Flying Lotus: L.A.'s Burial?

Given how the last few years have been so fallow for mainstream L.A. hip-hop, plenty of post-Dilla indie stalwarts are making a run at establishing a dominant local sound of fuzzy soul samples and virtuosic cut-and-paste beats. But the producer Flying Lotus might be the best of the bunch, precisely because he's the least traditionally hip-hop of them all. First off, his June debut full-length for Warp Records, "Los Angeles," is mostly instrumental. And those instrumentals are blinding thickets of reverb, alien techno noise and heavily treated vocal snippets.

It's not enough that R&B producer-singer Ne-Yo had to perform at the taping of FNMTV's season finale with a bevy of video vixens flanking him. Nope, they had to be wearing black lingerie underneath hospital scrubs whilst grinding to his disco-leaning hit "Closer." Ne-Yo obviously has a much better health plan than I do. But the screaming throngs of host Pete Wentz's disciples were reduced to near hysterics at the show's third-most-ravenously-anticipated episode (behind Miley Cyrus and the JoBros, obvs.) that also debuted videos from a weirdly vacant-looking Pink, a terribly dapper John Legend and Cassie, whose totally inverted talent-to-enjoyable-hit ratio is one of modern pop's more interesting sidebars.

Anybody who's attended a !!! show, for instance, can attest to the joy of watching uninhibited singers invent dance moves too ridiculous and unsexy to attempt on your own. On Monday night, hotly tipped singer-songwriter-producer Janelle Monáe took the ridiculous-dancing practice a step further by maintaining the same catatonic facial expression throughout her spastic choreography, all while wearing a bouffant-cum-mohawk and a tuxedo, no less. Nevermind that she was just playing a mellow free show at Hollywood's Amoeba Records. With her dramatic refusal to break out of her dancing robot character, it may as well have been the Grammys. Or at least her show Tuesday night at the Viper Room, which drew in P. Diddy, Christina Millian and Ne-Yo, not to mention Prince, who stopped by for a chat about an hour after the show.

What can a singer do for an encore, when her debut hits it right out of the park? That's the happy problem facing Jennifer Hudson, who first found fame on "American Idol" but cemented her stardom by blowing Beyoncé away in "Dreamgirls." Hudson, who'd never acted on-screen before winning a Little Gold Man for her turn as Effie -- and, most of all, for her ferocious rendition of  "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," a song she mercilessly wrested from the arms of Jennifer Holliday -- has now cemented her movie-star status by appearing in the ultimate chick flick of all time. But is she a bankable pop queen? The question still burns.

Hudson's debut album has been nearly two years in the making, but her mentor Clive Davis must finally be happy, because it's scheduled for a Sept. 30 release. I've heard a few tracks, and can confirm that the word Hudson most often uses to describe the disc -- "variety" -- applies. The final track listing remains unsolidified; what I heard ranged from blockbuster heart-renders to chic hip-hop-flavored experiments.

Anyone who thinks the hottest thing about the Pretenders circa 2008 is the video of Chrissie Hynde’s provocative yet silly duet with Dave Navarro at the Viper Room needs to do three things: Wipe off the goofy grin. Think again. Be patient.

Because come October, fans can call up a fiery performance the group turned in last week for the "Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music" series highlighting several songs from the forthcoming album “Break Up the Concrete,” also due in October.

 

Hynde and original drummer Martin Chambers are now joined by guitarist James Walbourne, bassist Nick Wilkinson and steel guitarist Eric Heywood for the first new Pretenders album in six years.

 

Yes, a steel guitarist.

 

The new material has a back-to-the-roots forcefulness along with bits of country twang, from the runaway-train punked-up blues of “Boots of Chinese Plastic” to the Stones-Gram Parsons country rock of  “Love’s a Mystery.”

 

Just shy of turning 57, Hynde remains one of the Seven Wonders of the Rock World. The band, which suffered not so gladly through the Q&A portion of the Yahoo! taping -- Hynde was asked what advice she might offer Britney and Lindsay -- is making a different song from the album available as a free download each week through a rotating group of partner websites. More details at the Pretenders’ website.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times

That's it. I quit. Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes just presumably named his new L.A.-based side project after the ultimate Echo Park dive bar and sleeve-tattoo Shangri-La, the Little Joy.  They have an album coming out on Rough Trade soon. They're going on tour with Devendra Banhart's side project Megapuss and Entrance Band. I'm trying to make a joke about this but it's like looking directly into the sun.

-- August Brown

Little Joy photo from their MySpace.

Any time a Shuggie Otis reference can appear on primetime MTV in 2008, something is right with the world. So I have to give a hearty thanks to Solange Knowles for an Otis name-drop during last night's FNMTV taping (which also featured debuts from Gym Class Heroes, the Game and a live set from emo scamps We the Kings) that will hopefully introduce the hormonal FNMTV audience to the best baby-makin' music the world has ever known. 

Solange's new video for "Sandcastle" is a warm, nostalgiac nod to '70s disco fashions and late '60s Stax sounds that will hopefully render Duffy fundamentally unnecessary in culture's quest to find a young R&B revivalist that can keep her act together.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a follow-up to the ridiculously good "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," the first collaborative album from Brian Eno and David Byrne in 1981. It’s been 27 years since the dynamic duo made a record together, but on Aug. 18, Eno and Byrne will satisfy the masses with the release of "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.

