Glasser: Apply

Here's a captivating song and video by this solo artist on the True Panther Sounds label. It is difficult to believe that one person can create such a fantastic combination of sounds and I am tempted to hear it live as she has a show coming up in my neck of the woods soon. The track is off her album, Ring.

Bravestation: White Wolves

This song is off a 2010 EP by what appears to be an up and coming Canadian rock band. I look forward to hearing a full album from these guys as the EP gets better each time I listen to it. They seem to have a knack for writing mulit-layered pop songs, which is a gift that should not be taken for granted. Their website is here.

Mayer Hawthorne

Mayer Hawthorne was born in Michigan and is channeling some of the great jazz and soul music that state has produced. The track below, Just Ain't Gonna Work Out, was released in 2008 and has one of the smoothest bass lines I've heard in a long time. If you're looking for a good break up song, this is it.

Tame Impala: Solitude is Bliss

This Australian band sounds straight out of the height of the psychedelic rock boom in the mid 1960's. And the music combined with the lead singer's accent makes me think of the Beatles' Rubber Soul album or something else from that period. This song is off the 2010 album InnerSpeaker.

Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs

Here's a track off the album God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise, just released last week. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I can only take LaMontagne's soulful voice in small doses, although I know it is that same voice that has won over so many of his fans. What do you think?

Devendra Banhart: Carmensita

This song/video is off a 2007 release, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, by Devendra Banhart. Why play a 1960's style rock song in Spanish and make the video look like something out of classic Bollywood? Who knows, but I like it. Natalie Portman makes an appearance as Princess Carmensita. Also check out Banhart's 2009 album What Will We Be, which includes a few catchy songs like the quirky single Baby.

Goran Bregovic: Mesecina

Here is a great live version of a wonderful Balkan song by Goran Bregovic and his Weddings and Funerals Orchestra. Bregovic's music mixes Balkan rhythms, pop elements, and a tremendous amount of energy--how can one not want to dance to this song?

Manu Chao: La Rumba De Barcelona

And since he's on my mind right now, here's one of my favorite songs by Manu Chao.

Manu Chao & Emir Kusturica

This clip isn't great musically (there are better versions of this song out there), but it is interesting in that you have a great director Kusturica who released a film documentary on the footballer Diego Maradona in 2008, and a popular musician, Manu Chao, singing his song La Vida Tombola, which talks about if the singer were Maradona. Since it looks like this was in an airport or some other public place, I wonder if these two just happened to bump into each other and realize they were both Maradona fans? Or maybe it was staged.

In any case, the clip is a little long, but keeping the above things in mind it is still entertaining.

Curumin: Misterio Stereo

The song below, Misterio Stereo, is from this Brazilian artist's 2008 album JapanPopShow. Curumin has an eclectic sound that is relaxed and carefree. His website is here.

Dane Rumble: Cruel

Dane Rumble is a New Zealand artist, which is kind of interesting in itself, but I also think this is a fun bit of pop music and could see him catching on in the United States if he can somehow get some air time. His first album, The Experiment, was released in March of this year.

I wonder if being in space helps his hair stand up like that?

One More Sharon Jones Song

Here's one more Sharon Jones song, I learned the Hard Way, from her 2010 album with the same title.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

When I first heard Sharon Jones and her band The Dap-Kings I thought it was a recording from forty plus years ago as their sound hearkens back to a time when Detroit, Michigan stood more for soul than empty skyscrapers and a bad economy. However, I soon learned that this Georgia-born New Yorker and her band were writing music right now. And right now you have to hear them. Think Motown, think James Brown . . . it's believable soul music.

Seraphic Fire

This is a Miami based chamber choir that has shot up the itunes classical charts with the recent release of a recording of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (1610). It is remarkable not only because of the level of skill necessary for a choir to perform the piece, but also because of the recording's pared-down approach to a work that is usually performed with a lot of bells and whistles (e.g. the Decca recording of John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir). Below they are singing Handel, but you should get the point that this is a group to be reckoned with.

Tiken Jah Fakoly

Tiken Jah Fakoly is a reggae artist from the Ivory Coast who, like so many reggae performers, writes music with a political message (why does that genre of music so easily lend itself to politicizing?). The apparent accuracy of his observations have increased his popularity and also earned him persona non grata status in Senegal. He is also unwelcome in his native country, which has forced him to live in Mali. Learn more about who he is and what he stands for on his website, hear a great song, below.

Sia

The Australian performer can put together an interesting music video, don't you think? Also check out her 2010 release, We Are Born.

Anjulie: Day Will Soon Come

Here's a smooth song and cool video from Canadian artist Anjulie. Her music is difficult to tag, as she blends many genres and tops it all off with what a wonderfully full and expressive pop-perfect voice. Think Nelly Furtado plus.

The Swell Season: Backbroke

This is a hypnotic version of a powerful song by the Swell Season performed by Glen Hansard, half of the duo you'll remember from the film Once. Hansard and the group's other half, Marketa Irglova (not in the clip), won an Oscar in 2007 for the song Falling Slowly from the same film.

Their most recent release was in 2009 entitled Strict Joy.

Two Door Cinema Club

This is a Northern Irish Indie Rock /Pop band that released their debut album, Tourist History, in March of this year. Apparently their name comes from the mispronunciation of the name of "Tudor Cinema" by a band member. Infer what you will from that, all I know is that the song Something Good Can Work, below, might mean we'll be hearing a lot more from these guys.

Cut Chemist

Here's a track off of Cut Chemist's 2010 release The Sound of the Police.

