Bon Iver is the essence of high quality, indie music. With his unique sound and relaxing, yet emotive, vocal performances, Bon Iver is making my list of top artists to recommend for 2010. NPR has labeled Bon Iver as being among the “50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade” and ”For Emma, Forever Ago” was ranked number 29 in the Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums of 2008. Bon Iver has now formed a group called “Volcano Choir” with some old friends, but still more great music. Check some of it below:
Life Performances:
From his highly recommended album “For Emma, Forever Ago”:
Posted on March 1, 2010 at sometime around 5:40 pm
For Fans of: Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Mat Kearney, Sufjan Stevens
To stream his music seamlessly, check out his website here. The first song that is currently listed on the music player is “All Creatures” - and it is the best arrangement I’ve ever heard of that song.
Below are a bunch of live performances. Anyone who can perform that well live is generally going to produce some quality records, and Josh is no exception. His use of language is impressive and his exploration of faith questions is interesting, rather than simply straightforward. Plus, as is the criteria for all of my music monday picks, it simply sounds great.
I’m not going to write a full review this week - just let you enjoy some good music.
Posted on February 15, 2010 at sometime around 2:41 pm
In a world filled with singles, the minimalist, rock group from Iceland known as Sigur Rós does not just make songs - they make albums. If you have not heard the ethereal sounds of Sigur Rós’ music before, you are in for a relaxing and exciting treat today, my friends. In English, the name is pronounced /ˈsɪɡər ˈrɒs/ (which didn’t help me any) or you can hear it pronounced for you here. When you begin to hear the music, you notice that the falsetto voice of lead singer Jónsi Birgisson is difficult to understand. This is because he is speaking “hopelandic”, which is an artist-created language Birgisson uses to blend his vocals as an instrument, as opposed to the typical use of vocals to communicate a message in a known language. He describes this concept below:
what language does jónsi sing in?
on “von, ágætis byrjun” and “takk”, jónsi sang most songs in icelandic but a few of the songs were sung in ‘hopelandic’. all of the vocals are, however, in hopelandic. hopelandic (vonlenska in icelandic) is the ‘invented language’ in which jónsi sings before lyrics are written to the vocals. it’s of course not an actual language by definition (no vocabulary, grammar, etc.), it’s rather a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument. jónsi likens it with what singers sometimes do when they’ve decided on the melody but haven’t written the lyrics yet. many languages were considered to be used, including english, but they decided on hopelandic. hopelandic (vonlenska) got its name from first song which jónsi sang it on, hope (von). tracks 7-9 on takk… are in hopelandic.
The creativity of the band is unbelievable. Listening to any of their albums is strange, yet inspiring. Their orchestration and ambient overdrives are a delight.
Enough talk - just take a listen and buy “Takk…” or “Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust” (translated: ”With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly”). It will make your heart happy, regardless of how your Valentine’s Day was.
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(Just listen - video is not as important…)
Sadly (for us as listeners), Sigur Rós announced in January that they have decided to take a break and spend time with their family and pursue other individual endeavors for now. Sigur Rós’ brilliant music, however, still remains.
Let me know what you think. Too weird, or a joy to the ears?
Posted on January 4, 2010 at sometime around 11:45 pm
I’ve decided that I am going to attempt to recommend one indie-ish artist (which I’m defining as not overly well known rather than not being signed to a major label) every single Monday. In the twitter world (a world unto itself), there is a popular hashtag known as #MusicMonday, and since I’m a fan of sharing my love of music, I will be using Monday’s as the day I post these recommendations. This is also conveniently my day off from work each week.
With this week’s first recommendation, we start with Death Cab for Cutie. DCFC are a Grammy-nominated, alternative group, so they are pretty well known at this point, but their gentle, melodic sounds are still unknown to many. Death Cab’s frontman, Ben Gibbard, is one of the greatest songwriters of our time. His creative take on love and emotional poetics combined with a creative rock sound makes for a good time on the ears. Rolling Stone reviewed their album Transatlanticism and accurately assessed the songs as “melodic” and “melancholy” and “about feeling both smart and confused, hopelessly romantic but wary of love.” While describing the reasons for writing music, Gibbard said, “because life is very short, because there’s only a brief period of time to really connect with people…it’s important to recognize that.” Gibbard songs help us explore love, and what better thing could there be to explore?
