You know you're behind when you're getting your pop radio 411 from The New York Times. Anyway, the band is Fannypack, the song is Cameltoe(video link along the right margin) -- not the same title for the band and the song, but daaangerously close. Pure (one-hit wonder) pop for now people.

Important note: If you don't know what it means, do yourself a favor and don't try to look up what a cameltoe is online. Trust me on that one.

Phish has always allowed fans to tape shows. As with other bands that allow this, a community of tape traders has grown up who swap the shows and obsess over sound quality.

What's interesting is that Phish is offering moderate (mp3) and high quality (shorten) downloads of shows through their LivePhish website. At $15.00 for a high-quality recording, you get a 3-cd long live show for less than a standard record store will offer you a studio record.

Give the people what they want. What a concept.

Apparently, there's some permit trouble for the Field Day festival. Guess Coachella already has 'em beat in the organization department.

According to a notice splashed on the Field Day website though, all hope is not yet lost.

Here's someone who's been at the center of many a maelstrom in music, and took pictures of lots of 'em. Mike Watt is probably best known for being in the Minutemen and fIREHOSE, but he gets around (usually jamming Econo). If the (San) Pedro-speak makes you clam, check the glossary.

Every once in a while you just feel like curling up with a nasty, mean-spirited bad record review. Sometimes the only entertainment value that a record contributes to the universe is the inspiration it provides to some music writer with a chip on his shoulder.

Rolling Stone reviews the American Idol Soundtrack 2

Pitchfork vs. Whirlwind Heat

Moldy Peaches get what they got coming (also Pitchfork) Highlight of this one -- A reviewer snaps and drops the professional demeanor:

The New York Road Runners running club hold a race more than once a week on average. What does that have to do with music? This summer, they're holding a 4-miler where the registration fee includes entrance to a racers-only concert with Mos Def. A t-shirt, some tunes, and a chance to meet lots of very sweaty people. What else do you need?

Suzanne Vega is hosting the NPR show American Mavericks, which lets her explore music you might not ordinarily associate with her.

The show was inspired by a concert series put on by the San Francisco Symphony, and it's an excellent way to introduce yourself to contemporary American art music. The website's Listening Room is an incredible resource -- every episode of the show, many complete works that were mentioned on the show, interviews, and 2 streaming channels (crunchy and smooth) of music from or related to the show.

If you're looking for some summer reading, Fender Benders will keep you entertained.

It's all about Nashville, including ambitious radio personalities, sleazy managers, marketing-savvy musicians, and one virtuous penniless freelance writer for flavor. The genre, apparently, is comedic mystery -- it's got a satiric bent you might find familiar if you read Carl Hiassen.

Nashville (and the music industry in general) has well earned the barbecueing that it gets in this one. A fun book in a mass market paperback edition is a gift from heaven at the beach.

Why do rock writers love to throw around the term supergroup? Supergroup! Supergroup! Supergroup! Nah, don't feel tingly or anything. Go figure.

So, anyway. New Pornographers have been getting called that everytime they were mentioned anywhere, and if they didn't get the label by the fact that they're all known from their work in other bands, (the usual definition) they'd still deserve it on the basis of the jams.

Additional notes:

• Practically everyone who's in a band has been in a different one before. The term supergroup apparently only applies if anyone heard of the last band you were in.
• Matador records has so freakin many great bands, it's scary.

Washington Post obit. Condolences go to to Johnny, and many thanks go to June.

An Elvis lamp returned, anyway. Would that it were so easy for humans.

Recently you read here about live CDs available at the end of the show. Of course, some folks have been performing a similar service for the more patient for a while now. Rockslide offers CDs created from the live shows of bunch of bands, including one that always seems to find its way into a post about great live shows. Ironically, it sounds like the mp3 samples of the bands aren't from the live CDs themselves. (Those samples were from Todd Deatherage Band and Chris Hartford, respectively.)

Apparently, Diana Krall and Elvis Costello are off the market. If they decide to have kids, they should encourage the little nipper(s?) to rustle up some buddies and start a band.

This summer will be, among other things, a season of new Yo La Tengo. Summer Sun is their new release on the estimable Matador records. It's good summer evening music: something like Sonic Youth with the toxic conceptual noises alchemized into a nice subtle sangria.

Anyway, this post is a good excuse to point out the fun stuff on their website. They draw pictures, take pictures, and sell out. And they can tell you where to find schwarma (scroll down) in the bitchinest little city in Jersey.

