Georgie James may sing of Cheap Champagne, but sound like Really Good Bubbly.

Take the tragically underknown solo artist Laura Burhenn's vocal and melodic talents, add the rhythmic pop sensibilities of Q and Not U's John Davis, and you get damn good ear candy from a D.C. Dream Team called Georgie James.

Mp3 bloggers know they've got a good CD in their tray when they torment over which songs to post from it. I want you to hear the entire Demos at Dance Palace EP, which you should be able to pick up from their live shows. But since I'm a mostly well-behaved blogger, I can't give you a taste of each delectable little pop bon-bon, from the opening drumbeats of the dance-along pop gem Need Your Needs, to the melancholy songwriting of Long Week (All of the fortune tellers say/It's gonna be a long week, a long week/Cause you've gotten used to the upswing/The feeling of a winning streak...), to the driving pop pulse of Cheap Champagne, which reminds me of the Primitives at a peak they never achieved. And did I mention that voice?

Fortunately for you, four of the demo songs are available at their myspace. And here's one that's not there, as well as an mp3 of Cheap Champagne, because you're going to need it for your mp3 player.

Georgie James are still unsigned, but they plan to record and release a full-length in the near future.

From Georgie James' Demos at Dance Place:
Cheap Champagne (mp3)
Places (mp3)

See them at DC9 on May 25th.

By the way, thanks to the Keoki for keeping the Smudge populated while I was in San Antone!

Texas Bound

I'm headed for San Antonio for the next two weeks, so the posts will be somewhere between sparse and absent. I leave you with my two favorite songs of this week.

Guy Davis - Po' Boy, Long Way From Home (mp3)
(from Skunkmello)

Meshell N'Degeocello with Chris Dave - National Anthem (Radiohead cover) (mp3)
(from Exit Music: Songs for Radio Heads)

The Smallest and Least Visible Details

In the reign of Harad IV there lived at court a maker of miniatures, who was celebrated for the uncanny perfection of his work. Not only were the objects of his strenuous art pleasing to look at but the pleasure and astonishment increased as the observer, bending closer, saw that a passionate care had been lavished on the smallest and least visible details. It was said that no matter how closely you examined one of the Master’s little pieces you always discovered some further wonder.

-from IN THE REIGN OF HARAD IV, by the great STEVEN MILLHAUSER, in this week's The New Yorker.

The Smooth Van

Van Hunt is smooth. Here's visual proof:



Van Hunt also makes smooth, deep soul that will dig into your bones. Here's aural proof - a track featuring Nikka Costa from his new CD:

Van Hunt feat. Nikka Costa - Mean Sleep (mp3)

From On the Jungle Floor.

The Smudge Strokes You

Hey, did you miss The Strokes' recent performance on Letterman? Me too. But here's a not so recent vid of the Strokes on Letterman, playing Take It Or Leave It.

The Strokes - Take It Or Leave It (Live on Letterman)(.mpg, 38MB)

When Ah Die

Yeeee Haaawwwwww! What're Y'ALL gonna do when Y'ALL die?

I'm gon' throw on th'overalls 'n live again.



Doc Watson Family - When I Die (mp3), from The Watson Family



The Dickel Brothers - When I Die (mp3), from The Dickel Brothers, Vol 1

George & Friends

There are times when George is my favorite Beatle.

George Harrison with Bob Dylan - (All I Have To Do Is) Dream (live@Columbia Studio B, NY) (mp3)

George Harrison with Eric Clapton - Something (live in Japan, 1991) (mp3)

Georgie James Podcast

Georgie James, a duet consisting of Washington D.C.'s own Laura Burhenn, and former Q & Not U drummer, John Davis, were recently interviewed by the Washington Post. You can download the podcast, which features songs from their demo EP, here.

I'm so Flipping Special, and Chrissie Hynde is a Creep

Thank. God. It's. Friday.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy a couple of live mp3s.

The Pretenders - Creep (Live) (mp3) (from Pirate Radio)

Joseph Arthur - In the Sun (Live) (mp3) (from the UNCUT compilation REM Presents: The Michael Stipe Collection)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Video: Live on Letterman 3-29-06

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion (.mpg)

NOTE: I condensed the file I uploaded to YSI earlier, and saved it to ezarchive. This link should work.

Top Ten Reasons To Visit The Smudge: And Number One Is...

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs brought a punishing thunder to the Letterman show about a half hour ago. This is what they sounded like:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion (Live on Letterman, 3-29-06) (mp3)

The video is uploading on YSI as I type. I'll link to it on my way to work.

Stipepearances

I wish Michael Stipe would appear on my cd. When I make one.

Faultline with Michael Stipe - Greenfields (mp3)

Stephane Pompougnac with Michael Stipe - Clumsy (mp3)

Billy Bragg, Bingo Hand Job, and Michael Stipe - Tom's? (mp3)

And on the 4.6 billion and somethingth day God created Art Brut, and lo, it was good.

A mere two hours after the Belle & Sebastian set, KEXP aired a live performance from Art Brut, who put out one of my favorite albums of last year, Bang Bang Rock & Roll. Post Soothing Out is a new non-album song they've been playing live. And the words to Emily Kane are different - he's now seen her at Christmas and realized he's not in love with Emily. He's in love with the idea of being in love with her.

Art Brut (Live on KEXP, 3-25-2006) (mp3s):

Formed a Band
Emily Kane
Post Soothing Out
Good Weekend

Belle & Sebastian Live on KEXP 3-25-06

This Saturday on KEXP, Belle & Sebastian treated us to a live in-studio performance of a couple of classics, a cover, and a song from one of my favorite albums of the year, The Life Pursuit. This version of A Century of Fakers, from the 3-6-9 Seconds of Light EP, is fantastic.

Belle & Sebastian (Live on KEXP, 3-25-06) (mp3s):

A Century of Fakers
She's Losing It
To Be Myself Completely
Anything You Do

Watch the video for The Blues Are Still Blue.

Dan the Destroyer is the New Dylan

His voice is too weird, his music too glittering-strange a species of rambling glam-folk for mass consumption. Bejar is a queer duck and a critic’s darling, and queer duck and critic’s darling he’s likely to remain.

That’s too bad, because that seventh album, Destroyer’s Rubies, is not only his best by far, it’s also a bona fide masterpiece of opaque genius bullshit—overblown, overwrought, and all the better for it. It’s Bejar’s rare gift to be able to spring beautiful lyrical booby traps, startling non sequiturs that somehow perfectly set off all the instrumental glitz surrounding them, mined from such diverse influences as Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane–era David Bowie, Neil Young, French pop, mellow West Coast rock circa 1972 or so, and, of course, Dylan himself, acoustic and electric versions.

...

