After all these years, old Julian can still bring it.

So as far as great bands' third albums go, First Impressions of Earth was no Ok Computer, but fortunately it didn't prevent the Strokes from putting on a pretty great show at Agganis Arena. Last time I saw the Strokes was on a stifling hot night at the Orpheum (sorry Rosa) which was when I decided that buying cruddy tickets at face value wasn't worth it. Fortunately the lack of positive buzz about the album didn't drive up ticket demand any, so I was able to scrounge up seventh row tickets for face value. They played all the worthwhile stuff outside of "The Other Side."

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Lots of musical ammo from Bliss Pop (as usual):

Maritime/ "Tearing Up the Oxygen"
Maritime are from Wisconsin and shockingly put out some pretty good indie pop. Their new album just came out.

Camera Obscure / "Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken"
Think female-fronted, pleasant twee pop, a la The Legends.

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It's not quite the autistic kid scoring 20 points in four minutes, but this one's pretty damn good.

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Illuminating article about the aforementioned Gnarls Barkley.

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"Employee web-surfing not unreasonable." Music to my ears.

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This is so fucking cool that I have a hard time even grasping how this works:

"A narrow strip of red plastic connects the Brain Port to the tongue where 144 microelectrodes transmit information through nerve fibers to the brain.

Instead of holding and looking at compasses and bulky-hand-held sonar devices, the divers can process the information through their tongues, said Dr. Anil Raj, the project's lead scientist.

In testing, blind people found doorways, noticed people walking in front of them and caught balls. A version of the device, expected to be commercially marketed soon, has restored balance to those whose vestibular systems in the inner ear were destroyed by antibiotics."