Monday, monday, monday
Bloc Party continue to win high praise all around with Silent Alarm. Today they get an 8.9 Best New Music rating from Pitchfork and an A+ Album of the Week from Stylus. Nick Southall of Stylus even wrote "Bloc Party are the first band in eight years that I feel I can care about." Though I don't feel as strongly as Nick, I do like Silent Alarm a lot - yet I wonder if all this praise will turn into a backlash. (First, let's worry about the album actually coming out.)
Pitchfork interviewed Win Butler from the Arcade Fire today. It's certainly worth a read, though Ryan Schreiber seemed to push PFM's connection with the band's success way too hard. I think I've read more AF articles that don't mention Pitchfork, but whatever. Also on PFM today, Nick Sylvester interviews Deerhoof. They talk about touring with Wilco, recording a Peel Session, and more - good stuff.
Though I love Wilco's Summerteeth, I'll admit that it has a bit of fat on it and is therefore a good candidate for this Playing God feature over at Stylus. Of course, I should have stopped paying attention when they dropped "She's a Jar." Instead I saw they also cut "When You Wake Up Feeling Old" - scandalous!
Stereogum drops a big batch of "Valentines for your iPod" on us today in the form of 23 MP3's, including X-Wife's "Eno." I was plugging X-Wife pretty hard last year and will likely keep at it this year, so it's nice to see them pop up elsewhere. Soviet Panda has 10 MP3's today as well - DFA79, the YYY's, and eight other bands I can't abbreviate as easily.
Last week I was talking some smack about Oasis's decision to play MSG. Well, Todd informed me in our comments that this show has already sold out. I stand corrected.
The Grammy Awards were last night, and Coolfer ran a great play-by-play of the festivities. I mostly missed them, but I was glad to hear that the Basement Jaxx won for Kish Kash. Considering the circumstances, I figured Jokenfold had 'em beat with his mix CD.
Jim O'Rourke (of solo fame, Sonic Youth, Wilco, etc.) will be doing a benefit show at the Tonic on February 23. Tickets are on sale now. I imagine he'll be playing his solo material, though I could see this show going in a number of musical directions.
In case the Tonic's trouble wasn't enough, the Village Voice informs us that CBGB's may be next when their lease ends in August. Their relevance is almost entirely historical these days IMO, as it's rare a show there grabs me. Still, it's CBGB's.
Mega Mega Mega tells us about a new line of Adidas sneakers designed by famous folk including some musicians of note, including Run DMC (naturally), Missy Elliott, and Underworld. The Underworld shoe actually looks pretty sweet and glows in the dark as well.
Billboard reports on the new Sleater-Kinney album The Woods, teasing with promise of a "space jam" among other things. S-K's MSG set on New Year's Eve was 100% new material and ruled. This should be a great record.
Central Village gives high marks to Saturday's Kaiser Chiefs show at Northsix. They're also playing the Mercury Lounge tonight with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who I keep on hearing more and more good things about. Tonight is officially sold out, so be prepared to work your way in if needed.