Bon Iver

Well I thought I had better write about Bon Iver. He was featured on Chuck again last night. I thought I had posted about him already since I've been listening to his music for a while now, but after double-checking it turns out I haven't.

Anyway I just recently got some of the songs on Bon Iver's new EP Blood Bank and they're really great. There's "Woods", which is very much like Imogen Heap's "Hide & Seek" and that's a good thing. It's just different enough to still be interesting though. Then of course there's "Blood Bank", which is the song that was on Chuck last night. They're all sort of melancholy tunes that really hit the spot. I found the whole EP over here. Awesome.

By the by, there seems to be a lot of hate going on towards "Woods". I don't quite get it, people are just not fans of the synth I guess. Just check it out yourselves though and see what you think.

So before the Blood Bank EP Bon Iver had another little album called For Emma, Forever Ago, which was equally as wonderful as Blood Bank. In case you haven't had the chance to hear any of the songs from that one, you can get "Flume" and "Skinny Love" here. The latter was also picked by Chuck's fabulous music supervisor Alex Patsavas for the show. She also had another song off that album on Grey's Anatomy a while back, which is actually where I heard about Bon Iver the first time. So thanks again to that lady, she really is brilliant at picking good songs.

Also on a different note, I hope people have started to be curious about Chuck, considering how often I mention it. It's an awesome show. It's probably the most consistently entertaining program on TV and you really should be catching it. If you've never seen it, it's on NBC on Mondays at 8/7 c. Watch it. You can also go catch up on old episodes at the official NBC site, at Hulu or at NinjaVideo. Incidentally, last night's episode "Chuck Versus the Broken Heart" was hilarious. Watch it now.


Edit: I almost forgot to mention... If you're one of the unlucky who can't access NBC's videos or Hulu because you're outside the US, there's a brilliant little free program that will work around that for you. It's called Hotspot Shield and essentially what it does, is create a VPN (virtual private network) that will assign you a different IP address, thereby tricking all those restricted US sites into thinking you're actually from the US. Sweet Jesus! Yes, it's that awesome. Also when you install it be sure to deselect the option to install that silly toolbar. It's no good for your computer. Get the program here. You can thank me later :)

Blitzen Trapper and Blind Pilot

I found something fabulous the other day over at Untitled Records. The songs "The Story I Heard" and "I Buried a Bone" by Blind Pilot are absolutely wonderful. The tunes feature lovely guitar arrangements and even lovelier vocal harmonies. Sigh. You definitely have to go check Blind Pilot out here.

Additionally, I've been meaning to post about Blitzen Trapper for a while. They play great folksy stuff. The song "Furr" is like a musical fairy tale. You can get it here. I hope you like it!

Whut?!

There seems to have been a veritable plethora of visitors to the blog lately (or at least that's what Google Analytics tells me). I wonder what inspired the recent increase in interest. Leave a comment if you can enlighten me on that subject.

In music news: Last week's Chuck (by now you really can't be surprised at me bringing that show up any more) had a great Bloc Party song called "Signs" at the end of the episode. Now, normally I'm not a huge fan of Bloc Party, which sort of confirmed itself for me when I listened to their album Intimacy all the way through. There are a few great songs on there, but all in all it was just a little too much for me. That being said, "Signs" is such a terrific song, that it can't go unmentioned.

I just spent a good 10 minutes trying to find the song online and I finally got lucky. Hehe. The link's in Hebrew, but the song is there. Go get it here. I also chanced upon two remixes of "Signs" - the first one's here and there's another one here. The latter is less good, but that's just my opinion. Have a listen yourselves and see what you think.

The other band or rather duo I wanted to talk about is Mackintosh Braun. I reckon they were featured on Chuck as well, but I can't remember whether that's correct now. Either way, Mackintosh Braun plays some seriously awesome electronica. I really like the whole of their album The Sound, but for obvious reasons it would be a bit excessive to wax poetic about each song individually. Instead I will just direct you here, where you can listen to and download "Good So Far" (it's the fifth one from the top, right-click on the track to download), which is one of many, many great tracks on the album.

Hope you like everything :)


Edit: You can get two more Mackintosh Braun songs here.

Local Natives

Found a great song called "Airplanes" by the band Local Natives. You can get the song here. You'll just have to scroll a little way down.

The National

My obsession with The National continues unabated. Consequently I've found it necessary to add some of the band's songs to my little mp3 player on the right. If you flip around the selection you should find both "Ada" and "Slow Show" off the 2007 album Boxer. "Slow Show", as well as another song called "Fake Empire", were featured on Chuck, which is why it occurred to me to post about The National in the first place.

I also added the song "Know When to Walk Away" by Jay Clifford to the player. Currently, I'm drawing a complete blank as to where I know it from, but it's a pretty straightforward rock song, which is such a good thing every once in a while, isn't it?

Well I hope you like the new stuff.

Piers Faccini

I've added another little tune to the player. It's called "A Storm is Going to Come" and it's by Piers Faccini, who apparently is French, but the song is in English. It was on Grey's Anatomy this past week, that show has really kind of gone to hell in a hand basket, let's hope that nonsense ends soon - and by that I mean either the ridiculousness or if there's no other option, the show. The music has always been good though, so I guess that would be a slight shame. In any case, the Piers Faccini song is pretty much nowhere to be found online. The album that it's on, Two Grains of Sand, won't be released until later this month, which probably explains, why the song is MIA. I hope listening to it will do for now though. Until soon.

Grand Archives, Take Two

Since I've been watching Chuck incessantly for a while now, I've also started paying more attention to the music and stumbled upon a lovely song by Grand Archives that I thought I'd share with everyone. I've already added "Sleepdriving" to the music player on the right, but if you'd prefer to have it on your computer, you can get it here. If you feel so inclined, I posted about Grand Archives's "Torn Blue Foam Couch" some time ago, here's the link to the previous post, in case you'd like to check that tune out as well. That's that from me for now.

bored?

I just found something over at AV Club, I think it was, that will amuse you for a good ten minutes or so for sure. Go here. It's just a drum machine or sorts, but definitely at least mildly entertaining.

Rogue Wave

Well it seems like I haven't posted in a really long time yet again. I've been listening to a bunch of new stuff though. I finally got around to watching Chuck, which my friend had told me to see eons ago, but I never got around to, until now that is. It's a pretty hilariously awesome show. I suggest you check it out, if you're not familiar with it. It's sort of if The Office met Alias, with a whole bunch of absurd humor (courtesy of the supporting cast mostly - hehe) and lots of pop culture and geek references thrown in. All in all it's a very consistently good TV experience. The added bonus here is that Alex Patsavas, music supervisor extraordinaire, is picking the songs for the show. Naturally I've been checking up on what's been on the show. You can see for yourself here. There are a lot of favorites of mine like Spoon and The National to be had and I've also discovered a fair number of new and old (yay Eels) goodies. I wanted to mention Rogue Wave though. They used a song called "Lake Michigan" off the album Asleep at Heaven's Gate on the show and it's really fantastic. In fact that whole album is a real pleasure to listen to. Now fortunately, "Lake Michigan" and a few other Rogue Wave titles are available at betterPropaganda. I swear that site is one of the best things on the internet. Anyway go here to listen and download.

Well that's that for right now. Hope you like the music.