Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. If you actually read this blog then thank you.

Paste's Top 10 Albums - 2008

So I can't believe that year-end lists are already coming out but here is Paste Magazines Top 10 (the magazine actually has Top 50, but who remembers anything out of the Top 10, right)

10. Deerhunter - Microcastle
9. Lucinda Williams - Little Honey
8. Sun Kil Moon - April
7. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
6. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
5. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
3. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
2. Sigur Ros - (Something in Icelandic)
1. She & Him - Vol 1

I, personally, have only heard the middle 5 (from 3-7) which are pretty good. I guess we'll just have to wait for Blender's Top 10 to see how they compare.

Kanye Leaks Yet Another Song

Kanye just leaked the third (or fourth or fifth?) song of his 808's and Heartbreaks album, due on November 24th.

It is called Amazing and it follows suite with all the other songs by using more traditional song beats and, of course, an auto-tune.

And it isn't just a stream. You can also download the mp3.

Check it out:
Amazing

Little Joy Video

This is a member of the Strokes? Yes.

Gang Gang Dance - Live in France

Notable Releases - Nov 11, 2008

Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Love Is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night
The Flaming Lips - Christmas on Mars DVD
Black Lips - Black Lips!
Luomo - Convival
Kid 606 - Die Soundboy Die
Freq Nasty - FabricLive.42
Robert Wyatt - Various Re-releases
Isobell Campbell - Sunday at Devil Dirt
Rick Springfield - Tao
Ray LaMontagne - Gossip in the Grain
Burial - DJ Kicks

The last one is the only one that really interests me. It is a pretty boring week for new releases.

DJ /Rupture Video

So, I gave in and downloaded this album off of Amazon. As most of you know, I really like forward thinking electronic/DJ music and so far this mix is pretty friggin' ridiculously good.

Anyways, this is the video for the first song off of the album. I hope you enjoy it.

5 Power Pop Classics

Big Star - "The Ballad of El Goodo"

The quintessential power pop band.




The Raspberries - "Go All The Way"

The song starts out with a Who-esque guitar onslaught before giving way to some fairly lame crooning, which only lasts for a few seconds before the waves of classic harmonies come in. Dorky goodness.




Teenage Fanclub - "The Concept"

It's kind of crazy that Spin named a power pop album, Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, the #1 album of 1991, ahead of Nirvana's Nevermind. This song is the leadoff track from that album, a power pop epic.




The Exploding Hearts - "Throwaway Style"

I subscribe to the theory that if The Exploding Hearts had lived to make another album, they would have become the forerunners of a new power pop movement. Dammit.




Chris Bell - "I Am The Cosmos"

Feel free to ignore the lame fan-made video (nice star wipes!).

New Wilco!!

Jeff Tweedy and Wilco showed up on The Colbert Report last week and after Stephen interviewed Jeff, Wilco played a new song: Wilco The Song

I know. That is the most original title for a song ever.

The Very Best Mixtape

Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit (aka The Very Best) will be releasing their first mixtape tomorrow, Nov 1. You can get it here at Wooden Vinyl a day early. Check it out. All the detail are below.



You can dowload here or here. (I had better luck with the second link, and the file is a .zip so just extract the contents for the actual songs)

1) Kamphopo (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya, music: Architecture In Helsinki - Heart It Races)
2) Wena (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya & Bleksem, music: DJ Cleo - Wena)
3) Tengazako (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya, music: M.I.A - Paper Planes)
4) Chikondi (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya, music: Hans Zimmer - True Romance Theme)
5) Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (The Very Best Remix) (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya, music: Radioclit & Vampire Weekend)
6) Hide And Seek (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya & Teki Latex, music: TTC - Batards Sensibles)
7) Salota (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya and Blk Jks, music: Cannibal Ox - Life’s Ill)
8) Boyz (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya, Akon & M.I.A, music: M.I.A -Boyz)
9) Sister Betina (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya & Mgarimbe, music: Mgarimbe - Sister Betina)
10) Birthday (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya & The Ruby Suns, music: The Ruby Suns)
11) Funa Funa (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya, music: Radioclit)
12) Kada Manja (classic version) (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya, music: Radioclit)
13) Dinosaur Of The Lost Ark (The Very Best remix) (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya & Ben Brewer, music: Bermuda)
14) Get it Up (The Very Best Remix) (vocals : Esau Mwamwaya, Santogold, M.I.A & Northern Cree, music: Radioclit)
15) Will You Be There (vocals: Esau Mwamwaya & Michael Jackson, music: Michael Jackson - Will You Be There)

How can you pass up a mixtape that is free and finishes off the set with Michael Jackson?

