popwreckoning

As PopWreckoning’s Music Editor, I strive to post things that may or may not have been heard by the world. Most of the time, the posts on this site reflect the musical taste of each writer, I love that. We are a creative site that works toward bringing music to your ears and we hope that you enjoy it. With that said, here is a list, including silly notes, of some of my favorite bands right now (that you may not have heard of, yet).

Millions of Boys (Omaha, NE) – a three-piece with an attitude. quick, poppy, and so much fun. It’s like lo-fi punk and catchy imperfection, all while being perfect.
Noteworthy lyrics, “that girl is the bomb/that girl is the bomb/but that bomb was a DUD” – from “Dudcats”
Download their Demos for free:
millionsofboys.bandcamp.com

Night Beds (Colorado Springs/Nashville) – slow, ambient harmonic vocals meet pedals with soothing tunes. perfect driving music through mountains and amazing scenery.
Download both of their EP’s for free:
nightbedsmusic.bandcamp.com
www.nightbeds.org 

Sleeping Bag (Bloomington, IN) – upbeat rock that includes claps and deep vocals. think a bit like Cake without all of the horns. the entire album keeps heads bopping and feet tapping along.
Buy their self-titled album!
sleepingbag.bandcamp.com
sleepsleepingbag.com

Last Year’s Men (Chapel Hill, NC) – garage rock with traces of blues and soul. see these guys live if you have the chance, the energy and emotion will blow you away.
Sidenote: super nice guys all around. talk to them at shows and buy them sandwiches.
lastyearsmen.bandcamp.com

Dowsing (Chicago, IL) – soooo emo. soooo awesome. songs about friends, and girls, and life. on Count Your Lucky Stars (who also has great emo bands).
Digital download for whatever you want to pay, vinyl for $5:
dowsing.bandcamp.com

More than Skies (Long Island, NY) – side project of Adam Tomlinson from other LI band, Sleep Bellum Sonno. acoustic with his heart poured into the lyrics. there’s happy lyrics, and sad. something for any mood.
Noteworthy lyrics, “if not for you, I would have given up by now/I wouldn’t have made it to the door./If it was for me, I’m sure I’d mess things up.”
Get the EP with a tape:
morethanskies.bandcamp.com 

I also know it says new music but these aren’t necessarily new releases, these are bands that I hope are new to you as a listener and reader of our site. Enjoy!

PS22 Chorus – “What You Know”

So, there’s this band whose CD has been playing in my car constantly since seeing them at Crosstown Station a while back. They’re called The Bright Light Social Hour and they’re from Austin, Texas.

It was one of those impulsive “I’m going to see this show, it could be really awesome or really terrifying” kind of nights. Well, it was definitely the former.

TBLSH has been on tour since September throughout the entire U.S. and Canada. They even made a PSA video about their tour.

If they played the whole tour like they did in KC, I’m sure they are making an impact in every single venue. They are just one of those bands. The kind you dance to the entire night, get their songs stuck in your head for weeks, and that you can’t seem to get enough of.

Sitting down with them before the show I could tell it would be an eventful night. Between the laid back personalities and the kindness of every member, they treated me like I had known them for months.

TBLSH is fronted by bassist and lead vocals, Jack O’Brien who’s stage presence pulls the audience in. Although, it could be his long hair and epic moustache that makes him so memorable.

These guys know how to rock, plain and simple. Their sound is a fusion of blues, funk and southern rock all mashed together making a beautiful blend that appeals to any loving rock n’ roll fan.

There’s this moment in their live show that sticks out the most. During a dynamic guitar solo from Curtis Roush, all four band members dancing around the stage stop to snap their fingers in the microphone.

After giving their self-titled a listen, the snapping has easily become my favorite part of their album. About halfway through the 10 minute track “Garden of the Gods,” I find myself snapping along with ease and usually rocking out the solo in my car.

Oh, and they have a keytar. Any band with a keytar is a win in my book.

These guys took home six awards at SXSW 2011, including Band of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Bassist, Best Keyboardist, and Best Producer. They have played Austin City Limits, appeared on the cover of The Austin Chronicle twice, were featured in Paste Magazine’s Best of What’s Next and have sold out multiple venues in Austin and across the U.S.

The Bright Light Social Hour is a band we all need to keep our eyes on. They’re going places.

