The Oedipus Project
Halcyon Digest, the fifth album from Deerhunter, will be released next week. Known for their intense and peculiar live shows fronted by singer/guitarist Bradford Cox, this four-piece from Atlanta offers us a dreamy elegance in “Helicopter” which is the Song of the Day.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4382″]
“Helicopter” by Deerhunter
The Walkmen emerged out of the ashes of Jonathan Fire*Eater (a Washington D.C. band) The Recoys (from Boston), but they all knew each other from their youth in the D.C. area. Re-establishing themselves in Harlem at the turn of the century, The Walkmen began experimenting with different recording techniques and syncopations while incorporating vintage musical instruments. They just released their sixth album Lisbon, a tribute to the city that they visited a couple of times while recording. The marvelous “Angela Surf City” from the album is the Song of the Day.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4380″]
“Angela Surf City” by The Walkmen
From Seattle to Athens, Orange County to Montreal, certain areas of North America morph into hotbeds of new exciting music. Currently it now appears to emanate from Brooklyn, NY. MGMT, The National, The Drums, Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors, only to name a few, all base themselves in this NYC borough. Matt & Kim, the duo of Matt Johnson (vocals, keyboards) and Kim Schifino (drums, vocals) are yet another Brooklyn-based band, perhaps best known for their award-winning video “Lessons Learned”. Their third album, Sidewalks, is coming out in November. “Cameras” is the first release from that album and is the Song of the Day.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4378″]
“Cameras” by Matt & Kim
Tennis is a husband/wife duo (Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore) out of Denver who sailed the east coast for eight months and wrote and sang of their experiences. They are currently recording their first album, Cape Dory.
They released a three-song EP earlier this summer. “Marathon” is from that recording session.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4376″]
“Marathon” by Tennis
It’s been a long seven years since we last heard from Azure Ray. The duo of Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink pursued solo and collaborative projects during the interim. Part of the Saddle Creek collective out of Omaha, NE, these two women return with their gorgeous harmonies on their 4th album, Drawing Down the Moon. From this recording “Don’t Leave My Mind” is the Song of the Day.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4373″]
“Don’t Leave My Mind” by Azure Ray
There’s a new supergroup on the block and they are Fistful of Mercy. Consisting of Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison, the group recorded an album earlier this year and enlisted drummer Jim Keltner to overdub percussion. (Of the three, I only know Ben Harper personally and besides being a phenomenal guitarist, he is one of the true gentlemen of rock.) The album As I Call You Down is due later this month. The band is offering a free download of their namesake track from their website. Here though is another track from the album entitled “Father’s Son” and is the Song of the Day.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4371″]
“Father’s Son” by Fistful of Mercy
Earlier this summer we featured “Let’s Go Surfing” from the debut album by the Brooklyn-based band The Drums. The album was originally released in the UK and online. Today the physical release of the disc is available in the U.S. The bonus track on the album “When I Come Home” is now a free download and is the Song of the Day.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4368″]
“When I Come Home” by The Drums
Singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne resides in the hinterlands of Maine and lives a very private life. He’s reclusive and shies from the spotlight. But his voice is powerful and commanding in the vein of Van Morrison and Tim Buckley and he has recently released his 4th album God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise. (n.b. this phrase was first uttered by Benjamin Hawkins, a statesman from North Carolina and a member of the first U.S. Senate. Spike Lee used these words for the title of his recent documentary on New Orleans and legendary radio morning man Charles Laquidara from Boston signed off with these words after every show.) One of my favorite tracks from the album is “Beg Steal or Borrow”. Here exclusively is an acoustic version of that song.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4366″]
“Beg Steal or Borrow” by Ray LaMontagne
Matthew Dear is a Detroit-based DJ/producer expanding the bounds of electronic music. Depending on the sound that he is exploring he operates under different monikers (Audion, False, Jabberjaw). His latest album, Black City, under his given name has hints of Berlin-period Bowie and ambient Eno. From this current release, “Little People (Black City)” clocking in at 9:21 takes us to unexpected places and is the Song of the Day.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4363″]
“Little People (Black City)” by Matthew Dear
No city in the country should have such bad luck as New Orleans. First Katrina and then the oil spill. Even though both can be traced to human incompetence and greed, tragedies such as these tend to be compartmentalized if not downright forgotten as they cease to be headline news. New Orleans five years later has still just barely recovered from the hurricane and the recent devastation to the wetlands and to the Gulf from oil and dispersants will be felt for years. Thankfully there are artists, such as Spike Lee (his documentaries When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and “If God is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise”) and numerous musicians who will not let us place New Orleans in the scrapheap of forgotten historical disasters. The album Dear New Orleans has just been released (produced by Air Traffic Control, a nonprofit organization that works with Future of Music Coalition for social change and artist activism) to benefit the region’s unique musical heritage and to protect and restore the environment. With 31 New Orleans-inspired tracks from a very diverse range of musicians from Mike Mills and Wayne Kramer to My Morning Jacket and OK Go, from Jill Sobule and Tom Morello to Steve Earle and Laura Veirs, these artists express their gratitude to the city and make certain that we will never forget. From that album here is song “NOLA” performed by Mirah featuring Thao Nguyen and a poem from 2nd Chief David Montana entitled “The Change of Heart Man”.
