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South By 70 West

I swear, the title will make sense in a minute.

First, for everybody who wants a taste of new, live music from the SXSW Festival, check out Largehearted Boy's compilation.

Second, yours truly just added song numero 70,000 on the iTunes library, and it was... (drum roll)... JJ Grey & MOFRO, live at SXSW. See, it all makes sense now, right?

I know it's somewhat arbitrary to commemorate every 10,000 songs, but 70 is pretty important:


That's right. It's the number Joe Hundred Guy gets stuck on trying to count to 100 by 10's, thus cockblocking his shot with the ladies. I didn't make that up.

3 Shows for the Price of... 3!

3 presales are going on RIGHT NOW. Get 'em while you can:

1. Modest Mouse, May 13th at the Greek Theatre
Password: ISSAQUAH
$35 + Ticketmaster's Milking Fee

2. Daft Punk, July 21st at the LA Sports Arena
Password: ROBOTS
$50 + Ticketmaster's Retirement Fund

3. Kings of Leon, here and there
Password: KINGS
Less than $30, hopefully

Sorry for the late notice. Best of luck.

Korn... Unplugged. Yeah, I Know. WTF.

Well, SOMEBODY must've been high when they came up with this one.

God, I never thought I'd see those two words adjacent to one another.

Anyway, in the grand tradition of artists like Nirvana, Lauryn Hill & Jay-Z showing the world their acoustic chops comes the latest installment of MTV's Unplugged series: Korn.

Now, to be fair, I've always kind of had a soft spot for Korn. Their self-titled debut, Follow the Leader & Issues were all pretty good. It was just unfortunate timing that resulted in them being grouped with all the assholes in that nu-metal trainwreck of the late '90s.

Back to the unplugged thing. What's more bizarre: the fact that this endeavor actually came to fruition and is now available in record stores and torrent sites across the country, or that it's got its semi-decent moments? Unfortunately, those good moments make you completely forget the fact that it's Korn. Look, good idea or not, if a band's run out of material for a show and is relegated to playing three cover songs, that should just be a red light right there.

Korn - Creep (Radiohead cover)

Korn - Got the Life

Still Obsessed with Songs About Fire

After hearing the Charlotte Hatherley was leaving Ash to focus on her solo career, I was a bit worried about the path the rest of the band would take. Would they revert back to their pre-1997 punk-metal ways? Who would sing and play back-up on "A Life Less Ordinary" when they perform it live? Whose breasts could I stare at the rest of the time?

Fortunately, Ash proved they could still handle the melodies like champs. The trio have just released an infectious pop piece entitled "I Started a Fire" with a full-length album expected later this year. I have a feeling it's going to be nothing short of The Shit (in the good sense).

Ash - I Started a Fire

Bob Dylan, the Beasties, Matisyahu, Sammy Davis jr...

Is that a dookie gold rope chain?

Amy Winehouse is that girl. That girl with that undeniable voice, think that thick motown, oldies radio sound, a little Nina, and much sass. Her latest album "Back to Black" has been making significant amount of noise on the British pop charts thanks to her singles "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good". The remix of "You Know I'm No Good" featuring blogger and hipster favorite Ghostdini has done nothing but fuel the praise she's been racking up on the blog circuits.

"Back to Black" is all up on that throwback vibe that you knew was coming with bands like El Michels and the folks at Daptones steadily making noise. Speaking of which, the Dapkings back the Mark Ronson produced tracks on "Back to Black" (seriously, how underated is mark ronson?). Frankly, I'm willing to set aside my issues with having White Jewish musicians blackfacing here. And sure, I have my issues with throwback albums and the like (I mean just how creative is an album that is basically pulling and mimicking the best elements of an old genre and era?). Regardless, girl's got a voice and the music is that good. Call me a cynic and jaded but I'd rather have folks bump this sort of nouveau vintage than today's pop music. Here's the mindfuck... will we be saying this about today's pop music 20-30 years from now?? Touche.