Kosblog

This, What I Thought I Knew

2012-02-14T19:24:00.000-05:00

Fair warning: the beginning of this mix is pretty damn sexy – pds, in shorthand. That it’s being posted on Valentine’s Day is coincidence, but serendipitous. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself for falsetto.

After the sexy fades, the rest of the mix is something of a post-coital comedown, if you will - slow, pretty, and progressively less lucid. The whole thing is a bit hypnotic to my senses, and may well induce some heavy eyelids. That’s okay, it’s hibernation season anyway. The title of the last track tells you explicitly not to sleep, but that’s some Mary Poppins trickery. It’s a 13 minute snoozer – I’d be surprised if your heartbeat doesn’t slow. So just go with it and dream some potent dreams. I promise next month I’ll give you something to wake up.

The Caretaker - Tiny Gradiations of Loss (edit)
Maxwell - This Woman's Work
How to Dress Well - Decisions [ft. Yuksel Arslan]
Washed Out - Eyes Be Closed
Chad Valley - Up and Down
Brian Eno - This
Nightlands - 300 Clouds
Julianna Barwick - Bode
Death in Vegas - Girls
Yo La Tengo - Damage
Yo La Tengo - Gentle Hour
The Caretaker - Tiny Gradiations of Loss
James Blake - I Only Know (What I Know Now)
Leyland Kirby - Dont Sleep I'm Not What I Seem, I'm A Very Quiet Storm

February '12 Mix.zip

While You Were Sleeping, The Money Died, Machines Were Harmless, And The Earth Sighed

2012-01-14T15:53:00.002-05:00

The tone of the mixes I make tend to change with the seasons. Accordingly, January's selection is some sleepy fare, for the most part. The lead-off track, "Andalucia", is the centerpiece of the mix; every song that comes after stems from that 1973 beauty, taken off John Cale's wonderful baroque-pop album Paris 1919. As a semi-conscious nod to the Velvet Underground, the next two tracks on the mix are from two of Cale's compatriots in that band, Nico and Lou Reed. Kind of makes you realize why the Velvets are so revered - it's like a supergroup in reverse.

"Richmond" and "April Fool" are both Ronnie Lane-penned pieces, the same guy who wrote "Ooh La La", one of my top ten songs (that's right - ever). He's my current music-nerd obsession. You can see some time-capsule videos of him doing his thing on my tumblr. The version of "Richmond" here is a vinyl rip, my first such attempt with a new record player I got for Christmas (thanks, mom) and an old Faces record from my family's attic (thanks, pop - miss ya). That's why there are those fun crackles and pops on it.

A few other notes: If you're listening to this and have any connection to BYM camps (or familiarity with traditional Irish folksongs, I suppose), you'll recognize the melody from "Another Saturday" - will ye go, lassie, go?
"While You Were Sleeping" is one of those songs that has everyone's favorite lyric in it, but it's a different lyric for everyone. The title of this post is from the song. Listen to the lyrics on this one.
I've always felt that Bob Dylan's best songs were his love songs (Visions of Johanna, Lay Lady Lay, Girl from the North Country, etc.). "Buckets of Rain" tops that list for me - I do it for you, honey baby can't you tell?

John Cale - Andalucia
Nico - Afraid
Lou Reed - I Love You
Arthur Russell - I Couldn't Say It To Your Face
Stuart Murdoch - Another Saturday
Camera Obscura - Before You Cry
Tilly and the Wall - Let It Rain
The Lucksmiths - Pin Cushion
The Faces - Richmond (vinyl rip)
Ronnie Lane & Pete Townsend - April Fool
Cass McCombs - Harmonia
Elvis Perkins - While You Were Sleeping
Vic Chesnutt - Flirted With You All My Life
Micah P. Hinson - Oh, No
Edith Frost - Pony Song
Bob Dylan - Buckets of Rain

January '12 Mix.zip

Enter Through The Exit, And Exit Through The Entrance

2011-12-21T17:15:00.000-05:00

This month, we listen to a year in retrospect - every song on this mix was released in 2011. Don't mistake this for a "best of" list or any kind of countdown. Do I look like VH1? I don't go for that crap. But this collection of songs does represent a large bulk (not all) of what I listened to and loved in the past 12 months.

Like any other mix on these pages, it runs the gamut. The smooth, slow-burn "Suicide Demo" bleeds into "Swerve...", a rare-for-this-blog rap track that'll give you vertigo (in a good way), which runs straight into the cavernous kick-drums and gravel-angst of British band WU LYF. The reverb continues in the Be My Baby beat of Lykke Li's serenade to sadness, while the garage squall of Ty Segall's guitar makes the sun fry. After Smith Westerns invite us to end things early, when love is lovely, Cults announce with a bent bass note about 30 seconds in that they've got what it takes to stick around awhile. Kurt Vile and The War On Drugs confirm they used to play together by still sounding a lot like each other, "Locomotive" makes me wanna move, and "Plath Heart" makes me wanna do drugs. Eventually musical ethnographer Julian Lynch gets some unidentified instruments in there (oboe? tambla?) to good effect, Little Scream whispers some wintry wonderings, we get a little folk-y with Gillian and Steve, a little 70's-singer-songwriter-y with Alela and Fleet Foxes, and finally Cass McCombs and his electric piano take us out with the beautiful, soulful "County Line".

Whew. What a year. Enjoy, and I'll see y'all in 2012.

Destroyer - Suicide Demo for Kara Walker
Shabazz Palaces - Swerve... the Reeping of All that is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding)
WU LYF - Dirt
Lykke Li - Sadness is a Blessing
Ty Segall - You Make the Sun Fry
Smith Westerns - All Die Young
Cults - Abducted
Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever
The War on Drugs - Best Night
Alex Winston - Locomotive
Braids - Plath Heart
Julian Lynch - Terra
Little Scream - The Heron and The Fox
Gillian Welch - Hard Times
Steve Earle - This City
Alela Diane - To Begin
Fleet Foxes - Bedouin Dress
Cass McCombs - County Line

December Mix.zip

I Drink A Quart Of Sake, Smoke Dynamite, I Chase It With Tobaccy & Then Shoot Out The Light

2011-11-22T18:04:00.001-05:00

The genetic makings of this mix are, admittedly, a little odd. To start with, it's bookended by two beautiful stunners that have a lot to do with each other but little to do with the hour or so of music in between them. The opener, "Attaboy", and the closer, "Short Trip Home", are both compositions by string quartets with stated missions to blend bluegrass and classical traditions. The players are different in each quartet (both share bass extraordinaire Edgar Meyer), and the albums they made are separated by a dozen years, but they're spiritual kin. The songs are cinematic and absolutely gorgeous.

Once you've dried your tears from track one, Wanda Jackson growls us into a pretty hard streak of foundations-of-rock-and-roll glory. Four of the songs, from Odetta to Buddy Holly, are from the same year, 1957. Its a tight grouping, and it feels right.

And then the mix gets into some pretty sleepy, strummy fare for some reason, starting with Mazzy Star's comeback single (sounds like they never stopped). Suddenly the dark horse beach boy Dennis Wilson shows up to depress us all, there's a Dylan cover, and an eight minute Van Morrison jam with some killer flute.

Yeah, she's a bit of a weird one, this mix, but you never know what your gonna get when you perform this kind of alchemy. That's part of the fun.
Listen to a few cuts below, and download the whole thing at the bottom. Enjoy.

Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile - Attaboy (see a video of this on my tumblr)
Wanda Jackson - Fujiyama Mama
Patsy Cline - I Fall To Pieces
Odetta - Midnight Special
Jimmy Reed - Honest I Do
Bo Diddley - Mona
Buddy Holly - Not Fade Away
The Bell Notes - I've Had It
Sonny & The Sunsets - Stranded
Mazzy Star - Lay Myself Down
Will Oldham (Palace Songs) - Winter Lady
Gram Parsons - November Nights
Dennis Wilson - Farewell My Friend
Jim James & Calexico - Goin' To Acapulco
Van Morrison - Wonderful Remark
Nick Drake - Time Has Told Me
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Butterfly Mornings
Joshua Bell & Edgar Meyer with Sam Bush & Mike Marshall - Short Trip Home

November Mix.zip

I Used To Have The Notion I Could Swim The Length Of The Ocean, If I Knew You Were Waiting For Me

2011-10-23T18:25:00.002-04:00

We're going to try something new with this space for a little while. Every month or so, give or take a week here and there, a new mix will be posted - made lovingly from me to you. Generally this will be the music that has been occupying my life more than the rest recently. Often this means new music, but not always. More than likely, it'll be new and old side by side. Occasionally a theme may emerge and I'll go with it. Whatever.

For more regular fixes, music and art will be posted on my tumblr blog with much more frequency. I treat that space like a scrap book, putting things there I find I like in the moment. Some of it might end up in these monthly mixes. You know, whatever.

Here's the first mix. It's eclectic, like an old-school mix oughta be. For the whole thing, download the zip file at the bottom of the post.

