The Danks

Really enjoying music by The Danks, streaming for your listening pleasure by the good people at Killbeatmusic.com.


Samples EP

Who’s Afraid of the Danks? LP

The Deep Dark Woods

Now that fall is closing in on us, you should listen to The Deep Dark Woods’ latest “Winter Hours”, which can be streamed at killbeatmusic here.

Hat Tip: Larson Hicks

After Their Own Kind

Nonhuman primates scarcely respond to human music, and instead prefer silence. . . . Oddly, their only response to several samples of human music was a calming response to the heavy-metal band Metallica.

from “Monkeys get a groove on, but only to monkey music”, PhysOrg.com
Hat Tip: First Thoughts

Playlist for the Morning

Enjoy

New Cold War Kids LP

The new Cold War Kids album “Loyalty to Loyalty” will be released September 23rd.
You can listen to clips from the album, and the entire first single on their myspace.

For Nathan: Tom Waits Live in Atlanta

The good folks at NPR have graciously offered a pod-cast of Tom Waits’ complete 2 1/2 hour Glitter and Doom tour finale.

Set List:

“Lucinda / Ain’t Going Down to the Well”
“Down in the Hole”
“Falling Down”
“Chocolate Jesus”
“All the World Is Green”
“Cemetery Polka”
“Cause of It All”
“Till the Money Runs Out”
“Such a Scream”
“November”
“Hold On”
“Black Market Baby”
“9th and Hennepin”
“Lie to Me”
“Lucky Day”
“On the Nickel”
“Lost in the Harbor”
“Innocent When You Dream”
“Hoist That Rag”
“Make It Rain”
“Dirt in the Ground”
“Get Behind the Mule”
“Hang Down Your Head”
“Jesus Gonna Be Here”
“Singapore”

ENCORE
“Eyeball Kid”
“Anywhere I Lay My Head”

Grab a fifth and your favorite fedora, sit back, and stream the concert here.

Vicarious: Torture and Entertainment

A while back, Christopher Hitchens talked some former green-beret types into “waterboarding” him, and he wrote an article about the experience and some of the other research he did on the subject for his Vanity Fair column, which you may read here.

In case you are not entirely clear on what “waterboarding” actually is, below is part of Hitch’s description of his (relatively tame) experience:

You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it “simulates” the feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning—or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure. The “board” is the instrument, not the method. You are not being boarded. You are being watered. This was very rapidly brought home to me when, on top of the hood, which still admitted a few flashes of random and worrying strobe light to my vision, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited for a while until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose. Determined to resist if only for the honor of my navy ancestors who had so often been in peril on the sea, I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and—as you might expect—inhale in turn. The inhalation brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, and flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me. I find I don’t want to tell you how little time I lasted.

Hitchens, while undeniably entertaining and intelligent, often comes across as annoyingly arrogant and condescending. Not so in this article. It is the fairest and most sober article of his that I have ever read. I suppose being subjected to such ignominious treatment would have an effect on a fellow.

In other torture news, motherjones.com has compiled a list of music used in American military prisons for hands-free torture (as well as to drown out unpleasant noises) based on a leaked interrogation log and interviews with soldiers and detainees.

Check it out here.

Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” is, apparently, the most popular song. And of course Hetfield and Co. are honored to be contributing to the war on, um, terror.

In Which Tom Waits Interviews Himself

Tom Waits is a fascinating fellow.

In Which We Rock Green Apples

This Sunday, 20 April (that’s right, 4/20. witty) is the Green Apple Festival America:

Live Music, Environmental Action, Green Technology Exhibits, and Fun

We’re planning on hitting the celebration on the Mall in D.C. The highlights of the bill are as follows:

The Roots with Doug E. Fresh, Ne-Yo, Talib Kweli, will.i.am, Chrisette Michele
Gov’t Mule
Chevy Chase
Ed Norton
Random Politicians and Activists (lunch time)
Thievery Corporation
Toots and the Maytals
DC Boys Choir
and the Rev. Yearwood, President of the Hip Hop Caucus (that’s right)

Also in New York, Miami, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, L.A., and San Francisco. Seattle got shafted somehow.

In Which We Watch Portishead Perform

Tonight Portishead will be performing 7 tracks from their forthcoming (18 April) album Third exclusively at their website, portishead.co.uk, at 23:00 GMT (that’s 7pm here in Maryland). They recommend you register as a user early today so that you can avoid an internet traffic jam 5 minutes before the show.

In Which We Mix Genres

This video is of The Leningrad Cowboys (A Finnish band, oddly enough) covering “Sweet Home Alabama” with…The Red Army Choir live in Russia. For real.

Hat Tip: Steve Wilkins

In Which We Share our iTunes Library with You

Download this little application to share your iTunes library with your friends. As I understand it, this does not allow for pirating: It just lets you and your friends access and stream each other’s libraries (not download or burn to CD). I expect this to increase Nathan and my productivity at work ten fold.

In Which We Promote

At 3:30 pm EST today, the single “Machine Gun” from Portishead’s highly anticipated release “Third” will be available for download from their website here. They already have limited edition boxed sets available for pre-order (release date is 14 April).