For many (guilty) REM ruled their musical hearts and minds for an era.  We first caught them opening for Gang of Four at the Adams Theater in San Diego on 9-11-1982 (and later would accidentally–but thankfully–follow their tour across the south to California in September 1986), and would see them countless times thereafter.  At the Adams Theater in 1982, despite Michael Stipe having a broken leg and being rendered stool-bound (until he just couldn’t help himself), and a subsequent damaging and marching angular-guitar set from Gang of Four, we knew that REM would go on to be a force in music, and a great live band.  Their performances of the likes of Radio Free Europe and Catapult were all it took to suck us in forever.  Between Stipe’s vocals and manic energy, Peter Buck’s jangle-attack, and Mills and Buckner’s rousing rhythm section and vocal contributions (not to mention some of the best songs written), they were a stunningly great admix.

Newly-released (at least on YouTube) concert footage of the band performing in February 1981 gives a great feel for the early energy and alchemical cohesion of the band.  The video opens with Buddy Holly’s Rave On with Stipe doing his best Elvis Presley imitation (which he would fall into intermittently during the set).  A great historical vignette.   If nothing else, to get a feel for early Stipe and band, watch one minute from 11:00-12:00.  To be young….  Enjoy.

Below are set’s songs and times:

00:00 (cuts in) Rave On
01:37 Burning Down
05:43 Dangerous Times
08:17 All the Right Friends
13:00 Get on Their Way
15:54 Different Girl
19:25 Permanent Vacation
21:44 White Tornado
23:53 Narrator
27:00 Wind Out
28:45 Gardening at Night
32:36 Mystery to Me
34:36 Radio Free Europe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RiZW_Wlj8Kw

As we’ve repeatedly touted, one of the best albums of 2012 is A.C. Newman’s Shut Down the Streets.  Now comes his retro (early ’70s talk-show) video for I’m Not Talking featuring the “tearing-up host” trope.  Check it and go buy this album.

We hadn’t heard about ’em until just before we wrote about upstart Brit-band Palma Violets yesterday, and then last night they appeared on Later With Jools Holland.  Suddenly, they’re everywhere.  Check ’em out below slayin’ on their song Tom the Drum (followed by Last of the Summer Wine).  Dem boys gots it!

Honestly, we were not until this week acquainted with Brit singer-songwriter Martin Harley, nor had we heard him play slide guitar.  But then we caught him performing his song Cardboard King off of his latest album, Mojo Fix, and we were transfixed.  And on this rainy day, that song (and the others after) meshes perfectly.  While some of Harley’s material violates our anti-blues bias (been there, heard that), he wears it very well.  Check Harley out below courtesy of Portland’s KINK Radio at the Bing Lounge. Oh, and had World Party not cancelled their Thursday night gig at Soho because of illness, we would have caught him opening for them on their tour.  Dang.

Once upon a time there was the gentlemanly sport of cycling.  Since time immemorial riders have battled across the Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites, and other not-so-flat and flat cobblestoned landscapes of Europe (and other regions) in races for weeks-on-end or for ridiculously fast and long one-day races.  Then in 1995 the sport entered what many consider the Dark Age of Cycling.  Thereabouts the anemia drug, EPO, and other performance-enhancing drugs were introduced to the sport, which was thereafter dramatically changed by the involved riders, managers and teams, and perhaps (time will tell) with the knowledge of race-organizers and the professional cycling governing bodies themselves.  And perhaps also with the wink-wink-nudge-nudge of their sponsors, who desperately wanted to see their logos emblazoned across the (oft-skeletal) bodies of their winning riders.  All in the name of “winning.”  And now most in cycling are left losers.

Dutch financial behemoth Rabobank entered as a sponsor of a professional cycling team in 1996 (huh, go figure).  Following the recent allegations made public by the anti-doping organizations United States Anti-Doping Agencey (USADA) and WADA and their actions taken against Lance Armstrong (and virtually the entire sport), in a classic we-was-robbed (so to speak) move, Rabobank declared it was ending its sponsorship of its professional cycling team.  Following Rabobank’s announcement, pro-cyclist David Millar and others were quick to chastise Rabobank for happily being a sponsor during the “dirty era” (in which Rabobank riders were repeatedly busted for doping), but then pulling out of cycling when the sport is arguably its cleanest since 1995 and is likely headed into an even-cleaner era following the Armstrong revelations.  Millar first Tweeted the following: “Dear Rabobank, you were part of the problem. How dare you walk away from your young clean guys who are part of the solution. Sickening.” He then followed up with a less-hyperbolic, but still-pointed, letter to Rabobank, which you can read HERE.  We couldn’t agree more.

