Music on TV - Week of 09.17.12: Band of Horses

Band of Horses perform on The Late Show With David Letterman, Wednesday.

Picks for the week
Monday, September 17
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Kreayshawn
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Of Gentlemen and Cowards
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Rascal Flatts
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Jessie Baylin (REPEAT)
Tuesday, September 18
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Nelly Furtado
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Band of Skulls (REPEAT)
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Carly Rae Jepsen
Wednesday, September 19
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Afghan Whigs
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Killers
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: The Avett Brothers
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Kasabian (REPEAT)
TBS: Conan: Delta Rae
Thursday, September 20
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Band of Horses
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Bonnie Raitt
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Walk the Moon, Jamestown Revival, Deadmau5 (REPEAT)
TBS: Conan: Frank Turner
Friday, September 21
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: ZZ Top
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Bobby Womack featuring Damon Albarn and Richard Russell
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Laura Marling (REPEAT)
Saturday, September 22
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Mumford & Sons
PBS: Austin City Limits: Coldplay (REPEAT)
Sunday, September 23
AXS: AXS Concert Series: Emerson Lake & Palmer (40th Anniversary)

Chuck vs The Ring, Pt 2: Family Business

Season 3 of Chuck was weighed down by one thing that had weighed down by the overused plot construct to keep Chuck and Sarah (er, Sam) apart. This season's construct was the worst in the character Shaw. As anyone who's read this blog more than a few times knows, I'm not a 'shipper,' as in I don't have an abnormal personal investment in whether Chuck ends up with Sarah, but to throw an obstacle as uninspired and thinly framed as Shaw was is kind of an insult. So when it became apparent that Shaw was back from the dead (of course he's back, because that's how ridiculous this character is) I honestly kind of dreaded this finale.

Thankfully, Shaw wasn't that much of an annoyance and all the scenes involving the greater Bartkowski family were great, including the cliffhanger introducing us to Mama Bartkowksi (well, at least the back of her head). Family has always been a part of the show, but with this episode it really moved to the forefront. Ellie is now in the circle of trust, and so is Casey's daughter Alex (who we've barely even met). Just like last year's "Guys, I know karate" paradigm shift, there's a lot of potential for next season. Let's just hope that with Chuck and Sarah finally together, their hands are tied setting obstacles for their relationship.

Musically, I believe "Chuck vs The Ring, Pt 2" had more songs packed in it since the pilot, albeit, spread over two hours. As I posted last week, Band of Horses licensed three songs from their latest (and far from greatest) release (Infinite Arms) for the episode. I think my favorite moment, though, was hearing Roger Miller's "England Swings" during the Casey/Justin (the Ring agent) stand off at the diner. Menew's "Don't Give Up On Us Now" (the on-the-nose song of the week) is from an upcoming release, making it some sort of debut, right? Whatever. (Man, there's still a Lost-a-palooza hangover going on right here.)

Chuck - Episode 3.18-19
1. "The High Road" - 2. Broken Bells: Chuck & Sarah walk through farmer's market
2. "One More Try" - Timmy T: a depressed Awesome drinks with Jeffster
3. "England Swings" - Roger Miller: Casey at gunpoint at the diner
4. "Neighbor" - Band of Horses: Chuck talks his father into going back
5. "One October Song" Nico Stai
6. "Congratulations" - MGMT: Alex enters the Buymore store
7. "Don't Give Up On Us Now" - Menew: Chuck admits defeat
8. "On My Way Back Home" - Band of Horses: Ellie hugs Chuck, flashes back. Later used during toast of Papa Bartkowski
9. "Sundial" - Wolfmother: Sarah & Chuck go undercover as Russian delegates
10. "Blaze of Glory" (Young Guns 2) - Jeffster!: Chuck triggers the Jeffster DVD flashing in battle with Shaw
11. "Blue Beard" - Band of Horses: Sarah retrieves Chuck's watch
12. "Don't Hide Away" - Bishop Allen: Jeff offers to burn down the Buymore, Sarah & Chuck talk

Previously: Chuck vs the Living Dead

Now Downloading: New Releases 05.18.10

Another anticipated week for releases, and another delay thanks to Rhapsody's continued snail's pace on dropping in new releases. I may have to find a new system, because when you've got a week featuring the latest from LCD Soundsystem, Band of Horses, Janelle Monae and the Black Keys, things need to move forward at a quicker pace. Stay tuned...

