The Biggest Cry Baby Mix You Ever Will Hear

So i started physical therapy for ye olde broken down back today, and suffice to say, it was not a painless affair. As such, i'm circumventing witty and going straight for tears.

You, you lucky bastard, get the Biggest Cry Baby Mix You Ever Will Hear, assuming my barely suppressed sobs don't get in the way. Seriously, call me a baby all you like (certain folks pay big bucks for that kind of treatment), but having a catheter inserted wasn't as painful as today's workout back spasms.

mp3: I Cry Alone (The Black Keys from thickfreakness)

mp3: I'm Not Crying (Flight of the Conchords from The Distant Future)

mp3: Cry for Help (Flying Lotus from July Heat)

mp3: Cry Out Your Name/As the Crow Flies (Frank Bang from Frank Bang's Secret Stash)

mp3: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams from The Ultimate Collection)

mp3: City Don't Cry (Jimmy Page & Robert Plant from No Quarter--Jimmy Page & Robert Plant)

mp3: Cry Me a River (Joe Cocker from Mad Dogs & Englishmen)

mp3: The Sky is Crying (Stevie Ray Vaughn from The Sky is Crying)

mp3: I Saw Gener Cryin' in His Sleep (Ween from Pure Guava)

mp3: Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Willie Nelson from Red Headed Stranger)

mp3: Cry Baby (Janis Joplin from Pearl)

mp3: Tears in the Typing Pool (Broadcast from Tender Buttons)

Maybe Not the Greatest You Ever Will Hear, But A Pretty Damn Good Robot Mix Nonetheless

OK, i've got a boatload of reviews and freebies i need to get to, but guess what? That ain't happening today, my friends. Work has been hectic, and equally if not more importantly, i need to get my ass to the Velvet Lounge to go catch the early show with the Elastic Waste Band headlining. Who are they? Just the remaining members of Morphine with a Delta Blues Man sitting in for Mark Sandman. Too bad the Lounge's website is sucky, and they won't answer their own phone to tell folks when the show actually starts, because the real losers here are the LET readers deprived of the daily fix of little heard gems as dictated by yours truly.

And the Flyers. They're losers, too.

Fortunately, apropos of absolutely nothing, i've been sitting on a robot mix for some time now. i'd like to say it's The Greatest Robot Mix You Ever Will Hear, but that might be pushing it this time. i'd probably need some Heartbeeps clips to reach that stratosphere, but this one is pretty damn good nonetheless.

Without further ado, it's Maybe Not the Greatest You Ever Will Hear, But A Pretty Damn Good Robot Mix Nonetheless.

mp3: Robots in the Garden (Autolux from Future Perfect)

mp3: Freak-A-Zoid Robotz (RMXXOLOGY Theme) (Delicious Vinyl All Stars feat Bobby Evans from RMXXOLOGY)

mp3: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (Live On The BBC) (The Flaming Lips from Future Soundtrack for America)

mp3: Robots (Live) (Flight of the Conchords from The Distant Future)

mp3: Orion's Belt Buckle (Free the Robots from Ctrl Alt Delete)

mp3: Do You Like Robots? (Mike Doughty from Smofe and Smang)

mp3: Revelation of the Robots (Luke Kuzava from Zombies Can't Dance)

mp3: Grocery Robots (Patton Oswalt from My Weakness is Strong)

mp3: Tonight (The Robot Ate Me from Carousel Waltz)

mp3: Death Star Droid (Robot Koch from Death Star Droid)

mp3: Mr. Roboto (Styx from Kilroy Was Here)

mp3: Paranoid Android (Sia covering Radiohead from Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads)

And, of course, the greatest robot dance i've ever seen, which means it's probably that much greater than the greatest you thought you had seen prior to seeing this one. Or something like that.

Megan's Top 25 of 2009: 25-21

What a group that kicks things off in this first set of five. We’ve got beloved old friends, wonderful new friends, and a rather humorous not-Australian folk-parody duo. Here’s the skinny on the first fifth of albums in my top 25 of 2009.

Beloved Welsh spacestonerpopsters Super Furry Animals get things going at #25 with yet another great record. While it didn’t quite make me fall in love as much as others (And I’ll say right not that if you don’t own the classic Furries record Fuzzy Logic, hang your head in shame), Dark Days/Light Years is still a mighty fine listen. How can you not dig an album with a song called “Crazy Naked Girls?” The bonus being that it, like so many songs here, is quirky, wacky, and unmistakably Super Furry. SFA is definitely, definitely still ok.

mp3: Crazy Naked Girls (Super Furry Animals from Dark Days/Light Years)

I’m going to go out on a limb here and declare The Young Sinclairs not only #24 on my Top 25, but also one of the top 5 bands in all of this here great Commonwealth of Virginia. Who knows, they might even be the best within state lines. Pay attention to the name, friends, because trust me this band could (and should) get big. Songs of The Young Sinclairs isn’t technically a “new” record, it’s a collection of songs pulled from various Sinclair records and EPs. Released on Kindercore, it shows off their brand of neo-psych that takes heavy cues from the California sound of the 60s.

mp3: Cancelled Flight (The Young Sinclairs from Songs of The Young Sinclairs)

The Raveonettes return with yet another record of shoegaze-cum-surfy retro pop, sitting pretty at #23. While not quite as mind-blowing as 2008’s Lust Lust Lust, In and Out of Control is a darned fine record. And I’ve gotta get behind a record with the whole “Boys Who Rape (Should Be Destroyed)” thing. It’s a little bit dark, but these Danes sure know how to make misery sound beautiful.

mp3: Breaking Into Cars (The Raveonettes from In and Out of Control)

The darling Kiwis of Flight of The Conchords might have broken hearts (including mine) by announcing their hit HBO show wouldn’t return for a third season, but they also induced some serious giggles with their second collection of ridiculously amusing songs. I Told You I Was Freaky is full of comedic highs, some of my favorites being the saucy ode to the other male anatomy, “Sugalumps,” the absolutely hilarious “Too Many Dicks (On The Dancefloor)” to which we owe the terms “brodeo” and “bro-ho ratio,” and the somewhat bizarre Russian folk epic about cannibalism on the high seas, “Petrov, Yelyena and Me.”

mp3: Sugalumps (Flight of The Conchords from I Told You I Was Freaky)

Elvis: quite a big name to fill, but #21 Elvis Perkins does admirably. “Come with me/I’ll take you anywhere,” he croons deliciously in “Hey,” and I believe him hook, line, and sinker. Elvis Perkins in Dearland is filled with glorious swirling tracks and Perkins’ buttery voice. First song “Shampoo” was my introduction to the record, and it’s just one of the lovely tunes that await the listener.

mp3: Doomsday (Elvis Perkins in Dearland from Elvis Perkins in Dearland)

And there you have it, friends, part one of...several. Stay tuned for further revelations, coming soon.

Megan's Top 18 of 2008 - #14 - Flight of the Conchords

I'd like to clarify one thing before I go any further: I am not a fan of comedy albums. Even when I thought Weird Al was hilarious, I never owned a single one of his (many) albums. I haven't really watched a "comedy" show since "In Living Colour" went off the air. I managed to resist the pair of Kiwis known to the world as Flight of the Conchords for many moons, until one day my best friend Laura turned their self-titled album on while we were tooling around the California desert last April. From that moment on, friends, I was hooked. When Laura and I started having FOTC night, wherein we would watch episodes of their HBO show and drink wine and coo over how funny the boys are, I began to morph into a straight up fan.

From the opening, Serge Gainsbourgian "Foux de Fafa" to the Pet Shop Boy beats of "Inner City Pressure" to the too cute white boy rap of "Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenoceros", it's one clever, damned catchy song after another. No genre or artist is spared the Conchordian treatment. "Think About It" owes its existence to Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On". "Prince of Parties" reminds me a smidgeon of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" with some early Bowie thrown in for good measure. Yet even more superior to the aforementioned songs are my trio of favorite Conchordian songs; "Robot Boom", wherein robots take over the world and "the humans are dead", backhanded ballad "The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)", and my all-time favorite, "Bowie", in which Brett and Jemaine do their best Bowie impressions and sing about sparkly jumpsuits and nipples. It's a must-listen. There's also this little song they do, you might perhaps have heard it, something about "Business Time". Yeah, that's pretty good too.

And in closing, I have but this to say. If loving comedy rock parodies is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Live Review: Flight of the Conchords @ Lisner Auditorium, May 9

I don't have HBO, so for a long while I was immune to the charms of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, otherwise known as Flight of the Conchords. Thanks to the due diligence of my friend Laura, however, I was soon a Conchords devotee. I'm even writing this review while wearing my "Redheads not Warheads" tee, bought at the Lisner Auditorium show. But enough about me.

Not ones to shirk the responsibility brought on by fame and fortune, Jemaine and Bret had scheduled not one but two gigs at Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University's event space. The hall was stuffed to the gills, all of us waiting with baited breath to see New Zealand's current favorite sons get their comedy-parody-rock on. And comedy-parody-rock they did, for close to two hours.

The stage was simply set with two stools and an assortment of instruments. Arj Barker, himself on the Conchord's HBO series, opened the show, and got the masses good and warmed up with his jokes about Manassas, having kids (or not, as the case may be), and the perils of modern technology. And then, ladies and gentlemen, it was time for...Flight of the Conchords!

With Barker's introduction, the place erupted into hoots and hollers and shrieks, and the two unassuming Kiwis strolled to their seats with unassuming nonchalance. For the next two hours the duo had the place in stitches, pretty much non-stop. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard, and by the end of the night my face hurt from so much unabated grinning. Affable and eager to please, Clement and McKenzie powered through extended and adapted versions of songs from both the HBO series and the songs pulled therein from the series onto their first CD with Sub Pop. To my chagrin, the delightfully camp Serge Gainsbourg-esque "Foux de Fa Fa" didn't make the cut, but I was appeased with a stellar version of "Bowie," the duo's homage to the many different sounds and visions of David Bowie (and his pointy nipples). Clement's Bowie voice was even more freakishly dead on live, and the song made the crowd go nuts. The biggest ovation came for arguably the biggest hit of the Conchord's television/music career, "Business Time." The bedroom ode to "sweet weekly love" was as saucy and hilarious as can be. At one point the pair abandoned their perches to sit at the lip of the stage, a move that caused a great deal of squealing from the ladies in the audience. There was a good deal of both audience "participation" and crowd banter, which added to the overall joviality of the evening.

Clement and McKenzie could do no wrong on this night, and the laughs kept coming. They showed DC just why HBO gave them their own show, and why Sub Pop inked them to a deal. They are intensely funny, but more than that they are ridiculously likable. The success of the Conchords has as much to do with their material as it does their personalities, and if the show at Lisner was any indication, this pair of (pretty foxy) Kiwis has a long, glorious career in front of them.