"You'll Always Be a Loser"?

Titus Andronicus played "Fallon" last night. Can a Terry Gilliam-directed webcast be far behind?

Last night was a big win for the losers! As Sound of the City pointed out, "It's been a real good week for the indie zeitgeist, that weird feeling of we made it!"

Mountain Man in Hell's Kitchen

We're set to film with Mountain Man next week surrounding their show at The Living Room.

This new video from Vincent Galgano has us excited+++

Titus Andronicus, "Sweater Song"

We're gearing up to film Titus Andronicus this weekend. In the meantime, we're loving their rendition of Weezer's "Sweater Song." As our friend Georgia Kral points out, "anytime anyone covers Weezer, the world smiles."

An Accidental Tribute

A few weeks before Alex Chilton passed away, El Perro Del Mar did an affectionate cover of "Blue Moon," a song by Chilton's band Big Star, during her show at Knitting Factory. It was the final song of the evening and Sara Assbring's eyes trembled with emotion as she belted out the song's pleading lyrics.

Our episode of Site & Sound featuring El Perro Del Mar's rendition of "Blue Moon" unexpectedly became a touching, if unintentional, tribute to the late great Chilton.

El Perro Del Mar Covers the xx

Last Wednesday we shot El Perro Del Mar's performance at the Knitting Factory for an upcoming episode of Site & Sound. That night, she covered the xx's "Shelter" and 4AD wondered if we'd be kind enough to share the video of this song with them. Sure thing.

Pitchfork posted the video today (below). The full Site & Sound episode should be ready next week. Enjoy!

El Perro Del Mar "Shelter" (by The XX) from The Control Group on Vimeo.

High Frequency 'Love'

The episode of Site & Sound that we did with Bear In Heaven featured their thrilling song "Deafening Love." After posting the video, we stumbled upon this amazing unofficial music video for "Deafening Love" in which High Frequency Media mashes it together with a clever collection of footage from the 70s sci-fi thriller "Z.P.G" (which has since been added to our Netflix queue).

News Organizations Try on Skinny Jeans

In an odd bit of cultural confluence, CNN announced this week that the venerable news network is taking on some unlikely partners. According to Fast Company, CNN has entered into content-sharing agreements with the downtown lifestyle brand Vice and the Seattle-based record label SubPop. "The two arbiters of all things rocking and youthful figuratively hoisted old man Turner atop a throng of music fans," wrote Fast Company.

Even more unlikely than this partnership (Vice has made a big commitment to documentary filmmaking that includes the critically acclaimed feature "Heavy Metal in Baghdad") is that this development is part of a growing trend of major news organizations hooking up with indie rock outfits. For whatever reason, the staid, navy suit ranks of NBC News and ABC News have also recently launched efforts at indie credibility.

In May, 2009, NBC News introduced Bri-Tunes, an online space for anchor Brian Williams' musical curiosity. Williams shares playlists (his most recent playlist includes Antony and the Johnsons, Fanfarlo, and Mos Def) as well as video interviews with some of his favoriate musicians. Bri-Tunes debuted with a video profile of Deer Tick. In introducing the series, Williams said, "Al Roker has about nine shows on the air, I think, about barbeque and food, Matt Lauer does mens clothing beautifully, and so why not talk about our hobby here?"

Ahead of the curve, ABC News debuted a new web video series fueled by Pitchfork in February, 2009. Titled "New Music Monday," the series has Pitchfork writers offering their thoughts on the best new music with an intro from the ABC anchor desk. Our friends Bear In Heaven were featured in a recent episode of "New Music Monday" and summed up this whole trend in a corresponding tweet: "Seriously... It doesn't get anymore surreal than this... ABC news. Charles Gibson laughs at our album title."