Downloads

The Raconteurs
Jack White's new band thrills Scottish crowd
March 21st, 2006
ABC, Glasgow
(Bootleg)
This audience tape from the Raconteurs' recent U.K. minitour should tide over those of you who can't wait for the band's debut disc in May. There are moments when Jack White's new group makes his other outfit, the White Stripes, sound like the side project: Bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler give White space to solo and stretch his legs as he trades vocals throughout the fifteen-tune set with Brendan Benson. Highlights include a faithful cover of David Bowie's "It Ain't Easy" and a version of the Love classic "A House Is Not a Motel." The best original numbers are the instantly catchy "Hands" and the band's single "Steady, As She Goes," which receives a wildly enthusiastic response from the Glaswegian crowd (the song is already a minor U.K. hit). Bonus: The sound quality is sharp for an audience tape. (ANDY GREENE)

SINGLES

Dirty Pretty Things
"Bang Bang You're Dead," "Dead Wood"
dirtyprettythingsband.com
Pete Doherty may get the headlines, but guitarist Carl Barlat may be the former member of the Libertines to watch. "Bang Bang You're Dead" is the modish debut single from Barlat's new band Dirty Pretty Things, but the one to check is the pissed-off speed rocker "Dead Wood" -- it's as frenetic as anything from the Libertines' bullshit-free early days. (ALEX MAR)

Nelly Furtado
"Promiscuous Girl"
Leaked
Like a bird? on this track, Furtado sounds more like a Fergie. Furtado takes a stab at "My Humps"-style raps over a retro-sounding electro beat, but the Eighties-pop chorus makes this one soon-to-be-hit you won't mind having slammed into your synapses ten times a day. (BRIAN HIATT)

Rachel Fuller and Pete Townshend
"Sunrise"
iacmusic.com
More than any other veteran artist, Townshend is exploiting the freedom of the Net, posting online diaries, an episodic novella and live cuts. Now, just for the hell of it, he's recording a bunch of songs with his girlfriend: Among the best is this delicate take on an obscure ballad from The Who Sell Out, with Townshend accompanying Fuller's breathy, Tori Amos-esque vocals with some gossamer acoustic guitar. (BRIAN HIATT)

Snow Patrol
"Hands Open"
All major services
The Grammy for most embarrassing Name-Dropping may well go to "Hands Open," which includes the line "Put Sufjan Stevens on/And we'll play your favorite song." Despite that bid for hipster cred (Dude: pronounce "Sufjan" correctly!), the song finds Snow Patrol pumping up their indie-pop sound with overmuscled guitar riffs to the point where they now resemble a Brit Nickelback. (BRIAN HIATT)

Lifehouse
"You and Me"
All major services
Remember the Goo Goo Dolls' smash "Iris"? Lifehouse sure do: The adult-contemporary hit "You and Me," which has been in Billboard's Hot 100 for sixty weeks, sounds like a near note-for-note rewrite, complete with wistful-turned-surging strings and sensitive strumming. But, hey, they didn't rip off the whole thing from "Iris": The chorus borrows from Damien Rice's "The Blower's Daughter," instead. Apparently, even Christian-rocker guys dig Natalie Portman in Closer. (BRIAN HIATT)

PODCASTS

KOPN 89.5:
The Dead Show
kopn.org
Missouri professor John Henrickson's weekly Grateful Dead podcast focuses on lesser-known shows: Recent highlights include a tight set from Chicago's Uptown Theater in 1978 (featuring an endless "Franklin's Tower") and a sloppy set from New Haven, Connecticut, in 1984 (featuring the sole live performance of "Only a Fool"). Get your hands on it before Bob Weir shuts it down. (ANDY GREENE)

J Dilla
"Thank You"
iTunes
Beat Junkies founder J. Rocc assembled this mix tape to honor the recently deceased rap producer J Dilla. Thirty-eight songs that Dilla assembled for Macy Gray, the Pharcyde, Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes, as well as his solo work, fade effortlessly into one another and show why even Kanye West thinks that Dilla was one of the greats. (ANDY GREENE)

BOOTLEGS

Warren Zevon
July 27th, 1978
The Record Plant
Sausalito, California
Zevon and his four-piece band are on fire at this 1978 gig, taped just months after the release of Excitable Boy. Zevon plays most of the album, including his biggest hit, "Werewolves of London," along with a tender "Accidentally Like a Martyr" that rivals the studio version. And the sound? Straight from the board. (ANDY GREENE)

Nine Inch Nails
March 13th, 2006
Civic Coliseum
Knoxville, Tennessee
Nearly a year into his world tour, Trent Reznor seems to have little interest in promoting 2005's With Teeth -- only five of its tracks are played at this show, compared with ten from 1989's Pretty Hate Machine and 1994's The Downward Spiral. The crowd seems fine with the greatest-hits set list, however, and Reznor and Co. deliver note-perfect versions of "March of the Pigs," "Closer" and "Terrible Lie." They wrap up with a slow, haunting singalong version of "Hurt" before launching into a ferocious rendition of 1989's "Head Like a Hole." (ANDY GREENE)

SITE SPECIFIC

Traditional Radio Rocks
The best "terrestrial" radio sites on the Web
NPR.org
National Public Radio offers much of its music content on the Web, but its most innovative move is All Songs Considered, which webcasts concerts from D.C. clubs -- including recent shows by Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- and plays a range of tunes from Morrissey to Congotronics, plus interviews with the likes of Neko Case.

Indie103.fm
The free-form Los Angeles rock station doesn't have the strongest signal, but disc jockeys like Henry Rollins and the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones, and weekly shows from Rob Zombie and Dave Navarro, draw listeners from around the world to its site. Visitors can stream regular programming and download tunes, including mash-ups by in-house DJ Paul V.

Yes.com
Not an actual radio station but very cool: Yes.com provides real-time data on playlists at stations across the country. The best part is the home page, which shows a map of the U.S. with song titles popping up as they are played in different towns. You can also see every song a station has played in the past twenty-four hours (with a link to iTunes). (EVAN SERPICK)