Wes Anderson – My Life, My Card

I watched Thank You For Smoking last Friday (very funny by the way), and I got to see the Wes Anderson American Express commercial. I know all the talk right now is about the White Stripes new commercial but this one is so much better, it might be my favorite commercial ever (it’s between this and Apple’s 1984). The best part of it is that it’s shot exactly like one of Anderson’s films – The soundtrack, moving camera, random things going on in the background (two people carrying a large stuffed tiger), the dry humor, Jason Schwartzman, its all there.

I normally do a string quartet tribute on Sunday’s but in honor of this short film milestone, here’s the orchestral version of Hey Jude, seen at the beginning of “The Royal Tenebaums”. I embedded the commercial from YouTube below.

MP3 The Muzato Muzika Orchestra – Hey Jude

Buy the Royal Tenebaums Soundtrack

New Sufjan Stevens Songs!

There’s new songs from “The Avalanche” showing up all over the place now. The latest edition is courtesy of Bows + Arrows via Pitchfork and called “Dear Mr. Supercomputer” (after the device in Champaign of that name). I heard that the song was cut from the album because it sounded too much like Stereolab, but I’m not familiar enough with them to make that comparison. I can see Sufjan and the gang dancing the robot during this song.

MP3 Sufjan Stevens – Dear Mr. Supercomputer

Meanwhile, Stereogum has an MP3 of “The Henney Buggy Band” which is my favorite as of now. It has everything needed to become a classic. Trumpets, flutes, falsettos, and background vocals. Sounds like it could have broken off of “Tallest Man, Broadest Shoulders”.

MP3 The Henney Buggy Band

“Adlai Stevenson” is the first new track we heard off the album and it also appears on the compilation album – “The Sound the Hare Heard”. It’s a short, pretty acoustic piece that fits nicely in Sufjan’s catalog. Found at i Guess i’m Floating.
Get Adlai Stevenson

American Girls in the Movies…

Last night on “The O.C.” (insert silly excuse for watching that show), I noticed a song that sounded very familiar. When I investigated further I found out it was Syd Matters singing “To All of You”, who was an artist I profiled about three months back (which happens to be the exact time that bloggers usually wait for an artist repost). The song was featured in a couple of key parts on the show, and it really fit well. I’ve also noticed Syd Matters showing up on songs:illinois as well as on Daylight for the Bird’s influences list. Basically, this guy’s going places.

MP3 Syd Matters – To All Of You

Go to his official site for a few more tunes.
Buy his latest.

In other news: I was at American Eagle buying shoes yesterday and Irving were on the screen singing Situation (Download MP3). I did a post on Irving a couple months back too, proving that blogs are around 2-3 months ahead of the pack. But you already knew that right?

Man in Gray

Here’s a quick post for you. Man in Gray are a New York band that describe themselves as “a little dancey, a little trashy, yet somehow always classy”. If you are a fan of the New York post-punk / dance scene (Walkmen, We Are Scientists, Interpol, etc) then I’m sure this band will fit your ear’s criteria. They are coming out with a full length album soon, and they just put out an EP in March (of which Sleeping is on). Go to their myspace to listen to a few more songs from them.

Here’s three of their songs in reverse chronological order:
MP3 Sleeping
MP3 Brakelights
MP3 Thirty-Six

The Camera Mix

I’m got my new camera in today, so my thoughts are a little camera-centric right now. It’s beautiful though. It’s the only camera that I know is touch screen, which makes going through menus much easier and its a whopping 8.1 megapixels. It also lets you spot focus on anything you touch on the screen. I used this feature to take the picture of the flower below. Here’s a mix to help you share in the excitement of my new Sony DSC-N1 camera.

MP3 Spoon – I Turned My Camera On
The first thing I did with my camera…

MP3 The Kinks – Picture Book
Remember this song from those cool HP frames commercial?

MP3 Eagle*Seagull – Photograph
If you don’t already have this band’s CD, grab it. It’s one of the most overlooked of 2005.

MP3 Belle & Sebastian – Photo Jenny
Classic B&S song off their Lazy Line Painter Jane EP

MP3 Editors – Camera
Great song. Great band.

MP3 Def Leppard – Photograph
This song was ranked the 17th greatest song of the last 25 years by VH1, edging out “Losing My Religion” and “With or Without You”. It should have been number 1! (Smells Like Teen Spirit is so overrated)

SOUND Team

I’m not usually one to add in to new indie band hype, I even managed to not post about Band of Horses, who’s album I’m enjoying more and more (that doesn’t count as a post does it). I managed to get sucked in to the world of SOUND Team though, with help from Chris and Jax, and they’re new CD has been playing nonstop for me. When you get a hold of the CD, play it all the way through, the best songs are at the end. The band has been so kind as to release two MP3’s to share from the album.