Papercuts - Future Primitive

Vacation - Anything for You

Youth Lagoon - July

Future Islands - Balance

Michael Jackson - Human Nature

Concrete Blonde - True

Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes

Real Estate - Barely Legal (The Strokes cover)

Real Estate - Wonder Years

Beirut - Goshen

Iron & Wine - The Same Old Song

Bonnie Prince Billy - For Every Field There's a Mole

The Only Ones - The Whole Of The Law

The Raincoats - Life On The Line

J Mascis - Not Enough

Big Star - I'm in Love with a Girl

Girls - Love Like a River

Harry Nilsson - Without You

The Raincoats - Lola

October mix.zip

Gonna Give You What I Got, Then Give You More, More, More, More, More, Baby

2011-10-07T16:41:00.003-04:00

Ever feel like a secret has been kept from you for a long time, and then when you find out, you're a bit peevish no one told you about it before? That's how I felt when I started listening to Wendy Rene a few months ago. Why didn't I grow up on this stuff? This could have soundtracked my American childhood so well (especially "Bar-B-Q"). You've failed me, popular music industry, by letting the immediacy of this girl's sound slip quietly under the carpet.

And it is immediate, from the opening seconds of "After Laughter (Comes Tears)", her first and best-known single. The music fits right in with it's time and label (1964, Stax), which may be why history could view it as white noise in the giant treasure trove of 60's Soul. But, while it has that strong Southern Soul beat and rhythm, it's also got some of the coo of it's Northern cousin. The lyrics and themes are typical of the times, too, and Wendy sounds more like a girl than a woman, giving everything a kind of innocence. Like maybe a kid wandered into the studio and just had a blast playing with the grownup's toys. Luckily someone had the tape rolling, and it's still out there to be discovered.

Wendy Rene - After Laughter (Comes Tears)
Wendy Rene - Bar-B-Q
Wendy Rene - What Will Tomorrow Bring
Wendy Rene - The Same Guy
Wendy Rene - Gone for Good
Wendy Rene - Can't Stay Away
Wendy Rene - Give You What I Got
Wendy Rene - I Wish I Were That Girl

The Times We Had, Were Not All Bad

2011-08-10T12:52:00.004-04:00

The dude from Beirut, Zach Condon, is younger than me and it pisses me off. I'm getting pretty used to famous/talented/successful people being younger than me, as I ain't no spring chicken anymore. But this feller's music has a maturity that suggests he should be older than he is. And he's been around awhile; he was only 19 when The Gulag Orkestar was released. And it's a really good album. What a dick.

Anyway, he and his band have another really good album coming out at the end of the month. From what I can garner from the bit I've read about it, the prevailing view is that the songwriting has matured and the songs are more restrained, with less instrumental flair. I don't know about all that; I think music critics are just searching for something to say about an album that sounds like another Beirut album. Zach Condon's songwriting has always been pretty mature (see above paragraph about being pissed off), and the instrumentation doesn't sound drastically different to me. There ain't nothing wrong with that. We now have three Beirut long players instead of two and I'd say we're better off for it. Everything this guy puts out is great (douchebag).

The new album is called The Rip Tide and it's streaming at NPR until it's release, so have a listen. Here's a Beirut sampler for the unfamiliar:

Beirut -
Interior of a Dutch House (from the The Guns of Brixton/Interior of a Dutch House split single, 2006)
Postcards from Italy (from The Gulag Orkestar, 2006)
Elephant Gun (from Lon Gisland EP, 2007)
Nantes (from The Flying Club Cup, 2007)
La Llorona (from March of The Zapotec, 2009)
O Leãozinho (from Red Hot + Rio 2 compilation, 2011)
East Harlem (from East Harlem 7" and The Rip Tide, 2011)

Kosblog tumblr

2011-08-03T15:58:00.003-04:00

I decided to create a tumblr blog yesterday. Not to replace this blog, but kind of as a subsidiary of it - a place where I can post stuff spur-of-the-moment that I'm into or come across, with out having to do a whole post. After describing it to a friend yesterday, she said, "So, it's kind of like Kosblog's back pocket". So, yes, it's kind of like that. In addition to music, I'll also occasionally post photographs and other images, because me likey the visual arts, too. It'll be updated more often than this blog, so maybe follow it if ya dig it.
There's a link to it on the left sidebar, or you can click here to meander on over. I've put up a few posts already, and I'm particularly enjoying the song by Vacation, with all it's catchy-ness and creepy-ness.

I Take As Much As I Can Get, I Don't Have Any Regret

2011-07-20T00:09:00.004-04:00

The Dum Dum Girls are going to make a big musical leap forward this fall when they release their second album in September. I feel like I've already read all the reviews that mention their more polished sound and higher levels of production, and how their EP He Gets Me High was a stepping stone to such heights. Oh yes, my friends, there will be praise.
Here's the first taste: an homage or a ripoff, depending on your persuasion, of Mazzy Star's perennial classic "Fade Into You". Seriously, before the first measure was over, I could hear that familiar slide guitar playing along with it in my head, if not on the track. A quick perusal of the blogosphere (that word is dumb.) confirmed my aural noticing; plenty of other folks have already mentioned it, and this track was just put out to the world today.
I'm not criticizing, though. This is one of the things I love about music, and hearing songs familiarities and common heritages is one of the reasons I started this blog. It's the folk tradition and now more than ever it applies to everything: music is communal and malleable. Actually, when I heard this Dum Dum Girls track, it made me think I'd really like to hear them use Concrete Blonde's "Tomorrow, Wendy" as source material and see what they could do with that. Listen for yourself:

Dum Dum Girls - Coming Down
Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
Concrete Blonde - Tomorrow Wendy

Let's Get Stoned And Put On Records, Music's Better When You're High

2011-06-29T23:37:00.006-04:00

First off, I am not one of those bloggers who starts a post with how sorry he is that it's been so long since the last time he posted. So if you're expecting something like that then shove off, ya mook.
Secondly, I've spent all day in a 26-foot box truck driving west on the first leg of a trip to Iowa and I've discovered three songs that belong on any playlist involving the words "road" and "trip":

Fruit Bats - WACS
A good "WhooOOoo!" that you can belt along with is a fine ingredient to have in a good roadtrip song. So is that tempo and pristine-sounding guitar. That's J. Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.) on lead and he absolutely kills it, especially on the second half of the track. "We could make our own record / How hard could it be". They make it sound easy.

The War on Drugs - Baby Missiles
Here's that chug-along tempo again. They throw in a few "Woo-Hoooooo"s, too, and the wailing harmonica really helps everything. This is a good dance-in-your-seat-and-try-not-to-speed-too-much jam.

Thee Oh Sees - I Was Denied
See previous comments regarding tempo, and then add more drum, a fair bit of distortion, and some of those wonderfully nonsensical "lalala"s that occasionally surface in pop music.

For past examples of good roadtrip music, please see this post, this one, and this one.

P.s. This is what 9pm looks like in Bryan, Ohio in late June. Not bad, Midwest, not bad at all.

National Jukebox

2011-05-13T17:22:00.018-04:00

"I'm going into the bandit business, I said. I've been to a highly moral picture show, passed by the National Board of Censors, and I seen a feller there that held up stage coaches in a nice gentlemanly way, and only took money from rich scallywags who didn't need it, and was nice and polite to womenfolk and took off his hat to gals."

This is very rad: the Library of Congress just launched a new website called National Jukebox, which has thousands of recording from the first quarter of the 20th century. I've sacrificed a good chunk of productivity at work today perusing it's aural depths, without shame or regret. This kind of thing really gets my nerd flag flying. Have a listen to this handy-dandy playlist I made of some choice cuts (click "add all to my playlist" and an easier-to-navigate pop-up will appear). The above quote is from "The Old Fiddler and The Bandit", a tongue-in-cheek monologue that cracks me up.

Please Call Me, Baby

2011-05-05T11:46:00.001-04:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Cinco de Mayo is in that fun category (along with St. Patrick's Day, Bastille Day, et al.) of holidays that America loves, but aren't really big deals in their native lands. As a patriotic American and lover of other cultures, that's a-OK with me. These are holidays that we as a country have latched onto and assigned significance because they're a convenient way to celebrate ethnicities that are important to our own history. And because we, as a country, love themed boozing. ¡Arriba! ¡Abajo! ¡Al Centro! ¡Pa' dentro!
So, in the spirit of the day, I present Joe Bravo, an early Tejano troubadour also known as "El Playboy", pleading to his baby to please call him.

Joe Bravo - Please Call Me Baby

This track and everything I know about it comes from Ponytone, an excellent music blog that features obscure sounds, hidden gems, and the fantastic album art they once came wrapped in. Very recommended.

Although We're Apart, You're Part Of My Heart

2011-05-03T22:28:00.012-04:00

Here's the most well known (though not original and far from only) version of "Tonight You Belong To Me", the song from "The Jerk" posted below. It was recorded on the fly in 1956 by the unfortunately-named sister act of Patience & Prudence McIntyre. And after Patty & Prude have their turn at it, here's a pretty little instrumental version featuring the musical saw that you can sing along to (cause I know you want to).

Patience & Prudence - Tonight You Belong To Me
The Coug - Tonight You Belong To Me (instrumental)

PS I am in love with Marie Kimble

YOUTUBE BOMB

2011-04-29T13:12:00.000-04:00

When The Wine Ain't Sweet, But The Love's Still True

2011-04-23T18:02:00.004-04:00

There's been a crazy amount of good music released in the past month and I've been to busy listening to it to post anything about it. Or I'm just a lazy blogger. Trying to rectify that a little now.
Of all these recent musical goodnesses, I was surprised to find out my very favorite was Alela Diane's new album, Alela Diane & Wild Divine. Surprised only because I had a lot of expectations for a few other albums (Tomboy, WHOKILL, Hit After Hit), but I wasn't too familiar with Alela, though I'd heard a song or two of hers. I should really know by now that my favorite music will always be this brand of American Music. It just slays me, as does her voice. This album reminds me of what was probably my favorite album of last year, Phosphorescent's Here's To Taking It Easy. They're both albums I'll be spinning in 40 years and enjoying as much then as I do now. I have extremely eclectic tastes and I like A LOT of music, but this is the music that truly speaks to me. This stuff is the Truth. It's hard to pick a single track to post for you lovely people to hear, so I'm posting two. Promise you'll do your best to hear the rest of the album, ok? Thanks. You'll be happy you did.

