The Roots joined Elvis Costello for a performance of Get Happy! on Fallon, where he was promoting the second season of the Sundance Channel’s Spectacle.

—Tyler Gould

The American Music Awards were last night, giving the most popular acts in the country and the suits that made them a venue on which to stage their feverish masturbations. Some highlights: Adam Lambert fell down in between violent simulations of oral sex, J-Lo fell off of a pile of dancers, and Taylor Swift beat out Daughtry and Jason Mraz to win Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist for an album that is 90% about high school, which reeks of manipulation, as if winning five awards focus grouped better than winning four. Scandal at the AMAs! She’s great, suits. Fearless is a beast of a pop album. She doesn’t need the help. What an outrage! If you had any doubts about rampant crimes against humanity at this event, I present this indisputable evidence: the Black Eyed Peas won something.

Michael Jackson was the big winner of the night, taking four AMAs to the big Neverland Ranch in the sky and finally getting some respect for his all-too underappreciated career.

Rihanna’s great, though:

Rihanna - “Wait Your Turn” and “Hard”

More performances after the jump:

—Tyler Gould

Twelve years ago this week: future platinum-selling Modest Mouse released their second full-length album, The Lonesome Crowded West, one of the best albums of the ‘90s. It was a sign of things to come, filled with dynamic shifts, the raw energy of Isaac Brock’s voice, and the dark, eerie sound that they’ve refined so that you can identify a Modest Mouse song in the space about about a chord and a half.

“Out of Gas”

“Cowboy Dan”

—Tyler Gould

In celebration of Miles Davis’ 30 plus year stint with Columbia Records, Columbia/Legacy present Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection. Exclusive to Amazon.com, the set will include reissues of Davis’ 52 recordings for Columbia plus bonus tracks, an artist biography, a fully annotated discography, a complete song index and rare photos of the jazz mastermind.

The set also contains previously unreleased footage of the Miles Davis Quintet’s European tour of 1967 on DVD, Live in Europe ‘67. Shot in Stockholm and Karlsruhe, Live in Europe ‘67 includes performances by: Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Making the box set even more irresistible is the inclusion of the full performance from the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, which is also a first time release. Stream a few tracks after the jump.

—Allison Taich

Savath y Savalas
The Predicate (Dub Version)
(Stones Throw)
Releasing: January [CD] Now [digital]

The Predicate (Dub Version) is a Guillermo Scott Herren (Prefuse 73) remix of his group’s La Llama, and if you find “Pavo Real Plucked” to your liking, you can pick up the digital pre-release over at Stones Throw.

SONG LIST
01 Adeu Salutation
02 Abri.l Closed
03 Pavo Real Plucked
04 Pajaros En Cadaques Shot
05 The Predicate and the Library
06 Me Voy and Resolved
07 La Loba Collection
08 There Is No Love in Your Heart
09 Me Voy Alone
10 Lamento Pobre Y Salida

Savath y Savalas
Pavo Real Plucked [MP3]
     

—Tyler Gould

If there was a checklist for Eels archetypes, “Little Bird”, the first track to see the light of day from the band’s forthcoming LP End Times, would fill up more check boxes than just about any other song that E has penned. A simple, delicately strummed melody with a capo at the fifth fret? Check. Direct appeals to God? Check. An avian-centric narrative? Check. Gratuitous use of the word “goddamn”? Check. Pining for a lost love? Double check.

That said, this is also quite possibly the best song that E has written since the landmark Daisies of the Galaxy. A spare, crushingly depressing, brutally honest confessional, the track finds E doing what he does best: moping. One listen to E’s gravelly voice as he admits, “Goddamn, I miss that girl”, should be enough to convince even the weariest of Eels fans that End Times just might be worth looking forward to.

Download the song using the widget below…

—Mehan Jayasuriya