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Opening music:

Don Lennon
"A Secret Band" (mp3)
from "Radical"
(Martin Philip Associates)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Pale Young Gentlemen, "Fraulein" (downloaded from their Myspace)

Website

Chris Robley, "Culture Jammers"

Website
Myspace

White Williams, "New Violence"

Label Site
Myspace

*I was a little worried about a guy named White singing about new violence--I don't want to inadvertantly support racial supremism. I saw this picture, though, and I kinda figured this guy isn't a Nazi.

The Long Winters, "Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas (Sometimes)" (part of this charity compilation)

Website
Myspace

Blood on the Wall, "Hibernation"

Myspace
Insound Page (the band's site is under construction)

Suffering and the Hideous Thieves, "I Will Always Find a Way" (this song is a few years old, but I'd never heard it, so...)

Label Site (the website listed redirects to a link farm)
Myspace

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By


Camphor, "Confidences Shattered" (Thanks to Fingertips for the link to the mp3)

Okay, stop giggling at the name. I know at least some of you are. I know I am. I'm also amused with the lyrics: "You cleaned us out while we were blind, stole our car and drank our wine. Fumbled around inside our drawers, crept in and kept us up until dawn." Oh, stop chiding me. I'm not a sadist. Not most of the time, anyway. I'm not laughing at someone getting robbed (though I did giggle a little when he said someone was fumbling inside his drawers). It only made me smile when I realized he's talking about someone he knows, not a random burglary: "Charm and grace with a devious style, a beautiful face and a dangerous smile..." I think of a beautiful siren from a 40's movie--upswept hair, red lip gloss, severe shoulder pads. Er, that's probably 'cause I just saw Blade Runner again. Anyway, once you get over giggling at the band's name, you'll notice that this song is a folk-flavored, rousin' country song, complete with "someone done me wrong" lyrics and a great sing-a-long opportunity.

Website
Myspace


One of the members of Camphor is named Whip. Hee hee.

Vandaveer, "However Many Takes It Takes"

Vandaveer is one guy: Mark Charles Heidinger. The name Vandaveer does roll off the tongue more easily, unless he wanted to shorten his name into one of those trendy McShort names, like: MkChuck. Cool, huh? No? You're right--he doesn't seem much like a MkChuck. There's nothing trendy or flippant about him. He makes me think of an American Alexi Murdoch. His voice is comforting--the sound of his humming burrows itself into my consciousness. His words make sense to me--I believe him when he says I have to take it as it comes, however many takes it takes. The part about doing it with a smile on my face can be difficult, but I understand the message of the song--it's a hard message, but one he dispenses with kindness. The fairy tales aren't real, and no amount of small comforts we grant ourselves will make us feel as solid as we once did. We have to make our own tales, accepting that they won't always go the way we want or intend.

Website
Myspace


This is Vandaveer

Chris Bathgate, "A Flash of Light Followed By" (Thanks to Songs Illinois)

This starts out soft and rather bare--the singer's warm, warbling voice rolls in and out of the starkly played guitar. Just when I've settled in for a beautiful melody so light it seems to skip over me, the reverb kicks in, horns (!) rear in and I feel like I'm listening to some of the cacophonic brilliance of the 80s and 90s 4AD label (with maybe a little less disorder than the great 4AD songs). A song like this shouldn't be heard on tiny headphones. It should be heard with huge stereo speakers--you know, the kind that don't come with your computer (I'm not chiding--I don't have any anymore, either).

Website
Myspace


Little do most people know that the hoodie is actually the key to Chris Bathgate's uncanny song-crafting ability.

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By


The Avett Brothers, "If It's the Beaches"

Lola's letting her folky side show today. What? You didn't know I had any other side? Okay, fair enough. Yeah, I like the folk music. I love music that sounds like it was ghost-written by heartbreak, in a wooded area, surrounded only by a creek and maybe a small wooden cabin. Of course this guy is offering every type of scenery available: the beach, the mountain--whatever his love wishes. I'd settle for the wooded area, the creek and the cabin.

Yeah, and now that I'm reading their website, I'm finding out they were here in Jacksonville a few weeks ago. Maybe he could get me a time machine too :)

Website
Myspace


The Avett Brothers are waiting for you to decide whether you want the beaches or the mountains. They're very patient like that.

Marla Hansen, "Wedding Day"

This is a little different than the folk music I usually listen to; the viola is downright Appalachian in its sparse pluckiness. A clarinet comes in to add a little bit of noir soul. Her voice has the tremulous wavering of the British singer Beth Orton. The song is an inventive mixture of contexts--befitting of a musician who has worked in so many different styles: classical, hip-hop (Jay-Z, Kanye West), modern folk (Sufjan Stevens), modern rock (The National) and modern enigmatic (My Brightest Diamond, whom I absolutely adore).