Gypsy.cz: Jednou

Fabulous song from Gypsy.cz, a Czech Romani hip hop group that has been on the rise in Europe for the last few years.

Delafe y las flores Azules: Espiritu Santo

This is a song full of contagious energy from the Barcelona based band Delafe y las flores Azules, a group that has a knack for writing catchy melodies while blending hip hop, pop, and rock elements. The folks at la blogotheque also have a live version of the same song filmed in Barcelona which I almost like more than the studio version here.

Ghost Bees

This Canadian duo is made up of twins Sari and Romy Lightman. Their debut album, Tasseomancy, was released in 2008. The track below, Sinai, was the stand-out song from that album. This is the kind of group that most people are either going to love or hate, their presentation is just too eccentric. I like their low-fi folksy feel, but the vocals begin to sound like fingernails on a chalkboard after 2 or 3 songs in a row.

Elvis

Elvis died 33 years ago this past Monday (August 16, 1977), here's one of my favorite songs by the king, Can't Help Falling in Love, from the film Blue Hawaii. What's your favorite Elvis tune?

Kocani Orkestar: Siki Siki Baba

Kocani Orkestar, a Romani brass band from Macedonia is energetic and entertaining. They have an overall sound that melds the traditional Balkan brass band with Middle eastern elements, although the latter isn't really present in the selection below. The following song, Siki Siki Baba, has to be one of the greatest party songs ever written. Don't believe me? Watch the following video and tell me you don't wish you could have been there.

Carmina Burana

I don't think the following song is available for purchase, but I ran across it on youtube while investigating something else and had to post it. The Carmina Burana is a medieval manuscript composed of over 200 Latin poems and dramatic pieces in addition to being a very famous piece of music most of you will know by the German composer Carl Orff. Orff's work was based upon a number of the poems in the medieval manuscript.

I'm not sure Orff was aware of the following poem from the Carmina Burana, but the bit below, In Taberna Quando Sumus by Arany Zoltan is a fun piece. Now, why don't you crank up the volume and party like it's 1299!

Ensemble Matheus & Philippe Jaroussky

Jaroussky is a wonderful counter-tenor and a master of melisma, which is the singing of multiple musical notes on a single syllable of text in, say, an opera. In 2007 he was named the best French lyrical artist. I am a huge fan of Vivaldi, and PJ's remarkable talent has enabled him to sing many pieces, like the one below, that have been more or less overlooked due to the demands on the singer's voice.

The Ensemble Matheus, founded and directed by Jean-Christophe Spinosi, is renowned for its performances of a very broad repertoire of 17th century to contemporary music, all on instruments of whatever time period the music they happen to be playing is from. That makes them not only musical artists, but musical historians, which gives them extra points on this blog.

The Ensemble Matheus' website is here.

You can't see the musicians or the singer in the clip below, but I've posted it anyway because it is one of my favorites:

Maxence

This French artist is writing powerful and poetic music. One part electronica one part pop, it is a fascinating world she creates, albeit a melancholy one. Below is a live performance but check out the studio track that can be heard on her website.

Etat d'urgence. Live 1
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Franco & Le TPOK Jazz

Born in 1938 in what is now Kinshasa, DRC, Francois L'Okanga La Ndju Pene Luambo Makiadi, a.k.a. Franco had a 35 year recording career that produced hundreds of singles and nearly 150 albums. He was known as "The Sorcerer of the Guitar," and without any formal training invented his own style, which when combined with his penchant for poetic, and often political lyrics made him perhaps the most popular artist of his generation in his native country and throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

The Sterns label has an excellent compendium of his music entitled, Francophonic--Africa's Greatest--A Retrospective that covers Franco's entire career which I heartily recommend. The following song, Liberte is one of the songs included.

Double Rainbow

By now you've all heard of the Gregory Brothers and their auto-tune the news project which has so many catchy (and hilarious) tunes. That being said, I dare you not to listen to the double rainbow song one more time.

Paco de Lucia

Born in 1947, this Spanish guitarist is arguably the best ever. While I know that there are some that reject the Modern Flamenco style of playing that he promotes, (and I am interested in that debate) please just watch the clip and be grateful to have had the opportunity to have heard this level of virtuosity. This is one of my favorites:

Flower of Scotland

The Scottish national anthem sung by the lads that wrote the song, The Corries. They have a tremendous body of folk music and it is hard to choose just one song to post, but this is certainly their flagship tune. Alba Gu Brath, as they say over there.

Garota de Ipanema, The Girl from Ipanema

Truly one of the greatest songs ever written made famous by the 1964 jazz album Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto.

Who is the girl? Apparently she actually exists, and is called Helo Pinheiro, but that isn't very interesting. The telling part is that Pinheiro was the muse for what Vinicius de Moraes, the man who wrote the original Portuguese lyrics called,

"the paradigm of the young Carioca: a golden teenage girl, a mixture of flower and mermaid, full of light and grace, the sight of whom is also sad, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of youth that fades, of the beauty that is not ours alone — it is a gift of life in its beautiful and melancholic constant ebb and flow."

Keep that description in mind the next time you listen to this song, or even better, listen to it right now, here:

Insanely Long Hiatus

The last time I posted on this blog was over THREE YEARS ago! It's unconscionable, because I've heard a lot of great music over that long period. And so, to make up for lost time and just to challenge myself, I'm going to do my best to post 36 posts in the next week or so. That equals one a month for the last three years and will get this blog's karma back in order.

After that, it's going to be a post a week at least!

Stay tuned!