According to a story broken by the New York Times (use theselecter/selectme if you need a login) and picked up by CBS and the Beeb, (both of whom don't require registration) Clear Channel, everyone's least favorite media conglomerate, has a pretty cool notion.

They're setting up a system whereby they can sell CD's of a live show 5 minutes after the show ends. (Perhaps this will be a new career direction for jam band taping freaks.) In the end, this has to be good for music fans -- bootleg copies of live shows tend to be painful to listen to, and painful to pay for. (It's an interesting question how much they'll charge for this.)

Trouble is, Clear Channel is basically single-handedly responsible for the execrable state of American radio. You just hate to see an organization like that in control of an idea that could be a great thing for music fans. Fortunately, as the BBC article points out, there's a startup with the same idea, and they're already working with at least one very cool band.

The Stax records museum is open! For anyone who didn't know, Memphis is now, beyond a doubt, the beginning and the end of rock'n'roll tourism. Although you'll have to wait 'til next year to try it, the Beale Street Music Festival is a particularly enjoyable excuse to use for your pilgrimage.

It's a particularly nice touch that the Stax museum also includes a music school and ambitious plans to give back to the community.

Their writing is superb. Their news insightful. And they can elevate snottiness to a fine art. Even in the Circuits section.

In any case, last week's Circuits section review of Apple's new downloading service casually dismissed the biggest (perhaps only) flaw in Apple's new downloading service with true Gray Lady flair. The flaw is the fact that Apple has created a proprietary file type (.aac) for the music files used by their service. To quote:

Well. Glad we settled THAT. Anyone who doesn't want to cough $500 for an mp3 player (when they can get one with double the capacity for half the price) is an oddball.

Cheap sniping at mainstream media aside (let's leave that to the pros), Apple seems here to be living up to their reputation for innovation. Their service provides what users want, which is true ownership of the music. The tracks don't expire, can be saved to a mobile player, and can be burned to CD to keep forever (or until you cook the platter on your dashboard, which is as close to forever as music is destined to get.) And don't forget the price benefit -- $10.00 per album is a good 40% less than you pay in a record store. Undoubtedly still an egregious markup, but noneless more money in the consumer's pocket.

iTunes Music Store also provides what the music industry requires, which is copy protection that prevents the music from being played on more than three machines. And it contains some nice bon-bons for Apple themselves, since it forces you to buy their hardware if you want to put your music on your mp3 player.

That last one is the toughie. Creating a proprietary format for commercial purposes has torpedoed more than one innovation. If Apple gets smart and licenses other makers to support their .aac files, this could well be the killer app that online music is ready for.

Summer is the best time of year in New York. Concerts (many of them free) are everywhere: Jones Beach, Central Park (no schedule yet), even Battery Park (still showing last year's schedule). You can probably still get free tickets to Norah Jones / The Roots this Friday: I got mine by calling in to WNEW -- they announce periodically when they're giving out tickets. From what I can tell, everyone who calls in around the right time (and hangs around on hold long enough) gets the tickets.

To blatantly rip off someone else's observation: I guess it's appropriate that Kiss is touring with Saliva.

So you heard here a little while ago about the upcoming Field Day festival / camping trip. It seems they had a similar sort of party recently in California. According to this moderately glowing review, (NYT link: log in with theselecter/selectme if you like) there's a trend forming for these multi-day festivals-with-campsites: instead of a single worthwhile act being saddled with a bunch of more mainstream ones, the idea is to have a large number of acts with genuine street cred.

Sure, sounds great, whatever. But you can't mess with anything that brings about a reunion of Iggy and the Stooges. (All hail the Goatnipple for the tip.)

This link courtesy of a (very fun to read) article in the Oxford American southern music issue: My Morning Jacket is a Louisville KY band that sounds like Galaxie 500 if they'd been dipped headfirst in the Mississippi a few times. Reverb to the people, y'all.

Anyhow, best way to get a sense of it (as always) is to hear it. An offical website was offline at time of this writing, so you might need to check out the fansite instead.

It's starting to seem like SXSW is the least of the interesting things that happen in Austin. Check this article about the scene, related to the music scene of course, of designers who make gig posters. Many pretty graphics included, natch.

Stories of Roy Orbison being wrapped in clingfilm. (A little lascivious, but not obscene. I'd be careful on his links page though.) Once again, the Internet fulfills its destiny. In this case, one suspects, with tongue firmly in cheek.