“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

FNMTV's season finale: premieres from John Legend, Cassie and Pink; Ne-Yo slays the ladies live

It's not enough that R&B producer-singer Ne-Yo had to perform at the taping of FNMTV's season finale with a bevy of video vixens flanking him. Nope, they had to be wearing black lingerie underneath hospital scrubs whilst grinding to his disco-leaning hit "Closer." Ne-Yo obviously has a much better health plan than I do. But the screaming throngs of host Pete Wentz's disciples were reduced to near hysterics at the show's third-most-ravenously-anticipated episode (behind Miley Cyrus and the JoBros, obvs.) that also debuted videos from a weirdly vacant-looking Pink, a terribly dapper John Legend and Cassie, whose totally inverted talent-to-enjoyable-hit ratio is one of modern pop's more interesting sidebars.

Anybody who's attended a !!! show, for instance, can attest to the joy of watching uninhibited singers invent dance moves too ridiculous and unsexy to attempt on your own. On Monday night, hotly tipped singer-songwriter-producer Janelle Monáe took the ridiculous-dancing practice a step further by maintaining the same catatonic facial expression throughout her spastic choreography, all while wearing a bouffant-cum-mohawk and a tuxedo, no less. Nevermind that she was just playing a mellow free show at Hollywood's Amoeba Records. With her dramatic refusal to break out of her dancing robot character, it may as well have been the Grammys. Or at least her show Tuesday night at the Viper Room, which drew in P. Diddy, Christina Millian and Ne-Yo, not to mention Prince, who stopped by for a chat about an hour after the show.

What can a singer do for an encore, when her debut hits it right out of the park? That's the happy problem facing Jennifer Hudson, who first found fame on "American Idol" but cemented her stardom by blowing Beyoncé away in "Dreamgirls." Hudson, who'd never acted on-screen before winning a Little Gold Man for her turn as Effie -- and, most of all, for her ferocious rendition of  "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," a song she mercilessly wrested from the arms of Jennifer Holliday -- has now cemented her movie-star status by appearing in the ultimate chick flick of all time. But is she a bankable pop queen? The question still burns.

Hudson's debut album has been nearly two years in the making, but her mentor Clive Davis must finally be happy, because it's scheduled for a Sept. 30 release. I've heard a few tracks, and can confirm that the word Hudson most often uses to describe the disc -- "variety" -- applies. The final track listing remains unsolidified; what I heard ranged from blockbuster heart-renders to chic hip-hop-flavored experiments.

Anyone who thinks the hottest thing about the Pretenders circa 2008 is the video of Chrissie Hynde’s provocative yet silly duet with Dave Navarro at the Viper Room needs to do three things: Wipe off the goofy grin. Think again. Be patient.

Because come October, fans can call up a fiery performance the group turned in last week for the "Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music" series highlighting several songs from the forthcoming album “Break Up the Concrete,” also due in October.

 

Hynde and original drummer Martin Chambers are now joined by guitarist James Walbourne, bassist Nick Wilkinson and steel guitarist Eric Heywood for the first new Pretenders album in six years.

 

Yes, a steel guitarist.

 

The new material has a back-to-the-roots forcefulness along with bits of country twang, from the runaway-train punked-up blues of “Boots of Chinese Plastic” to the Stones-Gram Parsons country rock of  “Love’s a Mystery.”

 

Just shy of turning 57, Hynde remains one of the Seven Wonders of the Rock World. The band, which suffered not so gladly through the Q&A portion of the Yahoo! taping -- Hynde was asked what advice she might offer Britney and Lindsay -- is making a different song from the album available as a free download each week through a rotating group of partner websites. More details at the Pretenders’ website.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times

That's it. I quit. Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes just presumably named his new L.A.-based side project after the ultimate Echo Park dive bar and sleeve-tattoo Shangri-La, the Little Joy.  They have an album coming out on Rough Trade soon. They're going on tour with Devendra Banhart's side project Megapuss and Entrance Band. I'm trying to make a joke about this but it's like looking directly into the sun.

-- August Brown

Little Joy photo from their MySpace.

Any time a Shuggie Otis reference can appear on primetime MTV in 2008, something is right with the world. So I have to give a hearty thanks to Solange Knowles for an Otis name-drop during last night's FNMTV taping (which also featured debuts from Gym Class Heroes, the Game and a live set from emo scamps We the Kings) that will hopefully introduce the hormonal FNMTV audience to the best baby-makin' music the world has ever known. 

Solange's new video for "Sandcastle" is a warm, nostalgiac nod to '70s disco fashions and late '60s Stax sounds that will hopefully render Duffy fundamentally unnecessary in culture's quest to find a young R&B revivalist that can keep her act together.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a follow-up to the ridiculously good "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," the first collaborative album from Brian Eno and David Byrne in 1981. It’s been 27 years since the dynamic duo made a record together, but on Aug. 18, Eno and Byrne will satisfy the masses with the release of "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.

“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Janelle Monáe is fitter, happier, more productive...

Anybody who's attended a !!! show, for instance, can attest to the joy of watching uninhibited singers invent dance moves too ridiculous and unsexy to attempt on your own. On Monday night, hotly tipped singer-songwriter-producer Janelle Monáe took the ridiculous-dancing practice a step further by maintaining the same catatonic facial expression throughout her spastic choreography, all while wearing a bouffant-cum-mohawk and a tuxedo, no less. Nevermind that she was just playing a mellow free show at Hollywood's Amoeba Records. With her dramatic refusal to break out of her dancing robot character, it may as well have been the Grammys. Or at least her show Tuesday night at the Viper Room, which drew in P. Diddy, Christina Millian and Ne-Yo, not to mention Prince, who stopped by for a chat about an hour after the show.

