Sunday, January 27, 2008

PODCAST #37!

In which Lola FORGOT AGAIN to name the episode

Direct Link
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SHOWNOTES:

Theme Music: Dust Rhinos, "Victoria" I got this courtesy of the Podsafe Network, and I'm not sure I'm supposed to post the mp3, so I won't.

Website
Myspace

The Dimes, "Catch Me Jumping"

Website
Myspace

Kate Nash, "We Get On" (from her Myspace)

Website

Briana Winter, "Hide"

Website
Myspace

The Long Blondes, "Separated By Motorways" (Sexamatronic Mix)
(I said the name of the song wrong on the podcast)

Website
Myspace

The Dodos, "Fools"

Website
Myspace

The Early Years, All Ones and Zeros" (Okay, well, I got it from KEXP, but it's not on there now. It's on this KEXP mirror site, though).

Website
Myspace

The Helio Sequence, "Keep Your Eyes Ahead"

Website
Myspace

Friday, January 25, 2008

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

The Lola-is-experimenting-with-layout edition



The Long Blondes, "Separated By Motorways" (Sexamatronic Mix)

Website
Myspace


Normally, I reserve the more "high energy" songs for my podcast--I figure people are more likely to be mobile when listening to the podcast and would benefit from music that's a little more likely to jumpstart the nervous system. I love this song so much, though, that I had to give it more than one outlet. There are so many vocal styles in this song--the vocalist speaks/sings in the most seductive English accent part of the time and at other times careens into the top of her range (these could be two singers--it's hard for me to tell). The song sounds like a cross between punk and the trip-hop music coming out of Britain in the late nineties. There's a little electronica in there, also--kind of like Goldfrapp singing for The Prodigy. Wow, that would be cool.


Tyler Ramsey, "Ships"

The name of the album this song is from is A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea. This song is its own kind of dream--it evokes a hazy feeling of drifting, letting you experience a good kind of listlessness. The kind you feel when you're drifting in the ocean, a lake, or even a really vast pool, and you're not so concerned where you drift to. As long as you can see land (and therefore are not drifting into need-rescue territory), you're content to let the water take you. You're content to let this song, and the singer's granulated, weary voice take you where it's supposed to.

Website
Myspace



Tyler Ramsey, looking cagy



Dark Undercoat
Emily Jane White, "Wild Tigers I Have Known"

When I first read this title, I thought of the book "Where The Wild Things Are". Truth is, I still think of that when I hear this song. There is something dark and untamed about the song; it cloisters around you like a stifling, humid forest. It closes around you, almost choking you until lightly pulling away, amused as you realize you can move quite fluidly afterall. The song is a firm caress that lays a seemingly impermeable embrace on its listener .


Website
Myspace




Buy at Rhapsody



PODCAST LATER THIS WEEKEND

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By


Jong Pang, "Stains On Your Sweater" (Thanks to Fingertips for the tip on this)

This is a strange and fascinating song. The music is urgent, tense, but not heavy. The singer's voice is cutting and clear, like a cloudless blue sky on a very cold day. The song makes me think of a frozen scene just beginning to thaw and come to life. The guitar is the first vestiges of movement, struggling to bring the song's world back to life. The voice is urging the world to follow.

Myspace
Label Myspace


Anders Rhedin is Jong Pang

The Cave Singers, "Seeds of Night"

This is the kind of band I'd love to see live in a very closed, small venue--like an in-store performance. But of course I live in Jacksonville, and all of the record stores have died, so I will settle for mp3s and videos. Still, if I close my eyes, assume the sitting-on-the-floor-cross-legged pose, I can transport myself to another land, another place in this country where record stores still exist. I can feel the hush come over the small audience as the singer's stretchy, warbled voice punches the close walls, bouncing back and mingling with the quiet, understated guitar plucks. I can imagine I'm sitting right in front of the horn player, who bursts out confidently at the end, adding just a few seconds of extra instrumentation, but complimenting the melody very well.

Website
Label Site
Myspace


The Cave Singers, not in a cave

Alela Diane, "Dry Grass and Shadows"

I've only been to Louisiana and Tennessee once, I've never been to West Virginia or Kentucky. So, I've never been to the parts of the U.S. traditionally known as hubs for Bluegrass musicians. Still, being raised in the Southern U.S., I've been steeped in the style, and it's become one of my favorites. Roots music is music that's close to the ground, close to the life and the death that has it's origins in the earth. It's as humid as a Louisiana swamp, as haunted as a Southern cemetary and as vibrant as a New Orleans Mardi Gras. I don't know much about Alela Diane (I know more now that I've started spelling her name right), but I know that she, also not from a traditionally bluegrass state, makes music that is pouring over with humidity, hauntedness and vibrancy. She knows how to wrap her voice around a melody and push and pull on a song until it is under her will. Her voice harnesses the melody, but never strips it. Instead she merely matches its power with her own.

Website
Myspace
More songs available
Buy at eMusic



Alela Diane

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

PODCAST!

In which Lola completely forgot to name the episode. Oot.

Direct Link
RSS Feed

New Theme Music! Dust Rhinos, "Victoria" (one of the kickingest songs ever) I got this courtesy of the Podsafe Network, and I'm not sure I'm supposed to post the mp3, so I won't. I am playing the entire song at the end of this podcast, though.

