Metacritic is a bit too meta, and the Pitchfork reviewers are a bit too caught up in their own cleverness. So for music recommendations, I am lately all about All Songs Considered, the unfortunately titled weekly music show on NPR.
ASC is just indie-nerdy enough and just mainstream enough to avoid being annoying most of the time. Host Bob Boilen is obviously aware that most of his listeners are a little older, a little whiter, a little less hip than the general population, but he’s not afraid to push his demographic with some music that is new and exciting.
Thus, I must give ASC much credit for my most recent music binge. The following are my first and generally superficial impressions of what came for me in the mail today:
Sound of Silver – LCD Soundsystem
This is my first album by LCD Soundsystem. No objections here—it’s New Wave-funky and chill at once. If I owned a boutique of some kind, I would play this album over the speakers on Thursdays.
Kala – M.I.A.
The international vibe of the album is pretty inspiring, but the huge ad for ringtones and cell phone wallpapers that fell out when I opened the jewel case wasn’t particularly inspiring. Maybe it’s just way postmodern like that.
Famous Blue Raincoat – Jennifer Warnes / Leonard Cohen
The 20th Anniversary edition of this album was recently released, so I figured it was time for me to purchase the original recording, which is slightly more expensive from Amazon, for some reason.
Being Leonard Cohen songs, they are great, of course, but you have to be entirely not squeamish about the mid-’80s sound (i.e. echoey drums and synth) to really enjoy it.
Strawberry Jam – Animal Collective
Lovely. It’s so happy and listenable, I don’t know if it can really qualify as experimental. The first track, “Peacebone,” is my new favorite song.
And the album packaging is a not-to-be-missed experience of ultra-glossiness.
D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop the Beat – Junior Senior
Again I find myself late to the early ’90s retro party. But getting this infectious CD is good enough reason to hold your own party.
Have you tried Pandora.com It’s a free online radio station based on the bmusic genome project. basicly you type in the names of songs or artists taht you like, and they play a radio station based on these songs…Not based on genre or anything like that, but on over 3000 components that they identified that make up a song. I listened to it for 8 hours at work the other day, it only played 2 songs I didn’t like, and at the end of the day I bought 2 albums from artists I’d never heard of, but loved!
One of the goals of my new website http://www.RealityBlonde.com is to help promote independent music. You should check out the site and sign up for our newsletter which will announce the (usually monthly) Ear Whacks featured artist.
Yoshimi, I tried out Pandora about a year ago. It was fun to hear
a lot of new-to-me music that fit right in with my taste. The biggest criticism I’ve heard of it is that it doesn’t tend to expose you to many types/genres different from the preferences that you started with. But fun to play around with, nonetheless!
Bridget, that’s great—I love getting indie music reviews and recommendations from independent bloggers. I’ll have to check yours out.
Famous Blue Raincoat. How I loved that cassette! I was rather sad when I unearthed my cassette some time back and found that it was unplayable (20 years. Could explain why the tape was cactus!) So when I spotted the CD recently I was one happy little vegemite!
I just came across your shop via knitty, like so many others.
Lady, you’re a freakin’ genius. I LOVE the toys.
Rat Infested Garbage? What are you smoking?? And 1-inch long, perfectly adorable and evocative knitted squirrels? SQUIRRELS? That is some Art with a big A.
Thanks for the inspiration.
I really love ASC!!!!!!! I was worried that I was the only listening. You can download it as a podcast if you miss it