The Talking Heads may not still be around, but David Byrne is still as active as ever(but without the shoulder pads) making music worth listening to.  His latest cd with Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, has been getting attention on WXRT and some year end top-ten lists.  I haven’t been able to get their single, Strange Overtones, out of my head.  He also did a song with The BPA and Dizzee Rascal, Toe Jam, that made Rolling Stones top songs of the year.  Check out David Byrne and BPA at Hype Machine.

This is a post dedicated to Kevin, who hasn’t given Jenny Lewis a chance because he didn’t like the girl who originally recommended it to him.  Jenny was child actress who had parts in Baywatch, Golden Girls, Growing Pains, Roseanne, Mr. Belvedere, Troop Beverly Hills, Foxfire, The Wizard, and Pleasantville.  She is also a great musician and has worked on many projects.  She has done projects with Postal Service, Elvis Costello, Conor Oberst, a full cd with the Watson Twins, and a succesful side project called Rilo Kiley.  Last year, Rilo Kiley’s cd, “Under the Blacklight,” was on a lot of year end top-ten lists.  The band consists of another child star, Blake Sennet, who you might remember from Salute Your Shorts or Boy Meets World.

The point is, she a great musician worth a listen on any of her projects.  Her new cd, Acid Tongue, is getting a lot of attention on these top-ten-of-the-year lists this year.  Her country-rock sound is very derivative of the influences that are on her wikipedia page.  Check her out on myspace or on hype machine.  After the jump check out the video of a song her performing a song off of Acid Tongue on Letterman with Elvis Costello. (more…)

So I’m sure all of you cool kids have already heard of these guys, but my ears just got hip this past weekend.  Now I am totally head over heels for The Black Keys.  After getting my tiny hands on Attack and Release I went straight to the record store to buy another album.  They are now streaming through my work computer, car radio and bedroom stereo.  I highly suggest you give them a listen, just in case you’re as uncool as I am… http://hypem.com/artist/the+black+keys

How about some more rap?  I heard about this group from those two knob-jobs, Gregg Kot and Jim Derogatis, from Sound Opinions on NPR.  (Sound Opinions is not that bad of a show, it’s just these two rock critics always end up saying something that really aggravates me.)  This week they talked about a two guys, Rah Almillio, Krispy Kream, who call themselves the KNUX.  They write, produce and play their own instruments on their own songs and have started to get big.

Since that show I heard them on Entourage, and have a read a little bit about them and the “blipster” movement.  Yes, black hipsters.  They, along with groups like Kidz in the Hall and Cool Kids (the band Kevin Garnett refers to in the NBA 2K9 commercial), are a different kind of hip hop in that they dress like a mix between Run DMC and indie rock or nerds with their music sounding the just like that also.  Passion of the Weiss, a great blog worth checking out, has a pretty good story about it.

I don’ t usually type that much in a post, so sorry if you read all that thinking it was going somewhere.  Basically, check out the KNUX at their myspace or through Hype Machine.

Never being into rap much growing up, I have never really listened to A Tribe Called Quest.  The first time I heard of Q-Tip was on the Chappelle Show with the vd muppets.  On the recommendations of a friend and Ellen’s NPR listening, I listened to a few songs off of his new album, The Renaissance, and they are good. Check em out for yourself via myspace or hype machine.