Music on TV - Week of 09.26.11: Pink Floyd week on Fallon

Like the Rolling Stones and Bob Marley in prior weeks, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon dedicates a week to legends of rock -- this week it's Pink Floyd week, featuring The Shins, Foo Fighters, MGMT and Pearl Jam all performing classic songs from the band's catalog. Meanwhile, members of Pink Floyd will also be stopping by to sit down with Fallon, specifically Nick Mason (Monday) and Roger Waters (Tuesday) -- who will also in with the Foo Fighters.

The week lines up with the reissue of Pink Floyd's entire back catalog, remastered -- 14 albums in total, also put together in a 16-disc box set (The Discovery Studio Album Box Set). On Monday, The Shins -- making their first late night appearance in over four years -- will be performing "Breathe (In the Air)" from The Dark Side of the Moon. Then on Tuesday it's Roger Waters joining Foo Fighters for a version of "In the Flesh?" from Waters' opus The Wall. Wednesday has MGMT reaching back to Syd Barrett-era Floyd with "Lucifer Sam," from 1967's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Thursday offers a country version of "Wish You Were Here" (1975's classic album of the same name) by Dierks Bentley. Finally, on Friday, Pearl Jam stop by to perform their version of "Mother," another track from 1979's The Wall.

Elsewhere, as previewed in last week's Music on TV calendar, Radiohead get an unprecedented whole hour episode dedicated to them on The Colbert Report, where they'll perform four songs from 2010's King of Limbs -- along with the unreleased song "The Daily Mail."

Picks for the week
Monday, September 26
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Kelly Rowland
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Fleet Foxes
COMEDY CENTRAL: The Colbert Report: Radiohead (Special One Hour Episode)
FUEL: The Daily Habit:
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Arctic Monkeys
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Nick Mason (Pink Floyd)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: The Decemberists (REPEAT)
PBS: Tavis Smiley: Chris Cornell
Tuesday, September 27
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Glen Campbell
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Trombone Shorty
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Butch Walker, Wye Oak
Wednesday, September 28
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Knux
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Lisa Hannigan
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: MGMT
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Cliff Martinez
TBS: Conan: Kid Cudi, Daryl Hall
Thursday, September 29
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Givers
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Death Cab For Cutie
COMEDY CENTRAL: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Tony Bennett
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: TV on the Radio
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Dierks Bentley
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Laura Marling
TBS: Conan: Portugal.the Man
VH1: Behind the Music: Nelly
Friday, September 30
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: The Airborne Toxic Event
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Pearl Jam
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: The Horrors
PBS: Hugh Laurie: Let Them Talk -- A Celebration of New Orleans Blues: Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Tom Jones, Hugh Laurie
PBS: Tavis Smiley: Tony Bennett
Saturday, October 1
COMEDY CENTRAL: "Weird Al" Yankovic Live! -- The Alpocalypse Tour: "Weird Al" Yankovic
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Lady Antebellum
PBS: Austin City Limits: Mumford & Sons, Flogging Molly

Ear on TV: Week of 04.19.10: MGMT

The Grammy nominated MGMT, aren't at ease with being a popular band, or with having 'Grammy nominated' defining them. The duo wasn't comfortable at all at the glitzy ceremony. As Andrew VanWyngarden recently told the UK's Daily Mirror, "It almost feels like it's a giant marketing campaign for five or six bands. We just kind of felt like, 'What are we doing here?', like, 'Wow, we've infiltrated this kind of upper-level mainstream and we're so weird.'"

The electro-pop purveyors of strange headlined Coachella this weekend to record crowds, and made headlines by not even bothering to play their Grammy nominated song, "Kids," seemingly trying to distance themselves from the Grammy nomination even more. Instead, they concentrated the set on their sophomore release, Congratulations, which was unleashed on the world last week. Fans expecting another "Time to Pretend" or "Kids" are bound to be disappointed, as this album ups the weird quotient exponentially -- at the expense of there being any hits. In fact, when MGMT play Saturday Night Live this week, they might rival Sun Ra (May 20, 1978) and Captain Beefheart (November 22, 1980) for the weirdest musical performance that the sketch comedy series has had in it's long 35 season run. Far be it for me to recommend illegal activity, but recreational medication might be warranted.

Speaking of recreational drugs, 90s rap stars Cypress Hill are back with a new album after a six year hiatus, and the time is indeed ripe for the pot promoters' return. Since their last album, 15 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal use, and more are on the way, including an initiative on the November ballot for full legalization in the rap group's home of California. This will be the first release since Sen Dog (aka Senen Reyes) suffered a heart attack in 2007, and he's not backed off extolling the virtues of his favorite plant. "Smoking marijuana actually helps lower blood pressure," he tells the Daily Mirror. "Nothing's changed, we have our beliefs as a band and people. If anything, we've learned even more, so we are still dropping facts." Cypress Hill perform twice this week, first with Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday, then on FUEL's The Daily Habit on Tuesday.

