Category Archives: music

The next 5 albums you haven’t heard

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About a year ago I posted The top 5 albums you’ve never heard, and I thought it was about time for another post on the subject.

So here you are, five albums you probably haven’t heard, and if you have, just shut up and enjoy the others!

  1. Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel The Illinoise – Come on. His name is Sufjan. How could he not be awesome?
  2. Edison Woods – Seven Principles of Leave No Trace – Maybe it’s the weather cooling off, maybe it’s because I’m in Denver this week and got about 8 inches of snow dumped on me. Either way, this is great fall music.
  3. Bonobo – Dial M for Monkey – Lovely electronic selection. Some people find it repetitive, I think it’s great work music. If you like Amon Tobin (his earlier stuff) you will love this album.
  4. The Decemberists – Her Majesty – A friend introduced me to these guys a year ago by taking me to a concert. They rocked. I’ve been a fan ever since, and I just saw them at a sold out show at Webster hall, and they rocked even more. All three of their LP releases are excellent, but I think this one is my favorite at the moment. They aren’t exactly a secret, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song of theirs on the radio, so I think they can sneak onto this list.
  5. Since I hate picking favorites, no. 5 is a tie between Kaiser Chiefs – Employment and The Mountain Goats – Tallahassee. The Kaiser Chiefs are just some good old rock and roll from the UK. The Mountain Goats is this dude who rocks out with some acoustic guitar and some excellent lyrics. Just pick whichever one you are in the mood for. I also realize that the Kaiser Chiefs are fairly well known, so hopefully The Mountain Goats will help offset that a bit.

P.S. Last year I linked to allmusic.com for the album links, but since then I’ve decided that their website sucks ass because of the way they do their links, and with all the annoying Flash 3d crap flying around at the top of the page, the site is just too ridiculous to use. So I’m boycotting them and going with The Lesser Evil, Amazon.

Edison Woods at Joe’s pub

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On November 30th, Edison Woods will be playing at Joe’s Pub. I recently stumbled across this band while reading through The Morning News and have been listening to The Sevien Principles of Leave No Trace over and over for weeks. So you can bet I’ll be checking out this show.

Looks like you can buy tickets here (search for ‘edison woods’ since their website is retarded and doesn’t seem to allow direct links), and they also have a little description of the band, which I’ll steal and post:

Edison Woods is a band of villains with a soft spot for love songs. To see them feels a bit like stumbling upon a strange lost film. Telling their tales with strings and piano, baritone sax and guitars, this eight piece group includes the vocals of Julia Frodahl and members of Antony & The Johnsons. “Edison Woods brings a unique mix of earthy lo-fi songs and cinematic landscapes…One can hear the lushness of Goldfrapp, the textural subtleties of The Dirty Three, the eerie qualities of Julee Cruise, and in Julia’s voice the humble ponderings of Cat Power’s Chan Marshall.” – CD Baby

Now I just have to find someone to go with me…

The top 5 albums you’ve never heard

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I listen to a lot of music. I’m not one of those people who walk around all day telling everyone that their favorite band sucks or anything, but I like to think that I have pretty good taste when it comes to picking the good stuff.

So here are my picks for the best albums you have probably never heard:

  1. Lali Puna – Faking the Books – A little indie-tronic group that sounds excellent. If you like The Postal Service, Air, or The Notwist, you’ll love this album.
  2. Ms. John Soda – No P. or D. – Another excellent indie-tronic type group… ties to Dntel and The Notwist, kinda mellow electronic.
  3. Modest Mouse – Building Nothing out of Something – I’m sure we’ve all heard their latest abum, Good News For People Who Love Bad News, and maybe even the one before that The Moon & Antarctica, but this one was realeased before they found a major label to carry them. Well worth the hunt to find it.
  4. The Helio Sequence – Young Effectuals – I saw these guys open for Modest Mouse in Tucson a while back, and ended up grabbing their album. Hard to classify the music… It’s a mix between kinda spacey electronic and the singer sounds very much like a young John Lennon (they do a cover of Tomorrow Never Knows that is excellent).
  5. The Books – The Lemon of Pink – When I first listened to this album, I wasn’t really sure what was going on… I forgot about it for a while, thought that maybe it was just a strange dream, but then I gave it another listen. It’s so strange, but a good strange. Really good.