It’s genius; it’s bullshit—which means that some heedless music critic will inevitably dub Bejar the new Dylan and end up looking like an idiot. Well, Bejar is the new Dylan, and I’m that idiot.

From Sense You Been Gone, in Friday's Washington City Paper.

Made You Listen

She's [still] watching him with those eyes.
She's loving him with that body, I just know it.

Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl (acoustic) (mp3)

From Karma.

Jazz for Nords

This is how Nordic people keep warm. Just add a hot steamy bath and your favorite beverage for the perfect indoor combination.

Kusuumun Profeetta - Kovin Lentaen Kotiin Kaipaan (mp3)

Embee - Shibuya (mp3)

From Jazzflora 1 and 2.

A Cure for the Bossa Deficient

We used to post some hot bossa once in a while, but we've gotten away from it.

Our bad.



Maria Creuza, Toquinho, and Vinicius de Moraes - Canto de Ossanha (mp3)

Maria Creuza - Voce Abusou (mp3)

From Live In Buenos Aires and Voce Abusou.

What Is To Be Done

This is non-suburbanite Haitian folk music, real campfire music, the voices warm as the flames, and it feels so damn good.

Ti Fi-A (Hey, Little Girl) (mp3)
Dodinin (Rocking) (mp3)

From Smithsonian Folkways' Haiti: Ki Sa Pou-N Fe? (What is to Be Done) (Various Artists)

Hives Lives.

You know what the world really needs now? Another Hives tour. Can I get an "Amen?"

The Hives - Two Timing Touch and Broken Bones (Live, from the Tussles in Brussels DVD) (mp3)

The Hives - Main Offender (Live, Jools Holland) (mp3)

XLR8R Presents

Music for the subconscious ear.

From XLR8R Presents: Wanted, Vol 2 compilation:

Blockhead - Sunday Seance - (Loka Remix) (mp3)

Ulrich Schnauss - Monday Paracetol (mp3)

Boltsmoking Tennesseeans

I like these Tennessee Boltsmokers, and not just because their name sounds a little dirty. It's a little folk country, a little bluegrass, and whole lotta smiles.

Tennessee Boltsmokers - Angeline (mp3)
Tennessee Boltsmokers - Shotgun Wedding (mp3)

From Hydro Radio.

Figurines, Live on KEXP, Take 2

I received some e-mail requesting these tracks that I posted the other day, but then my dog ate them with my homework.

Figurines (Live on KEXP, 3/12/2006) (mp3s):

I Remember
Silver Ponds
The Wonder
Other Plans

Mp3s down

Most mp3s are down, but the recent ones will be back up this afternoon. You can't keep good fluff down.

Figurines, Live on KEXP!

It has only been a few days since I posted I Remember, by Figurines. But it just so happens that my favorite Danes since Claire opened their tight, lively KEXP in-studio set with the song yesterday. My anticipation of their live show is ginormous.

Figurines (Live on KEXP, 3/12/2006) (mp3s):

I Remember
Silver Ponds
The Wonder
Other Plans

Cocaine Done Killed My Baby

The album cover says it all, really.

Mance Lipscomb - Cocaine Done Killed My Baby (mp3)
Mance Lipscomb - Police Station Blues (mp3)

from Texas Songster, Vol. 2 : You Got To Reap What You Sow

Stellastarr is Long for You

The track is called "Love and Longing," but the tour announcement e-mail reads:

stellastarr*...are coming back to tour the US in late March and April to support the new single "Long and Loving."

I'm pretty sure that's two different things.

stellastar - Love and Longing (mp3)

Bullette Returns

Bullette, everyone's fave self-promoting darling last year, has a new band, The Sky Drops. They drop some heavy payload with their two new free downloads. The moody double single is here.

The Sky Drops - Now Would Be (mp3)
The Sky Drops - Green to Red (mp3)

Mind Your Figurines

I've moved in, and now that I have phone and internet, I feel complete again.

I thought I would share my obligatory "Now Playing" list of CDs I've been listening to since I arrived at the uber-metropolis that is the capital city of Delaware:


Figurines - Skeleton

And that's about it. And this is one of the reasons:

Figurines - I Remember (mp3)

Just try to deny that. Try to turn away from it, and it only digs its riff-claws deeper into your brain. And there's that "I remember everyone you know/It's eerie oh oh oh" - do they mean:

I remember everyone. You know?

or is it:

I remember everyone [that] you know.

Eerie.

Figurines have been getting mad hype since the release of Skeleton. Seriously, if you like your rock driven by spiffy guitar hooks and earworm-inducing melodies, then this Danish lightning bolt of an album is for you. Stream the entire album here.

By the way, I'm getting to the e-mails. Give me a day or two.

Matt Pond PA on KEXP

This is ridiculous.

We've gone overboard, fellow mp3 bloggers. It's time to stop the silliness. After this post.

Matt Pond PA (Live on KEXP, 3/3/2006) (mp3s):

So Much Trouble
Halloween
Several Arrows Later
From Debris

So, yes, I'm adding to the insanity, but I wouldn't post it if it didn't move me.

I'm not back from the move, by the way. Just poking in for a moment. See you toward the middle part of this week.

Hump Day Was Good

Rosanne Cash played an arresting live set on KCRW, nicely coinciding with the Walk the Line DVD release, and Polysics rocked out on KEXP. We've got both, except for the first two songs the Polysics played. As always, you can listen to the live sets, including the interviews, at the stations' web pages.

I'm moving this weekend, and I won't have internet service until sometime next week, so no posts until I'm back online. It hurts me more than it hurts you.

Rosanne Cash (Live on KCRW, broadcast 3-1-2006) (mp3s)

Black Cadillac
Radio Operator
God is in the Roses
House on the Lake
The Good Intent
Hope Against Hope
Burn Down This Town
Loverly

Polysics (Live on KEXP, 3-1-2006) (mp3s)

Baby Bias
I My Me Mine
Coelakanth is Android/Black Out Fall Out

John Songs

Hello. My name is John. Here are some songs.


Stay Away From My Johnny - Freda Gray & The Rocketeers (mp3)

From Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label


Blossom Dearie - Hey John (mp3)

From Whisper for You

Two Hours of Pushin' Broom

Before you start to listen to this Roger Miller cover and say "No, no, NO! That's not how it's supposed to sound," you have to understand that it's off the OST for the Oscar-nominated Brokeback Mountain. The vocals, especially Rufus' delicate timbre, appropriately soften, and dare I say lubricate, the song.

Teddy Thompson & Rufus Wainwright - King of the Road (mp3)

O Holy Fire

Q: What do you get when you mix Count Chocula with a robot?

A: Something metallic and delicious.

