My Year In Dig

2011 was quite a year. It was my first full year as a music blogger and personally, I made some big life changes. Here's an overview of some highlights in case you missed anything.

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Fort Frances – The Lowlands

It's been a minute since we've heard from the gentlemen of Chicago's Fort Frances but the wait was worth it. "The Lowlands" is a lovely, acoustic, down-tempo number featuing sparse instrumentation that leaves a nice focus on the lyricism and vocal perfomance. The rootsy sound fits the band well and David McMillin's voice is gentle enough to convey the downtrodden country emotion.

Be sure to check out Fort Frances' Facebook page for more information on the lads.

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Steve's Top 5 Most Dug Albums of 2010 Revisited

I love year-end list making, it's awesome. However, it does bother me that I inevitably miss things or come to love certain albums later on that revealed themselves slowly, which means I don't get a chance to honor them because it's a new year and I have to make a new list. But since I have this blog, I do have a chance to revisit my 2010 albums list and share how it looks after another year of listening. So that's what I'm going to do right now. 

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Collaborative Playlist – Favorite Songs of 2011

December for a music blog means sharing our picks for the "best" of the year. As TWD's first full year in action, 2011 was certainly memorable. We have some exciting stuff planned for our year-end coverage, and it starts tonight with a call to make a new Collaborative Playlist. We want to know what YOU dug this year!

The idea is this: share with us one or more of your favorite 2011 songs and we will compile all of the submissions into a playlist that will potentially be enlightening and definitely be enjoyable. You can leave your pick(s) in the comment section below, send them via twitter (@ThseWhoDig), or hit us up on our Facebook page. We'll unveil the playlist on Spotify the first week of January. We're excited to hear from you!

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Those Who Dig Kiva Team

We at Those Who Dig have finally decided to use our powers for good instead of evil. While we hope that our promotion and distribution of great music is a service to people in and of itself, we've been wanting to do something just a little bit more with the following we've developed. With the holiday season approaching it seems like as good a time as any to get this rolling.

We've set up a Those Who Dig team page at Kiva.org that everyone is welcome to join. If you're unfamiliar with Kiva you should read about them. Basically, Kiva is a website where you can micro-lend to small-business owners in third world countries. After you sign up you can lend in interest-free increments as small as 25$ to borrowers of your choice whose mission and business is available for you to read about. Remember it's a LOAN, so you get your money back and can either take it or reinvest it in another loan.

It's incredibly simple to do and it's a great cause that does real, calculable good for real people. We don't ask anything of our readers other than enjoying the hell out of the music that we write about, so we'd be honored if you'd take a couple minutes and join our team. There will be a link in the sidebar from now on so feel free to join at anytime and lend away!

Happy Holidays!

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Zeus – Are You Gonna Waste My Time?

Ye gods! Zeus has released the rocking single "Are You Gonna Waste My Time?" as a preview of their forthcoming-in-2012 second album. It hits like a lightning bolt from Mount Olympus and certainly has me excited for that new release. Let's not delay any longer and get right to this newest Label Year.

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Eight and a Half – Scissors

Eight and a Half. It's not just a Fellini film anymore. This new band is made from a combination of The Stills (Liam O'Neil & Dave Hamelin) and Broken Social Scene (Justin Peroff). Their full length, self-titled debut isn't due out until next year, but Arts & Crafts has offered their single "Scissors" to introduce them to the world. Tonight, Label Year considers this first impression.

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McCoy Tyner Performs She's Leaving Home

McCoy Tyner is one of my all time favorite jazz piano players – he is an absolute diamond in the rough. In a nutshell, McCoy Tyner cut his teeth in the jazz scene playing piano in Coltrane's band before a long and healthy solo career. My favorite of his solo albums is Nights of Blues and Ballads and I cannot recommend it highly enough if you don't already have this one in your collection. Regardless, I had a one of those transcendent moments this morning while drinking a cup of coffee and listening to McCoy Tyner perform his rendition of The Beatles classic, She's Leaving Home

I've already called Tyner himself a diamond in the rough, but more specifically, that's how I feel about his performance amongst a collection of thirteen other jazz interpretations of Beatles songs from the 1995 album (I Got No Kick Against )Modern Jazz: A GRP Artists' Celebration Of The Songs Of The Beatles. If you are curious, or would like to purchase just this track, the album is available on Amazon. The band is McCoy Tyner on Piano, Avery Sharpe on Bass, and Aaron Scott on Drums. Collectively, I enjoy the way they stay true to the original song and its emotional content, while speaking their own language. The best story tellers always manage to get the important parts correct, even if they change the details along the way.

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Nicolas Jaar EP

NICOLAS JAAR / Don't break my love EP by Clown & Sunset

Warning: Listening should occur on good headphones.

This is pretty different fare than you'll normally find on our humble little blog, and I am generally a non-believer in most of the output from the electronic music world. That being said I can't stop listening to Nicolas Jaar. I hesitate to even call his work "electronic" as it combines found sound and organic noises as well as bloops and blips. It comes across with a feeling akin to The Books.

I want to live inside the space in "Don't Break My Love". It's the absolute opposite of current electronic trends (read: brostep) in it's beauty, sparseness, and reliance on subtely and open space to breathe emotion and nuance. The song crackles and pops at a painfully slow speed in the beginning to the point of checking to even make sure the song is playing. As the sounds gradually unfurl themselves a melody and rhythym are established and the groggy bass brings you in. The hook doesn't even drop for a good five minutes.

You can download both tunes by clicked the downward arrow in the player. After hearing this track I immediately devoured Jaar's brilliant release from earlier this year Space Is Only Noise. I recommend you do the same.

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