Mirah featuring Thao Nguyen-“NOLA”
[jwplayer mediaid=”4360″]
2nd Chief David Montana-“The Change of Heart Man”
[jwplayer mediaid=”11544″]
The band The xx were just named the winners of the 2010 Mercury Prize awarded for the best album by a UK or Irish band. Established in 1992, Primal Scream’s Screamadelica took home the initial award. Other winners have included Suede, Portishead, Pulp, Badly Drawn Boy, PJ Harvey, Dizzee Rascal, Franz Ferdinand, Antony and the Johnsons, Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons and Elbow. Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Foals, Paul Weller, Dizzee Rascal, Corinne Bailey Rae and Wild Beasts were among this year’s nominees. The trio receives £20,000. “Crystalised” and “Islands” are two singles from The xx debut album xx, plus the song “Infinity” a personal fave.
“Crystalised”
[jwplayer mediaid=”4357″]
“Islands”
[jwplayer mediaid=”6955″]
“Infinity”
[jwplayer mediaid=”6957″]
The English band James has been around since the early 80s. They are one of those British bands that is exceeding well-known in their home country but only have a cult following in the US. With over ten studio albums to their credit, the band is best known for the song “Laid” produced by Brian Eno. Through the years they have been through various personnel changes and the lead singer, Tim Booth, left the band for awhile to pursue solo projects. A few years ago they reunited and this year released two mini-albums: The Night Before and The Morning After. In the states the two have been combined as The Morning After the Night Before! “Crazy” is from this album, available as a free download from iTunes and is the Song of the Day.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4353″]
“Crazy” by James
The always fascinating David Byrne has been featured here in the past with his music and various thoughts. (Just use the Search button in the upper right.) He continues to embrace the latest technologies to create new worlds for us to explore. Now he has created his own unique audiobook of his travelogue Bicycle Diaries which was published last year. Here is the letter that I recently received from him and this link will give you a free download for the Introduction to his Audiobook.
“After Bicycle Diaries came out in hardback about a year ago, I wondered to myself, what if the audiobook for this project was more like a cross between a podcast and a radio show instead of the usual author or actor reading in silence? I was thinking about the kind of radio show that NPR stations do from time to time, with background music, street sounds and other ambiences that help put the listener in the picture. So, I did one chapter (“New York”) as a test, with me reading, and though it took a lot longer to assemble than I expected, I felt it did indeed do what I imagined it could; when you heard the tinkle of glasses and silverware during a restaurant “scene,” boom!-you immediately felt you were there. Your mind fills in the details and these little sound cues help paint a fuller picture. If only I could have added smell! When the text went off on one of many tangents, and I began ruminating about a subject off the beaten path, a little bit of music I happened to have available helped tell you, the listener, that, yes, we’ve left the “story” temporarily, but will return soon. It started as an experiment and then turned into a complete DIY project, with the Hendler Brothers keeping the ball rolling.
I also realized that this particular book could be consumed in any order, and it didn’t matter which chapter you started with. So one could download and listen to the chapters as individual podcasts, in any sequence. I could even make the chapters available to download separately-you wouldn’t need to buy the whole audiobook to see if you liked the experience. This all would have been impossible if these were made available only via CD (or cassette!)…or with many other types of books.
Technology had, it seemed, created an opportunity for a whole new format to come into being. I’m not sure anything exactly like this has ever been done before. Sure, there are NPR radio shows with sound effects (Joe Frank comes to mind) as well as ye olde radio dramas (The Shadow was one), but if there’s anything similar out there I’m unaware of it. And yes, there are loads of downloadable audiobooks-but you have to listen to the chapters in the prescribed order, unless you are into self created meta fiction.
So, the first taste-the Introduction-is free. It’s shorter than a regular chapter too”.
!!! (generally pronounced Chk Chk Chk) have been together since 1996 when they formed in Sacramento, CA. They claim to have taken their name from the subtitles of the film The Gods Must be Crazy. The clicking sounds of the southern African Bushmen’s language was represented with an exclamation point (!). The 4th album by !!! has just been released with the title Strange Weather, Isn’t It? This dance/punk band is offering a free download of “AM/FM”, the Song of the Day.
[jwplayer mediaid=”4351″]
“AM/FM” by !!!
It’s been awhile since we have had some fine blue-eyed soul. Fitz & the Tantrums, a six-piece soul band from LA (with Fitz (Michael Fitzpatrick) on lead vocals, Noelle Scaggs providing vocal counterpoint, James King blowing the saxophone, keyboards from Jeremy Ruzumna, and the rhythm section of Ethan Phillips and John Wicks, bass and drums respectively), fills the bill and gets us moving with hand-clapping Motown-influenced retro-soul with an indie sensibility. Word has it that they are riveting live. Pickin’ Up the Pieces is their brand new debut and a free download of “MoneyGrabber” from the album is the Song of the Day.
