Saa Magni

Perhaps my favorite "world music" artist, as awful and broad a term that is, is the Malian singer Oumou Sangare. Her music is descended from the traditional music of the Wassoulou region. Her debut sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Africa, and she rose to international prominence with the help of the late, great Ali Farka Toure following that album. Appended to this post is the song which introduced me to her music, the excellent "Saa Magni" from her second album, Ko Sira. Enjoy.

Oumou Sangare - Saa Magni

Music and the Human Mind

I read an interesting interview in Salon today with Joseph LeDoux, an NYU neuroscience researcher, discussing the importance of music in shaping identity and memory. Oh, plus he plays nerd-rock.

I'm Walking the Line; I'm Visiting Houses in Motion

Some dude posted some live Talking Heads circa 1980 on YouTube. Pretty sick. 1980-1 is definitely my favorite era of live Heads. It's well represented on the second disc of the classic The Name of This Band is Talking Heads, which Rhino reissued a couple years back. Everyone should own that record. Here's a highlight:

Maniac, Slow Down

My previous post (scroll down) about the Stereogum OK Computer tribute reminded me of a personal favorite from that album. The cover from the tribute is a little bit so-so, I think. The original song is not legitimately available online, so I can't post it. However, I do have a really sweet live version from the 2006 Boston show, as recorded by Bradley at Bradley's Almanac. Live versions are something of a rarity as far as this song is concerned, so enjoy.

Radiohead - The Tourist (Live Boston 2006)

PS. I realize my posts have all been short and superficial lately. Sorry. We'll get there.

From the Rooftop, We Can See the Moon Rise High Above the Clouds

Oh man. I forgot about Ida. What a cool band. They are sort of like a little bit jazzier version of Low. Really good stuff. I unfortunately don't have any real interesting stories to go behind them. Oh, I guess the fact that Liz Mitchell was once in a duo with Lisa Loeb, and that both of Ida's primaries appear on Loeb's hit "Stay." I guess that's something. They aren't touring right now, and their website has been "in progress" for like a year, but their MySpace seems to be kept fairly up to date. Here is the excellent "Late Blues," from their most recent album, 2005's Heart Like a River.

Ida - Late Blues

Lazy Post

It's definitely a little hit and miss at times, but you should probably check out Stereogum's OK Computer tribute, if for no other reason than that it contains the debut recording of David Bazan (ex-Pedro the Lion)'s new band, Black Cloud. They do "Let Down", a song that previously appeared on the best Pedro the Lion record ever, their 2004 Tour EP.

Early Day Miners

I started messing around with Pandora again the other day. One of the first tracks to come up was this jam, by Bloomington-based Early Day Miners. I really dug it, and I have enjoyed several of the other tracks. They are on Secretly Canadian, which bodes well for them. Here is a video. (There's also an mp3 coming further down).



Unfortunately, they have few dates scheduled in the near future: one in their hometown, and one in Kentucky. Doesn't help me much. Anyway, here is the song that came up on Pandora. Enjoy.

Early Day Miners - All Harm

Come With Me, My Love, Into the Sea, the Sea of Love

I heart Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall. She is a gorgeous brunette, she has pretty much the sexiest voice ever, and she's kind of crazy. My type, in other words. Awhile ago I found a copy of her KVRX set from a few years ago. It's a short solo set of mostly covers. It's very good. If you poke around you can find the whole thing elsewhere, so I am only going to post one track. This is a cover of a song originally recorded by Phil Phillips, and also later recorded by the Honeydrippers and Tom Waits. It's short, but good.

Cat Power - Sea of Love (@ KVRX)

Fourth of July

Bending the rules a little bit to have a timely song here. To be fair, they are on hiatus. I refer to Azure Ray, the excellent Saddle Creek duo consisting of Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor. I hate to say it, but I feel a little bit like both of their solo output proves that Azure Ray was more than the sum of its parts. Oh well. I saw Maria Taylor a couple years ago on the 11:11 tour where Denver Dalley was playing in her touring band; that was awesome. I wish her solo records sounded more like that. Anyway, this is from their debut, and the title fits.

Azure Ray - Fourth of July