When Jenny Lewis took her first steps away from Rilo Kiley, she had the Watson Twins as a sonic compass to help guide her through uncharted waters. It was an interesting new direction for the former child TV star, but ultimately lacked focus and ended up a bit muddy. Many, myself included, have really been looking forward to hearing what she’d do all on her own.

Acid Tongue was recorded mainly live over just three weeks in Van Nuys, CA, and produced by Johnathan Rice, the knob-twister on Rilo Kiley’s most recent LP, 2007’s Under The Blacklight (he’s also her boyfriend). Acid doesn’t possess nearly the same polished shine as Blacklight (an entirely intentional move), but through the more stripped, grittier delivery fans will find familiar ground in Lewis’ clever little lost-love meditations and meanderings. There’s just a lot more stompin’ going on.

Portugal. The Man is one of those bands that you just never find out about if a friend doesn’t tell you about them. They’re not really for mass consumption, and their handlers seem to be aware enough of that fact to be concentrating less on broad marketing campaigns and more on just getting their music out there and letting it speak for itself. And in this case, we’re happy to help.

If I was in Portugal. The Man, I would probably be pretty sick of people comparing my band to The Mars Volta, as if there’s no more than two bands in the universe that make music that sounds like this. Then again, in all fairness to reviewers, it’d probably pretty hard to find another psychedelic, spastic latin jazz-metal band with an eccentric, wailing frontman fond of high registers.

Fortunately for everyone, Portugal. The Man brings a creativity entirely their own to the table.

Richard Wright
1943-2008

With a seamless flow that transcends the simple two-track mash-up, Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis) weaves instrument or vocal tracks from several sources at once, but never stays on one idea long enough to get used to- or tired of- it. He mixes Jay-Z with Radiohead, Busta Rhymes with the Police, Outkast and The Jackson 5, Mary J. Blige with The Guess Who. And that covers about a minute and a half of one song.

While professional sample mashers still have a long way to go to be the household names that more traditional musicians are, Girl Talk is riding the crest of the rising wave of popularity this relatively young genre is thriving on. And rightfully so; his songs are mile-a-minute dance tracks that don’t allow for casual listening. I’m serious- put Feed The Animals on at a party and see if there’s one ass not shaking in the room within thirty seconds. You can’t not dance to this.

Flipping through the channels last night, I happened to stumble on something we rarely see nowadays: a real live rock concert.

The Who played a show at the Gaumont State Theater in London on December 15th 1977, 9 days after I was born. It was recorded on 35mm for the Who rockumentary film The Kids Are Alright, and PBS aired the whole thing for the first time- remastered, digitally restored, the works- last night.

I was astonished.