What's on Beck's G-boy?

Stream Bad Cartridge (the Paza remix of "E-Pro"), from his new CD Guero and find out. Now, pull out the bootleg version of "E-Pro" and compare. These sound nothing like each other. Perhaps all the naysayers jumped the gun on this album?

Remember The La's? They released one amazing album, wrote that "There She Goes" song that got murdered by Sixpence None The Richer, and then disappeared into legend. Check out their 1986 demo, via Torr (who found them on LHB). I recommend downloading the Demos + Live FLAC files from Easytree rather than the MP3s. And last, from the Kevin Shields file: rumors of a La's reunion are swirling.

Rolling Stone gets it right and drops four stars on M.I.A's Arular, describing it as "like Bow Wow Wow shooting bottle rockets into a vintage Ms. Pac Man machine to scare the quarters out." RS also comes through with a four star review of LCD Soundsystem.

Good reviews continue to pile up for Bloc Party's Silent Alarm.

The Times Online check out The Kills's recent show at London's Electric Ballroom and come away rather non-plussed.

The Magic Numbers

The new Cass McCombs record PREfection is one of the additions to the 2005 favorites section today. There's something about McCombs's music that makes me listen to it a lot in the winter. It started with his first record A after I saw him open up for the Shins early last year. A pulled me in with its lazy swagger and subtly memorable melodies - one after another after another. It was a perfect www.jasminlive.mobi soundtrack to the snow, just like this one seems made for the 6 train. The melodies are still there on PREfection but McCombs's sound is much bigger and more assertive now, closer to 80's British rock - the Cure, the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen - but still swimming in a muddy reverb that gives it a distinctly distant, almost timeless sound.

The reviews I've read all name a different song on PREfection as the best - first single "Sacred Heart" (MP3), "Equinox," "City of Brotherly Love." I can't argue with any of those, yet I see no reason to stop the trend when "She's Still Suffering" is my favorite. Its swirling "Thieves Like Us" synths and haunting melody never fail to get me. For McCombs, that seems to be par for the course.

I first heard the Magic Numbers through Not Your Usual Bollocks's excellent podcast series (show #3 to be exact). I was immediately interested in hearing more from this new group. Well, it turns out the Magic Numbers are opening for Doves at the Bowery Ballroom on March 15.

I was able to track down their extremely limited four-song EP and I would advise you not to skip their set. I'll let the band's own words describe their sound:

The sound of The Magic Numbers revolves around the brilliant songwriting and guitar playing talents of singer Romeo. Born and raised in Trinidad (where his mother had her own opera show on TV) the family moved to New York when he was teenager and later moved again to Ealing in London.

Drawing inspiration from many sources, singer songwriters (Cohen, Dylan), 60's harmony groups (Mamas & Papas, Lovin Spoonful), epic rock or such mavericks as David Axelrod. The band craft a sound which like Flaming Lips or Beck, is coming from everywhere but is uniquely theirs.

Listen to a sample of the EP here

The Magic Numbers are also playing SXSW as part of a MTV2 UK showcase on March 19 at La Zona Rosa.

Read Drowned In Sounds's live review of TMN's September 9 show at the Infinity Club in London

Tuesday shorts

We can officially close the books on year-end polls now that Pazz & Jop 2004 is out. No big surprises at the top - Kanye West and Franz Ferdinand took album and single of the year, respectively - but I'm happy to finally have a poll take my side on "Chewing Gum" being the Annie single of choice. That the same poll put Rilo Kiley's record at #16 for the year - well, we can ignore that. (For the record, I liked The Execution of All Things and was legitimately disappointed by More Adventurous.) What I can't ignore is David Fricke putting R.E.M.'s Around the Sun in his top 10. People were ragging on that record without even hearing it, but top 10? Come on now.

The World of Arthur Russell (#183) came in behind the two other Arthur Russell releases - Calling Out Of Context (#76) and World of Echo (#173). Have I been obsessed with the wrong one? Oh, and props to Matthew for being the lone supporter of X-Wife's Feeding the Machine! (He'd have been joined by others if more people had heard the record - soon enough.)

Nouvelle Vague did it better IMO, but this song seems to work in any incarnation - the disco act Crispin J. Glover covered PiL's "This Is Not A Love Song" and Fluxblog has it available for download today.

I missed this originally, but Bettie Serveert put out a live album of Velvet Underground covers in 1998. The title leaves nothing to the imagination and even starts you on the tracklisting - Bettie Serveert Plays Venus In Furs And Other Velvet Underground Songs. Chromewaves tipped me off and has "Rock and Roll" available for download - has anyone heard the rest? "European Son"?!

Bloc Party's two April shows at the Bowery Ballroom are already sold out! Crazy, but deserved. After a few quiet weeks, Silent Alarm has been in my rotation all week and I'm liking it better than ever. Tickets are still available for their February 20 MF appearance on www.chaturbaterooms.com. Velvet ropes and rock shows should never mix, but here they unfortunately will - make sure you "work a look" or the dress code will keep you out. I haven't decided yet if I want to deal.

Torr has some early Stone Roses demos available for download.

Though I'm sure I'm not alone in loving the first two Oasis albums, I think we can all agree that they are shooting way (WAY) too high with this MSG show on June 22. I have to think they're banking on Jet filling some seats (at up to $75 no less).

Asobi Seksu start a 12 date tour tomorrow in Boston - they'll head down south before coming back up to finish in Philly on the 21st.

So now Kompakt is getting in on the Italo craze?

