Went with friends to catch The Go Team! at Emo's last night. I like to catch the buzz bands live to see what all the fuss is about. In the case of The Go Team!, I'm still not sure. They had a couple songs I got into, but the rest were like "Meh." Especially the instrumentals (only Mogwai can pull those kinds of things off live, IMO, but that's me).

On the other hand, opening act the Grates rocked massively. For the first time since Kaito!, I was blown away by a live show. You can download Sukkafish here. The…

Is it me or does Okkervil River's Black sound like the Counting Crows?

My latest adventure into early 70s foraging has been Marc Bolan and T. Rex. I scored "Born to Boogie," the DVD documentary that Ringo Starr directed of Bolan "Magical Mystery Tour" style at the peak of his fame in '72. I have to give the concert performance 4 stars as well as the performances from the bottom of the Apple building featuring Ringo and Elton John backing him playing the hits like "Children of the Revolution" (also covered by the Violent Femmes). The interstitial Fellini-esque bits are mostly crap, but damn could he rock out. It…

Not too much music listening today. I got waylaid on a project, and now it's dark. I have a caffeine headache from this tiramisu shake (tsp. instant coffee, c. milk, 2 tbsp. yogurt, 2 tsp. protein powder, tbsp. sliced almonds and ice) that is like liquid crystal meth when combined with morning coffee. Got turned on to Julian Cope's Blue Oyster (no umlaut for me) Cult essay this morning by a blog. Julian Cope can write better than 100% of the Pfork staff, btw. Why is it that musicians like Cope and David Byrne can write so eloquently while many…

I'm trying out Pandora, the musical recommendation service which pulls data from the music genome project to create a playlist. To begin the service, you're supposed to input your favorite song or artist. Naturally, I chose my number 1 nostalgia band Pavement. So far, it's turned up a few interesting tracks in the 90s music mold, some from artists I had pooh poohed before based on snap judgments (Sebadoh, Archers of Loaf). It also brought to mind a couple of Austin bands that were influenced heavily by the 90s aesthetic–Fivehead and Subset. I discovered a couple new bands as well…

The last track that really caught my ear is Clue to Kalo with the song "Your Palsy to Protect You." I think I downloaded it off some mp3 blog last week. Something about the combination of exquisite harmonies and Byrdsiness(?) that spoke to my gut. I downloaded five other Clue to Kalo tracks that just didn't live up to that one. I'm desperately trying to find new music lately after realizing I've fallen into complacency, but nothing others are recommending is really speaking to me. However, Kanye on SNL last week blew me away. I'm a hip-hop dilettante–the very thing…