As the Yankees and Angels get started on weekend beisbol, now’s the time to drop this week’s outro. This clip combines two of our favorite things: kids kicking ass and retro-rock stylings of The Bees, one of the cooler British bands cooking today. So we’ll conclude this patriotic week of holiday posting with this student-made video (where they’re students, we don’t know) for The Bees’ Chicken Payback:

• Student-made video for The Bees’ Chicken Payback
• A clip of the actual Bees playing Chicken Payback live

The third-annual Mountain Jam kicks off today at Hunter Mountain, where Warren Haynes has prepared an extremely homogeneous, yet killer lineup for the three day festie. If you’re like us and unable to attend, you can stream many of the performances online thanks to the Q104.3. The Mountain Jam Blog will also provide updates throughout the weekend. Now, here’s a laundry list of links:

• Ryan Adams goes on the disabled list following a skateboarding injury; then he lists his top five Hair Metal Songs
• Glide Magazine has an amazing gallery of shots from the Sasquatch Festie
• SuperDee played violin with PGroove once again
• The High Sierra schedule is out
• Hear this Paul Simon bootleg, especially for The Boxer w/ Jerry Douglas
• Umphrey’s McGee offers the 46th edition of its free podcast series
• Bright Eyes’ Town Hall run has featured many special guests
• Filter is already calling Crowded House’s new album epic
• Kanye West uses Peter Bjorn and John’s Young Folks as a backing track
• The Police will appear on MTV’s Unplugged
• Weir and Wasserman are getting back together for a charity gig
• The legend of Ry Cooder
• Classic music mag Crawdaddy! is back
• Page McConnell has added a bunch of West Coast dates to his sked
• Jack White played a surprise solo gig in London on Tuesday night
• Examining John Lennon’s songwriting process
• Warren Haynes leads a new charge of multi-taskers
• Ross at Rock Music Daily examines all the versions of It Hurts Me Too
• Jamie Masefield hits the road with How Much Land Does A Man Need?
• Cold Turkey has new episodes features Jam On The River and Mountain Jam
• What do bitrates really mean in regards to your music files?
• Newmradio’s featuring a brand new, badass tune by The Bees

I’m off to Philly tonight for a TLG/UM’stravaganza, followed by a jaunt to Boston for my first Red Sox/ Yankees game at Fenway Park. Ace and I will follow that up by cruising around NYC with Tea Leaf Green on Sunday. Have a great weekend everyone, and let us know if you have any interesting plans below…

For this week’s B List we would like to introduce our friend Jon McLennand. McL works as the Street Team Coordinator for Umphrey’s McGee, and also produces the band’s incredible podcast series. But don’t let those credentials fool you: McL listens to an incredible range of music from many different genres. Jon has turned me onto some incredible new bands over the past few years so I asked him to prepare a list of albums we need to hear. Take it away McL…

Now that the bombastic orgy of year-end lists has passed and we’ve turned the page to a fresh month in the new calendar year, it’s time to look ahead into what’s going to be tickling your ears in the coming months. There are some big names releasing albums this year that everyone will be talking about (Radiohead, Wilco, Modest Mouse), but there’s also a slew of acts just underneath the surface, on the verge of making their mark and stepping into a little bit of that primetime light.

So, I’m here to catch you up on music pre-2006, so that you can be ready for 2007. Don’t worry, it’ll all make sense in the future. Let’s look at four earlier efforts from bands poised to make their mark this year. To make it a ‘list’, I’m going to throw in a “debut” album released last week. That’s why we kind of had to be shifty with the title.

LCD Soundsystem and !!! (pronounced chk-chk-chk) are the dance punk trendsetters. In 2007, they’re sure to storm major festivals across the globe, where I expect them to occasionally steal the show from some more established headliners. Dance punk certainly owes a lot to the spastic rhythms of the Talking Heads as well as the European club culture. Whereas LCD Soundsystem tends towards droning house rhythms and textures, !!! is more angled towards psychedelia with a pulsing rhythm section.

The Bees and Field Music hail from the U.K., an obstacle for some indie acts in propelling themselves into the US spotlight, even with their considerable songwriting talent. Both bands have an impeccable knack for melody and a keen ear for arrangements, which distance themselves from the pack. The Bees vintage soulful sound can drip with sexy horns or gently drift you into a trance with their hypnotic textures. Field Music takes the guitar pop of The Shins and XTC, and tosses in some clever arrangements and dynamics, as well as the occasional verse in 7/8.

Lastly, I take a look at The Good, The Bad & The Queen, one of the most curiously (mis-)matched “supergroups” to come along in a while. Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) is the brainchild, putting together a hodgepodge of musical styles and influences…Paul Simonon (bass, The Clash), Simon Tong (guitar, The Verve) and Tony Allen (drums, Fela Kuti) as well as the masterful Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, The Grey Album) manning the boards. It’s impossible to look at that lineup without projecting some expectations upon it.

Read on after the jump for McL’s full list of 5 Albums You Need to Hear for 2007…