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.

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.

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]

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.

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.”

I just picked up the new Ramona Falls album Intuit (out now via Barsuk Records), which is the solo side project from Menomena member Brent Knopf.  If you like Menomena, then Brent’s solo project is like a familiar slice of bread but instead of whole wheat you’re getting whole grains.  And like nine of them.  Here he is talking about the recording process while laying down tracks for “Going Once, Going Twice.”

Ramona Falls (named after a hiking trail along Mt. Hood) had several great musicians pitch in during the recording process, including members of The Helio Sequence, Mirah, Loch Lomond, 31 Knots, Talkdemonic, Nice Nice, Tracker, Datr, Dear Reader, 3 Leg Torso, and Matt Sheehy.

The most interesting aspect for any art is the creative process.  How the art gets done.  I think a lot of people have this idea that music, etc. exists in a vacuum waiting to be discovered and set free, as opposed to crafted, shaped, built and sculpted.

See the song being built, hear it played live, download the studio track.

Mp3: Ramona Falls – “Going Once, Going Twice”

Let’s get this morning started off right, shall we?  This is from The Grates 2009 SXSW performance. It’s also the lead track off their latest insanely infectious and toe-tapping new album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won. The little girl at the beginning of the performance really makes this video for me.  I wanted to use the official video, but Universal decided it was better to not allow embedding, so you’re getting a live performance instead.

The Flaming Lips stopped by Colbert last night and debuted a new tune off their upcoming Embryonic album.  The album is also streaming on Colbert Nation, so it’s really win-win for all involved.  I like where Colbert is going with this.

If there’s any band that is at the top of my list of must see acts, it would be The Dirty Projectors.

“In a festival heavy on over-familiar or unimpressive bands, it was left to last night’s closing act Radiohead to wrong-foot everyone. The odds on their angst-ridden singer Thom Yorke’s first words being ‘Whassup?’ followed by the initial hit song they’ve all but disowned, ‘Creep’, would have been prohibitively long,” writes Nick Hasted for The Independent. It’s disarming to hear Yorke turn himself into a Budweiser commercial.  Still, there’s no doubting how good “Creep” followed by “The National Anthem” sound together.

If you know me, you know how much time I invest in seeing live music.  It’s not unheard of to catch two, three, or four shows during a good week, a bad week maybe I’ll only see one.  And when I’m not there in person, I love listening to concert bootlegs.  They’ve become easier to find, more accessible and legal in the last few years.

Anyway, from Ben Smallen, “enjoy…some real gems to download in here (some crap too).  I also can’t vouch for the quality but hey.”

There’s everything from The Pixies, Flaming Lips, Willie Nelson, XTC, Van Halen, Phish, Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, The Faces, The Misfits, The Raspberries, The Eagles, etc.  A little something for everyone.  Happy hunting! MORE »

Menomena closed out the 2009 PDX Pop Festival with a set leaning heavily on their breakthrough LP Friend and Foe. They absolutely brought it, to the point that I was worried the people at the front of the stage were going to get crushed from the ripple beginning at the back of the audience.  It was electric in a way that few concerts are.

The band opened the set with the tune “Caught.”  It may or may not be on their upcoming new LP and if it does appear it may have a different name.  The title was something I pulled from drummer Danny Seim’s set list after the encore.  The song itself, feels very un-Menomena-like.  It’s a slow tempo, straight forward affair, with some good harmonies.

If this is on the new album, it really would work as a breather song.  Coming down off one of their more adventurous songs, a chance to catch your breath.  A good transition form the A-side to the B-side (in the parlance of the old people).

Live from 2004.  If this song doesn’t put you in a silly/happy mood at any point in your day, I’ll refund your money.  Just look at all those people jumping, singing and dancing.  The band is in there somewhere. That’s what it’s all about.

On a related note, if you have the time, you should bump on over to read Alesh’s post that combines The Unicorns, roshambo and game theory.  It’s a doozy.