As a rule, we like the things Nick Cave does. So far that includes his new supergroup Grinderman, which apparently features ex-Triffids member Martyn Casey, ex-Cramps drummer Jim Sclavunos and Dirty Three member Warren Ellis. The band’s charmingly raunchy ode to sexual frustration, “No Pussy Blues,” has been amusing us all morning. Plus, now that Nick Cave is not 18 (he’s 49) he has the evolved wit of an adult to apply to this quintessentially adolescent problem. “I bought her a dozen snow white doves, I did her dishes in rubber gloves … but she still didn’t want to, she just never wants to” Cave seethes over a sick, throbbing bass. He reads her Eliot and Yeats, sucks in his gut, pats “her revolting little chihuahua,” and still this girl won’t put out? That’s cold. Isn’t it?

We’ve already discussed the fact that we have a thing for Australian country goths Howling Bells. Their most well-known song (from their self-titled debut record out in the U.S. …sometime that is not now) is the sassy-yet-sorrowful elegy to bad men “Low Happening,” which has already made an impression on the band’s cadre of British fans. But the video for Howling Bell’s next single “Setting Sun” showcases the group’s more sentimental (but still dark) side. The Bells perform on a simple stage while flocks of blank-but-happy looking Indian belly dancers sway to the lilting, cavernous guitars. Not since Mazzy Star (to whom Howling Bells seem fated to be compared for all eternity) have we heard a voice that more perfectly personifies hipster romance and melancholy. Plus, via this video we learn that Howling Bells frontwoman Juanita Stein likes headbands and red guitars. We too enjoy headbands and shiny red guitars; true bonds are forming here.

Ever since the Polyphonic Spree turned into the “Fragile Army,” abandoning their Technicolor robes for gothed-out military uniforms, we’ve been looking for that vaguely choral, hipster feel-good band to fill the hole in our hearts. That’s where I’m From Barcelona comes in. The celebratory jingle that is their (cleverly titled) track “We’re From Barcelona” made us remember that you don’t need to join a cult to feel like you belong, all that’s required is a flock of warm, musically inclined Swedes. It was the twenty-four-member-strong collective’s listen-to-us-right-now-and-be-happy sound that first caught our attention, but their wide Scandinavian smiles and dapper 70s science teacher fashion sense that kept us coming back for more.

It’s been a while since the phrase “George Michael is a genius” has passed through our brains…defiantly sleazy outdoor sex will do that to your rep. But the man’s redeemed himself all at once with this hilarious onstage balloon prop/skit scenario he served up live onstage in Barcelona. Beneath a towering George W. Bush, a British flag-cloaked bulldog…oh, hell, you just have to watch it. It’s the kind of thing anyone might think of doing while stoned and watching VH1 Classic with your friends, but would you actually go there? Even if you enjoyed blow jobs in the bushes? Nice work, Georgie.
[via Stereogum]

Listening to this collection of rarities from indie rock’s most prodigious It-boy is comforting because it feels like listening to any other Bright Eyes record. At first you’re like, “Hmmm, yet another warbling indie boy singing about being fucked up.” And then, out of no where, a line strikes you in that clear and perfect way, and you find yourself wondering how you’d ever lived without hearing it. This remarkable collection is full of those moments as Oberst dances from songs about longing and love (”Amy In the White Coat”) to songs about alcohol and love (”Drunk Kid Catholic”) to songs about drugs and love (”Spent on Rainy Days”). Many of the tracks on here are well-loved fan favorites — the devastating “Soon You Will Be Leaving Your Man,” for example — but there is lots here for even the most well-schooled Bright Eyes obsessive. Plus, as is typical with Conor, no song is sung the same way twice. These tracks will continue to haunt you a hundred listens in.

THE LATEST: A British judge has taken pity on poor Pete and held off sentencing him for various drug related charges until the rocker has had a chance to clean up a bit more. The sentencing will now take place on December 4th, and Doherty has been instructed to stay in rehab until then, which the singer tells the BBC he can’t afford. (Guess Parlophone hasn’t sent his check over yet?)

Meanwhile, Doherty’s collaboration with Mike Skinner on a remix of The Streets’ single “Prangin’ Out” (which Skinner wrote about his cocaine problems) is now up on the rapper’s MySpace page. We’re not in love with it, but that’s us. What do you think?

