There are a couple great sites get bands to come in and record live/acoustic/whatever versions for their site particularly. The good ones that I know of are Daytrotter, Black Cab Sessions, and The Take-A-Way Shows.  I recently discovered Hear Ya (from Shh…cago by the way) because of two bands that are worth a post.

Those Darlins, who I mentioned before, are getting more and more recognition these days.  Just this morning I noticed they got a shout out in the Chicago Tribune talking about SXSW “We’re virgins to South by Southwest, but we’re going to slut it up all week.”  Its that attitude that is presented in their twangy, country-rock-ish songs.  They don’t have a proper cd out, just a single (Wild One), so I was excited when I saw that they did a few more songs over at Hear Ya sessions.  “The Whole Damn Thing” is the best one. PS. I guess they also did a Daytrotter session.

The other band I wanted to mention was The Heartless Bastards.  Their last album was good, and many blog nerds have been eagerly awaiting this next album, The Mountain.  But after hearing the album, many seem to have the same response:  The music is solid, but the real reason to love this band is the undeniable voice of their lead singer, Erika Wennerstrom.  Check out the songs they did for Hear Ya.  PS. HB also have a daytrotter session.

Via Stereogum, Jack White continues to be the coolest guy in music. If the Ractonteurs and White Stripes weren’t enough for him, he has put together a sort of super group called The Dead Weather with The Kills’ Alison Mosshart as its frontwoman, Jack White contributing drums and vocals, Raconteur little Jack Lawrence playing bass, and Queens Of The Stone Age’s Dean Fertita’s on guitar. This also coincides with Jack opening the Nashville office of Third Man Records. The building is setup with the label’s offices plus a vinyl record store, photo studio, dark room and performance stage. And if that wasn’t cool enough, at the grand opening of the office, he gave away the 7″ single for the Dead Weather that were hand painted by a member of the group and included a photobooth strip of the band members.

I like to think of myself as a try-er.  I’m usually on board to try some new food I haven’t had before and  I like to think I give a lot of music a chance.  I don’t want to sound like one of those douchers that say “I listen to everything,” but I get bored of ol’ rock ‘n’ roll sometimes.  Hopefully I don’t disappoint Stinks/Neil again, here are a few of the jams I have been listening to lately.  I don’t know who Röyksopp is, but this video of real life Space Invaders got me into them(via NotCot).  PrettyMuchAmazing got me into Kid Cudi via the Crooker’s remix of Day ‘n Nite.  And if you aren’t sick of Weezy’s A Milli, check out Kid Cudi’s freestyle.  Its by the same producer of A Milli  (basically the same style/beat), and the original beat is from Rich Boy’s “Drop.”  I don’t know how I missed it earlier, but Chicago rapper Rhymefest put a mixtape as a tribute to Michael Jackson and a promo for his new cd “El Che.”  I don’t listen to many mixtapes, but I am usually a sucker for raps with old soul or R&B samples.  The new Rihanna stuff isnt’ that bad.  Hope that Chris will stop making her “hatin’ on the club.”  Finally, me, Baby/Austin, and Aunt Rosie all agree that the new Kelly Clarkson is the mad notes.  Yeah, I just said that. (more…)

After being called out for liking T.I. songs (which I had coming),  here some things to listen to that Neil and Kevin can enjoy:

-  a while back I got into a singer/songwriter phase after watching Heartworn Highways and Be Here To Love Me.  Then the other day I came across a singer named after two of my favorites from those movies: Townes Van Zant and Steve Earle.   Justin Townes Earle has the last name Earle because he is the son of Steve, and looks just as messed up as both Steve and TVZ were.  The single off his new album, Yuma, is good along with the few other songs I heard from him.

– as mentioned before, Dan Auerbach, one half of The Black Keys, has a solo disc worth listening to.  You can listen to the whole thing over at his myspace page.

– a charity compilation disc, Dark Was The Night, looks like it could be really cool.  Its bigger name artists doing covers.  But because its for charity, no blogs like to post anything up to listen to (rightly so, probably).  Artists include Spoon, Sharon Jones and the Daptones, My Morning Jacket, Feist with Ben Gibbard, and so on. The myspace showcases a single song a day or you can listen snippets of each song at Amazon.

– another charity disc, War Child: Heroes, is another album of covers that is tough to preview because its for charity.  Songs include Franz Ferdinand doing Blondie’s Call Me, Estelle covering Stevie Wonders Superstition and Lily Allen covering that MIA sample with her godfather Mick Jones of the Clash.

– Starbucks has a compliation disc called Sweathearts 09 with covers (can you tell I like covers) of I Put a Spell On You by She & Him, Black and Gold by Katy Perry and Buddy Holly’s Words of Love done by Jessica Lea Mayfield.

– Legend Booker T. of Booker T. And The M.G.’s is coming out with a solo album, Potato Hole.  His backing band is fucking Neil Young and The Drive By Truckers.  The sound of that Hammond B3 organ is unmistakably awesome.  You can preview a song at Pitchfork.

– Finally, head over to Doctor Mooney to check out a disc from Ike and Tina.  It took me a day to realize that the line from the Hunter, “Got you in the sites of my love gun,” is said in How Many More Times by Led Zeppelin.