Saturday, November 24, 2007

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

Fleet Foxes, "White Winter Hymnal"

A song that sounds like it's sung in the round even though it's not. The vocals wrap around the song so quickly that the verses (the same verse, really) feel seamless--the tail of the verse chases its own head. Confused? A little off-kilter? Yes, but totally enchanted with these short, chanting verses that sound like a fairy-tale in the making. The lyrics go by in this song so fast that I get dizzy listening to it--luckily someone has transcribed the lyrics.

Website (Under construction)
Myspace


Fleet Foxes look like such nice lads...not sneaky like foxes.

Rogue Wave, "Lake Michigan"

One of my favorite bands. It's nice to hear from them again, and really nice to know that, like Band of Horses, they have not lost any quality between Career-Exploding album and new album. This song is as assured and as unique as my favorites from their previous album ("Publish My Love", "California", "Salesman at the Day of the Parade", "Eyes"). In case you're wondering, here are the lyrics. I know--I don't understand, either. I don't listen to music expecting to understand the lyrics, though :)

Website
Myspace


Rogue Wave are rogue because they all play electric xylophone (or whatever those are)

Ida, "Lovers Prayers"

If you're expecting a shimmery, lilting female voice, then you'll be surprised to find out that Ida is a band, and not one person. The vocals are performed by a man and a woman, both voices perfectly entertwining in harmony. His voice is crackling, gliding along the expanse of music, reminiscent of Guy Garvey of Elbow. Her voice is as light and as vast as the sky they sing about. The lyrics are equally gracious, though the meaning is hard to pinpoint: "Looking over your shoulder as the clouds start to break...nothing left of these ancient tears, just a great salt lake". Stark, gorgeous imagery compliment the sparkling piano and vocals.

Website (Under construction)
Myspace
Interview with Ida, from Stereogum


Ida are cold

Thursday, November 22, 2007

My favorite podcasts and videocasts

These are the podcasts of my life. I listen to them while I'm at work, while I'm walking, on the bus, in the grocery store, and sometimes just lying on the couch with my boyfriend. They are not mere time-fillers, though. They mean a lot more to me than that. They introduce me to new music, give me insight into issues that directly affect me, like how to podcast a novel, what Kaito Nakamura's power really was, whether Claire and Adam Monroe are really related, who is the best candidate for President. All very important subjects to me. I look forward to these podcasts; I know the upload schedule for most of them. Thursday? Another DL.TV. Wednesday? Cranky Geeks. Sunday or Monday? 9th Wonders Podcast (BTW, I've had letters of mine read on 9th Wonders, DL.TV--actually they played a video question of mine-- and East Meets West. Yes, I am that special.)

Sadly, the people I work with still don't know what a podcast is. Eh, but the only TV they watch is Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, and I doubt they're losing sleep over who to vote for. So, I'm not too chagrined that they don't know about this aspect of my life.

For each podcast, I listed the generic RSS feed (though in some cases it made more sense to link to the website itself). Please note, though, that in some cases other subscription feeds are available on each podcast's website, such as iTunes or other specific podcatchers. An RSS feed is a catch-all, though, and will work in any feed catcher. If you have any questions about how to subscribe to podcasts, please e-mail me and I'd be happy to help. Here's a pretty good video tutorial..

If any of these links don't work, please let me know.

Music

Cerulean's Love of Music (Hee hee--of course!)
Coverville
Indiefeed (Alternative/Modern Rock)
Indiefeed (Indie Pop)
Interface, The
Ioda Cast
KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic
KEXP Song of the Day
Well-Rounded Radio (Look to the right for several subscription options)
Woxy.com Lounge Acts

Technology

Buzz Out Loud
CNET Live
Command N (Video, look to the left of the page for several subscribing options)
Cranky Geeks (There are several feeds, including audio-only, on the left-hand side of this page)
Daily Giz Wiz, The
DL.TV (There are several feeds, including audio-only, on the left-hand side of this page)
The Gadgetboyz Podcast
Geek News Central Podcast
Net @ Nite
Real Deal, The
Systm (Video, Feed options are on the right)
Tekzilla (Video, Feed options are on the right)
This Week in Tech
Unwired (Videocast) (Mention also goes to their affiliated game videocast, Play:Digital)
WebbAlert (Video)

TV

2 Irish Geeks and a TV
9th Wonder
The 10th Wonder
Galactica Watercooler (There are many options for subscribing to this audio podcast on the right-side of the page)

