This Is The Last…

On Saturday night I was sitting at home watching TV with my husband, when I realized that Porthishead was playing Coachella at that very moment. We were able to watch the live stream through AT&T Blue Room which was amazingly beautiful and frustrating. Portishead has not performed in the U.S. in over a decade, and they gave the performance of a lifetime. I am kicking myself for not being there.

Listen for yourself here.

Here are a few clips of their Pre-Coachella rehearsal in LA at the Mayan theater.

Wandering Star

More videos here, here, here, and here.

Their new album Third is available in stores today.

(Links via Stereogum and Brooklynvegan)

I have been watching Demetri Martin’s comedy act and he makes my face hurt from laughing so much. He’s all deadpan one-liners. You might recognize Demetri from his small role on Flight of the Conchords as the keytar player for Crazy Dogggz. He also writes for the Daily Show. Sometimes he uses humorous drawings as visual aids, which would serve either as the punchline or a background. And sometimes he strums his guitar while talking.

Trendspotting - Social Networking

We were experiencing techinical difficulties over the last 2 days. I think we have it all worked out now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Bell, a New York-based band led by Russian-born, Alaska-raised songstress Olga Bell, is what I’ve been listening to all week, over and over. She has an ethereal voice, that has drawn comparisons to Bjork. If you haven’t heard Bell yet, she has a couple songs streaming on her MySpace.

You may have heard her cover of ‘Its Oh So Quiet’ on Stereogum’s Bjork tribute album, check it out here.

I can’t stop listening to her cover of Radiohead’s ‘On Videotape’/Thom Yorke’s ‘The Eraser’ here.

This is just an adorable cover of Moon River. I always thought that song was lacking xylophone.

She also has an EP for sale for $5 here. That’s a steal, for how good the album is. Isn’t this how music should be distributed? From musician to fan? Cut out the greedy middleman.

(Via Stereogum, Pitchfork, and Brooklyn Vegan)

Yeah, yesterday was April Fools and Bjork even got in on the action.

In an interview with New York Times, Bjork and the directing team ‘Encyclopedia Pictura’ faked everyone out by talking about the making of a 3-D video for ‘Wanderlust’.

Here’s the real video in 2-D. I love it.

Wanderlust - 2d

Stereogum has just released Enjoyed: A Tribute to Bjork’s Post. Stereogum has kindly made it available for free download here. Trying to cover Bjork is a very ambitious thing, but they pulled it off.

And the lineup of artists is not too shabby either…
1. Liars - “Army of Me”
2. Dirty Projectors - “Hyperballad”
3. High Places - “Modern Things”
4. Bell - “It’s Oh So Quiet”
5. Pattern Is Movement - “Enjoy”
6. Evangelicals - “You’ve Been Flirting A
7. Xiu Xiu - “Isobel”
8. Final Fantasy & Ed Droste - “Possibly Maybe”
9. White Hinterland - “I Miss You”
10. El Guincho - “Cover Me”
11. Atlas Sound - “Headphones”
12. No Age - “It’s Oh So Quiet” (Alternate Take)

Download here.

Today I was really in the mood to hear Depeche Mode’s “Death’s Door”. I was shocked and ashamed to discover that its not in my music collection. Can anyone tell me which album, this song is on?

On Modern Age I heard about a really good band called The Virgins. They describe themselves as new wave mixed with soul. They’re playing all over the U.S. this Summer, check out the tour dates here.

The Virgins - “Rich Girls”

NPR has posted Yo La Tengo’s SXSW performance, recorded live at the Austin Music Hall in Austin, TX. You can check it out here.

(Photo by Joel Didriksen of kingpinphoto.com)

People In Planes, who are returning in the summer of 2008 with their new album Beyond The Horizon, have just premiered a video for lead single “Pretty Buildings.” I’m really digging this new song and can’t wait to hear the new album.

Watch the video for “Pretty Buildings” right here.

Tour Dates w/ Jupiter One
24 March 2008 ~ Annapolis, MD - Ram’s Head
25 March 2008 ~ Long Branch, NJ - Monmouth College
26 March 2008 ~ Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell’s
29 March 2008 ~ Cambridge, MA - Tommy Doyle’s
1 April 2008 ~ Vienna, VA - Jammin’ Java
5 April 2008 ~ Brooklyn, NY - Luna Lounge
6 April 2008 ~ Buffalo, NY - Michalina’s Bistro
11 April 2008 ~ Kent, OH - Fat Jimmy’s
12 April 2008 ~ Pittsburgh, PA - The Hood House
13 April 2008 ~ Cleveland, OH - Peabody’s
14 April 2008 ~ Grand Rapids, MI - The Intersection
16 April 2008 ~ Marquette, MI - Upfront & Co.
17 April 2008 ~ Marquette, MI - Upfront & Co.
19 April 2008 ~ Chicago, IL - Cubby Bear

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I’ve been sick, but I’m starting to feel better.

Today I came across this dress on Slashfood. I think its so cute. I could actually be talked into wearing this in public, its kinda hot. No?

The MP3 player is ten years old this month. The first commercially released personal music player capable of handling MP3 files was the MPMan F10, manufactured by Korea’s Saehan Information Systems and launched in March 1998.

The F10 contained 32MB of Flash storage, enough for a handful of songs encoded at 128Kb/s. It measured 91 x 70 x 165.5mm. It connected to an old-style parallel port on the host PC from which songs could be copied to the player. There was a tiny LCD on the front to give an indication as to what you were listening to.

The device made its debut at the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. It was a prototype, but Saehan must have garnered enough interest to put the player into mass production, which it did in May 1998 before going on sale in the US and Europe through importers in the summer.

In the US, local supplier Eiger Labs wanted $250 for the F10, though the price fell to $200 the following year prompted by the release of the Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300, which was priced at $200.

The PMP300 - widely but wrongly held to be the world’s first commercial MP3 player - also had 32MB of storage fed through a parallel port. But it boasted a larger display than the F10 and also featured a Smart Media slot to allow users to increase the gadget’s storage capacity.

In the interim, MPMan had continued developing and offering MP3 players, but Apple’s move to allow Windows PC owners to use the iPod, from April 2003, resulted in explosive growth. MPMan, Rio and other pioneers couldn’t keep up.

via The Reg