Alela Diane - To Begin
Alela Diane - Long Way Down

Hey Now

2011-03-31T16:56:00.007-04:00

Been really diggin on these songs Wet Dream performed on Newtown Radio a few weeks ago. When I first heard the beginning of "Tango into the Stars", the overeager synth lines and casio drumbeat, not to mention the title, made me question the songs sincerity - kind of a "is this for real, or is somebody being ironic?" type thing - but I found myself pushing the repeat button as soon as it ended and taking it for a second spin. Now I can't stop listening to it, and the rest of the set. Their sound is a little bit of a glassy-eyed pastiche of an era and style that a lot of bands are looking toward right now. It's a sound I can get behind - sort of sexy and heartfelt at once.
Take a listen to three tracks below, hear the whole set in Newtown's archives, and watch them doing "Tango into the Stars" on Family Portrait's Blog.

Wet Dream - Tango into The Stars
Wet Dream - Liftin' Me Up
Wet Dream - unknown

Wet Dream is a side project (I guess) of Family Portrait, both bands sharing frontman Evan Brody. Family Portrait sounds a bit like Wet Dream, but without synths and the vocals a little less effected - in other words more like a proper rock band you'd be likely to hear at a house party (a good house party). They are in that increasingly-less-than-rare category of favorite bands of mine that haven't released an actual album. That's about to change, however, next Tuesday when their self-titled LP comes out on Underwater Peoples Records. Get yourself enticed with this track from the album.

Family Portrait - Other Side

Don't Take My Life Away

2011-03-18T10:17:00.006-04:00

Update: Head over to Pitchfork TV to see the awesome video for this single. Facepaint, dancing, funny faces - there's a lot to like about it.

tUnE-yArDs knows how to make a kinetic, joyous noise. I was content listening to her when that noise was just made of her looped voice and a shredded-upon ukulele, but this is better. Obviously. The loops are still here and, along with a killer beat, her vocals are still the foundation of her sound. It's a good, solid choice of foundation. Those pipes are crazy powerful. This song is much more than that, though, as is made crystal clear by the time the track clocks out at 4:24.

tUnE-yArDs - Bizness

Her new album is out April 19th on 4AD. And that's the bizness.

Elsewhere

2011-03-17T15:55:00.009-04:00

Ah, a beautiful French Chanteuse strolling down the Rue de la Blaueblebeu. I made that last word up. This video has been a favorite of mine since stumbling upon it a few years ago. I know I'm a huge clichéd sap for saying this, but I think I kinda fell in love the first time I saw it. There was some heavy swooning at least. Sometimes I'm a sucker.

Kosblog Digest #1

2011-02-21T17:27:00.008-05:00

After 59 posts, Let's take a look back on the 60th. Here's a little nugget-sized (and CD-R sized) primer of the music I've been compelled to put up here the last few months, starting with the first song from my very first post. This collection works pretty well as a mix, but it was really put together by pairing two songs at a time, both from the same post (usually back-to-back as they are here). You can think of every two songs as a couplet, starting with the 1st & 2nd, 3rd & 4th, etc. Just like real couplets, some work better than others. My favorites, in case you're curious, are "The Mermaid Parade" into "The Old Black Hen" and "Too Young to Burn" into "Jack & Diane", which works shockingly well, almost as if it's one song that's divided by an acoustic first half and an electric second. You can clap along and literally not miss a beat between the two.

Hear them all below and I've put the mix in a zip file for your convenience. Happy listening.

Cults - Most Wanted
Generationals - When They Fight, They Fight
Swingin Medallions - Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)
? and The Mysterians - 96 Tears
Billy Swan - I Can Help
Roy Orbison - Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)
Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins - Melt Your Heart
Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
Phosphorescent - The Mermaid Parade
Songs: Ohia - The Old Black Hen
The Flying Burrito Brothers - Wheels
The Byrds - You Ain't Going Nowhere
Sonny & The Sunsets - Too Young To Burn
John Mellencamp - Jack and Diane
Unrest - Make Out Club
Built To Spill - Else
Nina Simone - Suzanne (Alternative Version)
Richie Havens - Here Comes The Sun
Elvis Presley - Blue Moon
Cowboy Junkies - Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)
Thelonious Monk - Abide With Me
Otis Redding - Change Gonna Come

Kosblog Digest #1.zip

I Take My Place Among The Truckers And I Show Them What I've Got

2011-02-19T14:08:00.007-05:00

It's the little flourishes that make this song. The woodwind floating around in the back, the occasional icy ting of a bell, and especially the increasingly participatory background vocals sighing away as the song wanders it's way to it's conclusion. Not to take anything away from what's front and center: a steady strum and a meandering melody sung by a truly beautiful voice. The lyrics that voice sings are sweet and tender, but sad. It's a song about looking for forgiveness and the magic it would take to find it. Vivid imagery paints a picture of loss and regret and longing, ending in a wish: "I'd give you all the colors that I left here in my box / If you would draw a picture into which we could both drop / You would be the heron and I would be the fox / And you would fly above me, hoorah."

Little Scream is from Montreal (of course) and her debut album, The Golden Record, will see release on April 12. Look for it, and look for her live. She's a real talent.

Little Scream - Heron and the Fox

Speaking of that vivid imagery I mentioned, here's some of it is made corporeal. Watch this gorgeous live performance enacting the first line, "Stranded in a snowstorm in a town you forgot, I take advantage of a warm car and I reassess my life."

Not Your Eyes, Just a Beating of Plath Heart

2011-02-13T19:56:00.020-05:00

I was going to go see this band tonight, actually right now, but Saturday took more out of me than Sunday has been able to replenish. I'm dog tired. So I'll just do a brief post on the song that made me want to see them in the first place. "Plath Heart" shimmers. The vocalist's cadence lilts. This song is real good. Hear it.

Braids - Plath Heart

P.S. Watch it, too. The video is fiber-tastic.

P.P.S. A story of the internet: After Googling "Plath" to find out what it means, I'm still ignorant of that answer, but I now know that Sylvia Plath was kind of a babe.

Love is Just a Place in Our Minds

2011-02-10T18:08:00.025-05:00

Just about a year ago Beach House released what became one of the best albums of 2010. On it was a song called "Used to Be", a version of which they had released about a year before that as a single. Just a few weeks ago, Smith Westerns released what I can already say will be one of the best albums of 2011. On that was a song called "Imagine, Pt. 3", a version of which they released about a year ago as a single. Very different bands, similar story. Both of these songs I first heard as singles and lived with for quite a while (a year in music these days is like a dog year) before their reworked album versions came out. I love hearing the differences, weighing what I like and don't like from the different recordings, and wondering how and why the artists made some of the choices they did.

The single version of "Used to Be" sounds heavier and more foreboding to me, while the recording on the album is a little lighter and strangely icy (a quality it shares with the whole of the album). One reason for this may be that they seemed to have benched a member of the band for the album version; if there's a guitar in that recording, it's buried deep enough in the mix that I can't hear it. On the single, though, the guitar helps the rhythm and creates some deep feedback. There's also less reverb on the album version, or maybe it's just less murky. according to wikipedia (which is never wrong), for this album the band intentionally cut down on the reverb, an audio quality they were known for on past releases. One of my favorite changes they made on the album recording is the way Victoria Legrand draws out her phrasing of the titular line in the chorus and shifts the tonality of her voice just-so-much, while the cymbals' crescendo emphasize the movement. The biggest difference between these two recordings, though, is the switch-up at the ending. I must admit, I missed the ending of the single version (which I'd like to describe, for some reason, as an aural payoff) the first time I heard the song on the album. The newer recording's final minute and a half lacks the perk-up-your-ears resonance of the older. I'd still like to hear the single's ending with the album's cleaner production, but I can't complain about having two great versions of a stellar song.

The differences between the versions of "Imagine, Pt. 3" are slightly less. The most obvious is the album track is sped up what sounds like a half beat more than the single. beyond that everything just sounds louder and better. The vocals are more confident, the instruments sound like they cost more money, and the recording sounds like it took place in a studio rather than a basement. Not that I don't like the single; the album version is just a testament to how far this young band has come in a short time. David Bevan said it well in his Pitchfork review, so I'll just steal his words and wrap some quotes around them:

"You can hear the progress right away in "Imagine, Pt. 3" [. . . ]. Sped up here just a touch, it's also been re-outfitted with a far creamier set of synths and guitars. The way the latter seem to clasp hands during the coda is particularly breathtaking, frontman Cullen Omori and guitarist Max Kakacek letting their individual lines mate rather than duel. While the melodic foundation was already sturdy throughout, here, what once sounded ragged in stretches is now plush-upholstered from start to finish."

Word up. The sturdy melody is really what I love about this song in any version, and the fact that they shout "Love will never die!" in a jubilant, kick-ass climax right before shredding guitars take us out. What's not to like?
Beach House - Used to Be (single version)
Beach House - Used to Be (album version)
Smith Western - Imagine, Pt. 3 (single version)
Smith Western - Imagine, Pt. 3 (album version)

Bonus: Just found this video of Beach House doing an acoustic version of "Used to Be" (at the beach!) followed by an impromptu TLC cover.

