NME Releases List of Top 20 Songs of the Decade, With Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” Topping the List; Elsewhere, News Slow, I Commit to Making Lots of Thanksgiving References in Honor of the Holiday (And am Very Thankful That Underappreciated In Rainbows Track “Reckoner” Made NME’s List) [NME]

Watch WHY?’s Two-Song Music Video For Eskimo Snow Tracks “These Hands” and “January Twentysomething,” Which Features a Father With a Bunch of Arrows in His Back Dragging a Child from a Car Crash (Whether or Not He Was Playing a Celebratory Game of “Pilgrims and Indians” Remains to Be Seen) [Pitchfork]

Stream Grizzly Bear Remixing German Electro-Mopers the Notwist’s Oft-Remixed Track “Boneless” – I’m Fairly Convinced that this is Better Than the Entirety of Veckatimest (But That’s Because Veckatimest is Weak-(Cranberry)Sauce) [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Inversely, Stream Neon Indian Remixing Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest Track “Cheerleader” (And Stream Another Neon Indian Version Here); Veckatimest May Have Been a Little Lacking, as I Just Mentioned, But These Remixes are Strong (Like Good Gravy?) [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Watch the Pixies Play Doolittle Opener “Debaser” on Fallon, then Watch them Play “Hey;” Both of Which Seem Pretty Restrained – But Not as Restrained as Your Usually Drunk Uncle Will Be at the Dinner Table This Year (Aunt Laura Probably Lectured Him in the Car After Last Year’s “Incident”) [Stereogum]

Former Spaceman Jason Pierce AKA J. Spaceman Announces New Spiritualized Album for 2010, and Re-releasing His Classic Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space; Expect It to Be as Woozy as the Rest of Spiritualized’s Albums  (Tryptophan Woozy?!) [NME]

Portland Emo-Punks the Thermals Announce New Album, and Give it a Preemptive Release Date of September 7, 2010; Meanwhile, Pull on Your Thermal Underwear Because This Thanksgiving Weather is Cold (Okay, That’s a Stretch, But C’mon, Only So Many Thanksgiving References are Possible) [Pitchfork]

compiled by Max Sebela

Fiery Furnaces Will Release an Album of Covers. The Covers Will All Be Covering Fiery Furnaces Songs, Meaning Fiery Furnaces Remain the Most Despicably Annoying Band in All of New York [Pitchfork]

!!!, Maserati, and Holy Ghost! Drummer Gerhardt Fuchs Passes Away, Falling to the Bottom of a Brooklyn Elevator Shaft [NY Times]

Stream L.A. Girly Girls Best Coast’s New Single “When I’m With You,” Which Could Honestly Pass For the Vivian Girls, Only More Jangly, and Less Jersey (Also, Contains Simpler Chorus Than “Be My Baby” — “When I’m With You, I Have Fun”) [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Pavement Will Headline the Sasquatch! Festival in Washington; I Make Vow to Not Create Headlines Out of Pavement Headlining Festivals, as They Will Obviously Be Playing Almost Every One…Let This Sasquatch! Headline Blanket All Other Headlines [Pitchfork]

Watch Video For Blakroc (The Black Keys + MCs) Single “Ain’t Nothing Like You,” Which Is Appropriate to the Name, If the “You” They’re Referencing is a Remotely Entertaining Music Video; Also, C’mon Guys, Double Negatives Are So Not In [Prefix]

The Stooges Are Set to Record Unrecorded Material From the 70s, Which is Awesome Because Uhh…The Stooges, Fun House, and Raw Power Are Really Good Albums (Like REALLY Good!) [NME]

Thom Yorke Posts Blog Entry Against British Government’s Proposal For More Nuclear Power Plants, Under Extremely Inane Headline “Nuclear Power No Thanks;” Elsewhere, Remember When Thom Was Super Vague and Strange, and Consumed With Cartoon Cubes?…I Miss That Thom [Radiohead]

Watch the Pixies Perform Doolittle’s “Here Comes Your Man” on The Tonight Show, Which Sounds Exactly Like the Version on Doolittle, Except With Some Adult Contemporary Flourish; Speaking of the Pixies, Here’s a Free Pixies EP [NBC]

compiled by Max Sebela

Stream New Small Black, “King of Animals,” Which Is So Good That It Makes Up For the Fact that the Rest of My News Write Up Will Be Meaningless, Full of Fluff; Read My Review of the EP, Consider Them As Contenders For Best Debut of the Year [Stereogum]