Playlist: New Releases 05.11.10

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LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

If this is indeed the last album that LCD Soundsystem releases, and James Murphy has hinted as much, then this is the way to go. This is Happening, lyrically, is Murphy's most personal release, continuing the inward trend since LCD SS' impersonal beginnings with "Losing My Edge." With songs like "I Can Change," "Somebody's Calling Me," and even "You Wanted a Hit," Murphy's reeled that fish nearly all the way into the boat. It can flop around to "Drunk Girls," like the rest of us, and or just quietly appreciate Murphy's continued mastery of all things Bowie. It could happen. (Can't wait for their set at Sasquatch!.)

Free AOL album stream

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Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Upon first listen, it seems Infinite Arms is Band of Horses cash grab, which is mostly expected given its their major label dabut. Phil Ek is still twiddling the knobs and adding vocal reverb, but something about the release just seems to fall short. Ben Bridwell is the only piece left from their surprising debut (Everything All the Time) and he's mentioned in interviews that this was the first release where he wasn't trying to control everything, letting the band function as a whole; and that Infinite Arms is the band's first release. Sure "Laredo" and "Compliments" are stunners that would slide in nicely on any BoH joint. But the rest of IA feels mostly like prime filler. Is it just me, or are BoH sounding more like a watered down version of Matt Brooke's post BoH act Grand Archives on some of these tracks? Just saying...

Free AOL album stream

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
The Black Keys - Brothers / Free AOL album stream
Janelle Monae - ArchAndroid / Streaming on MySpace
Harvey Milk - A Small Turn of Human Kindness
Great Lake Swimmers - The Legion Sessions
The Sadies - Darker Circles
Reggie Watts - Why S*** So Crazy? / Free AOL album stream
Rangda - False Flag / "Bull Lore" [mp3]
Pontiak - Living / Free AOL album stream / "Young" [mp3]
Tracy Thorn - Love & Its Opposite / Free AOL album stream / "Oh, The Divorces!" [mp3]
Glee Cast - Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers
Wintersleep - New Inheritors / "Hallowed Ways" [mp3]
The Depreciation Guild - Spirit Youth
Woven Bones - In and Out and Back Again / "If It Feels Alright" [mp3]

REISSUES
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Stree (Bonus Tracks)
Rick James - Fire it Up
Rick James - Gsrden of Love
The Jayhawks - The Jayhawks
Duran Duran - Duran Duran
Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger

tags: music, album review, the national, male bonding, dead weather, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

Ear on TV: Week of 05.17.10: Band Of Horses

Indie Americana group Band of Horses are set to release their third album, Infinite Arms this week, and you can hear three songs from the album next week on the season finale for Chuck. The South Carolina-by-way-of-Seattle band licensed three songs from the album for the third season ender for the NBC show, a series which has featured the band a couple times in the past. Whether they coordinated their release date with the finale, nobody's confessing, but it's a pretty savvy move for their major label debut.

Last month, the band played three songs on Later with Jools Holland in the UK, and their first two albums instantly jumped into the UK Billboard's Top 200 for the first time. It'll be harder to pull that off when they play The Late Show with David Letterman on Thursday night, but between that appearance and the Chuck exposure, their major label debut has been given at least marginally better odds for success.

Meanwhile, I was sad to hear yesterday of the death of legendary heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio, Heaven and Hell). The Revolver Golden Gods Awards, airing this Saturday on VH1 Classic, features the last public appearance by diminutive Dio (scroll down for video of interview), who lost his battle with stomach cancer. The heavy metal awards show also features appearances by other legendary frontmen of rock like Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford (Judas Priest), and Lemmy (Motorhead), along with help from Dave Grohl, Slash and hosted by Andrew "Party Hard" W.K. Just typing those names makes my neck sore.


Finally, gracing us with her presence on this planet this week is the one and only Janelle Monae, whose fascination with Fritz Lang's Metropolis has led to some crazy stage shows and a planned four-part conceptual suite. Her debut full length studio release, The ArchAndroid, continues the robot obsession and features two more Metropolis suite contributions along with guest appearances from Of Montreal, Saul Williams and Outkast's Big Boi. How locked into Sci-Fi is the Atlanta resident? She appeared as herself on Stargate Universe last year.