Finally, it seems weird that Broken Social Scene haven't released an album since 2005's Broken Social Scene, but that's because they've been a part of so many releases in the interim. Between solo releases from Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning (both released with a "Broken Social Scene presents" tag), there's also been the higher profile releases by acts with revolving members, Feist (Leslie Feist), Metric (Emily Haines), Stars (Evan Cranley) and Do May Say Think (Ohad Benchetrit, Charles Spearin). On May 4, the band will finally be front and center again with the album Forgiveness Rock Record, and they'll anticipate the release with a performance of the song "Forced to Love" on Letterman Thursday.

Playlist: Picks for the week
Monday, April 19
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Cypress Hill featuring Tom Morello
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Phoenix
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Weezer (REPEAT)
Tuesday, April 20
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Devo
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Cypress Hill
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Smashing Pumpkins
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: New Kids on the Block (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Circa Survive (REPEAT)
Wednesday, April 21
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Jakob Dylan
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Natalie Merchant
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Silversun Pickups (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Lisa Hannigan (REPEAT)
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Annie Lennox
Thursday, April 22
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Taylor Hawkins
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Broken Social Scene
COMEDY CENTRAL: The Colbert Report: Gorillaz
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Surfer Blood
FUSE: Green Day Earth Day: Green Day (video, interviews, career recap all day)
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Maxwell
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: David Gray (REPEAT)
TBS: Lopez Tonight: Ozomatli
Friday, April 23
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Local Natives
SUNDANCE: Live From Abbey Road: Antony and the Johnsons, The Enemy
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Lily Allen (REPEAT)
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Norah Jones
Saturday, April 24
NBC: Saturday Night Live: MGMT
Sunday, April 25
HBO: Treme: Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins

Now Downloading: New Releases 04.13.10

Playlist: New Releases 04.13.10

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Kaki King - Junior
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Kaki King's guitar and songwriting degree of difficulty has often drawn comparisons to Jeff Buckley's chops, and with good reason. With her fifth album, King swings a bit more commercial, easing back a bit on the finger flourishes while pushing her vocals. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, in theory, but it does serve to amplify the difference in strength of guitar versus her vocals. Because, while King has Buckley's chops, she doesn't have his voice... her vocals are more akin to Laura Veirs -- strong enough for folk rock, but a bit too wispy for the soaring terrain she carves out on guitar. Highlights are the opener, "The Betrayer," and "Falling Day."

Free AOL Album Stream

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MGMT - Congratulations
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

On one hand, I have to applaud MGMT for sticking to their pysch-pop guns and not attempting to mimic another "Time to Pretend" or "Kids." On the other hand, a good chunk of their uncompromising ends up being pretty aimless and disjointed. Considering the aforementioned fans' favorite songs were written five years ago, and everything since has been more of the meandering psych pop variety, we really shouldn't be too surprised.

Free AOL Album Stream

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt / "King of Spain" [mp3]
Rafter - Animal Feelings / "Paper" [mp3] / "Beauty, Beauty" [mp3]
Dosh - Tommy / "Number 41 (feat Andrew Bird)" [mp3]
The Nels Cline Singers - Initiate / Free AOL album stream / "Floored" [mp3]
Freelance Whales - Weathervanes / Free AOL album stream / "Generator 2nd Floor" [mp3]
Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep
Subhumans - Same Thoughts Different Day
Carrie Rodriguez - Love and Circumstance
Sightings - City of Straw / "Tar and Pine" [mp3]
Raul Midon - Synthesis
Antena - Bossa Super Nova
Bobby and Blumm - A Little Big

REISSUES
Devo - Duty Now for the Future (Deluxe Edition)
Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power (Legacy Edition)
Braid - Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five

tags: music, album review, mgmt,, kaki king, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

Sasquatch 2010 Lineup Revealed!

Tonight at the Crocodile, Sasquatch celebrated a launch party with Surfer Blood, Atlas Sound and Fresh Espresso, but the real attraction was Sasquatch's 2010 lineup.

We has assumed that a reunited Pavement was one of the headliners, but that turned out to be a red herring, and the three Sasquatch ended up with were on hardly anyone's radar. Massive Attack, My Morning Jacket and Ween. Playing armchair festival runner for a second, besides Pavement, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, or even Public Enemy might have been better choices instead of Massive Attack or Ween, but I never usually worry who's on the main stage at the end of the night... the second stage is where I always end up.

