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.