The band Mudhoney, like their record label Sub-Pop, is celebrating their 20th year of existance. This Tuesday, May 20, Mudhoney are putting out a favorites/previously-unreleased collection, Superfuzz Bigmuff Deluxe Edition, in addition to releasing a brand new album, The Lucky Ones.

(left: Twenty years in the game and still goin'.)

Here's a track from Lucky Ones:

I'm Now.mp3

And here's one from Superfuzz Bigmuff Deluxe Edition:

In 'n Out of Grace.mp3

For the youngsters out there, Mudhoney helped make the whole early-90's "grunge" revolution possible, by achieving a moderate amount of success, which made it possible for other bands (i.e., Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden) to achieve even more success. Mudhoney never got the big payday, but sometimes that's the price of being a trailblazer. At times though, it seems like they were having more fun.

Is Mastadon guitarist/vocalist, Brent Hinds (left), moonlighting as Philadelphia Flyers' forward Scott Hartnell (right)? I couldn't get a good picture of Hinds ooing, but I'm telling you, he may have himself a night job in the NHL. If that's the case--and for the sake of music--I hope his team loses their playoff game tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins, so he can focus solely on Mastodon.

Husband-wife duo, Mates of State, will be releasing their brand new album, Re-Arrange Us, on May 20 (um, which I just realized is this upcoming Tuesday).

The album title is actually quite fitting since Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel have expanded their sound, adding piano, synths, and lush string arrangements to their music.

(left to right: Kori on the keys, Jason on the drums.)

Here's a free copy of Mates of State's

My Only Offer.mp3

Note: If you're having trouble downloading this song, sometimes the right-click or ctrl-click (for you laptop users) will do the trick.

I gotta thank Pitchfork Media for the tip-off on this story. Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis), Pittsburgh's greatest rump-shaking export since Donnie Iris, recently played a hometown show at Mr. Small's and treated the crowd to some free Taco Bell that he had won in a contest.

(left: It's a rarity to see Girl Talk NOT shirtless. During his live-set, that t-shirt comes off of him faster than you can say Greg Gillis.)

As most of you know, I love Pittsburgh, I'm a big fan of Girl Talk's mash-ups, and I'm not gonna lie to you--Taco Bell is a guilty pleasure of mine (grilled stuffed burrito--mmmm).

Here's the Pitchfork article.

Summer Festival Season is upon us my friends! From April to September, our beautiful, music-loving country will host various festivals featuring all different types of music and attractions. With fewer and fewer packaged summer tours left, the weekend (all-in-one-place) festival is all the rage these days.

(left: Things to do this summer: Toss around Wayne Coyne in a huge see-through ball)

From Coachella to Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo to Sasquatch, Treasure Island to Austin City Limits, there's a good chance you'll be hitting up a festival sometime this summer. To get you prepared, I've decided to throw a small pop quiz. You can catch the video simulcast on today's episode of Lunchbox (Noon EST).

Note: The text version of the quiz (below), has a couple bonus questions!

Does everybody have a No. 2 pencil? Alright, let's do this:

Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (left)
Another consistently good effort, would you expect anything less from Ben Gibbard and crew?

Duffy, Rock Ferry
She's gonna have a hard time breaking free from the Amy Winehouse comparisons. At least her hair's a different color.

We Are Scientists, Brain Thrust Mastery
A lot of these songs feel like they could be used for an ending to an 80's movie. Still one of the funniest acts in music today.

Bryan Adams, 11
Guess how many songs are on this album?

Cursive recently stopped by Daytrotter Radio Studios to record a short live session, which includes two new songs ("Let Me Up" and "Donkeys") and "Sierra" from The Ugly Organ (one of my favorite albums of 2003).

(left: Cursive, tightening up their new songs by playing live.)

In the age of free music (which I'm lovin'), you can download all three songs for free right HERE.

Cursive are about start recording their follow-up to Happy Hollow. Saddle Creek's answer to Dr. Dre, Mike Mogis, will be handling the early production duties. Apparently the band has 15 songs ready to go.

In order to get the new songs a little bit tighter, Cursive have booked three live performances in May and June (see below).

May 19, Omaha, NE, Waiting Room
June 3, New York, NY, Mercury Lounge (SOLD OUT)
June 27, Chicago, IL, Subterranean

A couple months ago, upbeat, fast-on-the-strum, indie trio, Born Ruffians, released their debut album Red, Yellow, and Blue. The threesome from Toronto recently made a video for their song "I Need a Life." In the clip, Born Ruffians prepare dinner while various barnyard animals peek inside the kitchen. At the end of the clip, we find the band mauled to death, never getting to enjoy the meal they worked so hard on.

