Predictably, the new album from the Cold War Kids, Mine Is Yours, took a sound beating by Pitchfork. That 3.9 shellacking notwithstanding, I’m casually enjoying the new album.

They’re definitely reaching for some mainstream appeal, untangling their twitchy soul-rock into something with a little more sheen to it. But better that than be a blog band afterthought?

Yes, Cold War Kids worked with Jacquire King, the same producer responsible for the past couple of Kings of Leon records (a point for which Pitchfork was quick to condemn). But King also worked with Modest Mouse on Good News For People Who Love Bad News, so let’s not write off Cold War Kids as “cheese-merchants” just yet. The shelf life of blog love is fleeting, so I can’t say I blame Cold War Kids for heading in a new direction.

Anyway, they were on Jimmy Kimmel’s show on Wednesday night, playing Royal Blue and Louder Than Ever:

No artist has inspired more positive feedback from the annual mix CD we gave as favors at our New Year’s Eve party this year than Aloe Blacc, whose uplifting soul on his 2010 album Good Things won me over (even though I came to it embarrassingly late).

I’ve heard from a few friends who bought the album on the strength of the one song on the mix: I Need a Dollar. The track not only is instantly catchy – my wife and I often sing out the “hey hey” call-and-response at random times during the day – it’s a soundtrack to our depressed economy from the view of a guy went through corporate hell firsthand.

True, not everyone can parlay getting laid off into a fruitful music career. But Blacc gives the everyman a voice (and an amazing one at that).

Watch him perform I Need a Dollar on Conan last week:

Blacc also offered a backstage version of I’m Beautiful from the 2006 album Shine Through. (via Complex):

As promised, Elbow followed through on its “special surprise” for Boxing Day, releasing a live video of Lippy Kids, the first taste of the forthcoming album, build a rocket boys!, due for a March 7 release in the UK.

Singer Guy Garvey said his writing was inspired by his return to an area where he lived in his teenage years, and the drum-less Lippy Kids – which strolls along beautifully on a foundation of understated piano work – captures that nostalgic spirit: “Do they know those days are golden?”

The song also birthed the album’s title, which apparently has caused some punctuation angst, at least for the band’s keyboard player/producer, Craig Potter, who has taken to Twitter a bit to discuss the missing comma that has, um, given pause to some fans (including myself). My day job as a copy editor compels me to point this out, though it hardly will detract from my enjoyment of the album, I’m sure.

Assuming the title is a command to the boys (and the exclamation point indicates it probably is), the title should read: “build a rocket, boys!” (Let’s not even begin with the all-lowercase issue.) The AP Stylebook notes the following examples for using a comma “in direct address”: “Mother, I will be home late” and “No, sir, I did not take it.” I suppose it’s possible the title describes the boys, but then Elbow would be missing hyphens to indicate a compound modifier: You don’t wanna mess around with those build-a-rocket boys! Potter’s assessment?: “Punctuation Smunctuation. What’s wrong with it? Well, there could, be, a comma, in there, but, it depends, on, how you, say it.”

We can probably all agree that Garvey’s voice here soars above these petty concerns, eh?

It was strangely coincidental that just a few days before Girl Talk made the Internet wet its collective pants by releasing his new album, All Day, DJ Z-Trip was interviewed on Last Call with Carson Daly, politely scoffing at the notion – again – that a “mashup” is anything more than a cute label.

“It’s really something that’s a bit redundant because it’s just mixing,” Z-Trip says in the interview. “It’s what DJs do. … But the thing is, DJs have been doing that forever.”

I’m not about to launch into a software-vs.-vinyl debate – there’s no doubt technology changed the DJ game. But I’d hope that anyone who fawns over Girl Talk would take the time to research his predecessors. No better place to start than Uneasy Listening, Vol. 1, the oft-imitated 1999 classic from DJ Z-Trip and DJ P that was mixed from vinyl (let that sink in while you listen to it). Even better: It’s available as a free download at Z-Trip’s site.

As for the rest of the interview with Carson Daly, Z-Trip talks about producing new Public Enemy material and his role in the DJ Hero games. What you won’t see here is a list that was shown after the interview heading into the commercial break of the five albums that changed Z-Trip’s life:

1. Pink Floyd, The Wall
2. Prince, Purple Rain
3. Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
4. Clash, Combat Rock
5. Frank Zappa, Freak Out!

RELATED:
Chic: Le Freak (Z-Trip Golden Remix)
Z-Trip Remixes The Dead Weather: Treat Me Like Your Mother
Z-Trip on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic
Z-Trip and Aceyalone: Automatic At It (video)

I’m still on a bit of a high after seeing The National last week in Tucson and Tempe on back-to-back nights. So this new video, which serves more or less as a mini tour documentary set to an alternate version of the song Terrible Love, is already making me nostalgic for seven days ago.

Listening to Terrible Love on record, I’d never guess it would replace Mr. November as the epic, walk-through-the-audience moment of the encore. And, yet, it worked (even if the unwieldy mic cord whacked me in the neck in Tempe).

I love this video, which humanizes the band and loosens the tie a little on singer Matt Berninger’s ever-serious demeanor.

This alternate version can be found on the expanded edition of High Violet, which includes a bonus disc of unreleased songs, live tracks B-sides, etc. You know the drill: Buy album once and buy it again. It’s due out Nov. 22.

I’m not sure The Winter of Mixed Drinks has resonated with me the way 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight did, but The Loneliness and the Scream stood out immediately (and still does) as the most compelling track from Frightened Rabbit’s newest album.

The new video, which debuted at NME, adds more weight to this anthemic track, tugging at the heartstrings as it follows a day in the life of an elderly gentleman who is seeking some sort of companionship – until he sort of gives a middle finger to it all at the end.

Says singer Scott Hutchison: “The single itself is really about the same things that most of TWOMD focused on: a sense of isolation and the hints of madness and odd behaviour that can arise as a result of that. Like a lot of the record, I also wanted to be fairly sparse with the imagery. I hoped the listener would try fill in the blanks and walk into the song, tying bits of it together along the way. But it’s a simple premise really. A person gets a bit lost and cries for help, or cries just to be heard at all. I suppose it was also relating to what I do most days as a singer in a touring band – shout to make people listen.”

The Loneliness and the Scream will be released as a single in the U.S. on Dec. 8.