Awesome!

I've only yawned once while listening to it!

A few months ago I heard the song Falling Slowly on the radio for the first time, and I was driving and I couldn't immediately Google the lyrics to find out what the song was, all I knew was that it sounded like a duet between Allison Krause and Cat Stevens.

So when I got home I furiously Googled "New Cat Stevens song" and "Cat Stevens duet girl piano song" and "What is that fucking song that sounds like Cat Stevens!?!"

This week at the Oscars I heard the phantom song again when it won for best original song and they performed it live! AH HA! So it's not Cat Stevens, it's just the song from that dumb movie!

Sorry, I mean, it's the Academy Award winning song from the inspiring independent feature about true love and fate. Regardless, the soundtrack is incredible.

Musical FYI

The song from the stupid Zune commercial where the girl jumps in the ocean and has some weird dance off with people dressed as bunnies is called Lake Michigan and it's on the new Rogue Wave album.

They happen to be one of my favorite bands and I'm sure you know their music. Besides stupid Zune commercials, they've been played on Heroes, tons of movies and some other stuff on TV.

I also heard them at the dentist recently, so that totally means success.

Perez is right...

The greatest new singer songwriter performer all-around awesome pop music lady is Yael Naim!

I picked up her album on an actual CD since there's only one song available on iTunes, and it's just so fresh and poppy and clean sounding. With the snow outside and the sky still blue, it's the perfect music to keep your heart feeling upbeat while the holidays are upon us.

You know what's depressing? Christmas music!! And it's everywhere! So pop your iPod on and set it to repeat on New Soul.

Non-Traditional Hanukkah Music

Happy Hanukkah to all our Jewish readers!
Did you know there's a small Jewish Tribe in Uganda that converted to Judaism in 1919? Well, there is! And they have a CD! Of African-Jewish music! Who knew such a thing existed? Well, my boyfriend, for one, and he played it for me last night and you know, it's really beautiful. It's like Paul Simon's Under African Skies meets Fiddler On The Roof and you have Abayudaya: Music From the Jewish People of Uganda. I promise you've never heard Hebrew sung in such harmonies. 

Overnight this CD from Amazon and enjoy the music with your family during Hanukkah. And if you want something more traditional, just cook up a latke and give that dreidel a turn, already.

Thanks for the Memories

The Broken String album from Bishop Allen reminds me of my first semester of college--Autumn days at Phelps Grove Park, sneaking boys into my dorm, room after hours, drinking my first 7 and 7, falling in love with all the gay boys in my psych class, gaining 20 pounds on fast food egg rolls and cashew chicken, drunken debaucherous Halloween parties. Good times, good times.

Oh, and the album is awesome. And the band's currently touring, so go check them out.

It can only get better.

You can now download songs from Amazon in mp3 format that will work with your iPod, your Zune, or whatever digital music apparatus you prefer.

Except your Discman. For that you'll need to get your songs off Napster.

Believe the Hype

Since bloggers pretty much always know what they're talking about--well, some of them, anyway--you should listen up! A friend of mine just sent me a link to The Hype Machine--a site that "follows the music blog discussion." If a post in one of the followed music blog contains an MP3, it ends up on Hype and then on Hype Radio, which is Internet radio consisting solely of faboo songs recently mentioned in music blogs.

An awesome way to discover new music. And avoid tasks like laundry, bathing, and leaving the house.

Horse in the Sea

One of the best bands you've probably never heard of is going on tour for two months and maybe even stopping at a city near your. Horse in the Sea is a Chicago band whose songs beg to be listened to on repeat for hours and promise to haunt you for days--maybe even weeks later. My favorites are Mosquito King and I Order the Sun--understated and lovely with a vocals I wish narrated my dreams...
Yeah, can someone get on that??

Remixed and Reimagined

The Bille Holiday Remixed and Reimagined album is out today. Blending Lady Day with loungy electronica tempos, this collection of songs is a great spin on the old favorites fans like me have played over and over and over. It's not a replacement--but more like sprinkles for the big bowl of ice cream.

I got the Nina Simone Remixed and Reimagined album last year--the first in this series--and love it. I have no doubt this second album in the series will be just as good.

He Gets a Star

For once - I am speechless. How have I not shared Albert Hammond Jr with you? Son of Albert Hammond? Guitarist for the Strokes? Amazing - no seriously, AMA-zing singer-songwriter?

