Emanuel and the Fear

This band is great. They are an electro/orchestral pop group from New York. So far they only have an EP released, most of which can be heard on their myspace, but they are working on a full length. Apparently they are an 11 piece band made up of people who have played with various other artists, including Sufjan Stevens and The National. I especially enjoy the first three songs from the EP: the bright, poppy "The Rain Becomes The Clouds," the folkier "Comfortable Prison," and the dancy "Jimme's Song" which goes into an extended experimental electronic section.

Mayer Hawthorne

Just heard this today, this single is currently free on itunes!

Colossal

I realize I have never mentioned them on here before. They are a great band that blends punk with a little bit of math rock and jazz--and they happen to be from my hometown! Here is their myspace.

This Town Needs Guns

That last video reminded me of this one because of the jolty stop-motion stuff. This band is pretty good, too, they have that odd time indie/math rock feel with cool repetitive guitar riffs that remind me of Colossal and Anathallo.

Ida Maria

I just listened to her album Fortress Round My Heart for the first time and it inspired me to return to this blog I nearly forgot about. Of course she's from Norway, which further affirms my belief that there is something special about Scandinavian pop... Here's "Oh My God":

Phoenix

I saw these guys on Saturday Night Live the other night.  The first and last time I heard them before that was on the soundtrack to Lost in Translation, but I never listened to any more than that.  I don't know if they've changed their sound much since then, but I listened to their new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (which I think is a pretty sweet title) a few times and I really like it.  On SNL I thought the lead singer sounded a little like Ben Kweller.  The band is much dancier than Kweller's, in fact they sometimes verge on groove/lounge music, but they can still rock, and I prefer those songs in which they do.  Oh yeah, did I mention they're French?  You wouldn't have even noticed.  Maybe they should sing a few songs in French.  (Maybe they have, like I said I'm not familiar with their earlier work).  Anyway, here's their performance on SNL:

K'Naan

Aaron just hipped me to this dude.  I dig his stuff, it's honest.  It's got kind of a Will I Am or Wyclef Jean vibe to it, but it's a little different because of his Somalian background.  His full album is available streaming on his myspace.  

Adele

I saw Adele on Letterman last night and it reminded me to mention her on here.  I've seen a few other of her late night talk show appearances and I enjoyed all of them.  Her album is mostly great, too, but I particularly enjoyed the extra cd of live songs that came with it.  I think sparse accompaniments of just one main instrument really suit her voice well.  Oh, and in case you didn't realize, the album is called 19 because she was 19 when she recorded it!  She already has two grammys at the age of 20!

Thao

I've been enjoying Thao Nguyen's cd We Brave Bee Stings And All lately.  It's a pretty good album and I think along with her band The Get Down Stay Down she has somewhat of a unique sound going for her, and could establish herself as the next big female voice in indie rock.  Her lyrics aren't bad either.  Here's "Bag of Hammers":

Nina Simone

Nina Simone's start is interesting:  she began playing piano in church, aspired to be a classical pianist and studied at Juilliard, but in order to pay her way through school she began playing clubs and started to sing jazz standards.  Though she's playing jazz in her early work, you can definitely hear the classical and gospel influence.  Her version of "I Loves You, Porgy" is heart-breaking and fantastic:

Here's one of her later performances:

Damien Jurado

I started listening to Damien Jurado with his early albums Waters Ave S (1997) and Rehearsals for Departure (1999), and he's had some good ones after that, but I kind of lost track of what he's been up to lately.  Then I read an article about his latest album, Caught in the Trees, in the Jan/Feb issue of Relevant Magazine.  Although the songs on this album are based on his personal life, specifically a recent divorce, Jurado collaborates with Eric Fischer and Jenna Conrad on the songwriting, and the result is quite good.  Here's the music video for "Caskets":

Noble Beast

Andrew Bird's new album Noble Beast is available today for $1.99 from Amazon.com!  I've listened to it once so far and it is very good!

Theresa Andersson

I saw her for the first time on Conan last night.  It's like an exaggeration of what Andrew Bird does with pedals, which is impressive, but I think I would prefer a full band.  Maybe if she is committed to the one-woman act she could experiment with more amps to imitate a band spatially. 

Ray Charles' Saxophonist Obituary

David "Fathead" Newman

Last month, three saxophonists that worked with Ray Charles died:  Hank Crawford, who was probably the most well-known,  Leeroy "Hog" Cooper, who was primarily a bari sax player, and David "Fathead" Newman, my personal favorite.  Here's "Hard Times," from Newman's first album Fathead:  Ray Charles Presents David Newman, which also features Hank Crawford on bari sax:

L.E. Flaco

This is cross-posted at The Joy of Daily Living.