Well, not quite - but they did a night at London's Fabric this weekend and word is Michael Mayer's early set featured a brief Italo interlude. Only the lucky Londoners in attendance know if it was Italo with a Kompakt flair, but maybe he'll do the same at the Canal Room on February 23. Tickets are $10 in advance at Other Music, or $15 at the door. DJ Koze and Superpitcher spun the headlining sets at Fabric and last I heard, Superpitcher's mix CD is due in March and Koze's artist LP in May. Both are eagerly anticipated in these parts.

Check out this conversation in the Guardian between Bloc Party and New Order's Peter Hook - he tells his story and gives the Bloc Party lads some advice, and it's a good read. Hook talks about Joy Division getting compared to the Doors, and doing a gig with only two girls in the crowd - both of whom thought they were seeing the Frantic Elevators. Classic. [Via Catchdubs]

If you tried to go to AllDisco at subTonic on Saturday, you discovered that the Tonic was flooded and the party had been moved to Brooklyn. (I didn't find out until Sunday, otherwise I would have posted a warning.) I'm not sure if things are cleaned up yet, so you may want to call ahead if you're heading there in the next day or two. All looks well on their site though. The Tonic is now accepting donations via Paypal on the site, and it looks like they're about a third of the way to having the $20K they need to fix their sewer. I'm not sure what the other $80K is to cover, but I really hope they find the cash. Not only is it a great space, but I want to see Triple R and Daniel Bell there in March!

To stay with the negative - the Rah Bras unfortunately had all their equipment stolen outside the new Secret Project Robots space on Friday. Check their site for more information on how to help.

Wilco's A Ghost Is Born will finally be getting released on vinyl in March. The double LP set will actually have new cover art which you can see here.

Lindstrom and Prins Thomas are two Norwegian DJ's with their own label (Feedelity) and an impressive run of singles under their belts, or so I've heard. I didn't know their names until my friend Roy tipped me off last night, but this January Shibuya FM set of theirs definitely has me impressed - they drop a great remix of Liquid Liquid's "Flextone" early on. The Feedelity site also links to a December Shibuya set. Both are worth a listen.

So Many People

As a rule of thumb, bands are always better on the second night when they stay in a city - no rushing, no stressed travel, etc. At the very least, the sound is perfect because the crew has everything worked out from the night before. Not that any of this matters when you're at the Bowery Ballroom and the sound is naturally pristine. Right?

Well, Low surprisingly bucked the trends with a spotty set at the Bowery on Friday that never seemed to gel. To be fair, my standards for a Low live show are high - their consistently excellent sets are a big part of my love for them. It was surprising, then, to see two false starts on "Death of a Salesman" to start the show - it seemed like the monitors were off. "Monkey" was up next and saw another false start when Mimi Parker couldn't hear herself. It was not a good start, and you could tell the band wasn't happy with things.

"California" and "Everybody's Song" were up next and both sounded great, with Alan Sparhawk actually playing his guitar with his teeth during the feedback-laden breakdown on the latter. Mimi's drums were what she normally plays live - they sounded a little too quiet, though, for some of the new Great Destroyer material. Part of what makes "Everybody's Song" is great is the pounding metallic beat; with brushes, it's not the same. Still, the band had some momentum - until Zak Sally broke a bass string. I don't think I'd ever seen a bass string break on stage before, and Low is the last band I'd expect to see it with, but it happened. They even apologized for being "unprofessional."

My favorite part of the show was the end. "Broadway" was outstanding to finish up the main set, and they came back to do a couple requests. I tried my best for "Violence" and even had some others with me, but "That's How You Sing Amazing Grace" and a shortened "Over the Ocean" (with its own crew of supporters) won out. I was fine with that though, as both versions were great. A typical Low show would have matched that high right at the beginning and never let up. Friday's show never came together and was pretty unsatisfying in comparison. I'll be back next time though - everyone could tell (including the band) that this was just an off night.

Because I had never heard M.I.A. before

I didn't realize quite how hyped last night's M.I.A. show at the Knitting Factory was until I saw someone offering $70 for a ticket on Craigslist - a bit of a hike from the $12 face. Then again, this was her first show in NYC and third in North American (following Toronto and LA) and Arular is the kind of record that deserves the hype. I would have been pretty disappointed had I paid that much though - the Knitting Factory was way, way too packed for its own good. It felt full early and as Diplo's opening set progressed it just got fuller and fuller, pressing everyone up against each other with no space to move. That's to be expected if you want to be up close at a festival, but it makes for a sweaty mess at the Knitting Factory. It did have the nice side effect of pushing me into a great view of the stage, and Diplo was great - he was spinning a great mix of hip-hop with other tunes like "The Love Cats" and "Bittersweet Symphony." I'd heard about his skills on the decks before, and I wouldn't hesitate to see him again.

M.I.A. and a backing MC joined Diplo on stage just after midnight, and they launched into "Pull Up The People." M.I.A. definitely had a wide-eyed enthusiasm to her, like she's getting used to all the attention and having fun with it. The first half of the set was just OK though. I'm an amateur with hip-hop, but she didn't seem to be rapping with confidence that seems essential for good live hip-hop - though it might have just been that the vocals were too low in the mix.

M.I.A. retreated backstage midway through for a wardrobe change, and the show really took off when she came back. Either they got the mix right, or she found her groove, or both, but it was pretty hot (in both senses of the word). "URAQT" was great but "Galang" was the high point - the last minute or so was nuts, a huge singalong. "Bucky Done Gun" was just as strong. Diplo was mostly spinning Arular versions but he snuck in some Piracy Funds Terrorism at the end with "M.I.A." What would have really killed was if he dropped Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin'" for the PFT version of "Bingo" - ah well.

All in all, a good show. But if I had never heard M.I.A. before, I probably would have left the show wondering why she gets so much hype. She's a good performer, but I think the studio is where she really shines.