Five Songs I'm Loving This Week

Lavendar Diamond, "You Broke My Heart" (from the album Calvary of Light)

What a gorgeous song and vocals! Her voice is absolutely beautiful and manages to reach a level of the atmosphere only Liz Fraser from Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush and another artist I posted recently, Nina Nastasia, has previously reached. Good company, huh? The Mp3 appears on Lavender Diamond's and Matador's website. The EP is available many places, including Amazon.


She's communicating with the birds until Prince Charming comes along. Lavender Diamond's American Label Site and Myspace. They even have a Wiki entry.

Fujiya & Miyagi "Collarbone"

This is so unlike something I usually like. I don't know why I like it, but I do. It's funky and sort of rocking. Well, I do occasionally like funky songs and occasionally songs that rock. Never before together, though. Perhaps they've hit on a secret formula for a new kind of music? "Collarbone" is from their recent album Transparent Things. It's available online at Beatport.


I hope the guy in front of the steering wheel is driving. Maybe they're parked. Fujiya & Miyagi's Myspace and Website.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow, "Game of Pricks"

I found this Guided By Voices cover on Liza's covers site "Copy, Right?". I love GBV, so despite me never having heard of the band, I listened to it (eh, I haven't heard of most bands I end up loving, anyway). The vocals are layered over to the point of being unintelligible, invoking the old days of My Bloody Valentine and Low. I wish the vocals were a little clearer, but they obviously intended the song to have a shoegaze feel, though it's a lot more spry than most shoegaze I know of. Maybe it's shoegaze-curious. It flirts with shoegaze, but retains its energy. "Game of Pricks" is not from their new album, Scribble Mural Comic Journal. Their website lists the song on their debut EP, The Sunniest Day Ever, but they list it as the "Dueling Banjos Version". I didn't notice any dueling banjos in this song, so I can't attest that this version if from that EP. It could be unreleased.

Dude, the label head started the label just for them. How cool is that? The EP with "Game of Pricks" is sold out, but their debut album is available for pre-order.


I think the sisters are starting to suspect that the boys aren't Glaswegians. Their Website, Label Site and Myspace

Oh No! Oh My!, "I Have No Sister"

That's sad that the singer never had a sister. Oh no--he says he never had a sister that the other person didn't like. Well, that's good, right? Why is he complaining? Oh, he's complaining because he never had a girlfriend for more than 3 months. That does suck. C'mon, man! It's time to get moving with that! You're not getting any younger!

Anyways, though the lyrics are ambiguous, I really like the song. I have nothing to compare it to, except maybe a more assertive Belle and Sebastian. Yeah, that's good. Belle and Sebastian done non twee-like. I first heard the band on Woxy's Live in the Lounge series.

I read on their biography page of their website that they're going to audio engineering school. That is awesome. Not only will it help them produce their own music but it'll open up future possibilities in the music business in case they decide to expand into producing other bands. .

Oh No! Oh My! are hanging out at Woxy. "I Have No Sister" is from their debut album--buy it here, as well as other places. The band's Website and Myspace...

Airliner, "Nostalgia"

Ooh! Horns! Jangly sounds! Hushed male vocals! So many things I love!

They're Swedish! Further proving that I just frikkin' love Swedish music-- It's just awesome.

It's not a new song, though. Their label site is in English, but it doesn't tell me much except that this song is from their debut album from 2002. Hope they keep recording! I couldn't find a website, but here's where you can buy the album.


Airliner, The last days of august

Wait--I'm not done with the post yet. Don't skedaddle like Chad Vader's friends! I got a little more to talk about:

Sigur Ros went to Swaziland to visit HIV positive children and made this photo stream of it. It takes a few minutes to go through, but it's worth it to put faces to the stories we hear out of that part of the world. Most of our children are healthy. For the most part, we don't know what it's like to live in those circumstances. It's good to try to open ourselves up to what people outside of our immediate reach are going through.

***

I've been talking about Duran Duran with an LJ friend of mine (hi Hunterxtc!) because we both love the band. That sent me on a Youtube spree yesterday morning. I watched "Wild Boys", "Hungry Like The Wolf" and several Arcadia videos. I also watched the greatest Duran Duran video ever...certainly one of the most provocative music videos I've ever seen (short of Madonna's "Justify My Love".

Blogger hasn't been letting me embed Youtube videos, so I'm linking to Duran Duran, "The Chauffeur" (Uncensored) on Youtube. This is not work-safe (unless you work in Germany or a porn store). If you're sensitive about seeing half-naked women covorting around, then don't watch this.

I loved Duran Duran growing up. I still love them, of course, but some of the magic and mystery has been weaned away from me. You know what they say--the little girl

grows up and suddenly the five magical, mysterious men become middle-aged men wearing too much glitter and make-up.

Anyways, when I was about 12 or 13, I bought Sing Blue Silver, the Duran Duran video collection. All of my favorite videos were on there: "Rio," "Hungry Like The Wolf", "Save A Prayer" and "Is There Something I Should Know". I was ecstatic (to the point of almost passing out) to find out it had a video for my favorite D2 song, "The Chauffeur". As far as I had known, there was no video for it. There'd never been one on MTV, and my video watching didn't extend past MTV or Friday Night Videos back then (this was pre-internet, kids).

I had no idea just what that video would be like.

If you watch it, you may understand why I watched it 14 times every day (I probably killed the rewind button on our VCR) and why I took great pains to keep my mother from

seeing it (to the point of throwing myself on the TV when she walked in).

I felt like such a grown-up after watching this video...perhaps I was.

**
Okay, y'all can go eat dinner and talk to your loved ones. I will do my best to do the podcast tonight. It's almost 7:30...