Fluttering and captivation Ellie Goulding has something almost classically antique in her voice. Others see something Bjork-y or Roisin-ish, and yes, that makes sense in a way, but I would say she soars freely like Sinéad Lohan or Kate Bush and the misty repetitive electronica is incidental. She also appears to be half of the duo Goldsmith and from South London. But really shockingly lovely. Startling. Really. Really.
Hyperbole As uncomfortable as I am totally gushing over a song (far easier to be subtly (or unsubtly) mocking), I just have to do one of those Mary Murphy-ish screams over this one. Moussa Doumbia is a saxophonist from Mali who spent much of his career in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The influence of James Brown and other sources of deep funk is thrillingly apparent.
Breathing New If you only know Swedish-Norwegian-British-New Yorker Leona Naess from her cranky, dyspeptic debut album Comatised, you may be caught off guard by her bouncy and fun new album Thirteen. Her voice has grown, with suddenly more of the vibrant urgency of Leslie Fiest without dissappearing under the same weight of hiccupping affectation and her songwriting has gotten looser and looks out as well as in. Plus also, it is now almost unconscionably catchy. She's playing July 1st at Le Poisson Rouge.
Two men with remarkably black hair To be a little topical, I thought I would touch on current events--it is my friend Meg's birthday!!! And, although I am not sure she likes being reminded, I do associate her with a certain iconic New Jerseyan. So to circle the metaphorical square I am setting up (topical, New Jersey, Meg, and ummm.... something else), Mohammed Hassan is one of the most popular musicians in Libya (which is apprently rare because their pop scene tends to be dominated by their neighbor Egypt) and Elisa was discovered by one of Whitney Houston's producers after singing the Italian National Anthem at the Olympics. Here she sings a duet with Luciano Ligabue (which if you haven't made the connection already makes him essentially the equivalent of Bruce Springsteen).
Sparkly Happy Danes Aren't they all? Well not so much actually unless biker gangs make you happy. There are clearly some though, like Efterklang. They bang on old tin toys like Psapp, yet also at times drift small and introspective (or as small and introspective as you can be when you make records with 28 instruments and 3 choirs). They grew up on a tiny island near Germany where they avoided all musical influences besides sea shanties and of course the Raveonettes.
In honor of my friend Liz/Whose birthday it is/I have decided to rhyme. Just kidding... But anyway I know she loves Melissa Ferrick. Or to be more precise, I think she's said she has a love/hate relationship with Melissa Ferrick--which may or may not be the same thing. For those of you who don't know, Melissa Ferrick is outrageously prolific, as well as busy, playing around 150 shows a year. She has one of those nicely linear -- she writes, she plays, she sings -- processes.
90210 Named after the legendary Beverly Hills shake shop, Passion Pit make twinkly soft electropop. After winning the British equivalent of "American Idol" last year and having a song featured on the new TheWB online series " Rockville," the band just released their first record on May 19th--timed of course to coincide with the birthdays of Joey Ramone, Malcom X, Ho Chi Minh, and other revolutionary figures born on that propitious day.
East of Eden Nica Brooke is impossibly smooth. A Lithuanian DJ, she apparently learned to sing along to an old half broken cassette player left over from the war. She's been touring lately across Georgia and Eurasia. Sonically she brings to mind the Dutch Producer/DJ Solex as well as having the aching vocal edge of Alice Russell or Morcheeba.
Recitation While I think not technically a "song," the declamatory tajwid (Qur'anic recitation) of Abdul Basit 'Abd us-Samad is startlingly musical. Born in Southern Egypt in 1927, he is said to have memorized the Qur'an by the time he was 10. Although based in Cairo, he traveled the world reciting and was particularly known for his rendering of the seven verses of the Sura al-fatiha. It's interesting to hear the differences from a recitation in Urdu, like the one below by Sadaqat Ali, having (to my ear at least) more similarities to the rhythm and tone of Qawwali singers like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Scratchy Weary voiced singer/songwriter Meg Hutchinson drags her words out lusciously and bumpily. Not that she's not happily melodic, but like Chris Pureka or Sarah Bettens there's a sharp intersection where the story of the song grabs you as well as the sound of the song (I hope that makes some small bit of sense. It is what I meant to say. If it's confusing, go listen to "Burning Bridges" (esp. the part about the glasses) or "Come Over Here" to see what I mean). She's playing tonight if you happen to be in Massachusetts.
Well this will wake you up... I'm not quite sure, but the Fairline Parkway may be already defunct. The problem clearly was a lack of caffeine. And they seem to have a problem counting as well, claiming to be the duo of childhood friends Zachary Okun and Raj Gadhia (though yes there are clearly four people in that picture.) Making gentle meandering music that reminds me quite a bit of Neal Halstead, they were from Austin and played around in West Texas for a while before going their separate ways recently.