As previously announced, Popwreckoning will be hosting a Kansas City and Lawrence music showcase at Aggiefest 2011 in Manhattan, Kansas. This year’s festival has morphed into the 6th Annual Multi-Genre Live Music and 1st Ever Visual Arts Festival. In this post you will find details regarding the Popwreckoning line-up and the festival in general.

Have a look at the bands we picked!

Friday September 23rd:
Auntie Mae’s Parlor • 614 N. 12th St. • Manhattan KS • 785.539.8508

6:00pm to 6:45pm Lucky Graves
7:00pm to 7:45pm Not A Planet
8:00pm to 8:45pm Quiet Corral
9:00pm to 9:45pm Dead Girls
10:00pm to 10:45pm Janet the Planet
11:00pm to 11:45pm Spirit is the Spirit
12:00am to 12:45am Parts of Speech
1:00am to 1:45am YAM

Saturday September 24th:
Outside Stage at Triangle Park, Manhattan Kansas

4:00pm to 4:45pm Various Blonde
5:00pm to 5:45pm Sage n Sour
6:00pm to 6:45pm The Phantom
7:00pm to 7:45pm Vi Tran
8:00pm to 8:45pm BROKENMAST
9:00pm to 9:45pm Jillian Riscoe and the 21st Century
10:00pm to 10:45pm Bravefellow

Auntie Mae’s Parlor • 614 N. 12th St. • Manhattan KS • 785.539.8508
9:00pm to 9:45pm Jenny Carr
10:00pm to 10:45pm Sour Babies
11:00pm to 11:45pm Everyday/Everynight

Now, let’s get to the details.

Aggiefest 2011 will offer a plethora of shops, pubs & eateries which will feature art pieces from various local & regional artists.  Here you’ll have the opportunity to hob knob with the rich and famous (i.e. starving artists and Aggies) and pay them for their goods and services.

Let’s see how this shindig works.

Get a ticket from On the Wildside or Sisters of Sound in Aggieville.
$20 adults
$15 minors
$10 to bands to sell for a profit *stop by Sisters of Sound

Alright, just a few more steps for you to follow. Take your tushie to the festival, exchange your ticket for the appropriate wristband and partake in the lovely music and merch! You’ll find there are several all-ages venues for those of you who haven’t yet fermented to the ripe ol’ age of 21 (or 18)! The all ages venues include the Dusty Bookshelf, Bluestem Bistro, Radina’s, Triangle Park and Pat’s BBQ’s Backroom until 10pm. Campus Tavern and Ale House accomodates those who are 18 and over. O’Malley’s will be 18 and over until 8pm then go 21 and up only; Auntie Mae’s allows entry to those who are 21 and up. Check out this Map of Aggieville for your convenience.

But wait, there’s more! Enter the RAFFLE to win a quality quilt made from Aggiefest T-shirts of yore. The raffle proceeds will benefit Morning Star Inc., a company with a mission to provide consumers of mental health services with the resources needed to break through the barriers of stigma & isolation. Also, maps/schedules will be provided for both the music and the art fair, and will include the Aggiefest 2011 sponsors.

Finally, without question is the most important step of them all. Rock your ass off for 2 straight days with live, local music and art and show your support in Aggieville. We can’t wait to see you there!

The Script used to be my guiltiest pleasure: when you’re a female music blogger, you get a lot of sniggering from boys in bands when they hear you’re seeing any act that is manufactured, whether real or perceived. But I’ve seen the Dublin band twice now, and I can say without a doubt that they have the goods and they bring the goods live, so the argument that they’re manufactured holds no water. I’d also like to point out that singer/piano man Danny O’Donoghue has the kind of smile that could melt a million hearts, but I digress…

The importance of a good opening band cannot be stressed enough: when they’re good, they psych up the audience, setting the stage for the rest of a great evening; but if they’re bad, it can leave a bad taste in your mouth. (The latter was true when I saw Abe Vigoda open for Vampire Weekend in April 2010 at the same venue, DAR Constitution Hall.) As I predicted, opener Hot Chelle Rae was an immediate hit with the MTV teeny crowd right from the start. The high-pitched screams as the band took to the stage nearly rivalled the headliner’s entrance later.

