At a loft part last night, down underneath the F-line by Gowanus Canal. Music scene. Observations were about how social norms regarding smoking have changed along with the law: cigarettes out in the hallway only. The musicians were talented; very Stereolab-esque, but there wasn't ever critical mass for the dance party it should have been.

I like a good dance party, gotta say. Big steppin'.

Listen to the new Neil Young Album, Living With War.

It's an interesting concept. They have a flash-player that'll let you play the tracks in order. No fast-forward. Old school.

Whoever marketed this stuff must have hired one of those online firms (or had some savvy staffers). Neil's on myspace and blogger. It's thin on the usual kind of content for those places (no doubt because Mr. Young has better things to do than blog), but the outreach is worthy.

So far, first two tracks are good. Try it out!

UPDATE: Listened to the whole thing. It's all good! It's got a lot of the same dirty guitar and chorus type stuff as Greendale, but the songs are regular-length and mostly about war.

Fuckin' a! www.royband.com. These guys are classic. They hit the comic nerve exploited by Napoleon Dynamite more than 5 years ago (shit, has it been that long?). I saw them live in the basement at the House of Rock &anp; Roll, where my friends Luke and Tom and Chris and John Henry and Max -- and some otheres no doubt -- lived, at a show/party that featured mostly punk and metal bands and a couple kegs of beer. They brought their own ironing board to set up the Casio on. The crowd sang along. It was a good time.

Do yourself a favor and check it out: www.royband.com.

It's insanely listenable. There's some very interesting soundscaping tying together number of knee-slappin' pop tracks. Just check out some of these:

Down on Bennies, a rockin' take on an Elton John song I never liked.

Sixteen Sisters, wich picks up the old "Sixteen Tons" and gives it new life.

There's lots of hot Soul put to great use, as in Amazing Temptation.

This is art. It's good. You should be allowed to do this without having to deal with lawyers.

Anyway, the whole thing is on their site and in my torrentfeed. It's really an album, in the best way. This raises the bar for remix/mashup creations.

Clicky clicky; listen, listen.

From the just-released 24 Hours by those crazy Pirate Artists from the UK, the Kleptones.

A torrent for the whole double-album is in my torrentfeed.

Clicky clicky; listen, listen.

From the just-released 24 Hours by those crazy Pirate Artists from the UK, the Kleptones.

A torrent for the whole double-album is in my torrentfeed.

Four New Tracks from the Kleptones. They have an upcoming CD release I guess. Good for them.

It's a little lo-fi, but it's def. listenable. Jigsaw Gentlement Podcast from the Pordland Mercury. That's the band my friend John Henry sings/fronts. Hopefully their new CD will be buyable online.

Hippity Hop from MLPS; people calling it Emo Hop, but seems that's just because he spits about self-destruction rather than the destruction of others. Very well produced. Soulful.

I can't fucking wait for the major label cartels to crumble. People don't even know what they're missing.

Farsheed and his friends are talented. That's him on the typewriter, drums and keyboard.

Oh man. The art jonze.