National Spelling Bee

Now this is funny. Really funny.

Top Gear

Top Gear is awesome. It's a TV show that's been on the BBC for 10 seasons and is now been being showed on BBC America. Ostensibly it's a show about cars, but you don't have to be a gearhead to enjoy it. The best episodes are the specials that challenge the hosts to buy a cheap used car and hit the road while overcoming a series obstacles.

Check out their roadtrip through Alabama. Hilarious.

Gator Rasslin'

Gator Rasslin'
Originally uploaded by SDClark5

Inspired by my Uncle Wes we've acquired a slide scanner and have started the process of digitizing our slides. Embarrassing as they might be I'll upload them to FlickR.

Note: The process of scanning, tweaking, tagging, and uploading takes some time so they'll show up in drips and drabs.

If Facebook Was Real Life

Brilliant

SW Alert

You might want to take a vacation day on Friday, August 29. Reason. Patty Griffin is playing the BellyUp on Thursday August 28th. Eth and I have tickets.

Time To Do The Talking

Jeff And Annette's Pasta and Wii Party

Amie Street/Oh Laura

Music download site, Amie Street, has been around for a couple years now. But before yesterday I had never used it. Amie Street's concept is that customers collectively determine the price of every song. All songs start free and rise in price up to 98 cents, based on their popularity.

Although they do have a few name site artists, my browsing on the site never turned up anything very interesting. However, yesterday while reading some music blogs I came across a group from Sweden, Oh Laura, whose album is being sold on Amie Street. So, for the very reasonable price of $2.55 I own 10 of their songs.

Amie Street

Oh Laura on MySpace

Touch, Feel, & Lose

I love the fact that Ryan Adams constantly re-constructs his songs, but this live 2001 version of Touch, Feel, & Lose destroys everything that came after.



A later version from the Jamaica DVD.

This Is Cool

Tim Nobel and Sue Webster have a very cool take on using garbage to create art.

More here

Weezer's Tribute To the Stars of YouTube

Genius

Amos Lee

An Amos Lee performance on Letterman a couple years ago is what awakened me to the fact that there is a lot of great music being made today. It seemed like Lee has been off the grid for a while, but apparently he's been productive. He has a new album coming out on June 24th.

You can tell he's toured extensively with Dylan on this track.

Ease Back

A local radio station is putting on a one day music festival on Sunday, June 8th. I'm a bit old for Woodstock reenactments, but looking at the line-up - I'm tempted.

Flogging Molly
The Hold Steady
Cold war Kids
MGMT
The Whigs
Ting Tings
Santogold
Nortec Collective

On Radar: Frightened Rabbit

Hot enough for you?

I'm a little ticked that I didn't buy myself a ticket to the now sold out Kooks show. But, I do have a ticket see the The National at the end of the month. Which leads to Frightened Rabbit. This Scottish group kinda reminds of TN.

Modern Leper

Backwards Walk

Poke

Head Rolls Off

Field Trip: Kathleen Edwards

Kathleen Edwards at the BellyUp Wednesday May 14

She rocks. KE doesn't have a huge voice, but she's a terrific songwriter and her band is excellent. I think she has to go on my Must See List*.

She'll be on Leno Friday night.

* Must See List:
(not to be confused with my list of bands I want to follow around in a VW van)

Oops. Updated list.

Amos Lee
Jackie Greene
M Ward
Bright Eyes
Modest Mouse
KT Tunstall
Polyphonic Spree
Band of Horses
Okkervil River
Pete Yorn
Vampire Weekend
Kathleen Edwards
Brett Dennen
Two Gallants

Bill O'Reilly Remix

You've probably seen the Bill O'Reilly meltdown video that's be floating around the intertubes the last few days. I like this remix much better.

Death Cab on Letterman

Nicely done, and I think Letterman likes 'em.

Blip.

I like this site. Blip. is a very simple and straight forward music sharing site. With a couple of clicks you can post a streaming mp3 and a short Twitter like message.

You can sign up here

You can find me here

FriendFeed

If you have an interest in following your friends' activities around the net (think global Facebook news feed), you'll want a FriendFeed account.

You can follow me here

Inside Baseball

This will only be of interest to the extreme inside baseball seamhead baseball fan.

So, if that description applies, Paul DePodesta formerly of the front office of the A's and Dodgers and currently working for the Padres has started writing a blog.

You can find it here

Stuck!!

I am stuck on level 28 (769721).

America's Pastime

Here's a great song about baseball and hallucinagenics from one of my favorite stoner singer songwriters, Todd Snider

My Morning Jacket

A little MMJ news to report. The Louisville quintet will be performing on SNL Saturday night, and they just announced an extensive American tour.

Here are some note worthy dates.

Fri. 09-19 Berkeley, CA - Greek Theater
Sun. 09-21 Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theater
Tue. 09-23 Tempe, AZ - The Marquee
Wed. 09-24 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
Thu. 09-25 San Diego, CA - SDSU Open Air Theater

Some classic MMJ from their latest album: I'm Amazed

SW Recommends: Asking For Flowers

I have been listening to a lot of Kathleen Edwards's stuff this week in anticipation of going to see her at The BellyUp next Wednesday. I really like her most recent album, Asking For Flowers. It gets the SW stamp of approval.

Here are a couple cuts.

The Cheapest Key

Sure As Shit

Cool Pix

Chilean Volcano Eruption

More here

Barbara Lapham Is On The Intertubes

Scent Weakly's favorite artist, Barbara Lapham, has her very own corner of cyberspace. You can find her here: Barbara Lapham

Field Trip: KT Tunstall

After a few listens to Tunstall's music, my first impression was that she was a little too far down the pop spectrum for my taste. But, her live shows get rave reviews and given the fact it was a Saturday night (no suffering from sleep deprivation at work the next day) and it was at my favorite venue (Spreckels Theater) we decided to give her a shot.

I'm pleased to say that Tunstall is terrific. She has a strong voice and is a very likable and confident performer.

Black Horse and the Cherry Tree

Brandi Carlile

One of SW's favorites, Brandi Carlile, is headlining a short tour in June. If we weren't getting on a plane bound for London/Paris (yeah, life is tough) on the 22nd, I'd be in a van following her around.

It does look like there's a nice gap between the 6/16 Flagstaff date and the Santa Barbara concert on the 22nd. Perhaps there will be some So Cal dates in the offing.


6-14 Phoenix AZ @ Marquee Theatre
6-16 Flagstaff AZ @ Orpheum
6-22 Santa Barbara CA @ Lobero Theatre
6-23 Santa Cruz CA @ Rio Theatre

Time Sponge

Need something to avoid being productive try Blockorz