As we wind down the Sunday vegetarian post of awesomeness series, today we look at Matthew Friedberger, mastermind behind The Fiery Furnaces, a band he and his sister Eleanor comprise, most of the time. The Fiery Furnaces put out music at an incredibly frantic pace, and much of it is absolutely fantastic. Best of all, the one time I saw them live, they reworked every single song, stripping even some of the esoteric, longer songs into straight ahead rock and roll. Here’s a homemade video for the song “My Dog Was Lost But Now He’s Found.” It’s a really well-done video for a very clever song. I’d watch all the way through to really get how clever it is.

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Okay, we got things to do today, so let’s get to getting to our Awesome Sunday Vegetarians, who today are VV (nee: Alison Mosshart) and Hotel (nee: Jamie Hince), otherwise known as the band The Kills. The Kills have a parental advisory sticker on their albums, so assume that holds true here. Especially when we get to the song “F*** the People.” That one’s gonna have swearing.

But, anyway, The Kills take sparse garage-y rock to a new level. However, this isn’t like Spoon sparseness (and, by the way, nothing against Spoon, at all; one of my favorite bands ever), or even White Stripes sparse, in that The Kills are extremely menacing in their spatially void rock. Here’s a live version of “Superstition,” off the album Keep on Your Mean Side (all songs today will be off that record). It is not a Stevie Wonder cover.

Isn’t that just a little bit scary? Yeah, a little bit scary. And a lot bit awesome. Next up is that track I mentioned early “F*** the People.” Apparently they’re not happy. And, yes, swearing in this one. And middle fingers high in the air. After the jump. Read the rest of this entry >>

Oh, look, it’s Sunday, again (like clockwork), so it’s time for me to tell you that your Sunday Afternoon Totally Awesome Vegetarian is Chris Walla, of Death Cab For Cutie. Now, for my money, the best Death Cab album was The Photo Album, though We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes ain’t half bad, either. To start with, here’s a really amazingly good live version of the heart-breaking song “Styrofoam Plates,” from The Photo Album.

So now, let’s go backwards to the other album I mentioned (that is to say, it was released earlier in the band’s career), and take a look at another great live cut, this one being “Company Calls.” And let’s thank Death Cab for not disabling embedding on these videos, because they’re really excellent. Video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry >>

Hey, look, it’s Sunday afternoon, which means I get to tell you that your Sunday Awesomely Awesome Vegetarians for today are Tim Hoey and Mitchell Scott, otherwise known as 2/3 of the Australian band Cut Copy. Cut Copy does electronic/dance/whatever music very, very well. Would you like to know what that means? Okay, then! Here’s “Hearts of Fire,” off the wonderful album In Ghost Colours.

So good. I’m torn whether that song, or this one, “Out There on the Ice Again,” is the best track off the record. I guess you can decide for yourself. But man, this chorus is catchy. Insanely catchy. Video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry >>

I’ll announce right up front that I’m cheating, again, for the Awesome Sunday Vegetarian post. But, you know what, it’s Super Bowl Sunday, and some things are more important than solid research on days like these. So, with that caveat out of the way, your Sunday Morning Awesome (not actually a) Vegetarian is David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame (oh, also, solo work, and work with Brian Eno).

I’m basing this whole post on this quote from Byrne, taken from a Salon interview: “I have been a vegetarian on and off.” You know what? Good enough for today. And, also, instead of going straight to the Talking Heads music, I want to highlight a song Byrne and Brian Eno did last year, “Strange Overtones,” which Pitchfork put as one of their top 15 tracks of 2008. I can’t disagree.

