I ran into this video while browsing YouTube the other day and I thought this bit by comedian Rob Paravonian was pretty clever. I like music, I like to laugh, so it’s nice when these two things come together. Lovely satire Rob, very well done.
Enjoy the holidays everyone. More music is being collected as I speak.
And for anyone who would like to get in touch with me, send me music to listen to and possibly promote, or just say hi I’ve obtained a new email address. From this point on this blog will use the email the_worldforgot@yahoo.com.
Well, today is offically Christmas Eve. And for this little slice of the internet that means that today marks the last day I will be posting Christmas music. I hope you’re all enjoying the holiday, no matter what country you live in. In fact, I hope you’re not reading this blog right now because you’re too busy preparing for the festivities or you are actually celebrating them already. If you are reading this on Christmas Eve I appreciate that you chose to stop by for a little while, now go and have some fun with friends and family.
We’ve all heard the buzz surrounding the new Arcade Fire album due out in 2007. And if you’re even one half as excited for it as I am you’re ready to buy the disc the day it hits the stores. My only fear is that it will lack the intensity, the sense of play that made their debut, Funeral, such an amazing album.
Anyway, here’s to hoping the long wait between albums has allowed them to skip right over the dreaded sophomore slump. Enjoy the music, the first nine tracks is the live recording off of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic show. And I must say these songs sound amazing. The last track posted here is the new Arcade Fire single entitled Intervention as heard on BBC 1.
Recently Broc Stanage, possibly better known as the indie folk outfit Forgather, has been rereleasing some of his older material. I’ve taken to downloading his tracks and rehosting them on my blog as they’ll get a much wider ciruculation this way.
If you like good music you’ll love Forgather. Download and enjoy.
When I started this blog I never expected to post anything to do with the band No-Doubt. To be honest I liked their style and their sound a lot more back when Gwen was sporting pink hair and the rest of the band didn’t come across like some punk-rockers in a B-list movie. Apparently they still have an audience somewhere in the world, and guessing from Gwen’s latest solo efforts that somewhere is probably Japan.
This song is from way back, during the era when all you heard in the summer was Sugar Ray, Fastball, the Goo Goo Dolls, and of course No Doubt on the radio. It’s a solid acoustic effort and it showcases the idea that this band is made up of actual musicians, not just eye candy.
For the next couple of days, maybe even weeks, my life is going to be extremely busy. Therefore the frequency of my posting will probably drop a bit and for this I apologize. I’ll still try to throw up some music and some lovin for you all, but don’t expect anything spectacular.
All that being said I do have this one spectacular post for you all to enjoy. About every six weeks I get a little bored with the music I’ve been listening to. And when that happens I troll the internet to find what’s getting buzz, who the kids are listening to, and who deserves a mention on this blog. And after I’ve sampled hundreds of tracks I select the music I think you all should listen to.
So here it is, the first installation of what I hope will be a long series of posts. Because I find these files in various and sundry places, and then compile them all into one hopefully convenient post, I’ve dubbed this series One Stop Shop.
Today is a sad day because it marks the last of my Seven Days of Sufjan. It was a fun trip while it lasted and I hope I provided you all with some Christmas cheer and some harder to find tracks. Thanks for all the comments everyone. Also, merry Christmas to you all. Over the past week I’ve been getting hits on this blog from every continent but Antarctica, but I’m sure that’s just because it’s summer for them right now so they’re probably off sipping cocktails and chasing penguins.
Enjoy this track from Sufjan’s Songs for Christmas. If you’re interested in the man you should take a second and read the bio posted on his label’s website. here . It’s really a rather interesting biography.
Sorry kids but I’m strapped for time right now. I’m posting this real quick before I head out into the place some people refer to as the real world. Amazing, I know.
Something else that is amazing is this song by Sufjan. Yesterday I posted the instrumental ditty that is derived from this full length song. Both are great and worthy of space on your hard drive, but this one has words, you know, if that’s what you’re into.
Everything this man plays is golden. Here’s a clip of him playing Chicago; a simple and yet stunningly beautiful song.
