A half-dozen cool things in music, from two points of view:
Lily Allen, First Avenue. She was flirty, sassy, vulgar and extremely charming. In one song, she can cut a former love to ribbons, then sweetly muse about eating Chinese food and watching TV with her current one. Great show.
The Dead Weather. This is what you get when you put together the vocalist from the Kills, the guitarist from Queens of the Stone Age, the bassist from the Raconteurs and Jack White on drums. They played their first concert in New York on Tuesday and have two songs on iTunes in advance of a June album.
Fall Out Boy, "Folie à Deux." I just can't stop listening to this album. Their song "(Coffee's for Closers)" wins the prize for best title (quoting the movie "Glengarry Glen Ross") that seemingly has nothing to do with the song.
WALT CYGAN, MINNEAPOLIS
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Stray Cats, Fine Line. Frontman Brian Setzer's 50th birthday upped the festive factor on the always-fun trio's only U.S. gig this year. Fittingly, the birthday boy/Minneapolis carpetbagger showed what a guitar monster he has become.
Sara Watkins, Dakota. In her first-ever solo headline gig, the prodigiously talented Nickel Creek singer/fiddler/uke player was tentative with her patter and organization but convincing musically. She put ache, loneliness and pain into the tunes from her self-titled solo album and penetrating covers of Radiohead and Gordon Lightfoot.
