Handsome Family "Woodpecker" Video on NPR Music

NPR Music premiered the new Chris Hefner-directed video for "Woodpecker" last week with a First Watch. We wanted to make sure that you saw his hypnotic video set to the song about Mary Sweeney, the famous Wisconsin window smasher featured in "Wisconsin Death Trip."

As Rennie Sparks tells us, "The gleam of glass whispers secrets that few can hear. Mary Sweeney was one of them. She was also a woodpecker."

Mary Sweeney was "an otherwise quiet woman beset by an overpowering urge." - Director Chris Hefner

David Rakoff's Gracious "Hobbies"

Wanted to share this tumblr that archives the personal gifts that the essayist, journalist, and actor David Rakoff generously made and gave to his friends. David Rakoff passed away last week. It's an incredible archive of his "hobbies" that are far more amazing than anything I could hope to do with my life efforts. While you're thinking about David Rakoff, take a listen to his hilarious segment "Christmas Freud" from This American Life, of which he was a frequent contributor.

Speaking of This American Life. The film "Sleepwalk With Me" by Mike Birbiglia, produced by some of the folks at TAL, will be at Chicago's Music Box Theatre on August 31 & September 1 (7 & 9:30 showings).

Kitten sad re: Radiolab Live prices

Speaking of podcasts showing up live in Chicago – Radiolab will be doing a live show at the Chicago Theatre on September 28. While I would love to hear Jab Abumrad and Robert Krulwich IRL, they're popular and, as it goes, pricey. Regardless, it is sure to be entertaining if you want to shell out the minimum $28 + $15 of service fees.

Big Week for Megan Reilly

First, the cool people of Pittsburgh's AltarTV created a crazy cool ass set at some point, plopped Megan down in the middle of it, did a nice little interview, and, without too much coaxing, got her to sing like a bird on a stripped down, solo version of "To Seal My Love." Then they wrote really nice things about her, too, saying she's “simply a special talent” and that the album is a “showcase for her tremendous voice.”

Friday, National Geographic Music premiered the haunting new video for "The Lady of Leitrim," a "slow burning Celtic lament" wherein Megan tries to make sense of the tragic story of her Irish immigrant great aunt, Bridie.

Monday, David Dye and World Cafe posted their interview with Megan along with exclusive recordings of four songs that she and her ace band laid own in the World Cafe studios. We think Megan's band (Steve Goulding-d, Tony Maimone-b, and James Mastro-g) is the best around, and David Dye agrees! Be sure to check out the exclusive Web Extra song, "Under the Waves," that you won't hear on the broadcast.

Ignore at your own peril, indeed!

Today, the fine people at Epitonic posted their Epitonic saki Session MP3s and accompanying videos--all recorded right here at saki. The punchy five song session also includes a short, exclusive interview with Megan by Rachel Angres. For the visually inclined, you can also watch the whole show on Megan's Epitonic saki Session Vimeo channel.

Go Megan!

Whew.

(and special thanks to the Great State of Pennsylvania!)

NPR World Cafe with Megan Reilly 7/10

NPR's World Cafe with host David Dye will broadcast its session with Megan Reilly on Tuesday, July 10th!

A preview of Megan Reilly's World Cafe session can be found on NPR.org with live versions of "Lady of Leitrim" and "Throw It Out."

World Cafe can be heard on over 200 stations nationwide. Find your local station and the broadcast time HERE. This is good to know regardless!

..... or worldwide, you can connect to the WXPN Philadelphia stream on Tuesday 7/10 between 2pm to 4pm EST HERE.

Keep your ears to the ground!

NPR Digging Megan Reilly

"Megan Reilly strips away the gloss of modern country music to find an emotional sound rooted in folk and classic pop." - NPR

A preview of World Café featuring Megan Reilly is up on NPR Music today! Hear live versions of "Lady of Leitrim" and "Throw It Out"...the full version will air July 10th!

The recently NPR syndicated Cabinet of Wonders also aired last weekend, and you can listen online! The variety show, hosted by John Wesley Harding, includes performances by Megan Reilly, AC Newman (New Pornographers), Will Sheff (Okkervil River), Dean & Britta (Galaxie 500), Eugene Mirman, & more.

Available at saki today: Megan Reilly - The Well

Alongside saki's selection of Record Store Day 2012 exclusive releases today, we will also be selling Megan Reilly's album "The Well" before street date. Add it to your stack of goodies today at saki, you won't be disappointed!

Check out the video for track Throw It Out that premiered on NPR.org directed by Antoine Wagner (Phoenix - Lisztomania). Watch it HERE. 

NPR Premieres Megan Reilly Video for Throw It Out

NPR Music Elves have arrived and finally brought us the music video for Megan Reilly's song Throw It Out. The video was directed by Antoine Wagner, who also directed the video for Phoenix- Lisztomania. The video was inspired by an interview with French comedian Fernandel and stars Megan Reilly alongside her husband, actor Daniel London.