I Have Seen The North Star Shining In The Freight Yard

2011-01-08T15:59:00.006-05:00

Here we find Jason Molina of Songs:Ohia in true folk troubadour form singing the blues. Known collectively as the "North Star Blues Session", these songs were recorded for a Belgian radio station some years back. They would later find themselves worked over and given a studio treatment on a couple Magnolia Record Co. releases, but I like them better here. Back-to-back and stripped down they suggest a narrative that's bruised and battered, just like the blues oughta be.

Songs:Ohia - Leave The City
Songs:Ohia - North Star
Songs:Ohia - Don't This Look Like The Dark
Songs:Ohia - North Star Blues

You Should Really Be My Fresh & Only

2010-12-30T15:58:00.011-05:00

The Fresh & Only's had a heckuva good album put out this year, Play It Strange. And off of that heckuva good album was this helluva great single, "Waterfall". I wish I could truthfully quote the lyrics "You and I know it from the radio," but the only airplay this sucker ever got or will ever get is probably a few college stations and maybe some local Bay Area signals.

"Peacock and Wing" is from their previous album, which is spottier, but this is still my favorite song of theirs. It sounded timeless and familiar the first time I heard it, and it had me shouting along the second time, even though I couldn't suss out all of the lyrics till just now when I looked them up. Turns out they're pretty sweet.

You should really be my fresh and only

You’d have a smile on your face that I could always see on you

Lay with me in my bed of roses

You’d have a smile on your face that I could only see on you

And the smile won’t lie, it will always be straight

And I refuse to believe that I could not see these things with my eyes when they’re open

And it's got the band's titular line. That up-tempo beat makes for some killer roadtrippin' music, as does all of their stuff. Buy it here and do yourself a favor by getting it in vinyl.

The Fresh & Only's - Waterfall
The Fresh & Only's - Peacock and Wing

Thirty Twenty Ten

2010-12-11T13:57:00.047-05:00

A lot of music blogs out there do year-end lists around about this time. Top ten albums, singles, that kinda thing. I don't like ranking, and I suck at being choose-y. So here are thirty of my favorite releases of 2010 in no particular order, except vaguely sequenced so they sound good next to each other. By "releases" I might mean an entire album, a single, or occasionally just a track. To be clear, this is not a "best of" list, though some of these absolutely belong on one. This is music I just want to bring attention to as we close out the year. ~~And for my friends that don't know, you can right click and save any song you like to have the mp3 for your very own.~~ Enjoy.

UPDATE: The man (aka Blogger and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act) told me I couldn't post any of this music. I think they are jerks. But for the time being, if you want to hear any of this wonderful music I'm trying to promote, you'll have to go elsewhere. I might suggest The Hype Machine.

Beach House - Zebra

Talk about a great leap forward. Teen Dream is a huge step up from their previous work and simultaneously a culmination of a sound they've been honing for years. It was hard to pick a song to post from this album, because there ain't a stinker in the bunch.

Magic Kids - Summer

Ok, this album was actually a disappointment. But only because this song, the advanced teaser, was so good. I first heard it, appropriately, at the start of summer, and it soundtracked the season.

The Morning Benders - Excuses
Another album that was decent, but nowhere near the level of this song, the opening track. the album art is killer, though. If this song reminds you of Reese's, there are two reasons; it was in a commercial and you watch too much TV. Be sure to watch this in-studio live version they did for Yours Truly. It's even better than the album version.

The Walkmen - Woe is Me
The Walkmen don't make bad albums, and this one is no exception. They're going to have an amazing "greatest hits" compilation one of these days, but hopefully not for a good long time.

Cults - Go Outside
A big stand out of the year for me. Caught these guys live and was reassured they could make more than three good songs, the sum total of what they've so far released. One of those was in the very first post I did.

Sonny & The Sunsets - Planet of Women
This is cheating a little since the album was first released in 2009. 2010 saw a wider re-release, though, and this one's too good to let slip by. Seriously, you should own this album, whoever you are. So says Queen I-Like-It-Like-That. Hear an even better track in this earlier post.

The Sandwitches - Summer of Love
There's something really interesting in the structure of this song; there's no chorus (I don't think), the verses just keep shape-shifting a little, slowing and building to create an organic momentum. And I don't know what effect the ladies have done to their voices, but it's working. It missed it's titular season, but that's just fine.

Pill Wonder - Gone To The Market
It's true, it can be a real drag. I must really like Underwater Peoples Records, because it turns out I have a pretty good chunk of their recording roster on this list (and others nearly made the cut).

Love Is All - False Pretense
This song is so damn fun. What the hell is she saying? "Twist and cluck"? I hope so, because that's what I do when I hear this.

PS I Love You - Starfield
Funnest song to learn all the words to and shout along. Especially the middle verse. SPACE LION!!

Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union
Guitar shredding, booze-fueled, confessional Civil War history that references Springsteen and Jersey more than once. This album is what epic sounds like. Can't believe I missed them live.

Arcade Fire - City With No Children
I didn't think so right away, but this is the best album they've yet made. This will stand the test of time; by that I mean your children are going to listen to this and love it.

Girls - Heartbreaker
The post just before this was about this EP, so you can look there for more. This was a last minute contender and turns out to be one of the best. The future looks very bright for these dudes. There's something in the water in San Francisco (see also: Sonny & The Sunsets, The Sandwitches, Fresh & Only's, Thee Oh Sees...)

Air Waves - Knockout
Air Waves have a way with simple pop-craft. All of their songs sound like they could have been written by any one of a million people, like you're friend from down the block or someone you know from summer camp. But they weren't.

Dr. Dog - Shadow People
I have to admit I haven't heard a single note of another song from this album. If it's all this good, I'm really depriving myself. Of course, half the appeal here for me is that this song is about my neighborhood in West Philly. I hope he didn't really steal a bike from the Second Mile, because that's a thrift shop and that's pretty low.

Cotton Jones - Glorylight and Christie
This is an album that does a good job of sounding out of time, like from an AM radio. I thought the album art was by the same artist (Hannah Hooper) who did the cover of The Morning Benders album further up this list, but I'm not so sure now. Both are great, anyway.

Phosphorescent - I Don't Care If There's Cursing
This album completely slays me. It's exactly what I like. I saw them live, at an album release party (I don't know why that was in Philly) and it was perfect. Then I saw them live again in August, outdoors this time, when I had just gotten bad news and all I wanted to do was get drunk and listen to country music; they were perfect again, to say the least. I'll be putting this album on forever. And check out this earlier post of "Mermaid Parade", an essential song.

Lord Huron - The Stranger
Lord Huron released two EP's this year that constitute his musical debut. If they are any kind of sign of things to come, we can expect a great LP somewhere down the line. Check out two other tracks here.

Sufjan Stevens - Vesuvius
I'd call this a divisive album, and it probably didn't sit well with those who like their Sufjan banjo-fied. This thing is dense and difficult. I was not sold on it immediately, but after a few spins it rewards. I like it better and better now and rank it among his best. This was one of the first songs that won me over. My favorite part is when the drones and electronica take over for a moment and then drop out and the flutes swoop in front and center.

Summer Camp - Ghost Train
I first heard this song in 2009, but the Young EP on which it was released came out this year. This probably isn't the best song on the EP, but it's stuck with me for a long time and there's something about it I just find utterly charming. "Tryin' to get through to you," and it succeeded with me.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round and Round
Jam of The Year and so much more. Every element of this song just works perfectly; you couldn't add or subtract a thing to improve it. And that's something you can hear crisply and clearly. I'm not sure what else there is to say about a song like that. Except this: that big ending is rapturous. Pitchfork just put this as their number one song of 2010 and I think I agree.

Janelle Monae - Cold War
I don't think I've read anything about this album that didn't include the phrase "genre-hopping", and it's true. Monae spends well over an hour cherry-picking styles to piece together an over-the-top concept album that doesn't feel over-the-top. This is a highlight, but be sure to check out "Tightrope", too, featuring Big Boi.

Big Boi - Shine Blockas
And speaking of Big Boi, listen to this groove. I don't post HipHop very often on this blog, but this album demands recognition. It's great from start to finish, which I think is rare for a genre usually more focused on tracks than albums. "Shine Blockas" is my pick of the litter, though.

The Black Keys - Tighten Up
This one wins as a dancefloor crowd-pleaser. That breakdown change-up at the end never fails to rejuvenate the tiredest bumper and grinder.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Better Things To Do
I love the trumpet in this song. And it just so happens I saw them live in San Francisco and the trumpet player and I totally shared a moment just before he started wailing (can you wail on a trumpet, or is that reserved for saxophones?). Amazing show, amazing album, amazing band.

The Living Sisters - Good Ole Wagon
A nice version of a Bessie Smith song here, from a very pleasant album full of very pleasant cooing. I talk a little bit about that here.

The Secret Sisters - Somethin' Stupid
Some more sisters, singing more beautiful harmony on this Carson Park song creepily made famous by Frank Sinatra and his daughter. Another very pleasant album. check out their non-album cut of Big River.

Mountain Man - How'm I Doin'
I think these women might win the harmony game for me. They have a very unique, evocative way of blending their voices. I picked this track to highlight that, since it's a capella. the whole album is otherworldly and kind of seductive. Beautiful stuff.

Julian Lynch - Still Racing
Another otherworldly album. The whole thing kind of runs together for me, but I think this track does a nice job of giving a sense of the album. This is real mood music, and there's a lot in it.