What can a singer do for an encore, when her debut hits it right out of the park? That's the happy problem facing Jennifer Hudson, who first found fame on "American Idol" but cemented her stardom by blowing Beyoncé away in "Dreamgirls." Hudson, who'd never acted on-screen before winning a Little Gold Man for her turn as Effie -- and, most of all, for her ferocious rendition of  "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," a song she mercilessly wrested from the arms of Jennifer Holliday -- has now cemented her movie-star status by appearing in the ultimate chick flick of all time. But is she a bankable pop queen? The question still burns.

Hudson's debut album has been nearly two years in the making, but her mentor Clive Davis must finally be happy, because it's scheduled for a Sept. 30 release. I've heard a few tracks, and can confirm that the word Hudson most often uses to describe the disc -- "variety" -- applies. The final track listing remains unsolidified; what I heard ranged from blockbuster heart-renders to chic hip-hop-flavored experiments.

Anyone who thinks the hottest thing about the Pretenders circa 2008 is the video of Chrissie Hynde’s provocative yet silly duet with Dave Navarro at the Viper Room needs to do three things: Wipe off the goofy grin. Think again. Be patient.

Because come October, fans can call up a fiery performance the group turned in last week for the "Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music" series highlighting several songs from the forthcoming album “Break Up the Concrete,” also due in October.

 

Hynde and original drummer Martin Chambers are now joined by guitarist James Walbourne, bassist Nick Wilkinson and steel guitarist Eric Heywood for the first new Pretenders album in six years.

 

Yes, a steel guitarist.

 

The new material has a back-to-the-roots forcefulness along with bits of country twang, from the runaway-train punked-up blues of “Boots of Chinese Plastic” to the Stones-Gram Parsons country rock of  “Love’s a Mystery.”

 

Just shy of turning 57, Hynde remains one of the Seven Wonders of the Rock World. The band, which suffered not so gladly through the Q&A portion of the Yahoo! taping -- Hynde was asked what advice she might offer Britney and Lindsay -- is making a different song from the album available as a free download each week through a rotating group of partner websites. More details at the Pretenders’ website.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times

That's it. I quit. Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes just presumably named his new L.A.-based side project after the ultimate Echo Park dive bar and sleeve-tattoo Shangri-La, the Little Joy.  They have an album coming out on Rough Trade soon. They're going on tour with Devendra Banhart's side project Megapuss and Entrance Band. I'm trying to make a joke about this but it's like looking directly into the sun.

-- August Brown

Little Joy photo from their MySpace.

Any time a Shuggie Otis reference can appear on primetime MTV in 2008, something is right with the world. So I have to give a hearty thanks to Solange Knowles for an Otis name-drop during last night's FNMTV taping (which also featured debuts from Gym Class Heroes, the Game and a live set from emo scamps We the Kings) that will hopefully introduce the hormonal FNMTV audience to the best baby-makin' music the world has ever known. 

Solange's new video for "Sandcastle" is a warm, nostalgiac nod to '70s disco fashions and late '60s Stax sounds that will hopefully render Duffy fundamentally unnecessary in culture's quest to find a young R&B revivalist that can keep her act together.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a follow-up to the ridiculously good "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," the first collaborative album from Brian Eno and David Byrne in 1981. It’s been 27 years since the dynamic duo made a record together, but on Aug. 18, Eno and Byrne will satisfy the masses with the release of "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.

“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Jennifer Hudson previews her long-due debut

What can a singer do for an encore, when her debut hits it right out of the park? That's the happy problem facing Jennifer Hudson, who first found fame on "American Idol" but cemented her stardom by blowing Beyoncé away in "Dreamgirls." Hudson, who'd never acted on-screen before winning a Little Gold Man for her turn as Effie -- and, most of all, for her ferocious rendition of  "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," a song she mercilessly wrested from the arms of Jennifer Holliday -- has now cemented her movie-star status by appearing in the ultimate chick flick of all time. But is she a bankable pop queen? The question still burns.

Hudson's debut album has been nearly two years in the making, but her mentor Clive Davis must finally be happy, because it's scheduled for a Sept. 30 release. I've heard a few tracks, and can confirm that the word Hudson most often uses to describe the disc -- "variety" -- applies. The final track listing remains unsolidified; what I heard ranged from blockbuster heart-renders to chic hip-hop-flavored experiments.

Anyone who thinks the hottest thing about the Pretenders circa 2008 is the video of Chrissie Hynde’s provocative yet silly duet with Dave Navarro at the Viper Room needs to do three things: Wipe off the goofy grin. Think again. Be patient.

Because come October, fans can call up a fiery performance the group turned in last week for the "Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music" series highlighting several songs from the forthcoming album “Break Up the Concrete,” also due in October.

 

Hynde and original drummer Martin Chambers are now joined by guitarist James Walbourne, bassist Nick Wilkinson and steel guitarist Eric Heywood for the first new Pretenders album in six years.

 

Yes, a steel guitarist.

 

The new material has a back-to-the-roots forcefulness along with bits of country twang, from the runaway-train punked-up blues of “Boots of Chinese Plastic” to the Stones-Gram Parsons country rock of  “Love’s a Mystery.”

 

Just shy of turning 57, Hynde remains one of the Seven Wonders of the Rock World. The band, which suffered not so gladly through the Q&A portion of the Yahoo! taping -- Hynde was asked what advice she might offer Britney and Lindsay -- is making a different song from the album available as a free download each week through a rotating group of partner websites. More details at the Pretenders’ website.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times

That's it. I quit. Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes just presumably named his new L.A.-based side project after the ultimate Echo Park dive bar and sleeve-tattoo Shangri-La, the Little Joy.  They have an album coming out on Rough Trade soon. They're going on tour with Devendra Banhart's side project Megapuss and Entrance Band. I'm trying to make a joke about this but it's like looking directly into the sun.

