My Morning Jacket Bring Their "Amazed," "Evil
Urges" To SNL

This weekend's MacGruber-friendly Saturday Night Live episode featured Shia The Motherfucking Beef and musical guest My Morning Jacket. Jim James probably didn't want to scare America and so he kept "Highly Suspicious" on the sidelines. Instead MMJ catered to the jammier elements of Evil Urges, with southern rocking "I'm Amazed" and the Dead-inflected verses/Allmans-Skynyrd rapid-fire guitar harmonies of "Urges." Jim brought out his falsetto for the occasion, sounding smooth as it did in Indio, and he couldn't help himself to at least one bit of meta-showmanship (check the frozen-image pose at both performances' end). Here's "Evil Urges":

That shit was incroyable. We're still waiting on a benevolent YouTuber to upload "I'm Amazed" (UPDATE: streaming here) so instead here's the evening's other rock-oriented performance, featuring Shia and Samberg in their underpants.

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New Burning Star Core - "Beauty Hunter"

Burning Star Core, the project of Cincinnati sound sculptor C. Spencer Yeh, kicks serious ass. His new album Challenger was set to be featured in The Outsiders, where BxC's Blood Lightning 2007 was bested in '07, but when we picked up the NY Times this weekend and saw him included in a Playlist, we decided maybe he'd moved a bit further from outside to in (which, to be fair, he's been doing for a while).

Since starting his project in 1993, Yeh has continually constructed some of the most nimble, out and out beautiful noise psychedelics. Unlike much of his other material, Challenger isn't improvised, but it retains that sense of epiphany and discovery throughout. Lead track "Beauty Hunter," for instance, is a spooky late-night stalker love hymn.

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Duffy Shows Promise On Her Debut Album

Duffy, ''Rockferry'' (Mercury) Duffy's debut album could slip in between Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield on a collector's shelf, but the 23-year-old pop-soul ingénue says she developed her sound without hearing either artist.[...] Read more!

Read The Full Article:
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/05/12/duffy_shows_promise_on_her_deb
ut_album

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Futureheads Do "Radio Heart" In A Black Cab

It's nice to see Barry Hyde so excited about This Is Not The World standout "Radio Heart." In fact, the Futureheads frontman puts so much effort into his one-man Black Cab Session of the tune that his teeth fell out (see accompanying photo for proof). We kid, he does have some teeth left, but he definitely puts his back into this one. Like he really is looking for a girl with a radio heart. And, for all that, his hair doesn't budge. Which is maybe why he's still looking.

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Fix for Mac Audio Dropouts: Roll Back Tiger
AirPort Support

Background: Many laptop-based Mac OS X users are experiencing significant audio issues on Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard. On Tiger, the culprit appears to be the AirPort Extreme Update 2008-001 released earlier this spring. One workaround on Tiger is to simply turn off AirPort. On Leopard, the problem appears to be slightly more complex, but generally linked to 10.5.2; several software vendors are recommending music users avoid that update for now. (10.5 / 10.5.1 appear unaffected.) The issue is not universal on Leopard (some laptop Mac users report no problems), but if you are experiencing issues, the only current solution appears to be downgrading your entire system to an earlier release.

Fortunately, on Tiger there’s a more specific temporary fix.

Tiger Fix: Musician Georgi Marinov has posted step-by-step instructions for reverting the AirPort Extreme Update to the previous release (2007-004). This fix will work only for Tiger users, apparently on specific MacBook Pro and Mac mini models.

tiger airport audio dropouts fix

I’d personally like to see Apple add some facility for uninstalling updates on all releases, as some other operating systems do. But regardless, with any OS and any update (and certainly with this unsupported procedure), be sure to backup before applying any update to a critical machine.

If you do apply this, let us know if it works for you.

Previously:

Mac OS X 10.5.2: Music and Audio Problems on Apple Laptops? (Or Blame AirPort?)

Mac Audio Glitches: Serato Reports; Avoid 10.5.2, AirPort For Now

Photo: Telstar Logistics. (Hey, it was either that shot of SFO airport or another apple or tiger or something silly.)

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New Portishead Video - "The Rip"

"In my thoughts I have bled for the riddles I've been fed. Another lie moves over." Even on one of Portishead's amazing Third LP's most warm and sounding tracks, Beth is wounded, afraid inside her head, falling through changes, and essentially elaborating on the album's already iconic opening mantra. That said, and for all that heavyness, yay this is just great. Just this weekend we were crowing in bar talk about Portishead's Coachella triumph being the single most goosebumpy set of live music we expected to see this year; waking up to a new video is a great way to ease into the blog week.

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New Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Video - "Night Of
The Lotus Eaters"

Nick can pull of a mustache like nobody's business (except maybe Angus Andrew's business). In the Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard-directed video for "Night Of The Lotus Eaters," we see Cave dramatically lit (and misted) delivering the song's words, the rest of the band equally engaged in birthing the extended Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! tune. Listen to what the man says: "Get ready to shield yourself."

