Shot in Oklahoma, “The Lamp” soon can be seen in Oklahoma. At 7 p.m. Sept. 15, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oklahoma hosts a special screening of the film at the Mabee Center, 7777 S. Lewis in Tulsa.

With a cast that includes Academy Award winner Louis Gossett Jr., the inspirational movie is about a broken man fighting to keep his marriage and life together after the death of their only child. Scheduled to appear at the benefit screening are director Tracy J. Trost and co-producer Jim Stovall, the Tulsa businessman who wrote the book on which the film is based.

All proceeds will benefit Make-A-Wish. For ticket information, call 918-495-6000. —Rod Lott

It’s been a slow couple of months for interesting new music from established acts, be they indie or mainstream. Other than Kanye and Jay-Z’s epic collaboration on “Watch the Throne,” we haven’t heard much from the usual suspects.

But that’s not to say times are tough! Plenty of great music is streaming and downloadable right now, both from up-and-coming indie acts and locals. Here are my picks for the week.

Thundercat made himself known to indie audiences when he guested on Flying Lotus’ excellent “Cosmogramma” last year. FlyLo reciprocated by producing his debut LP, “The Golden Age of Apocalypse.” Stream it over at Hype Machine.  

Tulsa and Enid have combined to give us Good Morning Grizzly, a pretty, pop-rock project that put this first big track up for download. It’s called “Stars and Satellites,” and you can snag it at the band's Bandcamp page.

Hazy, Swedish, mix ’n’ mash duo jj have a new track up for download at Gorilla Vs. Bear. The lengthily named “You Don’t Know How Much It Would Hurt Me If You Said You Were in Love with Me,” it’s certainly creepier and sexier than anything they’ve previously recorded.

GVB is also streaming this new track from Twin Sister, who recorded one of the best songs we heard last year in “All Around and Away We Go.” Give ’em both a listen.

Okie Chase Kerby (The City Lives) is getting back into the pop-rock game with Defining Times. Their debut EP was up for free download earlier in the week, but now it’ll set you back $5. I call that money well-spent.

Peter Bjorn and John stopped by KEXP’s studios in Seattle to play a couple of tracks off their latest record, “Gimme Some.” Watch “Breaker, Breaker” (complete with cowbell!) below.



Ho, boy. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Much like the sneak peek at the single they set loose a little early a few weeks ago, New York dance-punk gods The Rapture streamed an in-studio listening party for their new album, “In the Grace of Your Love.” You might recall me blowing my top over “How Deep Is Your Love” a few weeks ago. This stream has amplified my anticipation for the album a dozenfold.



Oklahoma City rapper and good guy Jabee put out a remix to the track “Beautiful Day” off his “Lucky Me” mixtape. Give ’er the ol’ download and listen.

Also, Stephen Malkmus recently played a set of his new material at Amoeba Music in Hollywood. There, he also announced the winner of his blowjob contest. I promise it’s not as gross as you think.  



About a week ago, we heard a titillating tweet from James Blake promising a mysterious Bon Iver collab. It is now here and it is glorious.

Wilco’s March 8, 2008, performance at Cain’s Ballroom during my freshman year of college changed my life.

Known for workmanlike shows, Jeff Tweedy — looking fly in a white suit stitched with roses and a cardinal — and company rocked 29 songs in about three hours, ranging from the guitar-oriented tracks off their then-new “Sky Blue Sky” LP to “Summerteeth”’s many pop classics, super-old material (”Forget the Flowers” from 1996’s “Being There”), a slew of Woody Guthrie covers, and all the best work on their experimental Americana opus “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” That show is the reason I’m typing this sentence right now.

Anyhoo, if you’re an idiot like me and had to leave town the weekend of the band’s glorious May 8 return to Tulsa, then you can stop punching yourself in the head and go to Wilco’s website, where you can stream the show in its entirety. There are only 22 songs this time, but they look to be a pretty good balance of the group’s catalogue. “Jesus, Etc.” is a standout sing-along here, moving Tweedy to declare it “top-5, all-time.” Enjoy.

When Blackwatch Studios’ Jarod Evans speaks, people listen. The guy’s worked with all the best local musicians around, and — with partner Chad Copelin — regularly works with regional and national-caliber talent. So when I woke up to find a Facebook message from Evans saying that Tulsa jack-of-all-trades artist Nathan Price has developed “2 or 3 records’ worth” of material with Broncho bandmate Ben King over the last two years, well, I got pretty excited.

Evans said that they’re looking to get an Ol’ Savior album out in early 2012. He also was kind enough to upload two unnamed tracks to Vimeo, which you can hear below. They’re soulful and steady, mostly acoustic, rich with grand piano and just a hint of synthesizer as some spice. Price sings low, and King sings high, and they complement each other beautifully.

I just can’t really get over how talented these guys are, especially considering how starkly this stuff contrasts against the punk music they’re gearing up to tour behind.




You can follow the band on Twitter and like them on Facebook for further updates.

Dead Sea Choir showed up in Norman with new material two weekends ago to remind everybody that they are, indeed, totally awesome. And thanks to YouTube user BossHossV8Cycles, you, too, may experience what they’ve been cooking up lately. Enjoy.



You can download the band's first album, "Thin One the Red One" at their website, for free.

Wayman Tisdale, the Tulsan who conquered the Olympics, the NBA and the jazz charts, is the subject of a new documentary, naturally named “The Wayman Tisdale Story.” After a battle with bone cancer, Tisdale died in 2009 at the age of 44.

While ESPN is slated to air the doc sometime this fall, a DVD street date of Nov. 22 has been announced. Packaged with the film will be a 13-track CD featuring music from Tisdale’s nine contemporary jazz albums. One song, “Slam Dunk,” is previously unreleased, while another, “Cryin’ for Me (Wayman’s Song),” is performed by fellow Oklahoman Toby Keith.

The documentary already has won awards at the Park City Film and Music Festival, the International Christian Film Festival, the Los Angeles Sports Film Festival and the Pan African Film Festival. —Rod Lott

When I asked John Linnell of They Might Be Giants last week (he’s the handsome chap singing in the video below) what he thought about Titus Andronicus’s recent cover of his much-loved 1990 classic “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” for The A.V. Club’s Undercover Series, he stood up for the integrity of the song he wrote. A song that many consider to be an all-time great pop and rock song, not just one of his own best efforts. Here’s what he said:

According to the band's Twitter feed, this show has been postponed due to family emergency.

“It was fine. It was totally fine. I don’t want to seem like a cranky old man for saying it wasn’t … I think Titus Andronicus has this thing that they do that works really well with their material and it turns my brain inside out to hear that applied to our song because it’s such a different thing.



“I don’t know what anybody thought about it. To me, it’s a very weird experience. I salute them for taking that on, and I have nothing but respect for them. You can see I’m trying to be diplomatic. It sounds really egotistical, but I like our version better.”

It seems to me (and to Linnell, I imagine) that with their sloppier, more avant-garde interpretation of the song (not an insult- just an observation of the indie-punk band's style), Titus Andronicus snuffed “Birdhouse”’s warmer sentiments. The reason it’s beloved is because of the wish to hold on to silliness and childhood purity the song expresses, per the nite-light imagery (“keep the light on inside the birdhouse in your soul”) and the song's scene (it all takes place in a child’s bedroom). I understand and sympathize with Linnell’s wishes to maintain these very powerful, meaningful aspects of this, arguably his greatest work. Compare the two, and see for yourself.



The story's in this week's Gazette. They Might Be Giants play Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa Sunday night. Because it’s totally awesome, you should watch TMBG play Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping,” also for the A.V. Undercover series.