Happy Halloween!

A Night With The Jersey Devil

Bruce Springsteen | MySpace Music Videos

The Art of Jazz

One of the many great things lost with the demise of vinyl records as a format is the loss of album art. There was always something magical listening to the music while holding a great piece of art in your hands known as the album cover. As great as some covers might be, staring at a tiny representation on a CD cover just doesn't come close to holding an album.

One of the best genres for album art was the Jazz covers from the 50's and 60's. The Blue Note, Impulse, Atlantic, Dial, and Savoy labels took great care in producing covers of these classic albums. Thanks to the fantastic Swedish website Birka Jazz, I have downloaded and created a file of over 400 of these priceless covers. These are a must for any fan of Jazz or album art in general. This contains classic covers from every 50's and 60's Jazz musician you can imagine (Coltrane, Miles, Charlie Parker, Django Reinhardt, Mingus, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, and so many others).

You can even make these your screen saver if you have a Windows operating system (I assume you can with Mac but don't know how). For Windows, you just have to extract the files to your My Pictures folder located in My Documents, set your screen saver to point to the folder, configure to stretch the images, and you have hours of great eye candy on your computer.

I hope you like these as much as I do. The .Zip file of the covers can be found here.

The Greatest Song of All Time?

This very well might be it....

Bon Iver-Live in Milwaukee, WI

So one of my greatest musical discoveries of last year was Wisconsin native Justin Vernon, better known as Bon Iver. His single album to date "For Emma, Forever Ago" is one of the best break-up albums of all time and one I keep coming back to with many rewards.

Bon Iver played an amazing gig the other night in Milwaukee, WI and thanks to the great 88.9, RadioMilwaukee we can listen to it below. Make sure to listen all the way to the end for a stirring cover of The Outfield's 80's classic, "Your Love". Yes, I mean it.

Enjoy the show and make sure to add the album to your collection if you don't have it. It's truly one of those special ones....

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Sonic Gossip

Um....so one of my favorite bands of all time were featured on a TV show the other night. This should have been great news, right? Except that the band is Sonic Youth and the show was the totally cheesy "Gossip Girl".

Ok, no the world did not come to an end but I still have very mixed feelings about this. I would like to say it was worth it to see Kim Gorden preside over a TV wedding or to see them play an acoustic version "Starpower" as the wedding band. But it wasn't and it's just one more example that even the best things in this world don't stay the same. So Sonic Youth have now been featured on a horrible TV show. Oh well.

Wait, what's that you say? They were on "Gilmore Girls" a few years ago? Damn it....

The Flaming Lips Stone The Tonight Show

The ever weird Flaming Lips are back with a new disc this week. I go back and forth on these guys. I admire their ambition and abstract approach to music, but at a certain point the music has to at least have some emotional impact on me. Their stuff tends to leave me just....detached.

With that said, this live clip of the album closer from The Tonight Show gets my blood stirring. It's like Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii video on acid. Oh wait.....

Glitter and Doom-Tom Waits

The forever awesome Tom Waits will release a live album on November 24 and you can download a 8 track preview by registering below. The album called "Glitter and Doom" is culled from his triumphant 2008 tour and features 17 tracks spanning his entire career. It also comes with a 35 minute bonus CD featuring Tom's in-between song banter. Always a great part of Tom' shows, the bonus disc proves to be as entertaining as the songs!

With only hearing less than half of it, it may already be my favorite album of the year.

Wilco Rock Coney Island

In my blogger absence on July 13'th, Wilco played a show to their largest headlining audience ever(10,000+) in Brooklyn's Keyspan Park in Coney Island. The show was by all accounts a monster, featuring amazing onstage guests Leslie Feist, Ed Droste, and Yo La Tengo.

Here are the best clips I could find of this great show. If you were there, I'm jealous! Oh, and if anyone happens to know Leslie Feist's cell number, please email :-))

"The Fixer"-Pearl Jam

I know it may not be "cool" to like Pearl Jam anymore and I certainly had written off their studio recordings a while ago, but the new disc "Backspacer" is honestly as good as anything in their catalog. Even if you gave up on Pearl Jam 10 years ago when you retired your flannel shirts, you owe it to yourselves to check out the new one.

As proof, check out this great live version of "The Fixer"; one of the best sing-along rock songs I've heard in a long time.

Hilary Duff Ruined my Night!

So I'm sitting on the couch with my kids trying to have a fun, mindless night watching some "Funniest Home Videos" when all of a sudden thanks to Hilary Duff, I find myself having the most awkward conversation you can have with 9 and 6 year old children.

Thanks a lot Hilary! I always wondered what your stance on gay rights was.....NOT. See for yourself what sparked the whole thing.

Wrecking Ball

You would think with the lack of posts on here in the last couple of months that there hasn't been anything good to talk about. That is dead wrong. It's just that personal stuff going on in my life has made certain things I love seem slightly insignificant lately. I am turning over a new leaf and reclaiming my love for the things that bring me joy in life, chief among them being music.

So in the spirit of that, I am back to bring you a new Bruce Springsteen song that is about the very thing I mentioned; moving on and finding new joys and new adventures. The catalyst for this new tune (called Wrecking Ball) is the fact that Bruce is playing his final concerts ever at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The stadium is being demolished next year. As corny as this song sounds in theory, I am going to go out on a limb and say it's one of the strongest tracks Bruce has come up with in years. Judge for yourself and stay tuned please!