The Byrds- "The Christian Life"

I've been absolutely obsessed with this Byrds cover of the old Louvin Brothers song "The Christian Life." I don't really know why-- maybe its the harmonies, or the Clarence White guitar-- but I just can't get enough of it.

The Byrds- "The Christan Life"

Burberry Prorsum Jacket

This jacket from the new Burberry collection is pretty swank. There's some other really cool pieces in the collection, so check it out.

A Tribe Called Quest's " Bonita Applebum"

This song is classic, so there really is nothing to discuss. That doesn't change how good this song is.

Common's "New Wave"

The song "New Wave" from Common's Electric Circus is really crazy and really great. Produced by ?uestlove of the Roots, J Dilla, and keyboardist James Poyser, it features the odd choice of Laetitia Sadier from the French Structuralist pop group Stereolab singing the hook. Common raps over a minor key piano, haunted house organs, and some sci-fi synths before Sadier comes in with pretty, sunny hook creating a strange disconnect between the two pieces, but upon repeat listens, they merge into a great piece of pop.
Common- New Wave

Bonus:
Common- Come Close
This is the first Common song I ever heard and instantly fell for it. The song features Mary J. Blidge on the hook.
Stereolab- Ping Pong
A great song that sarcastically deals with the cyclical view of war in history.

Nothing Better Is Back

Nothing Better is an online comic drawn and written by Tyler Page. It follows the first year of college for two young women and deals with their romances, school struggles, and crises of faith. Most of all, its a story of friendship between two girls.
Nothing Better went on hiatus in June after the birth of the Page's daughter but Page has recently started updating again every Wednesday.

Listen to Kanye West's New Album

Here. I would say that it's definitely worth it. Considering that most of it's already leaked, there aren't that many surprises, but it still sounds really nice. It's nice to finally hear "Paranoid" without all the DJ drops and "RoboCop" is so much better now.
808s and Heartbreak comes out Monday.

Look at the sky

of Montreal- It's a Very Starry Night (Demo)

Click on the picture for a much better view of this amazing painting.

Wikimapia

This is super cool. Take Google Earth, throw in user-generated landmarks, and get ready lose a couple of hours.

New Beach House Video

Beach House is this really nice dream pop band from Baltimore and put out a great album this year called Devotion. They recently released a new non-album single called "Used to Be" for which this new video was made.


Order the single and their full lengths here.

Emperor X and The Blythe Archives

Emperor X is an acclaimed song writer from Jacksonville, Florida. Earlier this year, he released the unfortunately slept on Blythe Archives Volume One through Burnt Toast Vinyl as a one-sided 12-inch record. This is the first release in a four volume EP set about Blythe, California. Each release will feature clues to find geocached cassette tapes featuring more music. Each time a set of cassettes is found, Emperor X will upload the music files here. I highly recommend Volume One. Below are two songs from the cassette files from Volume One.

Emperor X- Blackmouse I Need You

Emperor X- Song Scetch #2

Visit the label Emperor X co-runs here.

WAVVES

Wavves is a 22 year-old from San Diego who makes lo-fi surf punk. He recently released his first album on cassette, which has sold out, and will soon release it on vinyl. Get the mp3 files from his out of print Beach Demon/Weed Demon 7" here. Check Out his rad blog here.

Wavves- So Bored
This is my favorite song of Wavves's... so far.

Boogie Woogie Blues

More comics here.

Vivian Girls- My Baby Wants Me Dead

Figurine- New Mate

"They had a notion, that when people are met together, a short silence doth much improve conversation; this I found to be true; for during those little intermissions of talk, new ideas would arise in their minds, which very much enlivened the discourse"
- Gulliver's Travels Part 4, Chapter 10

MF DOOM- Mandrake

Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin is an American photographer. She rose to prominence documenting the underground gay and post-punk scenes in New York City during the 1970s and '80s.

VerBS

VerBS is a photographer/rapper currently on tour with Murs. You can order a copy of his 14 track Progress EP from a post on his MySpace. You can also order a physical copy which comes with some of his photography.

VerBS- Here Comes the Sun (ft. Gumshoe)
Here's a sample from the Progress EP. "Here Come's the Sun" is a nice, breezy song and is, obviously, recommended.

Velocity Girl

I bought an old copy of Velocity Girl's first album, Copacetic, on a whim last year and really liked it. Here's the video for the album's single, "Crazy Town":



I mostly picked it up because of the band's connection to Black Tambourine and Slumberland Records. Pam Berry, Black Tambourine's singer, used to have this awesome zine called Chickfactor. The online content on Chickfactor's website is well worth the time to peruse.

Black Tambourine- "Throw Aggi Off the Bridge"
This is probably Black Tambourine's most well known song and is about Aggi and Stephen from The Pastels.

We Are Wizards!

We Are Wizards is a documentary about the Harry Potter fan scene. Here is the trailer:

I don't really care for the Harry Potter books, but this looks pretty interesting for two reasons:
1. Harry and the Potters: Harry and the Potters are two brothers who make punk rock influenced songs about, well, you know...
Here is the page for the Harry and the Potter's Daytrotter session, to get a sense of their live sound.
2. Brad Neely: Brad Neely is pretty awesome. Neely created an alternate soundtrack for the first Harry Potter film but he's also a great illustrator with two serialized web shows. Here is the first episode of Baby Cakes:

Getting to know you

If you've read past the stupid title of this post, welcome to "The Art Retard."
This is just a welcome post.
There will be more stuff.

Yo La Tengo- You Can Have It All