I haven't eaten at this Manhattan burger joint yet, but I love the sign.

I'm going to have to change the "Seattle Culture" heading soon since I leaped off a metaphorical cliff and moved to NYC, for any readers who do not know me personally. (Are there any?)

First observation? It's a lot harder to get a truly good cup of coffee here! I did find at least one nice place in Manhattan where I'm staying though, at Cafe Grumpy. Not bad. Not bad at all. It's no Vivace though.

I've been exploring the Manhattan neighborhoods: Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, etc.

I love the street food. I got a kabab (bbq'd chicken on a stick, in a hot dog bun with BBQ sauce or ketchup) which was serviceable but sadly raw enough to give me salmonella. Then I had "chicken and lamb over rice" with some white sauce on top which was hot, vital and amazing. It's sort of like arabic teriyaki.

Lastly, my first night in NYC I went to see Portishead at Hammerstein. That was some serious shit. Always wanted to see Beth sing, and I was not disappointed. She did a stripped down no-beat version of Wandering Star that just blew me away! If you have never listened to their newest album, Third, and you like the idea of Portishead a little more abrasive and adventurous, I highly recommend it. They are still a hell of a band after all these years.

These aren't even hits, technically.

I listen to a whole metric crapload of new music, and I'm really diligent about marking songs with a star-rating when something really pops out for me.  Later, I go back and see that plenty of times only one song stood out to me.  These songs are often spectacular in some way, but the rest of the album just doesn't even register as something I want to write about.

These are some songs I've totally fallen in love with but ultimately can't recommend the rest of the album.

First up is indie darling Bear in Heaven, from their album Beast Rest Forth Mouth.  They were indie darlings last year, but they just sounded generic to me.  However, this song You Do You just sounds like some amazing modern Genesis song (minus Phil Collins):

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Next is from Blackroc, a vanity project by otherwise awesome The Black Keys working with a bunch of otherwise awesome rappers like Mos Def, RZA, and Q-Tip.  Sounded great but nothing really quite moved me except for the back-from-the-grave collaboration with some old recording from Ol' Dirty Bastard and a nice verse by Ludacris.  It's a crass rap called Coochie as in "That Coochie got me so confused I don't know what to do."  Note the reverb-dripping Black Keys licks.

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When this song, Fortune Teller by Forest Fire came on, I was so convinced this album was going to blow me away.   It didn't.  But I still love this song about "melting faces with gatlin' gun social skills," that asks the musical question, "why not kill someone you hate?"  I've been feeling like this socially a lot lately.

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Really this whole album by Citay is not bad at all, but nothing else on the album quite carries the spirit of an Angelic Choir led by a leaderless Van Halen.  Check the lovely instramental Careful With That Hat:

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Okay, this song is a tour de force.  I can't even believe someone good enough to do a song like this would do the rest of the songs on his album On Blue Fog as kind of a regular folk album.  The guy is Andew Ethier, and the one hit wonder is a song called On Lies.  I am not shitting you, this song is amazing top to bottom.  Amazing guitar work, amazing Dylanesque singing that runs from growl to howl like necessary, and a spectacular sax solo near the end.  This is a 6:15 journey that I wouldn't mind being on the soundtrack to my autobiography:

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Anyone else have any indie one hit wonders to recommend?   Disagree and think one of these artists has other awesome stuff?  Like or hate one of these songs?

Let me know.

In the nearly final final scene of the spectacular movie Fish Tank, perhaps even more amazing because it's on Netflix on Demand right now, the lead actress, played by the magnificent Katie Jarvis dances with her little sister and mom to Nas' Life's a Bitch (which you can play while you read the rest of the review):

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Dancing is an important part of the movie in its own awkward way, so her dancing with her more innocent sister and less innocent drunken mom ties the whole thing together.

Usually this kind of British poverty stricken youth thing gets kind of tiresome for me, but this movie is something special.  Its acting and writing is immediate and streamlined.  When it's sexy, it's sexy without apology.  It impressed me with its first moments, and I enjoyed it all the way through.

Check the trailer:

My friend Louie just hit me up on IM and the Ida Maria song Louie popped into my head.  I wanted to play him the song, and also realized that I'd never written about Ida Maria, and I really love her.

I can't help thinking she came out in the wrong era.  If she'd released this album alongside Blondie in the 80's I feel like this could have had big hits, and they'd be playing Drive Away My Heart at weddings across the country.

But maybe there's just something too spiky, too howling, too raw, too hookless to really be popular.  I think I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked was meant to be the hit, and it has a damn cool video, but I can't say it's my favorite song on the album:

Cute huh?  Ok, then let's get right to the Louie and play the Louie song for Louie!

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And then the songs I really like the most.  First of all the bomb album opener Oh My God. Weirdly when this album came out I used to like to put this on as I started off to work, and I'm sure if I were a girl it's the kind of thing I'd rock out to in the mirror while I put on lipstick:

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And her drunken send-off, Queen of the World, where she explains why she's so damn drunk:

I got no plans for tomorrow
I got no plans in sight
In fact I'm free this week
I'm free this month
I'm lonely
Lonely this year
I'm lonely forever

But you know, tonight she's Queen of the World. She bumps into things. She spins around in circles.

