Man. I love Tainted Love AND My Brightest Diamond, so I am loving this version of the Soft Cell classic from the new Engine Room comp, Guilty by Association. (via Tug)

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Chuck Klosterman famously reviewed Chinese Democracy for Spin as an April Fools joke that worked because the album has become such a mythical clusterfuck that nobody actually thought it would ever be released. Least of all Dr. Pepper. Now that Axl has proven everyone wrong, does he get the last laugh? Surely not. The jokes [...]

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Teac’s version of the clunky all in one CD/Cassette/Vinyl recorder is not only hideous to look at but also ridiculously priced at $700. These things are notoriously of shitty quality, but sometimes the lazy way is the only way. I’ve been wanting to digitize some cassettes for a long time, and while I know there [...]

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Slate has employed Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein to test it out and review music video games before. This time it’s for Wii Music. The piece is cleverly titled “Wii Will Rock You.”
An excerpt:
The game shows you a fantastical sonic world but falls short of letting you invent your own. Instead, one’s enjoyment of Wii Music must [...]

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Our friend at The Daily Sabbatical recommends this band as sounding “a bit like a garage band version of Joy Division, with female vocals thrown in on a track or two” but questions whether they are actually from Paris. An intriguing endorsement. I think the Joy Division reference comes by way of the monochromatic baritone [...]

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I saw Barkmarket open for the Pixies in the spring of 1992 at a gymnasium in Nashville, and, unfortunately, I couldn’t have been less interested. I was just waiting to see the Pixies, so barring Elvis or Jesus with all of his disciples in tow, I would have been annoyed by almost anyone who tried [...]

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Franz Ferdinand’s follow-up to the whirlwind success of its fey interpretation of Gang of Four didn’t exactly cash in on the momentum very effectively. The pomp and ego took precedent over the actual tunes, diverting the band’s return to the dreaded sophomore-slump bins. In the three years hence, the band has built a fair [...]

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Bottomless Pit is Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen from Silkworm along with Brian Orchard (.22) and Chris Manfrin (ex-Seam). With an EP and a full-length under its low-profile belt, Bottomless Pit has played only a smattering of shows. The video evidence on YouTube suggests that the band is more road-worn than its tour schedule betrays, [...]

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As Duran Duran receives the star treatment for its first ever tour of Colombia, the band speaks candidly to the Guardian’s Roy Carroll about whether they think they’re too old for the pop machine anymore and how bands these days have co-opted their core sound.
Duran Duran meet Rory Carroll on their first tour of Colombia

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"Carnival of Light", the rare, "mythical" Beatles track that Paul McCartney is teasing journalists with, doesn’t exactly sound like a good time. There’s a reason the other three Beatles wanted no part in making public the 14 minutes of "shrieks and psychedelic effects" recorded on January 5, 1967. Now that he only has Ringo [...]

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[photo via Brooklyn DIY]
I was a full-throttle Jawbreaker fan right up until 1995’s Dear You, which seemed to ruin everything, especially for my admittedly biased-towards-the-rock college radio ears. I’m not sure how it would sit with me now, and I don’t really care. Life’s too short to revisit failure. I just remember the moment the [...]

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Yeah, that’s Françoise Hardy. (via)

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Duran Duran’s Rio has undergone the “making of” treatment via the Classic Albums DVD series. In it the band looks back at how it happened that their second record catapulted them to international superstardom. Bassist John Taylor attributes the success to keeping things simple. Well, that and those videos, of course. Says Taylor: “It’s probably [...]

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At a show the other night at La Cigale in Paris, Vampire Weekend did a bang-up job on this cover of Plastic Bertrand’s “Ça Plane Pour Moi”, the original of which was recently featured here. The band’s new single for “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance” should be out soon backed with a version featuring [...]

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Heidi Klum : Victoria’s Secret Ipex Bra TV Commercial from tvcfblog on Vimeo.

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“This is so bad! It’s not even music…” cried a drunk, self-proclaimed “Clapton fan” and likely GWU student as the wall of sound from the opener, Run into Flowers, tumbled and faded while the crowd went nuts. I don’t think that unwitting student was prepared for the aural crush of an M83 show, [...]

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As with any pointless list, this list of the 15 creepiest album covers over at Odee has its share of hits and misses. Anything current like Butthole Surfers or Lords of Acid just seems forced and lame. Ooh, a cartoon pencil jammed in an ear.  Shocking. But some true gold awaits in a few shining [...]

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Listening to Shugo reminded me of the songs of Argentina’s Juana Molina and Zoe Keating. Both use acoustic instruments combined with synths and samplers and sequencers to create one woman micro-symphonies. If you dig on the cello, Zoe Keating is highly recommended (though she’s not as cute as the Murder By Death Cellist, [...]

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A few weeks back, I caught Stephin Merritt and his merry quartet for a lovely acoustic show at GW’s Lisner Auditorium, and while that show was amazing, it was like the bazillionth time I’d seen Magnetic Fields in the last 15 years. It was, however, the first time I’d ever seen Shugo Tokumaru and [...]

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