Count Robocula - Fire Worshipers (Remix) (mp3)

From Ypsilanti to Bed With Compass

Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, Michigan's Mason Proper list Blur, Radiohead, the Pixies, the Flaming Lips, and Michel Gondry as their influences on their Myspace. In Mr. Charm (mp3), I hear the Blur, but none of the others. I also hear a Devo-ish New Wave angle, though, and the manic guitar attacks, sci-fi D-movie sounds, and vocal echoes give it an attitude that won me over.

Preorder There is a Moth in Your Chest.
_______

I'm Already Dead (mp3) is upbeat gloom pop by Compass, with a melody and structure resembling early (Holiday-era) Magnetic Fields. The songwriting doesn't have the biting wit of Stephin Merritt's, but then, there's only one Stephin Merritt, isn't there. Besides, this is not a song about me, you & someone else's boyfriend. It's a dark declaration of lost hope: I'm already dead/Dead cells in my head/Just want to go to sleep for awhile/Just let me go to bed. But it's a danceable, charming declaration of lost hope.

Despite all this talk about crushed hope, Compass are donating all profits from the sale of their Munchy the Bear LP to Oxfam. Own it here.

D & D on the WWW?

From Dungeon Masters in Cyberspace, in Monday's NY Times:

"There have been a lot of video games based on Dungeons & Dragons, but in the past they have been almost entirely solo, single-player experiences," Jeff Anderson, chief executive of the company that makes the online game, Turbine Inc., based in Westwood, Mass., said last week. "Now, with the Internet and advances in graphics, we can finally create an online version of that classic sitting-around-the-kitchen-table Dungeons & Dragons experience, without people having to actually go out."

Hmmm.....I just dunno. No crayoning in the 20-sided die? Having to hold a mouse and a keyboard the entire game? It's just not the same, and I'm sure the Lone Gunmen would agree.

Snow & Fire

Snow Lion is Feist's smoky voice contrasting with Jean-Philippe Verdin's computer music, and it turns downright spooky at precisely 2:43.

A Fire in the Forest is David Sylvian singing with a vintage wind-up music box in his hands. Equally creepy, and equally beautiful.

Readymade FC mp3s, from Babilonia:

Snow Lion
A Fire in the Forest

Bablionia is essential listening for these and other gorgeous songs, including Slide and The Only One, both featuring Yael Naim.

NY Times on Canada's Collectivism

To call BSS [Broken Social Scene] a "band" is to simplify matters drastically. It's more like a network, or, as Emily Haines, a sometime BSS'er and lead singer of the Toronto band Metric, put it, "somewhere between a tribe and a cult." Most of the members of BSS are also members of other bands that are released by Arts & Crafts. The very name connotes what all the artists on the label have in common: they are lo-fi, heartfelt, ironic, makeshift and as tightly interlinked as the kids in a summer-camp lanyard-making session. The musicians play on one another's CD's (BSS can have between 9 and 17 musicians on a given track depending on who shows up or what's needed for a particular song), a level of cooperation and organization unusual in any popular-music scene, even one that might be summed up by the slogan above the bar code on BSS's most recent CD: "break all codes." Perhaps it helps — or maybe it hurts — that a few of them have also slept together, though the BSS'ers tend to be secretive about whom, when and why.

Musically, you could say that Toronto has become a nicer but less aesthetically coherent version of Seattle in the early days of grunge. Broken Social Scene is Toronto's Nirvana, without — so far — the troubled-rock-star antics or the anomie and with a social agenda that puts collective music making above individual success.

...

Just as the L.A. punk scene circulated around the SST label and the early grunge scene sprang from and adhered to the Sub Pop label and K Records in Olympia, Wash., the Toronto scene has coalesced around a few key labels. The 25-year-old Kado, who has joined or started more than 10 different bands, started his own extremely independent music label, Blocks Recording Club, in 2003. Blocks now puts out records by local bands at a phenomenal pace — 30 CD's in two and a half years. The most acclaimed is Final Fantasy, which sold 7,000 copies of its last album, a string-heavy CD with full band arrangements, which Kado describes as "orchestral loner music." Unlike A&C, Blocks is a cooperative — CD's are packaged by hand — that divvies up profits between members and musicians.

- From Guided by (Many, Many) Voices, in Sunday's NY Times Magazine.

Cotton Candy Restrung

This song was on the radio yesterday. I came with them inside their dream, and told myself I'd post this song today.

Healamaster & Tarsier - Cotton Candy (Moonbunny Remix) (mp3)

From The Heart of a Blue Whale is the Size of a Small Car.

In the Pines, In the Pines.

Looking for something real?

There's nothing more real than a man and a banjo or harmonica.

Roscoe Holcomb - In the Pines (Where Did You Sleep Last Night) (mp3)
Roscoe Holcomb - Married Life Blues (mp3)

From The High Lonesome Road.

Tasty Habits

Remember the early days of the World Wide Web, when you never knew what you were going to discover from click to click? When I came across the Myspace page for DC's The Tasty Habits while surfing yesterday (who does that anymore?), I got that old feeling that you get from finding a little treasure after a string of dull links. These songs made me laugh, nod, and sing along, and I think they'll do the same for you. Scroll down the page and you'll see the comment: "are you coming home for winter break loser? im just kidding...i love my big brother!" How touching is that.

RIYL Weezer, and I'm going to say the early 90's band from Burke, VA, Poole.

The Tasty Habits - Me Deane and the Drum Machine (mp3)

The Tasty Habits - If Nick and Jessica Split (mp3)

From the Nick and Jessica Split EP. Sorry, but I've no idea where you can get it.

We All Go In The Same Direction, Eventually.

I listened to this song by Compass just now. Five times. Remember how Stipe used to declare "This next song is my favorite song" at REM concerts, and those choices might change from month to month?

This next song is my favorite song. Better listen to it now, because you won't live forever.

Maybe the universe is still too small
Even Baby Jesus had to learn to crawl

You'll Never Live Forever (mp3)

The Wedding Present, Live on KEXP

The Wedding Present played an in-studio set at KEXP yesterday. It was an inspired, albeit short, set. Crushed was especially good. It would be even better to see them at Criminal Records in Atlanta for an acoustic set & autograph signing on March 3rd.

The Wedding Present (Live on KEXP, 21 February 2006):

Suck
Crushed
Go Out and Get 'Em, Boy
Always the Quiet One

Minus 5 Live on KEXP

The mp3 blogs aren't gushing about or teeming with tracks from the new Minus 5 album. I suppose that's about right, since it plays a lot more like pub rock than indie. I like that, though. They're probably my second favorite supergroup, next to New Pornographers. And Travelling Wilburys. Let's not forget Wings. And on that note, Damn Yankees. Did I leave anyone out? That's right - GTR. Okay, okay, seriously, though, it's a really, really good album. And their in-studio performance at KEXP was also really, really good. There, I gushed.