Joanna Newsom - Does Not Suffice
Another divisive artist, Joanna Newsom. I don't really see how anyone could dislike this song, though, even if it's not their bag. It's just so pretty. Her massive triple album is full of beauty and emotional resonance, subtle and effective instrumentation (like the strings that come in late here, or the percussion at the end), and the wonderful kind of composition you can expect from this songstress. If it wasn't so darn heavy, it might be her best yet, and even still it might just be.

The Way You Got Your Broken Heart

2010-12-08T15:20:00.005-05:00

This Girls song, "Thee Oh So Protective One", is the lead off track of their new EP Broken Dreams Club. I was thrilled when I first heard it because a) it's just as good as anything from their wonderful album released last year and b) it doesn't sound just like something from their album released last year. The same could be said of all six songs on the EP; slightly expanded instrumentation, a more varied sound, but that same strong (and stronger) songwriting that makes me really dig these guys. Here's a highlight from there debut album, "Hellhole Ratrace", for comparisons sake. It was one of my favorite songs of 2008 (as a single) and 2009 (off the album) and really deserves it's own post, but this'll do.

Girls - Thee Oh So Protective One
Girls - Hellhole Ratrace

We're Back On The Train

2010-12-06T18:46:00.011-05:00

This song has been rattling around in my brain pan all day. I love The Pretenders sound; those clean, sharp guitar riffs, and Chrissie Hynde's stellar voice. And this is one of my favorite verses, from any song:

I found a picture of you
Those were the happiest days of my life
Like a break in the battle, was your part
In the wretched life of a lonely heart.

Sounds pretty sappy written out like that, but my scalp tingles when she sings it.

The Pretenders - Back on the Chain Gang

May Your Days Be Merry And Bright

2010-12-03T15:47:00.007-05:00

Merry Christmas

John Lennon - Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping
Blase Splee - Christmas Vacation
Otis Redding - Merry Christmas, Baby
Leon Redbone & Zooey Deschanel - Baby It's Cold Outside
The Pogues - Fairytale of New York
The Pretenders - 2000 Miles
Wham! - Last Christmas
Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
Alabama - Christmas in Dixie
The Band - Christmas Must Be Tonight
Loretta Lynn - Country Christmas
David Bowie & Bing Crosby - Little Drummer Boy
Blitzen Trapper - Christmas Is Coming Soon
My Morning Jacket - Xmas Time Is Here Again
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Winter Weather
Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa
Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'
Harry Connick, Jr. - It Must've Been Ol' Santa Claus
The Rosebuds - Oh It's Christmas
Otis Redding - White Christmas

I've Kissed A Lot Of Space Freaks, But You're My First Prince

2010-12-01T17:15:00.009-05:00

Earth Girl Helen Brown was born in Vancouver, Canada, but raised in an Athens, Georgia-based religious cult, and was blinded in one eye from a childhood baseball injury. As an adult, she dropped out of Evergreen and traveled the country for a while as a nomadic psychedelic folksinger, before forming her first band One Eyed Tramps. For years, she lived alone in a mountaintop in southern Alaska, where she befriended a Cherokee Shaman (later revealed as a fake) who encouraged her to pursue a frustrating academic career. Rampant drug use, frequent fainting on stage, and occasional self-inflicted knife wounds on stage led to more interest in her stage antics than her music. However, a few sides did emerge in the late ’90s (recording dates unknown), which feature a unique mix of country, girl group, R&B, and ghoulishness. Crude and amateurish at best, these recordings are appreciated for their sincerity and intensity of feeling. Here's a video for one of them:

Pretty weird, huh? Earth Girl Helen Brown is not actually a real person. Her and the above bio were created by San Fransisco songwriter Sonny Smith for his "100 records" project. He made up 100 bands, wrote and recorded one single for each (A and B sides), and solicited artists to create their album art. He showed the artwork in an exhibit along with a homemade jukebox that played all the songs. Pretty cool, right? However, some of the bands seem to be coming to life. Earth Girl Helen Brown, for instance, has a forthcoming full-length LP, which will include the above song. Sonny will do the songwriting, presumably, while Helen Brown will be voiced by Heidi Alexander and Grace Cooper of The Sandwitches. Fuzzy lines between fantasy and reality, just as it should be. Here's another track from the Earth Girl:

Earth Girl Helen Brown - I Wanna Do It

I've Got the Voice of Many in My Throat, the Teeth of a Frog and the Tail of a Goat

2010-12-01T13:28:00.010-05:00

A little research into this Exuma character and I now own his first four albums. They're all spectacular. Exuma was born McFarlane Anthony McKay on Cat Island in the Bahamas. He made his way to Greenwich Village in the early sixties and participated in the burgeoning folk scene. By 1970 he had become Exuma, put together his Junk Band, and was signed to Mercury Records.

Exuma was an Obeah Man. Obeah is a mystical-religious tradition that, from my western perspective, sounds akin to voodoo. It was born in the Caribbean by African slaves and it involves folk-magic, charms, luck, visions, death, and zombies. This is exactly what Exuma's music sounds like. There are many rhythms, chanting, natural sounds, and his powerful voice singing of armageddon, communion with the dead, and rebirth, among other things. The first words from the first track on his first album:

I came down on a lightning bolt

Nine months in my Mama's belly.

When I was born, the midwife scream and shout,

I had fire and brimstone coming out of my mouth.

I'm Exuma, I'm the Obeah Man!

This is not a persona put on for a musical project; This is who he was. It is a fortuitous thing that he came around at a time when an out-there, hard-to-pin musician like him could be signed to a major label. I don't think it would have happened in any other decade. He didn't last long at Mercury, but he was able to enjoy a career of pseudo-notoriety, opening for a variety of well-known bands across genres and playing festivals until suffering a heart attack in the early 90's. For a more in-depth article on Exuma, read this. And enjoy this healthy dose of his sound. It's energy is undeniable.

Exuma - Exuma, The Obeah Man
Exuma - Dambala
Exuma - Damn Fool
Exuma - Eyebrows and Beards
Exuma - Snake
Exuma - Exuma's Reincarnation

Tomorrow Will Be The 22nd Century

2010-11-30T16:54:00.007-05:00

The Nina Simone posts continue. I just can't help it. I heard this song for the first time yesterday, off of a rarities compilation, and it is my new favorite thing. Dig those rhythms, dig those insistent chords, dig those steel drums. Most of all, dig those schizophrenic lyrics:

There is no oxygen in the air/Men and women have lost their hair/Ashen faces legs that stand/Ghosts and goblins walk in this land/When tomorrow becomes yesterday/And tomorrow becomes eternity/When the soul with the soul goes away beyond/When life is taken and there are no more babies born/And there is no one and there is everyone/When there is no one and there is everyone

1972 was right all the way/Drums and bugles blasting all though the day/Right wing left wing middle of the road/Side winder backswinger backlash whiplash/Race stockings red stockings/Liberation of women liberation of men/Everybody carrying a heavy load

Liberation of animals/Prevention of cruelty to animals men and beast/Flying and on flying flying things/Revolution of music poetry love and life/Sex change change change/Man is woman woman is man /Even your brain is not your brain/Your heart is a plastic thing which can be bought/There are no more diseases which can be caught

Apocalypse, revolution, dystopia, liberation. This is crazy done right. For the full lyrics, click here. As it turns out, Dr. Simone covered this song. The original is by a man (spirit?) called Exuma. I tracked that down and it, too, overwhelms with raw power.

Nina Simone - 22nd Century
Exuma - 22nd Century

This is why I get excited about music.

I Got My Heart, I Got My Soul

2010-11-26T18:40:00.004-05:00

I just stumbled upon a video of Nina Simone doing "Suzanne" in the same style as the version posted below this. It's more than worth seeing, but I can't embed it here, so just do yourself a favor and click this link.

And for good measure and some substance, I'm embedding this live performance of "Ain't Got No/I Got Life", which happens to be the best version.

Girl, Are You Out There? You Better Be Out There

2010-11-16T16:37:00.005-05:00

The music that came out of Nina Simone transcends. The world is blessed to ever have received it and we are all blessed to continue to be able to hear it. Okay, that's out of the way. Now, her version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" has long been one of my favorite songs (for that matter, so has Cohen's version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne"). I recently discovered this live performance by Ms. Simone and was surprised to find I could fall in love with yet another rendition of this seemingly immortal song. Here she abandons the piano of her studio version and leaves just a strummed acoustic guitar and a mid-tempo calypso beat. And that voice. And that delivery.

Followed quite nicely with a taste of the man who seized the attention of a generation for three hours in the summer of 1968 (a small gathering they called Woodstock), Richie Havens and his classic "Here Comes The Sun".

Nina Simone - Suzanne (Live)
Richie Havens - Here Comes The Sun

Come On Wheels, Take This Boy Away

2010-11-15T17:32:00.005-05:00

To make up for the poor taste of my previous post, I've felt compelled to post again immediately. I think these three tunes cleanse the palette nicely. You know I like my rock and roll country-fried and my country to rock and roll. Gram Parson does both superbly, here with The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Byrds. Lou Reed and The Velvets show a rare bit of country sway here on a demo version of a song that has many great incarnations. Coincidently, these songs were released in consecutive years, in reverse chronology; 1970, 1969, and 1968. Shocking, I know.

The Velvet Underground - I Found A Reason (Demo)
The Flying Burrito Brothers - Wheels
The Byrds - You Ain't Going Nowhere

Till You Ask Someone You Love

2010-11-15T16:17:00.005-05:00

You could get sick. ick.

