because these things are good and you should see them (aka, clicky):
alex at Close Your Eyes does an excellent audio round-up of Sufjan Stevens's work, through the ears of someone who is bedazzled and still exploring.
pop has posted a lovely, honest quote by radiohead's Jonny Greenwood: "You know, there's a certain Tom Waits song that whenever I hear it I, you know, it just... it makes me talk in this inarticulate way that I'm using now. It's so good. It seems to me quite disingenuous to be embarrassed about it. . . . [Music] should be ambitious, and good music does deal with life and art and all these wonderful things. I used to be ashamed talking about it, but now I just think it's fraudulent to pretend otherwise." It's worth reading the whole thing. Greenwood's expressing that intangible, enthusiastic feeling of oh-my-art-is-wondrous that i am so often struck by. he's smitten and can't find the words. It makes me glad.
Audio Lunchbox. I can't believe I had never encountered this before: a music shop with $0.99 (US) tracks, $10 albums. Everything's on DRM-free 192 kbps mp3, available internationally, on any platform. It's indie labels (obviously), but there's everyone from Anti (Tom Waits) to Badman (Hayden), Troubleman Unlimited (Tussle), Absolutely Kosher (The Wrens), and Koch (2Pac, Lamb, The Kinks). Like the iTunes Music Store, but available to Canadians, and even less restrictive. Hooray! (a little weak on world/jazz/classical/hip-hop, though...)
(my first round of $0.99 recommendations: The Mountain Goats, "Family Happiness"; The Wrens, "Happy"; Tussle, "Don't Stop"; The Long Winters, "Cinnamon"; Solomon Burke, "Don't Give Up On Me"; Tom Waits, "Alice"; The Weakerthans, "Our Retired Explorer..."; Hayden, "Dynamite Walls"; Pedro the Lion, "When They Really Get to Know You They Will Run"; Kepler, "The Changing Light at Sandover"; Elliott Smith, "Division Day")
Good evening!
Our mp3 deliberations are (mostly) over, and thanks to the generosity of our anonymous patron, things are (mostly) back to normal here. We won't, however, be putting last week's songs back online, so for those of you who missed out, my apologies.
Today's tracks are both from a terrific and strange little Vancouver band called P:ano. For a time, I had thought that no-one could use a colon to make a band-name more awkward than Songs:Ohia, but wouldn't you know it, Nick Krgovich & friends proved me wrong. The group plays a hushed chamber pop that falls somewhere between Low, The Microphones and The Beatles' "Julia." It's acoustic and loose, Nick Drake fronting The Unicorns.
P:ano - "Tut Tut". Quite likely my favourite track from the band, this is taken from their lovely When It's Dark and It's Summer (2002). Krgovich and Larissa Loyva duet above the sound of light through blinds: piano, clarinet, the kindliest of drumrolls. An organ nudges in just in time for the softest, wussiest, finest ode to a Jackson 5 song that's ever been recorded. And then it ends with the sound of a seaside memory.
P:ano - "Working". From 2004's The Den, here's a brisk little number that shows Nick singing happily along over piano and some mixed-up percussion: "I can see this getting worse / for me". Flute and harp flutter in, tiny zippy airplanes, then some operatic voices hurtle down, like thick yellow bands of sunshine.
Go catch the trailer to Jim Jarmusch's new film, Coffee and Cigarettes. Witness as Bill Murray chats with the RZA and the GZA, as Iggy Pop and Tom Waits get all passive-aggressive. I can't wait. (Anyone out there catch it at the Toronto Film Fest or SXSW?)
Thanks to all those who commented on my Vaganza tracks; any further comments remain most welcome! And for those who care, twas a fun, if gruelling 24-hours.
A heady thanks to John Sakamoto, as well, for the kind words about StG in this week's Anti-Hit List (we're apparently a "passionate, culturally literate blog"). If any of you are visiting for the first time, please stick around! There's no more Wilco to be heard, but I promise more good stuff, every day.