Category: music

I first heard (Share a Little) Shelter by Miami-based Nuclear Valdez (so named for their friend Valdez who had a horrible temper) on KFOG’s 10 at 10. They’ve got the naive majesty of happy-alt-means-arena-rock begun in the early 1980s by The Alarm and Big Country and carried us through the early 1990s by The Farm and Collective Soul. They’ve been making an album every several years since the have toured as recently as last year. Based on the infectious little triump of “Shelter”, I may have to see what else they’ve got.

Enjoy!

I wish Nick Hornby wrote about music more often. I think I liked his pieces in the New Yorker as much or more as his novels.

So I was thrilled when my buddy Mark pointed me to an Op-Ed Hornby did in the New York Times about rock music, youth and the imagined divide between high and low culture. I offer it here for your reading pleasure.

Ok, this is not a story. It’s filler dressed up as a lifestyle feature because it happens to be about the iPod. Can we just admit at this point that there is very little interesting left to say about the iPod until the next version comes out? What’s next? My iPod is Named Bruce! FILM AT 11!

My friend Shannon puts together a mix every year for her friends. On the last one was a stunning little number called “Molinos” by Vancouver-based Celtic-pop band The Paperboys, whom I had never heard of until right then. Now I love celtic music so a rapid flute and pipe action usually means I’m a goner. But this song goes one better and lays the whole thing over, get this, a hip-hop beat. The first four bars of the song sound like the opening of Coolio’s “Fantastic Voyage” then the acoustic guitars come in. Then the shimmering harmonies. Then the celtic dueling. It’s like biting into a layer cake and never hitting crust.

Have a listen. And let me know what you think.

…is Carl Lewis with a singing career (via Crabwalk).

I discovered Georgia-based singer/songwriter Jennifer Daniels through the August/September issue of Paste Magazine. Her song “Welcome to Your Life, a soaring, yet fundamentally sweet and intimate ballad, made their monthly sampler CD and I’m happy to feature it here. See if you can resist Jennifer’s voice, which reminds me of a river sparkling in the sun.

I couldn’t.

Update: I had to take the song down as the upload is painfully slow. If you’re still curious, let me know and I will mail it to you.

On the last edition of Sunday Morning Shards, I mentioned the absolutely infectious pop grooves of Boston-based Fooled by April. Well, it only took three phone calls and two tech-support emails but I’ve managed to upload their best song “Come in Chicago”, to this here blog. Enjoy!

Does anyone know how to upload MP3’s to one’s blog using Typepad? Those MP3 blogs sure do seem to be having a lot of fun.

I’ve been waiting patiently for an eternity in web time (maybe a year) for a mac version of Launch.com, Yahoo’s customizable radio station that not only streams your favorite music but suggests songs based on your favorites as well. Plain old streaming radio doesn’t do this because you usually have to choose a station by genre (who only listens to one genre?). iTunes only lets you stream what you already own (where’s the discovery in that?). Rhapsody and Launch both do this but are Windows only, a not-so-subtle line in the sand to the galloping hordes of iPod users.

Via the Mp3Blogs aggregator, I found Last FM, which might be the answer to my prayers. It works through iTunes, it lets you create your station and will suggest based on how closely your stations matches other like you.

I haven’t quite figured out how it works yet. Like I tried to play my friend James’s station and my friend Josh’s and all I got was a one minute sample track and nothing telling me what I was listening to. (*loud hint*) Perhaps these two can help me out.

Suzan was kind enough to accompnay me to Slim’s last night to see The Polyphonic Spree in concert. She thinks they are big and stupid and happy and I can’t enough of them. So she spent the better part of the show coming up with ways to describe this 28-member musicial happening, which we both decided is half the fun of the Spree anyway.

1. Music for everyone who misses Fraggle Rock.

2. A Generation X reminder that someone still loves you.

3. The ABBA Tabernacle Choir.

4. Pink Floyd meets The Muppets.

5. The Flaming Lips do Jesus Christ Superstar.

6. Your high school band and choir after 10 years in a commune.