-- August Brown

Little Joy photo from their MySpace.

Any time a Shuggie Otis reference can appear on primetime MTV in 2008, something is right with the world. So I have to give a hearty thanks to Solange Knowles for an Otis name-drop during last night's FNMTV taping (which also featured debuts from Gym Class Heroes, the Game and a live set from emo scamps We the Kings) that will hopefully introduce the hormonal FNMTV audience to the best baby-makin' music the world has ever known. 

Solange's new video for "Sandcastle" is a warm, nostalgiac nod to '70s disco fashions and late '60s Stax sounds that will hopefully render Duffy fundamentally unnecessary in culture's quest to find a young R&B revivalist that can keep her act together.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a follow-up to the ridiculously good "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," the first collaborative album from Brian Eno and David Byrne in 1981. It’s been 27 years since the dynamic duo made a record together, but on Aug. 18, Eno and Byrne will satisfy the masses with the release of "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.

“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Pretenders tease new album on Yahoo!

Anyone who thinks the hottest thing about the Pretenders circa 2008 is the video of Chrissie Hynde’s provocative yet silly duet with Dave Navarro at the Viper Room needs to do three things: Wipe off the goofy grin. Think again. Be patient.

Because come October, fans can call up a fiery performance the group turned in last week for the "Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music" series highlighting several songs from the forthcoming album “Break Up the Concrete,” also due in October.

 

Hynde and original drummer Martin Chambers are now joined by guitarist James Walbourne, bassist Nick Wilkinson and steel guitarist Eric Heywood for the first new Pretenders album in six years.

 

Yes, a steel guitarist.

 

The new material has a back-to-the-roots forcefulness along with bits of country twang, from the runaway-train punked-up blues of “Boots of Chinese Plastic” to the Stones-Gram Parsons country rock of  “Love’s a Mystery.”

 

Just shy of turning 57, Hynde remains one of the Seven Wonders of the Rock World. The band, which suffered not so gladly through the Q&A portion of the Yahoo! taping -- Hynde was asked what advice she might offer Britney and Lindsay -- is making a different song from the album available as a free download each week through a rotating group of partner websites. More details at the Pretenders’ website.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times

That's it. I quit. Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes just presumably named his new L.A.-based side project after the ultimate Echo Park dive bar and sleeve-tattoo Shangri-La, the Little Joy.  They have an album coming out on Rough Trade soon. They're going on tour with Devendra Banhart's side project Megapuss and Entrance Band. I'm trying to make a joke about this but it's like looking directly into the sun.

-- August Brown

Little Joy photo from their MySpace.

Any time a Shuggie Otis reference can appear on primetime MTV in 2008, something is right with the world. So I have to give a hearty thanks to Solange Knowles for an Otis name-drop during last night's FNMTV taping (which also featured debuts from Gym Class Heroes, the Game and a live set from emo scamps We the Kings) that will hopefully introduce the hormonal FNMTV audience to the best baby-makin' music the world has ever known. 

Solange's new video for "Sandcastle" is a warm, nostalgiac nod to '70s disco fashions and late '60s Stax sounds that will hopefully render Duffy fundamentally unnecessary in culture's quest to find a young R&B revivalist that can keep her act together.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a follow-up to the ridiculously good "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," the first collaborative album from Brian Eno and David Byrne in 1981. It’s been 27 years since the dynamic duo made a record together, but on Aug. 18, Eno and Byrne will satisfy the masses with the release of "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.

“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Little Joy, the touring edition

That's it. I quit. Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes just presumably named his new L.A.-based side project after the ultimate Echo Park dive bar and sleeve-tattoo Shangri-La, the Little Joy.  They have an album coming out on Rough Trade soon. They're going on tour with Devendra Banhart's side project Megapuss and Entrance Band. I'm trying to make a joke about this but it's like looking directly into the sun.

-- August Brown

Little Joy photo from their MySpace.

Any time a Shuggie Otis reference can appear on primetime MTV in 2008, something is right with the world. So I have to give a hearty thanks to Solange Knowles for an Otis name-drop during last night's FNMTV taping (which also featured debuts from Gym Class Heroes, the Game and a live set from emo scamps We the Kings) that will hopefully introduce the hormonal FNMTV audience to the best baby-makin' music the world has ever known. 

Solange's new video for "Sandcastle" is a warm, nostalgiac nod to '70s disco fashions and late '60s Stax sounds that will hopefully render Duffy fundamentally unnecessary in culture's quest to find a young R&B revivalist that can keep her act together.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a follow-up to the ridiculously good "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," the first collaborative album from Brian Eno and David Byrne in 1981. It’s been 27 years since the dynamic duo made a record together, but on Aug. 18, Eno and Byrne will satisfy the masses with the release of "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.

“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

Technorati Profile

Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

FNMTV: Premieres from Gym Class Heroes, Solange Knowles and The Game

Any time a Shuggie Otis reference can appear on primetime MTV in 2008, something is right with the world. So I have to give a hearty thanks to Solange Knowles for an Otis name-drop during last night's FNMTV taping (which also featured debuts from Gym Class Heroes, the Game and a live set from emo scamps We the Kings) that will hopefully introduce the hormonal FNMTV audience to the best baby-makin' music the world has ever known. 