Playlist: Picks for the week
Monday, May 17
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Public Image Ltd.
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Shooter Jennings (REPEAT)
TBS: Lopez Tonight: Weezer
Tuesday, May 18
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Dirty Heads (REPEAT)
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Janelle Monae
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Jakob Dylan
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Broken Social Scene
IFC: Dinner With the Band: YACHT (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: B.o.B. (REPEAT)
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: James Taylor & Carole King
Wednesday, May 19
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Reflection Eternal featuring Estelle
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Stone Temple Pilots
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Foxy Shazam
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Nas, Damian Marley
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Mumford & Sons
Thursday, May 20
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Slayer
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Band of Horses
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Vampire Weekend
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Between the Buried and Me
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Weezer
Friday, May 21
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Massive Attack
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Robbie Dupree
SUNDANCE: Live From Abbey Road: Seal, Counting Crows - Celebration of 40th Anniversary of The Beatles' Abbey Road recording (REPEAT)
Saturday, May 22
BBCAMERICA: The Graham Norton Show: Andrew Lloyd Webber
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Just Bieber (REPEAT)
VH1 Classic: Revolver Golden Gods Awards: Andrew W.K., Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio. Slash, Dave Grohl, Lemmy
Sunday, May 23
HBO: Treme: Varous artists from New Orleans

Klingon and kevlar

First off, let's congratulate Chuck (and Life) on getting picked up for the full season. Along with the fanciful Pushing Daisies, these are the cream of this season's crop of new series, and it's nice to see great television get rewarded even without stellar ratings. Knowing that Chuck has a life beyond the next few episodes felt important for this episode, so I'm sure NBC chief Ben Silverman had that in mind in making the announcement prior to airing.

Bringing back Bryce so soon was a dangerous proposition, but it was handled pretty well, especially having his first conversation with Chuck be coded in Klingon. Remember that his last, via email, was in coded in the language of the game Zork. My Star Trek geek is fairly limited, and I can't recognize Klingon, but a quick search shows that they at least tossed a few correct words and phrases in there to appear accurate. It was just a nice touch to have Chuck be saved by geek code instead of the cryptology of the spy world. First was Buy Mart's codeword 'Pineapple' to use in a 'Black Swan' event, which not only referenced Nassim Nicholas Taleb's rare event theory, but also an infamous Tonight Show sketch featuring Ross the intern and Steve Irwin (see video). It's hard to imagine this was the Buy Mart employees' first Black Friday, but funny nonetheless to see Jeff and Lester cowering in fear of the shopping throngs.

Getting back to geek code, specifically Klingon, Bryce again invokes the Star Trek language to query whether Chuck is wearing a vest (Bryce: "HIja'? ghobe'?" Chuck: "HIja'"). The fact that there's not a word for vest (let alone 'kevlar') in the current Klingon canon of words is something that's easy to overlook. Who knows, perhaps someone on the Chuck staff is a Friend of Maltz, and legitimately created a word for it?

Having Bomer around for the action scenes added some nice fight choreography between him and Yvonne Strahovski's Sara. The Buy Mart(ial arts) action, set to Pop Levi's "Sugar Assault Me Now," even had Chuck admitting they were pretty good together. The Sara/Chuck/Bryce triangle was then scored brilliantly by Band of Horses' "No One's Gonna Love You More" (second time around for the band on Chuck already,) leading to the soapy (non)ambiguous ending of Sara deciding who's call to answer: Bryce or Chuck -- it seems the answer is neither. The choice of phones was telling, though, as the old analog-looking phone for Bryce's call represented her past and Chuck's incoming was on an iPhone, representing her now (and future).

While they burned the 'Bryce is back' plot pretty early in the series, setting him up as a chip they can use in the future is good coupled with the news of the show getting picked up. Now if we can just work on getting this strike over with. Are you listening studio honchos? Pony up some change already!

Chuck - Episode 1.10
1. "On Sale Now" - Daniel May - Bryce and Chuck in elevator
2. "Sugar Assault Me Now" - Pop Levi - Fight sequence with Fulcrum cronies in Buy Mart
3. "No One's Gonna Love Me More" - Band of Horses - Bryce says goodbye, Sara debates going with him

Previously: Summer Sandwich (Episode 108)

Ear on TV: Week of October 15

On paper, it's a bit of a thin week, but there's still plenty of treasures out there to be had. On Letterman Thursday night, Band of Horses perform "Is There a Ghost" from their second full length, Cease to Begin, and it will be interesting to compare it to last year's network television debut on the same program, where front man Ben Bridwell was noticeably nervous.

Meanwhile, two dance-oriented duos make their network television debut this week. First up is the Austin electro-dance rock duo Ghostland Observatory who appear on Conan Tuesday night, and when they perform "Sad Sad City" the studio audience won't be able to stay in their seats. Same goes for Chromeo when they appear on The Jimmy Kimmel Show Wednesday night, as their electro-funk, while sometimes ironic, is always irresistable. They claim to be "the only successful Arab/Jewish collaboration since the beginning of time," so there's that as well.

