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Today's Beats

- The White Stripes play a private show for British military vets

- America's 40 Best Music Venues from Paste

- The Beastie Boys announce U.S. tour dates

- The 7th Radiohead LP is almost wrapped!

- The first pre-release page for the upcoming Radiohead LP

Today's Beats

- Here's an excerpt from the new Rolling Stone piece on Amy Winehouse.

- The Village Voice's road-trip playlist.

- Two interesting new exhibitions at the Andy Warhol Museum: "Personal Jesus: The Religious Art of Keith Haring & Andy Warhol" and "Lou Reed: New York".

Big Ben's Beats

When he's not busy taking advantage of Pennsylvania's neolithic helmet law or quarterbacking my hometown Stillers, Ben Roethlisberger is busy listening to his latest CD purchases.

Today's Beats

A.V. Club interview with Jeff Tweedy.

A cut from the new Beastie Boys album, The Mix-Up:
- Beastie Boys - The Rat Cage

Rolling Stone's 15 Worst Albums By Great Bands:
1. Bob Dylan, "Down In the Groove"
2. Rolling Stones, "Dirty Work"
3. David Bowie, "Tonight"
4. Van Morrison, "Beautiful Vision"
5. The Clash, "Cut the Crap"
6. Neil Young, "Old Ways"
7. Van Halen, "Diver Down"
8. The Who, "Face Dances"
9. Elvis Costello, "Mighty Like A Rose"
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "One Hot Minute"
11. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, "American Dream"
12. Aerosmith, "Rock in a Hard Place"
13. Lou Reed, "Mistrial"
14. Morrissey, "Kill Uncle"
15. Led Zeppelin, "Presence"

Arcade Fire + Jonny Greenwood = Joy

2 Live clips: Arcade Fire on SNL

Song 1: Intervention
Song 2: Keep the Car Running

Why Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead is the most original guitar player in the world today.

A few more reasons why.

Today's Beats

Beck - Live at Union Chapel in London
- The Golden Age
- It's All In Your Mind

Today's Beats

- An explosive live performance of "One Big Holiday" My Morning Jacket's 2003 appearance on Conan O'Brien.

- Great live, stripped down Jeff Tweedy performance (use the dashboard on the bottom left side of the page to change the track).

- Hilarious Ricky Gervais (from The Office) interview of Chris Martin.

Today's Beats

One album.
Jimmy Reed - The Legend, The Man
Essential listening. Essential.
The pulsating rhythms.
The sloppily slurred words.
The nagging wife antagonist.
The it-doesn't-get-any-better-than-this harmonica.
The interview.
The history lesson.
The whiskey cigarette cough.
The legend.
The man.

If I ever get around to opening my own pub, this album, Neil Young's Tonight's The Night, Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, and Radiohead's OK Computer will hold down the first four spots in my jukebox.

One video.
Glósóli from Takk... by Sigur Rós. Check it out here.

And four songs.
- "Poor Man's Shangri-La" - Ry Cooder from Chávez Ravine
- "This Mess We're In" - PJ Harvey (featuring Thom Yorke) from Stories from the City - Stories from the Sea
- "Brenda" - The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Orange album
- "Shaggy Dad" - The incomparable Lightnin' Hopkins

What I'm Listening To These Days

Radiohead - Towering Above The Rest Complete
A 410-song, 25-CD set full of obscure demos & promos, live tracks, B-sides, covers, and collaborations. If you can find it, it's worth every pound, every pence. Check out the track listing.

Magic Sam - West Side Soul

My favorite by the late great Sam Maghett. An album that I wore out in the mid-to-late 90's, then shelved for a few years. I dusted it off recently and can't seem to get enough of it these days. Explosive guitar and haunting minor-blues vocals. Pound-for-pound, one of the strongest blues albums - certainly of post-1950's urban blues.

My Morning Jacket - Z
I'm on a Jim James kick at the moment. The first time I listened to this album, I quickly dismissed it as too derivative of the Flaming Lips ("Wordless Chorus"), The Clash ("Off The Record"), and Neil Young on a reverb kick ("Knot Comes Loose"). Boy, was I wrong. This album gets better every time I listen to it - the sign of a truly great record.