Download Now

Matisyahu
"Message in a Bottle"
Music.yahoo.com

Oy vey. Is there any chance that this nigh-unlistenable, pointless Police cover might mark the end of the inexplicable Matisyahu fad? Displaying zero stage presence and hitting two wrong notes for every good one, the Hasidic toaster gives a performance that looks and sounds like bad karaoke at a Crown Heights wedding. (B.H.)

BOOTLEGS

Roger Waters
Arrow Rock Festival, Lichtenvoorde, the Netherlands
June 10th, 2006

For reasons known only to him, Roger Waters decided to launch a world tour this year where he performs Dark Side of the Moon straight through, along with a smattering of other Pink Floyd classics and solo cuts. When David Gilmour and the rest of Floyd did the same thing on their 1994 Division Bell tour, Waters lambasted them and refused to take part; he should have stuck to that mentality. His eleven-piece band painstakingly re-creates the tiniest details of every Dark Side song, but they can't do much about Waters' voice -- it sounds like he gargled battery acid before taking the stage. The audience tape is a bit bass-heavy but otherwise it's fairly clean. (A.G.)

PODCASTS

KEXP Music That Matters Volume 15
KEXP.ORG

Seattle radio station KEXP is up to Volume Fifteen of its biweekly Music That Matters podcast series, which features up-and-coming bands handpicked by renowned DJ Kevin Cole. Highlights of this particular one include "Lovers Who Uncover," by the Little Ones (a pop-funk gem that Cole accurately calls "a direct hit on the pleasure center"), and the Gossip's "Standing in the Way of Control." The KEXP live podcast series is definitely worth checking out as well. (A.G.)

Selected reader responses will appear in Rolling Stone magazine: Write to us at letters@rollingstone.com.