Photo from myspace.com

I figure after last week, why not continue with the foreign language theme? L.E. Flaco is a hip-hop artist I found back when I was in school and trying to learn Spanish. I figured I could find songs I like, memorize the lyrics, translate them, and then magically be fluent in Spanish.

It didn't work. Still, L.E. Flaco was super cool when I sent him myspace messages (in broken Spanish, I'm sure) and we corresponded the best we could for a bit. He lives in Madrid, Spain with a beautiful girlfriend and really cool dog. I know this because they were mentioned in just about the only lyrics I could translate!

L.E. Flaco's flows are tight and fast over quality production. Click here for his myspace. Here is one of his videos. I love when he throws in some English ("hurry up," "don't worry").





Here's another of his newer videos.





When I corresponded with him I asked what his lyrics are about, but since he isn't fluent in English it was hard to grasp. Many have social and political themes (or at least did in 2006). Because I'm so used to Mexican Spanish, it's really hard for me to pick up words with his Spanish accent. I just here "th, th, th" and then one or two words I can catch.

The Walkmen

The Walkmen have a new album out, and it looks like they have the whole thing available streaming from their myspace!  It doesn't sound too different from past albums, but that's not a bad thing.  I've liked pretty much everything I've heard from them.  They have a very unique style that sounds kind of like Bob Dylan except with everything driving and distorted, and then some latin influence thrown in every once in awhile.  Not that there aren't sparse moments; the overall arrangements in addition to the vocals can have quite a range in expression.

Here's a recent performance from Conan O'Brien

Somos Nós a Justiça

This is cross-posted at The Joy of Daily Living.

This is one of my favorite SNJ songs. I'm so happy to find it has a video! Two years ago there was no trace of this song online.

In 2006 I spent two months living in Brazil. I checked out many music stores and attended a few concerts, but could not for the life of me find the underground & Brazilian hip-hop scene. Everyone I asked led me to Will I. Am and Wyclef. (Note: Neither Brazilian, nor underground.) (It probably didn't help that I don't speak the language.)

My final week there I found a music store that seemed to carry more titles by independent artists. They had a little boom box there and would allow customers to pop in CDs. I spent a couple of hours there listening to crappy song after crappy song, then I came across Somos Nós a Justiça. I immediately snapped up both CDs available. Their sound is chill, their flows are tight, and although I cannot understand every word, it's clear the lyrics are meaningful. If I could find SNJ music reviews, I'm guessing reviewers would throw them into the "enlightened" or "conscious" hip-hop category.

Somos Nós a Justiça have no Myspace, but one album is on Amazon for purchase and small song "samples" are available for listening. Another site shows the same album available for free download, but of course I cannot endorse that. (If you're still interested, click here.) You can also find their sounds at lastfm.

SNJ's story is available here, but it is in Portuguese. My gleaning is that they came from northern Sao Paulo and started making music in the 1990s. Their members have changed a lot over the years due to various problems. They put out a simple CD-R that hugely impacted hip-hop. They defend respect, honesty, personality, dignity, and humanity. They have taken part in events defending workers and the Black movement. They have exploded on the radio and in shows.

Albert Hammond, Jr.

After discovering Little Joy a little while ago, I thought to myself, "isn't there another side project of a Strokes member?"  Albert Hammond Jr.  is the rhythm guitarist of the Strokes and he has a couple albums out under his name.  I've only heard the most recent one, Como Te Llama? but it wasn't too bad.  There is a definite Strokes influence, but maybe a little more poppy?  Allmusic says that his first album, Yours to Keep, was better and a little more original, so I'll have to check it out.  Here's a live, acoustic (minus the bass) performance of a song from that album:

"In Transit"

Gypsy Jazz: Biréli Lagrène with Angelo Debarre and Stochelo Rosenberg

I had never heard of any of these guys, but man do they have chops!  Enjoy.

Monomes

I want one of these so badly. Too bad the smallest model is $500, not to mention they are somewhat scarce and sell out every time they introduce a new batch. I would love to create and perform something with samples like this. The minimalist design is pretty cool, too. There a ton of videos of people using this if you're interested, this was just the only one I saw that incorporated a little bit of actual instrument playing. You can go to their website for more info and videos.

People Under the Stairs

This is cross-posted at The Joy of Daily Living.


from rapreviews.com

People Under the Stairs (who often go by PUTS) are a hip-hop duo from LA who have been kickin it since the late nineties. Click here for their myspace, and here for their website (which mysteriously ends in .uk.)