Warning:  tenuous and tawdry tie-in between Rabobank and singer Jason Collett’s song entering stage right.

For some reason Rabobank’s bailing on cycling was on our minds this morning when we happened to be listening to under-appreciated singer-songwriter Jason Collett’s fantastic new album Reckon.  And so when Collett’s telling, reggae-riff song I Wanna Rob a Bank came blazing into our ears it provided the perfect soundtrack to our thoughts regarding the bank.  A good part of Reckon voices the feelings of those that have lost jobs or homes over the last few years during the economic crisis, but doesn’t lash out at some of the causes of the crisis until I Wanna Rob A Bank comes on.  And then we hear the song’s narrator segueing from his inner despair into outbound rage.  While we would never condone robbing a bank, the crassness of Rabobank’s pull-out (sponsorus interruptus) from cycling had us thinking (only figuratively) about the prospect voiced in the song.  And who knows, in the context of professional cycling the song title could be interpreted merely as a call for Rabobank to return as a sponsor (I Want a Rabobank).  Yeah right.

Jason Collett is yet another former Broken Social Scene member (along with Feist, Emily Haines of Metric and Amy Millan of Stars, amongst others) who’s made good.  On his new album Reckon, Collett again writes masterful melodic pop-folk songs in a wide range of styles that always resonate lyrically.  We’ll write more about Collett and Reckon soon (suffice it to say it’s one of our Best Albums of 2012).  In the meantime, check out (and download) I Wanna Rob a Bank below.

We hold Canadian band Stars in the highest of regard.  If you don’t know them, and if you merely glance at the band or quickly skip through their tracks, you might not “get” them (or you may have forgotten them in the ongoing quest for “the new”–similarly, see our Pinback post below).  If so, you would be making a colossal mistake.  If you instead dive in and let Stars’ songs wash over you, you will be repeatedly rewarded by the band’s craft and intelligence.  Their songs are consistently as good, if not better, than U2, Coldplay, or pick-a-band, and yet they toil in comparative obscurity south of the Canadian border.  Their latest album, The North, is another superb collection of heady, emotional and melodic songs that deserves a far wider audience (you can stream it at their Soundcloud site at bottom).  Do yourselves a favor and check them out (or again).  They continue to operate in a higher realm.

To get a better feel (and despite the sterile visual surroundings) check out the band’s stellar harmonies and deft instrumental acumen on well-crafted songs The North, A Song is a Weapon and Backlines, all as performed for KINK Radio at the Bing Lounge.  And if you want more, you can check out their recent KCRW session HERE.  So very, very good.

We scraped the digits off of Pinback’s first couple albums, and especially Summer in Abaddon.  We’ve forever loved their lock-stop, pristine and elliptical guitar and bass interplay, melodic and deceptively-serene sounds, and vocals and lyrics that always insinuate themselves into our hearts and minds.  After a five-year hiatus, the band (guitarist Rob Crow and bassist Zack Smith, with drummer Chris Prescott) is back with a new album entitled Information Retrieved.  Pinback appeared on WNYC’s Soundcheck this week to perform three songs off the new album.  And they pull it off with perfect Pinback aplomb.

Check out a video of the band performing the mesmerizing song Proceed to Memory on Soundcheck.  You can listen to the entire Soundcheck session below the video or go HERE.  After, check out their official video for song Sherman off the new album.

And don’t forget:  Water!  Fire!  Rain!  Inhale!

Full WNYC audio:

The Best of 2012 lists are starting to fall from the sky like rain.  Hard rain.  While many leave us scratching our heads, these lists can serve to unearth new bands that you had not previously heard.  Such is the case with young London-based band Palma Violets, who are being touted by quite a few in the British media (NME, etc.).  We like what we’ve seen and heard so far.  Check out the band’s official videos for their songs Best of Friends and Last of the Summer Wine below off of their impending first album on Rough Trade. After, check out their performance of Best of Friends on Later with Jools Holland.

As Gothamist originally pointed out, a fan-made, two-hour video of Radiohead’s Roseland Ballroom show in September has been created by a collective of Radiohead fans, who have dedicated the project to deceased Radiohead crewmember Scott Johnson.  The video has apparently been blessed by the band, who provided high-quality, soundboard audio.  The setlist follows the concert video below.  Bravo!

Roseland Ballroom, September 29, 2011, Setlist:

Bloom
Little by Little
Staircase
The National Anthem
Feral
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Like Spinning Plates
All I Need
Everything in Its Right Place (with “True Love Waits” intro)
15 Step
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Lotus Flower
Codex
The Daily Mail
Morning Mr. Magpie
Reckoner

Encore:
Give Up the Ghost
Myxomatosis
Bodysnatchers

Encore 2:
Supercollider
Nude