Watch the video HERE.

If you fancy this, check out:
- This video of Megan and pal John Wesley Harding doing the duet "Old Man and the Bird" on AOL/Spinner
- Performance video for "Sew the Threads Into Your Heart" shot at James Mastro's Hoboken guitar shop Guitar Bar. The video was featured along with her recent interview in Guitar World

Megan Reilly's album The Well is out April 24th on Carrot Top Records.

Megan Reilly Video on NPR Music

Sometime tomorrow morning (now Wed. See below), at a time and place of their choosing, the mysterious but benevolent NPR Music elves will post the debut for Megan Reilly's incredible "Throw It Out" video, directed by Antoine Wagner. The video stars the talented and lovely Megan, of course, but the show is clearly stolen by her husband, the equally talented and almost equally lovely actor Daniel London.

While you wait, you can still check out, or recheck as the case may be, Megan's other two videos for songs from her new album, The Well:

• This cute as kittens video of Megan with pal John Wesley Harding doing the duet "Old Man and The Bird" from AOL/Spinner...
• and the more ripping performance video for "Sew the Threads into Your Heart" shot at guitar god James Mastro's Hoboken shop, Guitar Bar, that was featured along with her cool recent interview in Guitar World.

After you've had time to digest the video, we'll share some of the story behind making it, but in the meantime, here's a still to whet your appetite.

UPDATE: The NPRMusic elves had some technical issues today to which we are not privy, nor should we be. We really don't want to see how the NPR sausage is made. They promise a Wednesday morning debut for Megan's video. We'll try to get some sleep tonight while thinking about it. Thanks, elves! We're all pulling for you!

Megan Reilly- Sew the Threads Into Your Heart

Megan Reilly's track "Sew the Threads Into Your Heart" off her upcoming album The Well (April 24 on Carrot Top Records) is KUT Austin's Song of the Day.
"Reilly's music pulls from the melange of styles that make Memphis such a historic musical city. You can hear everything from slow-burn soul to a bit of alt-country, all reined in by Reilly's outstanding voice"
Read more and stream the track HERE.

The track comes out as a digital single tomorrow!

The Bitter Tears on NPR!

Take a listen to The Bitter Tears on NPR as they talk about dumpster diving for instruments, the beginning of the band, and their contribution to this weekend's Chicago International Movies and Music Festival, CIMMfest.

They mention Carrot Top Records' own, The Handsome Family as one of their first influences.

"It's more about not censoring yourself, in almost an extreme way, like opening up the faucets and letting everything out." - Alan Scalpone of The Bitter Tears

Make sure the see the members of The Bitter Tears perform live at the CIMMFest this Saturday 4/17 at 10:30PM, at the Wicker Park Arts Center, 2215 W North Ave. The performance will take place in accordinance with Brent Green's "Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then."

Handsome Family Grace Car Talk!

"Bowling Alley Bar" was featured on NPR's Car Talk this morning. 
Pretty cool.

More Free Stuff for Your iPod

There is a wealth of free, legitimate, licensed content to be had on the web. Yes, you can listen to music, lectures, audio books, news, and radio shows without paying a dime. Most people with whom I've talked about this are not aware of the breadth of all of the cool free stuff out there that people are posting of their own volition.

Here's a few of my favorites:

iTunes U—An oft overlooked, little corner of the iTunes store filled to the brim with amazing, free stuff available from colleges and universities all over the place. Listen in on lectures from MIT, UC Berkeley, museum lectures like The Tate and MoMA, tons more. There's even a free David Sedaris talk and reading! It's crazy what you can learn here will sitting on your ass in your car or trudging through your elliptical routine at the gym.

Internet Archive—Includes an enormous selection of public domain and Creative Commons licensed material including nearly 4,000 audio books—from the Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Arthur Conan Doyle and the original Land of Oz stories of L. Frank Baum, to Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and even the Baghavad-gita—along with large collections of internet only music labels and the Live Music Archive featuring over 63,000 concerts. I am currently enjoying the classical concerts from the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum.

iTunes Podcasts—Sure, you know they're there, but how to wade through all the crap? Unfortunately, I can't answer that question. I do know that I'm in the process of listening to or watching all of their posts from the IDEA Festival and TEDTalks (both audio and video) and so far they are all wonderful and, I think, well worth your time.

NPR Podcasts—Yes, the alluring mysteries of FM radio are still missing from the iPod after all these years, but you can download some of the best content on FM and forget about the weighty extra electronics that a bulky radio receiver would add to your commuting and workout buddy. Just download the best of NPR and start listening to the topics that interest you at your leisure. Why listen to another annoying analysis of the Economy from Hell when you really want to be listening to a talk about setting poetry to Baroque music?