Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Cool stuff I won’t be reviewing…

I’ve been listening to a big pile of CDs lately, most of them too late, too obscure or too popular to be reviewed…I seem to be off for the month at Dusted, so maybe I’ll just start posting about them here.

Volcano Choir, Unmap…Bon Iver was certainly the most popular record on my last year’s best list, and to be honest, I felt a little uncomfortable being on the same page with all those hipsters, no matter how lovely the record was. Here’s the cure, a new collaboration between Justin Vernon and the very avant Collections of Colonies of Bees. It has the same ghostly falsetto as Bon Iver, but a more open-ended and freeform instrumental structure…very beautiful and strange. It’s on Secretly Canadian, which is giving away this mp3 of “Island, IS”


The Reigning Sound, Love and Curses…another great one from Greg Cartwright, mixed with a lot more emphasis on the melody than Too Much Guitar…this guy is one of the best musicians working right now, and damn, I’m only halfway through the first time before I start to think about reshuffling my top 10. The turning point was “If I Can’t Come Back,” BTW. Here’s a preview video.



Shannon Stephens, The Breadwinner...really wonderful songwriter album by a long-time friend and former band-mate of Sufjan Stevens (where has he been, anyway?) Out next month on Asthmatic Kitty.

“In Summer in the Heat”

2 comments:

Meatbreak said...

Ooooh...I've been waiting for this Colonies of Bees/Bon Iver collab for ages. Thanks for posting that link. Exciting. mxbx

jenniferpkelly said...

It's pretty great, falling somewhere between Bon Iver and, oh, I don't know, Stars Like Fleas?