Wagamama rules, that’s for sure. There are two nea…

Wagamama rules, that’s for sure. There are two near us here in the UK and if we’re anywhere near ‘em it’s like they have a tractor beam.
They’ve made us want to go to Japan real bad!

Mystery Train my favourite film of all time. Jim J…

Mystery Train my favourite film of all time. Jim Jarmush’s films are just so chilled. You’re spot on about JJ being so in tune with the music. The films themselves are like late night soothing soundtracks. You need to check out Night on Earth (2nd fav. film ever) with the Tom Waits soundtrack, Down By Law and also the great Ghost Dog film and soundtrack.

Thanks for the music.

Ryan is working on writing and recording new mater…

Ryan is working on writing and recording new materials and he’s promised to keep us posted when he has some sort of release date in mind for the next full-length.

Monday Music Roundup

I was enjoying Japanese food a few nights ago with some good people, and yummy as it was, midway through my udon and sake I had a sudden void open up within my soul for some Wagamama.
Wagamama.
See — it makes you happy just to say it. It hit me like a bolt from the blue and I’ve been missing it ever since.

Wagamama is the name of a series of Japanese restaurants started in London, tasty – tasty – tasty. I first became acquainted with the Covent Garden one and have eaten at Wagamama each time I’ve been in London since — and I always have a good time. I read that they are opening their first US location in Boston on April 23. Go! Wasting time on the Wagamama website is also a poor substitute for the vittles, but fun — like a carnival. They have a Passion-O-Meter (I am, apparently, Hot Stuff) and Mystic Noodles fortune-telling (Saturn and Mars are making a mess of my noodle aura).

Mostly it just makes me hungry.

The Words You Used To Say
Dean & Britta
Former frontman of Luna combines with the voice of the most truly, truly, truly outrageous punk rocker of Saturday mornings in the ’80s, Jem (real name is Britta Phillips but if I were her I think I’d just change my name to Jem). This is from Dean & Britta‘s delightfully subtle new album Back Numbers, out now on Zoe/Rounder. These two also scored The Squid and The Whale, aka the most stunningly depressing movie I’ve seen in recent years – but hey, it sounded good.

Half-A-Life
Luce
This is an atmospheric new song today from San Francisco band Luce, off the soundtrack of a spooky hospital movie Sublime, featuring that guy from Ed. The song itself is not spooky at all, but rather a wistful, melodic latin-tinged affair. Luce is currently working on a new album (follow-up to the wonderful 2005 album Never Ending) and have announced a series of shows for the lucky California folks, including a special summer festival up with the North Bay hippies co-starring bluesy rocker Jackie Greene.

You Are The Best Thing (new)
Ray LaMontagne
This is such a naked, vulnerable song — and I’ve always much preferred the raw earnest Ray to the slickly produced Ray. I am pretty sure this is a brand new tune, several of you have written to me about LaMontagne performing it lately; this version’s from 12/16/06 at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. The mp3 is not stellar, admittedly, but the song certainly is. [photo credit]

Ballad of Humankindness
The Dears
A good friend breathlessly told me that I had to check out this song and my, how she knows me. I did indeed enjoy the song from the moment those opening beats started. I am a sucker for beats like this, the blending of the acoustic with the thumping danceable rhythm that just gets better as the song progresses. The tune, from Montreal’s The Dears‘ 2006 album Gang Of Losers (Arts & Crafts), builds into something fantastic —- even if the semi-preachy tones about all of us learning forgiveness and not judging the homeless are a bit heavy-handed.

Salala (featuring Peter Gabriel)
Angélique Kidjo
I have written before about the wonderful West African songstress Angélique Kidjo, and I always get into the Africa world-beat fusion of her music. She has a new album out May 1 called Djin Djin and it features a whole host of A-listers like Amadou & Miriam, Ziggy Marley, Joss Stone, Carlos Santana, Alicia Keys and this guy. Every time I hear Peter Gabriel’s gruff, velvety voice I say to myself, “I forgot how much I love Peter Gabriel.” The whole album is very good global listening.

hi heatha..i was lucky enough to be on board the U…

hi heatha..
i was lucky enough to be on board the U2 train early. i caught the 84 worcester show, and then many many shows since then….

speaking of ZOO TV… i also had the need to hear some, so appropriately enough i listened to boston 92 st pats day (which i also was lucky enough to go to) and i also found a dvd of that show on u2torrents. so it was a zoo week for me.

i just got through with the pop era, as my wife got me the new pimm, concert documentary book and i read up on the popmart tour. so of course i had to dig out a bunch of those shows as well.

now im caught up in elevation shows… so im getting my fill of those at the moment.

Where’d you guys go?

Where’d you guys go?

My favorite R.E.M. song as well . . . .

My favorite R.E.M. song as well . . . .

Hey Justin, it’s from this 2002 Willie Nelson CD -…

Hey Justin, it’s from this 2002 Willie Nelson CD – Stars and Guitars out on Lost Highway. Some other great artists on there too.

brilliant song, one of REM’s best. A BLAST to pla…

brilliant song, one of REM’s best. A BLAST to play!

hi gang,in the newest rolling stone magazine, pete…

hi gang,

in the newest rolling stone magazine, peter buck says these lyrics were written by stipe as a love letter that he never mailed, but decided to sing instead. i think bill berry actually wrote the song, but i could be wrong with that. really fun post. oh, the memories!