Akinyele - Put It In My Mouth

I'm Gonna Sail That Boat Right Into The Sun, Cause Everybody Knows That's How It's Done

2010-11-08T16:35:00.009-05:00

Lord Huron sounds like Fleet Foxes went to the beach. He also does a great job sounding like his cover art; awash with atmospherics and filled with water. "Into The Sun" and "Mighty" are the titular tracks to his first and second EPs, respectively. You can hear both of those EPs in their entirety, constituting everything the guy has released to date, over at his bandcamp page.
Navajo Bixby sound like Panda Bear went to the beach. Very specifically, "Moonlighting" uses the blueprint from Panda's opus "Bros". Two repetitive movements are layered on top of each other, with the mix favoring one and slowly shifting focus to the other somewhere in the middle. Peppered in are spoken samples and murky found sound. In "Moonlighting", the shift happens pretty distinctly around the 3:35 mark. Navajo Bixby have no proper releases, but you can have these on the house and hear another on myspace.

Lord Huron - Into The Sun
Lord Huron - Mighty
Navajo Bixby - Moonlighting
Navajo Bixby - Down Under

Is It Normal, To Go Through Life Oh So Formal?

2010-11-04T22:53:00.004-04:00

It's the freakin' weekend, baby, bout to have me some fun.

Smith Westerns - Weekend

P.S. I'm pretty sure these kids are about fourteen.

Something Is Happening That Is Not Happening

2010-11-01T15:05:00.007-04:00

The Books are a unique duo. They make emotionally resonant music by piecing together cellos and bass, rhythmic clicks and blips, and found sound. The music is beautiful by itself, but takes on new life in their videos, also knit together with creative editing using found footage (almost always dated, analog film. 90's fashion reppin' hard.) The Books are collagists both auditory and visual. To hear them only is to only experience them partly. They also have a keen sense of humor, which shows itself in the golf course dance moves of "I Didn't Know That" and the dark childhood banter in "A Cold Freezin' Night".

They have a DVD called Play All that you can buy here if you're into it. Also, head on over and peruse their amazing, labyrinthine website, but be warned: you may spend hours there.

I Took My Lucky Break And I Broke It In Two

2010-10-27T18:19:00.007-04:00

All of these songs were written and originally recorded by Daniel Johnston, our generation's bi-polar pop laureate. "Some Things Last a Long Time" is about a girl. "Worried Shoes" is about neurosis. "To Go Home" is about a girl (the same one). Pretty standard subjects, pretty brilliant artist. And pretty good covers.

Daniel Johnston - Some Things Last a Long Time
Karen O and The Kids - Worried Shoes
M. Ward - To Go Home

P.S. Check out the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston if you're curious. And go watch Where The Wild Thing Are (for which "Worried Shoes" is a recurrent theme) just because it's really good.

Through The Part Of The Glass That's Defrosted

2010-10-20T19:31:00.004-04:00

Recently I've been buying a lot of vinyl. It isn't too surprising that someone who has a music blog would. Music dorks love vinyl. For some reason we've all been convinced that it's the best, "realest" way to hear our favorite songs. What's peculiar about my recent purchasing habits is I don't own a record player. So I'm really just buying artifacts; I haven't heard a note off a one of them. This includes Hayden's Skyscraper National Park, which I picked up at Amoeba Records in San Francisco when I was out there a few weeks ago. Not sure what compelled me besides it was sealed and fairly cheap. And it includes this song, "Dynamite Walls". The whole album is great. I've owned it in other formats for years (actually every other format, except 8-track and, uh, LaserDisc) and gone back to it many times. It's familiar and makes me feel good, like comfort food but less associated with diabetes (although it does remind me of my time on the Navajo Nation, where diabetes is rampant. It's all connected, you see). "Dynamite Walls" stands out. This song brims with utility. By which I mean if I was in charge of soundtracking (dream job) I would use this all the time. I'd file it under Fresh Beginnings, Emotional Restarts, and Early Morning Preparation for the Day Ahead.

Hayden - Dynamite Walls

PS On a related note, if anyone knows where I can get a decent record player, holler.

She Loves You, Big River, More Than Me

2010-10-13T13:49:00.005-04:00

The Secret Sisters came on stage during T Bone Burnett's set at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival a week or so ago and blew my mind with the very first line of the first song they sang: "Now I taught the weeping willow how to cry!" I already knew the song, Johnny Cash's "Big River", but it was their voices grabbed hold of me tight; absolutely beautiful sibling harmony like I've never heard live before. On stage that day they were backed by the amazing Punch Brothers, a hell of a string band. On this recording, their first official single, they're produced and backed by Jack White, in full-on shred-mode. So the music is quite different, but they're voices are just as powerful. The second track is off their debut album, which was just released Tuesday. It's a solid LP; nothing ground-breaking, but darned pretty.

The Secret Sisters - Big River
The Secret Sisters - Tennessee Me

Explosions Want To See What They Can Find

2010-09-25T16:03:00.004-04:00

Likable things about this song include, but are not limited to: the right-out-the-gate energy, the sudden twists and turns it takes, and the way Carey Mercer, on backup vocals, sounds like Yoko Ono synthesized with a rooster starting at about the 1:50 mark. And the lyrics are, as in every Destroyer song, curious in content and unique in delivery.

Destroyer - New Ways of Living

And We All Fall Down

2010-09-22T23:32:00.002-04:00

Big love for the Avetts.

The Avett Brothers - The Fall

If You Demand An Explanation, I Am Here Because I Want To Be

2010-09-21T21:54:00.008-04:00

Andrew Cedermark is a Glen Rock, NJ native with a new debut album under his name called Moon Deluxe. It's aggressive and intimate, a quality combination to avoid in people and embrace in music. This first track is from a split cassette released a few months ago, and the second guy's from the new LP; fuzzed-out and worth more than a few spins.

Andrew Cedermark - From Memory
Andrew Cedermark - Hard Livin'

I Just Act Like I Don't Remember, Mary Acts Like She Don't Care

2010-09-20T22:44:00.006-04:00

This isn't my #1 favorite Springsteen song (that's Thunder Road), but it is his best. The final verse just kills me every single time I hear it; It literally makes my body tingle.

"Is a dream a lie if it don't come true / Or is it something worse"

Bruce Springsteen - The River

Alright, fine, here's Thunder Road, too. Twist my arm.

Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road

I Suppose We All Need Lovers And You Know Everything Comes In Time

2010-09-19T21:13:00.004-04:00

The transcendent Will Oldham. You will absolutely hear more from him on this blog in the future.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Someone's Sleeping

Without A Dream In My Heart, Without A Love Of My Own

2010-09-18T15:14:00.005-04:00

This is one of those songs; one that feels like it's always existed, as long as music's been around (actually, the wikipedia entry on it is pretty interesting). It's certainly a standard, and can be heard in as many styles and genres you could name, just about. As a kid I loved doing the "bom-baba-bom ding-a-dong-ding"s from The Marcels' version in the lowest register I could manage. At summer camp we sing the first verse as part of medley and round with a couple of other old gems. I'd hesitate to name a clear best version of this classic, but these are the ones I happen to have in my itunes, so I must like them. Some reverence should, I think, be given to The King, whose falsetto-laden, reverb-soaked, barebones arrangement resonates half a century later.

Elvis Presley - Blue Moon
Cowboy Junkies - Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)
The Microphones - Karl Blau
The Marcels - Blue Moon
Django Reinhardt - Blue Moon

We Died And Were Reborn And Then Mysteriously Saved

2010-09-16T22:23:00.006-04:00

I just finished watching Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, an old western featuring not only a score by Bob Dylan, but a small role as well. It's safe to say the score outshines the role, but I suppose that's why he's one of the greatest musical artist of our time and not one of the greatest actors. Anyway, the film got me feeling a Dylan vibe. Here's a song that could probably sneak onto the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack without sounding too out of place, although it was released three years later on Desire, which is either my second, third, or fifth favorite Dylan album. Or tenth, I don't know. Pretty darn good, though.

Bob Dylan - Oh, Sister

And, heck, here's Andrew Bird's version, too, which is better anyhow.

Andrew Bird & Nora O'Connor - Oh, Sister

And Coming Running Through The Shallow Water, Reaching For Your Hand

2010-09-15T17:50:00.005-04:00

It's too bad that album art is in such stark contrast to this song. It's a little unnerving staring down that barrel, Johnny. Hard to find a sweeter song, though.

Johnny and June Carter Cash - Far Side Banks Of Jordan

Take My Hand, Take My Whole Life Too

2010-09-14T22:33:00.004-04:00

If Love had hymns, this'd be the best one.

Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling In Love

Yo, It Ain't Cool Gettin' Shot, So Whatever You Heard, Fuck What You Heard, You Heard?

2010-09-13T00:27:00.005-04:00

Engine engine number nine. I love old school rap.

Audio Two - Top Billin'
Black Sheep - The Choice Is Yours

Tout Le Monde Sait Que Tu Me Trompes Souvent Alors Méfie-toi, Je T'avertis Vraiment

2010-09-10T17:56:00.004-04:00

Why is this song so much better in French?

Eileen - Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher

Till That Time Has Come That We Might Live As One, Can I Dance With You?

2010-09-08T17:34:00.008-04:00

This could be the Greatest Love Song ever written. And that's a category with a lot of contenders. I particularly appreciate Yo La Tengo's adorable go at the song in this video from La Blogotheque. This is a band that knows a thing or two about writing great love songs, as evidenced by the second song in the video. They also look like they should be friends with my mom.