Yours To Keep is one of the best albums that came out this year, and I don't think there's a day that's gone by since I've had it that I haven't listened to at least one song. Since I'm scary and OCD and probably obsessed. I force the album on all my friends and crank it in my office and my poor friend Rachael had to listen to it straight from Reno, NV to Denver once, so sorry.

Take a listen for yourself and if you're in Europe right now, try to go see him live.

Special thanks to The Bradness who gave this to me in January, way before it was available in the US. It's his fault.

Great Lake Swimmers

Great Lake Swimmers is the kind of band I'd take with me on long country road trips through winding paths in the middle of summer . Country in flavor, this indie-folk-roots-alt-country pop band fills each song with the spirit of their native Canadian Rockies with haunting lyrics and folkie arrangements. A friend introduced me to them last month and they've been on heavy rotation on my playlist ever since. I especially love Moving Pictures, Silent Films from their 2003 album which evokes such a delicious sense of melancholy. Check them out.

One of the best/worst albums ever

I did not at all look up Tiffany on iTunes after watching her on Celebrity Fit Club this weekend. And I did not squeal to find out that her debut album is only $6 because that's less than the price I paid for the tape I got when I was 8 years old and listened to nonstop until jr. high.

And I don't still have that tape in a box in my nightstand, weathered and chipped, and I haven't tried to transfer it to CD ever before, so I'm totally uninterested in the fact that the entire album just downloaded to my computer in less than 4 minutes.

Sky Blue Sky

Wilco's new album came out last week and it's pure heaven, of course, which is why you should pick it up and stick it in your stereo and never stop playing it until September.

And if you want to get totally serious about your music, you should pick up the Sky Blue Sky vinyl from the Wilco store, a double LP with an old fashioned gate fold cover. With each vinyl copy you get a copy of the CD, too, since people don't listen to vinyl anymore, right?

Right, they frame vinyl and hang it on their walls. At least, that's what I'll be doing.

The Reminder

As a MayDay gift to everyone, Feist's new album, The Reminder, has been released today.

One reviewer says this about Feist:"She is blessed with a spellbinding and soulful voice that draws you in like a siren's call. Elevated and enhanced by some excellent arrangements that incorporate folk, blues, jazz and rock, she has an earthy yet sophisticated quality that is beautifully displayed. 'The Reminder' skips through electro-soul, acoustic pop, and laid-back folk with a calm, assured vocal and evocative poetry."

Well, just take a listen for yourself!

Calling all Wilco fans!

If you loved I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, you will absolutely adore Jeff Tweedy's Sunken Treasure Live DVD!

Taped during his Pacific Northwest tour, it's full of footage from Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and more. It's dark and intimate, soul-catching and revealing, and makes the perfect companion to a soft couch and a Springboard ale. There are times when the camera focuses in on Jeff on stage under a bright, hot light and drowns out everything around him in pure blackness, making you feel like he's right there in your living room, singing you his secrets.

But also magically standing on top of your TV while doing so. (Read: Don't have too many of those Springboard ales.)

Amy Winehouse

Perez has been talking about her long enough, so I finally took a listen, and OMG, Amy Winehouse is everything you've ever heard she is, and if you haven't heard of her, waste no more time: check her out.

Compared to greats like Billie Holiday, the Shangri-Las, Macy Gray, Sarah Vaughn and Lauryn Hill, this white Jewish chick from England released her Sophomore album, Back to Black, in the UK last year, and here in the states just a few weeks ago.

She'll kick off her American tour on April 26th in San Francisco. Tickets are probably already sold out to most, if not all, of her shows--but dudes, that's what Craigslist is for. And bribery.

What you gonna do with all that junk?

A Fire You'll Want to Burn

With what the Times call its "mournful anthems and bombastic orchestration," I feel about Arcade Fire's new album, "Neon Bible," the way one might feel about triple layer chocolate raspberry mousse cake: well, yeah it's fantastic...but isn't that sort of expected?

Still, expected or not, it's triple layer chocolate raspberry mousse cake and if by chance you haven't tasted it yet, I'd be remiss if I didn't say, "Hey, here it is, try a bite."

Catch the Wind

You know the commercial with the little boy who runs to the ocean cliffs with an empty jar and then runs back with it to his grandpa's birthday party and the jar opens and all this wind comes gushing out and their hair gets all messed up and then we're reminded something about global warming?