Solange's new video for "Sandcastle" is a warm, nostalgiac nod to '70s disco fashions and late '60s Stax sounds that will hopefully render Duffy fundamentally unnecessary in culture's quest to find a young R&B revivalist that can keep her act together.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a follow-up to the ridiculously good "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," the first collaborative album from Brian Eno and David Byrne in 1981. It’s been 27 years since the dynamic duo made a record together, but on Aug. 18, Eno and Byrne will satisfy the masses with the release of "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.

“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

'Everything That Happens Will Happen Today' for Eno and Byrne

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a follow-up to the ridiculously good "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," the first collaborative album from Brian Eno and David Byrne in 1981. It’s been 27 years since the dynamic duo made a record together, but on Aug. 18, Eno and Byrne will satisfy the masses with the release of "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.

“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

Technorati Profile

Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Nico Muhly's many 'Tongues'

The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.

“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Bidoun becomes an unlikely home for great contemporary music writing

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

So, this is what Burial looks like

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Friendly Fires gaze at their shoes, find them dancing

On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again,  because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.

But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right. 

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Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Huey Lewis records theme for ‘Pineapple Express,’ complete with toking sound courtesy of Seth Rogen

Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

FNMTV: Danity Kane, Bow Wow, Chromeo and Tokyo Police Club debut

I'm personally astonished that, until Bow Wow's forthcoming video for "Marco Polo," which debuts tonight on FNMTV, no one's made a hit song out of the chant from the ubiquitous but tedious swimming pool game. But I'm not at all surprised that Soulja Boy shows up on this version we caught at Wednesday night's taping, as it seems right up his alley: Take a nonsensical phrase (but this time, a historical reference!), repeat it ad infinitum over doofus synth loops, speed your way through the verses and hope no one notices that your rhymes break new ground in wackness ("This is not the Matrix, but I am the Oracle / Want to get with me? The question is rhetorical").

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

The ‘American Teen’ soundtrack isn’t very deep but it fits the movie

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

(Not) Forgetting Peter Salett

For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.

“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.

Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Zach de la Rocha spends One Day as a Lion on upcoming EP

Now I know why Zach de la Rocha looked so relaxed the other day, sitting outside at Oinkster in Eagle Rock with a couple of friends (one of whom, I think, was former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore). It's just been announced that One Day as a Lion -- the new collaboration between Rage's erstwhile frontman and Theodore -- has signed to Anti- records, home to the classiest, rawest grown-up music in rock. And music will be available soon.

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Nas goes “Fox” hunting with new track

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Tomorrow’s news today: recapping FNMTV’s upcoming T.I., No Age and Day 26 premieres

After Lil Wayne's lyrical firebombing of the FNMTV studios last week, Pete Wentz and Co. would have a hard time finding anything short of a reanimated James Brown performance to top it. Rihanna sashaying around with Adam Levine on "If I Never See Your Face Again" didn't get there during last night's two-hour taping of the Friday night new-music show, but this weird experiment in blending old-school MTV values (making music video debuts appointment-worthy) with a hyper-stylized teen pop gloss might actually work out. For those who don't watch MTV outside of "The Hills," FNMTV premieres three videos evert Friday at 8 p.m. and features two live performances. Here's a preview of what to expect from tomorrow's show.

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Buzz Bands: The 88 readies its big release (with stream of the single ‘Coming Home’)

I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.

"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."

No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.

||| Stream: "Coming Home"

||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.

After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.

--Kevin Bronson

Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Copenhagen calling: Alphabeat arriving in U.S. this fall

"60 Minutes" is fascinated with Denmark: The venerable CBS news magazine has aired this segment on the country at least twice over the last year (the piece explores why the Danes are at the top of the “world map of happiness”).

And while Morley Safer and company draw few conclusions as to why the Danes consistently top the annual survey that ranks countries by how happy they are (by Britain's University of Leicester), we’d like to offer up one reason why the kids in Copenhagen seem so sprightly: It’s the music. Exhibit A is Denmark’s hot-right-now Alphabeat.

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Lil Wayne releases ‘thank you’ mix for fans

As anyone knows, Lil Wayne owned the record charts this week. He won over most critics, but more important, he got his fan base to shell out enough dough to drive his album sales past the "Milli" mark. What now remains to be seen is whether he can triple that.

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds

From our pals over at the Technology blog:

If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.

That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.

Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents.

Since it launched in September, the Amazon MP3 store has trained its sights on Apple's iTunes store, which sells more music than any other U.S. retailer. Amazon has not released information about how much music it has sold.

Read the rest of Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds.

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Coldplay is for all of us

It's Coldplay week! With the band's bombastically titled new long-player, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," officially coming out in a mere six days (this is after the leak, of course, and the stream), fans of giant rock across several continents are preparing to spend all summer thrilling to the poetic fulminations of Chris Martin and his dudes. Sure, the tour was delayed, but bully for us -- L.A. is now the opening city! After that free show in New York, grrr.

Making life even better for little Apple Martin, Dad's new single, "Viva La Vida," is burning up the iTunes charts and almost -- not quite -- toppling Top 100's reigning couple, Lil' Wayne and Leona Lewis. And if you haven't downloaded the thing, you're singing it anyway, because it's in the bestest iTunes commercial ever. Sorry, Bono!

All of this makes Amy Kuney's new cover of "La Vida" all the more pleasurable. The California-based ingenue has some fine tunes of her own; if I were Eleni Mandell, I'd be a little bit worried about keeping hold of my niche. Kuney, who's only 22, loves to cover songs as much as the next YouTube habitue. (Anyone remember Marié Digby?) This is Kuney's latest more-than-karaoke moment.

