Pocahauted – Live at Pianos
(Dir. Ray Concepcion)

NPR is streaming Alejandro Escovedo's new album, Street Songs of Love (out June 29th).

At the band's MySpace page, stream the new Roots album, How I Got Over (out June 21st).

News Culture examines EMI's adaptation to the changing music industry.

Punch Brothers members talk to the Wall Street Journal about their new album, Antifogmatic.

On sale at Amazon MP3: the 12-track Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine covers album (featuring Those Darlins, The Avett Brothers, Drive-By Truckers and others) for $3.99.

Pitchfork interviews LCD Soundsystem's james Murphy.

Food Punk's We Eat Econo series features videos of indie rockers cooking. the first two episodes feature Ted Leo and Sally Crewe.

The new Radiohead album will be done “in a matter of weeks”

The New Pornographers @ Terminal 5 6/19/2010
Sing Me Spanish Techno / Up In The Dark / Myriad Harbour / Use It / Crash Years / Jackie Dressed In Cobras / A Bite Out Of My Bed / Adventures In Solitude / Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk / Go Places / All The Old Showstoppers / Jackie / Moves / Your Hands (Together) / Twin Cinema / My Shepherd / The Laws Have Changed / Silver Jenny Dollar / Mass Romantic / The Bleeding Heart Show // Challengers / Electric Version / Slow Descent Into Alcoholism / Testament To Youth In Verse

I’m not even going to get into another rant about how much I loathe Terminal 5. Everything about the venue is horrible, music should never be performed there, fuck Bowery Presents, etc, etc, etc. If you’ve been there you know how bad it is, and if you’ve never been, you should do whatever you can to avoid it.

You should see the New Pornographers, though. Five albums into their career, they are at the point where a 100 minute show comes out sounding like a hit-packed extravaganza even if they skip over “Letter From An Occupant,” “It’s Only Divine Right”, and “My Rights Vs. Yours”. Whereas the other times I have seen the full band in concert - all the regulars plus Dan Bejar, Neko Case, and whatever auxiliary players are on hand to play strings, horns, and whatnot — the shows were a bit stiff and mannered, this one was more relaxed and free-wheeling. Given that they were playing Terminal 5, a lot of the nuances in the arrangements were lost to horrible sound, but when they went for grandeur and oomph on “Moves,” “Myriad Harbour,” and “All The Old Showstoppers,” they pulled it off beautifully. “The Laws Have Changed,” now and forever the band’s greatest song, was another highlight, as was the cheery, Dexy’s Midnight Runners-esque “A Bite Out Of My Bed.”

The New Pornographers “Moves” I just want to put it out there that I wish I had given Together a slightly better review. At least a few decimal points higher. I still don’t think it’s on par with the first three albums, but it’s pretty great on its own terms, and a number of the songs have grown on me a lot since I last wrote about the record. “Moves”, in particular, has become a favorite, and I’ve really fallen for the way it shifts between moments of bombast and this sort of dazed affect. The latter is what really draws me in — the “slo-o-o-ow do-o-o-own la-a-a-a-die-e-e-es slo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ow do-o-o-o-o-o-o-own” hook is one of Carl Newman’s all-time best and most inventive hooks, not just for its novelty value, but for the way it seems to push the song upward towards the next catchy bit, like an escalator moving between floors.

Buy it from Amazon.

Frank YangThursday was the first night for this year’s edition of NXNE, and for me, the first stop of the weekend was ye olde Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, where locals Dinosaur Bones were kicking off the evening’s programming. I’d seen them in Summer 2008 and while they were pretty raw then, I heard a lot of potential in their moody and atmospheric alt-rock sound. Fast forward a couple years and a goodly amount of local hype, and rather disappointingly that potential doesn’t seem to have been fulfilled. Their musicianship and on-stage presence is still commendable, but the songs just didn’t have the hooks or melodies to stand out. None of which is to say they couldn’t still come out and impress – they’ve still yet to release an album – but I didn’t come away with the same sense of anticipation that I did last time.

Photos: Dinosaur Bones @ The Horseshoe – June 17, 2010
MP3: Dinosaur Bones – “NYE”

Philadelphia’s Free Energy didn’t have any trouble bringing the hooks – their debut Stuck On Nothing is all about the vintage-hued power pop, and the energy of the record translates perfectly on stage. Led by lanky frontman Paul Spangers, the quintet wore their classic rock affections on their sleeves (which were attached to Neal Adams-art Batman and Styx tour t-shirts) with a set that was full of big riffs and solos and wholly dedicated to having a good time. They’re like the Hold Steady if they were more interested in actually partying instead of just documenting the party. All that said, I didn’t find it quite as exhilarating as when I saw them the last day of SxSW but they clearly won over the rapidly growing crowd.

Photos: Free Energy @ The Horseshoe – June 17, 2010
MP3: Free Energy – “Free Energy”

The ‘Shoe was pretty much jammed by the time Los Angeles’ Warpaint took the stage, proving that I wasn’t the only one fully excited to see them perform. While the one show of theirs I caught at SxSW was intriguing but inconclusive, I’ve no such ambiguity about their Exquisite Corpse EP. It’s a hypnotic blend of dreampop textures and grooves that comes with just the right amount of unsettling, and on this night – perhaps helpfully far from the bright Austin afternoon sun – Warpaint delivered a set that captured all of the magic of the record-- and then some...

Photos: Warpaint @ The Horseshoe – June 17, 2010
MP3: Warpaint – “Elephants”
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Half-Handed Cloud – “Armstrong’s Line” From As Stowaways in Cabinets of Surf, We Live-Out in Our Members a Kind of Rebirth, out 9/18 on Asthmatic Kitty.