i-weenie

Dawn Landes

I’ve made the conclusion that if you live amongst corn fields, you become more susceptible to folk music. I mean, aside from the fact that one might have been innately attracted to the sound of a mandolin or a banjo, the corn field factor definitely fits in to the picture.
Anyway…Dawn Landes is today’s spot light.
Landes has a pretty stellar resume. She’s worked as a recording engineer for musicians like Hem, Joseph Arthur, and Ryan Adams. Landes has also supported musicians like Andrew Bird, Feist, and M83. To top that off, she makes excellent music. If you’re into good experimental alt-folk but not to the extreme of Joanna Newsome, you should listen to Landes. So far, she has released 3 albums which are all available on iTunes. Her latest single is a cover of PB&J’s Young Folks. Now we all know that some covers can be good and most are just plain bad. Remember that Ronan Keating song “When You Say Nothing at All”? The theme song for ‘Notting Hill’? Guess who ruined it (for me, at least)? Allison Krauss. Remember “Just Like Heaven” by the Cure? That one was ruined by Katie Melua. But then, of course, you have the artists that actually do the job right. Best cover ever? Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that Dawn Landes’ cover of Young Folks is absolutely worth listening to.

mp3. Dawn Landes - Young Folks (Peter Bjorn and John cover)

Dawn Landes’ myspace

1. Spoon - The Book I Write

2. Joan as Police Woman - The Ride

3.  Amel Larrieux -If I were a Bell

4.  The National - Abel

Wow. We apologize for the big gaps in between posts. We probably wont be able to post as often as we’d like due to personal commitments but we’ll try to keep the music coming!

 Kavinsky

To keep it short, simple, and mysterious, lets just say that Kavinsky is the zombie of a man who died in a car accident in 1986 and twenty one years later, is emerging from the dark underground to bring back the 80s.

mp3. Testarossa Autodrive - Kavinsky 

Travis

Last week, Travis released their 5th album titled “The Boy with No Name”. The first song to come out of the album, “Closer”, is reminiscent of previous hits such as “Why Does it Always Rain on Me” and “Side”. The video of Closer was produced by Michael Baldwin and features a cameo by Ben Stiller, who just happens to be a fan of the band and agreed to appear in it for free. When I came upon the video of Closer, I realized how much I loved Travis’ earlier work…and Fran Healy’s dimples.

The video:

Grab “Closer”:
mp3. Closer - Travis

Ali Love

Ali Love emerged from the East London scene in 2006 and made K-hole a summer anthem. In late October 2006, Ali released his first EP titled Camera on a Pole. The EP includes 3 songs and a Mustapha remix of K-hole. Its a shame that US’ iTunes don’t have him up for downloads but you can try uploading his EP through 7digital.com. Just a heads up though: I tried to download stuff through 7digital but they gave me a hard time, all i have now is a useless wma file, inconvertible to mp3 format. So, for now, Ali Love’s myspace will suffice. Check Ali Love out, he has 2 new songs up, both are strikingly reminiscent to the Ramones…on Ketamine and with a disco ball backdrop of course.

Ali Love’s myspace

Here is what today is serving up:

The band Islands is from Montreal, Canada (their Canadian accent is really evident on the song Don’t Call me Whitney, Bobby). Islands sprouted out of the kindred x-ray vision of Nick Diamonds and J’aime Tambeur, two rag-tag youths from the weird side of the tracks. Previously, they’d worked together in sludge-crust band The Unicorns. This time they’d be exploring a music best cataloged as other, in what seems a tribute to the timeless sound of great pop music. The album combines rhythms and sounds of cultures in the southern and eastern hemispheres, as well as a dash of rap. Listen to their stuff on myspace or grab this song:

mp3. Rough Gem - Islands

Antoine Bédard of Montag

Hailing from Montreal, Canada is Montag, a one man band lead by Antoine Bédard. Bédard has released 3 albums: “Are you a Friend?” (2002), “Alone, Not Alone” (2005), and “Goodbye Fear” (2006). You can get his 2005 and 2006 releases on iTunes. His newest album, Going Places, is scheduled to be released this summer, June 5th, 2007. This album will consist of a compilation of Montag’s collaborative work with many great indie bands including Final Fantasy and Au Revoir Simone. Montag’s latest project is a song he wrote for The Peppermill Record’s “52 short weeks” album. It doesn’t look like he will be coming to the U.S. any time soon, so pre-order the album, check out his website and myspace, and grab these songs:

mp3. Going Places - Montag

mp3. Best Boy Electric - Montag