Blog Round-Up -- Amy Winehouse, Andrew Bird, Annuals, Bloc Party, The Cinematics, Kaiser Chiefs, Mark Ronson

Culture Bully has 13 live songs from an Amy Winehouse show in February.

Good Weather for Airstrikes has a review of the Annuals/Kaiser Chiefs show in NY. I am a huge fan of Annuals (Complete or Completing is still a favorite) and I also really enjoy Kaiser Chiefs, so it's an interesting read. Plus, mp3s.

Good Weather for Airstrikes also has an mp3 from Bloc Party's appearance on BBC Radio 's Live Lounge: a cover of Nelly Furtado's Say it Right. Plus, more mp3s from my favorite source of wacky covers.

BBC's Collective, which is not technically a blog, has an interview with Mark Ronson about his new covers project.

30 frames confirms why all music videos look the same.

The Music Slut covers Spinner's coverage of The Cinematics covering Jeff Buckley at SX, under the headline "Jeff Buckley's Mother 'Teary Eyed' After Cinematics Cover." An impressive example of great pr at work.

I Guess I'm Floating reviews Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha.

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy

It's still cold.

It's bright and blue outside, but it's still cold. Especially for April.

That means, I am still here. On the sofa. Watching really terrible movies on HBO on demand while I read the paper (online), movie reviews (online), music reviews (online), and Interview magazine (on paper?!!!).

We've had a subscription to Interview for a while, but I don't know that I've done more than glance through it. I don't know why (or how) I get it. We have stacks of unread magazines in the coat closet (W, Vogue, Private Clubs, Psychology Today, Vegetarian Times, Domino, Dwell, Marie Claire, Elle, Elle Décor, Saveur, and there may be others). I usually toss magazines in my briefcase when I travel, but I haven't traveled for 3 months.

Anyway, this month's issue has brief feature on Andrew Bird. I actually despise reading features about artists I like. But this one is quite good. It offers brief insights into method, rather than meaning.

Essential New Releases - Andrew Bird, Devin the Dude

Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha.

I have been looking forward to this album for months. The lead single "Heretics" is one of my favorite songs of the year.

Devin the Dude, Waitin' to Inhale.

This may be the album that finally gets him some popular love. What I have heard so far sounds really good.

Download:

Andre Bird, Heretics.

Devin the Dude, What a Job Feat. Snoop Dogg & Andre 3000.

The Week That Was

This was an interesting week. Lots of work and a stomach virus kept me from posting much.

Tonight seemed excellent. I got repeated, adorable calls from my mother who was in Miami as I made up a playlist for my two dearest friends who are each going through break-ups (the master list is about 61 songs long, so I am arranging and editing before I can post it).

As I began this post, I got the panicked phone call and jumped in my car to rescue my friend. So, overall, an improvement in my life and strife in theirs.

I spent a lot of time this week listening to:

1. Break-up/sad/hopeful songs for the Playlist/Mixtape.
2. Andrew Bird. Wow, what songs. I love love love Heretic. It's just extraordinary.
3. The Rifles. I love the live cover of Inbetween Days from Radio 1, in addition to
   
4. Aloe Blacc. I am awaiting my cd from Amazon, while I play the hell out of Gente Ordinaria.
5. Instrumental versions and covers of Am I the Same Girl.