After recently listening to Bloc Party’s new album, I’m inclined to believe lead singer Kele Okereke took a page from the book of the average homeboy, because he’s defintiely smoothed out his rapping. While I’ve never looked to Bloc Party for clever or insightful lyrics, I do have to say that when words such as “forlorn” end up sounding more like “full lawn,” I can’t complain. But the best part is when they incorporate recent trends into their music. For example there’s currently nothing that pleases my ears more than the affected British cooing of the word “sudoku” that can be found 1:44 into “waiting for the 7 18.” Try giving it a listen and see if you can help from smiling.

I can’t get this wonderfully sweet Swedish indie song out of my head. Plus the video’s pretty awesome.

Peter, Bjorn and John-Young Folks.mp3

Joanna Newsom’s new album, “Ys” recently leaked and I couldn’t be more pleased. It’s a dense, lush, beautiful sounding record and it’s going to take me some time to wrap my head around it. I predict the music critics will go wild for it. If you haven’t heard Joanna before, do yourself a favor and check her out. She’s one of the most exciting artists working today.

Here’s my favorite track off it, Sawdust and Diamonds.

Lilys-In The Presence of Nothing.zip
In 1991 a group called Lilys released an album that sounded so much like My Bloody Valentine that many people thought the group had changed their name for the release. They did not, but Kurt Heasley, the driving force of the Lilys, was able to make his guitar sound the same way Kevin Shields had on Loveless. Shoegaze was dying out and the album never really got its due. At this point the album is out of print and goes for upwards of 40 dollars on amazon.

I’m not the biggest fan of shoegaze or MBV, but I’ve been really into this album lately. I highly recommend it if you like MBV at all.

The new Mountain Goats album leaked today. I haven’t had a chance to give it a full listen, but if it’s anywhere near as good as the last one I’m going to really like it.

You can download the whole thing here in one zip file.

I saw this on Valencia street:

And I’ve had these songs stuck in my head:
Magnetic Fields-Strange Powers
Magnetic Fields-All the umbrellas in London
Magnetic Fields-I wish I had an evil twin

There’s a great article about Jon Brion in the new LA Weekly. You can read it here. If you’re not familiar with Jon Brion, he’s produced a variety of different artists, among them Kanye West, Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann and Elliott Smith. Brion has also scored many films, including “Punch-Drunk Love,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” and “I Heart Huckabees.” Basically he’s a musical genius. Here are some of my favorite songs of his:
Ruin My Day
The Boys Are Back in Town
Knock Yourself Out

Sorry about the lack of updates. I’ve been away in Southern California. A very strange place. I’m not sure I’m used to it yet.

Anyway, it was a good trip. I got to see a lot of friends and do some fun things. I stayed with Jordan and we ended up watching quite a few ytmnd videos. I had seen some before, but I had no idea what “ytmnd” stood for. Take a guess. “You’re the man now, dog.” That’s the inspirato. The line was spoken by Sean Connery in “Finding Forrester.” To hear Sean say it to a muppet typing, click this. We also got a lot of enjoyment out of Captain Picard’s art lesson.

And check out this video that J had a hand in crafting:

And here’s some songs I got off his computer that I’ve been enjoying:
Manitoba-Jacknuggeted
Nobody and Mystic Chords of Memory-When the End Meets the Beginning
The Cardigans-Iron Man
Sven Libaek-Music for Eels

Sparklehorse-Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd Cover)
This is from the credits of “Lords of Dogtown,” which I watched again the other night. The movie held up pretty well. There’s this feeling of sadness that permeates the whole film, which I didn’t remember. It’s very much about how that specific time has passed, and will never happen again.

Regina Spektor-Ode to Divorce
I like songs that include detailed information about teeth. This is one of those songs.

Feist-Mushaboom
I saw the video for this one awhile back, didn’t think much of it, then gave it a download and got totally hooked. The lyrics are straight up retarded (In the mean time we got hit hard/second floor living without a yard), but the chorus is like the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. From about 2:02 on it’s pure honey in your ear. Checking my itunes reveals that I’ve listened to this song roughly 80 times in the past three months. I wish the rest of the songs on her album were as good as this one, but sadly that’s not the case.