The Roots & Jim James - Dear God 2.0

Last year Jim James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward and Mike Mogis released a beautiful folk record under the moniker "Monsters of Folk". The album opened with the harp and echo filled "Dear God". The song confused me at first. I certainly couldn't believe that the rest of the album would follow its airy and haunting vibe, and I was correct. "Dear God" felt extremely out of place to me on that album, and to this day, probably 100 listens in, I still feel the same way about it.

A couple of days ago I heard that Jim James would be appearing on Jimmy Fallon, performing "Dear God 2.0". This re-incarnation is featured on The Roots'up-coming release titled How I Got Over. When I heard the news I immediately headed to hypem.com to give the track a listen. I love The Roots and I love what they've been doing on Fallon, but their last few albums haven't impressed me all that much. After listening to "Dear God 2.0" I was shocked. While they haven't really re-arranged the song all that much, the tunes slow rhythm and heavy reliance on a string section make it a very unique backing track for a hip hop song. Not to mention, the Jim James vocal sample adds a certain music connoisseur credibility, which I find pretty cool.

Last night My Morning Jacket frontman and Monsters of Folk member Jim James took the stage with The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and delivered an amazing rendition of "Dear God 2.0".

The National Debut "Terrible Love" on Jimmy Fallon

The National dropped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the other night to play the new single off their up-coming album High Violet. The album is being released on May 11 via 4AD. The song, "Terrible Love" really reminded me of the Velvet Underground's song, "Pale Blue Eyes" at first. A really fuzzed out version with clean guitar licks. As the song progressed, the horns kicked in and the tempo sped up big time, morphing the track into a serious rocker, one much happier than the V.U.'s somewhat depressing tune. It's also a nice change to hear Matt Berninger sing in not such a broody manner as he did on Boxer. I'm really looking forward to the new record.

?uestlove + N.Y.C.

In a move much like Marco Benevento's, Roots drummer ?uestlove will host a weekly residency at (Le) Poission Rouge in New York City. The highly anticipated weekly show will feature a slew of guest musicians in what is sure to be quite the musical adventure. The Roots have also landed the house band gig for Jimmy Fallon's new late night talk show which will also take place in New York City.