Singer Songwriter Dean Johnson Takes Lyrics George Harrison Wrote About Not Getting Along With John Lennon and Turns It Into His Own Song, Possibly Unaware That He is Not a Former Beatle, and Has No Perspective on What Song Might Mean; Listen to It! [NME]

Chris Brown’s New Album Cover Is Some Awful Amalgamation Between the Poster For Resident Evil Apocalypse and Eek! The Cat; Meanwhile, News Day Slow – Let the Obscure Pop Culture References Begin [Idolator]

The Pixies to Play Conan – If Read 15 Years Ago, One Could Mistake That For an Episode of Conan The Barbarian, Where Pixies Are Up To Usual Trickery, General Wackiness [Prefix]

Download a New Them Crooked Vultures Song, “Mind Eraser, No Chaser,” Which is Good, But Not as Good as the Band Mind Eraser [Pitchfork]

Black Sabbath Guitarist Tony Iommi Is Recovering Well After Having Stem-Cell Treatment in His Joints; Elsewhere (Specifically, In the Future), a Fully Cyborg Version of Iommi Begins the Robotic Takeover [NME]

Stream Basement Jaxx’s Zephyr EP, Which Is Super, Super Boring, and Begins With an Extremely Long Introduction in Which They Say Basement Jaxx 50 to 60 Times [Stereogum]

compiled by Max Sebela

DAILY NEWS PICKS

Watch The Pixies Play “Hey” and “Monkey Gone to Heaven” on First Night of Playing Doolittle In Its Entirety – For Doolittle They Are Certainly DO-ing A Lot…Cough (I Am So Sorry); They Play New York November 23rd and 24th [Spin]

Kanye West and Lady Gaga Officially Cancel “Fame Kills” Tour; Somehow, Life Manages To Go On Smoothly [Idolator]

Irish 90s Girl-Mopers The Cranberries Reunite (Coming To a Raisin Bran Near You); Announce New York Date November 17th At Nokia Theater [Brooklyn Vegan]

Sufjan Stevens To Record Instrumental Album For Asthmatic Kitty’s Library Catalog With The National’s Bryce Dessner – Seriously, Who is This Sufjan Guy, and Why is He Making Headlines Every Fucking Day? Will Someone Just Shut Him Up?! (I’m Sorry Mr. Stevens, Please Don’t Go Away Again…We…We Love You) [Pitchfork]

Conservative Pundit Glenn Beck Praises Muse; Muse Asks Glenn Beck To Stop Praising Them…Listen Here; Elsewhere, Did You Hear What Glenn Beck May or May Not Have Done? [Stereogum]

Watch Jack White’s New Dead Weather Video For Horsehound Track “I Cut Like a Buffalo;” Instead of Watching This Video, I Analyzed How Much White Looks Like Willy Wonka in Its Still Frame [Spin]

compiled by Max Sebela

HOLY MUSICIAN, BATMAN…
I can’t believe that it has taken me this long to write about a drummer on Holy Musician. (Though my partner in crime, Steve, did ably write about Janet Weiss in January). I think part of the reason that I’ve held off is that this drummer is a lightning rod. A good drummer is usually pretty easy to spot, and can elevate a band quite noticeably. Similarly, a bad drummer can derail a band in mere seconds – something that probably can’t be said for a poor bassist or sub-par guitarist (distortion can hide a lot). And part of the fun of writing this column is sharing some of my favorite “secret weapons,” musicians who aren’t typically lauded.

Today’s subject would have been the headline-grabbing story had he been in any other band. But when you share the stage with an amazing singer/guitarist, a super cute, charismatic, and melodically gifted bassist/backing vocalist, and the guitar player who blew more minds in 1988 than anyone else on the planet, with his single-string assaults, you tend to blend into the background.

In case you haven’t already figured it out, I’m talking about David Lovering, the man behind the skins for the Pixies. Lovering is one of those musicians I always wanted to be like – a guy with a style all his own, who also fits seamlessly into his band. And though Lovering has done a little drumming outside of the Pixies, his particular style seems to fit best with them.
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