously unexplained, we're back full-time. For real this time.

New Music: More Killers

The first studio track from the new Killers' album is finally out in the open. Unfortunately, all that's out at this second is a lo-fi copy, but it gives you a good idea of what the song's like. The live videos of "Spaceman" were intriguing, but far from their best work, but this new song reminds of "Hot Fuss"'s best moments. It's HF's hi-fi, synthy, bombast with "Sam's Town"'s ambitious scope and sweep, but without ST's borderline pretentiousness. It's a best of both worlds compromise, even if the drums scream "electro dance song" just a little too loudly. The song's got a huge heart though to make up for however ridiculous it might be.

New Music: Jack White and Alicia Keys' James Bond song

The much-hyped Jack White and Alicia Keys duet finally made it to the internet today. It's not quite what I expected... Jack White tried to take his messy, rambling, experimental, White Stripes style, then replaced his usual set of instruments for the traditional James-Bond-theme-song orchestra, threw Alicia's vocals over the top of it, and this acid trip of a song is the result. It has brilliant moments, weighed down by the completely aimless randomness of what surrounds those moments. Somebody will make an amazing cover or remix of this song one day.



I'll say this much, though-- it blows Chris Cornell's "Casino Royale" theme song out of the water.

Remixes: The Killers vs Muse

I found a video mashup of "When You Were Young" and "Starlight", and it's... not great. It's a perfect example of a "good failure". It's a great idea, but the audio levels are off and the samples aren't handled very well. So, if you know remix things, consider this an idea for a challenge to go out and make this collaboration work, because there's a lot of potential hiding in this video.

Music Videos: New Rachel Yamagata

Rachel Yamagata's long-awaited (for four years) second album is finally coming out in a few weeks, and now we have a first single. It's called "Elephants", and it doesn't quite fit in on "Happenstance", but it's unmistakably Yamagata's work. It's much more serious and doesn't focus on the giant hooks the way that "Happenstance"'s best songs did, but she's got enough talent to take herself this seriously, so it works. Here's hoping the rest of the album is as good.

Good Unknowns: Sipo

Audioclash's Myspace got a friend request from a band called Sipo. They're a producer's band, focused on realistic-ish sounding electronic music that's miles better than what I usually get in my inbox. They're so under-the-radar at this point that I could only find one video in all of Youtube that has anything to do with them. It's a video of the drum takes in the studio on the recording of their upcoming album, "The White Rose". The real way to get into their work, though, is to go to their Myspace and listen to "In Skin", because it's fantastic.