Classic of the Day

Here is your classic song of the day...Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Baby Neil!!!!

One of our good friends, Neil, has a birthday today. We want to wish him the bestest birthday ever and play some of his favorite songs in his honor.

This is for you, Neil:















PS.. the last song is his favorite chant of all time and in the picture at the top that is him on the left

Guns n' Roses New Song Finally Released

It is called Chinese Democracy. I listened to it. It's bad. I don't recommend you searching it out, and I am not going to post it here. You can thank me later. Your friends at Wooden Vinyl.

Sleepy Head Video

Here is the video of my favorite song of the year so far..

One More Cup of Coffee, Please

Classic and Classic...

Heartless

Here is the second track off Kanye's new album 808s and Heartbreak. Very simple beat line (808 also part of the album's title) which is very reminiscent of early 80s rap.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/2061601598dc2cb1/

Listen to These Now

Here are the two best songs from the biggest hit or miss album of the year:


Neon Neon - Stainless Style


Warning: If you do NOT want songs stuck in your head all day then do not listen.

Rolling Stone Changing Size

So apparently after 40 years of being oversized, Rolling Stone has decided to change to a smaller, more magazine rack friendly size.

The article below explains:
NY Times Article

Here comes El Guincho!

Did you know that Panda Bear had Pitchfork's #1 album last year? They also compared El Guincho's album Alegranza! to his. The album is slated for relase on October 21 here in the US.

To whet your appetite, here is a video and an audio selection from Alegranza!.

Department of Eagles

The Department of Eagles just released "In Ear Park" this week and after a number of listen this album is great. It is much lighter than Daniel Rossen's other project "Grizzly Bear" and it is a great album to start the fall off with. So check out "No one does it like you."

http://www.myspace.com/deptofeagles

T.I. - Paper Trail

T.I. - Paper Trail
WV Score: 8.6/10

Sometimes rappers want to be serious. Sometimes they want to just have fun. T.I. wants to do both.

One year ago, he was caught trying to buy guns from federal agents. He was subsequently sentenced to community service and house arrest. This is what he worked on while "confined". Friends visited him to work on the album, and what we get is a combination of his sober realization that he (and we) should appreciate the life he has, such as on My Life where Rihanna does what she does best: sound like a singing human robot. Just Blaze samples the song made famous a few years ago where the guy dances on video in front of the computer, which is catchy yet questionable. Summary of the song: Have fun yet and be gracious for what you have.

These seem to be common themes throughout the whole CD.

Of course this wouldn't be a T.I. album without organs and deep synths. That is what he does best. Just think back to What You Know. This is best exemplified on No Matter What, which has a basic drum beat and church organs throughout. The song sounds like a farewell song, but he sings "still I stand," showing a paradox, like many of the albums themes.

He has an A-list of guest stars from Ludacris (which guest on the worst song of the album) to John Legend to Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne all on one song. The song with those three is Swagger Like Us, which gets most of the press these days. Unfortunately I cannot listen to the song for very long because it samples MIA's Paper Planes and it gets kind of repetitive. I like it as a song, I just get tired of hearing part of a song that is currently overplayed as it is. Oh, and T.I. actually has the best verse in the song.

He wants to show you a good time. This is evident in the lyrics and the beats. This is most evident on Whatever You Like where he tells the girls "you can have whatever you like" and that he has "stacks on deck," which apparently means you have so much money that your don't have to worry about anything.

