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.

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]

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.

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.

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!

“I think the band decided to take a break not because we wanted to stop making music, but because we thought the world needed to take a break from us. This greatest hits record — that’s the end of something, you know. It’s time to move on into this next chapter or another phase. Maybe it will be different in whatever way. I don’t know,” Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl to CNN. 

There’s really not much more the band could do and honestly, Grohl’s been going non-stop for the past 20-years, so I think he deserves a little down time.

Also: Paste’s Top 50 Movies of the Decade is worth a gander just so you can argue with yourself over the inclusion/placement of certain movies.

As P4K reports, the forthcoming Spoon album, Transference, features four songs we’ve heard before alongside seven more we haven’t even heard yet (but are hoping to when Spoon drops by the Crystal Ballroom in Portland on December 11).

Transference is due 1/26 in North America via Merge.  Tracklist follows:

01 “Before Destruction”
02 “Is Love Forever?”
03 “The Mystery Zone”
04 “Who Makes Your Money”
05 “Written In Reverse”
06 “I Saw The Light”
07 “Trouble Comes Running”
08 “Goodnight Laura”
09 “Out Go The Lights”
10 “Got Nuffin”
11 “Nobody Gets Me But You”

We’ll update with Mp3s once we get a chance to.

Holy fucklobsters, in full make-up no less.  I thought Pearl Jam’s cover was pretty awesome, but this may take the cake.  For those of you wondering who Monsters of Folk are, the group comprises the very classy M. Ward, Jim James, Connor Oberst and Mike Mogis.

This is from the Monsters of Folk show in Louisville on Halloween and dang I am jealous of everyone in attendance.  I mean, they dressed up like KISS for crying out loud.  [via]

Video of the great jazz guitarist from 1939.  Also?  What the hell is a bass fiddle?  I don’t know, but I think I want to learn to play one.

I’m stupified as to how John Vanderslice and The Mountain Goats (John Darnielle) released a seven-song EP with a horror/sci-fi bent to it (the central thrust of the album concern organ harvesting colonies on the moon) and I just found out about it today.  Turns out it was a tour-only affair on vinyl and is no longer available, though with half an effort you can surely find it.

Love this cover of Devo’s “Whip It.”  Love the authentic costumes.  However, the best part is the band mimicking Devo’s robotic dance moves.

As Rap Radar points out, Jimmy Kimmel had Ghostface Killah on the other day to tell a Halloween “Ghostface” story. The story doesn’t have much to do with ghosts, (it wasn’t even that scary taking place in Vermont and all) but it is definitely something hear.

As a side note, Ghostface’s new album is quite different for him, but in a good way.  What can I say, the man can do R&B pretty well.

It was a shame that Elizabeth Powell and Co.’s debut LP, Some Are Lakes came out in the cold days of November in 2008.  At that point, most of the music world has turned their attention to year end lists and weren’t so concerned with discussing new, mostly great, releases.  A shame that this album was one of the one’s ignored by the music cognoscenti.

Regardless, their new video, directed by creative Canadian duo WeWereMonkeys, is an excellent excuse to remind PDXers that Land of Talk is playing the Doug Fir on November 4th.  A show not to be missed!

As a bonus, you can hear a much earlier, though far inferior, version of “It’s Okay,” when Elizabeth Powell recorded under the moniker ele_K*.  There’s also a great back story worth reading.  [via]

From the opening one-two combo of “Rocks Off” and “Rip This Joint,” something at Festival 8 seemed to change instantaneously; in band, in crowd, and in the holy spirits that certainly swirled around us. Building momentum at a breakneck pace, the night turned a corner during the raucous “Tumbling Dice,” and the slow, beautiful twang of “Sweet Virginia” that found Fishman on vocals with the crowd singing along in perfect harmony, especially to the line, “Got to scrape that shit right off your shoe.”

Arguably the strongest song of the set was “Torn and Frayed.” Around the mid-point of the album, it was here that Phish finally made Exile its own. Built around the first big Trey jam of the night, it was hard to not see some of Anastasio in this story of a rock & roller struggling with the life he’s chosen, “but never more than one great lick away from redemption” as Fricke explained. This is the story of Phish’s past decade. Stardom. Pressure. Addiction. Failure. Redemption. Exile was Phish’s “one great lick” on Halloween.

Damn, wish I was there.  But luckily for those, like me who weren’t you can grab the entire show here, here and here and enjoy it with your favorite pair of headphones. Entire set list after the jump if you care to gander. 

SET ONE
Sample in a Jar (5:51)
The Divided Sky (16:16)
Lawn Boy (3:55)
Kill Devil Falls (9:16)
Bathtub Gin (12:38)
The Squirming Coil (8:16)
Runaway Jim (7:03)
Possum (8:59)
Run Like an Antelope (11:25)

SET TWO
Rocks Off (5:37)
Rip This Joint (2:53)
Shake Your Hips (4:37)
Casino Boogie (6:12)
Tumbling Dice (5:51)
Sweet Virginia (5:07)
Torn And Frayed (8:54)
Sweet Black Angel (4:09)
Loving Cup (7:50)
Happy (4:21)
Turd On The Run (4:10)
Ventilator Blues (5:15)
I Just Want To See His Face (7:23)
Let It Loose (6:54)
All Down The Line (5:39)
Stop Breaking Down (4:38)
Shine A Light (5:45)
Soul Survivor (7:05)

SET THREE
Backwards Down the Number Line (12:18)
Fluffhead (14:46)
Ghost (13:50)
When the Circus Comes (6:03)
You Enjoy Myself (23:03)

ENCORE
Suzy Greenberg (12:07)

Darth Vader conducts the Icelandic Philharmonic Orchestra as they play “The Imperial March” from “Star Wars.” Why he didn’t conduct with a light saber is what I want to know.  Also?  This event is tailor made for puns.