There’s nothing objectionable about Hot Chelle Rae: the Nashville band look like they’re trying to be really “rock” (their bass player Ian Keaggy has tattoos up and down both of his arms) but they come out sounding like lite mainstream rock. Their music has a good, infectious beat and the band members appeal to what my companion for the night refers to as “the Disney crowd.” (Not far off: think about it. They’re signed to Jive, aka the first label home of Backstreet Boys and still Britney Spears‘ label.) While their set was short (only 7 songs), it looked like the predominantly female and underage crowd would have been up for much more.

Hot Chelle Rae Set List
Beautiful Things
I Like to Dance
Alright
The Distance
Bleed
Teenage Dream
Tonight, Tonight

It’s interesting attending a show filled with teenagers. None of them can drink of course, so the line for the bar is short or nonexistent, and because they can’t drink, they’re all trying to look cool by milling about near the merch table. But once they’re seated and the show starts, something magical happens. I won’t show my age by revealing when I saw my first show, but watching all those girls in their micromini summer dresses jostling each other to take photos of the bands and fighting each other for guitar picks was, shall we say, rather heartwarming to me. And if you have to choose a band for your first gig, I don’t think you can do much better than the Script in a nonthreatening, huge venue like Constitution Hall that can support a spectacular light show featuring flashing lights, interactive backdrops, and live zoom-in shots of the Script (primarily for the benefit of those unfortunate souls up in the nosebleed sections).

This Dublin band is both disarming and incredibly charming. They sneaked their way into everyone’s heart by being apologetic for their June gig cancellation due to illness. They told stories about whiskey and getting drunk and let’s face it, these kinds of stories go down better when told by Irishmen. They complained about the DC heat and said they wanted to move here so they could work on their tans. To say they had the audience eating out of their hand is an understatement. Still, it was the music that wowed the most.

“Nothing” is probably one of the saddest pop songs ever written; it’s the musical equivalent to drinking yourself to death after getting dumped. I had to pat myself on the back for not crying when this song came on. If guitarist Mark Sheehan is to be believed, it was written after a night of boozing when O’Donoghue’s heart got broken and he made an ill-advised cell phone call to his ex. The only weird part about the live performance of this song is that O’Donoghue had the biggest of grins on his face while he was singing it. I guess life as the frontman of one of the biggest bands in Europe (and now the world) isn’t too bad.

Of similar topic and with a decidedly more lighthearted bent, “If You Ever Come Back” was a definite highlight of the night, as everyone’s arms were raised and waving in time to O’Donoghue’s own. “Rusty Halo,” with its r&b groove and aggressively red lighting, segued effortlessly into the song that finally broke them here in the States, “Breakeven.” I wasn’t sure how the band could top that when they returned for the encore but a similar singalong broke out for the closer, “For the First Time.” My only complaint: the set list was far too short. Maybe they were trying to follow the DC curfew laws and make sure all those kiddikins could leave the place on time? All in all though, it was a superb night of much and atmosphere, ending on a high note.

The Script Set List
You Won’t Feel a Thing
Talk You Down
We Cry
The Man Who Can’t Be Moved
If You Ever Come Back
Before the Worst
The End Where I Begin
Science & Faith
Nothing
Dead Man Walking
Rusty Halo
Breakeven
//
This = Love
For the First Time

Tour Dates
Sept 04 – Stage AE / Pittsburgh
Sept 06 – LC Pavilion / Columbus
Sept 07 – Fillmore Detroit / Detroit
Sept 09 – Ryman Auditorium / Nashville, TN
Sept 10 – PNC Pavilion @ Riverbend Music Center / Cincinnati
Sept 11 – Murat Theatre / Indianapolis
Sept 13 – Palace Theatre / Louisville
Sept 14 – Pageant / St. Louis
Sept 16 – Hartman Arena / Park City, KS
Sept 17 – Table Athletic Center @ Carthage College / Kenosha, WI
Sept 18 – Ogden Theatre / Denver
Sept 20 – Crystal Ballroom / Portland
Sept 21 – Paramount Theatre / Seattle
Sept 23 – Fox Theatre / Oakland
Sept 24 – Palladium / Los Angeles, CA
Sept 25 – Marquee / Tempe
Sept 27 – Riverwind Casino / Oklahoma City
Sept 28 – Coins Ballroom / Tulsa
Sept 30 – Stubbs Waller Creek Ampitheatre / Austin, TX
Oct 01 – House of Blues / Houston
Oct 02 – Palladium / Dallas
Oct 04 – Mahalia Jackson Theatre / New Orleans
Oct 05 – Ruth Eckerd Hall / Clearwater, FL
Oct 07 – Fillmore Miami Beach / Miami
Oct 08 – Hard Rock Live / Orlando
Oct 09 – Tabernacle / Atlanta
Oct 11 – Fillmore Charlotte / Charlotte
Oct 13 – Roseland Ballroom / New York City
Oct 14 – Paramount Theatre / Huntington, NY
Oct 15 – MGM Grant Theatre at Foxwoods / Mashantucket, CT