Website
Myspace


Marla Hansen is so pretty. I love the way the flower looks in her hair.

Alaska in Winter, "Close Your Eyes - We are Blind"

Before you say "This sounds like Beirut!", first know: This is partly Beirut. Also: Beirut's style is so awesome that I welcome it in as many songs as possible. Also: the first time I heard Beirut, I thought "That sounds like Devotchka!" Then I realized that I loved the Eastern European style so much that I welcomed it in any song. It's so grandly festive. It makes me feel like I'm part of some great gypsy caravan, stopping for a few hours' celebration, lighting a bonfire to ward off the dark and the snow on these well-travelled roads. Yes, I always make up stories for the songs I hear.

Website
Myspace


Alaska in Winter

from "Dance Party In The Balkans"
(Regular Beat Recording)
Buy at Amazon

Podcast!!

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Opening music:

Don Lennon
"A Secret Band" (mp3)
from "Radical"
(Martin Philip Associates)
Buy at iTunes Music Store

The Rumble Strips, "Alarm Clock" (Thanks to Fingertips for the tip)

Myspace
Website

The Raveonettes, "Aly Walk With Me"

Website
Myspace

The Winter Sounds, "Windy City Nights" (The original .mp3 from Last.Fm isn't working)

Website
Myspace

The Hourly Radio, "Not a Victim" (Gemini Remix)

Website
Myspace

The Octopus Project, "Truck" (Thanks again to Fingertips)

Website
Myspace

Seabear, "I Sing I Swim"

Website
Myspace

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

Cass McCombs, "That's That"

Never has anyone confessed in such a charming and smooth manner to having a job cleaning toilets. The soothing salve of his voice makes it sound mysterious and adventurous. Like a 007 theme song written for the average young American male. It very much reminds me of the way I felt when I heard the song "Might as Well" by Something For Rockets--like I was experiencing something immensely comforting and a little crude at the same time. I love the doo-wopness (?) of this song, too--a throwback to the 50s--a time when the public face of this country was all homespun goodness, but with an undertone of sinisterness and rawness.

Website
Myspace


Cass McCombs, not cleaning toilets at the moment

The Purrs, "She's Got Chemicals"

Hmm...he never comes outright and says what this song is about. She's got chemicals, but are they external chemicals or her own chemistry? Afterall, he says it was their "chemistry" that used to keep them together. Okay, so he says "he used to be a teenager drug digger"...but was it the drug of love or a drug of the brain? Aren't the two similar? I mean, they both impair your judgement and they both occasionally make you throw up. Regardless of whether the chemicals are of the external variety or the naturally occurring-in-human variety, this is a kicking song. It's got a cascading guitar intro and the sort of fuzzed out vocals I remember from the heady days of the 1990s. Yes, psychedelic rock. It never truly leaves us, and I am glad. This psychedelia is a clearer brand than its progeniters--the music doesn't completely overpower the vocals and the instruments are decipherable, unlike the psych power pop of my early days.

Website
Myspace


Shh...The Purrs hear something purring in the next room.

The Veils, "The Very Scary Trees"

I first heard The Veils 3 years ago with their excellent song "The Tide That Left and Never Came Back". This, along with a few others songs, is what made me realize that I really loved discovering music. I'd always loved music, but it had never occurred to me to actively go out and hunt for it (with my laptop and an RSS reader as my companions and weapons). This song is actually older than that, but since I've got a legal mp3, we're going to pretend it's brand new. Alot has happened to The Veils since this song came out. They changed labels (nearly losing rights to their back catalog) and dramatically changed members. This song shares a quality with the other songs I've heard from them--there's a lightness here, but that doesn't mean it's without gravity. It's grounded, but with a very strong pull--lulling me, yet similtaneously grabbing my hands and pulling, like a kid pulling another kid towards some imaginary wonder. Like the Cass McCombs song above, there's a slightly 50's doowop sound, but the song isn't a throwback--the sound works for this song. The song wears the 50s style like a stylish girl wears a vintage velvet jacket.

from "Vells"
(Luckyhorse Industries)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic


Myspace
Website


The Veils heard the purring also, and it was so strong it knocked them down

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By


Marco Mahler, "Design in Quick Rotation"

I'm just going to listen to this song over and over. Probably twenty times tonight. It's okay--I'm wearing headphones. I understand that though I revel in listening to the same song dozens of times, others don't. I don't want my boyfriend or my cats planning mutiny in this apartment. I will not be exiled. I will be enveloped by Marco Mahler's voice and I will be carried along by the current of this music. When I open my eyes it will be morning. If I have any candles lit, please someone blow them out for me. Thank you.