Here's the deets, UPDATED! with day-by-day tentative scheduling:

Saturday, May 29th
My Morning Jacket / Vampire Weekend / The National / Deadmau5 / Broken Social Scene / OK Go / Wale / Public Enemy / The Hold Steady / Miike Snow / Z-Trip / Brother Ali / Minus The Bear / WHY? / The Very Best / Portugal. The Man / Mumford & Sons / The Lonely Forest / Nurses / The Middle East / Patrick Watson / Laura Marling / Morning Teleportation / Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros / Fool's Gold / Garfunkel & Oates / Dam-Funk

Sunday, May 30th
Massive Attack / Pavement / LCD Soundsystem / Tegan and Sara / Kid Cudi / Nada Surf / Dirty Projectors / The xx / The Long Winters / Simian Mobile Disco / Midlake / Girls / Vetiver / The Tallest Man On Earth / YACHT / Booka Shade / Caribou / Avi Buffalo / City and Colour / Cymbals Eat Guitars / A-Trak / Fruit Bats / tUnE-yArDs / Local Natives / Freelance Whales / Jets Overhead / Rob Riggle / Luke Burbank

Monday, May 31st
Ween / MGMT / Band of Horses / She & Him / Passion Pit / The New Pornographers / Drive-By Truckers / Boys Noize / Camera Obscura / The Temper Trap / Dr. Dog / Neon Indian / No Age / The Mountain Goats / Phantogram / Quasi / Japandroids / Mayer Hawthorne & The County / The Low Anthem / Fresh Espresso / Hudson Mohawke / Telekinesis / Past Lives / Yes Giantess / Craig Robinson

Not bad, not good

So the new 90210 wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It used just enough of the cheese from the original series, throwing enough bones (cameos) to the older set; while also incorporating some of the smarts of The O.C. Ultimately, though, it still wasn't good enough for a return visit to this zip code. I have a feeling, though, enough will return for it to do well for the CW.

The music choices occasionally raised an eyebrow, mostly relied on the tired Gossip Girl set list, with several songs that even appeared in GG last season (MGMT's "Time To Pretend" and The Ting Tings "Shut Up and Let Me Go," to name a few).

As mentioned yesterday, Tilly and the Wall appeared lip syncing to the great "Pot Kettle Black," and also tossed in the more obscure "Beat Control" (from the Beat Control EP) for good measure. Here's all but a couple of the rest of the tracks in a playlist:

Playlist: 90210 - Episodes 101-102
1. Viva La Vida - Coldplay
2. Time To Pretend - MGMT
3. Wannamama - Pop Levi
4. You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring
5. Shut Up And Let Me Go - The Ting Tings
6. California Bound - Carolina Liar
7. Mama Who Bore Me (Reprise) - Lea Michele
8. Pot Kettle Black - Tilly and the Wall
9. Beat Control - Tilly and the Wall
10. Chasing Pavements - Adele
11. Don't Let Me Fall - Lenka
12. Shake It - Metro Station
13. Try It Again - The Hives
14. Touch Me - Brian Johnson
15. What You Got - Colby O'Donis
16. Great DJ - The Ting Tings
17. Lucid Dreams - Franz Ferdinand
18. Come Out of the Shade - The Perishers
19. Let It Rock - Kevin Rudolf
20. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
21. Daydreamer - Adele

Ear on TV: The week of June 16

I have to admit, I've been on the fence about Fuel TV since it's launch nearly five years ago as 'the only 24/7 action sports network.' Is there really a need for an ESPNX? Lately, though, the program The Daily Habit has had a rotation of great indie and/or punk bands appearing on the program, in concert with pieces on surfers, skateboarders, snowboarders and the like. The lineup this week, for instance, is incredible: L.A. punkers No Age (Monday,) nob-twisters MGMT (Wednesday,) and international hip-hop assasin M.I.A. (Thursday) all lend some adrenaline to the program. It's almost enough to have me contact my provider and press them to include the network... that is until I remember it's a sister network to FOX News. Oh Rupert Murdoch... why are you such a contradiction?

Speaking of sports and rock and roll, this Friday on Letterman is the network debut of the new baseball fan supergroup of The Baseball Project, which features Peter Buck (R.E.M.,) Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate,) Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5) and Linda Pitmon (Zuzu's Petals). For Friday's appearance, McCaughey sings "Past Time," which reads like a laundry list of things we miss about baseballs' past, like "the sideburns of Pepitone and Oscar Gamble's afro." Singing songs about baseball's rich history never sounded so good... someone needs to give Peter Gammons a call, and get them in ESPN's battle of the bands.

Finally, Live From Abbey Road returns for it's second season on the Sundance channel, getting it's world debut stateside this time (appearing on Channel 4 a couple weeks later, featuring a lineup of Mary J. Blige, Dashboard Confessional and James Blunt. While the behind the scenes look at the famous studio is always fascinating -- the best part always seems to be the featured archived video, usually of The Beatles -- the lineup can sometimes be a disappointment in comparison. Just typing James Blunt's name in conjunction with fab four made me throw up in my mouth a little. Yuk. I guess that's what the fast forward button is for.