Minus 5 KEXP Live Set (mp3s):
Out There on a Maroon
Hotel Senator
My Life as a Creep
Cigarettes Coffee and Booze
Lies of the Living Dead
Twilight Distillery

New Arcade Fire Video - Tunnels

Sean at Said the Gramophone posted a beautiful new video for Arcade Fire's "Tunnels." It's by far his favorite Arcade Fire video, and mine too.

Arctic Monkeys Live on Sounds Eclectic

I hereby predict this creepily accurate prediction: within 24 hours, at least two other mp3 bloggers will post the exact same mp3s from yesterday's Sounds Eclectic broadcast of a recent (November) gold medal-caliber performance from Arctic Monkeys. Cue Twilight Zone theme.


Arctic Monkeys mp3s (Live, Sounds Eclectic broadcast 2/2006):

A View From the Afternoon

Dancing Shoes

Fake Tales of San Francisco

You Probably Couldn't See The Lights But You Were Looking Straight At Me

Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But...

From The Ritz To The Rubble

A Certain Romance

Oops

I mislabeled a live Of Montreal mp3 that I posted earlier this week. It's not I Was Never Young. It's the modern sing-along classic from Satanic Panic in the Attic, Disconnect the Dots (Live on KCRW, 2006)(mp3). They had extra time in the studio, so Nic Harcourt encouraged them to play one more.

Wooden Wand's Gipsy Freedom

The title of the new Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice album, Gipsy Freedom, might give you pause: how can you not imagine a disc full of eastern European Gypsy music, perverted by indie-hippie experimentalists? You fear that you'll be disenchanted by some sort of Freak Gypsy Avant-Folk, and prepare listen to Wooden Wand with a Vanishing Attention Span. So you pop the disc in, expecting jingly percussion to pop out at you immediately. What you get, though, is an arresting downtempo Trane-influenced sax intro with strong feminine vocal.

Did I accidentally put the wrong CD in the jewel case?

The second track, Didn't it Rain, begins, and, ah - there's the gipsy music. There's the percussion and there are the rhythmic strings you knew were coming. And it is Wooden Wand, so there is a fair amount of perversion that goes on in this nearly 11-minute experiment. What you're not ready for is the brass, psychedelic electric guitar, and the chanted "Didn't it rain, rain, rain, my lord..." that sounds like Kate Bush singing as a documentary on free jazz in Pakistan plays in the background, a guitarist practices solos next door, and a UFO sits on the lawn.

And then, Don't Love the Liar (mp3) surprises you as a pretty straightforward, accessible, short (1:37!) song with a classic rock feel. And that's when you realize that Gipsy Freedom has nothing to do with the spirit of geographical travel, but is a stylistic musical journey through time, and it covers a hell of a lot of terrain. This is no Harem of the Sundrum & the Witness Fig, an album that held together as an experimental folk-americana record, though the fingerpicking on the foreboding, brilliant Dread Effigy (mp3), which has replaced Dogpaddlin' Home to Live With My Lord (mp3) as my favorite WWVV song, would have fit nicely with Perch Modifier (mp3). In Gipsy Freedom, you have no idea what musical ground you'll be standing on from one track to the next, and in some cases, from one moment to the next.

And yet, you always look forward to that next moment. The album holds together, with some enchanting thread that you can't hear or see, much less grasp. Confounding? Yes. But it's strangely satisfying to be confounded in this way.

Q And Not U - People Wonder (President Remix)

Get this mp3 and find out what the former members of Q And Not U are up to at Muzak For Cybernetics. I picked up Purple Blaze, the new album from Ris Paul Ric (a.k.a. Christopher Paul Richards), a while back, and highly recommend it. I also have Laura Burhenn's debut album, which showcases her great singing and composing talent, so I'm eagerly anticipating Georgie James, which is Q And Not U drummer John Davis' collaboration with her.

Experimental Songs About Shootings.

Naked City, the avant-supergroup featuring John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Wayne Horvitz, and Joey Baron, played at the Knitting Factory in 1989, and these tracks are from the live CD from that show.

You Will Be Shot (mp3) is a frantic victim chased. He runs, he hides, he's found, he runs. The sax expresses horror in short loud bursts.

Shot in the Dark (mp3) is, yes, a murder in a dark corner, a short, uneasy silence, and then, death as chaos. A gathering order follows, and next thing you know, the spirit is surfing on a crashing black wave with accompanying surf guitar and halloween keyboard.

Igneous Ejaculation (mp3) is pretty much self-explanatory. At 22 seconds, it might be the shortest offering on an mp3 blog on record.

My Morning Jacket: Live on Sounds Eclectic (mp3s)

Jim James is a genius and a pioneer, and the My Morning Jacket albums are brilliant. So of course I penciled in their Sounds Eclectic performance on my calender, and captured it this Sunday. Anybody rip the Austin City Limits performance Saturday?

My Morning Jacket live mp3s (from 2/12/2006 Sounds Eclectic broadcast)

Wordless Chorus
It Beats
Off The Record
Wonderful Man
Dondate

Forget Ginger vs. Mary Anne. It's All About Jake Ryan vs. Lloyd Dobler.

From What I Did For Lloyd, in the Washington Post:

A New York documentary filmmaker came by last summer and set up lights and rearranged furniture and interviewed me -- she was making an entire movie about Jake Ryan... "But what about," she finally asked, "Lloyd Dobler?"... Because, it turns out, for every one woman with a residual Jake Ryan thing there are maybe 100 with a persistent Lloyd Dobler fetish.

...

"Jake Ryan is dessert, and Lloyd Dobler is like the vegetables you need," says Sasha Johnson, 29, a Washington TV producer. "Lloyd Dobler ruined men forever. I can't take total credit for this, an ex-boyfriend said this to me once. He contended that Lloyd Dobler's boombox moment became the pinnacle of romance -- the standard that no man could ever meet no matter how hard he tried..."

What do I think? It's a no-brainer, ladies. Lloyd just wants to spend as much time as possible with you, and clear rubble from your path. Jake is sold, bought, processed.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: hoping you feel cooler than you might actually be

Bites from Sasha Frere-Jones' New Yorker review of the forthcoming Yeah Yeah Yeah's CD, Show Your Bones:

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs value joy over indie credibility, and they want to be catchy. [Thank God.]

...

Is she talking to her lover? Or to her bandmates, imagining that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on the verge of becoming big enough to be resented? Karen O understands that rock lyrics aren’t necessarily better when they’re clearer.

...

The next song, the gentle and plangent “Way Out,” borrows liberally from R.E.M., Sonic Youth, and Nirvana, which is a sign of confidence; the Yeah Yeah Yeahs know that no one will mistake them for anyone else, however much they plunder the past.

