Good evening, fellow lambs!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock – or, perhaps, a dingy sewer with French revolutionaries – you’re probably already well aware of Barack Obama’s election to the U.S presidency last night. The announcement came before a crowd of over 70,000, who gathered in Chicago’s Grant Park to hear the Democratic nominees victory speech. And amongst the supporters? The likes of We Are Scientist, and Kings of Leon, no less.

Both bands are the latest in a string bands to voice their support for the new U.S president, joining the ranks of hundred of American celebrities and musicians who have aligned themselves with the Democratic leader. While music has long been a medium for political bashing and support, almost a decade worth of a less-than-stellar Bush government have made this election particularly rife for action

As Nikolai Fraiture, bassist for The Strokes, stated, “it felt like finally having been freed after eight years in prison.”

Meanwhile, I seem to have developed a bit of an obsession with Britpop as of late. After having rediscovered much of Blur’s back catalog last week, I’ve had an insatiable desire for as much of the band’s material as I can find. Of course, with guitarist Graham Coxon long gone from the band, Blur is largely just a shell of what it once was, creatively and otherwise.

Strangely enough, Coxon has surfaced once again in the music world, but not under the guise of a solo album, as one might think. Instead, Pitchfork is reporting the former Blur guitarist to be working with the supposedly cleaned-up Pete Doherty – which, I assume, they mean purely in reference to his appearance – of Babyshambles fame. Discounting the fact that they’re both British, I really can’t think of any shared qualities that would attract the two artists together. But alas, Doherty’s drummer on the album, Adam Ficek, told NME that Coxon had contributed some guitar work on the album, to be release later next year.

While it’s not quite the complete Blur reunion many have been hoping for, it still marks a return to the mainstream for the talented guitarist.

And finally, browsing aimlessly through my iTunes library today reminded me of an interesting – albeit little-known album – from one of Canada’s largest musical talents of recent years. Formed in the early nineties, the band was called Placebo. But this particular Placebo is not to be confused with the UK alternative band.

No; this particular Placebo featured Leslie Feist.

Don’t Drink the Bathwater, the only full-length release from the band, was Feist’s first project, existing long before either Broken Social Scene or her successful solo career. Not only does it feature a fairly truthful approximation of the early nineties grunge/punk scene… but it also sounds a little bit like Pearl Jam, at times.

Just, you know, with Feist.

And if you’re feeling really brave this evening, there’s even a video. Fair warning though; there’s some particularly fierce air guitar around the 45-second mark.

Stay classy,
Braga