From Malkmus to the Bee Gees in Two Paragraphs

So, Malkmus and his Jicks made an entire album full of songs that sound like Face the Truth stand-out "No More Shoes," and I am head over heels in love with it. Oh brother, do these jams sound good to my ears right now. Though, in typical contrarian fashion, on an album full of relatively stretched out running times, it's tiny little "Gardenia" that rules the roost for me. Brilliant song. I have a ticket to Friday night's show at the Vic and am quite looking forward to seeing him rock out with a full band.

Speaking of full bands, you know who I always forget that I really, really like in between times I put their stuff on my iPod? TV on the Radio. Hot damn those guys are good. Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes album-closer "Wear You Out" came up on shuffle during my morning commute late last week and it was another one of those "holy shit, what the fuck is this sexy, gorgeous racket?" moments. It took everything I had not to start pole-dancing right there on the train. Hot-hot-hot-hot-hot stuff.

You know who else rules? The fucking Bee Gees, motherfuckers. I downloaded, like, five of their bigger hits last weekend, thinking I'd listen to them once through for nostalgic kicks, but guess what: now I can't stop listening to them. They sound freaking fantastic. The Bee Gees, honkies, I'm tellin' ya: the motherfucking Bee Gees.

Which, of course, makes me think of Jimmy Fallon's amusing but also weirdly hostile Barry Gibb Show sketch from Saturday Night Live, which in turn leads me, somewhat incredulously, to ask, rhetorically, hasn't SNL been really quite surprisingly good since the show came back post-strike? Even this weekend's Jonah Hill-hosted episode had me genuinely laughing out loud several times, especially with the "I'm Fancy" musical number monologue. I love musical number monologues (and not just when it's hot guys in dresses).

Oh, and, continuing with the video links, Britt Daniel plays "I Summon You" for the Black Cab Sessions. Britt may demur that he's "just a dude," but I defy just any dude to sit in the back seat of a car, and, using nothing but his voice and an acoustic guitar, make a sound as full and as huge as a freight train headed straight...for your heart.

UPDATE: RIP, Anthony Minghella. Whenever those cheesy online personals sites ask me to fill out lame questions like "what's your favorite movie sex scene?" I invariably will answer "the dirty wall sex in The English Patient," because that scene is both hilariously over-the-top in ways that never fail to make me crack up, and, well, because it's pretty genuinely sexy too.