...

“It’s important for kids to feel bigger than they usually do,” Karen O told me. “We’re trying to make you feel a little bit cooler than you might actually be.”

Nelly Furtado - Maneater (mp3)

It kinda came and went pretty much unnoticed yesterday, but "Maneater," from the forthcoming Nelly Furtado album, "Loose," is available here. It made the poor blogger weep.

Of Montreal, Live on KCRW

On my way home from work today, I listened to the Go! Team and the New Pornographers' live performances that I ripped from KCRW, and couldn't decide which was the best in-studio show of the year so far. It's a 3-way tie now. Yesterday, KCRW broadcast their Of Montreal performance from a few weeks ago, and it smokes.

Of Montreal mp3s (Live at KCRW, broadcast 13 Jun 2006):

Raptur Rapes The Muses
So Begins Our Alabee
The Repudiated Immortals
Wraith Pinned To The Mist (and Other Games)
Oslo In The Summertime
I Was Never Young
Party's Crashing Us

As always, you can listen to or watch the entire broadcast at KCRW.com. If you don't listen to the interview, you remain unenlightened.

Buy Sunlandic Twins.

Teenage Fanclub - Here Comes Your Man; Flaming Lips - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

...all this and more:


"Here Comes Your Man" (Pixies cover) - Teenage Fanclub

"I Don't Think I'm Ever Gonna Figure it Out" (Elliott Smith cover) - Kevin Long

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (Judy Garland cover) - The Flaming Lips

"Rocky Mountain High" (John Denver cover) - Engine Kid


at Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands.

Gist

A quick search for Gist on the Hype Machine comes up empty. What a shame. Or maybe not. Maybe it's better that Gist isn't one of those indie pop bands du jour from the indie label du jour, whose album shows up almost completely on Hype. Maybe it's better that these mp3s are going to show up on the Great Aggregator, and will be ignored, because they're not from forthcoming new Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Part of me wants Gist to be huge like that. But another part of me wants to enjoy the post-punk, post-harDCore of their Diesel City, for myself, along with other frequenters of Revolution Records, Black Cat regulars, and such. Yes, we'll be perfectly happy to keep the searing, thrashing guitars, driving bass, throbbing drums, vocals reminiscent of TVOTR, and wrenching, tormented lyrics, to our damn selves.

Gist mp3s, from Diesel City:

Eclipse (mp3)
Things Will Work Out (mp3)

Do You Realize (Postal Service Mix)

The Postal Service Mix of the beloved Flaming Lips song is at Muzak for Cybernetics. There's other good stuff there, too, like a Polysics remix of Kaiser Chiefs. Browse around.

The Bonapartes Came, Saw...

...and so the revolution begins.

The Bonapartes have a Napoleonic urge to stir and conquer the civilized world. After listening to the D.C. quintet's self-titled EP, I think they might succeed, by rocking the hell out of every primitive soul, one at a time.

In the EP's centerpiece, Concentric (mp3), guitarist Eamonn recreates the high-pitched Y-Control Yeah Yeah Yeah's sound and plays it with the Edge's staccato. The effect is a guitar imitating hard synth, but in a pointillist kind of way, rather than a literal sound-alike, like the Strokes do, for instance. Concentric pulses and soars.

Boy (mp3), a live track not on their EP, is enough of a rush to quicken the dead, and shoegazers, and even atmospheric electro-folkers. There's urgency in all the elements - the aggressive vocals & punishing drums, the bass, and the guitar that pushes you around throughout. If this is a representative sample, their live shows are kick-ass.

I'm already conquered, underfoot, and ready for a full-length, hopeful that these guys can keep up the intensity. Who's next?

Download more Bonapartes mp3s here.

Let's Make a King Britt Sister Gertrude Morgan Blog Post!

Let's Make A Record, the sole record by Sister Gertrude Morgan, a painter and gospel singer from New Orleans, needs no embellishment. Her enthusiasm and spirit are carried in her voice alone. In King Britt's interpretation of her music, it's the embellishment that needs Sister Gertrude. That's a good thing. It means that the two elements work together to move your feet along with your spirit.

Mp3s from King Britt Presents: Sister Gertrude Morgan (2005)

Let's Make a Record (mp3)
Precious Lord Lead Me On (mp3)

Caution: Popular Singer-Songwriter Post

With singer-songwriters, what it all comes down to is this: how well do the songs translate heartache or heartbreak, or some burning social issue into music, and is the singer someone who makes you want to listen?

23-year old Brandi Carlile is a strong songwriter with a strong voice. But there are a lot of those. The question is, does she have that other something that draws people into her songs? Variety.com called her "stunning, vulnerable, and affecting," and compared her to Melissa Etheridge, Jeff Buckley, and Thom Yorke. Yeah, I don't think you can really do that either, but if you haven't already, you should listen. She's good.

She's playing at Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis tonight.

Brandi Carlile mp3s:

From Brandi Carlile:

Fall Apart Again (mp3) (watch video)
What More Can I Say (mp3)

From Brandi Carlile Acoustic:
Throw It All Away (mp3)

Numbers Live

The Magic Numbers have been called accessible, and they are; just about anyone can easily "get" their catchy little pop stimulants. Here are a couple of songs from their live in-studio set, broadcast on Sounds Eclectic this weekend.

The Magic Numbers - I See You, You See Me (Live KCRW) (mp3)
The Magic Numbers - Love Me Like You (Live KCRW) (mp3) (watch video)

And while you're at KCRW, become a member. It's good for you.

The End of Violence

Hey Seahawks fans, at least you still have mp3 blogs to take your mind off the game last night. Here's a song for you to sing along with.

Vic Chesnutt with Michael Stipe - Injured Bird (mp3) (from the The End of Violence OST)

And here's another Stipe collaboration, just because:

Kristen Hersch with Michael Stipe - Your Ghost (mp3)

Farewell, Black Cat

The Lilys, French Toast, and Sounds of Kaleidoscope are playing at the Black Cat tonight. This will be a sort of farewell trip for me, since the occupation is taking me to Delaware later this month. See you at the show. I'll be the one with a tear in the corner of my eye.

French Toast - Pattern (mp3) (from In a Cave)
also download Float Away here.

The Lilys - The Night Sun Over San Juan (mp3) (from Everything Wrong is Imaginary)

One Hundred Fifty or Less

75 or Less, the preferred music review site of the attention-deficient, has spawned a record label, 75 or Less Records. They are currently offering two EPs of guitar rock, both urgent in the Dischord sense.

My hunch is that the good people at 75 or less would appreciate a concise, unpretentious capsules, so here goes: my 75 words or less on songs from each of their EPs.