Enjoy.
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Below is their song “Little Bribes”. The video was made by a fan (and is actually my favorite video of the ones shown below).
“I Will Possess Your Heart” - Death Cab’s most famous single nominated for “Best Alternative Song”. This has a long instrumental introduction, but make sure you make it to the lyrics at the 4:41 mark.
Best lyric: “How I wish you could see the potential, the potential of you and me…”
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The song to ring the New Year with:
“There’d be no distance that could hold us back.”
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Happy New Year. Here’s to lots of great music this upcoming year.
Posted on September 30, 2009 at sometime around 7:49 pm
The mix below contains all songs with the word “Train” for your listening pleasure. It is an eclectic flavor of music, with artists sharing their interpretation of the word train.
Song List:
1. “Train Song” by Feist and Ben Gibbard (indie gentle rock)
2. “First Train Home” by Imogen Heap (indie female singer-songwriter)
3. “Crash This Train” by Joshua James (singer-songwriter)
4. “Trainwreck” by Mat Kearney (acoustic guitar driven hip-hop)
5. “Stop This Train” by John Mayer (singer-songwriter)
6. “Penny On The Train Track” by Ben Kweller (singer-songwriter)
7. “Night Train” by Amos Lee (indie rock)
8. “Rock ‘N Roll Train” by AC/DC (old school rock)
Posted on June 25, 2009 at sometime around 2:21 pm
Influences/Sounds Like: Colbie Caillat, Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, Fiona Apple, Sixpence None the Richer, Aimee Mann, Regina Spektor, Over the Rhine, Adele.
Siggy’s Rating: 7/7 stars!
I don’t know where to even start in reviewing a talent like Tirzah. Her pop/folk style is so contagious to listen to, but that voice…that voice of hers is just unbelievable. Her lyrics on life and love give listeners something to identify with. From the creative love ballad in “Strawberry Hope”, (”’cause in your eyes I know that we’re gonna make it, make it through somehow”) to the challenge to her love in her first single “Flight” (”Now I have to say there’s things in the way of me letting go, but you, you take me by the hand, help me understand…I am waiting for you to be my flight”), Tirzah brings melodies that always leave us humming throughout the rest of our day. Of course, every first EP from an artist needs to have a good break up song and “Over” gives us just that (”You traded what you had for ease, no more responsibility…but I know you couldn’t care less, cause you won’t even clean up your mess, and I just need you to know, that I’m completely letting you go. This thing is over.”). [Note to humans: never date an artist or autobiographical writer or you will find yourself published in places you never wanted].
I personally helped engineer some of the songs and am Tirzah’s manager, so of course I am going to be bias and think everything she touches is gold. If you are looking to get her music, click on the icons below. You can also go to NoiseTrade for a limited time and “Pay What You Want”. That’s right! You can pay whatever you would like for the EP or (even better) you can get the EP for free! All you have to do is click on the widget below and tell 5 of your friends about Tirzah. This way she can continue to let more and more people hear her music, which is Tirzah’s goal. Of course, a little money thrown her way couldn’t hurt a starving artist…
Posted on March 17, 2009 at sometime around 1:39 pm
Independent music is unheard by so many. It’s hard to know what is good out there in the indie scene, so I’ve done the hard work for you (well…some). I’ve posted below a mix and short review-type writing on each song for your listening pleasure. Click the play button in the player above to stream and/or you can download the individual .mp3’s at the end of this post. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
“Save Me” by Aimee Mann
Inspired by the film, Magnolia, “Save Me” cries out from the depths of every one of our hearts. “But can you save me, from the ranks of the freaks, who suspect they could never love anyone?” Magnolia is a provocative but necessary film that pushes us all to love those around us, despite how different we really are from each other. Aimee’s theme track for this film is perfect.
“There is So Much More” by Brett Dennen
“I wonder how so many can be in so much pain,
While others dont seem to feel a thing
Then I curse my whiteness,
and I get so damn depressed,
In a world with suffering,
Why should I be so blessed?” Read More »
7/7 stars!