After meandering through party songs, trap songs, and appreciate-your-life songs, it ends on a high note. Dead and Gone with Justin Timberlake sounds like a JT songs made for T.I. and it is the perfect collaboration. It sounds like a Timbaland song, but it was actually produced solely by Justin Timberlake.

T.I. has drawn together an album that is my favorite rap album since the last Kanye album (sorry Weezy). I believe we have much bigger thing to see and hear from the King. He raps on No Matter What: "Never have you seen in your lifetime, a more divine southern rapper with a swagger like mine." Thank pretty much sums it up.

New Kanye Video

I just thought I'd quickly post the video for Kanye's new song Love Lockdown.

Here you go:

The One Good Dire Straits Song I Know

A good friend introduced me to this song a couple years back. It was the first Dire Straits song I had enjoyed since I was 13, when Dad and I used to rock out "Money for Nothing" in his Toyota Camry. I am not aware of any good Dire Straits songs other than this one.


Dire Straits - "Romeo and Juliet"




BONUS: "Jenny and the Ess-Dog" has got to be the best Stephen Malkmus solo song, and since it contains a reference to the Dire Straits album "Brothers in Arms," I figured I'd throw it in here too:

Radiohead - Reckoner

So this little band out of England, who also happens to be my favorite band, had a competition. Their newest single, Reckoner, needed a video, and the band wanted an animated one that paralleled the theme of the song.

Well, after all the votes were tallied, a man from France won. Here is the winning video.
Radiohead - Reckoner - by Clement Picon

Old Favorite, New Location

I just found this video of Ryan Adams in Jamaica. It is an acoustic versions of one of my favorite songs, Firecracker, which is on his 2001 CD, Gold. If you look closely, you may even notice that the locals are enjoying the music. Actually I think they are bobbing their heads, trying to figure out who these crazy Americans are.

Horse Feathers - Curs in the Weeds

Horse Feathers is a string-folk band from Oregon. Apparently it started as one man (guitar), then grew to two (violin), and now includes a woman (bass).

Anyways, I thought this video was funny because they are performing Curs in the Weeds in the weeds.


Their newest album, House with No Home, came out September 9th, and was reviewed by Pitchfork here.

Horse Feather's MySpace page

My September Album

For my first post I thought i would post TV on the Radio's new album Dear Science which i can not stop listening to. It reminds me of some of my favorites: Bowie and Prince.

http://www.myspace.com/tvotr

Releases 9/30/08

This week is boring to say the least, but here they are:

Dungen - 4
Jesus and Mary Chain - The Power of Negative Thinking: B-Sides & Rarities
Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (reissue)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Reissues
Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series 8: Tell Tale Signs - Rarities 1989-2006
Ray LaMontagne - Gossip in the Grain
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (50th Anniversary Edition)
T.I. - Paper Trail/Live Your Life
Kenny Rogers - Love Songs, vol 2
Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark - Messages: Best of OMD
Joseph Arthur - Temporary People
Ben Folds - Way to Normal

5 Sad Ones

Okkervil River - "Calling and Not Calling My Ex"

Definitely the sad song of the year so far.




Gilbert O'Sullivan - "Alone Again (Naturally)"

70s sad.  Super-catchy melody with relentlessly depressing lyrics.




Elliott Smith - "Say Yes"

Maybe the saddest line in a career full of sad lines:  "See how it is/they want you or they don't...say yes."

Pulp - "Disco 2000"

High school reunion sadness.




Sufjan Stevens - "Romulus"

Absentee mother sadness.

A song and video for your pleasure

My favorite song of the year so far...

Otis Redding - Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul

WV Score: 9.7/10

Otis Redding. Most people today think of "Dock of the Bay" when he is mentioned. In 1965 he released "Otis Blue", his third album, which many consider to be his best and most essential album.

This is amazing since he laid down 10 of the 11 tracks in two days time. Earlier in the year, his idol, Sam Cooke had died, so there was a since of urgency for someone to step up and take the crown of best damn soul singer in the universe. This is exactly what Redding did on Otis Blue. He even covered two of Cooke's songs on the album.

He starts out smooth on "Ole Man Trouble", staying with the intensity of the horns in the background, yet never overshadowing them with his voice.