The song that's playing is Catch The Wind by Donovan, who wrote and recorded it way before the polar ice caps even knew they could melt.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Lately (ok, ALWAYS), I've been so amazingly into jazz it frightens most mortals. But every now and then I encounter people who think jazz is *gasp* boring. Thankfully years of therapy and that time in juvy have deterred me from ripping their heads off and instead I just suspect that they don't really know how varied and totally awesome jazz is. Then I'd tell them to listen to something like the Hypnotic Jazz Ensemble.

Out of Chicago, these dudes rip it up with brass and broken groovy beats and it's just so amazingly fun. Here's a good video I found on ye old YouTube:

I first heard these guys just a few weeks ago on Free Fall Radio, which you should all be listening to by now and I'd thought I'd share 'em with all the Awesome readers.

Toxic Britney

We've all got 'em. Those songs on your iPod or whatever that you're too cool to admit you have, but one day someone puts her in shuffle and Madonna's "Secret" comes blasting out the speakers and your friend looks at you with disgust. No? Just me? Fine. I'll admit it.

Lately, there has been a rash of mash-ups and remixes, but also some bona fide covers of your favorite songs you either love to hate or hate to love — but often done better (so it's ok to like 'em). The one that jumps out at me is Mark Ronson's version of Britney Spears' "Toxic" (which I, in fact, have on my iPod). It somehow makes me feel ok about her recent jaunt into Domino Harvey territory and maybe one day, this will play during the end credits of her made-for-tv movie.

>> Listen to "Toxic" - Mark Ronson Version

Lucinda for Valentine's Day!

Just in time for Valentine's Day, and to shake us from our mid-winter stupor, Lucinda Williams is releasing West, her first album in three years on February 13. I caught Lucinda in concert a year and a half ago where she delighted us with some of her  just-written songs and they blew me away--I've been eagerly awaiting an album release ever since and I'm sure I'm not alone.

For a woman who has been called one of America's best songwriters, Lucinda's life in the years since her last album has provided enough material to fill several albums (and, indeed, she said in a recent interview that this has been the most prolific period of her life)--she ended a tumultuous relationship, lost her mother, and fell in love, so expect her next albums to reflect that.

Also! She starts touring again in 27 days and she just happens to be playing NYC the same weekend I'll be there, yay, yay, yay! Check the schedule to see when you can catch her, too! And in the meantime, listen to a few of her new songs here.

When the working day is done

When you were watching The Hills Season 2 premier and Heidi went in the bathroom to take that pregnancy test after finding out that Spencer was totally double timing her with Audrina, did you notice the beautiful acoustic version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun playing in the background?

It's by the awesome and hot and talented Greg Laswell, who probably never intended for his music to narrate the lives of spoiled blondes and their early-20's life drama that they bring on themselves, for Christ's sake.

When's Heidi gonna learn already?

Lavender Diamond

I've heard a lot of songs about broken hearts and stuff like that, but no song has really quite desribed the state of lost love in such a beautiful dreamlike fairytale way like Lavender Diamond's "You Broke My Heart."

Give it a listen here or here and check out their other, equally lovely sample song, "Rise in the Springtime," then go pre-order this LA band's album The Cavalry of Light re-released this month, and keep an eye open for their sophomore album to be released sometime in the Spring.

Then go tell your friends about them and when you start hearing them more and more on the radio and seeing them pop up in venues in your city, don't forget who told you about them.

Putting out reindeer

It's the holidays , if you hadn't noticed all the horrible adult contemporary Christmas carols playing at every grocery store, gas station and suburban mall in America. It's such a lovely season, why are we wasting our aural senses on Celine Dion and Whitney Houston begging us to hear what they hear?!

Try something a little more edgy this year and pick up Over The Rhine's new Christmas album Snow Angels. All the songs are original masterpieces reminiscent of winter nights and candy canes but without all little drumming boys and those annoying three kings.

Overshadowing McDreamy

I was watching Grey's Anatomy a few weeks ago and was momentarily shaken from my McDreamy-Steamy coma by the sounds of a sweet songbird interrupting the unfolding drama.

There was something about the way the voice effortlessly stretched over each note like elastic that stayed wih me all night and in the morning, before I even made my coffee, I searched the Grey's Anatomy Music Guide to find the name of the song and the singer behind it (Breakable and Ingrid Michaelson, respectively). 

