Solomon Burke

Smells better

Heat index around 100 + a few hours of power washing = smells better. Heat advisory again today, though, and BB was home sick yesterday in part, we think, from heat exhaustion.

Blockhead

Very dosey.

Joy

One more from Bettye LaVette, this time covering Lucinda Williams.

Bettye LaVette

From her newish album, Interpretations: British Rock Songbook.

Smells like

Heat index is at 100 and it smells like dead things.

The trouble with soccer

Historian Laurent Dubois on the U.S. rightwing's hatred of soccer.

Soccer generates actual hostility in the United States in a way that few other sports do. . . . It would be one thing if there was just indifference -- nobody should have to watch a sport -- but the fact that it creates rage in the mind of someone like Glenn Beck is actually pretty interesting.

I think it has to do with the fact that soccer is a sport that has always been linked to immigrants in this country and at the same time tied to a certain cultural elite. And as we know, there’s a particular strand of American society that sees immigrants and the intellectual elite as dangerous forces. So looking at it that way, it’s not surprising that conservative commentators would fixate on soccer, since they’re obviously fixated on those other two things anyway. It’s an obvious leap -- they feel like the growing popularity of soccer is just further proof of the decline of America.

Interview at Salon. Dubois' work on soccer and the politics of empire looks interesting as well.

Broken Bells

Danger Mouse + James Mercer, covering Neil Young.

MGMT - Electric Feel

Owes so much to Beck (and Prince), but this live version adds a neo-hippie prelude.

Porcupine Tree

Prog rock lives!

Spectacle cinema

Song track by Jesus Lizard.

Sons Of Otis - The Pusher

Drudge version of Steppenwolf song.