Next is his probably his most famous original song, "Respect". The only problem is he didn't make it famous although his version is just as good as the cover done by Aretha Franklin.

His cover of "My Girl" doesn't sound much different than the Temptations. It is a little more soul-sy and included more horns. Not to mention it came out only a year after the original.

One thing that I read in the linear notes that made the album even more impressive is that Redding not only wrote most of his songs but also played in upwards of five different instruments. Of course the most potent is his raspy voice that shows emotions like no soul singer after him.

It was one of the greatest tradegies in all of music when, at the young and promising age of 26, Otis Redding died in a plane crash, forever cementing his place in music history.

All I have to say is this album is one of the greatest albums ever and it would be a shame for you not to own a copy to listen to in your car, on your back porch, or even throw on at a party. Otis is right for all occasions. It has the upbeat songs as well as the ballads, yet it all seems to make you feel warm on the inside.

I think the first paragraph in the linear notes says it best: "Soul is a word that has many meanings. In the pop-R&B world of today (1965) it usually means and intensely dramatic performance by a singer, projected with such feeling that it reaches out and visibly moves the listener. It means that the singer is saying something, sometimes ever more than the lyrics themselves might normally convey. Soul is not something that can be feigned-you either have it or you don't. Otis Redding has it, to a degree almost unrivaled by any other young singer in sight.

5 Songs for September

3 New Songs and 2 Classics:

NEW:

"Parachute" - Shugo Tokumaru

Perfect end-of-summer song. It has burrowed into my brain the last couple weeks, causing me to walk around singing "PRA-chute! PRA-chute! PRAAA-chuuute!!" all day, which my girlfriend finds somewhat entertaining.

Streaming from his MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/shugotokumaru

"Cape Canaveral" - Conor Oberst

Oberst's voice is so much more restrained on the new "solo album" than on his Bright Eyes records, which I view as a good thing. This is the best song off the new record.



"Furr" - Blitzen Trapper

Judging by this song, Blitzen Trapper are moving away from spazzy Pavementesque rock and towards Dylanesque folk.



CLASSICS:

"September Gurls" - Big Star

Because it's September and this is the maybe (or definitely) the best power pop song ever . . .



"The Hardest Walk" - Jesus and Mary Chain

I'm a little disappointed in myself for going so long without investigating JAMC. Psychocandy is basically just 60s pop fuzzed-out with some nasty-sounding distortion - it's a great concept that JAMC execute perfectly.

Kanye's New Song

So, I have to admit that although I am not a huge fan of Kanye West the person, I do love his music. Pretty much anything he puts out, I seem to like (except the awful Good Life with T-Pain). When he debuted his new song at the MTV VMAs a couple of weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't really rap, it was more...song, and tribal yet modern.

I don't know if I like the autotune all the way through the song. Maybe it just reminds me of T-Pain, who knows. I do like how he is being classy with his suit in the video, but once again, the show is all about him. Oh Kanye and his lonesomeness.

Below is the video from the VMAs and a link to the 3rd version of the recorded song. He recorded it so fast that apparently the fans didn't like the song so he keeps re-recording it until his fans are pleased. Thanks Kanye.


Kayne West - Love Lockdown (3rd version)

PS.. Apparently Love Lockdown is available now on iTunes and his new album is going to be called 808s and Heartbreaks (his most gangsta album yet...so it should be 50s favorite, he says)

The Tallest Man on Earth

Everyone is always looking for "the next Bob Dylan". Well from what I hear and from what I have read, The Tallest Man on Earth, aka Kristian Matsson from Sweden, just may be the person everyone is searching for. They just don't know it because they are stuck in the past.

From what I have heard, I really enjoy his work. I think he will become more popular once his CD "Shallow Grave" drops in the US, which may be a while yet.

Anyways, here are some songs from Shallow Grave.










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Introduction...

Welcome to our music blog. There will be reviews, lists, and miscellaneous information pertaining to music of all sorts from a small group of friends.

Come back often to see what we think of the most recent music to the classics. We will try to update it daily and keep it as interesting as possible.

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