Travis, Ode to J. Smith

So it's Saturday and I'm sitting here putting the correct meta-data on all the free 5 minute samples at music2work2.com - should have done this a while ago - you can stream the track, download the sample and you don't even need to register! Anyway - while I'm doing this I'm listening to Travis' new album Ode to J. Smith streaming at Spin.com, I'm on my second listen and it's pretty damn cool.  My sister introduced me to Travis and I fell in love with their album The Man Who - they're almost, but not entirely unlike if you took say - Radiohead, Oasis, Weezer and perhaps Nickel Creek -  mixed them around and then gave whatever came out a big bowl of something.

You can check out the Travis' official site here - I just went looking for the album on Amazon - it isn't there - bummer.  Interestingly enough the album image on the front page is a link to the itunes store - and I can't see any other way of buying the album - you know - if they'd had a little widget that I could have put in this post with a listen and a purchase link - then I would have!

Oh and thanks to @tindle for getting me to blog this.

Weezer and the Lady on the train...

Music's freaking awesome. I met a lady on a train - we were both delayed and inconvenienced so we talked about music. We swapped likes and I referenced Weezer's hit "Beverley Hills" - to which she demurred as not really representative, I was intrigued.

I had got the irony of the video when it came out, although I hadn't really listened to their music prior to that- I had it in the same category as Eels - cool hipster music (listen to Beautiful Freak)- and I dug them 'cos I like cool hipster music - that and the name Rivers Cuomo stuck in my head.

I'd made a mental note to check them out - and then life got busy - until RockBand appeared in the house.

If you're a music fan - which I'm guessing is likely if you're reading this - try it - just try it, I think it's brilliant fun. We had Kelli on the guitar this afternoon and me on vocals as we attacked Nirvana's Bloom -

..and then you play "Say It Ain't So" - and they have a crowd track. Yeah it's true - when things are going well - the bloody crowd starts singing - and you just gotta wonder what a Weezer gig feels like? The killer for me of course is that I now have my 10 and 11 year old step children accusing me of wanting to drown them.

I have subsequently purchased the track - and I'm going to listen to their new album - and their old stuff too - http://www.weezer.com/ I'm pretty stoked about that and looking forward to it.

So, Lady on the train - thank you - I hope you're well and I hope that you dig Weezer's new material - that would be very cool indeed. I love this video: [display_podcast]