Paper Crane Collective

We have big, huge, epic news today at Those Who Dig. We are extremely honored to have been asked by Aaron of TSURURADIO to join a collective of some of the biggest, baddest, and bestest music bloggers on the interwebs today. The group is affectionately called the Paper Crane Collective and the official launch is today!! Each of the bloggers will contribute an original feature to the Collective a couple times a month.

For our part, we'll be writing a feature every other Tuesday (starting tomorrow!) called "All-Time Top 5" in which we profess our massive love for High Fidelity and present a Top 5 list on various topics, genres, themes, news stories, or whatever we feel like writing about that day – along with commentary, stories, and tunes!

So what the hell are you waiting for, get over to the PCC and check out what's going on!!

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Weekly Roundup: Feb 20-26, 2011

It's time once again for Weekly Roundup, a place to recap some of the week's interesting and important news and share some great songs and videos we dug over the past seven days. Though it was a light week in comparison to the past few, there's still some good stuff for your ears and minds ahead.

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Third Stream Music: Leo Brouwer & Bill Harris

My favorite musicians are the ones who are not bound to the expectations of normative technique or repertoire. That being said I recently ran into a 'musical experiment' from Bill Harris where he performs a transcription of Leo Brouwer's Danza Characteristica for drum kit alongside Manuel Barrueco's recording.

Inventive, thought provoking, unique, cool. What's not to love?

Leo Brouwer: Danza Caracteristica

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One Note/One Phrase: Tom Waits

One quality of a truly remarkable performance is that there is often one note and/or one phrase that can encapsulate the grace, fire, virtuosity, subtlety, or authenticity of the artist.

Tom Waits is a technician of style. His sound, image, and stage persona have become remarkably defined over the course of his long and fruitful career. Nevertheless, today I would like to commend Ara Anderson, the trumpet player featured on the cut, A Good Man is Hard to Find, for peppering the instrumental solo with the perfect amount of tenuto and rhythmic pull.

Tom Waits: A Good Man is Hard to Find

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Lupe Fiasco – All Black Everything

 

Two surprises in one day! Our blogbro Pooch over at This Bonus Track put a new Lupe Fiasco track up a few hours ago, and hot damn. This is by far my favorite of the tracks I've heard from the upcoming Lasers. It's hook is heavy and orchestral and Lu is absolutely killing it. I'm short on time so that's all the commentary you get, sorry kids!

Lupe Fiasco – All Black Everything

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Nerd Rock Dance Off

Over the weekend Radiohead released their new album and music video – Lotus Flower. At which point the entire online music blogosphere exploded and in three days the video received about 3.5 million hits on youtube alone.

While this may have been a victory for Radiohead and a good omen for the success of their new record, for me, this was a victory for nerd dancing and it got me thinking about some of my other favorite moments in nerd dancing/rock and roll history.

So read on me droogs and see my picks for the nerd rock dance off and then compare them with your own.

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Kanye West – All of the Lights

Holy hell. The video for "All of the Lights" is an event. This quickly became my favorite song on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the video doesn't disappoint. It has a simple, B&W lead up that serves to contrast with the strobes and rainbow pallete of the rest of the video. And the first appearances of Yeezy, Kid Cudi, and Rihanna (who is looking exceptionally hot) all feel momentous. Well done, Hype. Also, I'll admit it, I have an unhealthy fetish for videos with animated lyrics (first "Fuck You" video anyone?), but this one takes the cake in that area. Did I mention Rihanna? Oof.

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