Elsewhere, Spoon is becoming nearly ubiquitous, hitting Conan Thursday night. Thank goodness Spoon are at a point where they can dictate which songs they play, as they have yet to play the same song twice, to my knowledge. One can only guess which song from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga they'll play this week.

Playlist: Picks for the week
Monday, October 15
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Angie Stone
Tuesday, October 16
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Sondre Lerche
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: PJ Harvey
NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Ghostland Observatory
Wednesday, October 17
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Chromeo
NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Mute Math
Thursday, October 18
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Talib Kweli
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Band of Horses
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: They Might Be Giants
NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Spoon
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Teddybears (REPEAT)
Friday, October 19
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Every Time I Die
IFC: The Henry Rollins Show: The Blood Brothers
NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Brother Ali
Saturday, October 20
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Kanye West (REPEAT)
PBS: Austin City Limits: Femi Kuti

tags: music, television, soundtrack, talk shows, spoon, chromeo, ghostland observatory, band of horses, indie rock, rhapsody

A Tango and a Title Sequence

So I guess my worries about Chuck not having any title sequences has been answered, as this week, a snappy title sequence makes an appearance. Created by Imaginary Forces, the same group that brought you Mad Men's opening, the credits are a fun mix of James Bond interspliced with the the worker icon from Buy More's Nerd Herd logo -- and it's all done creatively to Cake's "Short Skirt/Long Jacket.".

NBC has the episode up, and if you forward 7:45 into the first chapter, you can check it out.

Meanwhile, they're breaking down another Spoon song ("Don't You Evah,") which makes Chuck a bit like the film Stranger Than Fiction, where bits of rhythmic Spoon was everywhere. But the anchor to this weeks show was the use of updated tango from the masters Gotan Project. You may remember the band's music was used often in the past couple seasons of Nip/Tuck, but here it fits in even more within the context of the action (and the episode title,) as Chuck dances the tango to GP's tango "Santa Maria (del Buen Ayre)".

One thing that The O.C. always liked to do was have a song was about to be released, and now that Chuck is into the season I expect it to happen more, especially considering Tuesdays, the morning after the show, is new release day. This time out, they threw Band of Horses' "The General Specific" into the mix. It really didn't seem to serve much of a purpose then to give the album Cease to Begin a leg up on it's release today.

And finally, in what can only by now be called a show template, the final scene of reflection was backed by The National's excellent "Slow Show," focusing in on the lyrics:

You know I dreamed about you
for twenty-nine years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you
I missed you for
for twenty-nine years

Mmm... Chuck's about 29 years old, wouldn't you say? The song is about making a fool of oneself to impress his true love, and is a nice allusion to the unspoken geek love Chuck has for Sarah.

Playlist: Chuck - Episode 103
1. "Don't You Evah" - Spoon - Parts used throughout, in opening and with Nerd Herd
2. "Santa Maria (del Buen Ayre)" - Gotan Project - Parts used throughout, used mostly for tango sequences
3. "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" - Cake - Title sequence
4. "The General Specific" - Band Of Horses - Chuck finishes work on the last computers
5. "Slow Show - The National - End of episode

Previously: Spoon and the Lost Art of the Intro (Episode 102)

tags: music, television, soundtrack, chuck, cake, spoon, gotan project, band of horses, the national, playlist

Indie eats itself

While The O.C. struggles with their ratings in their fourth season, the sixth installment of Music From The O.C. Mix series finds them already reminiscing about the glory days - only two years ago. Covering Our Tracks features artists covering (mostly) songs that appeared in their first couple seasons, and in nearly every case, the original is so much better, it's almost embarrassing.

Album: Music From The O.C. Mix 6: Covering Our Tracks
Playlist: The originals tracks covered

A playlist of the original tracks proves to be actually a pretty nice listen, so I'd just skip the covers, except out of boredom or insatiable curiousity (you know you want to hear how Rogue Wave neutered the Pixies' "Debaser".) For instance, who's idea was it to cover ELO on this? I love ELO, but it makes no sense in this context, especially the piss-poor cover that John Paul White mails in.

It's not 100% bad though... the one track I can recommend is Band Of Horses' take on the New Year's "The End's Not Near." They rework the song with reverb and rhythme to make it their own (or, if you please, My Morning Jacket's.)

Thank goodness you can download it alone and forget the rest.

tags: playlist, music, album review, television, soundtrack, the oc, band of horses, indie rock