Sometimes I have to stop what I’m doing and contemplate what a crazy, excellent, post-’Marquee Name’ world we’re living in right now. You see that up there? That’s fucking Jawbox. On Jimmy Fallon. Playing “Savory.” I mean, I know that back in the day you’d see Belly on Letterman and all that, and that [...]

Man, myth, badass — Fela Kuti was all of them and more. Even people who love him can’t deny some of his views were a bit, er, unconventional, but the power of the man’s music and the force and passion with which he stood up to a corrupt government — in the face of repeated [...]

PETE DRAKE: FOREVERby mrjyn
The talk box sound will always be associated with ’80s over-the-topness: the lazer funk of Zapp & Roger, the gaudy riffery of Peter Frampton. Even more recent retro-futurists that use the box (or similar, vocoder-y sounds) — Chromeo, Dâm Funk, Daft Punk — stick firmly to the ’80s m.o. of near-goofy neon [...]

Last month, we shouted out a record called Hymns from Rhodeisa from a band called Listenlisten, which will be arriving on eMusic on 9/22. I love this record, and I think you might, too. Haunting, apocalyptic Appalachian folk music. If you haven’t already, check out their song “Safe Home, Safe in Port” for an [...]

(flamgirlant and p-clark weigh in)
So this year, Jayson & I snapped some quick videos of the Pitchfork Festival — we talked to a few bands and shot some performance footage (we also interviewed Flamgirlant and Ptolemyclark, which you can watch above). We thought we’d close out our Pitchfork Fest coverage by sharing some of [...]

I don’t know how it took me almost two weeks to stumble across this but, man, am I glad I did. In this awesomely artless video, Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison takes a breathless spin through Neutral Milk Hotel’s awesome and underrated “Song Against Sex.” FRabbit have their own “song against sex,” of course, and its [...]

That DOOM. So unpredictable. You never know where he’s going to turn up. You can, however, make a pretty accurate guess as to where he’s not going to turn up: DOOM concerts, DOOM videos, DOOM in-stores, and so on. Here’s a joke: What’s the quickest way to get DOOM out of your living room? [...]

To close out our little site-wide celebration of the great new DOOM record Born Like This, video of Doom’s appearance with De La Soul on Last Call With Carson Daly from several years back. They perform the fantastic “Rock Co Kane Flow” from De La’s way-underrated The Grind Date. I have watched this 7 times [...]

Thanks to James in our London office for reminding us how awesome Tame Impala are. Get the music here.

For those of you out there who are not familiar with the Internet sensation of 2008, Christian the Lion, please take 2 1/2 minutes and watch this YouTube video. You will laugh, you will cry, your faith in beast and man and God will be restored. The story of the two British friends who adopted [...]

Performing “It’s Not Supposed to Be That Way” from To Willie. Watch it here.

If you paid attention to the commercials during the Super Bowl yesterday (great game!) you may have noticed a familiar-sounding acoustic chant number in the background of a John Turturro-starring Heineken spot. Turns out to be none other than “Higher Than the End,” from 17 Dots fave Twi the Humble Feather! A shocking turn to [...]

I love everything about this. I hope that when I am in my 70s, I am doddering around my apartment in my Emperor shirt.

Looks like it’s Video Day on 17 Dots. I subscribe to the daily culture newsletter Very Short List (it’s pretty great, I highly recommend!) and today’s was particularly rewarding. Here’s the backstory:
Thirty-nine years ago, a 14-year-old named Jerry Levitan managed to talk his way into John Lennon’s Toronto hotel room. Impressed by the kid’s chutzpah, [...]

So last night at the Barbican there was a performance of songs from the last two Scott Walker records, Tilt and The Drift entitled, appropriately enough, Tilting & Drifting. Inexplicably, I was in New York and not in London last night for this performance. Why? Because I’m an idiot.
Short form: since Scott is notoriously [...]

I first saw Bishi perform one very hot night in the summer of 2006 at east London’s Bistroteque. The audience had started to blow out the candles on their tables – even the tiny amount of heat produced by a tea light was too much. The room was nearly dark when Bishi appeared, using her [...]

Did you sleep on that Au album that we were big-upping back in May? Watch the video above and see if you have second thoughts!

Not all of the best bands tour or even put out records. Some of them don’t even exist. As it’s Friday, take some time out from reality and have a look at a selection of fiction’s finest musicians.
The Good
Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem – The Muppet Show

The best-non human rock band in the [...]

Shocking, I know. See a somewhat cringeworthy Borders shopping session with Schwartzman and Wes Anderson and you’ll get gems like (I’m paraphrasing): “The Beach Boys are great,” “Abba, one of the best bands ever,” and “This is my new band Coconut Records. Google me.” Okay, that last one was a direct quote.
You think Schwartzman [...]

A while back, an intrepid amateur film editor synced up Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage” with scenes from Once Upon a Time in the West to breathtaking results. This mock-up video for Black Mountain’s magnificent “Angels” is of a similar spirit, matching the Canadian psych ensemble’s hazy masterpiece to college fave Wim Wenders’ [...]