You can give the amazing Michaelson a listen for yourself on her Myspace page and even help her name her new and stunning Christmas song, and if you'll be in New York this Friday, you can catch her live at The Bitter End for her birthday show.  I hear she's turning 18.  Again.

PB&J

Hey, didn't you watch that video I posted a few days ago of the song Young Folks by the brilliant Peter Bjorn and John?  Well, where are all the comments about how fantastic it was, how catchy and quirky and fun?  Were you not so easily convinced, as I was, of the musical fabulousness of PB&J upon hearing just the one song?

Well, then, take a listen here to the equally good Let's Call it Off from their most recent album "Writer's Block," and to the even better Paris 2004, and my personal favorite, The Chills, a song whose every note seems to speak directly to my heart, as if to say, "we are one, you and I, yes we are, yes we are" and the ending of which is so lovely, I've played the final 30 seconds over and over and over and over.

Still not convinced?  Then I'm sorry -- we simply cannot be friends anymore.  You understand.  Actually, you probably don't since obviously we have NOTHING in common.

Young Folks

Avvvv-aaaaa-lannnnnnnche!

If you haven't picked up The Avalanche by Sufjan Stevens, I don't know what's wrong with you. It's been our for what, like three months? And you still don't have it?

Soooo????

I got it this past summer for my birthday, the birthday that Sufjan and I happen to share because we are kindred spirits, and it has grown so seamlessly into my everyday life that I just can't believe I've only had it three months.

Plus, it's got three alternate versions of Chicago on it, including the adult contemporary easy listening version, which Sufjan and I are planning to play at our wedding. It will go great with all the tulle and mini white Christmas lights.

Let them eat soundtracks

The other day I was talking with a supposed friend about how we're both completely obsessed with Marie Antoinette and can't wait for it to come out on October 20, 2006, and all of the sudden she says totally seriously, "I love that one song on the commercial...I wonder who sings that?"

Then I had to stop being friends with her because OH MY GOD DOES SHE LIVE UNDER A ROCK? Or in a cave plastered with Kelly Clarkson and The Hold Steady posters? Does she have no idea of this little band called NEW ORDER???¹

Whatever, I hope she at least buys the soundtrack and learns about people like New Order and Aphex Twin and, sigh, The Radio Dept...Oh Lord I bet she's never even heard of Gang of Four.

That's what I get for making MySpace friends.

¹ The song is called Ceremony and it's on their album International: Best of New Order

Change is in the Air

The Changes is one of the best bands you've probably never heard of, but in the coming months, you'll be hearing a lot more of their quirky, upbeat, pop sound.  Compared to everyone from The Smiths to Police and, well, one of their Myspace friends said they sound like The Beatles, this energetic 4-man band from Chicago releases their debut album , 'Today is Tonight,' nation-wide today. 

If you're in the Windy City and can make it to Michigan Avenue right after work, check out their in-store performance at Virgin today at 5:30.  If you can't make that, give their songs a listen (I especially like 'On a String' -- a feel-good, ass-shaking tune), check out their tour schedule, and buy the album here, or download from iTunes.

Oh, and ladies, there's a Timeout contest where one grandprize winner will win a night out with the boys.  They're pretty cute and I hear a couple of them are single.

Musical Ritalin

Lately I've been scrambling to meet a tough deadline at work, so concentration has been essential.  Unfortunately, I've always been cursed (or blessed, depending on your perspective) with an overactive mind.

I've tried a number of methods to focus myself, but it was only recently, when my little brother sent me an...ahem...bootleg copy of the unreleased Album Leaf album, Into the Blue Again, that I found one that actually works.

This album is like musical ritalin--it never fails to relax me and slow my mind down to the point where I can think clearly about the task at hand. (It's available from Amazon and iTunes.)

If its ability to save you on prescription medication isn't enough, I should also mention that Into the Blue Again is full of icily beautiful, heart-rendingly melodic compositions that deftly blend synth and glitchy drum machine with warmer acoustic instruments.  Songwriter Jimmy LaValle even sings on a few, which is a pleasant departure from his previous, mostly instrumental albums.

Ask your doctor if it's right for you!

April's Favorites!