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I'm not sure why Ida Maria Sivertsen's songs have stuck with me for so long, but to each his own right?

When I first heard Kurt's Vile's album, Smoke Rings For My Halo, I was so expecting something vile.  I was almost disappointed, so I hardly even heard it.

I went back and listened though, and I'm glad I did.  This is some really passionate, low-key Rock n' Roll that makes Kurt sound like some kind of veteran.  Like, he already got famous and this is an album he did years later.

Not really though, Kurt's still an up-and-comer, and I'm about to listen to his other three albums, cause he has my attention.

I'm listening to Puppet To The Man:

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Jesus Fever

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Peeping Tomboy

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And a video from his first album:

Neko Case got so much attention for this album when it came out that I forget sometimes how many people didn't experience her until KEXP started playing the haunting Deep Red Bells.  By then I already was in love with Furnace Room Lullaby.

Neko Case and her wailing power have no like.  She is a monster.   And this isn't the only album where she depicts herself dead.   Hell, even though it's true that this album is about heartbreak and death, theres plenty that's uplifting about it to me.  It's just about being in pain and making an amazing howl of it.  Plus there's a real amazing love song to Tacoma, and you don't see that very often.

Later on, her production gets smoother, and she refines her Women's-Lib-Aware Country Femme Fatale songwriting style to a more polished shine, but here it's not so smooth.  Just rousing country music songs with her voice slicing through everything like a knife.  There isn't a single song I don't love on this album, but there's a few that stand out to me.

First, there's Mood To Burn Bridges, her ode to giving the kiss-off to "Snooty Bitches":

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Then, I am a huge sucker for the watery guitar and Patsy Cline style of No Need To Cry:

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Finally, I think you're ready for the heavy hitter, the astounding South Tacoma Way.  Is it too inexact to just say I consider this an example of some kickass songwriting?  From the very first words, "I put on that sweater you gave me.  I woke up in the kitchen, a few minutes later.  I didn't know how I had gotten there.  Did you guide me?" to "couldn't pay my respects to a dead man, your life was so much more to me, and I chased it away with sticks and stones, but that rage kept following me" to "I can't comprehend the ways that I miss you, they come to life in my mistakes" to "the cross-streets bear your name."  (Which, I'm sure they do.)

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"I had a droam in which my hoart was ripp'd from my chost.  I want'd to punch th' shit out of my g'ography toach'r for doing it, but my hands felt lik' load."

– Who Knows?!

Today I woke up to find out the whole new Fleet Foxes album, Helplessness Blues had leaked.  I had to have it.  Say what you want about the Fleet Foxes.  Maybe you're never in the mood for this kind of music, and consider it too precious or pastoral, but to me the far worse sins in music are being offhand or unenduring.  Fleet Foxes and their new album Helplessness Blues are none of these things.

A few people out there have been playing Bedouin Dress or Battery Kinzie, but I'd like to feature the epic, and probably most experimental (and one of two songs with a slash dividing the title of the song in two.  See also: The Plains / Bitter Dancer).

This is sing is called The Shrine / An Argument, and clocks in at a humble 8:07.  It's got everything that makes the Fleet Foxes the Fleet Foxes, you know, lovely vocal harmonies, and Robin singing his heart out about nature or some shit.  A cover that makes to look like LSD is a required ingredient for enjoying the album.  Plus some squalling, discordant horns and some other weird noises.  But… would I present this to you if it wasn't a badass, manly hunk of song?  No, I wouldn't.  Be among the first to enjoy this fine song:

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As a new commuter, I've only recently discovered the joy of podcasts.  Podcasts are like NPR, but without all the boring stuff, and with a bunch of way cooler stuff.

They soothe me on a ride to the

• I really love the fake-advice driven brotherly hilarity of My Brother, My Brother and Me.  Even when what they're saying isn't funny, they still think it is and their laughter is infectious.
• Sound Opinions is a great music discovery show out of Chicago… like NPR's All Songs Considered but less… feeble.
• And everyone who knows podcasts knows about the perfectly thought-provoking Radiolab, but it's so good I'll mention it anyway.

But, what I came to talk about is my new love: Coverville!

I just got finished listening to the amazing episode #752: Take my cover requests and that's not nearly all! In which:

Some band with a girl singer named Snowblink does possibly the coolest Micheal Jackson cover I've ever heard with Human Nature, from their all Micheal Jacks Daytrotter Session (starts out good, but blew my mind near the middle).  I always liked, but never loved, this song.  They breathe new life into it:

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A band called Hot Buttered Elvis does a spectacular punk-pop cover of Tainted Love.

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And, some guys named Tree Pit, remind me what a fantastic song Eleanor Rigby is.

Plus, the most polite podcast host ever.  This guy is a peach.

This show is great.  Subscribe for yourself.