Ouch.

(left: Not even a group called Born Ruffians can out-rough a group of wild animals).

It wasn't too long ago where we saw a pimped-out chicken lay the smack down on Colonel Sanders in Moby's "Disco Lies" video.

Both videos bring to mind other clips in which wild animals get their revenge on their human being counterparts. In Queens of the Stone Age's "No One Knows," the band becomes wall trophies for a pick-up-truck-driving deer, and in the Beastie Boys' "Triple Trouble," Sasquatch makes sure the Beasties pay for their hurtful words on the red carpet.

I gotta say, I'm loving the recently leaked Weezer song, "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived." It's got ups, it's got downs, it's a musical journey (and the cheering crowd at the beginning even makes it a little epic--dare I say it's Weezer's "Bohemian Rhapsody"). I'm excited for the new album, coming out (legally) on June 24.

Thanks for the heads-up Smooth. You're lucky I don't sic the feds on you!

(left: This is my friend Jeff, who happens to be such a big Weezer fan that he got their flying =w= logo tattooed on his chest. When he went to boot camp, his drill sergeant gave him hell because he thought it was a white-power tattoo.)

The week began with another big festival, Bamboozle, which took place outside Giants Stadium's parking lot in New Jersey. My sister-in-law's brother, Ben, and his friend, Paul, were in town for the concert festivities, so on Friday night I picked their brains. I was glad to get the Bamboozle update, surprised to find out that Snoop Dogg would be headlining one of the nights, but honestly, I don't think I could have swung the festival. Two days of predominantly emo-driven music in a football stadium parking lot is an endurance test that I don't think I'm in shape for at this point in time (although I would have loved to catch the Bouncing Souls in action).

(left to right: My wife, Paul, and Ben reluctantly posing for an artsy picture I wanted to take of them during a late night tour of NYC.)

...could this guy in the latest Asics print ad be Adam Yauch's (inset), long-lost brother?

Experimental-deep-fried-southern rockers, My Morning Jacket, are on the verge of one of their most important years as a band. Following up their critically acclaimed album, Z, the band will be releasing their brand new album, Evil Urges, on June 10. Besides gracing the recent cover of SPIN Magazine, My Morning Jacket can also be found playing Saturday Night Live this weekend, May 10, as well as playing a sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall and a marquee spot at this year's Bonnaroo Festival next month.

(above: My Morning Jacket at this year's SXSW in Austin, TX. Look at this live show, you can't tell me they shouldn't be playing arenas).

I sat down with My Morning Jacket's resident drum pummeler, Patrick Hallahan, to discuss the band's big year and the possibility of becoming rock's next arena-worthy act:

In the spirit of great rivalries like Red Sox/Yankees, UNC/Duke, Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan, and Morrissey/Robert Smith, lays the mini, music-video-channel rivalry between MTV2 and FUSE. For years I was part of the rivalry, batting clean-up for MTV2. I was Big Papi to Steven Smith's Derek Jeter (host of Fuse's The Sauce and Steven's Untitled Rock Show), Rowdy Roddy Piper to his Hulk Hogan.

(left: Later today, I will be stepping into what once was enemy territory.)

Over the years I have actually become friends with Steven, but we have never ever been on camera together. That will all change today. In need of a last second replacement guest (apparently someone dropped out earlier this week), I have been booked to talk about independent and indie-minded music on today's episode of The Sauce, airing at 6PM (EST) on FUSE.

I'm like a kid in a candy store, I just figured out how to upload video to my blog posts (!). I actually brought my video camera to few interviews I conducted earlier this year, and I would have posted the videos sooner, but at SXSW my camera broke when Saul Williams took it into his hands and delivered a short spoken word performance. I'm not blaming Saul, cause the camera had puttered out before, but I'm just saying it went down for the count after Saul's testimonial.

Anyway, Jonathan from IFC.com gave me some Jedi-video-blog training yesterday, and my good friend Jack is lending me his camera in the meantime.

Here's a backstage clip of Against Me! during their tour earlier this year. The band will be playing Bonnaroo in June, followed by a long stint on this year's Warped Tour. If you ever wondered how Against Me! stayed in such good shape, this should clear things up for you:

The re-united, My Bloody Valentine, announced the initial dates of their U.S. tour happening later this year (see below). The band's long-awaited comeback show will be held in London on June 20. As Pitchfork Media recently pointed out, no one has seen any press photos of the current-day My Bloody Valentine roster--which makes their first appearance even that more intriguing.

(left: Kevin Shields, in the early 90's.)

