Yes. Videos are awesome, especially for a music blog. And I’m thinking about maybe doing a review of the nightly late night music stuff. But then I realize I’m lazy.

David Letterman has been the subject of much terror lately, having been successfully confused by Mastadon in recent days; one can only wonder what he was thinking while introducing White Rabbit. (Aside 1: How has there not already been a band named “White Rabbit”? I mean, that should be obvious right? Right? Aside 2: Isn’t it kind of awesome that, despite the fact that Dave’s go-to is Paul, he continues along as if he knows what the hell he’s talking about — or, to phrase it more appropriately, “not being Jay Leno.” /End Aside) Big ups to the Rabbit, though, because their mess is fairly spicy, and when a band can pull off good tunes with a lead singer involved with something that’s “not guitar,” well, I’m always impressed. But that might stem from having to meet/listen to Cowboy Mouth at a high school function way-hay back in the day.

Rivers and Co. get their Em-Geeeee-Emmmm-Tee on at a recent T-Mobile event. They also go Gaga for Pokerface.

Via MOKB

There’s stuff I want all the time that I can’t buy. One such thing is this sick Bob Dylan poster from Jetset Graffiti (via OMG Posters, natch). That’s because it’s a whopping $200; not that it’s necessarily overpriced, per se, it’s just that I usually put a $50 cap on my “poster budget” in terms of per poster. But hey, if you’ve got some extra cash hanging around, I highly recommend hitting this up.

Apparently someone felt that the world could no longer wait for Wilco (The Album) to be released. Last night Wilco’s highly anticipated new record, originally scheduled for a June 30 release, was leaked on to the internet. In an effort to get ahead of the leak and appease those fans wanting to preview the new record Wilco has set up a page on their website for you to stream Wilco (The Album) in its entirety.

We’re one listen in and so far really like what we here. Wilco hasn’t reinvented the wheel with this record, but instead continue to produce some of the most tasteful and well written songs of any band currently making music. However, those fans hanging on to Jeff Tweedy’s comments regarding experimentation and hoping for a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot style record may be disappointed by the straightforward earnestness of Wilco (The Album).

David Byrne, who is currently on tour with Brian Eno, announced to my email inbox this morning that he is selling a four song EP from the tour (auto-play) with the proceeds going to Amnesty International. In the name of my 10th grade English teacher, Yogi Anderson, I demand you purchase these songs.

Some time ago Amnesty International asked if I might do “something” for that organization this year- (in previous years I had done one of my tour dates as a benefit for them).

[This time] it was decided to record some songs from my current tour for them to be sold as a download with the proceeds going to Amnesty. As there are no physical costs with digital distribution this means more of the sales percentage actually goes to where it’s supposed to. So, thank you for supporting a great organization and I hope you like these recordings too.

So there you have it — buy Byrne, help Amnesty, get great tunes. Also, you can listen to them for free at Byrne’s site.

Oh yeah, the tunes in question are … Strange Overtones, Help Me Somebody, One Fine Day and I Feel My Stuff. 

And to answer your next question, “Yes, they are sick.” And worth the download. Plus you can write it off, whatever the hell that means.

NPR does a fantastic job of consistently grabbing spectacular audio from the 9:30 Club (the behemoth Wilco show comes immediately to mind) and there wasn’t any reason to think that Animal Collective’s show on the 5/11 would be any less full of hipsteroni/cheddar/et al.

It’s a 13-song set and if you’re sitting there debating between the LSD and the meth while at work, I say, “Both!” And then fire up this bad boy and get tweaked the eff out. Or something.

Listen to Animal Collective on NPR

Fortunately, Bob Dylan has a new video out. It was directed by Nash Edgerton and features Amanda Aardsma and Joel Stoffer. The video is intense in a dark and sordid kind of way. Unfortunately, there’s no embed code, which means you need to go visit the IFC.com site in order to see it. Which, of course, is highly recommend because Dylan is the man. This song is  sexy as hell and destined for a Cohen Brothers soundtrack.

Via Stereogum

We’re not the kind of fans that hope their favorite band never gets discovered by others, and we understand when they sit down and labor through an interview with a well regarded news anchor for the sake of publicity. That last comment was put to the test after watching Deer Tick on the inaugural BriTunes webcast. For the record we love Deer Tick and we don’t dislike Brian Williams. In fact we appreciate him sticking it to Katie Couric in the ratings. We’re just not sure if this is a series that’s worth continuing. Anyway, watch it for yourself, but if you are uncomfortable with awkward moments and unnecessary itunes references then it could be an excruciating 3 minutes.

Anyone that has seen Wilco live has probably experienced Jeff Tweedy’s self deprecating stage banter. So perhaps in another attempt to show that they are not quite as serious as their documentaries would have you believe Wilco has released the cover art for Wilco (The Album).