The Troggs - With A Girl Like You (buy)
David Sitek - With A Girl Like You (buy)

Yo La Tengo - With A Girl Like You:

I Let Tears Fall Like Rain, Apple-Sized They Were

2010-09-07T20:15:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure what to say about this song, except it probably doesn't do anything for the steely-cold badass image I'm so prevalently known for.

Sinead O'Connor - John I Love You (buy)

I Got A Freeway In Mind, Let Go Of My Head

2010-09-06T11:18:00.005-04:00

This song has a very Springsteen-ian feel to it to my ears, which is appropriate because a) Kurt Vile is a Philly native and Philadelphia loves Bruce almost as much as their neighboring New Jersey, and b) it is always, always appropriate to make a sound that evokes The Boss. Also, as the title would suggest, this song is rocket fuel for road trips, another quality I can fully endorse. Mostly by sticking my arm out my open window and thumping the beat on my car door.

Kurt Vile - Freeway (buy)

I Want To Know The Funky Things, You Mean Everything To Me

2010-09-04T20:47:00.004-04:00

Tonight, a double feature from the youngest and too-early departed Wilson brother. This first track, "Rainbows", is from 1977's Pacific Ocean Blue, Dennis Wilson's only released solo album. Many consider it a lost classic and a pinnacle of The Beach Boys cannon. I think this track pretty well captures the wide-eyed sincerity that only a Beach Boy could pull off without a hint of irony. The other track, "Constant Companion", is an unfinished song from his unreleased follow up Bambu. It's got a real Latin flavor.

Dennis Wilson - Rainbows (buy)
Dennis Wilson - Constant Companion (buy)

Freeze Your Blood And Then Stab It Into Me

2010-09-03T20:33:00.005-04:00

This post was almost titled "I Eat My Own Blood And Get Filled Up On Me." Either way you look at it, this song's got some freaky, great lyrics.

Modest Mouse - Night On The Sun (buy)

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going

2010-09-03T00:15:00.004-04:00

Well shit, here it is only my second post of the month and I'm technically late; didn't make that midnight deadline. Don't I feel like cinderella-stayed-too-long-and-turned-into-a-pumpkin. That's how it went, right? Well, here's prince charming in the form of Randy Newman with a shoe just my size. Short and disarmingly simple, this is certainly one of my favorite songs.

Randy Newman - Memo To My Son (buy)

For At Least I Deserve The Respect Of A Kiss Goodbye

2010-09-01T22:04:00.004-04:00

In the spirit of more frequent posts, I'm changing things up a bit for the next 30 days. For the month of september, I'm going to post one song per day. There will be no theme or anything connecting these songs other than the fact that I like them and would like you to hear them. As an inaugural entry, here's a sneak peek at Sufjan Stevens forthcoming album, The Age of Adz. If your familiarity with Mr. Stevens stems mainly from his astounding Illinois, this will give you a slightly different angle of approach. Here he seems to have traded in his soaring strings for soaring synths and set them against an electronic break beat. Also, his cheerleading-squad backup vocalists must have gone to church, because they've turned into a choir. The effect is quite beautiful, but what else would you expect from this guy? This is definitely a Sufjan song.

Sufjan Stevens - I Walked (buy)

P.S. He also just released a rather extended Extended Player called All Delighted People. It's quite good.

I Was In Tulsa And Didn't Have Anything Goin', She Lived In Tulsa And Didn't Have Anything On

2010-08-24T22:28:00.003-04:00

Country.

Waylon Jennings: Outlaw.

Merle Haggard: Outlaw. And Gangster.

Tom T. Hall: Not an Outlaw. But overlooked. Look him up.

Tom T. Hall - Tulsa Telephone Book (buy)
Merle Haggard - I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can (buy)
Waylon Jennings - Six White Horse (buy)

P.S. "Six White Horses" has beautiful lyrics lamenting war's toll. It appeals to my Quaker roots.

Because That Feeling's Good

2010-07-31T13:53:00.006-04:00

"(Just Like) Starting Over" is a special song for me. My uncle used this song to soundtrack home video footage of all my siblings and cousins as kids growing up at the beach. It's a very Joe Cocker-Wonder Years kind of thing, if you're picking up what I'm putting down. When I hear it I can't help but see those images and conjure memories of what were basically perfect childhood summers. So, like a favorite dish, I try to be particularly conscious of what I pair it with. I was surprised when I put it in front of this Dent May track, which isn't exactly fine wine. It's more like Miller Lite. If I was in the business of inventing genres, I'd call this casio-schmaltz. But then, I have a keen appreciation for schmaltz, and I rarely pass up a cold beer.

John Lennon - (Just Like) Starting Over (buy)
Dent May - That Feeling (buy)
The Cure - Close To Me (buy)

It Would Sure Do Me Good To Do You Good

2010-07-07T17:05:00.013-04:00

Billy Swan sure seems like a nice fella. He doesn't care what the problem is, he just wants to help. My favorite line here is "If your child needs a daddy, I can help." That's a hell of an assist there, Bill. He's singing this to his dream girl, though. There are many, many dream girls in pop music history (or maybe just one?). The next three songs concern this enigma of rock and roll, the belle of our subconscious. She's quite a source of frustration, probably why she makes such a potent muse. I guess Cass McComb's tune is the exception here. He's not singing to his dream girl, he's singing to his dreams-come-true-girl. What a lucky sonofabitch.

Billy Swan - I Can Help (buy)
Roy Orbison - Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream) (buy)
Cass McCombs - Dreams-Come-True-Girl (buy)
The Everly Brothers - All I Have To Do Is Dream (buy)

My Baby Ties Me Up In Double Knots

2010-07-01T16:53:00.008-04:00

If the first verse is to be believed, a certain living sister would like to take her baby's shoes off, sing him rock and roll, prove she's got it big, get naked and jump in the water. These items she lists while her fellow sisters coo like songbirds in the background. I think I had an extremely pleasant dream that went exactly like that once. Of course, there's cooing in all three of these tracks. That, along with the more general sound of lethargic swoon, is what ties these precious little morsels of pop together. Sexy hazy summer songs. Dig 'em and be inspired to be lazy.

The Living Sisters - Double Knots (buy)
Family Trees - Dream Talkin (buy)
Tennis - Marathon (buy)

If I Had A Chance, I'd Ask The World To Dance

2010-06-09T18:38:00.013-04:00

I'm not entirely sure what makes me think these songs go well together, and if you'd like to disagree I won't argue with you. But, well, it's my blog so there. It might be the oddest grouping on here yet, a title sure to usurped before too long. And speaking of titles, Dream, Baby, Dream might hold one for most insistent lyrics in pop music history. This guy really wants you to keep dreaming, baby, and he tells you so without much elaboration for about six and a half minutes. Not the worst message to drill in, I guess, and it seems The Boss concurs. I have no idea what Morning Sun is about, but those la-la-la-la's sound straight out of The Breakfast Club. Don't you forget about me. The meaning of Dancing With Myself is a matter of scholarly debate, but it's probably another 80's song about masturbation, right? Right.

Suicide - Dream Baby Dream (buy)

The Ruby Suns - Morning Sun (edit) (buy)
Billy Idol - Dancing With Myself (buy)

Leave All The Truth In So They Know What Comes Next

2010-05-24T22:26:00.013-04:00

Now here's a pair of downers, but dag-gum if they ain't the prettiest pair I ever heard; they deserve each other, couple of slow-burning country saps that they are. As much as I like the music, it's the lyrics and amazing vocal performances on these tracks that knock me to the floor and the words are worth looking up. The Mermaid Parade is all heartache. It's an early morning Coney Island stroll lamenting old passion and failed marriage, two years to build and two weeks to break. Goddammit Amanda. We aren't privy to the details, but the feeling is palpable. The Old Black Hen is a pure haunting and those oo,OO,OO,oo's chill the bones. I'd say it sounds like coming death, but it's more like long, hard life; it's the bad luck lullaby. These two songs feel like a crushing night and a defeated day, Old Black Hen the former and Mermaid Parade the latter, and that's partly why they sound so good next to each other. It's just hard to tell which comes first, the night or day. They're cyclical, endlessly transitioning into one another, bleary eyed and sleep deprived.

Phosphorescent - The Mermaid Parade (buy)
Songs: Ohia - The Old Black Hen (buy)

PS: This is the demo version of The Old Black Hen, which I'm tacking on here because I think it's fascinating how much a song can grow.

Songs: Ohia - The Old Black Crow demo

A Part Of The Heart Gets Lost In The Learning, Somewhere Along The Road

2010-05-08T14:13:00.010-04:00

Spring is here and with it comes this heaping pile of my favorite bluegrass tunes to put in your ears. Because bluegrass is springtime music, sure enough as rock-a-bye baby is a lullaby. These songs will make sunshine a little brighter, beer a little cooler, and time a little less insistent. Best listened to with good friends on a grassy hill near your favorite body of water. And sing along.