The first two tracks from A Passing Feeling's self-titled EP are made for standing up on a sticky floor, drinking beer, and screaming along. It's music for rowdy people in the era of tweeness. In the manic Book of Matches (mp3), they show a knack for melody, energy, and vocal delivery. The rousing Probably (mp3), begins "You're probably wasted/I'm probably wasting my every word/We're not going anywhere..." My guess is that they are going somewhere.

Pixelated Ones & Zeroes (mp3), from Staggering Statistics' EP with the same title, is scruffy and unshaven. It brings to mind Here's When The Strings Come In-Era Superchunk, especially lead singer Austin Brown's unrefined voice. I'm not complaining. Like Superchunk or Pavement, repeated listens offer increasing rewards, in this case bringing you into the rhythm section, and its complex relationship with the guitar. It's not for everybody, and that, I think, is the whole point.

The Great American Songbook

If you missed last month's issue of MOJO, or if you only picked up Volume 2 of their Born in the USA: The Great American Songbook, you missed out on something special. Volume 1 was a 15-track compilation of traditional American classics, from Hank Williams' You Win Again to Woody Guthrie's Washington Talkin' Blues to The Stanley Brothers' Man of Constant Sorrow. It also has the Jelly Roll Morton track posted below, in which Jelly Roll plays piano and tells the story of I'm Alabama Bound before breaking into song. The Story of I'm Alabama Bound is from his recently released Complete Library of Congress Recordings.

The Ian & Sylvia track goes out to The Keoki (one of our contributors), Karen & Gabe, who left a big fat hole in our lives this week when they moved to San Antonio. It's good to hear you're all doing well and eating thick juicy Texas steaks, brother. I doubt you'll ever run into Freegans in Texas, and that's a good thing, right? Anyway, I think I speak for all of us when I say that You Were On My Mind pretty much nails how we feel.

mp3s from Born in the USA: The Great American Songbook, Vol. 1:

Ian and Sylvia - You Were On My Mind
Jelly Roll Morton - The Story Of I'm Alabama Bound
Leadbelly - Midnight Special
The Doc Watson Family - I Heard My Mother Weeping

Mastercuts

Short post today. I had some technical difficulties to deal with yesterday. Sorry if anyone had problems downloading.

Here are a couple of goodies from the vault.

Wilbert Longmire - Black is the Colour (mp3)

War - World is a Ghetto (mp3)

From Mastercuts: Classic Jazz Funk, Vol. 7

Pornographers Live

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to "The Rip."

Here are mp3s of the The New Pornographers' live Sounds Eclectic set, which aired Sunday on KCRW. They played it with all the passion and enthusiasm that you'd expect. Neko Case sounds magnificent on The Bones of an Idol, and the music on that track is a refreshing update. And the "listening too long to one song" harmonization in Spanish Techno is bliss. And then there's the irresistable melody in the Streets of Fire intro. The entire broadcast is here (real player required).

Twin Cinema
Use It
The Bleeding Heart Show
Jackie Dressed In Cobras
The Bones of an Idol
Spanish Techno
Streets of Fire

By the way, a helpful hint: don't listen to these at work, because network security might not take too friendly to the word "pornographers."

Own Twin Cinema. (Or you can get it from Best Buy for 7.99. But should you? Sheesh!)

Subscribe to KCRW and get rare goodies.

Note: My server was down the day I posted these. They should work now. Please let me know if they don't.

I'm not scared. I'm outta here.

These are from the complete unedited 2001 MTV R.E.M. Unplugged concert. Unless you were fortunate enough to catch their early gigs at places like the 40-Watt Club or the old 9:30 Club (the one with the beam in the middle of the floor), this might be as intimate as you'll get with them.

Electrolite [2nd take] (mp3)
At My Most Beautiful [2nd take] (mp3)

Foot Long Friday

It's lazy Friday, and a lazy post to go along. But there's nothing lazy about this couple of 12" treats:

Duran Duran - Rio (12" Dance Version) (mp3)

De la Soul - Jenifa (Taught Me) (12" Version) (mp3)

Another Brilliant Broadcast

This has been a golden week for live in-studio performances on internet radio. In addition to yesterday's post (which I'll be taking down today to preserve bandwidth), and the one the day before, KCRW aired a confident set from Broadcast on MBE yesterday.

Broadcast mp3s (Live on KCRW, aired 01-25-06):

Michael A Grammar
Black Cat
Goodbye Girls
Corporeal
America's Boy
I Found The F
Ominous Cloud

Buy the brilliant Tender Buttons CD.

Performances by Go! Team! Rocky Votolato! The Elected!

There was an orgy of interesting in-studio performances at KEXP and KCRW yesterday. KEXP hosted Rocky Votolato and The Elected, and KCRW had a recording of the Go! Team.

Since it took a long time to save, convert, and upload these mp3s, all I'll say is you won't be disappointed.

The Go! Team - Live MBE performance at KCRW (mp3s)

Huddle Formation
Junior Kickstart
Bottle Rocket
The Power Is On
We Just Won't Be Defeated
The Icestorm
Ladyflash
Hold Yr Terror


Rocky Votolato - Live@KEXP (mp3s)

White Daisy Passing
Portland is Leaving
She Was Only In It For The Rain
The Night's Disguise


The Elected - Live@KEXP (mp3s)

Fireflies
Would You Come With Me
Sun Sun Sun
Bank and Trust

Live Tortoise

Tortoise played a live set at KCRW in November of last year. It aired yesterday. Listen to the set in its entirety, including the illuminating interview with Nic Harcourt, here.

Tortoise mp3s (recorded 11.18.05):

Magnet Pulls Through/eden 2/eden 1
Five Too Many
Crest
Unknown/dot/eyes (medley)
Omnichord

Buy Tortoise CDs.

M. Ward, The Entertainer

M. Ward on "Bean Vine Blues .2"

Choosing a song was not easy - he has a million incredible songs that i would love to take the time, sit down and try to learn someday - maybe I chose bean vine blues #2 cuz it stands out so much...in my opinion its probably the only song of faheys that ive ever heard with a blatant sense of humor -- maybe at the time of choosing I was in need of some levity?

-M. Ward

-from the MySpace johnfaheytribute blog

You get the feeling that M. Ward wishes he could play this one in a wild west saloon, and banter afterward with the whiskey-soaked cowboy gunslingers.

Bean Vine Blues (mp3), from the I Am the Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey compilation.


Hear more from the tribute album to the Takoma Park, MD native here.

Climate Change Blues

There go the ice caps, and here come violent storms! Hello, pestilence & famine! There goes civilization, and the plants will take over! Can you get used to this lifestyle? Sing along with me.

David Byrne - (Nothing but) Flowers (live acoustic) (mp3)

Who wants revenge?

