I’d honestly forgotten about The Von Bondies.  Just read that Jason Stollsteimer’s new band, The Hounds Below, is set to release new music.  They are playing a couple gigs in Illinois leading up to an official release party in Detroit this weekend.

And Billy Corgan is back.  He rolled out a new track on Spinner this week.  It’s part of a 44-track Smashing Pumpkin-palooza.  They’ll be given away on the band’s website and then bundled in 11 four-song EPs.  You can check out “Song for a Son” here.  I also glanced at an article with the headline explaining Corgan may regret the changes he’s made to the Smashing Pumpkins…sounds like a politian regretting his own vote to me.  It is what it is.  Now you have to live with it, Billy.

I have been getting several hits this week from a past post on James McCartney but didn’t realize why.  I was totally behind on this one.  His band debuted in Iowa last month.

In case you’re looking for info about it, this is the best link I’ve found (w/ pics).  If anyone has a blog link where someone personally attended the show, leave a comment with the link please.

Did you know there’s a new music video site on the web?  It’s VEVO, hosted by YouTube.  Their star-studded launch was last night (more details here).  I’m not yet convinced it’s going to rise to the top of my bookmarks, but you never know as content is added.  Anyone tried it yet?

This reminded me how there are other audio sites I’ve signed up for to check out, but no longer are around.  For example, take my post below on Goom Radio.  Haven’t heard anyone talk about them.  And we all know if they aren’t talking about you, you just as well be dead.  So I looked them up and found their head of programming stepped down just last week.  Not a good sign.

Then there’s BlueBeat.  I don’t even remember how long ago I signed up to try it out – forever ago.  This week I got an email out of nowhere stating:

BlueBeat is back! While we have been forced to temporarily remove some features and content, we are back with a brand new kind of program: Genesis Music Discovery – just choose a “seed” and Grow Your Own playlist!

And, of course, there was the recent Apple purchase of Lala.com.  Not sure what will happen there, but I’m sure we’ll see changes in the next few months.  I use it often to sample albums.

Who knows what we’ll see as we enter 2010.

Another year, another St. Andrew’s Day…so let me give you some new Scottish music to check out.  (Minus bagpipes.)

Sergeant

Saint Jude’s Infirmary : Their album has really grown on me.  Here’s a recent interview with the band to get a feel for them.

Short answer:  an artist worth checking out.

I hadn’t felt like I had anything to blog about the last few months.  In my last post I asked for new music recommendations and Steve (Teenage Rock Opera) kindly referred me to Mayer Hawthorne. 

What does he sound like?  Ultra-smooth vocals and sweet melodies in posh soul trimmings.  Yeah, think Motown, but I’d get even more detailed and say he’s somewhere between the 60’s hook-laden sounds and the more mature 70’s soul.  Hawethorne is solid listening.  Check him out via WXPN’s  World Cafe.

I’m so overwhelmed with interviews & job hunting that I barely have been listening to music the last few weeks.  Plus, my computer is maxed out – I can’t stream while I’m filling out apps or doing research.  Bottomline: I could use some of your recommendations! 

Puh-leez.

Speech Debelle has been awarded the Mercury Prize.   Wouldn’t have guessed she’d have won, but the pattern of winners seems to go back and forth between more well-known artists and little-known artists.  Here’s a track to see what she’s all about:

Night Beats, a Seattle-based band I came across that would be great to hear live in a little dive bar.   I’d describe them as dirty, psychedelic.

Plus I give them extra points for already having SXSW 2010 plans!

Tonight marks the first time Apple will stream a live concert to the iPhone – and it’s an UNDERWORLD gig. 

What time?  9 pm PST / 11 pm CST

Where?  iphone.akamai.com or underworldlive.com

This reminds me how frustrating it was at my last job – the powers that be who rated our music library rated Underworld’s hit, “Born Slippy” as a 2/5.  Whether or not you like the song, I think most folks I know would say that when you consider popularity in this genre (which is what the scale was suppose to represent) it would be a 4 if not 5. 

This was a perfect example of how skewed the music library became.  So glad that’s not my problem anymore.

Let’s get right to business – who should Idol execs choose to take Paula’s place?  I personally like the process of 3 judges rather than 4 and think the “guest judge” plan sucked.  But they’ve already signed last years’ rookie judge, Kara DioGuardi, for another season.  (She probably didn’t get negative numbers from focus groups.)

So here are my suggestions:

1)  Kay Hanley

Kay’s seen it all; fame with a spunky 90s band and writing poppy music for kids. 

2)  Anastacia

More contemporary, perhaps?  Anastacia was actually a finalist in a TV talent contest (MTV’s The Cut). 

3)  Shirley Manson

Opinionated, talented and has a cool accent.  She couldn’t hurt the ratings. 

All three of these ladies would offer constructive criticism since they’ve been in the trenches of the music scene.  Each one is talented, full of personality and has a unique personal style – all points the judges like to drive home on American Idol.

What do you think?