Free Legal MP3 of the Week - Cage the Elephant, "Tiny Little Robots"

The band Cage The Elephant was born in the same town I was: Bowling Green, KY. As far as I can remember, the only other band from BG to make it on the national scene was alt-hip hop crew Nappy Roots.

Cage the Elephant has had quite a year--touring England and playing Coachella. When they return from their current European tour they'll play Bonnaroo on June 14. They were recently listed as the free MP3 on iTunes. Here's another one called "Tiny Little Robots".

Get it free at Spinner.com.

Free Legal MP3 of the Week - Friendly Fires, "Skeleton Boy"

MTV still cares about music?

They have free MP3s over at mtv.com.

Go here for a free MP3 of the single "Skeleton Boy" from the excellent UK band Friendly Fires.

Free Legal MP3 of the Week - Van She, "Kelly"

Right now, I'm really into current bands that sound like they made their music in the eighties. M83 is at the top of the list but there are others like Calvin Harris or the provider of this week's free & legal MP3, Australia's Van She.

Well, this track by Van She isn't really very "current" at all. It came out in 2006, back when MySpace still allowed people to download songs from their player. Why did they change that feature? Luckily, Stereogum reposted "Kelly" from Van She's MySpace. You can hear a couple remixes of this song on their MySpace now, including one remixed by M83. Ahh, it all comes full circle.

MP3

Cover Song of the Week - Glen Hansard Covers Justin Timberlake

You know Glen from the movie Once. His cover of Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River" tinges with sadness in the light of his break-up from his Once co-star Marketa Irglova. At least it does until the funny bit at the end.

MP3

Stephen Colbert's "joke" could become a reality

WASHINGTON — Earth to Space Station Colbert: The cosmic joke may be on NASA.

Comedian Stephen Colbert, who couldn't get his mock presidential campaign off the ground, is polling better by aiming higher. He's convinced his many fans to write in his name in NASA's online public vote to name a new room to be added to the international space station.

So instead of NASA's suggested choices — Serenity, Legacy, Earthrise or Venture — the space station's new addition may wind up with the name "Colbert."

The count by mid-Tuesday had votes for the comedian just shy of 115,000 and Serenity trailing at 98,641. More than 451,000 people have voted...

Read the full article here.

Free Legal MP3 of the Week - Gnarls Barkley, "Who's Gonna Save My Soul (Demo)

This is a great, stripped back demo version of one of Gnarls Barkley's best songs. It will be available soon for purchase on the upcoming "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" EP.

Read more about it here.

Download MP3 via Stereogum.com

Nashville Is Manliest City

Nashville is "America's Manliest City" according to a study released today that was commissioned by Mars Snackfood US and its Combos snack food brand.

Cities were ranked on criteria such as the number of professional sports teams, popularity of tools and hardware, and frequency of monster truck rallies. That last part makes me laugh.

The ranking is part of the Combos launch of its Ultimate Man Zone Sweepstakes, which awards prize packages to upgrade men's tailgating, grilling, home theater or gaming "zones."

New York City finished last out of 50 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Cities lost ranking points for "emasculating" characteristics like the abundance of home furnishing stores, high minivan sales and subscription rates to beauty magazines.

Nashville grabbed the top spot in the ranking thanks to its high number of NASCAR enthusiasts, popularity of hunting and fishing, and concentration of barbecue restaurants.

Read the full article and list at WSMV here.

The moral of the story is that I'm not very manly according to these criteria. I've never been to a monster truck rally, I'm not into NASCAR, I manscape, never been/will go hunting, I would love a minivan, wear skinny jeans, and I'm a stay at home dad.

Cover Song of the Week - Patti Smith Covers Nirvana

Patti Smith covering Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

Get it here.

Free Legal MP3 of the Week - William Elliott Whitmore, "There's Hope For You"

Look at him. He looks like your average white indie rocker, right? Listen to him. He sounds like an old black man. He sounds like a Blind Boy of Alabama. There are elements of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits there too.

William Elliott Whitmore is music at its best. He combines blues, soul, gospel, folk, bluegrass, and...well, I could go on.

This is one of those times when I thought, "Oh, my gosh. I've just discovered gold. Why haven't I heard about this guy yet?"

I had several other MP3s lined up for the next several weeks, but I moved them all back for this. Now that I've hyped him up this much, I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. I hope this particular song uplifts and encourages you the way it has me.

The intention of the MP3s on this site has always been to get people interested in artists so they will purchase more music from these artists. There are six albums by Whitmore on iTunes.

Download the MP3 via Spinner.com

Andy Richter to Rejoin Conan O'Brien

When Conan takes over The Tonight Show on June 1, Andy Richter will become the announcer, a role once taken by Ed McMahon for Johnny Carson as well Edd Hall and John Melendez for Jay Leno. I'm still trying to figure out how Stuttering John became the announcer for Leno.

According to MSNBC.com, Conan said in a press release, “Andy is one of the funniest people I know, and we’ve maintained a close friendship since he left ‘Late Night'. We have a proven chemistry that will be an incredible asset to ‘The Tonight Show.’”

Richter will also star in some sketches on the show. Read more here.

I guess this means Joel Godard will be staying in New York.

Free Legal MP3 of the Week - Josh Garrels, "Break Bread":

I saw Josh Garrels at last year's Cornerstone festival and was blown away. It was so refreshing to hear someone who sounded that different from anyone else in the Christian music community. Comparisons could certainly be drawn to Citizen Cope or G. Love & Special Sauce.

