Sunday Morning Roundup

Morning Becomes Eclectic had Guster in the studio, and the show is now online.

An Aquarium Drunkard posted his 10th podcast with tracks from Loose Fur, Josh Ritter, Radiohead and Beck.

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame posted about a proposed flag burning amendment. I read Adams' blog all the time, and, so far, this is my favorite of his posts.

I consider myself a highly patriotic guy and I understand how people can get worked up over the flag being burned. I love my flag. But symbols are personal things, and everyone is free to interpret them however they see fit. For me, a flag that I’m NOT allowed to burn is a symbol that the government is too intrusive in my life. And it’s an insult to anyone who died to defend freedom. But that’s just me. You might prefer your symbols of freedom to have as many restrictions as possible.

Brooklyn Vegan discussed a free TV on the Radio show and posted some nice pictures too. Village Voice also posted Cookie Monsters of 'Rock' - a great article about TVotR.

"We're not super-intellectuals," he protests, deep in analysis of his band's anti-methodology. "It's not like TV on the Radio is doing something that's so avant-garde or new or cutting-edge or anything. It's just that so many people are not doing that."

Chromewaves posted the Best of 2006 (So Far), which I will be doing sometime next week too, and it looks like we'll have a few albums in common. It's hard to believe the year is half over...

Herohill wrote an album review of the upcoming La Rocca record, The Truth.

Originally I passed on the EP, after hearing "Irish guys trying to sound like U2" tag being kicked around the net like a hackeysack at the beach. To me, that is a recipe for disaster, but I recently upwrapped a fresh copy of "The Truth (due out August 8th on Dangerbird)" and gave it a listen and was very impressed. First off, to me at least, these guys sound nothing like U2. They do sound catchy as hell, and I can really hear the strength of producer Tony Hoffer (Supergrass, Belle and Sebastian, the Kinks) shining through.

Said the Gramaphone posted about The Theater Fire track, These Tears Could Rust a Train. STG is one of the best-written music blogs around and is always a fun read.

Every bar of this song exudes modesty. Perhaps the guitarist - a player of some skill - had once been accused of hotdogging, because now, though he plays confidently and with feeling, a few bum notes are thrown in for appearance's sake. Sometimes, when he slides up the neck of his guitar, he makes a sound like that of glass shattering - but not wanting to alarm us, he makes it not the sound of enormous window panes falling from the top of skyscrapers, but of bifocals falling off of a short woman's face, or maybe of little blown glass dragons falling out of a child's hand, onto hardwood floors.

David Sedaris spoke at Princeton University's Baccalaureate, and The New Yorker published it.

In truth, I had no idea what I wanted to study, so for the first few years I took everything that came my way. I enjoyed pillaging and astrology, but the thing that ultimately stuck was comparative literature. There wasn’t much of it to compare back then, no more than a handful of epic poems and one novel about a lady detective, but that’s part of what I liked about it. The field was new, and full of possibilities, but try telling that to my parents.

You Ain't No Picasso wrote a Final Fantasy concert review, and it appears that the show went over very well.

Let me start by saying that Final Fantasy is no novelty act. When Owen Pallett performs solo live, using just a violin and a handful of pedals, it’s not because he’s trying to be cute about it. I think the problem is just that we’re not used to a rail-thin Canadian sauntering on stage with just the aforementioned tools and putting on one of the best live shows you’re likely to see all year.

Downloads:
Mike Doughty | White Lexus (Live) [MP3]
Mike Doughty | Madeline and Nine (Live) [MP3]
Mike Doughty | Paradise City / Gambler (Live) [MP3]
Mike Doughty | Live 09.14.05 [MP3, FLAC, OGG]