We Interrupt Your Music News for the Following....Fight Protect-IP and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! - fightforthefuture.org/pipa

PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement."

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that's for a fix that won't work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.

Stop Online Piracy Act from Ricardo Granda on Vimeo.

NPR Streaming New Records from Nada Surf and Craig Finn Solo

NPR and its streaming of new records in their entirety is such a blessing. And a money saver! And a great way to start off a new week!

Yesterday, NPR began streaming The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy, the seventh record from Nada Surf, and Clear Heart Full Eyes, the first solo record from The Hold Steady lead singer Craig Finn. Surf lead singer Matthew Caws and the boys display their signature catchy-as-hell guitar hooks ("Jules and Jim" for instance) and power pop beauty ("Looking Through," the chorus of "No Snow on the Mountain"). Finn takes on a bit more of a country-fried feel in spots on this vacation from THS and the testosterone-laden hooks of THS guitarist Tad Kubler, but his story telling of the down-and-outers and Jesus are still in abundance. This one may take a couple of spins, but it's got potential.

Both records drop for purchase on 1/24.

The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy-Nada Surf-NPR Stream


Clear Heart, Full Eyes-Craig Finn-NPR Stream

"TeBowie" Plays "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"

I'm not a big football fan (baseball's more my thing), and up until this past weekend, I wasn't even sure who Tim Tebow was. But I do love a funny satire and this is one of the better ones I've seen of late. Ladies and gents, I give you Jimmy Fallon doing a mashup of David Bowie and Tim Tebow to Bowie's "Major Tom."

Of course, someone should have told Fallon that he also mashed up Bowie styles (makeup from the Aladdin Sane period, outfit from Ziggy Stardust) but maybe that was intentional too?

Happy 70th Birthday Clarence Clemons

Fans of Bruce Springsteen are chomping at the bit, eagerly awaiting the new E Street Band tour dates to be announced. This time out will be especially poignant, as this is the first E Street tour ever without "the Big Man," Clarence Clemons. Clemons, who passed away in June of last year, would have turned 70 today. In honor of that, we give you one of the greatest E Street Band showcases of Clemons wailing away on his horn, "Paradise by the C."

The Joy Formidable and A Place to Bury Strangers Touring Together in March

The Joy Formidable announced headlining tour dates today for March 2012.The band will be supported on all dates by A Place To Bury Strangers.

TJF's debut full-length, The Big Roar came out last year.

The bands comes to DC on 3/26 at the 930 Club. Tickets go on pre-sale tomorrow and on general sale Friday. From TJF Facebook page, "Looking forward to seeing you again before we (briefly) disappear to finish our 2nd record."

(See the rest of the photos from The Joy Formidable's tour with the Foo Fighters and Social Distortion last year here.)



The Joy Formidable with A Place to Bury Strangers Tour
Mar 12 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Mar 13 - San Francisico, CA @ The Independent
Mar 14 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Music Box
Mar 17 - Denver, CO @ The Bluebird Theatre
Mar 19 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Café
Mar 20 - Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
Mar 22 - Bloomington, IN @ The Bluebird
Mar 23 - Cincinnati, OH @ 20th Century Theatre
Mar 24 - Atlanta, GA @ Masqureade
Mar 25 - Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
Mar 26 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Mar 28 - New York City, NY @ Terminal 5
Mar 29 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Mar 31 - Montreal, QC @ Cabaret Mile-End
Apr 02 - Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace

At the Drive-In Announce Reunion Today

I discovered At the Drive-In by accident. Jim Ward, one of ATDI's founding members, was opening for Rhett Miller a few years ago at the Black Cat (you can see the shots from it here). It was one of those "get there early/fall in love with the opener you know nothing about" instances that I love. Ward played with this incredible combination of delicacy and metric ton of power that I was dumbfounded. I can count on one hand the number of musicians playing acoustic guitar and singing that have held my rapt attention for a full set-Ward is most definitely one of them.

So imagine the wonderful surprise to read the following a few hours ago:

@AtTheDriveIn_
¡ ATTENTION ! To whom it may concern: AT THE DRIVE-IN will be breaking their 11 year silence THIS STATION IS …NOW…OPERATIONAL

Ward with an acoustic that was electrifying...I can't wait to hear it plugged in.

Photographer Zoran Orlic Captures the Beauty of Mavis Staples, Nick Lowe, and Wilco Rehearsing "The Weight"

"The Weight" by The Band is one of those songs that's been around so long that it's taken for granted. There is the recorded version on Music From Big Pink, and everyone and his mom has recorded it. But everyone in the music-sphere has been aflutter about it all over again today, thanks to a rehearsal video shot by Illinois photographer/videographer Zoran Orlic.