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Carrie Underwood Joins Grand Ole Opry

Singer Carrie Underwood is the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry after joining the country music mecca this weekend.[...] Read more!

Read The Full Article:
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/05/12/carrie_underwood_joins_grand_o
le_opry

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Thirty One Today

Photo by Frank YangActually, the title of this post isn't quite accurate. I turned 33 yesterday. But it was still nice of Aimee Mann to stop by on Friday evening to say hello. Okay, it wasn't specifically a birthday greeting, but her in-store in the basement of Sonic Boom was still something of an occasion if for no other reason than it's not often you get a show as intimate as that with an artist of her stature.

I was a big fan in the days of her early solo records - the Roger McGuinn-aided classic pop of Whatever and Bernard Butler-gilded alt.rock of I'm With Stupid were staples of my musical diet through the late '90s but after her turn of the century triumphs with Magnolia and Bachelor No 2. The follow-up Lost In Space felt tepid and a bit creatively stagnant however, and with a three-year gap between that and The Forgotten Arm my attention had wandered though I was pleased to see that the latter recaptured a bit of the energy that Space was sorely lacking.

Which brings us to her newest effort, @#%&! Smilers, to be released June 3. It was from this record that Mann drew exclusively for this short (half-hour) promo gig with herself on acoustic guitar and accompanied by a bassist and keyboardist. Assuming that the presentation of the recorded versions will differ significantly from this configuration, it was tough to judge the quality of the material based on this performance. Mann has always had an innate pop sense but her recent works have been less immediate and requiring more listens to fully appreciate. But that said, based on first impressions the new stuff sounds quite good and I look forward to hearing the album in whole.

Mann will be back in town for a proper date later this Summer at the Kool Haus on August 28. She also gives Newsweek some background behind the creation of the new record.

Photos: Aimee Mann @ Sonic Boom - May 9, 2008
MP3: Aimee Mann - "Thirty One Today"
Video: Aimee Mann - "Thirty One Today"
MySpace: Aimee Mann

Orgeon Live and The Age interview Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla while American Songwriter talks creative process with both Walla and Ben Gibbard. Narrow Stairs is out tomorrow and they play Olympic Island on June 7.

WOXY has posted the fruits of their Lounge Act labours with Okkervil River, including a new song that will likely make an appearance on their Stage Names companion disc which should be out later this year.

Exclaim! discusses Couples with Long Blonde Kate Jackson. They're at Lee's Palace on May 22.

The Nicole Atkins feature in this month's Spin is now available to read online via their digital issue reader thingie.

Have you been wondering what happened to Ambulance LTD? So has the The Harvard Crimson so they catch up with sole remaining original member Marcus Congleton at a gig and find out how their label going bankrupt has essentially screwed them for the foreseeable future. Brooklyn Rail also checks in with Congleton, gets the same story. Demos of new material are available on their MySpace, and that's probably the most we'll be getting out of them anytime soon.

Drowned In Sound talks to Mission Of Burma's Roger Miller.

A bunch of show announcements to help you plan your Summer. Thanks to Graham for pointing out that Ted Leo will be in town for a show at the Mod Club for the "Converse 100th Anniversary Party" on June 12, an early show with tickets $15 at the door. And then the next day, he's at Dundas Square for a free 6PM show, this one surely a NXNE event.

Today's darlings of the internet - No Age - will be at the Horseshoe on July 16 in support of their new album Nouns. MTV and Exclaim have features on the Los Angeles duo.

MP3: No Age - "Eraser"

All done with opening for others, Bon Iver will be headlining at Lee's Palace on July 22 with the very worthy Bowerbirds, who were recently featured in a Take Away Show, as support.

If that bill's not to your taste, perhaps the Atlas Sound/El Guincho at the Mod Club the same evening would be more up your alley.

Tilly & The Wall has given up on keeping their new album, due June 17, nameless and will now consent to call it O. They will be in town to promote with a show at the Mod Club on August 2.

MP3: Tilly & The Wall - "Cacaphony"

Stereolab will take their latest Chemical Chords, out August 19, on the road this Fall and be in Toronto at the Phoenix on October 8. Monade, Laetitia Sadier's side project, will open.

Okay, so as I mentioned many moons ago I'm heading out vacation this week first for a few days in Dublin and then hopping over to London for another while - ten days total. I've tried to do some research as to things to do but have been fairly busy and besides a laundry list of the more obvious touristy things, any recommendations in addition to what was rattled off in January? I'm told that getting a copy of Time Out is the place to start? I've got no particular agenda - just want to look around, hang out, start a band, become NME flavour of the week and fall out of favour. I figure I can accomplish all that in a week.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.chromewaves.net/?itemid=3022

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Oasis To Boot Zac Starkey

British rockers Oasis are set to fire drummer Zac Starkey, according to reports. The Whatever stars are rumored to be parting ways with the percussionist, who is the son of former Beatle Ringo Starr, after it was revealed he will not appear on the band's future releases.[...] Read more!

Read The Full Article:
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/05/12/oasis_to_boot_zac_starkey_

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