I also cater to Christina's whims, as well...

New work playlist

Here's the latest work playlist--pretty short for now, but I'm working on it.  Can you tell I found a couple new bands/am getting reobsessed with The New Pornographers?

Impending LSAT doom is moderating my ability to write right now; hopefully that will let up soon after I ace this thing.

Iron & Wine

Oh, the joys of Iron & Wine.  Otherwise known as Sam Beam, Iron & Wine is another act that ranks up there in my all-time favorites (if we're keeping track, so far Sufjan and The National are the other two that qualify).  


Iron & Wine would most definitely fall under the definition of folk music: all acoustic, mainly quiet melodies backed by simple guitar, and lyrics about life that almost always have an innate ability to calm.  


For the amount of TV shows and movies that Iron & Wine has been included in, I'm pretty surprised at how few people I know have actually heard of it.  So first, let's do a quick rundown of the songs that you might have heard, loved, and not known where to find: 


TV: 
Passing Afternoon-probably most recognizable as the song playing in the last Amber episode of House; one of my favorites.  I actually don't find it sad, as the House association has forever done for a bunch of people
Naked As We Came-this has apparently been on approximately 203497958 shows, including Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty
He Lays in the Reins-with Calexico, included in One Tree Hill


Movies: 
Such Great Heights-actually a Postal Service cover, but included on the Garden State soundtrack
The Trapeze Swinger-ending credits for In Good Company
Flightless Bird, American Mouth-I had to try way too hard to find a link that wasn't full of Twilight. 


So, now that you've realized that you actually DO know Iron & Wine, love them, and want more, what next?  I've got a few suggestions cutting across the slightly-narrow spectrum of Iron & Wine music for you to check out, of course: 


Off The Shepherd's Dog: 


Boy With a Coin-not only is the song great, the video is full of awesome flamenco dancing
House By the Sea

Resurrection Fern
Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car



Off The Creek Drank the Cradle: 
Faded From the Winter
Weary Memory


Off Our Endless Numbered Days: 
Sodom, South Georgia
Fever Dream
Love and Some Verses


In general, Our Endless Numbered Days is my favorite album, with Shepherd's Dog a close second.  Iron & Wine released Around the Well, which is technically a B-Sides album, in 2009.  There are some good songs on it, but unfortunately my copy got lost when my computer got stolen.  


So go! Take Iron & Wine, and make it yours--I definitely have some serious associations with almost all of these songs (they pretty much made it possible for me to leave Georgetown the weekend I visited before going abroad, haha). 

Early listening for High Violet!

NPR is streaming The National's new album, High Violet, a full week before it's coming out (mark your calendars for May 11).  Improve your work day and check it out here!

As Becca pointed out, NPR is actually a very unexpectedly good source for streams.  Be sure to check out their concert archive sometime-great stuff across all genres.

PS: after my first listen, I have to say...this is a wonderful album.

New playlist

New playlist, probably slightly more like what you'd guess is stereotypically on one of my playlists (lots of Sufjan and Iron & Wine):

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/playlist/Quieter/28268419

Updating throughout the rest of the work week!

Cop-out post

Things have continued to be very busy; spent a week in DC for training and then came home to deal with my wisdom teeth (which all have to come out, terrified).  So, I'm going to go with a cop-out post for the moment.  Thanks to my dear friend Kathy, I now know about Grooveshark.  Grooveshark allows you to search for any song, play it as many times as you want, put it into a playlist, and share your playlists with the world.

This is a very exciting concept to me because once you create a link to the playlist in order to share with someone, it seems like Grooveshark actually updates the playlist when you do, without the need for another new link.  At least, this is what happened when I tested it with Tash (thanks!).

What does this mean for you?  It means that if you want, you can now have a direct link (haha Internet pun...my coworker is rubbing off on me) to playlists! And since I make playlists almost obsessively, I can have the option of passing them along as a quicker method of getting great music out to you.  Let's face it, it would take a really long time for me to even finish the list of artists I have saved in my draft posts, and by the time I get to all of them, I'll probably have about 10 more to add.

So yeah, if you're looking for a good site to turn to when your free Pandora hours for the month run out, check out Grooveshark.  And if you're interested, here's my work playlist of the week. 

Yeasayer

Welcome back, and sorry for the bit of a break there.  Things are continuing along their busy/hectic way, with a case presentation, major FAS statement implementation, and tons of LSAT and Japanese homework over the past two weeks slowing me down.  I don't want this to turn into another abandoned attempt at writing, so time to get back into the swing of things!


Looking at my iTunes most played list (a good way to get to know any person, in my opinion), it's immediately obvious that I've been listening to Yeasayer just about nonstop recently.  The first time I ran into any of their music was last year on Dark Was the Night, a compilation of songs by a fan-freaking-tastic lineup of indie artists to raise money for AIDS research.  I'll probably devote an entire post just to that album, so stay tuned for highlights, and I'll avoid getting sidetracked now.  

Yeasayer definitely may take more than one listen to grow on you; Tightrope didn't immediately shoot to my top played after DWtN, but has steadily risen ever since.  The band itself is comprised of three core members: Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder.  Take a look at any of their live performances (such as the Take Away Show I posted a while back), and you'll see that they're pretty much crazy, in a good way.  Huge amounts of energy, a total connection to their music, and creative improvisation convinced the TAS crew that the night they spent filming was one of the best ones they'd had, for a "band I didn't like, no less".  Best use of musical beer bottles I've ever seen, in any case.  


The group describes their music as "Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel".  Not sure exactly what that would entail, but their tracks have driving beats, complex instrumentation, and relatable lyrics ("so you're wishing that you never did all the embarrassing things you've done"? check.) Their latest album, Odd Blood, is different from their first album All Hour Cymbals, but I think both have some pretty great highlights. Here goes: 


All Hour Cymbals: 
Sunrise-great drum beat, definitely part of my running playlist EDIT: This live version is fantastic.
2080
Red Cave-i could see the "middle eastern" bit in this song
Wait for the Summer-another middle eastern/psychish song, but still intriguing


Odd Blood: 
Ambling Alp-not the official video, because it is the strangest thing I've ever seen, and I don't want to scare you off from a great song. 
O.N.E.-you can download this by going to Yeasayer's site and entering your e-mail, but again you've been warned...it's a bizarre site.  This is probably my favorite song on the album right now.  
Madder Red

I Remember, which Monica claims was on some embarrassing TV show. I wouldn't know. :)

  

[Photo by Alexander Wagner; L to R: Ira Wolf Tuton, Anand Wilder, Chris Keating, Luke Fasano]