NPR looks back at the pioneering music blogs, many of which began a decade ago.  Jesus this makes me feel old.

Anyone remotely curious as to what’s up with Jason Segel, now that he’s performed the same song not just with Maroon 5 but now with (Oscar-darlings) The Swell Season?  Is he laying pipe for a potential musical-comedy album or something?

Anyways, the supposed backstory to this song goes like this: “The band was at a restaurant in Los Angeles; drinking tea, when they were offered a bottle of wine by two celebrities. Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Now The Swell Season has been enjoying watching their “Freaks & Geeks” DVDs while on tour, so this was a nice coincidence. They became good acquaintances, so The Swell Season asked Jason Segel to be a surprise guest and sing a song for us. ”

Now I’m really going to call the number to see what happens.

It’s that kind of day and trying to jump back into the swing of things so quickly after vacation is hard work.

Love these guys.  Their LP To Travels and Trunks has become one of my favorite recent discoveries.

Has Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler quit the band? That’s what guitarist Joe Perry says! This is terrible news.  Well, it’s actually, good news in that I assumed Steven Tyler died this past summer along with everybody else.  So this news means he’s alive! Yay for that.  Anyway, it would have been a tragedy in 1974, but in 2009 it caused a passing yawn around these parts.

To be honest, I’m a little speechless.  But, on Saturday Maroon 5 played a concert at St. John’s University and Jason Segel came out to play a few songs with Adam Levine.  It’s early, I haven’t had coffee yet, so my brain is still trying to make sense of this.

“During the intermission between Fitz and the Tantrums and Maroon 5, Adam Levine brought out a special unannounced guest to the stage which really brought the house down. The special guest turned out to be Jason Segel (you might know him from How I Met Your Mother, I Love You Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up etc.) and Jason ended up playing the piano and singing a couple of songs from his recent movies (he’s actually a very talented musician and a hilarious song writer),” writes Herman Young.

This is the type of bizarre-O surprise that I love.  There’s absolutely no way you could expect or plan for something this delish. Anyway, who wants to call the number and see if it’s viral marketing or his actual phone numer? 315-329-6673  [via]

According to The Portland Mercury, “Finally, a Pavement show not in New York or overseas.” The reunited band is the only act announced for the 5/29-5/31 Washington Gorge festival, but more details are coming soon.

This is a step in the right direction.  I was a bit surprised when Pavement announced their reunion that they had no Northwest dates scheduled, particularly in Portland, where Stephen Malkmus makes his home.

Looks like I’ve got next Memorial Day weekend already figured out.  Anyone want to join me?

The Pixies have released a free EP featuring four songs — “Dancing the Manta Ray,” “Monkey Gone To Heaven,” “Crackity Jones,” and “Gouge Away” — from the 10/16 Paris gig, the last of the European leg of their tour.  The band is currently making their way through the US of A and stopped by Conan on Friday.  Insert your email at pixiesmusic.com for some live goodness.

Even though it’s evident the years have taken their toll on the band (into Frank Black’s belly? No, that’s just wrong) there is something so sublimely comforting about a world in which the Pixies exist for me beyond listening to their records late at night on a Sony discman underneath my bed covers.

Largehearted Boy has a roundup of lists of best music of the 2000s.  I don’t think I can write about all these lists as they come out and to be sure just about every publication will have one, irregardless if the decade actually ends in 2010 and began in 2001.

I might be alone in saying this, but Eric Johnson and the rest of The Fruit Bats have crafted one of the best albums of 2009.  They also performed the song for Craig Ferguson (quickly becoming the best late night host) last Friday and somehow I missed it.

Also: West Coast Tour in January! Dates here: www.fruitbatsmusic.com . Presale here: https://tix.concertmaps.com The band expects Seattle and Portland to be sellouts, so if you live there, ahem, it’s best to get tickets sooner rather than later.

November 9th will mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The short (six-songs) U2 concert that took place at the Brandenburg Gate yesterday ran into some trouble after — no lie — a huge wall was constructed to keep non-ticket holders from watching the free concert.

Controversy aside, Jay-Z does little but his presence adds a certain amount of swagger to this already swaggering song.  It’s easy to hate on U2 — the conventional argument is that the band hasn’t done anything worthwhile in nearly 1.5 decades.  But that’s bound to happen to any band that’s been together and still playing after 30 years.  It’s impossible, I say, to watch the above clip and not get goose-pimples, to not marvel at just how huge U2 and Jay-Z are as cultural ambassadors.

Let’s get this day started shall we?  Like Craig Ferguson said, Black Joe Lewis & The Honey Bears are from Austin, TX but in reality it’s like they’ve come to us from a distant time when James Brown was on the prowl.  A funky soul revival and we are all better off for it.

It would take a lot for me to ever hate on Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, an indication how how excellent both The Blue Album and Pinkerton are.  But as I was debating with a friend over the weekend, it feels like Rivers Cuomo has never grown up emotionally or been too emotionally invested in song writing since Pinkerton. 

Pitchfork confirms this with their lambasting of Weezer’s new LP Raditude.  The album ”doesn’t have that stench of minimal calculation on it; if anything, it’s as earnest as the famously confessional Pinkerton, just written by someone whose age doesn’t match his POV. But the record’s teen-boy empowerment message doesn’t have much to offer anyone over 13 years old. Perhaps the proper fictional character to reference isn’t Peter Pan, but Matthew McConaughey’s Wooderson from Dazed and Confused– we all get older, Rivers Cuomo stays the same age.”  Ouch!