The Script: website | myspace | The Script – “Breakeven” | Science & Faith review
Hot Chelle Rae: website | myspace

As I mentioned yesterday in my Bumbershoot preview for Saturday, Seattle’s own Pickwick is amazing, fantastic, the next big thing. I haven’t changed my mind from yesterday, so I’ll elaborate.

Last weekend I saw Pickwick for the first time at KEXP’s Concerts at the Mural at the Seattle Center (it was free!) and I was flabbergasted. If you take one look at these guys, you wouldn’t expect the beautiful soulful jams that came from this group of white guys with great hair.

They’ve been all over local blogs like Seattlest, Sound on the Sound, Another Rainy Saturday, among many others.

The band started in 2008 when lead singer Galen Disston left Los Angeles and came to Seattle, and he established Pickwick as an alt-country band. Then spending the next couple years bringing themselves into the Seattle folk scene – finding dozens of like-minded artists. Needless to say, in Seattle, folk is the new grunge.

And it was when Disston began playing with his voice after hearing Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” that Pickwick made a name for themselves.

In the past year, they’ve been on the heels of the Head and the Heart, in terms of local buzz, and hopefully they can make their way to at least getting signed. It’s blasphemous to me that someone hasn’t picked Pickwick up yet, but I guess in Seattle that doesn’t really matter – seeing that they’re playing Bumbershoot with plenty of other unsigned artists.

Back to last weekend’s show. I cannot tell you how much my feet hurt at the end of their performance. I did not stop dancing. At one point they brought up several other local artists FROM THE CROWD and had a dance party on stage. There was even a little girl with a shaker dancing along to the effervescent soul beats.

I, for one, am glad that Pickwick found their current sound. It’s refreshing. I love the Head and the Heart and all, but we don’t need a dozen clones of them running around Seattle. We’re known for our innovation in this town, and sometimes the most innovative thing to do is to go back to our roots. And that is what Pickwick has done with their music.

One last thing, it’s come to my attention that Pickwick has posted something about “big news” today on my MySpace page. Once I find that out, you’ll hear it first from me.

Catch them at Bumbershoot on Saturday on the EMP Level 3 Stage tomorrow at 6p.m. You won’t be disappointed. And if you are, what’s wrong with you?

*EDIT* Here’s a video of one of my favourite songs from the KEXP Concert at the Mural last weekend.

Visit Pickwick on Bandcamp at http://pickwick.bandcamp.com/

When coming up with a theme for this brand new feature of mine, I couldn’t help but think about all the open mics I’ve attended in the last year in Seattle and the surrounding area. One of them being at the Conor Byrne pub. If you live anywhere near Seattle, you may have heard of it – but if you don’t, I’ll fill you in.

Conor Byrne open mics are every Sunday night, in the heart of the laid-back Seattle neighborhood of Ballard. One band you may have heard of – the Head and the Heart – got their start there just over a year ago, and look at where they are now! So clearly Conor Byrne brings out some amazing musicians – including Damian Jurado, Tony Kevin Jr., the Local Strangers, Johnny Unicorn, and many others I can spend hours talking about.

One band that recently started playing Conor Byrne in the last few months is Bainbridge Island’s St. Paul de Vence, compiled of Benjamin Doerr as lead songwriter, Mike Sievers, Alex Malloy, and Justin Froese. The band plays lovely folk songs lined with banjo, ukulele, and accordion. Like the band’s name, St. Paul de Vence’s music has a French feel – filled with beautiful melodies and lyrics filled with history and longing. Perfect for a lazy summer night, and I love it.

Doerr says his songwriting began as a way to tell his grandfather’s story, “in particular his war experience in the south of France, where he grew up under German occupation and fought with the Free French to liberate his country,” Doerr writes on the band’s Facebook page. 

The first night I met Doerr was the first time St. Paul de Vence had played at Conor Byrne, and one thing I can say about this particular open mic – everyone there is incredibly nice and supportive and it feels like a community, even after playing there just once. As my boyfriend and I were leaving the pub, we passed by Doerr to tell him how great they were – and they were great. Doerr thanked us graciously and handed us both a little band flyer for their Bandcamp page.

Since that night, I attended one of their first shows in the U-District in Seattle about a month ago, the band released several music videos made by local filmmakers, and they’ve recently released their second EP, also on their official Bandcamp.

So why am I writing this right now?

St. Paul de Vence’s new EP, For Hummingbird, Heron, and Honey Bee, is available for a ‘pay-what-you-want’ on their Bandcamp page – so you can donate however much money you want to help pay for the band’s full-length this fall, or stream it and download it for free! I suggest donating just a little bit, because this band needs to put out a full-length. I heard plenty of amazing songs at their headlining show in Seattle last month that deserve to be properly recorded.

And hopefully St. Paul de Vence can follow a similar road as Seattle’s newest sweethearts the Head and the Heart. They have all the grand songwriting and awesome talent to warrant it.

For the full set of photos I got from their show last month, go here.

And for now, here’s a video from the show at Q Cafe last month I took.

Upcoming shows for St Paul de Vence are as follows:

Sept. 1 – Tractor Tavern – w/ Tony Kevin, Jr. and Sean Flinn & The Royal We
5213 Ballard Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
$6 | 21+
9pm

Sept. 16 – Q Cafe – w/ Noah Gundersen and Zach Fleury
3223 15th Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98109
$TBD | all ages
8pm

For more information on this wonderful band, visit St. Paul de Vence’s website at http://www.stpaulband.com

Also, while you’re at it, check out St. Paul de Vence’s first EP, When Our Boys Have Been Buried, which is also awesome.

Keep your eyes open for more ‘Fantastically Local’ columns in the coming weeks!

Organ Music, Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped is a strange and mysterious thing. The latest project from Moonface, or Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade/Sunset rubdown) follows up last year’s Dreamland EP with a collection of avant-garde pop songs. They might not appear to be pop songs on the surface, but once they get under your skin, they won’t let go.

To describe the sound of the album – let’s use Krug’s words, from the press release: “It’s music played with an organ, organ beats, organ beeps and bloops, and some digital drums. Music based on layers and loops, the hypnotizing sound of a Leslie speaker, and the onslaught of melody.”

OK, so where the fuck does that leave us? Well, it’s lyrically dense and completely strange. It’s the least commercial thing Krug has done, but it’s also the best. Once you get past the unexpected sounds of the thing, it’s an album you’ll find yourself humming and singing along to. Oh yes.

Organ Music has five tracks, and it’s just under forty minutes long. With that in mind it’s probably best to examine it from a lyrical perspective, and track by track. So we go.

Track one is “Return To the Violence of the Ocean Floor.” Remember, we’re ignoring the music because it mostly serves as a backdrop, and a melody for Krug’s strangely enchanting obscure mumblings. This song has a great (almost) chorus, and approximately a million great lines, but the song culminates in a list. As Krug sings: “One, we got the spirit, two, we got the music, three, we got the past and four, we got the future.” This brings back to chorus: “And five, we got some kind of lust to return to the violence of the ocean floor.” It might look inane on paper, but against the organ beats, and with repeated listens ,it comes across as a litany, and one not to be ignored.

The next track, “Whale Song,” bellows with a subtle noise.  It aches, as Krug sings: “’’this is a song instead of a kiss.’” and is that the saddest thing to know? No, it’s not the saddest thing to know. “He continues on,  he talks of a pond where a whale will stay, he talks of how there will be a garden, and he seems to urge a lover on. It’s odd and plaintive, but also brimming with hope.

“Fast Peter” is a quicker number, in which Krug seems to be relating the stories told by another friend: “he told me all about it on the balcony when we were high on drugs.” It’s the story of Peter, a girl, and why “he held her up to the heart’s perfect’s light.” Krug questions Peter’s motives, but secretly hopes he succeeds. It’s a tender moment in an album full of tender moments you have to dig for.

After that, “Shit-hawk in the Snow” is probably the densest thing here. It’s almost impossible to discern what Krug is talking about here, but it contains at least one great WTF line “smoking cigarettes like it’s two thousand and three.” It seems to be at it the most basic about a girl, and the reminders of a girl. Krug repeats the mantra “and it will hypnotize you,” and somehow, we’re there. It’s a gradual song, probably the most gradual of the five.

The last song “Loose Heart = Loose Plan” might be the most pop orientated thing here, but it’s just as hard to grasp as the rest. The song is a shout out to and against nostalgia, and the fleeting nature of things. The song’s final verse seems to be a sarcastic coda for the record as a whole. Krug sings “lets  leave the revolution to the revolutionaries” and then “come on, let’s kill individual will.” The song ends with Krug pledging that he will over and over. Is this album revolutionary? God, no. It’s new and exciting, but it’s also the sound of a man doing whatever weird shit comes to his brain.

Even with that, it’s hard not to smirk as Krug endorses the death of the individual self. That might lead one to believe the whole thing is a joke, but that would be a false presumption. This is not Metal Machine Metal. It encourages the listener to come in closer, to put their head against the speaker. Organ Music is full of myths, honesty, lies, and humor. It’s something brand new. It’s not the sound of the future, but something better. It’s the sound of something we’ve never heard before, and might not hear again.

Canadian quartet Tokyo Police Club announced an ambitious project with Polaroid and Red Bull Studios, recording 10 cover songs from the years 2001-2010 over the course of 10 days. The band has revealed the potential songs for each year for fans via the project’s official website, www.polaroid.com/tokyopoliceclub, created by Polaroid. The final track will be revealed each night prior to recording.

The project begins today at 12pm PST, Tuesday, August 23 at the Red Bull Studio Los Angeles when the band enters the studio to rehearse and record a cover song over the next 10 hours, to be premiered the following morning at 10am PST by one of seven exclusive media partners starting Wednesday, August 24. The final song will be premiered on Saturday, September 3. The band will be creating daily Polaroid photo diaries and filming the entire recording process. In addition, each song will have unique artwork created from a Polaroid image shot that day in the studio.

Song premiere schedule:

Wednesday, August 24 – 2001 – EntertainmentWeekly.com – 1pm EST/10am PST
Thursday, August 25 – 2002 – AlternativePress.com – 1pm EST/10am PST
Friday, August 26 – 2003 – AlternativePress.com – 1pm EST/10am PST
Saturday, August 27 – 2004 – Spinner.com – 1pm EST/10am PST
Monday, August 29 – 2005 – Mashable.com – 1pm EST/10am PST
Tuesday, August 30 – 2006 – AVClub.com – 1pm EST/10am PST
Wednesday, August 31 – 2007 – AVClub.com – 1pm EST/7am PST
Thursday, September 1 – 2008 – Filtermagazine.com – 1pm EST/10am PST
Friday, September 2 – 2009 – Filtermagazine.com – 1pm EST/10am PST
Saturday, September 3 – 2010 – ARTISTdirect.com – 1pm EST/10am PST

Apparently 2011 is the year the Muppets will rise again.

Smurfs? Meh. Alvin and the Chipmunks? Oh please. But the Muppets – whether or not you were born in their heyday, will always be cool.

And this year will be the year they make their comeback. Remember when Tim Curry was a swashbuckling pirate in “Muppet Treasure Island?” Well I do, and what I remember the most is the soundtrack, even if it was sung by a bunch of puppets and Dr. Frank-N-Furter himself.

But with a new film out in November written by the hilarious Jason Segel and songs by Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, and a new compilation of classic circa-1970s Muppets songs covered by some darn good artists, Fozzie Bear better dust off his bow tie.

The Muppets: The Green Album features the likes of My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird, OK Go playing a groovy extended rendition of the Muppet Show theme song, and Weezer, who we all know has a history with the Muppets (see “Keep Fishin’” music video), along with Paramore’s Hayley Williams performing a charming version of “The Rainbow Connection.”

The Green Album, out August 23, doesn’t stray from any of the classic songs performed by the Muppets themselves, and manages to bring them all into 2011.

To listen to each song individually or to stream the whole album right now, head on over to NPR.org before you buy the album (because you really should).