- Phoenix’s latest CD - good melodic electro-pop
- Them Crooked Vultures - fun heavy stuff
- MGMT Oracular Spectacular - love their hits and track #4 Electric Feel which is in 6/8 time (I think) but totally grooves…
- Norah Jones’ newest - love the keyboard tones on some stuff, but not stand out
- Cannonball Adderly featuring Bill Evans on piano - can’t remember the name, but hey, it’s Cannonball and Bill - it’s amazing (jazz combo from the early 60’s with Adderly on sax)
- Massive Attack - Blue Lines - just going back to take it in…
Latest 10 full albums loaded onto my iPod:
Orbital - Oribital 20
Vampire Weekend - Contra
The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Various Artists - Ultra.Dance 11
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
O.A.R - All Sides
Daft Punk - Homework
Daft Punk - Discovery
Organized Konfusion - Best of Organized Konfusion
Timbaland - Shock Value II
Plus I loaded a bunch of random songs consisting of current top-40 rock, pop and dance, some 90s trip-hop, some indie rock tunes, etc.
Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend is also very good if you haven’t heard it. They are also pretty good live.
Rediscovering… Fairport Convention… a nice two disc complilation… RIP Sandy Denny… and Some Eric Dolphy… both solo and with Mingus…
Also… Fleetwood Mac at Chess… funny it was released the month i was born… Peter Green… Jeremy Spencer… and Shakey Horton…
I mostly listen to indie stuff of varying stripes, and I blog about what I’ve enjoyed every month. This month I’ve rejected a lot more mp3s than I’ve kept, running about 30 keep vs 800 discard…apparently I’m in a fickle mood lately. Maybe I should have rethought the “hey, I know, I’ll listen to all the artists in my downloads folder who begin with U-W this month” idea.
Better late than never! Which song do you like best? For me it’s a toss up between their cover of the Buzzcocks’ “Ever Fallen In Love?” and Bauhaus’ "“Bela Lugosi’s Dead.”
I’ve been listening to a lot of John Coltrane lately. Before I’d only ever heard him on Kind of Blue, so when I listened to his version of “My Favorite Things” it was a revelation to me. I went to looking for more and bought some records (the Thelonius Monk quartet with John Coltrane live on Carnegie Hall is amazing) and then I bought A Love Supreme. I feel like an idiot for never listening to it before, it just may become my favorite album ever.
I’m also listening to a lot of Brubeck. The recording of the quartet live on Carnegie Hall is amazing as is the (apparently) underrated Jazz Impressions of Japan. Looking in the internet I’ve read some unflattering things about Dave’s playing, but I just don’t hear it. I love his piano. I’ve also bought My Funny Valentine, by the Miles Davis quintet and it’s great. My next buy will definitively be another album by these guys. A relative has recommended me both Wayne Shorter and Ornette Coleman, but so far I hated some of their stuff and loved some of it, so I’m still on the fence.
Let’s see - Duffy, Julian Casablancas, Lindsay Ell, A Fine Frenzy, and Elbow. I was listening to Them Crooked Vultures but I only like their song “New Fang” so far. You probably haven’t heard of Lindsay Ell - yet. She’s young, blonde, pretty, and plays blues guitar, sings, and writes music - I think she’s got a future ahead of her in the music biz (we saw her opening for Chris Isaak).
I came back to state this as well - i forgot to include Contra on my list.
I think VW has the potential to have a Steely Dan-like career - archer-than-thou academic lyrics, great musicianship, arrangements and production and songs that are accessible and poppy yet seem to be built of other stuff. In the case of SDan, it was jazzy and with VW it’s world-beat-ier, but still…
I think both CD’s are great - the only rhyme I wish Ezra had left off is saying how he’d enjoy horchata even with a foot on Masada. Just too silly.
Joanna Newsom’s new (triple) album came out yesterday - Amazon is currently in the process of shipping it to me, but in the meantime, I’ve been listening to it on npr.org.
The Beach Boys and Throbbing Gristle have been my main ones for the last week or two, at the risk of sounding like a terrible wanker.
And my Last.fm says I’ve been having a bit of a Thurston Moore thing, and I’ve actively been trying to get into the Beatles - though that’s been more of a “Abbey Road on whilst doing the dishes” thing rather than a proper sit-down listen.
I’m trying to get my brain around Pavement’s entire back catalogue as well, because I’m going to their ATP in May and I’ve never really been into them :smack:
Fever Ray’s album of the same name; dark, weird, melodic and delicious. It’s been a long time since I liked anything modern as much as this.
That and reggae in Venetian dialect. 
Been listening to the following lately:
Sly and the Family Stone-Live at Woodstock
Rage Against the Machine-Evil Empire
By the way, **Le Ministre **- I have a Tallis Scholars CD - Best of the Renaissance (Amazon link) - very cool stuff; very Sunday morning ethereal, open and vast. I wish I had the bandwidth to dig more into stuff like that and the contemporary symphonic stuff I have heard like Arvo Part…
VW has a sort of unique sound that’s sort of a cross between a Jam Band and New Wave. And the lyrics and album artwork has a sort of lates 90s New England prep school college frat party feel to them but without feeling douchey or pretentious.
Mostly music free the last few weeks, listening to audiobooks while driving - Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, Roth’s The Plot Against America and Tony Hillerman’s Dance Hall of the Dead.
Before the hiatus I was listening to Dan Auerbach’s solo album Keep It Hid. A few nights ago I happened upon Diana Krall doing A Case of You, and, having seen her, Melody Gardot and Madeleine Peyroux in concert last month, gave it a few plays.
I’m currently loving the Broken Bells album (lead singer of The Shins with Danger Mouse).
…with at bit of Paul Simon’s Graceland. I love their first album.