As you may or may not know, Talking Heads released what many consider the definitive live concert video, Stop Making Sense. If you haven’t seen it, you probably need to rent it, right now, twice. Here’s Byrne doing his Byrne thing, to great effect, in the song “Once In a Lifetime,” which many people think is called “Same As It Ever Was.” It’s not. I think my favorite move he makes is the simple arm movement during the line, “You may ask yourself, how do I work this?” Video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry >>

It’s Sunday, which means it’s time for your Sunday Afternoon Vegetarian of Awesomeness, and today we have the bona fide King of the Surf Guitar, Dick Dale! And, by the looks of the videos I’ve been scanning through to put this post together (we call that “research”), Dale also may win for King of the Cheesy Music Videos. Now, I think you all know Dale’s “Miserlou,” from the opening credits to Pulp Fiction. But here it is in another, possibly comperable movie (from this video, anyway), A Swingin’ Affair:

Ah, movie magic. Now, this next video is for a simply awesome song - it’s “Pipeline,” as performed by Dick Dale and guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughn. Apparently, this was also done for a movie, and I’m not gonna lie. I don’t know what the hell is going on in this video. There’s surfing, there’s Gilligan, there’s fake throwing people out of buildings, there’s a dude sitting in a convertable with his knife out…I think you just have to watch and enjoy. After the jump. Read the rest of this entry >>

The Super Sunday (late) Evening Vegetarian for today is Billie Joe Armstrong, of Green Day. Now, if want to say something along the lines of, “Well, Andy, I did my research and see that Armstrong used to be a vegetarian, but now isn’t, so doesn’t that mean he can’t be your Sunday vegetarian,” I would kindly suggest you cram it. Also, I’ll only use songs that were written when he was probably still a vegetarian. Happy now, Mister or Miss Ruins The Fun?

Like this one: “Hitchin’ a Ride.” Such a great song. NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR YOUNGER CHILDREN DUE TO OBSCENE BANTER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SONG.

Or, perhaps you’d like a ballad? We can do that. “Macy’s Day Parade.” Perhaps my favorite Green Day song, it’s off the underrated Warning record (after the jump). Read the rest of this entry >>

It’s time for your Sunday Afternoon Vegetarian Awesomeness, and today we highlight Nico, and more specifically, the album Velvet Underground and Nico, which is the album with the banana on the cover, produced by Andy Warhol. This is a great great album by a great great band, and adding Nico into the mix really stepped up the awesomeness. Here’s “I’m Waiting For the Man,” with video footage shot by Warhol himself.

I’m having some trouble digging up video footage of the song I really want to play you, so we’ll go the old school way where we have video that’s not actually showing stuff, and you can just listen to the awesomeness. Here’s Nico taking over the band with “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” which I once saw live done by Calexeco and Iron & Wine, which was one of the better things I’ve seen in person (after the jump). Read the rest of this entry >>

It’s Sunday Afternoon Awesome Vegetarian time, and today we get the double shot of the Davies brothers, Ray and Dave, who make up a good portion of that British Invasion band The Kinks. Now, I know The Kinks are known quite a bit for their hit songs “You Really Got Me” and “Lola,” but as far as I’m concerned, if the only album the band ever put out had been The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, they would have cemented their mark on rock history. Here’s a live version of the title track, a little slower than it is on the album, but still a cool rendition.

Unfortunately, I’m having trouble finding live video of The Kinks being awesome, and I’m hoping to find stuff that isn’t “Lola,” “Tired of Waiting,” and the like. So, you’ll have to bear with me as we show you videos that are really just pictures of The Kinks while the music plays. Maybe you can play solitaire while you listen or something. Read the rest of this entry >>

Awesome Sunday vegetarian that makes awesome music is once again upon us, and I’m really excited to tell you that today we feature Jarvis Cocker, of Pulp. The band was formed thirty whole years ago, when Cocker was a mere 15 years old. They’ve been on “extended hiatus” since 2002 (much like other formerly featured bands Fugazi and blink-182), but man, they made some good music when they were together. Here’s a live version of “The Fear,” originally off of This Is Hardcore.

Here is one of the songs (I think) Pulp is best known for, which is called “Common People.” I can’t remember what album it’s off of at the moment, but youtube tells me it came out in 1995. So, there’s that. Read the rest of this entry >>