8.04.2006

Sophie Zelmani: Blue Balls Festival, Luzern, Switzerland, July 28, 2006

Beautiful and criminally talented, Swedish chanteuse Sophie Zelmani is high up on my list of "slumber music", a category that's of course a compromise between my raucous tastes and allergy to most mainstream r&b, and me lady's desire to be put to sleep with the gentleness of morning breezes and ghost whispers. Sophie's music is almost exclusively soft and folky, with lyrics that explore emotional rollercoasters, men, love, and just being. The somewhat reclusive singer songwriter is largely unknown in these parts, even the wikiplace has little or no information on her. However, the music is definitely worth checking out, and if this is your introduction to SZ, I suggest you get this entire set. You may end up pleasing yourself enough to actually spend some money on music.

posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 4.8.06 10 comments

8.02.2006

Superwolf (Will Oldham & Matt Sweeney): Live, Moonshine Festival, Laguna Beach, CA, October 10, 2004

Fact: If I was keeping count, I'll probably have found by now that Will Oldham a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is one of the musicians I have featured the most on this blog.

Fact: Prior to the January 2005 release of Superwolf, the bloody terrific collaboration between Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney, these two super guys performed all the songs that were later to appear on that album live, as a duo called "Superwolf". Get it? Superwolf (band), Superwolf (album).

Fact: The whole Superwolf project arose from a songwriting challenge issued by Oldham to Sweeney.

Fact: I have the first of such live shows, as performed at the Moonshine Festival, Laguna Beach, Cally, on October 10, 2004. All songs on Superwolf are on the setlist, except "Goat and Ram".

Fact: You can claim you have a Superwolf live album now kids.

Fact: This is a sucky ass way to write a blog post. But it worked, didn't it?

Intro
Rudy Foolish
Lift Us Up
Beast For Thee
What Are You?
Only Someone Running
I Gave You
Bed Is for Sleeping
Blood Embrace
My Home Is the Sea
My Donal (w/ Dan Maloy)
Death in the Sea

posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 2.8.06 5 comments

8.01.2006

Tori Amos Cover Mix

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Video Link: Strange Little Girl (Stranglers cover)

Tori Amos is probably my favorite musician EVER. That's saying a lot obviously since I'm an amatuer music journalist and full time music collector. The things she does with a Bosendorfer piano are unbelievable. She knows how to lightly tickle her ivories till it feels like you're surrounded in a light mystic cloud of the beyond. Then, in a flash she'll pound the keys into submission, almost as if she's in an S&M relationship with her instrument. I know a lot of people think she's a "wack job" because of her sometimes indecipherable lyrics and quotes like: "I know I'm an acquired taste - I'm anchovies. And not everybody wants those hairy little things.”

And its quite true...Tori Amos isn't for anyone not willing to explore a more uncharted musical territory with her. Her influnces range anywhere from Beethoven to Prince, and she has no problem mixing her varied influences throughout her work. Nowhere is that more apparent than in her cover songs. Unlike most artists who cover other musicians songs, Tori makes them COMPLETELY her own by making unique arrangements and exploring areas of the song that the original version never made us consider.

I have literally her entire music catolouge besides a few rare b-sides and bootlegs, so choosing songs for a mix was VERY difficult. But I decided to make this mix a varied selection of her beautiful cover work. Most of these tracks are live, and I've designated which particular concert they were performed at and the date. If you don't download the whole mix (which I obviously would like you to) make sure to pick up her cover of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Relgion," and her live cover of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks." You never know, a lot of people who are skittish about liking Tori are completely won over by her live work. So give our favorite red-headed pixie a try, and become as Tori calls her fans, an "Ear With Feet."

I Need You Tonight (INXS cover)
Losing My Religion (R.E.M. cover)
Mad World (Tears for Fears cover)
Karma Police (Radiohead cover)
You Shook Me All Night Long (AC/DC cover)
I'm On Fire (Bruce Springsteen cover)
When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin cover)
Magic Man (Heart cover)
Famous Blue Raincoat (Leonard Cohen cover)
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover)
Running to Stand Still (U2 cover)
Purple Rain(Prince cover)

posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 1.8.06 17 comments

Another Emily Haines Track!

Just found another new Emily song from the upcoming Knives...

The Lottery

Another song here.

posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 1.8.06 0 comments

Cat Power at Bonnaroo, Pt. II

posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 1.8.06 1 comments

7.31.2006

Emily Haines: New Song!

One of the events guaranteed to give me a mental orgasm this year is the upcoming Emily Haines album, Knives Don't Have Your Back, due out September 26, 2006. I happen to hold Emily in high regard as a vocalist, inter alia, so I am all psyched up for this release. Gist is this is going to be a quiet affair, i.e. more of classic Emily on Broken Social Scene records (see "Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl") than Metric. Word from Emily's myspace tells me this album "was written and recorded in Los Angeles, Montreal, Toronto, and New York over the last four years, and features contributors including Sparklehorse's Scott Minor, Broken Social Scene's Justin Peroff, Stars' Evan Cranley, and Metric's Jimmy Shaw."

Here's a sampler from the upcoming album.

Our Hell

posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 31.7.06 3 comments

Bjork: Live, Elysee Montmartre, Paris, France, Feb. 18, 1994

posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 31.7.06 3 comments