What makes this clip special is her harmonizing with herself (something she also did covering the Ellen Page-Michael Cera duet from "Juno," playable on her MySpace page) and especially the private quality of the performance -- though her voice is especially lovely, her delivery's quite plain and inward-turning, like someone singing to herself. Which is what so many people are doing right now, thanks to Martin's maddeningly hooky chorus about formerly ruling the world.

So, enjoy Amy Kuney reflecting the reality of singers in the shower across this fine land.

-- Ann Powers

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Gas’ ‘Nah Und Fern’ reissues rain on your summer jam parade

Contrary to even our own expectations, we here at the 'Board still haven't gotten sick of "Lollipop" or "Shake It" quite yet. But if this year's crop of summer songs isn't cutting it for you and you'd rather while away the punishing heat indoors with headphones and the fan on, we heartily suggest "Nah Und Fern," the recent box set of reissues from German electronica soundscape pioneer Gas.

Before he founded the techno stalwart Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt released four albums built around a distant four-on-the-floor kick drum and glimmering, hissing ambience wrested from manipulated samples. The originals have been nigh impossible to find, but now Voigt's given them a lovely reissue treatment on CD and fetish-ready vinyl on Kompakt. 2000's "Pop" is a great place to start, but all four of the discs are packed with spooky, uncanny shimmers guaranteed to wash away the strains of "Love in This Club" for at least an hour or so.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Kompakt Records

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Au Clair de la Lune: The “Take-Away” videos of Vincent Moon

"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."

-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"

In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.

"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."

Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.

American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.

The National - Daughters of the Soho R.
by videomoon

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Greg Laswell’s gorgeous little song about death

The news that Justin Timberlake has offered to write a song for the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got me thinking about the music we choose to mark crucial moments in our lives. Everybody loves to talk wedding songs, graduation songs, even summer songs. Funeral songs, not so much. (My morbid/controlling streak -- what's more controlling than dictating what happens after you've kicked? -- has led me to contemplate the subject. The only choice I'm sure about so far is "Days" by the Kinks.)

Pop is a life force, and it's natural that its fans would prefer talk of love to meditations on death. But sometimes a song comes along that perfectly captures the vagaries of grief. Greg Laswell's "High and Low" is one such song.

First released on "Through Toledo," the San Diego-based singer-songwriter's seductively morose meditation on being violently dumped, "High and Low" isn't necessarily about someone who's literally shuffled off this mortal coil. Yet this gentle torch song builds and diminishes the same way sorrow does after a death.

Laswell's deliberate piano lines push along, like a depressive's step through another gray day. His almost lackadaisical vocals relay a lyric half made of casual observation, half syruped in melancholy. The song goes on and on, soothing at first, then slightly irritating, like a haunting memory. Strings kick in to convey a new mood, but the revelations stay small. Healing, this song says, comes slowly, and just when you think you're better that old ache returns.

Stream: High and Low

An expanded version of "High and Low" appears on Laswell's EP "How the Day Sounds," released by Vanguard Records as an amuse-bouche leading up to his next full-length, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," out July 8. He's also part of this summer's annual Hotel Cafe tour, along with Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Thanks to Alan and Filter magazine for the tip on Greg.

-- Ann Powers

Photo by Joseph Llanes

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Sigur Ros makes pre-rock the new post-rock

A few years ago, post-rock was the music of the future. With bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Icelandic heavyweight Sigur Ros leading the scene, it seemed like lengthy, crescendoing guitar instrumentals would be the soundtrack of choice for catharsis-seeking teens and meditative filmmakers alike well into the new millennium. But with an exception or two -- Explosions in the Sky's score for "Friday Night Lights" and the continued success of Sigur Ros' pro-vocal, pro-glacier epics -- the post-rock bubble has long since burst.

As one of the few bands to ascend beyond the genre's aesthetic and commercial boundaries, it's no surprise that Sigur Ros' latest single breaks new ground. Or rather, old ground. The appropriately titled "Gobbledigook" (Icelandic for "Gobbledigook"), which the band released for free on its website today along with an NSFW video, steps away from the band's usual iciness in favor of an acoustic campfire vibe, all click-clacking, double-time drumming and frantic guitar strums. It's the sort of rough, tribal music that's helped nature-centric bands such as Animal Collective and the Dodos replace post-rock as the outsider sound of choice but Sigur Ros are hardly copycats.

Unlike Animal Collective's lo-fi romps, "Gobbledigook" maintains the band's usual pristine production, letting singer Jónsi Birgisson bounce over a bed of high-pitched harmonies. His melody is both catchy and high-flying, avoiding the aforementioned bands' frequent problem of burying their singers. It does the group good to add a little energy to the mix: the song clocks in at a scant three minutes, which is barely enough for an intro in typical Sigur Ros time. Older fans might find it dizzying but for a band once willing to repeat itself ad infinitum (or at least for eight-minute intervals), it's a breath of fresh air. The band's fifth album, "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust," is due June 23. More of this, please.

--David Greenwald

Photo of lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Q-Tip taps Radiohead’s main man

It’s been a quiet nine years for Q-Tip, the charismatic on-again off-again frontman for the seminal Queens, New York, hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest -- one of the most respected rappers to ever rock a mic.