Paranormal

Beyond Reality
Crossroads Paranormal Radio
Ghostology
KAPS Paranormal Radio


Political

KCRW's Left, Right & Center
Truthdig
Slate's Political Gabfest
NPR It's All Politics
Shields and Brooks, from the Newshour with Jim Lehrer

General Culture

The Dawn and Drew Show
Discus (DVD Review Videocast)
East Meets West
Geek Fu Morning Show
Geeks On
Mahalo Daily
The Onion Radio News
Random Signal
NPR's This American Life
Slice of Scifi

Podcast Novels (and probably non-fiction, too--if it doesn't involve aliens, I'm usually not interested)

Podiobooks (Lots and lots of books)
J.C. Hutchins' 7th Son
Scott Sigler

Writing

Adventures in Scifi Publishing
I Should Be Writing
The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Podcast!!

Episode 32, Complete Meltdown!

Direct Link
RSS Feed

Opening music:

RadicalDon Lennon
"A Secret Band" (mp3)
from "Radical"
(Martin Philip Associates)
Buy at iTunes Music Store

Division Day, "Every Shining Time You Arrive"

Myspace
Website

Voom Blooms, "Nine Ships"

Website
Myspace

Cut Off Your Hands, "You and I"

Myspace
(Their website is down, at least it is at this time)

***I kind of accidentally say s**t during my part after this song. I got frustrated because I couldn't recount the months of the year backwards***

Love in October, "I Dream of Marie Antoinette"

Website
Myspace

Zookeeper, "Trumpet"

Website
Myspace

Southern Drama, "The Spoils" (From their Myspace)

Their Sonic Bids site
Myspace

Holy F**k, "Lovely Allen" (Warning: The song downloads with the actual band name in the title, so if you don't want to see that word, you might want to change the name and the ID tag immediately).

Website
Myspace

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

Southern Drama, "Sour is the Day"

This is one of many excellent songs offered on their Sonic Bids page (Sonic Bids has proven to be a wonderful resource). The electric violin and the piano are both subtle and well-suited accompaniments to the singer's rich, languid, drawling voice. While some of the other songs feature electrifying violin solos (which are absolutely glorious), it's good to have a few songs like this one where the vocals are in the forefront.

Sonic Site
Myspace


Knife fighting: Very southern and dramatic.

Hey Hey My My, "Merryland"

Through freak iPod placement, this song has been 2nd on my playlist for several weeks (three). I discovered in those three weeks that I really liked having this song 2nd on my playlist, and in fact even if my iPod didn't make the momentous decision to put it there, I probably would move it to that prestigious spot on my own. Number one has been Wayne Petti's "Moment by Moment" for about a month (I love that song) and I finally took Courtney Jones' "Ride" off after almost a month of it being in the top five (I'm using an iShuffle and it has a limited amount of space), but I miss it, so I may put it back on. But, I digress. Hey Hey My My's "Merryland" is a very memorable track, from the distinctively plucked guitar, to the drums keeping time in the background and to the coy, languishing vocals that could have a place in the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack (one of my favorite movie soundtracks).

Label Site (en Francais)
Myspace


Hey Hey, My My... look! Why are those people standing in a field? And why are those other people holding up knives and glasses of wine?

Holy F**k, "Lovely Allen" (Warning: The song downloads with the actual band name in the title, so if you don't want to see that word, you might want to change the name and the ID tag immediately).

This song has one of the most beautiful openings I've ever heard. Beautiful as in "Bittersweet Symphony" beautiful, but not as orchestral (though still plenty orchestral). It's loud, encompassing and aims to take music to the stars where it originates from. It's so equisite that I'm going to put it on my podcast, too.

Website
Myspace


Holy F**k! Where did we put the car? Why are we in a field?

PODCAST WILL BE UP BY TOMORROW NIGHT!!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

Yoav, "Beautiful Lie"

Sigh...pretty, hypnotic and British. Yes, the song's nice too..(hee hee). The song's gorgeous...beautiful. The guitar is so light it seems to spring from the song. The song spirals around you until you're not sure how to get out of it's hold. Do you want to, though?

Website
Myspace


The music is just as gorgeous as Yoav.

West Indian Girl, "To Die In L.A."

I love how this song starts out with sort of an Indian sound then totally melts into psychedelia. I'm generally not much of a Polyphonic Spree type of person (which is the band I think of when I think of modern psychedelia) but I love the sonic overload of this song. It's enough to make me glad I have those really big headphones. Of course some of the sonic extravagance went away once I turned off the version also playing on Myspace. They're definitely deserving of the attention they're getting.

Website
Myspace


West Indian Girl, photo taken by Gregg Lewis and posted on KCRW's site.