Get it here before you have to pay $438.95 on eBay for the deluxe bootlegged version: actual real live mp3s of all 28 songs (plus stage banter) from very last show of Sleater-Kinney’s career, held at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom on August 12th, and delivered with gusto. Or just wait for the reunion at Coachella in 2013.
[via ryspace]

Scouting for new bands used to be so much work. You had to actually appear at rock shows, you had to ponder their talent and think about the originality (or lack thereof) of their sound. Man. Those days sucked. Now that Thurston Moore’s label Ecstatic Peace is all over the young up-and-comers all we have to do is listen to the bands he signs and be done with it. Thanks Thurston!
Awesome Color, an Ecstatic Peace band originally from Michigan sound like a grimier version of Sonic Youth (go figure). We love their garagey, Guess Who-esque take on blues rock, especially on “Free Man.” Listening to that song makes us feel like we’re living in Easy Rider, sailing down the highway with Hopper and Fonda looking for an America that can’t be found.

A few weeks ago this track inspired us to launch the Best Summer Songs 2006 list. And we stand by it, especially now that everyone can hear it here. Bask with us in the self-consciously literary but still beautiful lyrics and sweet accordian hook. Then go make out with someone to this song so you can miss them every time you play it.

How not to get ahead in finance: A seemingly sane Credit Suisse semiconductor analyst named Mike Masdea decided to borrow Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” to connect with his clients. Masdea recorded his own version of the track, “Lose Yourself: The Semi Analyst Remix” [from Dealbreaker via Gawker,] and sent it out via mass voicemail blast. The message: “you only get one shot do not miss your chance to buy.” This reminds us of our friend who was on the brink of getting offered a job until she sent over a basket of bagels with the note, “I Look Forward to Filling the Hole in Your Department.”

Apparently it’s not just Alicia Keys: there’s also nothing about Scarlett Johansson that Dylan doesn’t like. The video for this pensive waltz of a love song is a montage of Sixties-style home movie clips featuring Ms. Johansson during some Perfect Moments in life — sleeping on the porch, washing her hands at the kitchen sink, laughing at old photos, picnicking in a grassy field, catching a fish, riding, hair flowing, in a convertible. “I felt transient joys, I know they’re not what they seem” Dylan sings. One thing though: there’s no sign of the infamous Scarlett on the Cyclone moment. Outtakes please!

These Brooklyn rockers started out as a guitar and piano duo, but now, as a robust three-piece about to release their debut album Soft Targets (out in October), they are all about the mammoth, full-on rock. Guitarist Matt Whyte and bassist Kamara Thomas share vocal duties on brawny romps with a vintage T. Rex and MC5-ish feel. And drummer Ricc Sheridan’s be-bop informed pummeling could totally steamroll John Bonham’s in a drum-off. Standout tracks include the fuzzed-out stoner-metal of “SOS” as well as “Back and Forth,” a he-said-she-said tug of war between lovers who are cold, calculating, and cruel to each other: He calls her a concubine, but she knows he’ll come crawling back. They always do.

The Lemonheads have a new record coming out in September, and they’ve put one of the new songs “No Backbone” up on their MySpace page. This track arrives at a good time, as we’ve been digesting the Guardian’s pretty awesome piece on Evan Dando in which he says that he has no interest in ever giving up certain drugs. He claims that they don’t hold the same destructive power over his life that they used to. “I think it’s important I take mushrooms and acid” he tells the paper. “They’re certainly not addictive, so I can’t rule that out. Every six months or so I’ll take some mushrooms, because I can’t let go of that completely. And I don’t want to.” We love a principled rock star.

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Any band that lists Bo Diddley and Robitussin as influences is all right with us. And when they sound like this – all garage-y (literally: they must have recorded this tinny, echo-filled stuff in a garage) rockabilly punk pop with a healthy dose of adolescent humor — it’s hard not to fall pretty hard. Then there’s the fact that the Black Lips are heading out on tour with our other favorite southern teenaged punks, Be Your Own Pet (whose impossibly snarky, siren of a lead singer Jemina Pearl won’t shut up about the Atlanta-based band in interviews.) When we listen to swoony, self-amused tracks like “Not a Problem” and “Hippie Hippie Hoorah,” we picture a bunch of young, bored, smart dudes hanging out in someone’s bedroom listening to Nick Cave and the Troggs and the Velvet Underground, smoking pot and waiting for life to start. Who hasn’t been there? Who doesn’t want to go back?

Amy Millan is the chick from Canadian indie-rock tear-jerkers Stars whose solo album, Honey from the Tomb, will be reviewed in the paper-and-ink version of this very magazine, so stay tuned. But we have been listening to the aforementioned album and just could not contain our pure and intense love for this song. The melody sounds vaguely like Neutral Milk Hotel’s “King of Carrot Flowers” only gauzier and girlier; Amy’s voice is clear and sweet and gorgeous, with a tart bit of heartbroken weariness underneath that almost reminds us of Exile in Guyville-era Liz Phair. And if anyone can find us a new single with a line better than “you’ve got lips I could spend a day with,” we will eat fifty eggs.