Jens Lekman @ the Granada Theater

Jens Lekman returned to Dallas Sunday night to share his brand of sample-heavy indie pop.

The show drew heavily from the track-listing of his latest album Night Falls Over Kortedala.

During the show Jens admitted to the crowd that sometimes he does write some "silly songs" but to him they have a "sort of bittersweet meaning" behind them.

That sentiment is accentuated best on his song "A Postcard to Nina." Where during the show Jens gave more of the back-story with intermittent story telling bits between the verses. The song is about his friend, Nina, that he has who tried to pass Jens off as her boyfriend to her father because she is fearful that her dad would not understand that she could love another woman.

Anther highlight of the show include during the performance of "The Opposite of Hallelujah" Jens and the band dropped all of their instrumentation and brought the the full song that is sampled during the song and they danced to 70s soul group Chairmen of the Board's "Give Me Just a Little More Time."

During his encores Jens played mostly songs solo with help from the audience, who he asked to whistle the horn section of the chorus of "Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo" and sing along to the chorus of "Pocketful of Money."

Setlist:

I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You

The Opposite of Hallelujah

Black Cab

It Was a Strange Time in My Life

Your Arms Around Me

New Directions

You Are the Light

A Postcard to Nina

Maple Leaves

Sipping on the Sweet Nectar

Shirin

*****

A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill

Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo

*****

Pocketful of Money

Julie

To view more photos at this event click here.

The Death Metal Dog

This is just further proof that music can have an impact on all life forms. This dog here, let's call him Dethklok, who really digs the death metal music, goes totally nutzo when the music kicks in. 

Beware of dog.

Play that Funky Music White Boys

Vampire Weekend took the plane back to New York to show the kids how it's done on SNL. The Columbia University Preps with a propensity for African musical stylings showed they are more than just a buzz band with a tight set.

Go for "A-Punk." UPDATE: The video was removed due to copyrights. Instead enjoy the official music video for Vampire Weekend's "A-Punk." 

Check out how high guitarist/vocalist Ezra Koenig's guitar is hanging! Now, that's a proper rock star!

Wilco - Kicking Ass, Taking Names on SNL

Wilco rocked out with fellow hipster Ellen Page, Juno, on Saturday Night Live this past week. First, Jeff Tweedy and Wilco performed their ode to the everyday mundanity (like doing dishes and mowing lawns) "Hate It Here".

Next, they rocked out to "Walken" featuring Nels Cline on a lap steel guitar, proving that he is a complete and total badass. UPDATE: The video was removed due to copyrights. Instead, enjoy Wilco live on "Later... with Jools Holland" performing "You Are My Face" with Nels Cline being just as badass on a 12-string guitar.

Check out "Hate It Here".

Next week SNL will have Vampire Weekend!

Trent Reznor is my Hero

Here's a guy who knows how to do it right. Last fall Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails, recorded 36 new tracks that he has now collected into a double lp titled Ghosts I-IV, and is available right now.

You can grab 9 of the tracks for free of the Nine Inch Nails website, or $5 for a digital download of all 36 tracks, which includes a 40 page pdf of art and other goodies.

This follows the trend starting with Radiohead's In Rainbows "pay what you want" experiment last fall, where people could literally pay what they want for their new record (including nothing). 

Trent Reznor produced the new record for hip-hop artist Saul Williams titled The Inevitable Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust that was released in roughly the same time period. People had the option of a free download or a higher quality download for $5.

The distribution of music by major record labels has been failing in the age of digital downloads and pirating, and this is just another shot at industry in general. I say kudos again to Reznor, and have other words reserved for those at the major labels.

In case you missed it: Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts I-IV.