John Hartford - Steam Powered Aereo Plane
J.D. Crowe & The New South - Old Home Place
The Country Gentlemen - Fox On The Run
Doc Watson - Going Down This Road Feeling Bad
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Doc Watson - Tennessee Stud
Carolina, Lou Reid & Terry Baucom - Cold Sheets Of Rain
J.D. Crowe & The New South - Back To The Barroom
Johnny Russell - Catfish John
John Hartford - Back In The Goodle Days
Trampled By Turtles - The One To Save
Old Crow Medicine Show - I Hear Them All
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Dwight Yoakam - Wheels
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Matraca Berg & Emmylou Harris - Oh Cumberland
Doc Watson - Sittin' On Top Of The World
Flatt & Scruggs - Salty Dog Blues
Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - In The Pines
Old Crow Medicine Show - Lonesome Road Blues
Old Crow Medicine Show - Worried Mary
John Hartford - In Tall Buildings
Doc & Merle Watson - Along The Road
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Randy Scruggs - Farther Along

PS: Bonus bluegrass in a video from 1969 featuring Earl Scruggs and his son helping out The Byrds with their version of Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere":

Wait A Minute Mr. Postman

2010-04-26T17:24:00.005-04:00

Perhaps you've noticed the "Postcards" link at the top of the sidebar over there (or perhaps you haven't, but I'm telling you now, so notice). Until recently it's been an empty page, but I'm happy to announce there's stuff there now, specifically postcards. For more detailed information, give it a click, but basically: You want postcards? I got yer freakin' postcards right here. Everyone likes getting real mail. Other postcards will most likely rotate in and out, so check back now and again if what you see now isn't your flavor. Now that I've used the word 'postcard' far too much, here are a few songs that fit the theme.

The Marvelettes - Please Mr. Postman
Beirut - Postcards From Italy
Cowboy Junkies - Postcard Blues
Neko Case - Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis

Every Tear Rolling Down Is A Lesson Learned

2010-04-23T18:50:00.021-04:00

Bittersweet nostalgia is a powerful Human condition. Powerful enough to lead Neil Young, at the wizened age of twenty, to write a song about growing old, heart-achingly barred forevermore from Sugar Mountain. Poor guy. Eric Early, primary songwriter for Blitzen Trapper, reflects upon his untamed younger days by allegorically joining a pack of wolves. Thoughts turned to instinct and nights spent howling from the highest hills, he eventually meets a girl, raises kids, and settles down, shedding his wild furr. Sonny Smith, in his narrators twilight years, understands that the events of our lives shape us, and it's okay to feel that; no one is too old to turn, or too young to burn. And Johnny "Cougar" Mellencamp, of course, writes a little diddy about Jack and Diane, two american kids yada yada yada. Do other animals feel the same longing for their youth, this veneration of days gone by? Do they sing songs to each other about living as something that happened once upon a time? Maybe they realize that life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.

Neil Young - Sugar Mountain (buy)
Blitzen Trapper - Furr (buy)
Sonny & The Sunsets - Too Young To Burn (buy)
John Mellencamp - Jack & Diane (buy)

PS The Sonny & The Sunsets song can be found on their new album Tomorrow Is Alright and I highly encourage you (yes, you) to check it out. If you shift your eyes just to the left, there's a link to it under the sidebar section "In Rotation". Or, you can listen to some choice cuts here.

Make It Last All Night

2010-04-20T22:51:00.017-04:00

Ever notice that these are basically the same song? Shout out to RAC on this one; tell Fab I say hey.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - American Girl (buy)
The Strokes - Last Nite (buy)

Love Will Never Die

2010-04-12T18:30:00.010-04:00

Glam rock? For a musical genre, seems like glam rock is defined more by visual aspects (theatrical androgynous fashion) then auditory. Certainly it's a genre firmly anchored to a time and place, that being early '70's england. So some of these artists are glam rockers and others are not, but if we're focused purely on sound, these are all glam rock songs (maybe not The Blue Route, for some reason, but it sure does fit in). The lesson here is that musical genre's are stupid, or rather sub-genre's are. These are rock songs. Good ones, propelled forward with strong beats substantiatied by punctual keyboards and jangly guitars, often swelling with orchestral strings, and overcast with emotive vocals. Your tired eyes are opened wide and you kept goin'. You wandered down an open road and you kept goin'. Yes.

Electric Light Orchestra - Boy Blue
Smith Westerns - Imagine, Pt. 3
T-Rex - Rise A White Swan
Queen - Good Company
Wild Beasts - Brace Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants
The Walkmen - The Blue Route
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs

Feeling A Little Peculiar

2010-04-09T00:33:00.013-04:00

"Have you tasted amnesia?"
Not quite, though my recollection of past events is about as sharp as a beanbag chair. But I've yet to forget who I am, at least for now. What do you think amnesia would taste like, if it was to affect that particular sense? Iodine, maybe. Or a stale weed brownie. Warm mulch. The underside of your 4th grade desk, gum and all. Nasal drip. Something bitter, I think, with a dull bite, and no aftertaste (for symbolism's sake). Well, If I ever have trouble remembering what pretty-voiced girls armed with guitars sounds like, I'll listen to this, and sigh with relief.

Nethers - Festival of Grot

Jenny Lewis - Melt Your Heart

Mazzy Star - Fade Into You

4 Non-Blondes - What's Up

Found A World So New

2010-04-06T12:32:00.004-04:00

Kosblog takes a brief respite in it's normal programming to bring you the uplifting story of a trapped miner who learns how to move.

You've Left Three Fine Wishes On Your Pillow

2010-04-06T02:26:00.012-04:00

And here we have some shining examples of young, white, american men recording music firmly rooted in african tradition. Taking music from black people has a long and storied history in america, dating back to the first time we heard it. Since then, there have been a few occurrences here and there of white artists trying their hand at black music, like that time anyone ever played any rock and roll, or any of it's predecessors or derivatives. Sometimes people get a little sore about this form of flattery, or "theft" in laymen's terms. But I have good news: cultural appropriation is dead! All's fair in musical inspiration and interest exploration, take what you want boys, she's up for grabs! It's true because I want it to be and I say so. Also, no more irony. or pretension. And from now on you can use sentences the end of which a preposition is at.

Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel

Belle & Sebastian - I'm A Cuckoo (Avalanches Remix)

Karl Blau - Into The Nada

Phil and The Osophers - Mayan Calendar

Karl Blau - To Thirsty To Drink Water

Pill Wonder - Fogg Eater

I Gave That Girl A Hug, In The Tunnel Of Love

2010-04-02T17:53:00.010-04:00

If these four songs are any indication, organs make everything really, really FUN. Whether it be recovering from a love-induced hangover, as in "Double Shot", balling your eyes out while plotting revenge, as in "96 Tears" (fun fact: they wanted to call it "69 Tears" but it was a tad risque for the day), summer love down the shore, as in "Palisades Park", or whatever the hell "Tally Ho!" is about. The activity is moot, throw in an organ and you'll say fuck it, let's twist. Farfisa Compact, Hammond B, Vox Continental, you're too good to us. We should install you in all the humdrums of society, the places no one wants to be; the DMVs, dentist offices, maximum security penitentiaries. Inmates, root canal victims, woebegone motorists, rejoice! Let the organs vibrate our air and warble us away to a happier place.

The Swinging Medallions - Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)

? and The Mysterians - 96 Tears

The Clean - Tally Ho!

Freddy Cannon - Palisades Park

Rhymes That Keep Their Secrets Will Unfold Behind The Clouds

2010-04-01T15:07:00.015-04:00

April fools.

BORK!

David Bowie - Magic Dance

Meco - Ewok Celebration

Limahl - Never Ending Story

Swedish Chef - Swedish Chef Song

Nothing In Our Mind

2010-03-27T16:56:00.024-04:00

"We drive through this town with nothing in our mind."

I like that. I've always wanted to drive across the country (I don't like saying "cross country"; that's something you run or ski, and is for pansies (I don't like saying "pansies" either; those are flowers, and they're for real men)) on a motorcycle. Although one time when I was driving across the country in a regular four-wheeled automobile, I met a guy who was doing it on a motorcycle and he was fucking miserable. Something about incessant crotch pain and walking like John Wayne the rest of his life. But whatever, that guy was a pansy. I once rode a mechanical bull for 32 seconds, or I should say I once punched myself in the manhood for 32 seconds. Granted, that's not an entire across the country trip, but the point is if I was riding a mechanical bull across this beautiful goddamned nation, this would the soundtrack.

Air Waves - Sweetness

Unrest - Make Out Club

Built To Spill - Else

PS I Love You - Facelove

In A Sky So Clear And Blue

2010-03-27T15:38:00.025-04:00

Is there anything more sacred then Otis, Nick, and Nina, bookended by hymns? The answer, Friends, is no there is not. This is church music. Except instead of Sunday morning, it's any morning with nothing to do, lazy and unhurried, after an eventful evening. And instead of kneeling in front of pews, you're lying on a sun-drenched patch of carpet, thinking about maybe breakfast. And the organ is a top-notch sound system that fills the whole house, slowly waking the rest of the congregation.

Thelonius Monk - Abide With Me

Otis Redding - Change Gonna Come

Nick Drake - Saturday Sun

Nina Simone - Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues

Marcus Roberts - Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Flying Above All My Troubles

2010-03-19T00:53:00.056-04:00

A few days ago I was sitting on the sunny front steps of my childhood home listening to this sunny, child-like set of songs. I was rather enjoying myself, relaxed and mellow. Then along came my 4-year-old niece, fresh from ballet class. After hanging out for a minute or two she asked if she could change the music because it was too "girly". I could see what she meant. Seemingly juvenile female vocals over tracks that plink & strum there way through bouncing rhythms that'll turn a sulk into a skip. Of course, lyrically these songs are about drug use and failed love, but I think that may have been over her head. So there you have it: these songs are too girly for a 4-year-old ballerina. Though intensely emasculating, in a strange sense I enjoy them all the more because of it. Maybe Zoe will too, one day, when she's as girly as I am.

Cults - Most Wanted

Gigi - Some Second Best

Generationals - When They Fight, They Fight