Peter & The Wolf, "Where Summer Goes" (Link courtesy of Rock Insider which sponsored an event with the band).

I wrote about Peter & The Wolf recently (like three weeks ago), but this is such a lovely song I wanted to include it. It's a beautiful bookend of a song. I'm not sure what it's a bookend to, but it feels like a very wonderful ending to something great. It's not a sad ending, though--it's more like the kind of ending that makes you look forward to the next beginning.

Website
Myspace


Peter and the Wolf, traveling band.

Bonus:

Hee hee! I'm a little behind in reading my Myspace comments. I got a happy birthday coment from the band The English Beat! I love the internet. I know they probably have some program that tells them when it's a fan's birthday, but still--I feel very special right now. Watch this awesome mix of General Public's "Tenderness" with Rihanna.General Public was an offshoot of The English Beat.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Oopsie!! I just realized the song "Dancing With My Brother" features a significant abundance of a word that begins with M and has an F in the middle. It's the fifth song (not counting the opening music).

Sorry! I make it a practice to put a warning at the beginning if there's a song with any curse words, but I hadn't listened to the song all the way through since I first heard it a week before, and I didn't listen to it all the way through when I was making the podcast. I didn't realize it until I was listening to it at work.

I really, really apologize. I'll make sure in the future to listen to each song completely before posting it.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Podcast!!

Direct Link
RSS Feed

Opening music:

RadicalDon Lennon
"A Secret Band" (mp3)
from "Radical"
(Martin Philip Associates)
Buy at iTunes Music Store

Ze Frank, "Let's Join a Social Network"
Video Accompaniment

Website
(No Myspace found)

Mobius Band, "Hallie"

Website
Myspace

Rockfour, "Everyone" (Site is down for me tonight, so I can't find the exact webpage)

Website
Myspace

The Battle of Land and Sea, "Saltwater Queen"

Label Website
Myspace

Entire Cities, "Dancing With My Brothers"

Artist Information
Myspace

Something For Rockets, "Stuck In Neutral"
(I am having interwebs problems and can't pull up the actual site to get the .mp3)

Website
Myspace

Henry Morgans Solokarriar, "One Day Any Day"

Website
Myspace

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

British Sea Power, "Atom"

There's something very energizing about this song. It makes me want to sing along and perhaps pour beer on a crowd of people...preferably people I know who might be annoyed by my action, but won't beat me up and/or kill me. It makes me feel like people who really like sports must feel when their team wins a really big game. I feel really celebratory. Perhaps like Britain felt during the height of their sea power? Anyhow, I first heard about British Sea Power many many years ago when I became obsessed with their song "Childhood Memories" (video). Seriously, I played that song hundreds of times. I don't remember ever writing about it. I think it might've been one of the songs that was the impetus for me starting an mp3 blog.

Website
Myspace


The members of British Sea Power are proud, like their name would imply.

Henry Morgans Solokarriar, "Faces From My Hometown"

He sounds a little like Bright Eyes, but I can forgive it in this case. The song itself flows so well--I love the melody and the spry keyboards and guitar--the music is so clean and uncluttered. As someone who lives in clutter, I'm especially appreciative of this song's lack of incumberance.

Website
Myspace


The lone member of Henry Morgans Solokarriar

Pinback, "Walters"

Their name implies that they're death metal spawned from the depths of a horror film night, but they're not. This song is actually extremely laid back. It's folk music with a fuzzed-out guitar (my favorite kind of guitar). I guess you could call it Freak Folk without a whole lot of freak, and not really a whole lot of folk, either. It floats somewhere in between these descriptions, much like the title character floats 3 miles above in his lawn chair. Yes, that's what I typed.

Website
Myspace


I guess if the pins are in their back, we wouldn't see them in this picture.

Bonus!!

Victims of Science, "The Device Has Been Modified"

I don't really know where this song came from, but Jonathan Coulton linked to it on his blog. I can't find any information on the band (person?), but JoCo seems to imply that the person who made it is the same person who uploaded it, so I feel pretty safe linking to it, also.

PROJECT!!

Remember how I posted a Brad Sucks song last week? Yeah, I think he's awesome, too. Anyway, he's giving anyone who has a microphone and a computer the chance to sing backup on a new song of his. I should have time to do it tomorrow, and as most of you know, I'm not hesitant to try to get myself on podcasts/web blogs or anywhere I can feel sort of famous for a minute. To make it easier (I wouldn't be able to do it without these), he's provided the lyrics for us.

Podcast sometime tomorrow!!!