++This Melanie Fiona video puts a new spin on the ol' woman done wrong lament. Drama! I wanna feel bad for this girl but seriously how bad can her personal predicament be when the hair is flawless? At least be sportin' some split ends, stray roots, a mustache, or something. Fiona's album, in which she samples The Zombies and Martha and the Vandellas, is getting much buzz.

++Entertainment Weekly suggests sneaking beverages (and if the commenters are to be believed, some Gas-X) into the Kenny Chesney 3D cinematic concert experience.

++Mr. Gnome video: Holy scary and trippy rabbits. Jeez people, just give them your Trix already.

The duo will be performing at the Silverlake Lounge on the 24th of this month. This song, from the new album Heave Yer Skeleton starts off delicately and intellectually, rocks hard in the middle and then calms down again. It was recorded at Josh Homme's Pink Duck Studios, so I imagine that they had to shred whenever he opened the door and checked in on them.

Mr. Gnome: Vampires.mp3 (Recommended!)

The inbox calls....:

++Exciting news for us Olds: George "One Thin Dime" Benson will be making an appearance on Jimmy Fallon tonight backed by The Roots.  Now if they can just get Bill Withers out of hibernation. (There is a documentary coming out, though.)

++Who's up for some yodeling? Hawksley Workman's (pictured above) album For Him and The Girls is out November 17th and his sound is appealingly eclectic-laydeehoo.

Hawksley Workman: Maniacs.mp3

++Colin and Carson: That's just too cute.

++Bloody Right: The Bravery's new album Stir The Blood comes out December 1st and will fittingly be part of the Vampire Diaries soundtrack. Listen to the new single below and buy it here:

The Bravery: The Spectator.mp3

++Aw shoot. Idolator won't be the same.

World traveling DJ and master networker Paul Oakenfold (Dang, who *wasn't* at Studio 54? It's just like Woodstock. That place must have been the size of a colosseum) has been spending a lot of time at Palms in Las Vegas as of late. He's done a new song called Firefly with British "singing sensation" Matt Goss, who penned the main song for Fox's So You Think You Can Dance. (I'll have to take Google's word for it..) and founded the Pussycat Dolls. Goss can be seen performing Firefly below from his album Gossy, which is also the name of a room named for him in Vegas. He's a big deal but I'm just now hearing of Goss, and his penchant for turning his name into an adjective:

This fresh faced fellow is Will Stratton, friend of Sufjan, direct descendent of the Earl of Stratton. No just made that last part up. What is true is that Stratton's song below is one of the prettiest I've heard in recent memory. Luxurious is the word that comes to mind, like an old Beth Orton song. The Yolo County singer-songwriter took three years to finish his second album, No Wonder, while finishing a degree at Bennington College and acknowledges that you can't please everyone. Such wisdom at such a young age.

Will Stratton: Who Will.mp3

There's a very otherworldly, almost indoctrinating quality in the voice of the woman narrating this video about Moonalice, a band put together by frequent Stopokaygo subject T-Bone Burnett that includes G.E. Smith, who used to be the bandleader on SNL and Jack Casady, former member of Jefferson Airplane.
 
Back to the narrator, I'm sure I'm just imagining that her voice sounds hypnotic but after watching this video I feel the sudden urge to flap my arms like wings, peck at the air and I'm finding T-Bone Burnett extreemmely attractive.

Other fun facts about Moonalice:

++In addition to the musicians collaborating on the project, Moonalice also works with artists in San Francisco who give away a free original poster at each show.

++And, according to the video, T-Bone Burnett has come up with "Code Technology" that creates "optimized versions for all playback systems." Mere mortals pale in comparison to the Great T-Bone. All hail T-Bone.

Aww yeah. Here's the song of the week, an older one via Red Threat. A real simple video above, that shows The Shoes walking through an Osaka, Japan shopping center with people who are, umm... movin. If they were gonna go the literal direction why not go (as Bruce Willis might say) full throttle, and show people movin' on the People Mover. Or interviews with Jim Carrey. He's always movin' while he speaks.

The French make it all sound so effortless. The song is a fun fleeting moment, as most fun moments are. Recommended!:

People Movin' and its remixes will be released on November 9th.

(via Subterranean on MTV2)

There isn't much that I don't not like (oops triple negative again) about this video for the song What The World Is Coming To by The Swimmers. It might just be because I've been doing a little re-decorating and the colors/paint, vines and tile in the apartment where the video is filmed are divine and inspiring. Was the whole thing just a dream or just another case of someone having just watched The Joy Behar Show?  The song itself, while emotional, stays nice and tight and doesn't overdo the handclaps. The Swimmers' album People are Soft is out today on Mad Dragon.

What This World Is Coming To from the swimmers on Vimeo.

The Swimmers: A Hundred Hearts.mp3