But that doesn’t mean the Abstract Poetic hasn’t been keeping busy. While largely staying out of the public eye during that time, the hard rhyming, famously adenoidal MC recorded two never-released, widely bootlegged albums (“Kamaal the Abstract” in 2002 and 2005’s “Open”) and bounced between every major hip-hop record label with the exception of Island Def Jam before landing at Universal Motown this year. July will finally greet the arrival of Q-Tip’s long gestating CD, “The Renaissance,” his first album to see a commercial release since 1999’s gold-selling “Amplified.”

It’s a monster of a record, with guest appearances by Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq -- as well as a vocal contribution by Barack Obama in what must certainly qualify as his first hip-hop “collabo.” But more on all that in a future article.

Over an omakase sushi dinner in New York last week, Q-Tip revealed to The Times that he doesn’t intend to keep up his J.D. Salinger act any longer; the rapper is planning to go back into the studio before the end of the year to cut another album. And although Tip self-produced “The Renaissance,” he’s enlisting the help of a heavyweight Grammy-winning producer for its follow up.

If you’re imagining any of the usual rap rainmakers -- Timbaland or the Neptunes, Pete Rock or DJ Premier -- you’d be wrong. Try Nigel Godrich, the British engineer-producer whose densely layered, atmospheric sound has become closely identified with Radiohead. In fact, Godrich is sometimes referred to as the morose Brit rock group’s “sixth member” for producing every album it’s put out since 1997’s “OK Computer.” But he’s also racked up an impressive list of characteristically downbeat, brooding albums for the likes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air and Pavement.

Godrich is hardly the no-brainer choice for Q-Tip -- himself a Zelig-like figure who turns up all over the pop culture grid and has never been confined by a narrow view of what hip-hop is and isn’t supposed to be -- although it remains to be heard how the two’s musical sensibilities will mesh.

“He’s a big fan of rap,” Q-Tip said of the producer. “It’ll be cool working with him. We’re going to make a film out of the project too.”

And the charter member of the Native Tongues rap collective seems untroubled by the notion that Godrich’s dour sonic palette might detract from rap’s abiding party hearty aesthetic.

“He’s just on some real hip-hop [stuff]. It’s gonna be a lot of sampling,” the rapper said, adding an encomium not often associated with Godrich. “He’s really dope!”

-- Chris Lee

Photo by Stephan Osman / Los Angeles Times

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Meet Mams, again

How do you become an instant celebrity in Los Angeles? Punching out a B-list actor at a pre-Grammy event in February is a nice way to start, especially if TMZ cameras are there to capture it all, but U.K.-born “rapper” Mams Taylor wants to be known for more than popping "Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe right in the kisser.

Taylor recently dropped the video for his first single, “L.A. Girls,” on his rapidly growing group of “friends” on MySpace, featuring such notable, um, "girls," as Carmen Electra and Mila Kunis. Musical collaborator Joel Madden of Good Charlotte also is in the video and on the track.

Taylor moved to Los Angeles four years ago and clearly positioned himself in the right music industry circles. The tattooed, menacing-looking rapper-singer was most recently dating actress and musician Taryn Manning, but the pair have split, Manning's publicist Siri Garber confirmed Thursday. To help heal his wounds, Taylor took in a private Prince concert Sunday, attended by “maybe 30 other guests” at the artist’s Bel-Air mansion, according to his MySpace blog. Taylor has also already lined up respected DJ Tiësto to remix “L.A. Girls," all without support from any major label (Taylor is currently unsigned, as far as we know).

However, judging by his first real single and video, Taylor still has a ways to go before he becomes the next Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, the cautionary tale (actresses doing cocaine in L.A.? You don't say!) of “L.A. Girls” leaves much to be desired. With embarrassingly bad lines like “baking in the California sun/man I think I gotta get me one,” we’re pretty sure Interscope isn’t going to be beating a path to Taylor’s door anytime soon.

Still, Taylor seems to have charisma in spades and name recognition to boot (among the tabloid-watching teen set, anyway). And really, what guy hasn’t dreamed of landing that perfect punch that drops a dude straight to the ground? Just like MacGyver!

Meanwhile, Taylor’s ex has her own new music out. Manning’s band Boomkat released its first single in four years, the haunting "Runaway," in early April. A second single/video, "Stomp," will be forthcoming this summer from her record, "A Million Trillion Stars," which should be out this year on iTunes.

So, where do we stand re: Mams versus Taryn? Right now, we’re siding with team Taryn's music (so far, anyway). Unless Mams comes up with something just a bit more hard-hitting this year, that is. (Please don’t punch us for that one, Mams.)

-- Charlie Amter

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Thoughts on ‘Five Dollar Foot-Long, Extended Dance Remix’

When Soundboard first heard the insidious, summery jingle advertising Subway's new (and recession-friendly!) deal for $5 foot-long subs, we had no choice but to admire its weird pop craftsmanship and go buy a bunch of sandwiches. The weird, muted vocal harmonies, that unexpected Beatles-y shift to a minor modality in the verse; seriously, if Earlimart wrote a similar song about foot-longs as a tribute to Bingo, the mayor of Silver Lake, it'd be the smash single of May. But when we discovered that there is an extended dance remix available for download right now, we were forced to ask some uncomfortable questions about pop music: Are the sandwich-centric lyrics the only thing preventing this from being boilerplate respectable blog-house? Who out there is currently on the fence about Subway sandwiches, but upon hearing this dance remix, will be convinced of their need for a Veggie Delight on honey oat bread? Am I that person? Are commercial jingles the ultimate expression of pop utilitarian bent, or its most insipid? In an age where the sellout stigmas have lost their fangs and even radical leftist indie acts gladly license tunes to Nike, what will become of the professional jingle auteur? Did I really just devote 182 words to blogging about a sandwich-promoting dance remix? Either way, Happy Gilmore is stoked right now.