“I find you lack of rhythm disturbing”

“You don’t know the power of the brass side”

“I sense something, a melody I’ve not felt since…….”

“I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-wan. We meet again at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner. Now I am the conductor.”

And so on and so forth. [via]

We took notice when Google first announced they were going to add a music search function.  If you haven’t seen the music search feature yet in your searches, you will; they are rolling it out slowly.  However, you can test it out here.

I’m not terribly sold on this, but it’s a step in the right direction.  What I’d want is something that searches for Mp3s like the Hype Machine, as well as torrents.  But I understand the legality involved with both of those practices and how that functionality isn’t in Google’s best interests.

Fantastic song from their new album Intuit. The video, directed by Stefan Nadelman, is even better.

Ramona Falls is the solo work of Brent Knopf, one third of Menomena; Nadelman previously worked with Knopf on the similarly dark and fantastic video for ‘Evil Bee’ (from Menomena’s Friend or Foe album) which you can see here.

Mp3: Ramona Falls – “I Say Fever”

[via]

“This year for Halloween, we asked some of our favorite indie artists — among them Bon Iver, Superchunk and My Morning Jacket — to send us pictures of them in their Halloween costumes. The results are both charming and hilarious, the perfect way to get into the, er, “spirit” of things.” 

Over there?  That’s Bon Iver as Garth from Wayne’s World.

You’re going to have the na-na-na-nas stuck in your head for the rest of the day. [via]

From now until midnight on Saturday October 31, 2009, you can download the entire breakthrough, critically acclaimed, self-titled album Timber Timbre for FREE at the band’s website.

I’m pretty much a sucker for anything that Toronto label Arts & Crafts releases.  They have consistently set a standard of excellence for each release and artist that is on their label.  I haven’t listened to this particular album yet, but knowing they are on the same home as Broken Social Scene, Stars, Los Campesinos!, etc. this is pretty much a win.  If the album isn’t any good, well, you can just delete it and you haven’t lost a thing.

Still, the reviews seem pretty good.  It was a long-list nominee for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize. Timber Timbre was heralded by the Canadian press since the album release this summer on Arts & Crafts. Playing CMJ last week, Time Out New York wrote that Timber Timbre was “the standout act” describing their set as “powerfully dark, even eerie folk tracks (which) managed to keep the crowd positively awed.” The Village Voice called them a “uniquely creepy beauty”. And Toronto’s Eye Weekly has already called it, “The Album Of the Year”.

Good lord! Another single, another great song that raises the bar yet again off their upcoming third album Romance is Boring. One would think at some point the band has to slow down, but as long as the quality stays as high as it has, then I’ve got no complaints.  The new LP will be released in February of 2010 (via Arts & Crafts).  Highly anticipated, since the Cardiff, Wales outfit seems to do no wrong.

This was broadcast live on Sunday, but I held off on posting it, mostly because the idea of a U2 concert alone doesn’t seem all that note worthy.  But, they’ve since released two new (but old) tracks for the 25th anniversary of The Unforgettable Fire.

“Yoshini Blossom” is a dark instrumental with spry bass and an atmospheric sound that immediately evokes the collection without Bono uttering a syllable. His voice is very present on “Disappearing Act,” a moody anthem that reminds us “there is only one thing you need to own / and that is hunger.”

First single off of their new LP Sainthood, and it’s not entirely different from their effort on The Con. That’s a good thing.  The new record is out now and after streaming it for a few days, I’ve got to say, it’s entirely worth picking up.  [via]

It’s got classical goodness, whistling goodness and violin plucking.  Three servings of this a day will do you good.  [via]

It would be nice if they included torrent searches in the mix, but that’s merely wishful thinking.

But I’m baffled by this America-Fleet Foxes comparison, my brain can’t process something like this.  Yes, their music sounds similar, but America really only has one mega-hit-single to fall back on with a few other great songs and Fleet Foxes have only released one note-worthy album. 

Comparisons between the two seem pointless.

“Will Fleet Foxes be as big as America? No. Not until they write radio-friendly hit singles. But then Fleet Foxes are more about the music-as-album experience, and less the big-hit-song experience,” writes Alan McGee in The Guardian.  “What is your favourite America album? You’d be hard pressed to get an answer. But ask someone what their favourite America single is and you just know you’ve got an easy answer.”

Let’s give Fleet Foxes some time before we slag them for not having produced a “Horse With No Name,” “Sister Golden Hair” or “Ventura Highway.”  M’kay?

Here’s the Rhode Island foursome playing the first song off their excellent LP Born on Flag Day for KEXP in Seattle.  Sometimes that dirty country sound just hits all the right places.