gosh this is fascinating stuff. composer who wrote the music for all those original MTV promos (think astronauts and animations) contributes a few Eno/Byrne-inspired “found vocals” songs to a terrible John Travolta movie. the label loves them and asks for a followup (The General’s Daughter 2!! YES!!), which of course never pans out but ultimately results in a solo album full of fascinating remixes of southern spiritual/blues field recordings. chris douridas has been playing this stuff on kcrw for years, and today i finally tracked it down. and not only is the whole album unbelievably good, but his cuts from the soundtrack are unreal. sadly the guy died a year after this album released. his last major work? the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider video game soundtrack. fascinating.

i’ve always respected feist as a member of that exclusive club of female vocalists that i actually listen to willingly. but this. oh man. this is something different altogether. it’s impossibly good. certainly her best, and probably one of the best of year. and if you ask me, it never gets better than this opening track…-d

i love my job. every day is different, i’m never bored and i love the people i work with. my only beef is that after a day on the computer, the last thing i want to do is come home and tumble. but every morning i come into work, i start up chrome, i see tumblr on my startup tab, and i get this nagging feeling. i miss it. i miss sharing that old song that perfectly underscores my day. i miss discovering that new song that totally makes my day. so i’m done. with not doing it. i’m going to try to set aside a little time every day. maybe i won’t have time everyday. but hopefully if it pops up on my calendar every single day in that magic moment right after lunch and right before the after-lunch crash, i’ll be able to sustain this thing. here’s hoping. weirder things have happened. you know, like when ‘Smile’ finally got released.

i love this album, and i love the metaphor it sets up. it’s life. it’s full of insanity and turmoil and desperation and lots and lots of noise. but it’s also full of beauty and magic and uncompromising originality, all wrapped in a package that somehow both embraces and defies the epic battle the album represents from production to release. boom. -d

*this is from the absurdly exhaustive 5-disc everyone-hates-mike-love-athon that came out a little while ago. it’s actually really good. it’s just a bit much.

i still consider this guy to be one of the finest songwriters in the history of american popular music. just timeless stuff. he could have recorded this yesterday.

finally seeing these guys at the largo tonight. james vincent mcmorrow is opening. the creators of my two favorite albums of 2011 playing in my favorite venue in LA. i’m literally sick with anticipation. if they start the show with the riff that starts this song, i might actually die.

one more day. just one more day until…

to commemorate opening night of blip festival 2011, my favorite 8bit remix of all time. -d

*blip festival is an all 8bit new york city music festival. if, like me, you’re stuck on the west coast this weekend, dailymotion is streaming a good chunk of the performances. as always, i’d recommend checking out animaniguchi.

i’m pretty smitten with the new okkervil river. it’s a huge, sweeping step forward for these guys. yes, there’s more than a little arcade fire in there. but if there’s one thing the world needs, it’s a little more arcade fire. -d

this is one of my favorite complete albums of all time. when it came out, there was all this great hubbub about how jon brion had produced a version of the album, but that she (read: sony) wasn’t totally sold on it so she (ibid) brought in some different producers to tweak it. ultimately it was the latter version that got released, but not before the former leaked onto the web and became a holy grail among torrents. (i only recently got my hands on a decent rip of it.) personally, i love them both. regardless of production, her voice and songwriting are a combination that just won’t quit. but jon’s version is pretty special. novelty aside, there is something about his obsessive little plinks and clangs that perfectly complement fiona’s own well-documented neuroses. the result is an album that somehow feels as quietly precise as it does wildly untethered. it’s a total trip, and practically perfect. -d

holy smokes. okay, real quick, before you hit play, go find some good headphones and a quiet room and turn it up as loud as you can take it. this is going smack of hyperbole, but it honestly sounds like the fleet foxes, justin vernon, james blake and the avett bros all got together and made an album just for me. an album, i should add, that just leapt into the top spot for best album of the year so far. incidentally, he’s just announced some tour dates with the band whose album he replaced at the top of that list. genius loves company. mercy what a sound…

elbow is another band that, like breathe owl breathe, i generally consider a good band. i’m not in love with them. when i saw them in concert it was b/c they were at a festival with another band i liked more, but i was glad i saw them. and generally speaking, this new album is right in line with that opinion. except for this song. this song sucks me in, entrances me sort of. and i know what it is. it’s that chorus, exhaling a strange, spoken ‘with love’ almost like a mantra. it’s oddly soothing. and as it loops and folds into the round that wraps up the track, i get this calm but persistent feeling that i should probably start the song over again. which i have done. 15 times this afternoon alone. so strange….