Stephen Colbert sings "Friday"

If you haven't seen the Rebecca Black "Friday" video (http://distractionjackson.blogspot.com/2011/03/direction-of-american-music-has-just.html) watch it and then watch this:

Noah and the Whale - "Tonight's the Kind of Night"

The 12 Best Literal Music Videos

Remember way back when when we posted the literal music video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart"(so long ago I couldn't find it)? Well, now Paste has come out with their top 12 Literal Music Videos...and they are glorious. Of course Total Eclipse of the Heart comes in at number 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA

Here is Journey's literal music video:

Separate Ways: Literal Video Version - watch more funny videos

And "Take On Me":

Take on Me: Literal Video Version - watch more funny videos

The Direction of American Music Has Just Changed

Feast on this gem of a song and video:

Free (and good) Christmas Album

Target (of all people) is giving away a "Holiday Music" cd that has some surprisingly good and non-Barry Manilow songs. The highlights are:
Guster (a DJ favorite)
Blackalicious
Bishop Allen (a featured post long time ago)
Coconut Records

Worth a download and best of all it's free.

Sidesongs: Coldplay made a Christmas song this year:
Coldplay's "Christmas Lights"
Summer Camp's "Christmas Wrapping"

Do You Love Guster? Free Music Video!

Guster's new album, Easy Wonderful, comes out next week. The video for "Do You Love Me" is the free Video of the Week over at iTunes. This makes me very happy. Enjoy!

Sufjan Stevens "All Delighted People EP"

One of DJ's absolute favorite artists Sufjan Stevens has released and is streaming his new "All Delighted People EP". Give all 8 tracks a listen, it's definitely worth it. As a sidenote you can get this album for $5 right now.

Streaming of "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" Soundtrack

Spinner is streaming the soundtrack from the new movie "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World". If it's anything like the Juno soundtrack then you're in for a treat. Something tells me just based on the artists that it'll be very different (ie. Kimya Dawson, Buddy Holly, Cat Power vs. Beck and Black Lips) . Still, worth a shot.

New Artist Discovery: Local Natives

Very good band here. I originally discovered them back in January but never got around to posting them. I won't say much about them because I want them to capture you with their music. I've embedded their player below and recommend listening to "Airplanes" first. Give a full listen though as I believe they are a band worth purchasing (of course after you buy fun. and Mumford & Sons)

Similar to (but different enough): Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Freelance Whales, Broken Bells.

Mucho New Bands - Part One

Typically I would post a semi-in-depth look at a personal newly discovered artist in my "New Artist Discovery" series but since I haven't posted in quite some time I'm backlogged. So I've been compiling a list of many new bands I've come across in the last 8 months. It's too much to have big separate "New Artist Discovery" posts on each artist like I do and I want to catch everyone up quickly because they won't be new bands much longer. Anywho, here is the list of bands you should check out with my quick blurb on them. (Writers Note: Most of them were undiscovered or not popular at the time I heard of them and may be popular now...my fault for not posting them when I originally heard them so you could have an edge over your friends for the "new band you've discovered"). I'll cover the "Mucho New Bands" series in a number of posts, so stay tuned or grab the RSS feed. Enjoy:

Derby -
Why Should You Listen? - Because you haven't heard a band like this in a while that effectively uses the clap as a rhythmic element and makes the song better because of it.
Listen Here to the whole player but if I was to pick a couple I'd say "If Ever There's a Reason" (great song), "Don't Feed the Bear", etc...

Style - Uhh, indie something but not really sure on this one.
Similar to: Tough one here because they are pretty unique. I could see elements of Weezer (however they don't sound like), Noah and the Whale and a few others I can't think of right now.
Free Song -

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Andy Shauf -
Why Should You Listen? - Because he has some fun indie folk rhythms. He takes indie folk to a slightly different level with some pep in most of his songs. If you liked Jeremy Fisher that I posted a while back then you'd like this guy. Slightly tamer than Fisher but still fun to listen to.
Listen Here to "Your Heart", "You Remind Me", etc...
Style - Indie folk rock, canadian folk, indie
Similar to: Denison Witmer, Joe Pug, Jeremy Fisher

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The Portland Cello Project -
Why Should You Listen? - How many cello bands are out there that are interesting and do indie works? Also, Portland puts out some of the best music in the country and they happen to hail out of there.
Listen Here to "Seeds May Fall" (great tune), "Tallymarks", etc...
Style - I have no idea. You can't classify them. I mean they are a bunch of cellists that cover songs like "Toxic", "What Goes Around" and then invite indie artists to sing their songs with their background...so yeah, I have no idea.
Similar to: No one. How can you be similar to a cello indie band?

