Meet Ida Maria

My first exposure to this Norwegian wunderkind was the effectively gripping ballad "Keep Me Warm". Then came word of the gigs I missed (d'oh!) and NPR's All Songs played the very different sounding overseas hit "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" and it was hello old time good time California garage punk! In other words, she's all rock n 'roll baby:

For what it's worth, she's coming back with Glasvegas next month.

Remembering Isaac Hayes and Jerry Wexler

What could I possibly add about Isaac that hasn't been said by anyone anywhere else?

Jerry Wexler, the producer behind some of the most consistently good music in history - 60's soul on Atlantic Records, passed on Friday. Fresh Air remembered him yesterday.

Recent Radio Highlights

• Lonnie Mack was profiled on Fresh Air last week. This is the guy who did everything you heard but didn't know the name of, and he's the guy who made the one truly great song by the Doors ("Roadhouse Blues") sound good.
• James Hunter was interviewed on Weekend Edition Sunday.
• Sound Opinions had a discussion about the state of rock clubs and promotion. Pennypacker has been wanting to get into the promotion business for some time but right now, it just ain't gonna happen. If someone has any good ideas, let me know.
• Tom Waits' concert in Atlanta has been archived at NPR.
• Leadbelly profiled on Soundcheck.
  
• Bon Iver on Soundcheck.
  
• Mick, Pat, and Ben of the Dirtbombs were on WNYU last week (check the 5:00 marker).
• The Hold Steady did WFUV.
  

Whatever Happened to Baby Nirvana?

NPR caught up with the baby on the cover of Nevermind, who is now an angsty teen who thinks the 90's sounds like it was a lot cooler than this decade. Straight up.

The Charlie Browniest NPR Segment

Scott Simon + Charie Brown = NPR's In Character series

Goldfrapp on Fair Game; Langhorne Slim on BPP

Goldfrapp was all acoustic and non-disco with Faith

Langhorne was all Langhorne with Alison

She and Him and NPR and Nick Cave And Cormac McCarthy and Michael Chabon and Coens and Movies

Zooey and Matt were interviewed last week on Day to Day, while Zooey was interviewed on Fresh Air a little over a month ago.

By coincidence, I caught The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford this weekend, and it's a film that has, as part of its thoroughly sharp cast, Zooey and Nick Cave (also recently on Fresh Air). Nick - along with Warren Ellis - scored the film's music.

Here's the IMDB page of The Go-Getter, the upcoming film which stars Zooey and includes Matt in his acting debut. And for good measure, here's the IMDB page of Nick's upcoming scripted project, to be directed by John Hillcoat, who directed Nick's previous scripts, notably The Proposition. Hillcoat is currently working on the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which - based on its own merit as a novel and on the strength of No Country For Old Men - promises to be the movie event of the year. Nick is indeed scoring the music for that adaptation.

Speaking of No Country For Old Men, that adaptation was of course directed by the Coen Brothers, who are putting the finishing touches on Burn After Reading, which stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt, the latter of whom I just watched this weekend in The Assassination of Jesse James. The internet campfires state that after the Coens work on their next film, the rumored about A Serious Man, they will get to work on an adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union, which I happen to be reading right now.

Nick Cave was in The Assassination of Jesse James with Zooey Deschanel who was in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Sam Rockwell (who was also in Jesse James) who was in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with George Clooney who was in Ocean's 11 with Brad Pitt (also in Jesse James) and Julia Roberts the latter of whom was in Flatliners with...you guessed it...Kevin Bacon.

Laura Gibson, NPR, and a Desk

Damn NPR doesn't seem to want to add embeds to their material.

So read and watch here.

Sonic Parthenon at SXSW! Not Really!

NPR Music has massive coverage.

WNYC's Soundcheck was in Austin for 2 days, here are the clips (the first of which features Peter Buck and Wil Sheff):

Trent Ostvig posted this video of one of the most talked about new bands, Times New Viking:

Out of the 1700 bands to check out two of them not getting the bigger press that should are Langhorne Slim and his outfit, and a little pop thing called Clare & The Reasons:

Recent Radio Highlights

Blanche is profiled on NPR's All Songs Considered, in a fan-submitted program of bands few people have heard but should. The first album and "Another Lost Summer" are profiled while the cryptic news from Blanche HQ continues to suggest sluggish progress on the future due to forces beyond their control. A damn shame.

Scotland Yard Gospel Choir on KEXP

If Billy Brag was a pop singer, he'd be Jack Penate.

Mick Jones and Tony James' Carbon/Silicon is so-so (though the opening riff to "The News" is stellar) but their interview with Terry Gross is excellent.

She Walked In With Legs As Long As The Mighty Mississipp

The gloriously blunt, debauched, fantastical world of pulp - which spawned film noir - is getting the treatment from some two-bit mug and he went and got himself on the radio.

Boy if I had a nickel for every time some skirt walked through my door and got me mixed up in a mess of guns, booze, and dames, I'd be sitting in an ivory tower on Park Avenue. Instead, I'm down here in the muck, running this two-bit operation, slurping down absinthe like I'm Ernest Hemingway. Of all the luck. And the next time some cheap floozy tries to get her hooks into me, I'll give her the lug. It'll be curtains for her and all the other bozos. And if I don't, well, that's half the adventure. Anything for a buck, Mac. Anything for a buck.

Okkervil's Sheff on NPR

Will Sheff stopped by All Things Considered this weekend for a bit of a chat.

More on the Hold Steady's Brooklyn Bash

Via NPR

Remember Arrested Development?

Not the great television program that was cut short, but the early 90's one album wonder hip hop band that couldn't survive in the popular mainstream after an initial burst of success?

Whether if you do or don't, NPR's News & Notes caught up with the band's leader Speech for particular insight into the hip hop one hit wonder.

And here's the video of "Tennessee" a hit from, as the kids say, "back in the day":

YYY on NPR

Hear the Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform live at the 9:30 Club.

Also watch the video for their fantastic single, "Gold Lion"

Fire In The Disco

There is no escape. Rock magazines, web-zines, message boards, even NPR...the Arctic Monkeys are everywhere. A DIY band like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, these boys from Sheffield (I think the last band to make it out of that town was Def Leppard...yeesh) have the most hype of any band I have seen come around since the Strokes. Personally, the hype ruined the Strokes for me until I gave them another listen and liked them for what they are. I listened to the Arctic Monkeys before the hype even really kicked in and I wasn't impressed. My girlfriend thinks they're good and I am willing to give them a second chance, so let's give it some time. They remind of me old timers like the Jam and new blood like Franz Ferdinand...so it's not horrible...it's just not special.

And in case you can't tell, this dance-rock thing is everywhere. It isn't just the Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand. It's We Are Scientists. It's The Editors. It's She Wants Revenge. It's Metric (Metric's "Monster Hospital" is probably the best song by any of these bands, with their own "Combat Baby" and a few Franz Ferdinand singles to rival). Last year, it was The Killers and Bloc Party. Before that, Interpol. Even The Strokes turned to dance-rock on a couple of tracks on their latest (and most dissapointing) album, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have new, dancey sounds. And of course, there's Electric Six, who sound just a little bit different from the rest of these cats.

Someone took the garage and put it in the disco. Everyone wants to be the Talking Heads or the Jam (which explains why almost all these bands are either from New York City or from Britain) or, if they're darker, The Cure. Fire in the disco, indeed.