They have about a million CDs (okay, their website says 39), but my favorites are The Next Step, O.S.T, and ...Or Stay Tuned. That might just be because those are the ones I've listened to the most, however.

I adore People Under the Stairs for a few reasons. Their beats are super chill and sometimes funky and jazzy. Also they can rhyme well and have a sense of humor. On of my favorite lines ever from them is "I shoot the gift like NRA members on Christmas." It's from the song "Time to Rock Our Shit," shown in this Youtube video:





Enjoy!

Little Joy

I heard these guys a little while ago on a late night talk show of a former MTV host that I'm a little embarrassed to admit I was watching, but they were really good.  I looked them up and learned that they are a project of Farbrizio Moretti, the drummer of The Strokes, Rodrigo Amarante, a Brazilian singer/guitarist, and Binki Shapiro, an LA-based singer.  The album sounds like it's produced just like a Strokes album, but if the Strokes had a Brazilian singer and a female singer and were influenced by old island music.   Here are some acoustic live videos of a few of their songs:  

"Unattainable"

"Next Time Around"

Nickel Creek

Alright, so I admit when I started writing this post it was about Fiction Family, the new project of Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek.  But after listening to their songs up on their myspace and not being incredibly impressed (the album's not out until next week), and then doing some research and realizing that Sean Watkins is not the lead singer/songwriter of Nickel Creek, I decided to just go with Nickel Creek since I haven't mentioned them yet on this blog.  Not to say that Fiction Family won't be worth a listen, especially if you're a fan of Switchfoot.  And if you really are interested, they are playing at Abbey Pub in Chicago tomorrow (Thursday) night.  

Chris Thille is the lead singer/songwriter/mandolin player of Nickel Creek I was hoping for.  I only have their album Why Should the Fire Die? from 2005, but there are a few solo acoustic songs on that album written by Thile that are really nice.  The full band arrangements lean more towards either pop or bluegrass and are pretty good, too.  Here's a video of "Jealous of the Moon" from that album:

(Sean Watkins is the guitarist/background vocalist on the right)

All-American Rejects cover Britney Spears

This is cross-posted at The Joy of Daily Living.

I have to admit, I'm not very familiar with All-American Rejects and I'm not a big fan of Britney. Still, this is pretty awesome. They cover her new single "Womanizer" and then drift into a little bit of "So Happy Together" by The Turtles. Their instrument choice is unique and includes a miniature accordion and beer bottles.

The above video has also prompted a whole slew of people to cover Britney's "Womanizer," and their videos can be found on Youtube too. Here's Lily Allen's cover of "Womanizer":

My next music post might involve a cover too. They can be fun, no?

PS, Thanks to Fancy Llama for pointing this out!

Ragged Claws

Local indie folk band Ragged Claws has made a new EP available for free download here.  It's a little ragged (... sorry for the pun), but not bad.  Some of the melodies remind me of old Bright Eyes.  Enjoy.

Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008

This past week, The Hype Machine and Blog Fresh Radio have been going through the top artists, albums, and songs of 2008 based on votes of the music blogging community (whatever that means).  You can view these lists and listen to the full albums streaming here, or you can listen to the podcast radio version that goes through one song from each artist.  Here is the radio countdown so far:

50-41

40-31

30-21

Josh Rouse

I recently got a hold of The Best of the Rykodisc Years by Josh Rouse.  I wondered how it was that I had never heard of this guy when he already had a best of album, but then I looked on Allmusic.com and they agreed it was a little early for a best of album, but that it was still good.  It is good.  He's a great songwriter, and from the looks of it somewhat prolific (8 albums in the past 10 years), so I think we can look forward to hearing from this guy for a while.  His songs are usually mellow and slightly melancholic, yet upbeat and poppy.  Here's "Directions" (though there were quite a few of his songs up on Imeem if you want to listen to more):

Smoking Popes!

This is cross-posted at The Joy of Daily Living.

Smoking Popes at Lollapalooza 2006, originally uploaded by scoobyhed.

I rang in the New Year to these guys counting down then playing Auld Lang Syne. It was awesome. Click here for their myspace page & to check out their music.

Smoking Popes are a rock/punk/indie/choose-your-favorite-term band that I fell for back in high school because of the poppy-ness mixed with meaningful lyrics. (Anyone noticing a trend in my tastes?) They are from the Chicago suburbs (holla!) and started to make it big in the mid-nineties. A few years later they broke up and left tons of fans broken-hearted. In the meantime a few of them made music with a spiritual theme via a band called Duvall. Well they're back together now & have a new album out. Woo hoo!

Here's a video of an older song called "I know you love me."