New Artist Discovery: Gregory Alan Isakov

Well, he isn't "new" but he is new to me. He's been around since 2005 but I've never paid him attention before. Now I am after listening to his latest album "This Empty Northern Hemisphere", which is fantastic and worth the buy. Gregory Alan Isakov is categorized as acoustic, folk, singer-songwriter but he stands out above the rest. Throwing in a light banjo on some songs, using hard strummed acoustic rhythms and sparse drums, he does it different than most and that's where I find my like for him. If I had to compare him I would say he has some of the good elements of Joe Purdy but with more drive, some of Joshua James but with more upbeat songs. Combine that with very good songwriting and you've got one of the hardest names to say in the business: Gregory Alan Isakov.

You can listen to him on his site. Listen to "That Moon Song", "Evelyn", "Big Black Car", "San Fransciso", etc... In fact just hit play on the player and let it go. It's completely worth it.

Mumford & Sons Album "Sigh No More" $3.99

If you looked earlier this week I posted one a New Artist Discovery of the band Mumford & Sons. Trust me, they are awesome. My brother Jason found their album (they only have one) for $3.99 today (May 14th). What a ridiculous deal. Great find Jason.

New Artist Discovery: Mumford & Sons

Really unique and cool band hailing out of the UK called "Mumford & Sons". They carry a style of indie folk rock but they have some really unique sounds. Some songs they combine fast rhythms and an old folk irish/english tune and others they carry a similar sound to The Avett Brothers but with more complete instrumentation. They use the acoustic really well for rhythm and their banjo playing adds a ton, but I think it's their harmonies and singing together on lines that really adds the force behind their music. And I think that's where they are very different from The Avett Brothers. I wouldn't put them in the same category as Avett but I would say they have some similar styles, but if you don't like Avett you could like these guys. Regardless they have a great sound.

If you are just hearing them now no worries, you're not behind. They just released their first official album back last October 2009.

You can listen to them at lala or they have a player on their website...sorry lala took away the embedding so I can't put the whole album on here. I highly recommend listening to:
The Cave, White Blank Page and heck, listen to everything. It's all so good.

(thanks Chad for the heads up on these guys)

"Mousetrap Never Works"

Remember the OK Go video from a few weeks back with the Rube Goldberg machine? Well someone has a parody already...and it's a good one from our youth:

New Artist Discovery: Fun

The name of the band says it all. This is a downright fun band to listen to. The lead singer you might recognize from "The Format" who recently split and formed this new band. They only have one album and it's completely worth purchasing. (thanks aaron for gifting me this gem) The player below will cycle through all of their songs, but it is a must to listen to the second player below which is playing my favorite track: "Walking the Dog".

New Artist Discovery: Freelance Whales

Well, they aren't quite "new" anymore but they are new enough that some have not heard them. Give them a listen sometime. They have a great sound with a lot of different musical elements going on that somehow works together for a pleasant sound. Take a listen to the whole album but specifically "Hannah" to get a feel for them.

Weathervanes - Freelance Whale...

MGMT's "Kids" cover by Seven Ukulele Band

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Phoenix "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"

If you haven't listened to the most recent Phoenix album then you are two things: A) In a fallout shelter or B) Live on Fiji. If you fall under either of those two categories or another that I failed to mention then you need to listen/buy this Phoenix album:

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Pho...

OK Go - "This Too Shall Pass" video

Let's be honest, we like OK Go's videos more than their music. This is proof of that:

Carolina Chocolate Drops "Hit 'Em Up Style"

There are so many things to say about this band but I will just say this: they are a roots bluegrass band (jug, spoons, banjo, violin, etc...) that plays the classic bluegrass but also does modern songs like this (and blows it out of the water):


For their full song go to their myspace page.