Website
Myspace


Marco Mahler looks humble (or like he's deciding whether to pick something off the floor)

Tulsa, "Shaker"

There's a haziness over this song--a gauziness that's probably the effect of modulation, but makes it sound like it was recorded from a distance. I like that out-of-placeness. Maybe I like it because my hearing is shot (what? what? My speakers are too loud?) and all sounds are filtered for me. Maybe it's because I always feel like there's a thin layer between me and the world. Maybe it's cause I like cool vocal effects. On the band's Myspace they label their music as Jungle and state that they're "Independent as a Hog". That makes me laugh. They're independent and kind of shoe-gazy in a non-whiny, non-pointless way. I love it.

Website
Myspace


Tulsa are also deciding whether to pick something.

Rebekah Higgs, "Parables" (Thanks to Fingertips for introducing me to this song)

Be prepared to be thrown off-kilter by this song and this musician. Be prepared to not be able to pinpoint her. If you're not mindful, you could lump her in with a number of whispy-voiced female singers. Yes, her voice skips on the wind, but there is so much more to her and her music. Just her list of influences on Myspace show a confluence of qualities in her personality. She lists Youtube, disgust and old Judy Garland movies, among other things, as her influences. This song is equally layered. A verse will end and suddenly you realize that her voice is almost imperceptably repeating the verse in the background, almost indistinguishable from the gorgeous violin. Many instances of her voice play and intermingle among the instruments. It's a challenge to parse the song.

Website
Myspace


Oh my God! Rebekah Higgs is totally a blonde Kate Bush! I'm not kidding! Wow, she's awesome.

Bonus!!!

Video:

Menomena, "Rotten Hell"

Letters to Cleo, "Awake" (Yes, these were the 90s. I miss them.)

Podcast!!

Episode 33, Not that song!

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*Of course, by "that song", I mean the very last song. No cheating! Listen to the whole podcast and find out what "that song" is!

Opening music:

Don Lennon
"A Secret Band" (mp3)
from "Radical"
(Martin Philip Associates)
Buy at iTunes Music Store

Ra Ra Riot, "Suspended in Gaffa" (Kate Bush cover) (Not a direct download)

Myspace
Website

Tunng, "Arms"

Label Website
Myspace

Foreign Born, "Into Your Dreams"

Myspace
Website

Siberian, "Paper Birds"

Website
Myspace

Luke Temple, "Medicine"

Website
Myspace

Orba Square, "Gravel"

and

Orba Square, "Perfect Timing (This Morning)"

Their Site
Myspace

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

Why?, "The Hollows"

It's not often that I listen to a song and think "Man, that singer sounds like a bad-ass". Let's be honest--with most of the music I listen to, I might be more likely to think something like "Man, that singer sounds like a light wind could blow him over" or "I wonder if the O.C. ever played this song." With this song, though, I really got a down-on-his-luck, been around the block too many times kind of feel. Though it does make me laugh when he says he's been hiding behind a mustache.

Website
Myspace


Due to the extreme gravitas of Why?, their hair is in a constant state of flux

Ravens and Chimes, "January"

I love the piano in this and the melody is absolutely habit-forming. The guy sounds a little like Win Butler from Arcade Fire, and a little like some dude from the 60's I think was named Tiny Tim (or was that a dream I had?) The singer wraps the song with a kind of carnivalesque vocal style that consciously punches each note, articulating each syllable so that every moment feels absolutely real, absolutely immediate, as if the song is being re-lived every time it's played.

Website
Myspace
Label Site


Ravens and Chimes look like a close-knit group


Di Johnston
"Epilogue"(mp3) from "Reimagined"


This song is so quiet, so slight that you might not hear it if you don't have the volume all the way up. You might barely detect the shimmering tones and think maybe your brain integrated the music you heard last time you were at the masseuse. Or, you may think that you died and this is the music you hear when you're crossing over. If you turn the volume up, though, you'll realize that this is a flesh-and-blood song, made by a (I presume) flesh-and-blood person who really knows how to have a calming influence. She reminds me of Enya in her most quietest moments--you know, when she's not blasting in Latin or Gaelic with the sound of a storm ripping the background apart (I love you, Enya).

(Undercover Culture Music)

Website
Myspace

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody



Di Johnston has eyes for you (or for herself, or really, I guess, for the mirror)