Lightyear, the new project from Lauren Zettler, has an EP out called All of the Miles and will be performing tomorrow night (11/18/11) at the show room of Piano's. Read on for details about the music and the show!
It's hard to believe that I could ever look at a 60 gig ipod and feel bored, but it happens. I'm sure you've been there too. So let me throw something at you that might get you out of the box and refresh your tired ears. David Smooke is a composer, musician, professor, blogger, birder, and badass. He is also extremely interested by toy pianos and posted a wonderfully thoughtful and intriguing article on the ever engaging NewMusicBox -the online magazine for the American Music Center.
Read on for a full link to the article as well as videos of his pieces Half the Way Down and Toy With Me. Both of which feature the toy piano and might seem a bit more accessible after reading the artists thoughts and seeing them isolated and in action. You'll also get information about Uncaged which is the 3 day toy piano music festival in NYC where David Smooke will be performing.
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This is going to be a very brief Weekly Roundup from my end, but still full of plenty of good tunes & videos for all of you. Check it!
A few weeks ago I was driving home and listening to the low end of the dial on my car radio. My car is kind of a piece and the radio dial can't be read so I can't rightly tell you what station I was listening to when Sherman "Blues" Johnson & His Clouds of Joy came across the airwaves. The tune was Hot Fish and for its time and place the song couldn't have been more perfect for an evening drive home at the end of a long day with the windows down and the city lights blinking an optimistic yellow through my windshield. It felt great, I felt good. I know that the music selection amplified these feelings and I've been thinking about it ever since.
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Hudson (aka Travis Aulsebrook) is an Austrailian folk artist with a new EP out this year entitled Open Up Slowly. The entire album can be streamed via his bandcamp page tagged at the beginning of the article or you can purchase the EP for the low low price of 8 bucks. This EP has all the makings of a great future for Hudson with hook, balanced pop orchestration, engaging lyrics, and that innate and hard to define sing-along quality that makes pop music worthwhile. I was really happy that this EP found its way into my headphones this weekend. But here's the best part, stop motion animation! Hudson teamed up with animator Dropbear (aka Jonathan Chong) to create this hip music video for the EP's single Against the Grain. What's not to love? Check it out, buy the EP, and make your next commute with Hudson and Open Up Slowly. You dig?
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Arts & Crafts has been on a tear with recent releases, and I have fallen way off the pace with my Label Year feature. Tuesday's Los Campesinos! album will mark the sixth release in the past seven weeks, none of which have yet appeared here. So let's get things back on track and kick off the big finish with a look at Oh Fortune by Dan Mangan.
Tonight I'm starting a new feature at Those Who Dig called This Book Is A Song. I have always loved literature and reading and I decided it would be fun to look at the connections to music. The idea is to share some thoughts about books I read and match them up with relevant songs. Let's get to it!
As you probably know if you've been reading Those Who Dig over the past few weeks, I interviewed the seven bands that were playing the New Zealand showcase during CMJ. One thing I asked each was to give me songs for a collaborative playlist. Tonight I'm unveiling it for your listening pleasure.
We've finally reached the end of the CMJ New Zealand showcase interviews and we're going out strong. What follows is a conversation I had with Princess Chelsea. And an added bonus, Pikachunes joined in for the chain and playlist questions. Check it out!
You know what the end of daylight savings time really means, don't you? That's right, a whole extra hour to enjoy Weekly Roundup!