Fikaked: February!

1. NBC basically owns Thursday nights, and 30 Rock is half the reason why. Yet, for some reason, I don't seem to ever hear anyone talking about it. I know it's critically acclaimed and that it's been awarded Emmys and all that, but according to my survey (which admittedly has a small sample size) almost no one watches it, ever. I've had the following conversation too many times to count:

Relative/Friend/Co-worker: "Hey, did you see The Office last night? It was so awesome/awkward! I can't believe Michael did that!"

Me: "Yeah, great episode as usual/I'm really getting sick of the Pam & Jim drama. Did you catch 30 Rock?"

Relative/Friend/Co-Worker: "Nah, I had stuff to do/I've never really gotten into that show for some reason/it's just too out there/blah, blah, blah."

Point is, it kinda sucks not being able to discuss 30 Rock with anyone, because it's definitely worth discussing. Jack McBrayer and Tracy Morgan are both great, Tina Fey is the funniest woman on television (by a landslide), and I'm still shocked that someone was actually able to convince Alec Baldwin to make a sitcom a full-time gig. To top it off, the cast is full of former Saturday Night Live & Late Night With Conan O'Brien writers, and the material they come up with is better than ninety percent of what ends up on SNL anymore. Set your DVRs, people! (If you are without a DVR/TiVo, they put every show up on NBC.com for free. No excuses!)

2. After a really good debut album and a mostly kinda boring second album, Franz Ferdinand has brought the funk with Tonight. It's been almost 4 years since You Could Have It So Much Better (ugh, even the title was boring), but they made good use of the time: Tonight is full of interesting, catchy, and cool disco-punk, and I've already given it more repeat listens than its predecessor. "No You Girls" (which you've probably seen in the new iTunes commercial) and leadoff single "Ulysses" are two of the better tracks of the new year. This is one of those albums that would probably appeal to just about anyone who gives it a listen.

3. In case you haven't heard, some massive changes involving NBC's late night programming are about to go down. Jay Leno is stepping down (and, apparently, moving to a prime time slot), Conan O'Brien is moving to Burbank to become the next host of The Tonight Show, and Jimmy Fallon has been slated to replace O'Brien. Honestly, I've got mixed feelings about all of this. I'm pumped about the idea of Conan moving up to the big leagues, but the current setup wasn't too shabby, either. I never was much of a Leno guy, so there

weren't any conflicts (DVR or otherwise) when it came to getting my nightly Letterman/O'Brien fix. That's about to be a thing of the past. In addition, the question of how this move is going to affect Conan's style has to be asked. Conan promises he's going to be just as immature as ever, and they did bring back Andy Richter, but we'll have to wait and see on that one. As for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, I'm going to remain skeptical until I see it.

4. A couple weeks ago, my buddy Kenny showed me a couple videos on YouTube that featured some pretty great artists (Bon Iver, The Shins, Iron & Wine, Dodos, Loney, Dear, etc.) playing acoustically in elevators and other small rooms. Sounds weird, I know, but it's really quite good. There isn't really much info out there on it; when I went searching for details, all I could find was that the series is called (Behind) Closed Doors, and that it's done by a Dutch Multimedia group (internet television, radio, etc.) called 3VOOR12. Anything beyond that is difficult to ascertain because their entire website is in Dutch (which I don't speak) and it isn't mentioned in the English-speaking media whatsoever. Nonetheless, if you're a fan of indie music, you should check it out here, and see whether or not any of your favorites have gotten involved with this.

Bon Iver, (Behind) Closed Doors:

The Dodos, (Behind) Closed Doors:

5. So, there's this new reality show on Animal Planet called Jockeys. And I'm gonna be honest, I was really looking forward to seeing the premiere, mostly because the promos they were running on the E! channel looked absolutely ridiculous, and because they were all rocking KanYe West's "Stronger" in the background (it's also played during the show's opening credits). Unsurprisingly, Jockeys is pretty dumb. It falls on the side of the "serious", drama-ish type reality shows, which happen to be the kind that I hate most. There aren't eliminations and there isn't any comic relief. What it does possess, however, is a ton of tremendous accidents and collisions, and they just about redeem the entire show on their own. It's almost worth it to endure the meaningless conversations and the horses running in circles to see those wonderful, fantastic wipeouts. Whoever is running things apparently realizes this, too, because they milk every concussion for as much as they possibly can. If somebody goes down, you're guaranteed the shock of seeing it for the first time before the commercial break, followed by the same incident from multiple angles afterwards, complete with slow-motion shots. If you're a lover of "train-wreck" material, this is for you.

6. Remember how funny I said 30 Rock is? Well, Chelsea Handler and her show on E! are that unfunny. In fact, as long as we're making 30 Rock comparisons, I'd say Handler is the anti-Fey. Why in the hell the E! Channel saw fit to give her a show is beyond me. It's not like her stand-up was great; in fact, it wasn't even good. Her material isn't clever at all, her attempts to compensate by being "edgy" (which consist of her saying the most outrageous/offensive thing that she can think of) come off as pathetic, and her personality is annoying. Basically, she has no sense of humor, and that's not something you can fake. Unfortunately for her, the writers she works with apparently aren't helping: the show sucks just as much or more than anything Handler has done previously. It's just baffling to me how shows like Arrested Development and MST3K can't survive but garbage like Chelsea Lately finds a way. In fact, it's actually been renewed until December. I realize that countless unknown circumstances play a huge factor in the fate of a show, but seriously, who's watching this crap?