Some youngsters out there my only recognize "My Bloody Valentine" as a the title of a Good Charlotte song, but the reason everybody's giddy about the band's reunion is because they pretty much disappeared in the early 90's. Following the critical acclaim of their 1991 album, Loveless, My Bloody Valentine signed to Island records, built a studio, apparently had some headaches with it, thought too much about their next album (frontman, Kevin Shields, wrote hours and hours of material), and besides a couple compilation songs, have been on hiatus/break-up ever since.

In celebration of Tim Fite's new album, Fair Ain't Fair, which was just released today, here's an interview I had with Tim Fite and Dr. Leisure at this year's SXSW:

The Last Shadow Puppets, The Age of the Understatement
Alas, Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner unveils his much talked about side-project.

Tim Fite, Fair Ain't Fair
Less hip-hop on this one, and more twangy Tm Fite ballads.

No Age, Nouns
Noisy, art-punk duo that may have the most deluxe-packaged release of the week. If you download this one, you're missing out.

Happy Cinco De Mayo! For those that don't know, Cinco De Mayo is a holiday that commemorates the initial victory of Mexican forces over the French in the Battle Of Puebla. Cinco De Mayo, the fifth of May, is also responsible for bringing us the following people:

Kurt Loder (1945)
The man, the myth, the legend. Music host and writer extraordinaire. When I used to work at MTV I would always quiver like a teenage-Justin Timberlake fan when I was in his presence. His brilliant dry wit is unmatched in music journalism.

Bob Seger (1945)
"Today's music ain't got the same soul, I like that old time rock n' roll!" Big ups to the Silver Bullet Band.

Bill Ward (1948)
While you get all geeked on the Iron Man movie, don't forget about the man who played the "Iron Man" drums, Black Sabbath's Bill Ward.

Ian McCulloch (1959)
If you don't know Echo and the Bunnymen, you probably know Coldplay, and Coldplay are big, big fans of Echo and the Bunnymen. By the way, Ian McCulloch is their frontman.

Wow! There was a time when it took NIN years and years and years to put out a new album, but within the last calendar year alone, Trent Reznor finished producing a Saul Williams album (The Inevitable Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust), put out a 36-track Nine Inch Nails instrumental album, and today, just released another brand new NIN's album, The Slip--for FREE!

For the album purist, NIN's website also included the following, "For those of you interested in physical products, fear not. We plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. Details coming soon."

Happy Cinco De Mayo--Nine Inch Nails style!

Welcome to the world of Jamie Lidell, who just released his brand new album, Jim, this week. The following video makes perfect sense to me, considering the first time I met Jamie he had just garbage-picked a purple-dinosaur toy piano and began singing me a song (he's a truly one-of-a-kind gent):

According to The Black Keys' myspace page, the blues-rock twosome recorded a cover of Captain Beefheart's "I'm Glad" at lead singer's Dan Auerbach's house yesterday--and then immediately posted it online.

(left: In between recording a Captain Beefheart cover and posting it on their myspace page, The Black Keys take a second to grab a cup of coffee.)

The clip image, next to the download on their myspace profile, reads: Oh Yes! It's Free Joe G., our resident Black Keys' authority, claims the download will only be available until May 9.

The Black Keys were also featured on New York City's WFUV's Take 5 yesterday, listen HERE.

This past Tuesday was actually one of my favorite album release days in a while. Besides getting new offerings from the Roots and Madonna, silly-power-poppers Nerf Herder made their triumphant return, and speaking of comebacks, Portishead released their first album in 11 years. I'm also lovin' Santogold, but the album that I just can't stop listening to is International Superheroes of Hardcore's Takin' It Ova!.

(left: Rest assured, these are no Superhero Sellouts.)

For those that don't know, this is the alter-ego band of New Found Glory--a group that was sadly lumped into the power-pop-nice-haircut bands of the early 2000's. No doubt their music can be classified as power-pop, but I always thought they brought a little something different to the table. It was also no secret that certain members of New Found Glory were big fans of hardcore music (ahem, Chad Gilbert), which was apparent on certain New Found Glory offerings. However, it's nice to see the band fully embrace their hardcore-punk-rock leanings on Takin' It Ova!.

Yesterday I was reading my new issue of Sports Illustrated on the subway (one of my favorite New York City time-killing pastimes), and came across an ad for Zune, Microsoft's answer to iTunes.

(right: Some marketing guru is wetting his pants now, cause I'm lovin' artists on both pages of this ad.)

The two-page spread features various three dimensional band names (in all different types of fonts) stacked on top of each other. The ad is nothing groundbreaking, considering iTunes had a similar campaign a year or so ago with hundreds of album covers exploding from an iPod.