I’m not sitting at my own computer right now so I cannot honor the comments I received yesterday with extra Sufjan songs right now. But fear ye not, I am a man of my word and tomorrow I will upload some extra rare tracks from the man who once called Michigan his home. For today I am posting a track that I’m not sure anyone else has put online yet. Probably because it’s an instrumental track that’s rather short and rather simple. But it’s precisely these musical interludes that make Sufjan who he is. These musical leftovers are what flesh out his albums and give us all a reason to actually buy full albums instead of settling for single song downloads.
This is a video of Sufjan playing an impromptu version of “For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti” at SXSW in 2004. And yes, he was famous then too. Watch the video, it’s simply wonderful.
Another day has come and another Sufjan song is posted. This puts us just over half way through Seven Days of Sufjan and I must say it has been an enjoyable run. As I stated in the first post, if there are comments left during this time I’ll post more than one song per day. On top of the Christmas music I also have some rare and largely uncirculated Sufjan songs that I think you all would enjoy. If I don’t get any comments I’ll just keep posting one song a day. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Today we look into the grab bag and we find a track from Mr. Stevens that is quite honestly the best Christmas or winter themed song I’ve heard. I know I’m prone to exaggerations, but this is one time when you must take me seriously. Download this track immediately, put it on one song repeat, and let your mind escape into the type of song that put Sufjan on the map.
Let us be honest for a moment. Sufjan Stevens was the single driving force that brought music blogging to the prominent position that it now holds. He was the indie darling we all loved and craved and he’s the only reason you might be skimming this skimpy post.
He’s one of the most prolific songwriters of this millennium and his Christmas tunes are simply amazing. And so I bring to you the second installment of Seven Days of Sufjan. Enjoy the music and check back tomorrow for another song.
Frank Sinatra rounds out the top three all time Christmas Albums. Although I’ll always love Frank I’m not sure if his lounge singer act will ever trump the likes of Bing Crosby or Andy Williams. Maybe he was too much of a vagabond to ever really corner the market on something as traditional and respected as Christmas. Regardless as to the reasons he’s not my favorite he still has the standard Sinatra pinache and it puts an interesting spin on some classic songs.
I’ve already posted about both Bing and Andy but apparently the new filehost I was using was pretty crap. I’ve uploaded all of those songs again and below you should be able to right click and save them straight from this post.
As I try to sort out why Hype doesn’t recognize mp3’s stored over at gigasize I’ve decided to begin my Seven Days of Sufjan a couple of days early. For the next seven days, beginning now, I’ll be posting a Christmas song by Sufjan once a day. If I get requests or I get enough comments I might even up it to two or three songs a day, depending on the traffic this gets.
Here’s the first track, keep coming back for more.
Oh, and please make sure to take the files from the previous two posts about Bing Crosby and Andy Williams. Everyone needs a little classic Christmas music in their lives and those two guys are essential to anyone’s holiday collection.
Bing Crosby is the next man in line for these Christmas posts. His Christmas album is a classic owned by or at least familiar to every American family. His voice has the swagger of Christmas albums that have long since moved from classic to traditional and you can always tell Thanksgiving has passed when you start to hear Bing on the radio.
I’ll be honest; I love Bing Crosby, the newest Sufjan Stevens Christmas music is incredible, but my heart’s favorite will always be Andy Williams. The songs in this post hark back to the days when bands were big, variety television shows were bigger, and vinyl was the only way to hear your tunes. Vinyl is actually how I was introduced to Andy Williams. My father had the Andy Williams Christmas album on LP and we used to haul the old record player up from the basement the weekend after Thanskgiving to start listening to the man with a voice so smooth.
I might have the coolest younger brother on the face of the earth. He has great taste in music and occasionally he makes a mix for some various or sundry reason and ships it out via the internet to me. Granted, he is a younger brother, so some of his musical choices are a little sketch, but for the most part he puts together solid music. This mix of his is a little skewed because he made it for his girlfriend and every song in this selection apparently reminds him of her in some way. I figure the kid must be in love because I cannot fathom any other reason he would be listening to Fergie.
Enjoy the mix my brother made. I’ll have some more tunes up in a couple of days. As per usual the mix is available as a single download as well as individual songs.