Two more from my cousin and Awesome reader, April:

"The ION USB Turntable records you right to your computer.  With the included Audactity software, you can turn your records into MP3s, burn them onto a CD, create your own mixes, and edit out all the scratch and hiss sounds.

Also, the next time you listen to Nelly, visit the St. Louis Arch or shop in University City Loop on Delmar, represent with a T-shirt from StyLe.  In addition to the shirts for specific neighborhoods this St. Louis business also sells exciting slogans as 'East St. Louis, Feel the Magic,' and 'Where the Mullet Meets the River.'

I'm thinking of buying 'Hey, Windy City, Blow Me,' to wear the next time I see my dear Cousin Wendy.  Hey Wendy, can I borrow $18 plus shipping and handling?"

Editor's Note: Hey April, blow me.

Sara's Favorites!

Sara Writes,

"Hey, I've been a reader since early July and must say that you guys are running one of the best blogs ever. I also love finding awesome things online, so here's my contribution. I hope those could be of help. Keep up the great work!"

GoMusic.com : Most albums are under $1.00. Lots of hard to find stuff. It may look fishy (if you're used to iTunes), but it's legit.

YourMusic.com: If you're not into downloading music, this is a great inexpensive alternative. $5.99/month for whatever CD you choose. No s+h fees, no obligations.

Morning Glory Online : Adorable stationery for affordable prices.

Paperchase: More stationery. Awesome retro-inspired designs and adorable animals. Although you can't order online, most Borders in the US carry their products.

Hello Kitty Cell Phone : Since you're not restricted to featuring things under $25 anymore, here's the most awesome (and expensive) Hello Kitty item.

Tom Green: Tom Green's new live and uncensored call-in talk show, straight from his living room to your computer. Apparently it's groundbreaking, as it is the first live internet call-in show.

au revoir simone

I first heard the lovely sounds au revoir simone a few weeks ago during the season finale of my favorite show, Grey's Anatomy.  I guess in the drama that was the final episode, I filed away their haunting, melodic song "through the backyards," and, when a few days ago I heard it again by chance, I was once again drawn into the the almost ethereal world of au revoir simone (and it's not just because I have a cat named Simone).

Give them a listen and tell me if you don't also feel like rowing down an enchated river through a woods in a thicket of fog at dusk.

And if you live in NYC, you can see them tonight at Exit Art Gallery, you lucky assholes. (but, then, I'm seeing Jolie Holland tonight, Camera Obscura tomorrow night, Band of Horses this weekend,and I saw DeVotchka last weekend, so I really shouldn't complain...)

Music Nerds, Check This Out

You know what's awesome?  Independent radio stations that don't cater to a demographic that hangs out at sports bars non-stop sucking down domestic beers while cat-calling bleached-out women in pointy-toed shoes who still consider Hootie and the Blowfish one of the best bands ever -- a radio station like Chicago's WLUL 88.7, "a progressive, community-oriented radio station, committed to social justice and independent thought and expression, and to giving a voice to those who too often go unheard. "  They also play really great music that you just don't hear anywhere else on the dial.

Help support the spirit of progressive, community radio buy checking out the WLUW's ebay auction, where you can score lots of cool stuff, like an autographed Wilco concert poster, a rare Stereolab 7", and a drumhead signed buy lots of cool bands.

Camera Obscura

I was just introduced to Camera Obscura, a lovely band from Glasgow, and I am already hooked!  If I ever needed a soundtrack to an afternoon running through poppies and falling in love and filling my mouth with sugar until I can't close it, I'd choose this band fill it!  "There are guitars, a drum kit found in a skip, a magnificent crackly Hammond and more shakers, maracas and handclaps than a particularly large primary school room."

They just released their latest album, "Let's Get Out of This Country," last month and will be touring the states until the end of the month, so check out some of their songs here, buy the album, and then go see them at a city near you!

Awesome readers can save a buck on their Camera Obscura CD at Tower Records when using code CAMERA at check-out!

A Kick out of the French Kicks

The French Kicks have been been making me swoon since I first heard them this past February while perusing a Levi's store downtown, looking for anything that might fit over my big fat winter ass. 

Pitchfork is less impressed, calling their Smiths-like sophomore album, The Trial of the Century, unremarkable, but I disagree!  The album is mellow, yes, but sexy and definitely swoon-worthy.