Website
Myspace

Balkan Beat Box, "Sunday Arak" (Featuring Dana Leong) (I got permission from the artist to put this on my podcast, but not to post the mp3)

Website
Myspace

The Child Ballads, "Cheekbones Hollows"

Label Site
Myspace

1900s, "When I Say Go"

Website
Myspace

Matthew Seely, "Scott's Sad Restaurant Song"

Scott Pilgrim Website
Website (Sexy, sexy bicycle?)
Myspace (under the name Mountains and Magic)

Quinn Walker, "Save Your Love For Me"

Myspace
No website found, but here's the Insound page for him

The Antlers, "The Universe is Going To Catch You"

Website
Myspace
Buy at eMusic

Lastly, the full version of the Dust Rhinos' "Victoria". Yippee Yi Yay!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

PODCAST WILL BE DELAYED AT LEAST UNTIL TOMORROW (MONDAY) NIGHT. Propaganda software keeps crashing, even when I try it on a 2nd computer.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By


Rose Rossi, "I Am Trying" (Not a direct link--the artist sent me the mp3 and I uploaded it)

Maybe it's 'cause part of me feels like I'm still trying to figure myself out-- I relate to the woman reaching back into her past, trying to understand herself in relation to the little girl she used to be. Maybe it's 'cause this singer's voice is so gorgeous and the song is so utterly singable. Whatever it is, this song has absolutely got a hold on me. I want to drink a bottle of wine (which I have) and listen to this all night (which I could). This is a torch song minus the shmaltz. Her voice is rich and enveloping, never sounding strained or thin. The song has an instantly calming effect on me, like a blanket of stillness has been gently placed on me.

Myspace
(No website listed)


Rose Rossi, Photo by Alice Dison

Tommy Martine, "It's My Fault" (Not a direct link--the artist sent me the mp3 and I uploaded it)

I guess I've got a thing for strong female vocals, because Tommy Martine's voice drives this song, challenging the guitar to beat out even more fiercely. This is an acoustic demo, but it has the force and the presence of any full-scale, fully-engineered ensemble production. Tommy's only 20 and in between making music and films, also finds time to work in one of the most famous department stores in the world. She has more talent than most of the household names out there, and hopefully she won't be working at that department store forever.

Myspace
(No website listed)


Tommy Martine looking...wow...yeah.

Girl in a Coma, "Clumsy Sky"

This starts out wonderfully lulling and deceptively comforting...yeah...that's beautiful. If ya got any kind of heart problem, though (or are skittish in any way), then hold on to your pacemakers and grab your anti-anxiety pills, 'cause the song's about to change. Remember what I said about liking strong female vocals? Okay, how about three girls shattering their instruments in a frenzied attack only stymied by the boundaries of the walls and ceiling? Come to think of it, better make sure the structure holds. The song starts out sounding like a cover of one of those drifty, dreamy 60's prom songs, but it quickly morphs into an onslaught of glorious musical terror. Like Peggy Sue Got Married exploding into Carrie on steroids. They're named after a Smiths song, and they're also on Joan Jett's label. The dichotomy of this band is evident, and emphatically welcomed.

Website
Myspace
Video for "Clumsy Sky"

I'm not the only one who loves this song--this guy covered it.


Girl in a Coma, honoring the positive attributes of disorder

Bonus!!

There's a song I thought I had a legal mp3 for, but I can't find it (or perhaps dreamed I had it). It's a great song, though--it's Kate Nash, "Foundations". Here's the video.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By


Celebration, "Evergreen"

The more I hear this song, the more I absolutely adore it. Her voice is a smoother Johnette Napolitino's, capable of blending low and high notes so effortlessly that I'm looking to see if this is Siouxsie Sioux's new band. It's not Siouxsie, and it's not Concrete Blonde. It's a band out of Baltimore with a sound so magical, so tribal that I feel like I'm listening to Siouxsie for the first time. The singer, Katrina Ford, has a voice that glides, swoops, trills, dives and then flips back on itself. Her voice is a feat itself--the complementing music is a bonus. The drums beat out as ferociously as she sings--pushing out the tense melody as quickly as it rolls from the singer's tongue. The guitar beats up against the drum, but keeps itself at bay. Ultimately, the instruments are there to support the fierce and strong vocals.

(See the end of the post for the video)

Website
Myspace


Celebration is hiding something behind their backs. What could it be? Candy? That would be awesome.

Priscilla Ahn, "Dream"

Sometimes a song is so unabashedly beautiful, deceptively simple and fresh that I become embarrassed. I feel shame for the way I complain, for the way I've buzzed by my surroundings, burned through my days, looking only towards going home, getting the day over with, not looking around me. Priscilla Ahn is looking at her past, her present and her future. She captures images of herself as a little girl, a young woman and as a wisened older woman. I don't think that even the most cynical person could not tear up a little when Priscilla Ahn sings that she asked God who she should be, and he answered in silent revelry. I'm trying not to tear up because my boyfriend already thinks I'm too soft in the emotions department, but if I do cry I'm going to blame it on a cut on my thumb that's hurting.

Myspace
(No website listed)


Lovely picture of Priscilla Ahn

Let's Go Sailing, "Sideways (remix)" (Thanks to Filter for the link)

"Sideways", by Let's Go Sailing, is a spry, flirtatious song, reminiscent of Maria Taylor's music. The theme is not necessarily love, but probably more accurately called "interest". While I love the dire, heart-wrenching "my lover done me wrong and he/she will pay" type songs, they can be emotionally overwhelming if listened to constantly. Trust me--I know. I listened to The Smiths in high school. Not every love song has to be about a deep, twisting, unshakable love. Sometimes just the promise of love is a good subject. Leave the borderline stalker songs for the end of the album.

Website (I think her dates are a little off--I'm pretty sure the last blurb on the news page is from Jan. '08, not '07)
Myspace


The very pretty Shana Levy, of Let's Go Sailing, looking a little sideways, but down

Bonus!

Celebration, "Evergreen" video


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Also, I can't find an mp3 for this song, but the song is beautiful. It's Adele's "Chasing Pavements". The video is below:

Check out this video: Adele - Chasing Pavements



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