My Blood is Still Warm

As finals roll around for the last time during my law school career, I find myself a tad behind on the music news that matters. I'd heard rumors about the following, but it's nice to see it a reality. On June 13, Matthew Sweet's masterpiece Girlfriend will be reissued with b-sides and an extra disc, the Goodfriend promo that has always been quite a collectible. Good stuff. It's not clear whether it will be remastered, but let's hope.

Superdeformed is one of the extras on this version of girlfriend. Check out the video below.

Put on the Telly to the BBC

Under the Covers, Vol. One was released last week (remember, the collaboration between Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs where they cover delightful 60s tunes?). Got my nifty autographed copy in the mail from Not Lame. Gotta love Not Lame. How cool to have a CD booklet touched by both Sweet and Hoffs (it just adds to my Sweet collection)! Anyway, for a covers album, it's as peachy as you'd want it to be with their candy like voices oozing over both classics and obscurities. It's a neat formula that works, and their voices blend ever so nicely.

Here's a great loose and casual interview with Sid n Susie courtesy of Bullz-eye. It would be pretty cool to just get all music-geek with those two. And what?!? Hoffs was born in 59? Dang, she's still got some nice gams.

Instant Karma's Gonna Get You

Want to know what John Lennon would say nowadays? Well for only $9.95, you can find out what that is. Yep, you heard right. Listen to the rock icon 25 years after his death.

John speaks via Electronic Voice phenomenon (EVP of course, not to be confused with ESP) from one of his favorite New York restaurants.

I wonder what he has to say? "It sucks to be dead and I've got all this phenomenal music to release" is what I'm betting on.

Look Around and Choose Your Own Ground

Roger Waters has announced tour dates this year. I'm hoping David Gilmour will announce some North American tour dates as well and end up playing the same town as Waters. Perhaps they will see each other, hug, say "Live 8 was cool," and rip into a full performance of the Wall. Fans can dream, yes? Evidently, half of Waters' show will be a complete run-through of Dark Side of the Moon. Thanks, stereogum.

On a related note, the comments to stereogum's post has some amusing anecdotes about the sync between Dark Side and Wizard of Oz. I actually tried this once much to the chagrin of my wife and friend. My buddy got bored ten minutes in or so, but I stuck it out. There are some interesting coincidences, but if you compare those with every part where it really doesn't sync, you'll realize that we're all dumbasses for ever believing it in the first place. See for yourself, but don't expect the best quality.

And no, I wasn't under any influence during this experiment. I'm just a geek looking for any excuse to listen to Pink Floyd while watching one of the most creepy yet endearing movies I've ever seen.

Joining A Fan Club

Those crazy bastards in the UK are planning a new Jellyfish release for 08 May 2006 and barely even told me about it.

Despite EIL's description, I don't really see anything truly unique or exclusive. The non-album tracks seem to be pulled off of the various singles and EPs as well as the quintessential Not Lame Boxed Set.

Regardless, being the completist that I am, I will certainly pick this one up. Because it's Jellyfish. And me gusta Jellyfish. A lot.

The World is a Vampire

Billy Corgan reunites/reinvents the Smashing Pumpkins. Wow, I'm shocked. I mean, Zwan and his solo album were such huge hits.

I'm what you'd call a casual fan of the Pumpkins. I appreciate their similar Chicagoland roots and I dig some of their tunes. I'm probably one of a few fans of their last three electronic-tweaked albums. I saw them at Hilton Coliseum in the mid to late 90s and it was entertaining if not a bit self-indulgent.

Good luck in trying to avoid irrelevance, Billy.

You Were Sometimes Hard to Find

So little news, so few posts.

Listen to the entire new Charlatans album, Simpatico, here. It's good.

Previously...

Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

There's been a severe lack of images around here lately. To rectify this dreadful situation and give you fine readers some color to wow at, see below. It's from Yahoo!'s most emailed photos slideshow, and I consider it an homage to one of our faves around here.

Being Attractive Is the Most Important Thing There Is

Want to check out a live show tonight but nobody is in town and you don't want to spend $30 on gas to go to your nearest cool city to see somebody? Nada Surf's performance at LA's Henry Fonda's Theatre can be heard tonight at 8 on AOL Music. If you listen closely enough, you may actually hear a hip celebrity or two trying to up their cred by singing along to Popular.

Na, Na, Na, Na Na Na Na, Hey Jude

Apple Corps Managing Director Neil Aspinall confirmed that Apple Corps is remastering the entire Beatles catalogue (note British spelling :-) for online distribution.

In other Beatles news, Michael Jackson is selling up to half is stake in his song catalog including the Beatles.

It's My Birthday Too, Yeah!

Today, we are one ... year old that is.

For giggles and shit, I decided to quickly tally the ten artists we've posted most about. There should be no real surprises by this list, and some are definitely more worthy than others:
1. Paul McCartney (naturally, a new album and tour stop in Des Moines)
2. The Beatles (where would we be without?)
2. The Posies
4. Matthew Sweet
4. Guster
6. Jellyfish (including Roger Manning's solo work)
6. John Lennon (25th anniversary of his murder)
8. The Flaming Lips (buzz whores after all)
9. Pink Floyd (including David Gilmour and Roger Waters)
9. Owsley (wtf?)

This doesn't represent the many newer artists that we've featured that will and should get more attention in the future.

We're a pretty modest blog, and that's the way we like it. We never set out to make money or be cool. We just wanted to share poppy music and music news with others of like minds. We hope you enjoy what we do and we always appreciate suggestions. We know there are a few lurkers out there, and we are grateful. Don't be shy, though. Feel free to comment and share too poppy with others, if you find us worthy.

Special thanks to our other contributors: Way2Poppy (Atlanta), BonjiPop (Des Moines), Dirty Pop (Des Moines), and country feedback (Omaha). Good shit, guys. Good shit.

Turn Off Your Mind, Relax, and Float Downstream

Capitol keeps messing up the Beatles catalog. Beatles box volume two out on Tuesday.

Check out this great story on Beatles famed engineer Geoff Emerick and his new book. Fascinating that his first job with them was Tomorrow Never Knows. Hell of an accomplishment.

I Made a lot of Mistakes

New Pantheon Award winner Sufjan Stevens follows up Illinois with The Avalanche on July 25. It really is Illinois Vol. Two, which I imagine is what many fans would really want anyway. Speaking of fans, you better believe stereogum is drooling about this. Maybe it's time for me to actually pick up Illinois...hype can be a killer for me.

Now It's Time For You

Avion, the band fronted by Steve Bertrand, formerly of the Tories, has some new tunes to check out on its space.

I'll Confide in You the Truth this Time

Looking for some live Jellyfish? I'm talking the musical variety, not the pee-on-the-sting variety. jefitoblog has posted MP3s of the entire second disc of the great Jellyfish box set released a couple years ago on Not Lame that has since gone out of print. Excellent. Way to be in the game, Dirty Pop!

MP3: Jellyfish - Let 'Em In / That is Why (live) (via)
MP3: Jellyfish - No Matter What (via)

You Are The Words, I Am The Tune, Play Me

Kavasoft's iTunes Catalog builds a nice iTunes-like or iPod-like web page interface featuring all your music from Apple's iTunes.

Check out Way2Poppy's Music Collection: iTunes Format | iPod Video Format | iPod nano Format