As you can probably gather from its title, “Lemmings Anthem” is a song that criticizes conformity, written from the perspective of a person who deeply distrusts the rituals of modern life while at the same time envying the perks of doing exactly what it is expected of her. The interesting twist here is that the lyrics emphasize credit cards, debt, and living well above one’s means as being a crucial aspect of this horrible conformity, and rightly calls into question a rush into “adult” living without having a sensible, mature relationship with money.

The composition itself is another in a line of sharp tunes from the Oohlas, a band from Los Angeles who excel at producing catchy songs in a sub-genre that is instantly recognizable and understood, but to my knowledge has no proper name. I mean, I could say “early-to-mid ’90s-style female-fronted alt-rock” but that’s a bit wordy, you know? There really should be a proper taxonomy for this, because there is certainly an entire canon of material in this vein, and not just the Breeders, who are the most obvious reference point thanks to singer Ollie Stone’s vocal similarities to Kim and Kelly Deal. I’d propose a genre name if I had one, but I don’t. Maybe you do?

Visit the Oohlas’ MySpace page.

Nico, 1979. By Antoine Giacomoni

Philadelphia Weekly profiles the Led Zeppelin cover band, Get the Led Out (and cover bands in general).

In Like a Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of a Tribute Band Kurutz theorizes that the essential notion of the tribute band, i.e., “something directly inspired by what has gone before,” extends beyond tribute bands and into society. “Steven Colbert is, in a way, a tribute band to Bill O’Reilly,” he writes. “Quentin Tarantino is a tribute band to 1970s blaxploitation and B movies … Karaoke is based on the same premise as a tribute band, as is the popular video game Guitar Hero, in which players replicate, note for note, famous guitar solos.”

PopMatters is listing its "slipped discs," great albums that didn't make its best albums of 2008 list.

HearWhere lists upcoming live music performances near you.

nyctaper shares mp3s of last night's Animal Collective Bowery Ballroom show.

The Village Voice profiles Vampire Weekend and examines the causes of the band's inevitable backlash.

JamsBio lists the Beatles songs from worst to best.

LaundroMatinee features video and mp3s from an in-studio session by the Lemonheads.

Frank YangI couldn’t offer any excuse for not discovering Bishop Allen sooner when I finally got around to reviewing their album The Broken String back in December, but maybe I could have just said “I hadn’t seen Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist yet”. Apparently the exposure gained from an appearance in said film has done wonders for the Brooklyn band’s profile and helped explain why the El Mocambo was so healthily full on Saturday night, despite yet another snowstorm. Ideally I’d like to chalk it up to the fact that they’re just a great pop band, but that’s probably expecting too much from the world.

Somewhat unusually, the local support was slotted between the two touring acts so up first was Electric Owls, the new project of Andy Herod, formerly of The Comas (though that outfit is technically just on hiatus right now). He played acoustically, both solo and occasionally accompanied by full arrangements on a laptop and it was the latter that made the best impression - Herod’s compositions are definitely at their best when buoyed by the proper accompaniment, even of the canned variety. Toronto’s Hooded Fang followed, and proved to be unrelentingly peppy, swapping both instruments and lead vocalists from song to song.

Photos: Bishop Allen, Hooded Fang, Electric Owls @ The El Mocambo - January 17, 2009
MP3: Bishop Allen - “Things Are What You Make Of Them”
MP3: Bishop Allen - “Eve of Destruction”

Clash, Rolling Stone and Paste talk to Antony Hegarty of Antony & The Johnsons.

Muzzle Of Bees interviews Gary Louris & Mark Olson - you know, saying both their names is a bit of a mouthful. They need to come up with something a little more compact, more memorable. How about… The Jayhawks? No? Just thought I’d put that out there. Ready For The Flood is out next week.

Filter thinks you ought to know Calexico… but you already do, right?

Animal Collective have announced their world tour in support of the much gushed-over Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Stream: Animal Collective / Merriweather Post Pavilion

Also on the stream is Grand, the new album from Matt & Kim. Pitchfork and Metromix have interviews with Matt, Black Book talks to Kim.

Stream: Matt & Kim / Grand

And you can also listen to the whole of You And I from Cut Off Your Hands, out yesterday and reviewed last week.

Stream: Cut Off Your Hands / You And I

Magnet follows up last week’s announcement that The Wrens were getting back to work on album number four by ringing up Charles Bissell.

jyrk.com

AIDS Wolf - "General" IN MOON LANGUAGE WE WILL NEED TO LEARN TO COMMUNICATE EMOTIONS. HOWEVER, WORDS MUST REMAIN RESERVED FOR TOPICS OF SURVIVAL, RESOURCE CREATION AND HABITABLE CLIMATE INITIATION. THE NEXT OBVIOUS PATH WILL BE THAT OF MOVEMENT, DRESS, AND EYE CONTACT. DURATION, SPACE, VOLUME OF MOVEMENT, LEVEL OF INTENSITY SET FORTH THROUGH THE EYES (HERETOFORE CALLED "EYE DREAM BEAMS") AND COLOR, SHAPE, LENGTH, USE, AND SWEAT DISTRIBUTION IN THE CLOTHES AND HAIRCUT WILL ALL BE WAYS OF COMMUNICATING EMOTION. I ONCE SAW A WOMAN SCREAMING, SURROUNDED BY THREE SOLDIERS IN KHAKI SHIRTS PLAYING GUITARS LIKE THEY WERE TYPING IN A MASSIVE PASSCODE, HER HAIR CUT IN LIVING SCULPTURE DESIGNED TO TROMPE THE L'OEIL, CAREEN INTO A CROWD OF PEOPLE SO MESMERIZED BY HER STATEMENT THAT THEY SEEMED JOLTED INTO ACTION AS FROM ELECTRICITY. THIS WAS A PERFECT USE OF MOON LANGUAGE.

[Buy (and see AIDS Wolf live as soon as you can)]

Music Go Music – “Warm In The Shadows”From Secretly Canadian’s #1 disco band Music Go Music, here’s the title track from the freshly released Warm In The Shadows 12″, which just came out today.

The Misfits at Diamond Ballroom
Mike Thompson, 2008