Someone wrote a KTRU app for the iPhone/iPod Touch! And it’s pretty sweet, cuz it streams your favorite freeform eclectic Houston radio station, it displays info on the song currently playing, and to top it off, it displays a sweet unmodified Rice Radio bumper sticker. Kudos to the developer.

I thought nerdy Jewish rapper MC Paul Barman had retired, but turns out he’s releasing a new record tomorrow!

Came across nyctaper.com. These folks have taped an insane number of NYC shows in the past couple years. Great sets by Papa M, Deerhoof, and many more.

Had a Fiery Furnaces Friday. Had never seen them before, but they totally brought it. I guess I was expecting them to be a bit nerdy or something, but Eleanor came out owning the place right from the beginning with her amazing self-confident stage presence, singing her odd lyrics, which couldn’t always be discerned due to the mix. Matt, formerly the keyboardist, is an amazing guitar player with a total command of the instrument. He had great tone, particularly on distorted lead lines, which would often decay into a really cool crackling sound (I guess due to some kind of gated fuzz pedal?). The rest of the band was Jason Lowenstein of Sebadoh on bass and Bob D’Amico on drums, forming a monster rhythm section. It struck me that with all the rocking out and quick switches into different parts, the band, good as it is, might be nothing more than a prog ensemble without the benefit of Eleanor’s vocal stream, providing a steadfast thread of continuity throughout. I couldn’t find a recent YouTube clip with decent sound but, as it happens, nyctaper has a good set here.

Over at the Monitor Mix blog, Carrie Brownstein has been on a tear with an impressive “end of decade” series. It’s funny, I think it’s the first mention I’ve seen noting that the end of the decade is rapidly approaching (how’s that for depressing, yikes…). I’m way behind in my reading at this point, but there’s a great guest post by Douglas Wolk called “The Death Of Mistakes Means The Death Of Rock“, and an interesting discussion “To Pay or Not To Pay“, among many other posts of interest.

Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. Back in college, the campus would totally empty out for Thanksgiving break. I couldn’t really justify the expense of going home, since Christmas was but a month away, so I would remain, wandering around the autumnal ghost town in a state of profound melancholia. R.E.M.’s “Good Advices” was always my theme song of those days. Here’s a rare clip (with bad sound) of them playing it live: