My first post-Coachella update.  Looking back it was a pretty damn good festival, probably one of the best ones as far as how well it was organized.  The best year for music is too hard to determine.  It might be my last one as I'm just tired of the allergies and now with the two weekends of Coachella and all the local shows, it's not worth the hassle.  In anycase, here are this week's updates.  Enjoy!

Let's see how much of this stuff I can put together.  I'm trying to keep on top of my links by using twitter (which automatically goes to facebook) so if you wanna get this info faster please follow us there (some of the stuff below is probably duplicated on twitter and facebook as well)

Here's another recap of some of my favorite stories from the week and some oldies which should just be shared.  My favorite is the Groove Armada slamming Kings of Leon, William Shatner covering Cee-Lo, oh so much fun.  Keep reading...

(via stereogum):  "DJ Shadow hasn’t had a new record since 2006’s The Outsiders (or, for a lot of you, since 1996’s Entroducing …..)."  So true...  I get excited for every new release but I'm just going to have to accept the fact that there will never be another "Entroducing".  The new songs, "Def Surrounds Us" and "I've Been Trying" are available on djshadow.com for today only.  After that they will be sold as a digital single.

In other Shadow news, he's also stashing his new vinyl in random stores across the US and Europe in a distribution method he calls, "shop-placing".  "You go into a store, and leave your record in the racks to be discovered later. It's not about being cute, it's about passing the music along in the most unobtrusive way possible."  He continues,

"I'd rather give away free vinyl than a download, because to me, downloads are so impersonal and soulless. In 2010, it has become akin to sending your dad an e-card on his birthday; no personality, no class. And from an artistic point of view, I think it sends a negative message about the worth of the music."

His next album should arrive sometime next year.

Still, we like certain hairy folks with penchants for stretchin' it out-- yes, I'm looking at you, Martsch-- around these parts, and buried amidst all the bands named for chemical compounds and various doobage innuendo at 2008's Camp Bisco are some fine, fine music makers even the notoriously sober indie rock set can dig on. - Source

With just one date left on the European leg of their "Hard Sell" tour, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist have kept their beatmatching partnership alive with the announcement of a handful of Australian dates in April, as well as a couple of North American festival dates in July. - Source

Probably the coolest thing I've seen all year, this high school band covers a few tracks from DJ SHADOW's debut album, "Endtroducing". The video quality is kinda crappy, but it's streaming so you can't really expect too much. In any case, it's a must see if you even remotely familiar with Shadow.

DJ Shadow- In Tune and on Time LIVE
Geffen Records

In Tune and on Time has revealed an ancient secret to me--a dark secret from the deep trenches of musical history, a revelation striking the basic foundations of music: musicians are people who play instruments!

As much as we forget Hollywood celebrities aren't just people who get married to other celebrities and showcase couture but are also people whose job it is to act, equally we forget that musicians are people whose job it is to play instruments. Music fans have been put under the spell of the studio album: the thousandth-try work of faltering, sloppy musicians and the diligent editing of disingenuous, vocoding producers--where months of unwavering labor can be put into what comes in at barely an hour of music. Musicians are more than these parlor tricks, behind the smoke and fog, they are just people who play instruments (turntables et. all)--this is something DJ Shadow can do well. Nearly every sound that comes through in the studio he produces live and masterfully. No Boards of Canada'esque 17 note chords here, real sounds and samples--in tune and on time.

DJ SHADOW has assembled the score to a documentary on the homeless entitled, Dark Days. First-time director, Marc Singer, followed a group of homeless people for two years to make the film. It will debut this month at the Sundance Film Festival.

Besides the Oasis b-sides album that we told you about last week, another project finally seeing the light of day is the much anticipated first album from U.N.K.L.E. Following in the likes of Massive Attack and This Mortal Coil as a revolving-door collaboraboration more than a traditional band, U.N.K.L.E. is a superstar project fronted by James LaVelle, founder and president of Mo'Wax Records.