"OH, America! OH, England!"

Sex Pistols will re-release "God Save The Queen"...Hole re-unite for a show...St. Vincent and David Byrne create album together...Stephen Merritt plays on CBS News...PJ and Beck may never go away...

Well...let's start this off with some punk icons, right? I got into The Sex Pistols some time in high school when I went through my "punk" phase, listening to nothing but this band, The Ramones, The Adicts, The Stooges, Patti Smith, etc. It was a great time for me, and a great time because the music was un-polished, un-tainted, and just un-like a lot of stuff that was playing all around me. But, "God Save The Queen" didn't really sink in until about my junior year of college, and even then, it's a wonder that it did, because you can look at these guys and see that they may not be insanely talented, but they were controversial rabble-rousers fighting an establishment and perhaps fighting with themselves, but their plans to re-release the album may just be the healthy dose of "anarchy" that people need nowadays. It's set to come out on May 28th, so be on the lookout for that.

In other news, Eric Erlandson and Courtney Love, as well as the rest of the mid-90s lineup of Hole took the stage in Williamsburg to play two songs, among those is "Miss World." All I can say is that I'd have loved to be there, as how Hole was one of my favorite grunge bands of the 90s. Love is a train-wreck, but in this video, she shows what a great frontwoman she can be when she's not twittering about everything under the sun. Check it out below:



Moving along...St. Vincent has recently wrapped up a collaborative album with Talking Heads' David Byrne. The album has been in progress for the last two years, but having recently wrapped up the recording, it should be auditory for public consumption this fall. You can read more about the album and thoughts about it from St. Vincent, via Pitchfork, here.

Lastly, Stephen Merritt, mostly famous for his project, The Magnetic Fields, recently performed his song, "Andrew In Drag," on CBS News, using nothing but his deep voice and a ukulele. If you haven't heard of The Magnetic Fields, I'd give their album, The Charm of the Highway Strip, a listen, STAT!



LISTENING: I've spent the majority of this morning/afternoon listening to Beck's Odelay and Let England Shake by PJ Harvey. Both are excellent albums, and I've actually reviewed the latter on this blog before, so I won't spend too much time on that one. But, Odelay just never disappoints. It's one of those albums that I can listen to all the time, with no preconceived mood in mind. It's good for parties, good for relaxing, or just good for experimental expression. Listen to tracks "Jackass," "Readymade," and "Lord Only Knows"...hell, listen to the whole damn thing. But, here's one of my favorites from the album:



That's all. PEACE.