Insurmountable Opportunities

Ah, youth! Operator Please – You Don’t Always Get What You Want:

Comments Off Music, Video

One or another member of the Finn family has been informing my pop sensibilities since I bought Waiata by “Split Enz” in 1981 after seeing the video for “One Step Ahead.”

I wasn’t a huge Crowded House fan, but they had some really great songs that I still love today.

Now, here comes Liam, Neil’s son to carry on with a bit of a different take on pop from his dad and uncle.

Comments Off Music, Video

I’m in love with Imelda May. The band is amazing and this song in particular is on seriously high replay on my headphones. In short, it’s just totally kick-ass rockabilly from Dublin by way of London.

On a related note, I highly recommend the show this video is taken from. It’s been on forever but I lost track of it for a few years. Later…With Jools Holland is on Ovation TV, seemingly, every fifteen minutes.

Comments Off Music, Video imelda may, jools holland, Music, rockabilly, Video

It was hard to pick which song to post here, these kids do everything perfectly.

• Don’t Dream It’s Over (Crowded House)
• Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey)
• Pictures Of You (The Cure)

PS22 Chorus Blogspot Page

2 comments Music, Work choir, cold play, crowded house, cure, journey, Kids, ps22, singing

Emily Haines and James shaw who are also a part of Broken Social Scene.

Comments Off Music, Video emily haines, metric, Video

A strangely affecting track, I love how Sagan sounds like Kermit the Frog in the chorus.

“A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way”

Comments Off Music, Science, Video carl, Music, sagan, Science, space, Video

Give it a minute. Seriously.

Comments Off Music, Video devo, Music, neil young, Video

The groove, the playing, the style, the voice, the band, the look; Feist totally has it all. And this performance of the song “My Moon, My Man” is completely flawless. Go ahead, I dare you: find a flaw.

Sometimes one just isn’t enough:

4 comments Music, Video feist, jools holland, later, live, man, moon, sealion, Video, woman

Boy howdy. Music is being teh good to me these days. I’ve added a music player to the blog so you can listen to songs by these folks right here and now! Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t it just the very most exciting thing that you’ve heard all week? Yes. Yes, it is.

The new Decemberists record is due out March 24th and I can’t wait to hear the whole thing. The pre-release single (which is available now from their site, or to listen to below) is great! Typically dark, moving, and adventurous.

I first heard K’naan on the NPR show All Song’s Considered, which seems to be where I hear about all the new music I end up loving. It’s the best radio show I know and the podcast comes out weekly.

Lily Allen doesn’t offer a whole lot for those who didn’t like her first record, and for my money that’s a good thing. Less ska and more pop and dance feels make it sound like a bit of a progression but the themes are still the same: herself, people she knows, people who know her, people she has screwed, people who have screwed her, drugs, and fame.

Santogold is strange. Dub, pop, rock, all sung with a really cool voice that reminds me of Karen O, of Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Comments Off Listening Party, Music decemberists, k'naan, lily allen, Listening Party, Music, santogold

My good friend James Gossard and I used to swap mix-tapes where one of us would do a side and give it to the other to do a “response” side. I learned about some music from James that I probably never would have found where it not for those mix-tapes. Among the songs I still have on tape, but that I’ve had an impossible search for digital versions of, is this one from the New Zealand band Swingers. I’ve never seen the movie this video is from, but am certainly intrigued.

1 comment Music, Video Music, swingers, Video

I’d only heard him singing on the CocoRosie song “Beautiful Boys,” and honestly didn’t even know it wasn’t one of the sisters.? This version of the Leonard Cohen song “If It Be Your Will” is amazing…spine-tingling. Shake that Devil, the first song I’ve heard from the upcoming record by Antony and the Johnsons sounds great as well.

1 comment Music, Video antony, Music

Something new, something old, and something a bit of both.

• TV on the Radio – Dear Science The new album from New York’s TV on the Radio is the best album of the year so far.
• Die Kreuzen – Die Kreuzen Bill thinks this is more metal than hardcore, and I agree they certainly went that way after a bit. Regardless, their first album kicks ass.
• Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal It’s the ’60s (or is it the ’70s?) again. This reminds me of lying on my parents living room floor listening to “Horse with no Name” by America.

2 comments Listening Party, Music dei kreuzen, fleet foxes, Listening Party, Music, tv on the radio

Ah the memories of growing up in ____________.

1 comment Music, Video big black, kerosine, Music, punk rock

I’m still sad about Joe Strummer’s death. I think he had a lot more songs in him, as one certainly attests to.

Comments Off Music, Video joe strummer, mescaleros, Music, Video

After a dry spell where I hadn’t heard anything terribly exciting and was doing more reading than listening to music I begin to have some hope that things might someday turn around. Until then, I’ll keep on reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy (recommended by Mr. Barbot) and occasionally listening to the following:

• Bloc Party – Silent Alarm Now also wondering if the new album due in October will be good.
• Beck – Guero “Girl” is the sweetest song I’ve never understood
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Baby 81 Rock is rock and rock and rock and rock is rock.
• Echo & the Bunnymen – Siberia A lost 80s gem…perhaps because it was recorded in 2005?

3 comments Listening Party, Music beck, black rebel motorcycle club, bloc party, echo & the bunnymen, Listening Party, Music