It Takes Two, When It Used To Take One

Big ups to Rich for keeping the TTT flame burning while I labor in my private little work hell. High on the agenda, when I come up for air, will be some discussion of the new Ryan Adams record, Easy Tiger, which came out Tuesday. For now, enjoy this clip of a shockingly scrubbed and clean-cut Ry-Ry with The Cardinals on the Letterman show last night, doing "Two" from the new disc. About which, much more later.

And the next boot, promise.

Can't Hardly Wait

Before we become That Wilco Thing, let's switch gears. Here are tracks from a couple of releases we're looking for to:

RYAN ADAMS - "Everybody Knows" from Easy Tiger, out on June 26


CROWDED HOUSE - "Don't Stop Now" (webrip) from Time On Earth, out on July 10


SPOON - "The Ghost Of You Lingers" from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, out on July 10

Odds and Sods

Salon's Audiofile podcast this week is a chat with Shins frontman James Mercer.







The new Wilco record, Sky Blue Sky, has leaked all over the place, over 2 months before its May 15 release date, but you can download one track, "What Light," right now with their compliments.






Speaking of upcoming releases, mark your calendars, White Stripes and Ryan Adams fans. The Stripes have wrapped up work on Icky Thump in Nashville and promise to deliver it "as soon as corporately possible," while Mr. Adams will deliver Easy Tiger on June 5. Just the one this year, Ryan?


Recent show reviews at Pitchfork have featured some really exceptional photography by a New York artist named Kathryn Yu. She has a blog that features some of her work, and regularly posts photostreams at Flickr as well. Her shots of the Arcade Fire shows at Judson Memorial Church last month were the first ones to catch my eye.


The long lost Dylan-Seuss sessions -- genius!











Finally, "Ms. Lefevre," a cheesy video made in 1996 by a Vancouver punk-pop trio called Maow. Why should you watch it? Because their drummer was a little hottie named Neko Case, that's why.


Kathryn Yu recently shot Neko, too. (Thanks, Jo, for the Neko-Maow tip.)