She Wants Revenge reminds me of a best-of 120 Minutes feature that Anthony Kiedis and Flea hosted back in the 90's. The part where they introduce a Green Day video goes something like this:

Kiedis: This next band, Green Day is from...
Flea: They think they're from England but I think they're from California.

Live, from last week's KCRW in-studio set in California, it's She Wants Revenge, a.k.a. They Sound Bloody English. They do play a tight set, though.

She Wants Revenge - 01 Red Flags (Live KCRW) (mp3)
She Wants Revenge - 02 Sister (Live KCRW) (mp3)
She Wants Revenge - 03 These Things (Live KCRW) (mp3)

Getting Funky Round Here

Here's a little nugget of wisdom for you: If you're going to do a Google image search for "Black Nasty," make sure your safe search is on.

Two tracks of rousing funk from Black Nasty's Talking to the People (Stax, 1999):

Black Nasty Boogie (mp3)
Booger the Hooker (mp3)

And, what the hell, here's a bonus while we're in this kind of TGIF mood:

Ikettes - I'm Blue (the Gong Gong Song) (mp3)

Bubblegum Dolly

Take your mental image of Dolly Parton, and age-regress that image until you see a sprightly, energetic 20-year old future starlet, two years out of high school. Now imagine her singing bubblegum pop, shaking her hips and begging you to remain in her life, like an endowed American Idol contestant on an old black & white console. Too weird? Nope, not too weird. She was originally promoted as a bubblegum pop star after signing with Monument Records in 1965. She sounded like this:

Dolly Parton - Don't Drop Out (mp3)

What would Simon have said?

Here's something equally clap-along-able. I love the way the drums and hand claps play with one another.

The Angels - Adore Him (mp3)


Both songs from the One Kiss Leads To Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found compilation .

Still got that image of young Dolly in your head? Fix it by listening to this:

Dolly parton - In the ghetto (mp3)

Sing a Cover for You

Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim & Jeff Buckley, will be available in the U.S. in a couple of weeks. The opening track is a hyperharmonic cover of Tim's Sing a Song for You (mp3), and oh, how those voices melt together as they do just that.

Then there's the masterful No Man Can Find The War (mp3) by Tunng, which is a band, and perhaps a dining room line from IKEA. Their No Man Can Find The War is nicely fingerpicked, with just the right touch of hypnotic electronic effects.

The New American Songbook

I was at the bookstore this weekend, looking for the MOJO 15-track tribute to The Who. They didn't have it. Instead, they had the Springsteen issue, with two CD's to choose from: one with classic Americana, and the other with new stuff. Both compilations are solid, so the choice was tough. I decided on the new one, for the live song by My Morning Jacket's Jim James.

It's a folk song clothed in video game blips. It's as though he's singing in a cave, with drops of water falling into surrounding wells - some shallow, some deep, and those wells are plugged into sound processors.

Jim James - Sooner (Live) (mp3)

Kelley Stoltz's The Sun Comes Through (mp3) is great, too.

Reverence for the Reverend

Nina Simone -

Martin Luther King Suite: Sunday In Savannah (mp3)
Martin Luther King Suite: Why (The King Of Love Is Dead) (mp3)

(from The Very Best Of Nina Simone, 1967-1972 : Sugar In My Bowl)

Nina Simone's voice is sublime and irresistible. So why is this song, with neither singing nor instruments, catchier to me?

Rastafari Elders - Martin Luther King (mp3)

(From Rastafari Elders)

Presidential Introspection

This is introspective, self-disclosing, frail, computer nerd pop. And you will love it, because you really, really miss Postal Service. It's all sincerity, melody, and atmosphere. Oh, and well-placed blips. We don't use the word "twee" here, for we are men. Well, most of us are, and I'm pretty sure our lone female doesn't use it. But if we did say it, this might be a good occasion.

Electric President - Insomnia (mp3)
Electric President - Grand Machine No. 14

From Electric President (Self-titled).

Wouldn't Mind Dying

There's debate over what zither or primitive harp-like instrument Washington Phillips used in his gospel blues. It doesn't really matter. The sine qua non of all blues & gospel is the channelling of the spirit into song. In some songs, you hear the devil. Washington Phillips reached down for the lord.

Washington Phillips mp3s, from Key to the Kingdom:

Wouldn't Mind Dying If Dying Was All

A Mother's Last Word To Her Daughter

Sia Has Been Getting Breathed All Over

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Sia's "Breathe Me" is the most resilient song from last year, and possibly, next to Beck's Guero songs, the most re-mixed. I'm guessing it was also probably one of the most posted songs on the mp3 blogs.

Here is yet another version, from yesterday's in-studio set at KCRW.

Sia - Breathe Me (Live on KCRW 1-10-2006) (mp3)

ConFinnuously Dark

There's so much to say about last year's CD, Yha Hamaraa, from the Finnish Christian band, Paavoharju.

Boomkat says, "This is the album Ariel Pink wished he could produce, the album that sent Brian Wilson over the edge, the promised collision of worldwide styles that keeps evading every artist as they suddenly qualify for arts funding. It’s easy to point the finger of influence at Paavoharju but impossible to name peers, they are a band which truly stands alone."

Even the first listen won't leave you alone, without first begging for interpretation. The album title means "Continuously Dark," and appropriately: it's spiritual and mysterious, often clouded in a diaphanous fog of gentle static. At times it's like trying to hear a whisper on a demagnetized tape on an archaic cassette player. At other times what you hear is as clear as water dripping into a wooden bucket, but what does it mean?

Maybe that's the point. It was made for you to interpret, for you to listen to and not read about.

paavoharju - yhä hämärää - syvyys (mp3)
paavoharju - yhä hämärää - ilmaa virtaa (mp3)

Listen and buy here.

Scary Monsters

This post goes out to someone who loves David Bowie, and someone who loves Frank Black.

Hey, I think I just covered everyone, and some of us twice, didn't I?

David Bowie & Frank Black - Scary Monsters (Live@50) (mp3)

The Minus 5 on Life

As I mentioned a few days ago, the new Minus 5 CD, The Gun Album, will be out very soon.

Here is evidence that it's a definite buy:

Leftover Life to Kill (mp3) starts with hints of vintage Teenage Fanclub, with a grumbling, sinister guitar, which holds you down throughout, as the downer lyrics are spat into your ear: More than fate/when your dreams don't coagulate/and the ones you love/hate you for good reasons. At about 2:20, a instrument comes in - it's an organ combined with electric guitar combined with bagpipes. What's the name for that? The bagorgtar? And then something else distorted comes in before the final assault begins. The final chorus ends with about a minute left to kill, and kill it they do. You suspect that this is the way Minus 5 would take it to that leftover life.

