« Geniuses, vol. 4: HULA | Main | FINALLY »
February 22, 2006
Ghostly; Grant
Sam Valenti at Ghostly International / Spectral Sound is wondrous. He provides a label for exciting, mostly electronic based bands like Solvent and Mobius Band and Dykehouse and Twine and Midwest Product. Recently he sent me the unabashedly techno Suckfish by Audion, and I've been listening to that a lot this week to jostle my mind after hours & hours of end-of-book writing and revising. If you're a fan of Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman, you'll love it.
Ghostly is based out of the US, but the other stuff I've been listening to lately is from all over the place--the dreamy Canadian band Below the Sea, Norwegians Serena Maneesh, the German shoegaze band Monoland, those always-entertaining Scots Belle & Sebastian (whose new record I really love, even if lots of their diehard fans are bitching about it), and Sing Sing (the band formed by Emma Anderson after the end of Lush).
My other cool music news from this past week: one of my closest pals, John Grant from The Czars, John recently moved from Denver to NYC, and he's currently touring the US to support Goodbye (which has been out in the UK for months but is only now available domestically). John and I became friends about a year ago and he's really a wonderful person, one of my favorite people on earth. If you haven't heard his amazing, beautiful voice, I recommend you check out their songs on iTunes or elsewhere.
Also check your local club listings to see if The Czars are playing nearby--John's voice is even more stellar in a live setting. I went to hear him play in Providence last Thursday, and then in Cambridge on Sunday, and he stayed with us at the Cape with his friends Jesse and Mustafa (who, by the way, is an excellent photographer, and whom I may ask to take my We Disappear author photo. You can view some of his work here).
So yeah, obviously I recommend all this stuff. What new things are you lot listening to?? I have a pretty wide ranging musical taste, and suggestions are always welcome. And oh: the next time you hear from me, I swear I'm going to be done with We Disappear.
Posted by scottheim at February 22, 2006 05:37 PM
Comments
I'm not really listening to anything too new at the moment. I really like the new Belle and Sebastian. I'm an 'old' fan so am pleased with it. I saw them a few weeks ago and they played such a darn good set. The new songs sounded fab.
Apart from that I'm re-listening to Low and falling in love with them all over again. And Jens Lekman too.
Posted by: aisha at March 2, 2006 09:03 AM
I am going to have to check out the new Belle & Sebastain CD. I read a positive review of it, and everyone else has been praising it. I must give it a listen at Virgin or on iTunes or something like that.
I'm looking forward to the new Morrissey CD coming out in April. I just thought of it because I'm listening to "You Are the Quarry" on my computer at work right now. I saw him at Radio City when he toured for that CD--great show. I enjoyed it much better than when I saw him touring years ago for "Kill Uncle." It might have had something to do with distance from the stage; I was closer at the more recent show. Oh well.
robert
Posted by: robert s. at February 27, 2006 12:34 PM
Rilo Kiley is my favorite band and always good, especially live.
Posted by: sara at February 25, 2006 08:26 PM
Another great and greatly underrated band whose stuff is being issued on c.d.--Lowlife. Tonevendor is selling Permanent Sleep and Godhead. Another unusual voice in my beloved baritone range...I also love the new Belle & Sebastian, love the new Arab Strap, am annoyed by Chan Marshall but love the new Cat Power. If you like Vashti Bunyan (and I do), check out Sybille Baier...similar sweet voice and folky songs.
Posted by: tamyra at February 25, 2006 06:27 PM
I'm still behind the times in that I don't have an iPod or any other sort of portable MP3 player, so, quite often, I end up buying CDs "on spec" (which gets awfully expensive, is sometimes disappointing, and doesn't allow me to listen to the range of music I'd like). Some recent artists on heavy rotation include the Animal Collective, Vashti Bunyan (whose resurgence in popularity seems to be owing to her collaboration with the Animal Collective, incidentally), Xiu Xiu, Appendix Out, the new Cat Power, the Gay's 2003 album "You Know the Rules" (spectacularly poppy), et cetera.
Oh -- and I really like the new Belle & Sebastian CD, too. Maybe I'm not "cool" enough to be contemptuous about it :P
Posted by: Amanda at February 24, 2006 05:00 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)