Here's a selection of the best of last week's music blogging from around the Village Voice chain:
The ten-year anniversary of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has arrived, and this live set from 1997, covering several songs from the now-classic release, is as good a way as any to celebrate.It's still firmly on top, but something is rotten in the alternate-pop universe of American Idol. Poke among the faux rockers, industry ringers and way too fucking much smiling to find out what's amiss.
The long, strange trip from TV theme songs, through Nine Inch Nails' debut album, bad ska-punk, Guided by Voices and L'il Jon: the history of TVT Records 1985-2008.
Lamenting the death of the future that never was, this look back asks what could have been if the future-shock rock of Sigue Sigue Sputnik had taken its rightful place in history, and among the aliens.
In what is surely a final sign of impending apocalypse, a possibly gay turkey hand puppet named Dustin, fronting an uber-cheesey Eurodisco act, is Ireland's entry in this year's Eurovision contest.
Kristin Hersh fans will be stoked to find out that for $50 she'll record a live set of your favorite ten songs from her back catalog, complete with a personalized message. Great for fans, sure, but also an intriguing angle for other artists well-loved by a small group of fans.
This concert review taught me that Aceyalone only smokes green bowls and that, despite draconian no-smoking rules in California, it's okay to smoke those green bowls on stage.
In case you were having trouble filling your USDA recommended allowance of stupid, this compendium of startlingly retarded music-related statements should help. A lot.
The inimitable Care Bears on Fire make a second appearance in the Best of VVM blogs, as Drenched in Blog briefly shares my endless fascination with middle-school indie bands and the helicopter hipster parents that enable them to exist. There's video.
Some folks in a little pretty-boy rock band called Opium Symphony are out to stop the vote and convince young folks to boycott the elections as a protest, hoping to spark change. I'm not sure they understand how elections are supposed to work, but hey, points for trying. -- Cory Casciato