My Life As A Creep (mp3) sounds maybe or maybe not like Travelling Wilburys meets Brian Wilson meets piano-based George Harrison, and when you listen you'll realize that's not a bad thing. The songwriting is dim, but with a touch of hope: I just hope one day/you'll understand/I'm not supremely evil/and I can be better than I am.

Pre-order The Gun Album here and receive a bonus hand-made CD-R with two exclusive mp3s.

Corinne Bailey Rae Becomes Eclectic

Corinne Bailey Rae played a live set on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic last Wednesday. As I listened to it in the office, several people walked by my desk, froze, and curiously asked, "What's that you're listening to?" "Corinne Bailey Rae." "Who?"

I have a feeling we're all going to be very familiar with this young lady very soon. Her voice holds both warmth for a biting winter and coolness for a merciless summer. You will move to this, and sing with it. It's soulful, and gorgeous.

Here are the live tracks she played:

Put Your Records On
Enchantment
Till It Happens To You
Like A Star
Trouble Sleeping
I'd Like To

Corinne Bailey Rae's self-titled import is available for pre-order.

Peter and the Pipes

Cyndi Lauper shows off her pipes on top of Peter Buck's guitar, and what a gorgeous pair they make.

The Minus 5 featuring Cyndi Lauper - Midnight Radio (mp3)

Speaking of The Minus 5, their new CD, The Gun Album, is due out February 7th. The Minus 5 lineup (this time) is: Peter Buck, Jeff Tweedy, Colin Meloy, John Wesley Harding, Sean Nelson, Ken Stringfellow.

And speaking of Peter Buck, did you hear that REM played a wedding reception in Athens, in October of last year, with BILL BERRY! If anyone taped this, I will PAY YOU MONEY for it. Unlikely, though, as they played in front of only 300 people in a tiny arcade room at a bowling alley. Mike Mills said "It was awesome to look behind me and see Bill on drums."

Fear of Nothing

This is from a radio broadcast from earlier this week. It a kick-ass song to kick start a weekend. Listen to it on the trip home and it will inspire high speeds, and then catch you with sirens, but no, you're not slowing down now...

Jack Knife Lee - Fear of Nothing (mp3)

What happened to John Hughes?

my fellow students were perfectly-cast extras walking through the hall for those establishing scenes where the director is trying to set a mood for a Cool High School movie. What happened? What happened to John Hughes? Do the kids of this generation, the ones who are 16, do they really, really see Mean Girls and relate? Do they leave the theater wanting to run home and throw all their sports pendants and strings of pearls and soccer trophies in the microwave?

...

pump up the volume made me want to blog. it's the practical equivalent of having a pirate radio station, but quieter. but that's all i'm doing, vomiting out my head periodically like this.

-from the Dresden Dolls Diary.

Dresden Dolls - Pretty In Pink (mp3) (from the High School Reunion compilation)

Pretty Little Heads On The Shelf

Almost two weeks ago, the music headlines screamed "Nellie Mckay Splits With Columbia," because there were apparently too many notes on the album as she intended it, and Sony wanted to tell her which ones to take out. Yesterday, like a pissed-off McDonald's manager, Columbia pulls the "You can't quit because I'm firing you" move. Or maybe a better analogy is: like an angry husband who has just been left, Columbia declared that it wants a divorce, and it's keeping the records, dammit. After all, Columbia reportedly told Mckay that Pretty Little Heads will not be distributed.

It's a tragic break-up, and so, fittingly, here is what might be the most tragic lament of personal loss since, ummm, Pink Floyd's "Don't Leave Me Now"(?):

Nellie Mckay - I Am Nothing (mp3)

So, 23 songs, no album. Where does that leave us fans, who have been anticipating the CD for ever-so-long? We know they exist and we want them. And yeah, I'm REALLY talking about the 7 songs not on the advance copy. Ideas, anyone? E-mail me!

a bell, a whistle, a spray can being hit against a plastic beer case

Congotronics 2: Buzz'N'Rumble From the Urban Jungle, the follow-up to Konono No. 1, is out now. The Crammed Records website declares:

Hot on the footsteps of Congotronics 1, here comes a fresh selection of even more amazing sounds, courtesy of no less than seven electro-traditional bands from Kinshasa, all especially recorded and produced by Crammed's Vincent Kenis...These bands all draw on traditional trance music, to which they’ve incorporated heavily-distorted sounds generated by DIY amplification of their instruments.

And the Crammed site says it all about this track, which clocks in at a meaty 6:47:

Sobanza Mimanisa ('orchestra of light') are the resident band in Nganda Boboto, in the Selembao district where we recorded this piece. There are only five instruments here: a bell, a whistle, a spray can being hit against a plastic beer case, a guitar - whose 'power chord' style is very unusual in Kinshasa - and a likembe which manages to play the bass and solo parts at the same time.

Spray can, check. Now where can I get my hands on a plastic beer case??

Sobanza Mimanisa - Kiwembo (mp3)

Around the World in a Locomotive

Speaking of travel, bold new directions, and overlooked music from last year, Alex Schippenbach, Aki Takase, and DJ Illvibe gave us an hour-long spring tour of planet earth in their daring Lok 03. From the Splendid review:

There are a few ways to experience a journey across the world. One is simply to take it -- but unless you've just cashed in your ten year-old Microsoft options, that trip might put you on the short road to Chapter 7. The trio behind Lok 03 took another route by creating their own excursion -- one that will take you further than you imagined.

World-renowned husband-and-wife pianists Alex Schippenbach and Aki Takase, and adopted musical stepchild Dj (sic) Illvibe, pull together their resources -- piano, percussion, turntable, trumpet -- to simulate a train ride (Lok, as in locomotive) in which each new track explores one of twenty different and disparate locations, from Oklahoma to Utrecht to Caracas to Osaka.

Here are their trips to Detroit and Osaka.

Detroit (mp3)
Osaka (mp3)

The Good Earworm

Get Him Eat Him have a new EP called Do As I Tell You. On it you'll find a song called Exposure (mp3), which will plant itself in your head and never leave. It's part Weezer, part TV Theme Song, and ALL GOOD.

Fieldwork Trips

I didn't see Fieldwork's Simulated Progress on anyone's Top 10 list for 2005, or Top 50, for that matter. Pity.

If travelling to new places is among your resolutions for 2006, clear your mind of thought, close your eyes, and give pianist Vijay Iyer, saxophonist Steve Lehman and drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee (Tyshawn Sorey is now with the band) your ears and your subconscious mind. Though Iyer's piano tends to give in to rhythmic chants, the music is more violent jungles, nervous subways and drunken dance floors than serene prayer rooms and clean dojos.

Fieldwork mp3s -

Telematic
Headlong
Trips

Here's to a year of bold new directions.