7. Andrew Kenny is/was in a band called American Analog Set (they're kinda broken up/on hiatus/periodically reuniting). If you've never heard of them, do yourself a favor and look them up. They're a super laid-back, low volume indie rock band that knows how to make a lot out of a little, and their sound is one that you won't mistake for anyone else's. That is, unless you happen to go check out a band called The Wooden Birds, which Kenny now happens to be fronting. Evidently he had more than a little to do with AAS's sound, because the material on his new band's MySpace page basically sounds exactly like something his old band would have produced (and I mean exactly). You won't hear any complaining from me, though. The new album, entitled Magnolia, drops in the spring on Barsuk Records.

8. Finding a better job than being in The Lonely Island would be pretty tough; there aren't too many people out there who get to goof off and have a good time for a living. In the form of their "Digital Shorts", the group (made up of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone) get more of a free reign on SNL than just about anyone who's ever been involved with the show (see: Exhibit A). As a result, they've been able to push the envelope of outrageousness and at the same time intentionally put together stuff that will get better with multiple views/listens, knowing that it will be seen millions of times on the internet after it airs on Saturday Night. Their new album, Incredibad, is more of the same, and it works pretty well. Half of the tracks have already been debuted on SNL, but the rest of it is definitely worthwhile (not to mention everything is of professional sound quality and unedited). It covers several genres, but it's mostly a hip-hop comedy album, and they do a pretty good job of making it sound legit in terms of production, etc. Ultimately, though, these guys are just having a good time, and you will too when you listen to it.

9. After the Oscar-winning Saving Private Ryan and the truly awesome miniseries Band of Brothers, Tom Hanks' production company and Steven Spielberg are teaming up with HBO again for The Pacific. The format and style will apparently mirror that of Brothers, and will focus on the Marines in the Pacific Theater of Operations during WWII. My big question upon hearing about this was where the material was going to come from, mostly because the author of the book BOB was based on, Stephen A. Ambrose, passed away about 6 years ago. Ambrose is regarded as one of the greatest historians of WWII (he was actually hand-picked by former President and five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower to be his biographer), and he was also the head consultant for Private Ryan. I've since found out that his son Hugh has been brought in to consult, and the show will be based on the memoirs of two Marines. Also, whereas BOB focused on the 101st Airborne throughout all 10 episodes, The Pacific will instead follow the journies of three different Marines in three different locations, so it may be a little harder to get attached to the characters involved. And then there's the question of whether or not the actors chosen for the new miniseries will be able to hold a torch to the awesome performances that had so much to do with Brother's greatness. Despite the concerns, though, I can't see Hanks, Spielberg, etc. putting their name on anything that isn't extremely well-done, and I'm sure this new project will not be an exception. Filming concluded in Australia in May of 2008, and will air sometime this year.

10. I've never been a big fan of compilation albums. They're often intended to raise money for good causes, which is obviously a great thing, but they also resemble mix cds (which I usually don't care for) made by other people who have no idea what I want to listen to. Plus, I've always struggled with how to organize them in my iTunes library, which is really annoying. This week, however, saw the release of not one, but two really cool comps. The first one, entitled War Child: Heroes, was organized to raise money for an organization that attempts to help children around the world who have been affected by war. I know, the thought of that kind of makes the music seem insignificant, but, nonetheless, the main idea behind what's actually on the album is a pretty

cool one. Great artists like David Bowie, Brian Wilson, and Bob Dylan have been asked to choose one of their favorite songs from their own catalog, and then choose their favorite contemporary artist to cover it. The resulting album is pretty impressive: some of the standouts include Beck covering Dylan's "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat", TV on the Radio covering Bowie's "Heroes", and Franz Ferdinand covering Blondie's "Call Me". A complete track listing can be found here.

Also released this week, Dark Was the Night benefits the Red Hot Organization, which is dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. There really isn't much else I can say about this thing, except that it's both massive and really, really good. I'll let the track list of this two-disc monster speak for itself :

"This Disc"

1. "Knotty Pine" - Dirty Projectors/David Byrne

2. "Cello Song" (Nick Drake) - The Books/Jose Gonzalez

3. "Train Song" (Vashti Bunyan) - Feist /Ben Gibbard

4. "Brackett, WI" - Bon Iver

5. "Deep Blue Sea" - Grizzly Bear

6. "So Far Around The Bend" - The National/Nico Muhly

7. "Tightrope" - Yeasayer

8. "Feeling Good" (Anthony Newley & Leslie Bricusse) - My Brightest Diamond

9. "Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson) - Kronos Quartet

10. "I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan) - Antony Hegarty/Bryce Dessner

11. "Big Red Machine" - Justin Vernon/Aaron Dessner

12. "Sleepless" - The Decemberists

13. Stolen Houses (Die) - Iron & Wine

14. "Service Bell" - Grizzly Bear/Feist

15. "You Are the Blood" (Castanets) - Sufjan Stevens

"That Disc"

1. "Well-Alright" - Spoon

2. "Lenin" - Arcade Fire

3. "Mimizan" - Beirut

4. "El Caporal" - My Morning Jacket

5. "Inspiration Information" (Shuggie Otis) - Sharon Jones/The Dap-Kings

6. "With a Girl Like You" (The Troggs) - Dave Sitek

7. "Blood Pt. 2" (Castanets) - Buck 65/Sufjan Stevens/Serengeti

8. "Hey, Snow White" (Destroyer) - The New Pornographers

9. "Gentle Hour" (Snapper Cover) - Yo La Tango

10. "Another Saturday" - Stuart Murdoch

11. "Happiness" - Riceboy Sleeps

12. "Amazing Grace" - Cat Power/Dirty Delta Blues

13. "The Giant of Illinois" (The Handsome Family) - Andrew Bird

14. "Lua" (Bright Eyes) - Conor Oberst/Gillian Welch

15. "When the Road Runs Out" - Blonde Redhead/The Devestations

16. "Love Vs. Porn" - Kevin Drew

*Last, but not least, RIP Paul Harvey.