Playlist: Picks for the week
Monday, June 16
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Adele
FUEL: The Daily Habit: No Age
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Amos Lee
Tuesday, June 17
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Chromeo
CBS: The Early Show: Dan Zanes
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Dr. John, Stevie Wonder
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: John Hiatt
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Carly Simon (REPEAT)
Wednesday, June 18
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Martha Wainwright
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: The Fratellis
FUEL: The Daily Habit: MGMT
NBC: The Today Show: Carly Simon
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: The Game
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Duffy (REPEAT)
Thursday, June 19
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Lil' Wayne
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: The Boxmaster
FUEL: The Daily Habit: M.I.A.
SUNDANCE: Live From Abbey Road: Mary J. Blige, Dashboard Confessional
Friday, June 20
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Baseball Project
NBC: The Today Show: Rihanna
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: The Time
NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: My Morning Jacket
SYNDICATION: Live With Regis and Kelly: Neil Diamond
Saturday, June 21
BBCAMERICA: The Graham Norton Show: Scouting For Girls
PBS: Austin City Limits: Gretchen Wilson, Miranda Lambert

Now Downloading: New Releases 01.22.08

Once again, last week stole some of this week's thunder, but I like to look at it as a form of socialism. This week of the year traditionally is too rich for it's own good, and it's still a fine week without Cat Power and Drive-By Truckers, so everyone wins. Besides Black Mountain, this week also has great releases from Times New Viking, MGMT, Bodies of Water and The Whigs.

Playlist: New Releases 01.22.07

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Album: Black Mountain - In the Future

An awful lot has happened in the music landscape since Black Mountain's self-titled debut release three years ago. That release felt almost fresh even in some of it's recycled elements. Now, there's a classic rock revival -- thanks in part the popularity of Guitar Hero -- so the pressure of following up a great debut is almost doubled in expectation. BM easily could've turned over the same blues-y classic rocks, but instead they expanded their sound to include a wide swath of 70s rock, including dangerous prog elements - they are from the same country that brought us Rush, lest we forget. For the most part, it works better than a list of influences (Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, ELP, Jethro Tull, Led Zep, etc) because it's all covered with a mellow gloss that feels... well... organic. Only quibble for me, albeit a major one, is that the epic nearly 17 minute long "Bright Lights," kind of derails the flow of the album.

Download: "Tyrants" (InSound)

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Album: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Thanks in part to great production from Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev,) MGMT sound a lot less 'electronic' than 2005's Time to Pretend EP had me to believe. The duo of Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser walked that line between rock and electronica, ala LCD Soundsystem, but the drum sound that Fridmann gets puts MGMT firmly in the rock sphere to my ears, at times similar to what Grandaddy tried to do mixing old synth with Kinks-like rock. Besides the Kinks, the other classic reference here has to be alien period Bowie, with the faux strings and spacey drums. The first half of the album -- especially opening track "Time to Pretend" -- is pretty incredible, but it sort of falls apart after that, without much to sustain your attention past the fifth song ("Kids"). Not bad for a debut LP, but it could've been so much more.

Free AOL Album Stream

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Album: Bodies of Water - Ears Will Pop And Eyes Will Blink

I'm still not sure what to make of this... first listen had me thinking there was a lot more to this that I needed to check out, so I bumped some other albums from my que and spent some time trying to get inside it. Unfortunately, there's not much here beyond The Polyphonic Spree/Arcade Fire/Up with People moments that are thrown against the wall here with symphonic glee. Instead I feel like I wasted time better spent on the latest from Times New Viking, or even the agreeable Foo Fighter-like rock of The Whigs would have been a more fruitful endeavor.

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More on the radar this week
Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark / Free album stream from AOL
Cat Power - Jukebox
Times New Viking - Rip it Up
The Whigs - Mission Control / Free album stream from AOL
Biirdie - Catherine Avenue / Free album stream from AOL
The Whitsundays - The Whitsundays
Shelby Lynne - Just a Little Lovin' (in Rhapsody a week early)
Barton Carroll - The Lost One / Free album stream from AOL
North Mississippi Allstars - Love Behind The Melody
Buzzcocks - 30
Dengue Fever - Venus on Earth
Get Set Go - Sunshine,Joy & Happiness- A Tragic Tale Of Death,Despair And Other Silly Nonsense
Steve Aoki - Pillowface And His Airplane Chronicles
Matt Costa - Unfamiliar Faces / Free album stream from AOL
Dead Confederate - Dead Confederate
More

tags: music, album review, the wire, tom waits, kate nash, marah, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody