The Stroke's first solo gigs were in Japan this summer, and Monday's Spaceland show was a last minute surprise, so while last night was JC's 4th ever solo show, it was most stateside fans' first shot to see his synth-pop makeover in person. With elaborate stage backdrops and light-up costumes for their encore, Julian and band played the 8-track Phrazes along with b-sides like "I'll Try Anything Once." (Sadly "Christmas" didn't come early.) Perhaps the real spectacle was Fabrizio Moretti and Albert Hammond, Jr being mobbed by fans upstairs. The pair posed for pics, signed autographs, and -- since they arrived separately -- fans cheered when they hugged. Andrew Youssef delivers these shots, where you'll also see openers Rainbow Arabia and Julian's drummer's oh-so-controversial Mets jacket. Maybe it's his only jacket, you guys! We've also got the tour itinerary after the jump; NYC shows haven't been announced yet, but we're told those'll happen in January.

The video for The High End Of Low's "Running To The Edge Of The World" features Brian Warner up-close and remorsefully weepy when not beating a bloodied woman senseless. It is a painfully weak attempt at shock, sure. (As Videogum put it: "Maybe we shouldn't judge this video too harshly until we've seen it through the window of our Time Machine on the way back to late 1997, the day before Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' video first aired, when this might have seemed even slightly shocking and not just the obnoxious work of an aging asshole who's run out of ideas.") Thing is, it surfaced the day Rihanna's much-discussed 20/20 interview airs, in which she talks publicly for the first time about being beaten by Chris Brown before the Grammys. The link isn't easy to overlook. Especially with details like these from a Billboard piece posted earlier:

After confirming original reports that he'd bitten and punched her to the point she had a bloody mouth, Rihanna said that Brown had completely "blacked out. It wasn't the same person that says I love you. It was not those... eyes," she said. "He had no soul in his eyes -- just blank. He was clearly blacked out. There was no person when I looked at him. All I kept thinking all the time, 'When is it going to stop? When it is going to stop?'

So what's up, Marilyn? Bad timing? Half-digested transgression? Creative impasse? Sad old man? Desperate P.R.? Discuss.

With all the news of Jarvis writing songs to soundtrack other people's motion picture projects -- some for the Forgetting Sarah Marshall sequel, one for Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox -- it's nice to have him soundtrack one of his own, here in this Stéphanie Di Guisto-directed clip for the title track from his Further Complications LP. It's a Cockerlover's delight, nothing but Cocker, bending over, being folded up and pushed around, mugging for the embed player. Watch:

Grizzly Bear's Amazon-approved Veckatimst has birthed another aesthetically appealing video. (At the beginning of September it was Sean Pecknold's fencing vignettes for "While You Wait For The Others," but the one folks will likely remember most featured exploding choir boy faces.) Here, artist Allison Schulnik creates a smeary rainbow-dripped Claymation landscape for Late Night favorite "Ready, Able." It takes me all the way back to "Knife" for its surreal mix of sadness, repulsion, and a kind of otherworldly beauty.

In conjunction with yesterday's 16th annual European Music Awards, MTV set up a special, free U2 concert at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the 20th anniversary of tearing down the Berlin Wall. And in order to secure the premises or whatever, MTV set up a special Berlin wall of their own, a metal barricade that ran the perimeter of the concert grounds and kept out people who hadn't registered online for a free ticket. A wall keeping people out from freedom? Yes, irony and outrage galore. But those that were lucky enough to be on the right side of the wall were treated to a six-song set of U2's classics, kicking off with Bono yelling "Berlin, Du bist wunderbar!" (Berlin, you are wonderful!)(better than calling yourself a jelly donut) and highlighting with Jay-Z joining the band on "Sunday Bloody Sunday." It's not the first time he's rapped over the song (that'd be at last year's Glasto), but now you can see it happen live, all the principals in place and filmed all nice and MTV-like:

In our continuing Twilight coverage.... For those of you who thought maybe Owl City's Postal Service plagiarism would inspire Ben Gibbard to jam with Jimmy Tamborello on some post-Give Up material forgot he had a vampire movie to promote: The Death Cab singer offered a solo take on The Twilight Saga: New Moon rager "Meet Me On The Equinox" for KROQ. He's in town to perform at the Hollywood & Highland Hot Topic as part of The Twilight Saga: New Moon Talent Tour. Everything ends.

When Pavement first announced their reunion we told you that Matador noted a "details-to-be-determined compilation album planned for release sometime in 2010." Well, as the guys continue adding dates to said reunion tour, they're also offering up some more info re: the comp. As Spiral Stairs noted:

Or vice versa. You guys often accuse the synth-pop crew for not smiling enough, but the Philly/NYC BTW provide the chirpy soundtrack for this joyful new Holiday Season Radio Shack ad. (Thanks for the tip, Zach.) The Caralee-fronted "Life Magazine" does the honors. Too bad they couldn't talk the company into giving it a go with "Sex Ads." It may very well be the most color you ever see connected to the band, so don't blink.

Last Friday, Yeasayer offered the first drop from their forthcoming Odd Blood LP in the form of "Ambling Alp," a chirping and fuzzing, horned and harmonized left-field upper that's as polyrhythmic and propulsive as it is poppy. Maybe you could even classify it as some jubilant strain of modern art-pop (you definitely could at least for the five minutes they played it at the Guggenheim that night). As reported, the single's proper 12" release will come with two remixes, one by chillwave valedictorian Memory Tapes, and then this one, by NYC turntablist Jace Clayton (aka DJ /rupture) & Brent Arnold. There are errant bits of IDM that introduce and segue throughout Yeasayer's original, and they're somewhat present in this remix, but otherwise /rupture and Arnold have no interest in "Alp"'s native mood, shifting the track to a dank ragga dungeon where those same chirps and fuzzes are agents of anxiety, rather than blippy signposts along the way to happy-times harmonies. This is your Yeasayer feeling sort of uneasy about taking all those club-kid drugs.

When Kim Deal's not singing through a distorted mic with sister Kelley in an elaborate Mayan World Series in Brooklyn, she's back in the fold with the reunited Pixies. The group hit the Palladium in Los Angeles (for the first of three nights) to launch their nine-city 20th Anniversary Doolittle tour. Speaking of distortion, No Age got things started. Our trusty photographer Andrew Youssef tells us there were microphone problems for the first couple of songs, but that Dean and Randy, who should be getting used to performing with punk legends, hit their stride toward the end of the set with "Eraser" and "Miner," etc. Throwing a bit of a curve ball, the Pixies opened with B-Sides before jumping into "Debaser" and the promised complete run through of Doolittle, which was followed by two encores. (Besides saying "Gracias" between a few songs, Deal jokingly asked if anyone was coming the following night because they were playing the same thing.) The set was up and down as might be expected on a first night, but the group received a huge ovation that brought them out to center stage for a deserved -- if not for last night, for all time, or whatever -- group bow. We have the setlist and tons of great photos from Andrew.

Boston trio Pants Yell! is anchored by singer/guitarist Andrew Churchman, who deftly maneuvers his band through nine jangly indie-pop songs in less than half an hour on the band's fourth album Received Pronunciation, the first for Slumberland. It follows last year's horn-lined Alison Statton, which came out via ever trusty Soft Abuse. Things are more stripped down this time: You get a taste of the minimalism in the playfully laidback Rene Dongo-directed video for "Someone Loves You." The sound's pleasantly familiar -- I can't believe it's not Butterglory! -- and the guys do a great job weaving a detailed storyline into the track's efficient twee hook. Waste not, want not.

Your local triple-A format radio station's favorite of this year's supergroup explosion stopped by 30 Rock last night. That's M. Ward, Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Yim Yames, singing "Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)," the minor key harp and soul track from Monsters Of Folk's self-titled debut. As has been the case on tour, Centro-matic's Will Johnson is sitting behind the drums, although M.O.F. had an extra-extra special beat maker last night in ?uestlove, and the rest of the most fab Roots crew, who together made what was a simple supergroup into something like a preview of a Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony superjam from ten years into the future. Despite the star power, the song remains the same, but have a look anyway because Questo has a way with them brush sticks.

In an interview with EW, Adam Young (aka laptop sensation Owl City) admits his no. 1 single "Fireflies" and the Postal Service in general "are pretty similar," but at the same time claims he's "a lot more of a Death Cab fan." For example, he'd only heard Give Up "a little bit" before people started pointing out the pilfering:

I've become more of a fan having started Owl City, actually. I had some friends in high school that would have it playing in their cars and stuff. It was cool, but it never really caught my ear. It's kind of ironic, looking back at it, because a lot of people do relate the two projects. I can totally see it now, but I didn't really then, for what it's worth.

It's worth a lot, now that you've sold over 100,000 fireflies. There's more. In the form of an unintentional punchline. (Speaking of which, yes, that's real merch pictured above. Real sad merch.)

At some point during the Very Best's set at Santos last night, Johan Hugo -- the half of production team Radioclit that made the trip overseas with the human manifestation of sunshine that is Esau Mwamwaya -- said something like "Yo I think all the journalists are up front, we need the fans to come up and get wild up here!" (I think he made it sound cooler, or at least more Swedish accented; probably both.) There were two ways to know he was right: the ring of photographers creating a flashbulb barricade up front, with a secondary line of lots of white haired dudes holding notebooks. Then again, this bill was built to spill ink: Between the visa issues that kept Esau out of the country during CMJ, and the lack of any real business/promotional infrastructure for opening Band To Watch Sleigh Bells -- making the Brooklyn duo's under-attended but modestly epic sets during that same week the ones people kicked themselves most for missing -- you could understand why more than one person described the vibe in the Santos basement as that of a "showcase."

Remember every list is like a snowflake. So far this year folks have been focused on the bigger picture, offering their thoughts on the best albums of the decade. Amazon's Editors, though, clearly getting ready for the Holiday season, have jumped out with the first official Best Of 2009 to get our attention. They're in the business of selling things to you, true, but even if I don't agree with a number of the inclusions, this is a pretty interesting, sometimes oddball collection of favorites. Leave it to someone driven by sales and not the hipster zeitgeist to to add variety to what will invariably be a repetitious Winter.

A big part of what made Saturday Night Live's recurring yuletide classic "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" so perfect were the sight gags: Tracy Morgan's dead-eyed dance, Chris Kattan's head shake, even Jimmy Fallon's inability to keep a straight face through triggering the Casio presets. Horatio Sanz's blissfully silly vocal was just the ornament. This version doesn't have any of that -- in fact the vocal is played as straight as "Boombox" -- but it's hard to fuck up a classic. As reported yesterday, Julian Casablancas continues to epitomize NYC awesomeness (even while paying rent in Los Angeles) with a straight-laced downtown rock take on the last decade's finest contribution to the Xmas canon. It sounds like an early Strokes b-side, which is weird! As the malls of America have taught us, it's never too early to get into the gift giving spirit, so give one to yourself with JC's holiday tune.

After kicking things off with the "Secret Agent Man" video, the men of DEVO launched into their debut LP Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, 3-D glasses in place. They didn't stop until the album was done -- tonight it's Freedom Of Choice, as both LPs are getting a re-release -- over a short but incredibly energetic set that drew the likes of Zack De La Rocha and Tony Kanal, cited by photographer Andrew Youssef as a testament to the new wave icons' far-reaching influence. Opening the night was the soulful singing and human beatboxing, performance artist/socially satirical stand-up mindbender Reggie Watts (you're welcome to describe him in less clauses), a suitable fit for a crowd with a bent toward unclassifiably whimsical artists.

Other DEVO bits: Next year the band will release the unofficially titled Fresh, their first album in 20 years. And on Halloween, Pearl Jam donned the red energy domes and covered "Whip It." It looked like this:

The dozen songs on the Sounds From The Anthology Archives digital compilation are each excellent in their own, often hazed-out way. The collection's a mix of rare material that spans the '60s to the '80s and includes Karen Dalton, Betty Davis, Swedish garage rockers the Stomachmouths, Peruvian crew Telegraph Avenue (who turn in the wide-eyed, zoned-out awesome "Happy"), Indianapolis psych band Anonymous, Father Yod's Ya Ho Wha 13, etc. It exists to announce the Live + Archival series, a collaboration between the digital reissue label Anthology Archives and American Apparel's Viva Radio. We're told the series will be "a group of hand picked, exclusive releases culled from unreleased, live, demo and b-side material - all unattainable, until now." The first releases a Fifty Foot Hose live set and a collection of previously unreleased demos/live material from Simply Saucer. (Anthology also does a video series along the same lines. The first thing they put up is an interview with Linda Perhacs that focuses on Parallellograms LP.) Before jumping into all of that, though, here's the opening track from the Sounds comp, Bill Quick's "Take Me Away." As they tell us in the liner notes:

When we told you about the January release of Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga followup Transference (1/26, Merge) and revealed the 11-song tracklist, we included links to live versions of three of the tunes we've already heard along with a little teaser. But over at MySpace, Britt Daniel notes:

This is the first record we've made without a producer or heavy of any kind and I don't know for sure because I'll never hear this record in the same way that someone who didn't make it will, but I think you can tell it. When I listen to it I think, hey, that's how I woulda done it! Which is really what you wanna to hear from a band, isn't it? This one is pure Spoon. For better or worse and all of it.

With that in mind, tease yourself a little harder with a full listen to the studio take of track three, "The Mystery Zone." It's at HypeM.

Dirty Projectors showcased an acoustic "No Intention" at Housing Works this past Spring. Take a break from familiarizing with new DP material, for another stripped-down take on the Bitte Orca tune: They did it this time for Sirius' new XMU Sessions, a series that has upcoming showings from Dinosaur Jr., the Raveonettes, and Thao Nguyen. Those will likely be interesting enough, but it's always a treat watching Dave Longstreth & Co. lay open the intricate guts of their compositions without a safety net.

A few weeks ago, Fool's Gold anchored IAMSOUND's excellent CMJ showcase at Bowery Poetry Club, alongside Golden Silvers, Suckers, NewVillager, etc. A highlight of their set was the infectious, afro-pop amalgamating summertime jam "Surprise Hotel," an endlessly sunny track that's already received remix attention from the likes of Micachu & The Shapes and one of the year's better videos. Its singular status gets another bump today with a pair of reworkings from other corners: there's the Mad Decent Toadz mix, which shifts the locus from Africa to a nightclub by the beach, and a mashup by Wallpaper which seamlessly substitutes Mariah Carey's "Emotions" melisma for Luke Top and Lewis Pesacov's Hebrew-and-horns incantations. Two very different looks for one very good song. The Wallpaper mash is the first in a series he's called SiSTRS From Different MiSTRS. An explanation of the inspiration:

The psychedelic Pittsburgh analog experimentalists contribute a thick layer of dandelion gum to Love 2's pastoral, carefree "Sing Sang Sung." Black Moth Super Rainbow's teeming fuzz keeps the song pleasant, but does bring a bit of darkness to the picnic. Or, more accurately, a bit of barometric pressure. It'd go well with the animated mushroom-sprouting video, of course. There's currently no commercial release date planned for the remix, but you can soak it up here.

We've seen Secretly Canadian ABBA enthusiasts Music Go Music do "Warm In The Shadows" on an invented '70s talk show. This previously unreleased remix by German producer Fred Falke readies the Expressions standout for a different sort of club. MGM's Kamer Maza told us the track's "more emotionally ambiguous than the others on the record [...] so it is more reliant on the tone of the music to push it one way or the other." You can find out more about the song while you take a listen.

This week, we also offered the chance to win a ZT Lunchbox Amplifier, aka "The Loudest Little Amp In The World."

It's not as insane as it sounds. As the folks at Third Man explain:

"A Glorious Dawn" is a moving arrangement of Carl Sagan's sagacious words culled from his magnificent Cosmos series. The piece initially gained recognition when composer John Boswell uploaded to YouTube his remixed Sagan dialogue edited, Auto-Tuned and put to a beat and coupled with a guest appearance by Stephen Hawking.

Sometimes Auto-Tune can be used for good. The Hawking guest verses are via his Universe series. Take a look to jog your synapses.

Vampire Weekend's sold out show at the Art Theater of Long Beach followed a couple of secret-ish L.A. outings -- at the former site of Madame Wong's on Halloween (Ezra was dressed as Jon Gosselin, or a douchebag, or both) and at Hollenbeck Rec Center the following day -- but Koenig called last night the first "official" show of their California itinerary (and first "movie theater" gig). Local buzz band and recent Sub Pop signees Avi Buffalo (grab an MP3 below) were there to open things up, while Ice Cream Man stuck around afterward to make sure people went home with frozen treats. Between those bookmarks, VW dedicated "Horchata" to Lola's, the Mexican restaurant across the street, and stated a number of times that they dig California. Of course, the setlist included "California English," but the song was not performed. (UPDATE: Ezra was apparently too hoarse.) As far as new ones, they also did Contra's "White Sky," "Holiday," "Run," and "Cousins." Along with Andrew Youssef's terrific photos, check out the setlist and newly expanded tour itinerary.