Five Songs I'm Loving This Week

This is the "I'm doing this in-between Red-Carpet sightings" version of my Five Songs list, so if I say something about Keira Knightly or lambast some foolish person's choice of clothes, then just ignore it. It's Oscar related.

The first song is by Jonathon, Inc., and it's called "Reading Between the Lines". The first time I heard it I thought it was little slow for me, but then something about the way he turns the phrases "days begin to separate" and "I don't want to be on the other sign of convincing" just totally won me. I really like the way the melody lifts in those parts.

The song is available on their site, and they also have a really nice-looking Myspace site. Oh, and they're Canadians! Canada produces some of the best music, in my very knowledgable opinion ;) I'd like to buy this record because it sounds like their albums run out of print after awhile.

Is that Charleze Theron? Very understated tonight.

"Dreaming While Awake" by Plain Jane Automobile is really nice--It's very languid; almost shoegaze-y, but it doesn't become lost inside its own introspection. I like it. They're fellow Floridians, too. Cool, huh?

The next two songs are from South By Southwest's roster. One day I will go to SXSW. Not this upcoming day because---well, I wish I could go. Anyone? Anyone in Austin? Sandra Bullock? Don't you still live there? (You look fabulous tonight, btw). Matthew McConaughey? You're hot and I'd play bongo drums with you after the shows. Contact is my favorite movie (really). Please?

The first one is by Julie Doiron, and it's called "Snow Falls in November". There's always a
temptation to compare an artist to other artists. That's generally not helpful in describing someone or something (like saying a couch is like a sofa. Okay...) but I will just say that her voice reminds me of Leslie Feist's, and her music would be at home on the same label or on the
same cd shelf as Feist's. Like a lot of Feist's songs, this song is light, lively and extremely engaging. It makes me want to stay somewhere and wait for November (even if I would miss SXSW, which I'm unlikely to go to anyway).

I am really fond of the next SXSW website-featured song, "Forever and a Day" by Her Space
Holiday. It's really just one guy (a lot of "bands" I like are really one musician) and though I haven't heard any of his other songs, I will say this song is fantastic. Oh God--here she goes with more comparisons. Okay, so the song reminds me of The Eels. I love The Eels, so that's not a bad thing at all. It's probably been hard for him to escape those comparisons (sorry), but they are inevitable. Bright pop song + Guy from California= Eels Comparison. The song stands on its own, though--all comparisons aside.

Lastly, I'm not sure how many people reading this (Actually I'm not sure how many people are reading this period) remember 1988. I remember it very well because...because I have a really good memory for one who was so young in 1988, or something. Anyway, one of the best things about 1988 was The Travelling Wilburys. It was the last time we saw Roy Orbison--I remember because in the video for "Handle With Care", a chair is pointedly left empty to signify where he would've sat. Of course now George Harrison is gone, also. I don't know if Jenny Lewis will leave two chairs empty in her video for "Handle With Care" (would be an awesome idea, though, huh?) but hearing her version takes me back to 1988. I miss Roy's voice, of course, but her voice is one of the best "country" voices we have now and the song is served well by her friends Conor Oberst (also Rilo Kiley labelmate & label-owner), Ben Gibbard (former Rilo labelmate) and M. Ward (just one of the most awesomest singer/writers out there). They understand and totally capture the magic of the original. They let the song be the star, as it should be.

Man, speaking of stars--Rachel Weisz is so pretty. Why couldn't I have been her? That would've been awesome.

Bonus: There's no way to download Blow Up Hollywood's "Coming Home", but it's a nice song (and I keep imagining Frank 'N Furter up on the stage with eye makeup streaming everytime I hear the phrase "coming home"). You can hear it on their Myspace. Also, they do have some mp3's available on their site; I haven't listened to them yet. One of them may end up on my Five Songs list.

Also, I'm learning how to do podcasts on GCast. The quality isn't as good (40KBS), but you
know how it goes. At least it's an easy way to hear the songs. You can either download the whole podcast as an mp3, download each song as an mp3 or subscribe to the podcast. If anyone wants to subscribe but doesn't know how podcasting works, just reply here or e-mail me and I'll walk you through it. I'm not going to be including any recent (or so I've decided for now) big-label songs because I like to remain un-sued. With that said, if anyone wants off my podcast, just let me know and I'll delete it. I don't expect anyone I include to be unhappy about it--it's free advertisement, and most of the bands I like need to be exposed more.

Anyways, my podcasting skills are still in the, uh, tadpole phase so what I have up now is just an experiment. I expect to start including podcasts to augment my Five Songs list. At some point I may use that format instead of posting the links--it's certainly a lot easier!

So, have I been mispronouncing Jake Gyllenhal's name this whole time? It's pronounced "Jillenhal"? Damn. That means I've been misprouncing Maggie Gyllenhal's name, too. Damn--shamed twice. At least I can spell it, though. According to IMDB.com, he's thanked in
Phantom Planet's Guest album. I have that cd. I never noticed.