MP3 Your Eyes Are Liars
MP3 Movie Monster

Here’s one from their debut EP
MP3 Fastest Man Alive
SOUND Team’s myspace

Bump

Although I’m not a big fan of the name “Bump” (probably because of its overuse in celebrity magazines referring to pregnancy), I’ve been enjoying the CD they recently sent me. I was having a little trouble placing them into a genre, since they have hints of soul, reggae, and other easy-listening types of music mixed in with some cool 80’s synths, but it all makes sense once you hear it. Listen to this track:

MP3 Don’t Be The Sunrise

Bump has an album out next week. See more info at their myspace.

Daylight for the Birds

You may have noticed an overabundance of female fronted bands on this blog in the last week or so. What can I say? I like female vocals. Sue me. Here’s another of those bands that might just top all the rest – Daylight for the Birds (which is a great band name). They describe themselves as “swirly shoegaze goodness” which translates as beautiful dream pop. “World’s Away” reminds me of the opening to the Sixpence None The Richer song “Kiss me” which is a guilty pleasure of mine. “To No One” is a fantastic and epic song, that will most likely be a single. Here’s both songs for you to listen to.

MP3 To No One
MP3 Worlds Away

Make sure to check back to Daylight for the Bird’s myspace for more songs/album updates. Their album will be out this fall.

The Oohlas

The Oohlas are a band from L.A. that were started by the former drummer for Everclear, Greg Eklund. The band features Greg and Ollie on vocals which provide a nice Stars-like sound. The songs are very atmospheric and layered, and have some great guitar work.

“The Rapid” is the first song I heard from them, and I thought the contrasting sounds (heavy guitar distortion mixed with light piano melodies with marching drums?) were pretty out there, but it really grew on me. “Slow Mo Disco” on the other hand, I liked immediately. It uses at least four guitar sounds layered over each other which has to be difficult to reproduce live. The rhythm guitar(s) is really what impresses me here. It practically takes the place of the percussion in the song (except for a drum machine background) and it really keeps the song interesting. Definitely make sure to grab that one.

MP3 Slo Mo Disco
MP3 The Rapid

Be their friend!

Kimya Dawson

Kimya Dawson was a member of the anti-folk group, The Moldy Peaches, when she started her solo career in 2004. I learned about her through the Yank Sizzler / Contrast Podcast. The song I heard that introduced me to her was “You Will Be Me?”, which immediately caught my attention. She is a very talented songwriter with a lovely voice strong beliefs about government and aid. The song 12-26 is a heartbreaking song about 2004’s Tsunami. Underground is the lead single off her new album and is about her desire to have her ashes spread over Puget Sound.

MP3 12-26
MP3 Underground
MP3 You Will Be Me? – Live (sorry about the quality)

If someone has a better quality version of the above song, email me because I’d like one. Kimya has a new CD called Remember I Love You coming out in May. Read about it.

Sweet New Find – Arctic Monkeys!

I’m sure many of you think to yourselves, “how does these blogger types learn about this new music?” or “what methods do bloggers use to find music that is new?” Since I’m having server issues and cant’ post anything, I’m taking this opportunity to tell you one of the many ways I personally discover new music. Catalog Ads! My favorite one is Best Buy, they have this fantastic section called “Find ’em First”. This fits my needs perfectly because it shows artists who haven’t been over-hyped by the media or that are all over television and magazines. They’re motto is “Say you heard ’em before they were big” and this especially rings true with the band featured in this weeks article – The Arctic Monkeys!

The Arctic Monkeys are this new indie band from the UK that have a fresh sound. They are probably going to be pretty big according to the ad, so its good that I “found them first”. I’m going to link to their myspace music page, which is this cool site where you can listen to a few tracks from the artists (I didn’t need a best buy ad to tell me about that). I don’t know if their album has come out yet but when it does you can get it for 7.99 at Best Buy (they are cheap and informative!). Luckily, you have me here to read these ads and tell you what’s going to be hot, because if you were listening to the mainstream media, most of you would probably be listening to New Kids on The Block right now.

Go to the Arctic Monkeys Myspace!

Server Update: I’m using EZArchive temporarily. The last couple of week’s posts are all up, download away!