Northerly The opening of many of her songs lead you to expect it to be bhangra, but Hasna is a Moroccan singer now based in Paris. She has an intriguing tone to her voice -- almost scolding at times -- while her lyrics actually are quite swirling and poetic with lovely imagery. She also has done some beautiful collaborations with Flamenco musicians.
Down to the River Floating above twanging country guitars, Samantha Crain warbles and yelps away crankily. She (more than her band the Midnight Shivers) has an un-country edge though, pressing towards an early Jeffrey Lee Pierce southern gothic. I'm quite loving it, though maybe that's not at all what she meant to do.
Elven As far as I can tell, Bjorn Kleinhenz grew up in the deep forests of Germany. His music certainly has some elven characteristics, as well as being quite catchy, tuneful, and walking that fine line of embarrassing. He reminds me a bit of Play Radio Play though substantially more folky.
By And By Odetta was called by Martin Luther King Jr. "The Queen of American Folk Music." She died in December, but performed to the end of her life with an extraordinaryness, a voice that was gentle but commanding, folksy and connected to the stories of everyday life in this country, and part of a spirit of a common struggle for justice that shouldn't go away.
So after a bit of a hiatus... After scouring the world for a bit in search of the most wondrous artists to expose to you, I turned up Aaron Nazrul. Partly astonishing, with just enough embarrassing mixed in to make it interesting, he's got a debut album with a number of really blow you away tracks (and then the occasional awkward attempt to rhyme "Cambodia" and "know ya.") He's got a rich and ragged voice, and an experimental braveness that is great to hear. One of my favoritest tracks--and one not terribly representative of the rest of the album is the sprawling "Butterfly Man," which is something the Rolling Stones might have made in 1976 if they lived in Vancouver.
Poverina Poor Astrid Swan. I have been meaning to feature her as a song of the day for a year and a half and I bet she's a bit annoyed. She's really everything that I have adored in a singer -- wailey, eccentric, hystrionic, and overly dramatic -- since I found Kate Bush in the import bin at Pookie's Records when I was in tenth grade. Plus also she's Finnish! Now the drag is that she was just about to release a new record at the time and I'm sure she needed the push from me to push it over the top...
Shout? No! I was just thinking that more bands should be named like they are. I mean, don't the Flaming Lips disappoint? But a band that doesn't disappoint in any way are the Screaming Females. Just what they are and what you want (and you know you want them to be from New Jersey,) they play at Maxwell's on July 5th.
Yes Sir No Man is a electronic duo that has been slowing down their speed for the last half decade, moving from dense to spare with an unwavering diminution. Some might call it hypnotic, others anesthetized. Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson have actually been recording together since 1987 and recently have been playing the London Symphony Orchestra.
Rock, Rock Steady I know very little of the roots of Reggae, but recently I stumbled across some early music from the 1960’s label Rock Steady. One of my favorites was this, “Pata Pata Rock Steady” by Queen Patsy and Count Ossie. And where there are some clear Jamaican elements peeking through, it has a soaring Supremes-like patina to the lead vocal that is quite quite wonderful.
It's a Wii world Named after a fictional Japanese videogame attack move involving spirit energy blasting from your upturned palms, Hadouken make loud and disorienting music to dance to when you are discombobulated. This quintet from London plays “grindie,” the twee-rific term that merges grime + indie. Their new record came out yesterday and is already sold out at Amazon, so you are probably behind the curve.
Have I offended everyone yet? All kidding aside, I see tremendous kinship between yesterday's song and today's. Ratatat uses some kind of electric zither, but otherwise I think quite the same. Perhaps less useful for courtship unless your prospective inamorata is substantially pretentious. Mike Stroud and Evan Mast are from Brooklyn and have been twittering around their apartment in Crown Heights for around seven or eight years, taking time here and there to remix tracks by Bjork and Joe Satriani--unfortunately not at the same time.
I really should have learned my lesson. It seemed like a very mild comment, but I have not seen that level of vitriol since I suggested that I would grow tired of the Fratelli's before the Arctic Monkeys (which in fact turned out to be true.) So in an attempt to make amends, here I offer you a traditional courtship song of the Hmong people of Laos performed by the Boua Xou Mua on the gaeng, a multiple reed mouth organ. This song is called "Tsuab Nplooj" and to avoid any further insult I will refrain from telling you that it is known in my house as "What on Earth Are You Doing to the Cat?"
"TV and Me" is a short film I made many years ago. (You need Quicktime to play it.)
"Shut Yer Mouth" is an independent feature film I wrote and directed. Feel free to download and watch at your leisure. (You need Quicktime to play it.) *This link is back up and running!
Fluttering and captivation