Like G. Love, Garrels is a great singer as well as rapper. Unfortunately, you won't hear any MCing on this song, "Break Bread", but I'm choosing it because I can't get enough of his modern hippieish take on this classic Jesus movement folk song that has become known as a communion hymn.

Just so you know, I don't host MP3s at this site and for some reason this song is in a zipped folder from Josh's website.

My favorite line from Tropic Thunder

It wasn't from the movie itself. I loved the movie but for some reason I laughed hardest at a line from the fake behind the scenes stuff on the special features disc. When Robert Downey Jr.'s character Kirk Lazarus slips into a bizarre hysteria. He and a few others from the film play what he calls "Barbecue Night Tactical Grape Soda Learning Games".

Okay, I know. You're thinking, "Eric, that's not funny. I don't get it." Yep, I know. Maybe you had to be there. I mean, go rent the thing.

P.S. I'm mostly writing this post because when I searched "Barbeque Night Tactical Grape Soda Learning Games" after watching the DVD, nothing came up.

Fallon Scores Good Guests

On March 2nd Jimmy Fallon takes over NBC's Late Night, the show once hosted by David Letterman and (until last night) Conan O'Brien, on March 2. And his first week of guests look promising.

Robert DeNiro will be the first guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Musical guest that night? Van Morrison.

The New York Post says other week one guests include Tina Fey, Jon Bon Jovi and Santigold on March 3; Cameron Diaz and Billy Crudup on March 4; Serena Williams, Ludacris and Donald Trump on March 5, and Drew Barrymore and Mario Batali on March 6.

Perhaps the craziest and coolest thing about Fallon's "Late Night" is house band The Roots, who announced they have retired from touring to dedicate themselves fully to the show.

You may have noticed that many of the first week guests already have connections to Fallon. Barrymore costarred with him in Fever Pitch. Tina Fey was his Saturday Night Live castmate and co-anchor of Weekend Update. Several of the other guests hosted or guested on SNL. Cameron Diaz, a good friend of Jimmy, has hosted SNL several times and shined in his "Barry Gibb Talkshow" sketch with Justin Timberlake.

And of course there's this:

INXS singer says broke, homeless after fired from band

SYDNEY — The lead singer of Australian rock band INXS, J.D. Fortune, who was picked to replace the late Michael Hutchence in a contest on a reality TV show, said he has been fired without warning from the band.

Fortune, 35, a Canadian rock singer, was living out of his car when he won the CBS network's 2005 reality TV series "Rock Star:INXS."

He became the frontman for the six-man band, taking the place of 37-year-old Hutchence who was found dead in a Sydney hotel room in November 1997 with a coroner ruling he had committed suicide.

With Fortune, INXS released the album "Switch" and went on a world tour in 2006 and 2007 to promote the album that featured the singles "Pretty Vegas" and "Afterglow."

But Fortune told Entertainment Tonight Canada that INXS fired him literally with a handshake at an airport in Hong Kong, leaving the band without a frontman and with a new album on hold...

Read the rest of the article here.

Cover Song of the Week - The Fray Covers Kanye

Here's a new feature to the blog...and yes, I really will try to post a new one every Thursday.

Our first cover is The Fray covering Kanye West's "Heartless". I found it on Kanye's blog. Created the graphic myself though...in case anyone's wondering.

Click here to visit a site where you can listen to and/or download the MP3.

Random Thought: Batman

If you were a kid and you saw something as scary as Batman, you would not feel safe.

You would poop your pants.

M.I.A. Wants To Sing At The Oscars Through A Hologram

M.I.A. wants to sing at the Oscars through a hologram. The 31-year-old rapper - who gave birth to her baby son last Wednesday, just days after she performed at the Grammys - is so keen to sing at the upcoming award ceremony she is considering using a computer-generated image of herself.

M.I.A. is up for an award in the best original song category for her collaboration with Ar Rahman on "O Saya" - a song which features on the soundtrack of the Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire.

Speaking about the new mother's possible Oscar performance, Indian composer Rahman said: "She wants to. In fact, she said she'll do it with a hologram. She has all these ideas. I don't know how it's going to be possible, though. Having a baby is such an important thing in your life - more important than winning an Oscar."

Read the rest of the article at icelebz.com.

American Idol Prediction

Danny Gokey (who is a worship leader by the way) will be in the top three.

Santogold is now Santigold

Why? No idea. And her people aren't helping, saying simply:

“She’s not telling you why, that’s just how it is. No unpronounceable symbol, no numbers where they shouldn’t be…just plain…Santigold.”

Doesn't really matter to me. She makes great music. Check her out at her MySpace page.

Singing isn't necessary any more.

It doesn't matter what Simon Cowell told you. 2008 was the year we learned that it one no longer needs be able to actually sing in order to have a hit single. Kanye proved that again (twice) last night on SNL.

Oh, don't get me wrong; West's "808's and Heartbreaks" is among my favorite albums of the year. It's just, the man can't sing. T.I. and T-Pain are other rappers who don't actually rap any more but don't actually sing either. It's all about the auto-tune.

It should be stated that though these artists are using auto-tune in a totally new way, hip hop is not the industry that most frequently employs the method. That would probably be country. They just don't make it as obvious. Whereas Kanye wants you to know he's using it, it's mostly live performance and the lack of auto-tune where it becomes (painfully) obvious that Taylor Swift depends heavily upon it in the studio.

So, here I am - a guy who can actually sing. And who cares? Then again, maybe it never mattered. Rolling Stone just named Bob Dylan the 7th greatest singer of all time and I'd say that's pretty accurate.

P.S. There was some auto-tuning on my voice for the KNAPSACKHEROES! EP. I wasn't happy about that.