Avey Tare – “Lucky 1”

Seattle Weekly offers an incomplete history of Sleater-Kinney's indefinite hiatus.

All Tech Considered examines the revival of selling music on cassette tapes.

Variety examines the trend of musicians scoring silent films.

While Giorgio Moroder may have laid the foundation for rock musicians tackling deep-archival film scores with his 1984 "Metropolis" composition, it was Yo La Tengo that set the contemporary standard. Recruited in 2002 by Doug Jones, then a programmer at the San Francisco Film Festival, the trio composed a score for the underwater documentaries of Jean Painleve. A wild success, the score was later taken on tour, and a Criterion Collection DVD of the perf followed.

Tom Tom Club plays a tiny desk concert at NPR Music.

Drowned in Sound interviews No Age.

Carrie Brownstein shares her final blog post at Monitor Mix.

Frank YangIf there’s an upside to getting a full night’s sleep after turning in at 5AM, it’s that it eliminates a lot of the decision-making around what to do with one’s day. Hauling my ass out of bed at almost 1PM meant that all I had to do for the last day of Matador at 21 was shower, cram myself with enough food to get me through till the wee hours of the morning and stand in line waiting for the doors to the Pearl to open. Easy peasy.

The weekend’s grand finale was led of by Shearwater, who this show and ACL aside, were taking a short break before a final, extensive November tour in support of this year’s The Golden Archipelago. And if this performance was any indication, the US cities on that itinerary had best be prepared for a Shearwater that’s making a strong argument for themselves as a rock band. I’d seen Shearwater a number of times through a number of lineups, including their last visit to Toronto in April, but this was the most punchy and aggressive I can recall hearing them and that they were able to convey that kind of energy and dynamicism without compromising the majesty and mystery that makes up so much of their appeal was really remarkable.

Photos: Shearwater @ Pearl at The Palms – October 3, 2010
MP3: Shearwater – “Black Eyes”
MP3: Shearwater – “Castaways”

Though only a recent signee to Matador with this year’s Brutalist Bricks, Ted Leo seemed to have been anointed man-about-fest and label ambassador for the weekend – he was ubiquitous at events and after parties, guesting in MC sketches, karakoeing and generally seemed to be having a great time, as someone who’s finally found a stable home after being on way too many failing labels reasonably would. That positive energy gave his set a distinctly different vibe than the last time I saw him in June during a totally different kind of insane weekend. Highlights included bringing Sally Crewe out to add vocals and tambourine to “Bottled In Cork”, a rampaging “Ballad Of The Sin Eater”, the best one-liner of the weekend (“this is champagne, not my own urine”) and being joined by Carl Newman for a closing cover of “I Love My Label”, though delivered sincerely rather than ironically as songwriter Nick Lowe had intended. This weekend, we all loved his label.

Photos: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists @ Pearl at The Palms – October 3, 2010
MP3: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “Bottled In Cork”
MP3: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “The Mighty Sparrow”

Frank YangThe generally packed Matador At 21 schedule didn’t allow time for much activity beyond getting rocked and sleeping it off, but on Saturday I still managed to get away from The Palms and over to the strip with Dave Rawkblog and Brad Almanac for some Vegas-style (read: totally excessive) buffet and celebrity-sighting (Pete Rose and Tim Gunn were hanging at Caesar’s Palace while I bought a new mouse), and it’s a good thing that I loaded up before the evening’s festivities, because this day was going to be a long one.

So long that I had to skip out on the first mainstage act of the day – Girls – to take care of some business, and was okay with that. I’d seen them at Pitchfork and that was enough for a while. I did make sure to catch Come, however, seeing as how it was just the Boston quartet’s third show in 15 years. And yeah, it was a good thing I did as they played the role that Chavez had the night before of groundbreaking ’90s act whom if not for the relative misfortune of being ahead of their time, might have found a much greater audience. Led by Thalia Zedek and her worn, emotive voice, their set was heavy and atmospheric with her and Chris Brokaw’s guitars weaving through and around each other overtop the steady and grinding rhythm section. Like Chavez, Come were a band I tried out some time ago and couldn’t quite get into – their performance made me think it might be time to try again.

Photos: Come @ Pearl at The Palms – October 2, 2010
Video: Come – “Cimarron”
Video: Come – “Submerge”

I figured I’d gotten enough The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion back at Pitchfork, but found I actually enjoyed this performance considerably more. Surely the setting was part of it – the JSBX are far more suited to playing dark, grungy clubs – or fancy theatres masquerading as dark, grungy clubs – than bright, sunlit afternoons at festivals, and being in their element definitely helped their vibe. They sounded jammier and greasier and angrier than they did there, that last one partly thanks to Spencer’s dissatisfaction with the sound onstage – at one point, he smashed his mic and tried (unsuccessfully) to sing through the kick drum mic. They eventually got things fixed in time for their big finish, but the stage crew was clearly unimpressed with Spencer exploding his blues all over their equipment and cut their set off at the earliest opportunity though they probably could have squeezed one more in. This wasn’t well-received by the audience, resulting in one drink thrown and one demonstration of the Pearl security’s lack of tolerance for thrown drinks.

Photos: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion @ Pearl at The Palms – October 2, 2010
Video: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Dang”
Video: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Flavor”
Video: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Talk About The Blues”

“I promise to wait my whole life for a perfect love, but keep busy in the meantime.”
- St. Augustine

MP3: Tweak Bird - “Tunneling Through”
MP3: Heavy Cream - “Watusi”

I never want to leave, I don't ever want to say bye to Johnny Snarls, and Kats, and Bunchie, and Mark South, and Little Ben, and Tubby, and Heather S, and The Teat, and Newmarket Neil, and Gun Punch, and The Queen's Hangnail, and Littlest Big Bang, and Zaphod Beatles Box, and Holy Jones, and Innocent Infants, and Red Rotten Murder, and Hepatitis Pee, and The Mongol Loins, and Slash Factor, and Mixed-Up Cakes, and Vandalism, and Truth to Rejects, and You Turn, and Keith. Man, I'm gonna miss Keith. [Buy Tweak Bird] [Buy Danny]

Author Patrick Somerville interviews singer-songwriter Tift Merritt at KRTS.

The Quietus interviews Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes.

Flavorwire lists musicians with PhDs who might surprise you.

On sale at Amazon MP3 for $3.99: Bjork's 12-track Vespertine album.

At Drowned in Sound, No Age shares a vegan guide to touring.

All Songs Considered previews the best new electronic music out this fall.

Cheapo Bin is a new blog that reviews CDs found in the cheap bins at record stores.

Nerve interviews Les Savy Fav frontman Tim Harrington.

A video series of people explaining what the Riot Grrl movement means to them (produced in association with Sara Marcus's new book, Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution).

Absolutely Kosher has started a new video series, "Things a Record Label Does."

paidContent:UK ponders music labels' digital future.