Rehearsing prior to a Wilco and Nick Lowe show last month at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, the video, that includes Wilco, Lowe, and recent Wilco-collaborator, Mavis Staples, who also appeared on the original track with The Band and her family band, The Staples Singers, seems rather spur of the moment. Given the cramped room everyone was in, and the working-up of parts as they sang, how did this piece of beauty really get caught on film exactly? I was curious, I know others were curious, so I said, "What the hell," and contacted Orlic to ask.

It turns out that it was, in fact, a fluke. Orlic, who has been a "fly on the wall guy in the studio" and such with Wilco for many years now, says he saw Staples there that night, one of the five nights the band was performing at the Civic, and decided he'd hang out to see what might happen. "I saw Jeff [Tweedy] take everyone to the rehearsal room. They were trying to find Nick and I was 50 feet away when they began singing." When Lowe came in, Orlic said he started filming, using a small mic and the video feature on his Canon 5D/Mark2 DLSR camera and "praying the audio was ok because there had been no time to check anything."

Everyone involved clearly recognized how special the moment was. "My heart was pounding throughout," says Orlic, hoping he was able to capture it all, and the smiles on Lowe and the Wilco members are broad throughout. Orlic said he showed the video to another music industry person last week and the man's reply summed it up best: "Look at Wilco, it's like they've been reduced to children." For a band like Wilco, one who has played with a ton of greats in its career, to have such a response proves how witnessing musical feats of beauty like this can make you love music all the more. I know the hairs raised on the back of my neck when Nick Lowe came in the song, and in the words of a friend, "I'm having some very crazy days at work right now, and those 4 minutes and 58 seconds I just spent watching recharged me for the next crisis."

Guided by Voices' Greg Demos Proves to be as Unsinkable as Fats Domino on "Late Night with David Letterman"

Fats Domino may be unsinkable, according to Guided by Voices, but bassist Greg Demos proved he was just as much last night during the band's performance of "The Unsinkable Fats Domino" on Late Show with David Letterman. Slipping on his butt after a usual rock star move, Demos got right back up quick and laughed it off, all without missing a beat (well sort of).

At the very least, he provided good advice to all bands who wish to play on Letterman: rock out like a bad ass while playing, just be sure to wear rubber soled shoes.





"The Unsinkable Fats Domino" is off the the latest GBV record Let's Go Eat the Factory. It's the first record in 15 years with the "classic lineup" of Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos and Kevin Fennell, out in hard copy on 1/17. Based on what I saw of them live back in 2010, it's bound to be a stunner.

Let's Go Eat the Factory Track Listing
Laundry And Lasers
The Head
Doughnut For A Snowman
Spiderfighter
Hang Mr. Kite
God Loves Us
The Unsinkable Fats Domino
Who Invented The Sun
The Big Hat And Toy Show
Imperial Racehorsing
How I Met My Mother
Waves
My Europa
Chocolate Boy
The Things That Never Need
Either Nelson
Cyclone Utilities (Remember Your Birthday)
Old Bones
Go Rolling Home
The Room Taking Shape
We Won't Apologize For The Human Race

Another One Bites the Dust-Melody Records in DC to Close

Sadness on the mom and pop store-front...My some-time employer reported today that long-time Dupont Circle record store, Melody Records, here in DC, will be closing this winter after 34 years in business.

Jack and Suzy Menase opened the store in 1977, and moved it to its current Connecticut Ave. NW location in 1979. "While we wish that we could continue indefinitely, technology, the internet and the economy has taken its toll, and we have concluded, unfortunately, that it is not possible to survive in this environment," the Menases wrote in their letter.

Melody had an interesting collection that included rock, classical, jazz, and others, a true old-school record store, and you could usually find at least one record by even the most far-flung artist. I love the convenience and speed of downloading but getting lost in the stacks of a good-size record store was always a treat, and often, an adventure. More than once, I would hear something over the speakers and the next thing I knew, I was the person buying the Beta Band EP.



So if you're in the neighborhood, stop in and pick up something at Melody, give the Menases a little more for their retirement. Great job folks, you will be missed.

My 2011 Top Concerts in Photos

My piece on the 2011 best concerts, in photos went live today over at the WCP, so go check it out! Erica Bruce’s Top 10 Concerts of 2011, in Photos.

One shot that proved the Marginal Man show was definitely "The Show for the Best Bruises," one I didn't include in the WCP piece is below: my own bruised gams from that show, the result of being at the front of the mosh pit and repeatedly thrown against the stage. I do not really recommend it, but the street cred is nice.