Guitars! Beards! Punk dudes! Old dudes! A barely-2009 Spoon song! A few ladies! Two (2) bands from Indiana (#8, #18)!
[192kpbs mp3 | 72:14 | 100.5 MB]
1. Yo La Tengo “Nothing to Hide” (Matador)
2. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart “The Tenure Itch” (Slumberland)
3. The Fresh & Onlys “Peacock and Wing” (Woodsist)
4. So Cow “Casablanca” [...]

1.  “‘The Underdog’ has a million chords,” says Daniel. “A lot of songs on this record are just one or two chords. There’s a lot more droning.”
Britt Daniel, on the rawer new Spoon record, to Spinner (also).
2. “’Virgin mishandled an earlier remaster series,’ says Partridge, ‘and there were all sorts of bad color separations and [...]

Britt Daniel, the driving force (with drummer Jim Eno) behind Spoon, has guided the band through its myriad incarnations, from the early, dissonant Pixies/Modern Lovers period of Telephono to the brilliant, Pink Flag inspired Series of Sneaks (the title itself a reference to Wire’s song “A Serious of Snakes”) through the ebullient, mature, Beatles/Elvis Costello [...]

For podcast #3, I’ve decided on a little gimmickry. This one is entirely comprised of cover versions. I went out of my way to make sure they’re not totally obscure (like a high school band playing “Just What I Needed”), but I think it could be fun to offer a prize for the first person [...]

The first video today is from Spoon, who, while releasing some of the most challenging and entertaining music of the past few years, have suffered the same video fate as their early influences The Pixies and Pavement–they make bad videos. You get the feeling that Spoon just don’t care, though, similar to the sentiment offered [...]

(This is the fifth and final installment of marathonpacks’ Top 50 of the 90s list. To see #50-41, click here. To see #40-31, click here. To see #30-21, click here. To see #20-11, click here.)

10. A Tribe Called Quest-Midnight Marauders (Jive, 1993)

A whittled-down version of The Low-End Theory, Midnight Marauders is, aside from the obvious [...]

I’m posting this list in the interest of providing visitors an idea of what I’d consider my “canon”–for the last five years, at least. Any music aficionado would agree that a list like this actually goes together pretty quickly, by sorting one’s iTunes by year and taking a glance at the CD rack. My main [...]

After a week-long respite in the Florida sun, I’m back, with a list inspired by my pal Irving of the 10 best singles so far this year. As I compiled it, I noticed that my ideal top ten is replete with up-tempo, danceable numbers–my ideal, parallel-universe Billboard chart.
1. The Decemberists “16 Military Wives“–At a typically [...]

At the halfway point (or a little after), I thought I’d issue my halftime top ten (then I saw the stalwart largeheartedboy’s own version–I swear I had this almost done last week). Anyhoo, here goes:

Spoon Gimme Fiction–A remarkable work from the most iconoclastic songwriter around today. A longer piece on this album will come [...]