Indie Artist of the Week

Raphael Saadiq is a great, new neo-soul musician. By what I understand, he writes and produces his own music, which is a pretty impressive thing to do these days. Also, he's got a great voice. He's awesome and his album The Way I See It was nominated for a grammy, and deserved it too. He's really cool, and the sound his music has is like this generation's Otis Redding, but shyer. It's simply awesome.

Stuff of the Week

Record of the Week: Can't Believe it (feat. Lil Wayne) - T-Pain

People very easily discredit hip-hop musicians who use the auto-tune effect on their voices. I personally think there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Especially in T-Pain's case (the man to blame when it comes to hip-hop autotune), who has a great voice, and a talent of great, idiosyncratic production, throwing some jazz chord progressions in. The song is great. It's a nice, ballad-y song that even has a sense of humor. "Put you in the mansion/Somewhere in Wiscansin". Lil Wayne's featured part, is not good. The autotune effect sounds unprofessional, he's barely understandable, and the lyrics you can understand aren't that striking. T-Pain is the real center to this song.

Movie of the Week: Vicky Christina Barcelona

I am a big Woody Allen fan. I really like his stuff, a lot. I know that it probably shows with my posting of Melinda and Melinda only a few weeks ago. Still, there is something to be said. Woody Allen sure knows how to make a movie. This proves it. The casting is perfect, Rebecca Hall, is beautiful and magnificent. Scarlett Johansson has a sense of humor we don't see often. Javier Bardem made his first normal* character in an American big time movie. The Screenplay is hilarious and endearing. The photography is very good, not incredible, but notable. The directing is classically Woody Allen. If you haven't seen this movie, see it now. It's a great one.

Album of the Week: Songs in the Key of Life - Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder is probably one of the best musicians of the twenty first century. This album was in his "Classic period". A time of Wonder's career in which he put out his five best albums consecutively from 1972-1976. This was the last of the series, a 21 track, 1:44 long magnum opus. The funny thing about it, is that, while most musicians would get boring after the standard 40-50 minutes, Wonder keeps you wanting to listen to every second. The album is drenched in great songwriting, incredible arrangements, ridiculous musicianship, and powerful lyricism. The entire thing is an enormous, flawless songwriting manual. It's something any musician can learn from. I can only hope it will change the way you view music the way it did for me.

Stuff of the last two weeks

Records of the Week: Taking On Water - John Mayer & Marie (Demo Version) - Randy Newman

John Mayer is a great, great musician. He wears music theory and (ridiculously) impressive guitar playing on his sleeves like a signature to his music. This song, while boosting the unfortunate stereotype of slow-over-sentimentality, Is beautiful. It's not sappy, or overly sentimental. None of his stuff never really is though. The lyrics are simple. There is nothing ridiculously complex about the lyrics. But the lyrics are intelligent, precise and ingenious. The guitar line is very good. Very guitarist-y. Check it out. I know the only whole recordings are live, but they are worth the poor quality, trust me.

It's sad that Randy Newman gets treated like he never did anything beyond Disney music. Aside from the fact that the music he wrote for Disney is absolutely incredible, he wrote music before that. Good Old Boys is a great example of this. The song though, while being another slow song, is awe-inspiring. There is something really powerful about Randy Newman playing piano alone and singing. It's completely mesmerizing.

Movies of the Week: Wall-E & Amarcord

If you ask me, Wall-E was the best movie 2008 had to offer. There is something awe-fully magical about it. It's got that feeling you get from old romance movies that you don't get anymore. I'm not saying romance movies aren't good anymore. I'm just saying there is a certain feeling that Wall-E gives off that not a lot of other movies in the past years have. Aside from that there is a really startling relevance to today's world, Global warming, technologism (yes that is a made up word) and fast food-ism. The movie is beautiful, visually, writtenly, and pretty much everything else-ly.

I hate sounding so condescending as to bring up Fellini, but he really was one of the world's film greats. Amarcord, which means I remember in the dialect of Rimini, is a wonderful movie he put out in 1973. They are a series of short stories that involve kids, doing various things. However, the movie is incredible put together. From the unique sense of humor you could only expect from Fellini, the writing is great. The directing really needs no commentary. The acting is actually pretty surprisingly good. For being kids, most of the actors are pretty damn good.

Albums of the Week: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement & Distortion - The Magnetic Fields

If you're not familiar with Pavement, this is a great album to start on. Either this or Slanted and Enchanted. They're both great albums. Plus, Pavement is a great band. They really gave voice to the college music scene of the nineties.

This is a great album. It's very My Bloody Valentine-y. Which is an interesting change of pace considering the superior but enormous 69 Love Songs. The songs are humorous, and noisy. listen, and enjoy.

Indie Artist of the Week

Globe Unity Orchestra is an incredible free-form Jazz band. They have something else. The group has been around since, 1966, and is still sounding great. I saw them live, I think last year. It was a completely eye opening experience. Since then, I have looked at music, and especially Jazz music completely differently. It's a tough thing to chew at first, but as you continue to listen to it, you should start to understand what is going on, and maybe you'll enjoy it too. I hope you will.

Stuff of the Week

Record of the Week: Hold it In - Jukebox the Ghost

Jukebox the Ghost are a small indie band operating out of Washington DC. Their rather peculiar name comes from a mix of a line from a Captain Beefheart song and a line from a Nabokov book. They don't take themselves as seriously as they may come off. Their intelligent, lively pop is something of a rarity, and is quite a nice thing to come by. More importantly,an especially rare thing. The record is great. The lyrics are humorous and light. "If there's a God, he's embarassed and it's no secret why/Only thing he can do is hold it in, hold it in" is one of the lines. The song is about a lot of things. Smoking, keeping secrets, and love, amongst them.

Movie of the Week: Coming to America

Although, it's not some incredible triumph in the face of comic history, or Jon Landis' for that matter, Coming to America is a fun movie. Eddie Murphy plays an African prince who comes to America in search of a bride. Murphy is hilarious as always, and the writing is great. The two combined are a long series of laughs waiting to happen.

Album of the Week: Rain Dogs - Tom Waits

Tom Waits once described a Rain Dog as a dog that got caught in the rain, lost it's own smell of home, so it couldn't find home. It seems like what this album feels like. It feels like getting lost in the sleaziest, and most run down neighborhood in the world. There is a sort of polka-y/Vaudevillian/Raw sound happening. It's really incredibly experimental and gorgeous in all it's songs.

Indie Artist of the Week

Cold War Kids are a great group of Californian rockers. Their Sound is hard egded, but still musically intonated. The lyrics are very often stories told through the eyes of various characters. "I promised to my wife and children / I'd never touch another drink as long as I live / But even then it sounds so soothing / To mix a gin and sink into oblivion" are the types of lines you find on their album Robbers and Cowards. This album title gives a very literal name to the types of characters portrayed on this album. Also, there is a very deep catholic resentment in various numbers such as "Passing the Hat", "God, Make Up Your Mind" and "Sermon Vs. The Gospel". They're very cool and worth the time and money for Robbers and Cowards.