MURAKAMI

Admist swarms of kids, I checked out the Takashi Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum today. Their was a big crowd, and for good reason. The show was really colorful and incredible fun. With the cartoonish figures that populate Murakami's art, it's tough to take the work very seriously, but maybe thats the point.

My Morning Racket

For the last several Saturdays, at approximately 8:00 AM, Ive woken to the sound of a jackhammer, right outside my building, strategically aligned with my eardrum and relentless in its task of refusing me rest.

Yesterday morning, I put my head phones on, broke out the swiffer, and cleaned my apartment. I listened to a little album called Evil Urges, by a little band called My Morning Jacket, from a little place called Heaven. For the unitiated, My Morning Jacket is a Kentucky bred, part hippie, part prog, part dub, part southern soul hard rock band. Theyve been dipped in so many buckets, its hard to describe what they have all over them, other than to say they are covered in awesomness.

Their new jam, Evil Urges comes out in June and it is a gem. See them live.

The P is Free

Portishead is back. Their third studio album, titled Third for some odd reason, is set to be released next week. If youve looked hard enough, you may already have had it for several weeks and had an opportunity to get complelely and utterly spooked the F out by it.

A couple of weeks back the NYTimes said all that needed to be said about the band from Bristol. Worth mentioning again is that its been ten years since they have released anything (and that was a live album).

So it was with great anticipation, and curiosity that I approached Third. Im not 100% sure how I feel about it. It is abrasive throughout and really gloomy. There are brief beautiful moments, but mostly it feels darker and more sinister than their previous efforts, if you can beleive that.

Here is a warmer moment: The Rip

FAIRYTALE FUNK

It's been five years since the German rock band The Notwist released a proper album. 2002's Neon Golden was a revelation. An emotional, textured, rhythmic experience that popped up on many critics Top 10 lists. This critic goes back to it every few months and I still feel its power.

On a recent visit to the hypemachine I stumbled across a song off of The Notwist's new album, The Devil, You and Me, due to be released in May. So, I dug into my google machine and literally tracked down the whole album, which I'm glad I did.

Check out the first single, Good Lies.

HOLY CANOLLI

The 2008 Lollapalooza lineup is crazy good. Though not a complete list, here are those artists Im most excited to see:

Radiohead, Wilco, The Raconteurs, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Cat Power, Grizzly Bear, Jamie Lidell, The Black Keys, The National, Broken Social Scene, Battles, Okkervil River, Rage Against the Machine, Bloc Party, Explosions in the Sky, The Gutter Twins, MGMT, Spank Rock, Mason Jennings, The Gutter Twins, Black Lips, Yeasayer, Booka Shade, Santogold, Louis XIV, ...among others.

I cannot wait to be back in Chicago for what has become the music event of the year, in my opinion.