Well, don't take my word for it.  Take a listen here, or catch their brand new Mp3 (released yesterday) here, or see them on tour this month.  If you're in Chicago this weekend, you can see them at the Ribfest following local up-and-comers, The Changes.

The French Kicks' newest album will be released July 18th -- hoorah!

Devotchka Gotcha yet?

Whenever I tell people I love the band Devotchka, they're always like, "Who?"  And then I wonder how it is no one I know seems to have heard of this amazing band.  I know some people are listening to them because their Myspace page has been viewed over 50,000 times and they have about a billion comments and I hear them on KCRW a lot, but still, no one in my circle ever knows what I'm talking about when I mention this amazing band from Colorado.

If you're one of those people who's never heard their music, wait no longer.  It's all swirling violins and haunting vocals that'll suck you into some weird circusy dreamlike state where brooding and wallowing is as fun as trapeze swinging and sword-swallowing.  They've got a brand new album out called "Curse Your Little Heart" and they're kicking off their summer tour on June 13th in Kansas City.  So, go ahead...go take a listen.

Animal Collective

Sometimes I am introduced to music that I love for about a week --  playing the album over and over and over for about 7 or 8 days until I'm done, maybe only pulling it out again once or twice a year.  Other times, someone turns me on to a band, and they take up permanent residence under my skin, in my head, swirling through my body in a mad, devilish whir of constant vibration.  I may not always be aware of their presence, but it's there, creating this filter through which I experience life.

And so it is with Animal Collective -- "a group of friends who like playing together."  I first heard them late last year, and I still like to start each morning jumping around and dancing to at least one of their brilliant songs.

Check them out, and tell me if they don't also make you feel sort of alive.

Who? Them! Hem!

Last night I saw my favorite band Over The Rhine, and I was smitten with their opening act Hem! They're from Brooklyn and they really fucking rock. OTR has great taste in opening acts - first Kim Taylor and now Hem! I can't wait to see what's next.

Their music is incredibly intimate and soulful yet it fills the room. I was blown away by the lead singer's incredible grasp of every note and lyric, and couldn't believe how effortless making music seemed for the band.

Having spent a number of rainy nights in Georgia, their song titled such  has quickly become a favorite of mine. Check them out on MySpace and download a few of their songs, then head over to iTunes or their website to pick up their album!

And the best part of their show? One of the guys was playing a TAMBOURINE ON A PEDAL. I have never seen something so awesome and transfixing, and I sat through the whole set coveting it. When the show ended and the band packed up their gear, for a split second that little tambo on the pedal was the only thing on the stage. I thought for a minute that it was fate, that they left it there for me to adopt and take home and learn how to play!

But then they came back for it, and it broke my little tambo loving heart in pieces. Sigh.

Springtime Can Kill You

Jolie Holland's new album came out today, and I rushed right over to iTunes with my PayPal card full of Google Adsense money to pick it up. With just one listen I fell in love with it, just like the first time I ever heard her lo those three years ago.

Here's a funny story about Jolie Holland: Last year at exactly this time, I suddenly lost the cushiest job I'd ever had when my boss was fired for sexual harassment. It was great because I got off work early, and that same day I already had plans to go see Jolie Holland with Shannon and George, who hadn't even moved to San Francisco yet. I'd seen Jolie three times before, and just couldn't miss her show.

So regardless of my laid-off-edness, we went any way. Or at least we went to dinner and a bar, and I drank so much I puked all over the bathroom of my hotel before passing out under the sink, and Shannon and George went to the show without me. I woke up at 3am and crawled myself to bed where I slept until noon the next day.

And anyway, the album is awesome! So if you get a chance to see her, don't drink too much before hand.

Mapping Sufjan Stevens

If you're a Sufjan Stevens fan, be sure to tune in to Chicago Public Radio on Sunday night at 8 PM for an indepth special on the artist.  Eight Forty Eight's Steve Edwards hosts the hour-long special, Mapping Sufjan Stevens, including an interview with Stevens, and critics from Pitchforkmedia.

If you're not a Sufjan Stevens fan, well, you're probably just jealous.

File This

Whenever I am bored of my music collection and in need of something new, one of my favorite places for discovering great music, besides KCRW, David Byrne Radio, Pig Radio, Grey's Anatomy (!), infamous Myspace, and, you know, friends and stuff, is Salon.com's Audiofile. 

