(A better quality video is available at the band's website in trade for entering your e-mail address. ht Idolator.)

Because I don't think this has been posted yet Actually, as Eric pointed out, Jeff Kirby posted this last month. I forgot because my brain has died from Sasquatch deadline overdose. But because I like it, here's the new video for Death Cab's new nearly-ten-minute single, "I Will Possess Your Heart"... again:

On the MHD channel, MTV/VH1/CMT/Viacom play anything with the words "music" and "high-def," and the content is typically bland: pop-country videos, mainstream hip-hop videos, awful Unplugged series concerts, full-length concerts starring the Pussycat Dolls. So I'm still not sure how something this good showed up on the channel the other day: From The Basement, Nigel Godrich's intimate TV concert series. They don't show this in the states, from what I can tell, except when the show dedicates its full hour to Radiohead.

Radiohead seem like the ultimate subject for this treatment--no massive arena, no overblown stage lighting. Just a small studio, some buddies mildly applauding between songs, and a beautiful rug to spaz out upon. I'm actually frightened by how similarly Thom Yorke and I digest the grinding rhythm of "Myxamatosis" via awkward dance: The opening bit where he thrusts forward and backward like MC Hammer on crack, then the side-to-side head bob, the wrist-flicks as if he were flinging bottle caps... if he kicked the air as if dribbling an invisible soccer ball, I'd have myself a doppelganger.

The thing isn't that he's dancing all that oddly--he's keeping still half the time, ya know. But you can tell that there's a different kind of comfort here, as if he believes nobody else is around, and the rest of the band shares this sort of isolated glee throughout the show, whether mouthing along to lyrics, scooting toward each other for guitar solo passages, or letting a dumb headbang emerge on occasion. This is my kind of Radiohead--the kind I hear and respond to when I'm alone in the music room, shuffling around in isolation with no worry that someone will see me fling my arms around as if I'm painting the fence.

MHD is showing this episode on repeat, and I think VH1 is squeezing the gig between reality show sandwiches as well. Boy. Sure would be cool if From The Basement episodes like this saw regular American airplay.

Do you know James Pants? The question's come up in some comments threads here lately, and, yeah, you should be getting to know the Spokane-based (Spokane!?!) producer/Dj/multi-instrumentalist. He's releasing his debut full-length, Welcome later this month on esteemed indie-hip hop label Stones Throw, he's touring the West Coast with Jamie Lidell, he's remixed Too Short, and word on the street is he'll be hitting Seattle in June. Also, he's apparently an '80s electro alien from the planet Dim Sum. Now you know.

(ht Stereogum)

Pitchfork TV just debuted an in-depth interview with Fleet Foxes shot at SXSW in March. They discuss their first national tour and the pressures of performing live, eat burritos, and sing some pretty songs by a creek.

From this:

This:

I know, I know I'm always the one with the Muppet videos, but still:

Thanks, Hickey. From here.

or Lost in Translation 2: Reverb Boogaloo

If you've ever been stoned at my apartment, you know that I love me some TV Carnage. The series collects and edits together in rapid montage all the best/worst that TV has to offer, and it is insanely hilarious and smart. Now, TV Carnage mastermind Derrick Beckles has teamed up with laconically glam electro rocker White Williams to direct the video for Williams' "New Violence"—it's no "Steven Segal AIDS conspiracy" or "Stairway to Stardom," but it's still pretty good (hell, Beckles can make an anti-smoking PSA and have it be pretty good).

In 2001, when Alien Ant Farm was on MTV every 20 minutes covering "Smooth Criminal," I was consoled by the idea that when it came to shitty bands covering Michael Jackson it couldn't possibly get any worse.

I was wrong. It's worse now. If I ever have to see Pete Wentz lick his bass strings again I'm going to find his mom and kick her in the stomach. Fall Out Boy will never get away with this. When Alien Ant farm committed their atrocity, karma hit them fast and strong - a year later they crashed their tour bus and singer Dryden Mitchell broke his back. Fall Out Boy will not escape unscathed. I'm predicting that within the next year Pete Wentz will be beaten to within an inch of his life by a drunken Joe Simpson, furious that his daughter got knocked up by such a prissy douche. Lord knows what's in store for Patrick Stump. I foresee some sort of bear mauling, or perhaps a poison hoagie.

Tomorrow night in Portland, their will be a very special screening of Matt Wolf's new amazing documentary on Arthur Russell, Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell as part of this week's PDX Film Fest. In this documentary, Wolf highlights through interviews and exclusive footage the life, legacy, and struggles of this legendary avant-garde cellist and disco producer. Arthur Russell can be credited with many amazing and groundbreaking releases including Loose Joints' "Is It All Over My Face", Dinosaur L's "Go Bang", and the avant-garde masterpiece World of Echo. However, as the documentary suggests, Arthur wasn't tied to any one particular type of music genre, "Arthur was tied to Arthur", and that statement is really reflective in this powerful documentary about one of the most unique and influential musicians we've seen in some time.

Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell
Wednesday April 30th, 7:30
Hollywood Theater

Buy Tickets Here

WFMU has a description of a throwdown between MiniKiss, a KISS cover band comprised totally of midgets, and Tragedy, the heavy metal Bee Gees cover band. The winner, in the blogger's opinion at least, was Tragedy by a landslide.

Here, from Tragedy's MySpace page, is a video of their cover of "Stayin' Alive." It's pretty good:

It kind of makes me want to see a heavy metal adaptation of Saturday Night Fever. The funny thing is, as I was typing that last sentence, it seemed like an increasingly good idea, and now that I've said it, it seems nigh-unstoppable. It could be a period piece. Someone get on it!

The film was directed by Rodger Grossman and it stars Shane West as Darby Crash, Bijou Phillips as Lorna Doom, and Rick Gonzalez as Pat Smear. The movie also features the Bronx playing the part of Black Flag. Srsly.

I wasn't at all sorry that I didn't go to Coachella... until I saw this.

(ht pitchfork)

(The only person I know who appreciates classic TTK enough.)

Her Space Holiday at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco:

Overheard on the premises: “What day is it today?” Answer, “Today is the 24th.” Response, “Of?”

Her Space soundcheck of “The Year in Review”:

Radiohead is so green they can use it as an excuse to not have to fly to New York to play Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Clever dudes. When Conan introduces them he picks up an LP instead of a CD. I don't know if I've seen that before. Paradigm shifts all around...

Foals will play Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary Party at Marymoor Park July 12-13.

Here's his new song/video "Hairbraider":

Lyrically, it's got nothin' on "Real Talk." But at least he doesn't mention bodily fluids...

(Hat tip The Red Room)

You know how Giorgio Moroder looks kind of bad-ass in this iconic photo:

Yeah, well, in this video, not so much:

(ht Sean)

Four of the last five posts mention human excrement in one way or another.

Here's another one for the "pile." Ha! Pile, get it? Pile? Of shit?

Whatever...

This is old, but in case you never saw Dave Chappelle's spoof on R. Kelly (a man who perhaps deserves mocking more than any other human on the planet... now that Anna Nicole's dead):

"Doo doo butter." So hilarious and wrong.

10-year old Vinnie Blackshadow covering Van Halen's "Ice Cream Man":

Aqueduct playing a medley from I Sold Gold:

Canadian hip hop pride. I seem to recall that somebody, somewhere, told me that Toronto is the fourth-biggest city in North America. If only I could remember where I heard that...

From Idolator:

My love of Mates of State began with Team Boo - a record that's jubilant and carefree and fun. When Bring It Back came out I was a little disappointed. It wasn't really carefree of fun at all, it was all grown up. It would seem from their first single off of Re-Arrange Us that Mates aren't planning on rehashing their old poppy sound on their new reocrd, but they are improving on the matured sound they began with Bring it Back. "Get Better" is uplifting in a morose sort of way. It's positive, but with a distinct emphasis on negativity: "Everything's going to get louder, even if it never gets better." I can imagine this song playing at the end of a bittersweet drama, the sort of scenario where the protagonist lost their lover but saved the world and is walking away alone, stoic and hardened. Though the band is still somewhat searching for the carefree nature they once had ("Forget all your politics for a while"), their angle now is emotionally charged, invoking happy to mask the sad. It's a good song, but it doesn't make me want to go out and enjoy the sunshine like Team Boo did. This makes me want to crawl back in bed.

The Gossip - "Are You That Somebody (Live in Liverpool)"

Klaxons - No Diggity

(thanks to Craig, and everyone else in that basement)

By himself:

With the Dead Science as his backing band:

By himself, again, with a little help from the crowd:

Live on Letterman. This band has got the "guitar and drum blues duo" thing down to a science now. Their new Danger Mouse produced album Attack and Release is one of the best rock records so far this year. Put it on your list of things to pick up at Record Store Day tomorrow.

Pitchfork.tv also just premiered this new Dan Deacon video for the song "Okie Dokie." And people thought that Gnarls Barkley video would cause seizures? This is nuts.

This video makes me want to take up needpoint.

(ht PitchforkTV)

Via Rolling Stone's Rock Daily: The Gossip performing "Eyes Open" from their new live CD/DVD Live in Liverpool.

Y'all are tripping. Have some pudding: