no myth : acoustic : michael penn

click here to listen

listening time: 3m 44s

drowning in work. here's something from aimee's husband.

oh, wait. here's something i thought of the other day: how to piss off colleague x in a meeting. and make sure you show off your biceps while stressing your point:

man, you're glib. you don't even know what {topic} is. if you start talking about {topic}, you have to evaluate and read the research papers, x, okay? that's what i've done. you should be a bit more responsible in knowing what it is because you communicate to people.

yeah, i'm just trying to fill up this space. ttfn!

the kindness of strangers

fast car : live acoustic : tracy chapman

click on the title to listen. note: there's a bit of a glitch in this file. if the song doesn't start right away, click pause then play. also, don't pay attention to the timer, which is out of whack. the total listening time is only 6m 31s.

this is an alternative version of the phenomenal song, from a rare benefit album called rainn songs, produced by atlanta's 99x radio station for the rape, abuse & incest national network. i discovered it during the heydays of napster, but the encoding was very bad, and the song skipped a couple of times. i searched high and low for a copy of the album, and neither the station nor e-bay had it. i couldn't even find it in any of the p2p clients i use. so i finally decided to post in ipodlounger that i was looking for a good rip of this song, and in just a few hours i received a reply -- and the song file -- from forum member ihaveanipod. he or she correctly identified it as the best version of this song.

in fact, this version is too good to be kept hidden in an obscure compilation, so i'm sharing it. enjoy.

good thing : patty larkin

click here to listen
listening time: 4m 36s

a song that's almost too beautiful for words. i remembered to post it because of the weather. we've had nothing but rain over the last few days, and i'm loving it. i've always found the rain soothing. i first heard this song one quiet sunday morning in bed. i had just woken up, listening to this album. rain was looming, but i kept my window ajar. this song came on just as the rain started to fall, and i relished the feeling of drizzles softly, graciously, almost respectfully touching my face. everything seemed to be in slow motion during those four minutes.

Good Thing
by Patty Larkin

Well I've heard enough
And I've seen enough
And I know enough to know
I know a Good Thing when I see it
And it's a bad thing to let go

Well I've been around
I've been up and down
Until I bent out of control
With your world all in motion
Got to put a ball and a chain on your soul

All those angels running
Picking up the pieces
Putting back together hearts broke long ago
I know a Good Thing when I see it
And it's a bad thing to let go

There will always
Be lovers
With borders of their own
And you may charge across
In a golden chariot
But you will never be home

I had dreams like distant thunder
I had hope like a prayer unheard
Now this is nothing
Less than perfect
In a less than perfect world

i can't help you anymore : aimee mann

click here to listen

listening time: 4m 52s

i've been trying to like the forgotten arm, aimee mann's latest album, but i can't get past my initial feeling of 'what the hell?' it could be the whole concept of the album. i just can't connect with it. the forgotten arm -- which mann dedicates to "the alcoholic and addict who still suffers" -- follows the relationship of a carnival performer and a down-on-his-luck boxer that begins just before the latter is sent off to war in vietnam. he comes back addicted, and the circus performer has been trying to find a way out of the relationship since. each song is a chapter that unravels disillusionment, despair and ultimately, doom. these themes already make for a strong material that would appeal to those who agree that the most interesting relationships are inherently complex and all too often tragic. but in writing each song, mann forces too much creativity and achieves the opposite. we're distracted by too much meter and rhyme for their own sake, that they end up being a constraint to, instead of a form of, story-telling.

once somebody stationed in kuala lumpur
said he thought you went out but he couldn't be sure.
- dear john

you pulled up and parked your el dorado
we said "hi" and kissed with some bravado
- beautiful

nice. now in your next effort, can we please have less of these silly rhymes and more of the grown-up perspective you demonstrated in the following songs, which are the best moments of the album?

was i the bullet or the gun
or just a target drawn upon
a wall that you decided wasn't worth defending?
- i can't help you anymore

life just kind of empties out
less a deluge than a drought
less a giant mushroom cloud than an unexploded shell
- little bombs

the forgotten arm, a boxing reference to an unexpected punch from what was perceived as the opponent's weaker arm, comes after mann's four consistently excellent studio outputs. although as a concept album it explores and successfully demonstrates mann's dark and twisted view of relationships, no track stands out the way save me did in the soundtrack she created for the film magnolia, or lost in space from her album of the same name. ah, but maybe it'll grow on me after a few more listens.

sunshower : chris cornell

click here to listen
listening time: just under 6m

i'm typing this while waiting for my flight for a business trip. the flight leaves in 40 minutes.

i leave you with this beautiful song by former soundgarden, now audioslave vocalist chris cornell, from the soundtrack to the underrated 1998 film great expectations. cornell has got to be one of the best male voices in rock. too bad he isn't so prolific as a solo artist.

boarding now. see you all next monday. behave children, and remember: eat! your! vegetables!

love steals us from loneliness : idlewild

click here to listen

listening time: 3m 12s

this is first single and my second favorite song from idlewild's latest album warnings / promises, which is a solid piece of work and a welcome affirmation of the band's departure from their headier, earlier days. the 13 songs in this album, the very title of which suggests duality, alternate almost predictably between electric and acoustic. die-hard fans from their native scotland are probably crying sellout (it doesn't help that the band is opening for u2 and r.e.m. this summer) but standing on the soft side of alternative rock, i like them better this way. kinder, gentler, ten pints more sober.

my only glitch with warnings / promises is the heavy r.e.m. influence which to my ears is more obvious here than in their previous albums. when roody woomble sings the line happy birthday, are you lonely now in this song, you can almost hear michael stipe cry a similar line in shiny happy people. in fact, the acoustic half of the album could have come from r.e.m.'s out of time, and the electric half from monster. this doesn't necessarily mean that idlewild are losing their original sound; i guess they're on their way to finding a new one, and woomble's sharp, wistful songwriting and vocals make sure they don't falter along the way. get this from the all-acoustic not just sometimes but always, my favorite track:

i wake up hearing unfamiliar voices
convinced they're trying to explain
that if my words were clearer
then maybe i would know what i'm trying to say
just as those long forgotten voices
disappear back into rain

granted, the sedate, even soothing, medoly betrays the more somber reality of the song, but you can take that as a struggle against bleakness. it's hopeful, and hopeful is mature. welcome home, goodnight and the bonus track are also clear winners in this album, featuring vocal harmonies that are more pleasant than what r.e.m. can achieve. (not that anyone can actually harmonize with stipe.) both songs open with acoustic guitars and stay in that mode for the rest of the song. love steals us... as you can hear opens with pounding drums and angry riffs before mellowing out, a brilliant choice as first single because it best shows the band in transition. but it is still edgy, and if they keep it that way idlewild will stay on the good side of alternative pop, perhaps in the company of train, another great, under-appreciated r.e.m.-influenced band.

nine stars out of ten.

a playlist : ballads from the new school

oneway : drew o'doherty

click here to listen

listening time: 4m 07s

don't i hold you : wheat

click here to listen

listening time: 3m 50s

this is a playlist i made to give a name to this new set of male artists who make personal, intimate pop ballads sans fromage. the music is uncluttered and the words are expressive, not effusive. they're boys who grew up to be boys, fell in love, broke their hearts, and mope with their guitars. there is a trifle sense of immaturity in their stories, and they're not afraid to expose their vulnerability, but the sincerity shines through. you get the feeling they've been through exactly what they're narrating. others:

collide : howie day

back to you : john mayer

chemical : rockwell church

sleeping to dream : jason mraz

loud : matt nathanson

caught up in your love : ari hest

hold on tight : christopher jak

the wanderer : marc broussard

you can download o'doherty's song from his page in myspace, which is an excellent resource for independent music.

update. i e-mailed drew to let him know i blogged about his song, and he replied saying he's currently at work on a full-length album that's coming out soon, which should be something to look forward to. he is currently on tour in cambridge, where he will perform with tom thumb at zuzu on thursday. follow drew's progress in his website.

cannonball : damien rice

click here to listen to the album version

listening time: 5m 10s

click here to listen to the radio edit

listening time: 3m 26s

a song that's destined to be a classic, despite being overshadowed by the blower's daughter (famously used in the soundtrack to the film closer) and volcano. with cannonball, irish singer-songwriter damien rice creates a masterpiece out of simple words and chords: they've all been said and done before, but the emotion comes alive with his voice and the undulating guitar arrangement that perfectly captures the writer's hesitation and longing.

here are two versions of the song. i actually like the radio edit better; the pause or suspension between the first and second verses works for me. it's only literally a fraction of the song, but it's a charming effect. i enjoy tiny moments like this in a song. this version comes from the bonus disc and is the most accessible song from his album o, which is the work of a weathered storyteller, something you wouldn't have expected since o is a debut album.

hurdy gurdy man : donovan

click here to listen

listening time: 3m 17s

here's something that randomly played in my ipod while i was getting a grilled veggie sandwich for lunch. it's a 1968 classic from the british folk legend donovan. the song would make for a good soundtrack for a pre-apocalyptic dream. most recently though it was used in the excellent but highly disturbing film l.i.e., which is about child molestation. brian cox turns in an outstanding performance, and the kid should be making more movies, but he doesn't seem to be. a history of the song, from wikipedia:

Released in May 1968, his next single was the swirling psychedelic nugget 'The Hurdy Gurdy Man', a song he originally intended for his old friend and guitar mentor Mac MacLeod who had a heavy rock band called Hurdy Gurdy. Donovan had also considered giving it to Jimi Hendrix, but when Mickie Most heard it, he convinced Donovan that the song was a sure-fire single and that he should record it himself. Donovan tried to get Hendrix to play on the recording, but he was on tour and unavailable for the session. In his place they brought in a brilliant young British guitarist, Allan Holdsworth. Jimmy Page also played on the session, and it is believed that John Paul Jones may have played bass with (possibly) John Bonham on drums. If so, this would make it the first recorded performance featuring the three future members of Led Zeppelin. Both Jones and Page have stated that the idea of Led Zeppelin was formed during the 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' sessions.
The heavier sound of 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' was a deliberate attempt by Most and Donovan to try and reach a wider audience in the United States, where the new hard rock sounds of groups like Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience were having a major impact. Most's commercial instincts were spot-on, and the song became one of Donovan's biggest hits, going Top 5 in both the UK and the USA and Top 10 in Australia.

and about the hurdy gurdy: it's a musical instrument.

jump : aztec camera

click here to listen

listening time: 2m 50s

this is roddy frame's mellowed-out cover of the van halen original. it's a feel-good song that i turn to when i actually need it. the original is great, a classic, i love it. but it's also quite overwhelming. the deafening keyboards, the searing vocals, the air-guitar inducing albeit brief solo in the middle, and not to forget david's outlandish showmanship and eddie's flipped-out perma-smile on the video -- jesus, you've got to be all high, happy, and oversexed to be able to match the energy of that song. which is ironic because it's supposed to be about a man flirting with suicide.

which makes frame's version quite appropriate. set against a background of light-handed drum beats and innocuous bass, this acoustic take on jump is reluctantly positive. frame's lackadaisical vocals accompanied by gentle guitar picks deliver a sentiment that, if it catches you in a sullen state, is both bittersweet and alleviating. i get up, and nothing gets me down. what can be more hopeful than that? on a technical note this song is also a perfect proof of the timelessness of acoustic arrangements. frame made this cover about a year after the original was released -- that's 21 years ago -- but he could have done it yesterday and it would still come out just as listenable.

a song and a poem for a friend

on a high : duncan sheik
about happiness in your own terms

moving on : rainer maria rilke
about big awarenesses

happy birthday, bro.

the boss of me

i finally finished ripping all of the cd's i care about into my mac, and transferred most of the songs i care about to my ipod. out of 60 gigs, i have just a little over 2 gigs of space left, and i'm leaving that for some pictures. here's a shot of my ipod's screen. well actually, this is a recreation of my ipod screen, shamelessly knocking off a publicity shot from apple's website. i did try to take pictures of it using a digital camera, but they all came out looking like this.

i also tried scanning the thing, but it came out worse.

now all i need to do is get rid of duplicate songs from compilations and best-of collections. i wonder how much space that'll free up.

satellite (show me the worth of the world) : tabla beat science

click here to rock your world

listening time: the best 8m 48s that you will ever spend on blogger

have a groovy weekend, all. here's something from tabla beat science, the musical collective that includes talvin singh. i have no idea what the vocalist is saying apart from the chorus, or if she (it could be a he, i don't know, i'm too lazy to look at the cd liner notes) is saying anything at all. nor can i guess why this is called satellite. but heck, this record is so much fun. get the album if you too are a fan of the tabla, which i think is very versatile and in the right hands can easily get out of the traditional and asian underground scenes. this album was recorded live in 2001 at the stern grove in san francisco.

update: just looked at the liner notes. it is indeed a female vocalist, and she is ethiopian artist ejigayehu 'gigi' shibabaw. the male backing vocal belongs to istad sultan khan. interestingly, tabla beat science has this to say about the album: "peace and respect to george harrison for opening our ears."

then i'll be smiling : matt nathanson

click here to listen
listening time: 2m 56s

this song by san francisco-based artist matt nathanson is so beneath the surface i had to google what the word 'awarenesses' means. i've never used that word in the plural form in my life, and apparently it's some sort of a philosophical concept. read the lyrics here. i still don't get completely what the song means, but if my reading is right then matt makes a very poignant statement about shallow friendships. my guess is it's about a guy who has made a series of mistakes in his life and feels that his friends, with their "half concerns," have outgrown him. or it could be the other way around: he gained from his failures a deeper sense of self-awareness that he has outgrown his friends, the liars and fools he's probably referring to, who in contrast have become too self-involved. i may be reading too much into this, but it's only because the words are so captivating, delivered with understated woe, and all blending very well with the beautiful melody of the song.

anyway. matt's a brilliant artist, and i hear he's funny live. i love every song on the first cd of his that i bought, still waiting for spring, which includes this song, and his new one, beneath these fireworks, is even better. matt is what happens when a guy who listened to kiss before 12th grade discovers suzanne vega, indigo girls, and tracy chapman. that's more or less his own description. i'd fly to san francisco to see him. well only if mark kozelek is playing around the same time. then i'll be smiling.

been littered with small awarenesses lately?

never stop : the brand new heavies

click here to listen.

listening time: 4m 42s

this is the not-quite-funk version of the acid jazz hit, from bnh's album original flava. not sure who did the vocals, probably guitarist simon bartholomew. obviously nothing beats the n'dea davenport version, which is one of the few songs -- of any genre -- that can totally blow you away. but i like this because it's downtempo, which is more often my mood. i'd love to do this on acoustic guitar, substituting the keyboard with heavy strums. if only i knew how to play the darn thing.

never do that again : ivy

click here to listen

listening time: 3m 32s

ever had one of those moments of uncomfortable silence with your significant other? moments of estrangement that seem to have come out of nowhere? on an ordinary night, one of you will be sitting in the armchair reading a book, and the other will be lying on the couch watching television. this is how you wind down your day, and it's a habit that's as familiar as the pattern of conversation that ensues. one of you will say something trivial or insightful -- perhaps something that you saw or read, or something that happened to you during the day -- and the other will reply with a sentence, a phrase, a soft hmm. it doesn't matter how the conversation develops, or if one does at all; what matters is that both of you are silently taking comfort in each other's presence, aware of the same invisible connection that manifests itself most powerfully when you're making love. tonight, however, words are simply not in order, and every minute that passes without the familiar non-conversation amplifies the possibility that something might not be right. you try to brush the feeling off, yet it remains. suddenly, you start to notice that a neighbor is stuggling with his door key, or that one of the light bulbs in the hallway that leads to your kitchen is dimmer than the others. a light but eerie sense of touble prevents you from collecting your own thoughts. you feel as if something between you and your significant other has been violated, and you have a nagging feeling that it could be your fault. is everything okay? you ask, and the other replies with a yes that you think wouldn't sound as cold if it were true. and so you ask again, are we okay? and you receive the same unconvincing reply. and so you let it go, but not really, and you're left wondering how this moment is going to end.

this is the soundtrack to that moment.

torn : ednaswap

click here to listen

listening time: 3m 43s

i was going to post something that randomly struck me on my way home today after a three-day weekend break, but i thought i'd better gather supporting evidence first. it goes something like this: when it comes to pop music, vocal standards are lower for men than for women. i'll say no more.

in the meantime, enjoy the original version of torn, popularized in 1996 by natalie imbruglia. i remembered this song because i saw her new cd being promoted on tv earlier this evening, and i wondered, why bother? what possible tv-viewing demographic is her label trying to reach? in fact, who continues to like natalie imbruglia? i will admit, though, that i was a big fan of her version of torn. her voice has the perfect touch of emotional injury that the lyrics require, something the original doesn't achieve. ednaswap's arrangement would work if a male vocalist were singing; it doesn't work with someone trying to sound like chrissie hynde. i don't know. maybe i'm just too tired to think.

good night.

pressure drop : david kitt

click here to listen.
listening time: it'll be over before too long

i tried to restrain myself from posting this song but i couldn't help it. it grew on me, and i even had it on repeat in my ipod on my commute to work this morning. to appreciate the song, which is originally by the reggae band toots and the maytals, you have to first know how the more popular versions sound like. there's one by the clash, and another by the specials. (click on the bands' names if you'd like to stream 30-second samples on amazon.)

david kitt's version is what it sounds like when you deliberately overdose your best friend, shock him with extra-strength defibrillators (those electric plates they used in the movie flatliners) and hold him at gunpoint to sing a reggae song as soon as he comes to. an acoustic singer-songwriter from dublin, kitt never claimed that his vocals was his strongest suit. where kitt excels, as he demonstrated in his first two albums, is in his ability to exploit it to infuse every song with just the right amount of emotional disquiet – to make his listeners empathetic, as opposed to sympathetic. when i first heard the song song from hope st. (brooklyn, new york), in which kitt observes the sudden slow-motion of our pace in the winter, i wanted to come over to his apartment and help rearrange his furniture.

kitt's version of pressure drop comes from his fourth album the black and red notebook, made up almost entirely of covers, from r.e.m.'s (don't go back to) rockville to jj cale's magnolia. what kitt has done is sap each song of its passion and render it dry. which is normally a bad thing, but kitt, i'd like to believe, did it deliberately. for what purpose? i have no idea. the album isn't mediocre, just puzzling and oddly jaw-dropping.

million miles from home : keziah jones

click here to listen

listening time: 3m 58s

two months before summer and my mind's already somewhere else. in limbo, to be exact. i had completely forgotten that i have 43,000 air miles expiring at the end of july, so i've been trying desperately to book a flight with very limited success. i'm looking to travel before end of june to either morocco or russia, which means i have to transit somewhere in europe, but in both options i can't get a return seat out of london or zurich. so as a backup i booked a flight to tehran via gulf air, the status of which i'll find out only today. as another backup, i booked johannesburg via cathay pacific, and this one's confirmed. but damn, i want either of my two first choices. i'm wanting to trek the atlas mountains or mount elbrus. must find other ways to get there on miles. damavand in iran should be okay, but what if our good friend from washington strikes again? the drakensberg in south africa i heard is breathtaking, but for some reason i have very little interest in it. give me some altitude i can cover in a week!

oh well. here's a great song by the amazing nigerian-born guitarist keziah jones. he will eat lenny kravitz alive. turn it up, this one rocks.

a tribute to street musicians

baby can i hold you : orzo

click here to listen

listening time: 3m 20s

his name is orzo, and he's a street musician who played every night at ponte vecchio during our trip to florence last easter. on the evening we sat down on the sidewalk of the bridge, orzo received a visit from a policeman in a blue-and-white car. as if by routine, even before the cop could get out of the car, orzo pulled out pieces of paper from behind the chord sheets laid out on his music stand, walked over his guitar case which had just a handful of coins, and handed the papers over. the policeman leafed through them, gave them back, and left with a friendly salute. this is orzo's spot, the papers must have said, and what a perfect spot it was, getting more foot traffic at this late hour than any other corner of the historic quarter.

street musicians are everywhere, from plaza murillo in la paz to montmartre in paris to insadong in seoul. their presence in such diverse places is an affirmation of popular music as a universal language, touching universal feelings by provoking uniquely personal memories. (we all have stories about chiquitita, don't we?) street musicians don't always play with competence, but they always sing with passion. unfortunately that passion is lost on the majority of people who pass them by without a glance, or is only fleetingly shared by the passerby who drops a dollar, or hums along in his mind on his way to lunch. as a tourist i find them as a source of comfort. comfort that the city i'm alien to is friendly enough to have them. comfort through the familiarity of their songs in a land whose language i don't speak.

i've always been intrigued by street musicians, especially those who do it alone in a country not their own, like these guys. the one on the left is from the chatuchak market in bangkok, and to be honest i can't remember what song he was singing, though based on the way he looks it was probably dylan or cat stevens.

there must be elaborate stories behind them, but i've never had the courage to bother them and ask. what brought them to where they are? are they globetrotters saving up for their next destination? are they trying to escape from unpleasant circumstances at home? that's what i thought when i saw this other guy below in insadong in seoul. i thought he was russian, or from one of the caucasus states. i remember this shot very well. his pronunciation was so bad, i could barely make out a word. he was strumming, words were coming out of his mouth, but was he singing? and then, finally, something comprehensible: oh-wo-wow yesterday...

in any case, i tend to romanticize every street musician as the free spirit can only i wish to be.

that night on ponte vecchio, we shared the sidewalk with a group of 15 to 20 teenage tourists, probably eastern european, who insisted that one of them sing. orzo obliged, and the tourist sang shakira's underneath your clothes. she mimicked the colombian artist's voice very well, which means she probably shoved a ball of sock in her throat too. (no, i've never been impressed by shakira. well, okay, i like her mtv unplugged dig on ojos asi.) orzo obviously likes connecting with his audience. he performed other crowd-pleasers like u2's with or without you, which somehow morphed into the calling's wherever you will go, and america's horse with no name, which became fool's garden's lemon tree. the teenagers danced and sang to this tune. an old man (the one smoking in the picture at the top) started peddling orzo's cd, and since my significant other was having a good time, she insisted that i buy one. it cost 10 euros, quite expensive, but hey, we should all be supporting free spirits.

how to be a street musician