Audiofile offers free downloads five days a week with archives available as far back as at least a year.  The stuff they feature is usually what I've never heard of, but what my but hip music friends with subscriptions to 15 different music magazines have been listening to for months, which is always a good sign.  In the side bar, Audiofile also lists a bunch of other great online music resources like music blogs, web audio sites, and podcasts.  So check it out the next time you feel like poking your eyes out because you're stuck in a Wolf Parade rut.

CocoRosie

Since I mentioned CocoRosie in my last post, I thought I oughtta make sure everyone knows who I'm talking about.  If you haven't heard the haunting, beautiful, freaky-deaky music yet from the sister duo known as CocoRosie, you are in for a treat!

Imagine: drifting out at sea; it's dusk...and rainy, the sky is grey, streaked with purple, you're all alone.  Then, suddenly, you're on a fast-moving train, riding quickly through a city scene somewhere in Eastern Europe, everything is angular and old, and before you can ask where, what, who, you awake with a jolt.  You're in a bed.  Not your bed.  Someone else's bed.  There's a voice...two voices -- singing, far away or close, you're not quite sure.  You feel loose and exhausted, dizzy and sort of insane.  It's a pleasant sound, and suddenly you fear you may be dead and no longer of the earth.  Relax!  It's just CocoRosie, transporting you to some dreamy other-world where time zones and borders melt into the horizon.  Pour yourself a glass of wine -- or scotch -- sit back, and let the music wash over you.  There -- isn't that nice?  Yeah, thought so.

(And if that doesn't tickle your fancy enough, their album cover is a watercolor of what looks like a bunch of unicorns doing it.  What's not to love?)

Band of Horses!

Every once in awhile, I come across a song that makes me sort of sit up and say, "Oh, fuck, life, it's good!"  And lucky, lucky me, I've been finding lots of songs and bands lately that have had that effect on me.  Is it something in the water?  Am I just paying more attention these days?  Maybe I'm just hanging out with cooler people who are turning me on to cooler music?  I don't know, but it's good, y'all!

So, the song that's currently got me jumping around my apartment, shaking my ass non-stop is called 'Funeral,' by the wonderful Band of Horses.  Seriously, the lead singer's voice is so fucking dreamy, I swear, I could let lullaby me to sleep every night.

Also, don't you just kind of love a band who sites 'The Daily Sudoku' on their thank you page??  So cute.

The Anabolics!

There's nothing I like more than hard rocking music by indie bands. Which is why I'm thrilled to tell you about The Anabolics from New York City! Go fuck yourself with your Coldplay, these people aren't playing around.

They play kick-you-in-the-teeth garage pop and as they put it, "Our songs are about exes we kicked to the curb, people we love, people we hate, cheating, lying, scorned lovers, and stalkers." Awesome.

If you're looking for something to blast while drinking yourself into a tizzy, check out their album on CD Baby and listen to some of their songs on their site. And if you're around Brooklyn these days, go check them out, and tell them we said hi!

Tune In, Tune Out

I'll admit, I'm a terrible DJ.  When I have guests over, I get all anxious about what music to play -- I worry I'm playing too much of this, not enough of that, my own collection too small to really work with, I'm up and down constantly trying to find just the right vibe of tunes, and really, can we just go over to your place already, I need to get out, seriously!

But, I do have kind of a cute place, and great cats, and sometimes (always) I even have booze, so from time to time, people come over and when that happens, I've found at least two solutions to my music dilemma:

David Byrne Radio
and,
Pig Radio

Both are accessible on itunes in the "eclectic" category.  And both offer a great mix of music you probably would be hard-pressed to find on your local radio dial, so you can just tune in, tune out, and let someone else worry about the tedious job of DJ'ing.  How awesome is that?

Let's hear it for heartache, let's hear it for pain.

Last night I had a somewhat religious experience (well, as much as a very unreligious girl like me can have) at a Smoking Popes concert. Do you know the Smoking Popes?? Well, why the hell not. They are super fabulous, rocking, and I was there thinking "awesome!" the whole time. I even cried. Because I am a huge dork.

I think their best CD is Destination Failure, and they are on a reunion tour now which sounds cheesy but is just the opposite. While I stood in the front row taking too many camera phone photos, I was completely happy and having a total happy music moment. So, check them out when you have the chance. Possibly coming to a city near you! You won't be sorry.