Wow. The great folks at NPR’s All Songs Considered have done it again. Just as I was lamenting the fact that I had forgotten to instruct the elves in my computer to record Neko Case’s concert at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., that NPR was streaming on Sunday night, All Songs Considered already has made it available as an mp3 download.

Once again, this is great for me because Neko is only coming as far West as Austin, at least on this tour. So this is as close as I’ll get to her live, although I’ve seen her a couple of times in the past at small venues in Tempe. She’s tremendous. (Duh … deep analysis, I know.)

An added bonus: Her pedal steel guitar player is (and has been for some time) Jon Rauhouse, a stalwart of the Phoenix/Tempe music scene, not to mention one of the nicest guys around.

As always, I’ve trimmed the one file into separate song files not to discount the value of concert banter but more for ease of navigating through songs. I encourage you to pick up the entire file here. And this is a monster: 21 songs. I might have to do this in three posts.

Neko Case, NPR Live Concert Series, 4/9/06:

1. A Widow’s Toast
2. Favorite
3. If You Knew
4. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
5. Set Out Running
6. Outro With Bees
7. Star Witness (with opener Martha Wainwright)

The incomparable Elbow, which is on a tour of the United States (eight dates plus a stop in Toronto), played for KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic on Friday. The band is playing in Los Angeles tonight at the Avalon, and I pretty much hate any of you that will be going out of sheer jealousy. If anyone is going to a show on this tour, pleeeeease offer up some ideas of how it is. (And, you know, feel free to send a concert T-shirt.)

Anyway, the KCRW set was nothing short of amazing (or as amazing as an in-studio performance can be), particularly because Elbow pulled out a couple of old songs, including one of my favorites in Fugitive Motel. Also, frontman Guy Garvey presents himself as the sort of intellectual, down-to-earth songwriter I imagine him to be. He all but exposes his vulnerability in explaining the great Mexican Standoff as a metaphor for jealousy about his partner’s ex.

Alas, I meant to record the simulcast stream (128 kbps), but I mistakenly recorded a different stream KCRW offers. So I backtracked to record the QuickTime stream. Still sounds decent.

(And don’t think I’m not recording Elbow’s in-studio on KEXP next week.)

Elbow, on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, 4/7/06:
1. Great Expectations
2. Fugitive Motel
3. Switching Off
4. Scattered Black and Whites
5. Mexican Standoff
6. Puncture Repair
7. The Stops

So about a little more than a week after the boys in Tapes ‘n Tapes played for KEXP from SXSW, they found their way to the Seattle radio station for another in-studio. Because I’m not as fortunate as some people, who have seen Tapes about 37 times in the past couple of weeks, this will have to do for now.

Meanwhile, the trip to LA is but a day away. Mmmmmm, we’re gonna see the National on Wednesday with the Drunkard and his wife (but dinner and drinks first). We’re gonna hit Thai Town and eat ridiculous amounts of Thai food and probably haul some back to Arizona. (My wife and her family are Thai and they bring a cooler on these trips to LA. I’m serious.) We’re gonna see Jax. And I’m going to spend many hours in Amoeba Records.

Anyway, on to the Tapes.

Tapes ‘n Tapes, on KEXP, 3/25/06:

1. Cowbell
(Might be a little bass-y; not sure if that’s my recording or the studio engineer.)
2. Omaha
3. Insistor
4. Jakov’s Suite
(With a little clarification about how to pronounce the title.)

Elsewhere …

On a totally non-music-related topic, a parking lot next to the building where I work in downtown Phoenix is being torn up, for it will be the future site of some monstrous hotel. This lot sits between our building and our parking garage, which offers about a block of walking in between.

The walk from the garage to the building was lined with these towering palm trees that I suppose (living in Arizona) I took for granted. That is, until I saw what the construction company did to them in the leveling process. There was no uprooting and transferring of the trees. Nope. They just sawed them off, leaving a row of helpless palm tree stumps. The portions that were cut have been chopped into smaller pieces to, I assume, toss or mulch or something. I’m no Sierra Club activist or anything, but the visuals made me kinda sad.

It makes me appreciate Wolf Parade’s Modern World (mp3) even more:

“Modern world don’t ask why/
Cause modern world will build things high/
Now they house canyons filled with life.”

A few pics of the Palm Tree Massacre below:

OK, seriously: I would kill for a radio station like KEXP in Phoenix. It just reminds me how far behind this city can be sometimes.

The Seattle radio station wrapped up a pretty amazing few days of performances from SXSW with a set from Jose Gonzalez, who, at least from the interview, seemed soft-spoken and perhaps taken a little aback at his pretty quick rise to notoriety. Check out the archive streams to go find the full interview.

On the topic of KEXP … is anyone interested in pooling together some funds for a pledge to the station? It’s a member-driven station and I feel like we’re all benefiting from their music and streams. A few bucks from a lot of people can go a long way. Leave a comment with your thoughts or e-mail me at somuchsilence@gmail.com, and I can figure out a way to set this up. (Or perhaps money would be better served going to WOXY, which is switching to a member-supported system.)

Jose Gonzalez from SXSW, on KEXP, 3/17/06:

1. Deadweight on Velveteen
2. Hints
3. Sensing Owls
4. Instrumental
5. Heartbeats
6. Crosses

(UPDATE: Had to delete this post and republish because my sidebar was disappearing. So I’ve lost the comments for this post. If you’re so willing, please comment again!)

Like a lot of people (I think), my introduction to Billy Bragg came from the Mermaid Avenue recordings with Wilco. My best friend has urged me to delve into Bragg’s solo work, and I have quite enjoyed Workers Playtime.

