The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years are at the top of a very small list of punk/hardcore bands from Philadelphia that haven't sold out. They make the top of the list for liberally employing the use of the moog. Nothing to write home about, but they're good guys and they make a lot of Philly references in their songs.

Plus they're funny. Here's a song about Captain Crunch and Kool-Aid:

Geen Day on Broadway

Looks like Green Day's American Idiot is actually making its way to Broadway.

Oddly enough, the first released recording from the play is a track called "21 Guns" from their newest album, 21st Century Breakdown. Says Billie Joe, "We wanted to record '21 Guns' because it represents a pivotal moment in the show when the lead character ... realizes he needs to get his shit together."

You can stream the song, HERE. It's pretty good stuff.

I Wish It Was Christmas Today

Julian Casablancas recorded his own version of "I Wish It Was Christmas Today," originally from the Horatio Sans SNL sketch. It's available for purchase as a bonus track on his album Phrazes for the Young, and of course for streaming right here:

	Julian Casablancas - I Wish It Was Christmas Today (SNL)
	Found at skreemr.com

HERE's the original SNL sketch.

The Brothers Schwartzman

I wrote about Jason's music career as Coconut Records, here. But did you know that his younger brother Robert is the lead singer and guitarist of a moderately popular band called Rooney?

As a fan of both bands and an unapologetic fanatic for all of Jason's movies (go see Fantastic Mr.Fox right now) I have to admit it's a little disappointing that Coconut Records doesn't tour. From what I understand, Jason has only ever performed one or two songs from his albums live on about three different charitable occasions somewhere in California, each time effectively opening for Rooney and using them as his backing band. For the most part they play his single, "West Coast." Of course, he doesn't need to tour or sell records for the money, but personally I think the only reason he doesn't tour is because he can't sing and play guitar simultaneously.

HERE are the videos that exist of these performances. Each was taken by a shaky cell phone, but in each Jason simply sings while his brother does most of the legwork.

It's okay Jason, I can't do it either.

Tetris God

Since my cell phone's touch screen no longer functions correctly, tetris is the only game it will play. So for me, this video from Collegehumor.com is all the more funny since I experience this at least once a week.

This was posted on a few popular websites yesterday. If you skipped over it, I'm sure the official Cubsicle seal of approval will make you re-think your choice.

Foxboro Hot Tubs

Sometimes when a band like Green Day becomes too big it can lose its soul, its identity, and that which made them appealing to begin with. And the byproduct of such popularity is that it makes fiscal sense for that band to keep doing whatever it is was that made them so popular. That's where the side-band comes in, the band that allows the creative juices to flow on unconstrained by "what is expected." In Green Day's case that band was Foxboro Hot Tubs with their garage pop sound clearly influenced, perhaps unabashedly, by 60s brit-pop in much the same way Green Day had been prior to American Idiot.

Their record Stop Drop and Roll may have been overlooked as one of the better albums of 2008, but I suspect the band was okay with that. For more about them, read this great review from over at allmusic, and listen to "Alligator:"

	Foxboro Hot Tubs - Alligator
	Found at skreemr.com

Grooveshark

You may have noticed this site's liberal use of Grooveshark as a means of posting streaming songs to blog entries. Unlike Skreemr which seems hardly legal to use, Grooveshark is at least somewhat legitimate having somehow turned a lawsuit by EMI into a licensing agreement earlier this year. Presumably this means that artists representing EMI will be seeing a share of the revenue generated by Grooveshark's (surprisingly not annoying) ad supported model. The only problem? EMI licensed music represents only about a quarter of Grooveshark's entire user-submitted library.

This is both unsettling and a cool aspect of the EMI licensing agreement since their agreement basically just says "we know EMI music has been uploaded to your site by users illegally, but we won't sue you." Finally one of the big 4 music giants starting to understand the way this is going to work in the 21st century. The other 75% of user-uploaded copyrighted material can be removed by the copyright owner at anytime by mechanisms of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

The site is great for all kinds of things including building and saving playlists as well as "following" friends and even a Pandora-like music recommendation engine. Definitely a great place to hear a track on demand.

The Sedin Twins

And now for some hockey news. The Flyers lost last for the 6th time in the last 7 games. Part of the reason they lost? Vancouver's Sedin twins (seen above), who I think are one of the most interesting stories in professional sports.

The Swedish Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, have literally played on the same hockey teams for their entire lives. When both were considered Top 10 Prospects in the NHL's 1999 draft, the twins made it clear that they would be happiest playing together. This was not surprising news. There have been many sets of brothers in professional sports throughout the years, most of which I'm sure would have loved the chance to play together. The draft system, however, makes that difficult when the two players are top prospects. The Sedins made history anyway when they more and less convinced the Canucks to make several pre-draft trades to ultimately end up with the 2nd and 3rd overall picks which they of course used to draft the brothers who have played together in Vancouver ever since. According to most NHL sources, the two all-pro's play (on the same line, of course) with more chemistry than any other pairing in the league. On July 1st, 2009 the brothers negotiated identical 5 year/$30 million contracts to stay together with the Canucks. The two may very well end their careers on the same team and as one of professional sports' coolest stories.

My Chemical Romance

Seen here is the band My Chemical Romance wearing their blackened take on Sgt.Pepper's to advertise their 2006 album The Black Parade.

While I suspect the band's neo-gothic style works against them most of the time, they've been making some fantastic music, most notably Parade. Remember also their cover of Desolation Row. Plus they made this song, "Mama," which features the vocal stylings of one Liza Minnelli (just one line at 3:27, but still).

	My Chemical Romance - Mama
	Found at skreemr.com

Check out The Black Parade.

Web Sheriff

You may have noticed that my last post was paid a visit by Web Sheriff on behalf of the legal team of whichever recording company Bob Dylan used to produce his Christmas album. I think it's Sony, but Dylan usually works with Columbia and I don't know what's going on with mergers anymore. Apparently the youtube video I posted was not the officially licensed video which can be found at Dylan's myspace page. I was not asked officially to take it down, so I won't until it becomes inactive.

If you haven't figured it out already, Web Sheriff is a real company hired usually by entertainment giants to protect against copyright violations on the internet, usually by means of take-down issuances. I think the fact that Dylan's Christmas album is for charity makes this less of a copyright violation and more of a free plug to the many thousands of readers I have which is why I think a take down notice was not issued.

My policy on using youtube, skremmr, and grooveshark will not change as a result of this visit. Commence dancing in the streets.