-- August Brown

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Thao Nguyen braves bee stings and the Echo

The Echo can seem like a smarmy place, host to an implausible number of meaningless hookups, unfriendly elevator eyes and worst of all, bands that pass off little that's genuine and true. But that's on a bad night.

On a good night, someone like Thao Nguyen, 23, blows in, with her black hair, laidback strumming and a set of charmingly downplayed lyrics that seem lived in, cozy. Don't miss her opening for Xiu Xiu tonight at the Echo. Tonight will be a good night, a showcase for her mellow, absorbing Kill Rock Stars debut, "We Brave Bee Stings and All."

I talked with Nguyen last week as she was tucked into a van in the middle of Texas with her band, The Get Down Stay Down.

--Margaret Wappler

So you're in a van somewhere outside El Paso. Do you enjoy touring?

It’s so fascinating, such an unnatural lifestyle. It can be amazing and it can be awful. At any point, either good or bad, you say to yourself, "I can’t believe this is my life." You harness it in a good way... when it’s good, it’s the best thing you could think to do. When you’re with a really warm crowd, who know all the lyrics to your songs, it’s totally worth it.

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Disco gets HEALTH-y

The local noise-freak quartet HEALTH is one of L.A.'s most volatile and virtuosic live acts, but almost to a fault. They're so busy sending every song in a thousand different directions (nearly all of which are interesting) that as soon as you hear a sound you like, it's already over. But beneath all those whiplash twists and turns, there's a sense of rhythm and haunting repetition that suggests they'd be a great dance band if they'd just sit still for a few minutes.

Turns out, HEALTH thought so too. "HEALTH//DISCO," out in May,  is a compilation of the many (and pretty ace) remixes of cuts from their self-titled album that have been floating around antagonistic dance-punk circles for a few months. We're particularly fond of the Missy Elliot-evoking Pictureplane's remix of "Lost Time" and the NOSAJ THING edit of "Tabloid Sores" that sounds like a sebastiAn track made entirely with a Galaga machine. This is the rare remix album that holds up with (and in many places, surpasses) the original article.

-- August Brown

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard will possess your heart, hopefully not in his freezer

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who begrudges Death Cab for Cutie their successful pirouette from scruffy indie-pop dudes to platinum-selling major-label rock band with 2005's "Plans." They did their time in the indie trenches, buffed up their pop hooks on later albums for Barsuk, took a swing at the majors and somehow made it work when contemporaries the Decemberists sort of flailed as a mainstream rock act (which makes sense, as they're pretty much Iron Butterfly as fronted by an adenoidal Dave Eggers at this point). Frontman Ben Gibbard is kind of a charisma vacuum, but the band does lots of tricky little things right: unexpectedly melodic bass lines, open spaces between the prickly guitars and a deft touch of atmosphere from producer-guitarist Chris Walla (whose neither-here-nor-there solo album proved he really is the band's Lindsey Buckingham).

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

The Raconteurs thwart critics, but maybe that’s a good thing

Last week, Jack White threw down a glove and ushered the music industry onto what duelers call the field of honor. A press release announced that “Consolers of the Lonely,” the new release from the Raconteurs, White’s band with songwriting pal Brendan Benson, would be issued in all formats today.

The quick turnaround was designed “to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding its availability, reception or perception."

“The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it,” the statement continued.

Always a control freak, White seems to view music culture’s current anarchistic drift as both a bane and an opportunity. His enemy, the statement suggests, is anyone who engages in hype: bloggers, radio programmers, directors of Apple commercials, the publicists supposedly at his service and, of course, critics. He can’t stop every leak -- "Consolers" was briefly available through iTunes on Friday, and Indie 103.1 played at least one cut Monday --  but he can try to throw the machine.

Some writers (most eloquently, Jason Gross at PopMatters.com) have wondered if good criticism will get lost in the dismantling process. But what if players in the game of promoting and contextualizing music took White at his word? What if critics got off the release-date train and imagined new ways of approaching recorded music?

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Vampire Weekend tickets going for waaaay too much on eBay

There's a list of usual suspects when it comes to scalping obnoxiously priced concert tickets: Hannah Montana. Radiohead. U2. Vampire Weekend?! Add the Lacoste-loving hipsters to the roster: tickets for the New York act's sold-out headlining gig at the El Rey tonight have been selling for more than the cost of three days at Coachella. Pairs have gone for as much as $300 on eBay and it's even worse on Craigslist, where one particularly greedy scalper was asking $400 for his tickets yesterday. Though the band's next five shows are sold out, the skyrocketing rates seem to be an L.A. phenomenon: A pair for Neumos in Seattle, WA, are going for a reasonable $43 with 14 bids and another seller is only asking $49 for the Portland, OR show at the Doug Fir Lounge.

Which brings up a pair of questions: Is it worth it? And who's actually paying $400 to see a Paul Simon-aping indie rock band with less than a dozen songs to their name? I can answer the first one: Having seen the band open for Clipse at Columbia University's free (!) back-to-school blow-out over the summer, I can tell you that their recent SNL performances (embedded below, after the jump) are a solid indicator of the quality of their live show: pretty good. Clipse made them look like Werewolf Tuesday. As for the second? Raise your hands, Vampire bidders.

--David Greenwald

Photo of Vampire Ezra Koenig playing at SXSW by Jack Plunkett / Associated Press