Now seems as good a time as any to explore Bragg as the great Yep Roc has rereleased his first four albums individually and as a nine-disc box set that includes two bonus DVDs with previously unavailable live footage.

So dig into this set performed live on KEXP Thursday from SXSW, which includes a new song I Keep Faith. Also, visit Chromewaves for a recap of Bragg’s Toronto concert with the usual assortment of great photos by Frank.

(In the interest of server space, I didn’t include the interview, but I encourage you to visit KEXP and find the archive stream to listen. Some songs include a little chatter/intro before each.)

Also, he plays Way Over Yonder, a song from the Mermaid sessions, but never mentions Wilco. If I remember from reading the Wilco book Learning How to Die, the relationship between Wilco and Bragg soured by the end of the project. Does anyone know if that’s true?

Billy Bragg from SXSW, on KEXP, 3/16/06:
1. A Lover Sings
2. Shirley
3. Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key
4. NPWA
5. I Keep Faith (new song)
6. A New England

So for those of us who can’t be at SXSW, this is the next best thing. Well, that’s at least what I’m telling myself so I’ll feel better about not being able to go.

And God bless KEXP, which is streaming some pretty incredible live sets from Austin this week. There’s not much I’m going to say about Tapes ‘n Tapes that hasn’t been said already. So enjoy this. The group is scheduled to play KEXP in-studio in Seattle in about a week.

Tapes ‘n Tapes from SXSW, on KEXP, 3/15/06:

1. Just Drums
2. Manitoba
(There’s a little gap of silence at one point probably caused by a break in the stream.)
3. Insistor
4. Cowbell

Let me just say this up front (and I realize I’m probably in the minority): I’m not sold on Jenny Lewis.

For some reason, I want to like her. I want to be enamored with her. But I don’t, and I’m not. Originally, however shallow, I reasoned her connection with Postal Service would sway me. So I snapped up a couple Rilo Kiley albums. And still I don’t get it.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something feels forced, almost contrived, about her writing and presence – as if she’s desperate to live up to this goddess-of-indie-rock aura she’s taken on (or fans have bestowed upon her). The blog love for Lewis almost knows no bounds. At least, I find her solo work a little more endearing than anything in Rilo Kiley.

In my own twisted little pea brain, I sorta liken her to the Batman character Poison Ivy, who seduces unwitting men with her sex appeal for her own devices. Yeah, real deep. I know.

Just leave me with some Neko Case, and I’ll be happy. That said, Dodge asked that I capture Lewis’ set on KCRW. So, I did. Here’s the first five tracks:

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, 3/10/06:

1. Run Devil Run/Big Guns
(First few seconds got cut off here … )
2. Happy
3. You Are What You Love
4. Melt Your Heart
5. The Charging Sky

Also … For anyone who wasn’t checking in over the weekend, I’m taking care of Gorilla vs. Bear this week while Chris is at SXSW. So go check it out.

So here is Part Deux. For those who listened to the full file (available at NPR here), what’s up with A.C. Newman? For the first three or so tracks, he said nothing in between songs. During the second half, the guy suddenly can’t keep quiet.

That’s not a bad thing. I kept the chatter before The Body Says No because he takes some pretty funny shots at bands “where guys sing … they make me sick.” He rattles off a few bands (all worthy of sickness) then mentions that he’s going to get ripped on the blogs. Maybe at a Fall Out Boy fan site, but not here.

Anyway, thanks to NPR’s All Songs Considered. Again, get the full file here.

Also, our friend Everett at Good Weather for Air Strikes says All Things Go likely will have the Belle and Sebastian set.

The New Pornographers, NPR’s Live Concert Series, 3/6/06:

8. Testament to Youth in Verse
9. The Body Says No
10. Breakin’ the Law
11. The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
12. The Bleeding Heart Show
13. Sing Me Spanish Techno

Also …

• Reminder: Ian Love CD giveaway.
• The Baseball Card Blog is quickly becoming my favorite non-music stop. Seriously. I have a stash of baseball cards (mostly commons) that I have no idea what to do with yet I don’t want to throw them away. Wish I would have thought of this first! Great site for anyone who dabbled in card collecting.
• On the heels of The New Pornographers/Belle and Sebastian Web cast, NPR turns around with Clap Your Hands (here) on Wednesday. NPR says it will be available for download. Good stuff.

I must be slippin’. This one almost flew right past me. NPR’s All Songs Considered has made available Monday’s The New Pornographers and Belle and Sebastian show from the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., available for download here.

This is especially nice for me because this tour is skipping Arizona: straight from Austin to Los Angeles. Sigh. Phoenix, nothing more than a rest stop on the way. So, again, thanks to All Songs Considered.

As is custom around here, I’ve split the one file NPR provides into separate tracks. My slicing excludes chatter (only to keep files to a manageable size). So if you’d like it all in full, I encourage you to visit All Songs Considered to pick up the full file.

A note about the show: No Neko (I hear she has some sorta new album out or something). And vocalist Kathryn Calder had laryngitis. Still quality stuff, including my one of my favorite New Porno songs The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism.

Another note: I’m not the biggest Belle and Sebastian fan. I’d have to really be swayed (read: bribed) to work on that one.

The New Pornographers, NPR’s Live Concert Series, 3/6/06:

1. Twin Cinema
(note: Stick through this: The sound gets equalized after about the first minute or two.)
2. Use It
3. July Jones
4. Jackie
5. Graceland
6. From Blown Speakers
7. The End of Medicine

Also …

Don’t forget about the Ian Love CD giveaway!