[Drella]

I've been listening to a lot of Asha Bhosle, Billie Holiday, and The Velvet Underground lately. My last.fm account says that the artists I listen to most overall are Peaches and Iggy Pop.

[sixelacat]

I have been listening to Amy Winehouse's Back to Black non-stop for the past several days. LOVE it! Great old school R&B sound, with very explicit lyrics (Me and Mr. Jones: "What kind of fuckery is this?").....it's like what they would have been singing in the late 60's/early 70's if they hadn't had to use euphemisms to get past the censors.....

[babydrool]

The new Shins album is overall pretty good - the best track in my opinion, lyrically and musically, is the upbeat "Australia". I have been listening to it over and over again, dancing like a fool. "Girl sailor" is mellower but great too.

[deannareturns]

Hi Lawnpigeon - I'm also from Australia and also happy with the number one Triple Jay song. Snow Patrol defeated!! Of course, when drunk and sitting alone, have been known to 'respond' to 'Chasing Cars'...

I saw The Pretenders this week. Goddess almighty, Chrissie Hynde is astonishing. She came, she prowled the stage, she sang like an angel and a devil and she mde a strong case for being the coolest woman on the planet. It was a transcendent experience and since then I've turfed my current faves (Midlake, The Watson Twins) off high rotation to revisit 'The Message of Love' et al.

[zoya]

I've just recently revisited, and am completely obsessed with listening to, "Saturday Teenage Kick" by Junkie XL. It's so damn good.

Also, I just got the "Drive" Nike running CD that the Crystal Method did, and it's hands down the best thing that I've had for running to. I love it. It makes me feel like a pro athlete when I'm on my piddly little 3 mile daily runs!!

[lawnpigeon]

I've been listening to lots of old favourites lately. Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" a bit of Mountain Goats, some Sufjan Stevens.
Anyone else here from Australia? Very, very happy that Augie March's "One Crowded Hour" topped the Triple J's Hottest 100 for the year. If you're not familiar with the song, I suggest you download it, BUSTies. Lovely song, very beautiful. One of the best lines in it too, from any song I've heard. "should you expect to see something that you hadn't seen / in somebody you'd known since you were sixteen / if love is a bolt from the blue / then what is that bolt but a glorified screw? / and that doesn't hold nothing together," The Augies have always had a way with words.

[Phantom]

I just discovered Mazzy Star when I heard their single, "Fade into You" on the radio. It's natural, melancholy sound is truly entrancing. I have to find a CD of them somewhere.

I was less impressed with RBD's english language CD Rebels. The songs in general are decent, but nothing spectacular. My favorite songs on the CD are Tu Amor and Save Me, which are actually pretty good. However, the ones that really got me were the ones that heavily featured the voice of Dulce Maria, such as Connected and This is Love. Her voice is ultra-high and nasal, like a member of Alvin and the Chipmonks with a sinus infection. I crack up whenever I hear her.

Oh, and you guys got me curious. I'll have to check out The Shins and some of those other groups some time.

[auralpoison]

Um, I got the new Shins a few months ago, ahem, via a pirate friend of mine. It's exactly what you think it's gonna be. The Shins. Enjoy.

[mouse]

saw winter flowers, the finches, and lavendar diamond last night. winter flowers--man, i love them, but sometimes it's really goddamn hard to watch them without giggling because they are SO earnest and renaissancey and all look like donovan/love children. the finches i hadn't heard before but they were really lovely--she shouldn't let the guy sing, though. she's so much better than he is. lavender diamond i've been in love with forever--matador is putting out their EP next week, and they have a new album coming out in may CANNOT WAIT--and this was one of the funnest shows that i've ever seen them play--up there with when i saw them on halloween and they were dressed up as "the tinfoil man", "the cowardly walrus", "the abominable scarecrow" and "dorothy, the wizard of oz". she told a crazy story about getting caught in a power outage in nordstrom's shoe department. LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

[gogosgirl]

try as I might, I can't stop listening to cold war kids, final fantasy, of montreal, and fujiya & miyagi. I blame stereogum and obscuresound. but I thank them, too.

[vesicapisces]

Yay, Wincing the Night Away was waiting for me last night when I got home from the movies, but I didn't listen to it yet. I'll post sometime this weekend.

Here's my other piece of musical excitement for the day :

My BFF, the Empress Doctor Kate, sent me unexpected news this morning about an old favorite recording of hers and mine, which has now been issued on CD even tho' the artist is about as obscure as you can get. Her name is Ruthann Friedman, and she only ever put out one album, Constant Companion (1968), which Kate found on vinyl (a dj's one-time promotional copy) at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Wheeling back when we were in college and bought solely for the 1960s cover art. Friedman's music is sort of airy and dreamy and a little jazzy in places, and we loved that record and played it to death. I made a cassette tape so I could have a copy too. (The tape is long since gone.) I even learned to play one of the songs, "Danny", and it's still one of my favorites to sing:

Danny shines
silken sunlit lashes from his eyes
soft grey open windows when he cries
away the afternoon

Danny has
toys to fill each corner and inch of
time means nothing at all to his
small busy hands

Danny born
with a tick-tock song too fast and a bit out of
tune so they fixed him with a lasting
pair of funny shoes

Danny runs
up the hall with his arms spread out or reaching
up for me to spin him around
til he wants some more

Danny shines
silken sunlit laughter from his eyes
soft grey open windows when he cries
away the afternoon

I was so excited I immediately went to Amazon.com and bought it, and also the compilation of rarities/demos/etc. that was put together by the company that re-issued Constant Companion. I can't wait to hear it again. Her voice sounds a lot like Beth Orton - seemingly fragile and slightly cracked.

[nickclick]

thanks vesica, be sure to post your review when it arrives! i also heard "phantom limb" a couple of times but wasn't totally impressed. maybe i've too high expectations! i'll buy it when i get around to the record store.

[vesicapisces]

I've heard a couple of cuts: "Phantom Limb", the first single, is being played pretty heavily on the independent radio station I listen to, and I heard "Red Rabbits" on a Live365 channel the other day. I may even have the CD waiting for me when I get home - I pre-ordered thru Amazon.com and it shipped Mon. Can't wait - I love their music.

[nickclick]

anyone hear the new Shins?

[culturehandy]

Oh itunes, I have to say it's very dangerous, I could spend so much time downloading.

Anways.

I've been on a Cafe Del Mar binge lately. And while he's not music, I still love listening to him, Lewis Black.

[mouse]

--hefner, hefner, all the time hefner always. and anything else darren hayman touches. wish he would touch me.....*sigh*
--recently unearthed my old heavenly albums and am in love, again. marine research (her side project) is also brilliant.
--from bubblegum to sky (i'm so into twee poppy stuff right now)
--NIXON! (ditto)
--voxtrot (ditto)

[mornington]

ooh, Pugs, you must listen to Sleater-Kinney. I keep trying to find thier cds over here but they're always so expensive.

I just got "John Peel - Right Time Wrong Speed", a compilation of things from the seventies and eighties and I love it. Also.. Pony Up! (the unholy union between the pipettes and sleater-kinney), Absentee, and Art Brut. again.

I love that Seether/Amy Lee song, and I've got a couple of really old Seether tracks floating around... before they left south africa and changed thier name (prompt chorus of "sellout!").

GoGo, that's a good list! mm, Bowie...

[LoveMyPugs]

GoGoMassacre –

Wow, that is an interesting list of music.

Right now my playlist in iTunes is:

TLC – Red Light Special & Creep
Keith Sweat – Twisted & Nobody
Tevin Campbell – Can We Talk?
Ciara – Promise, 1 2 Step, Oh
En Vogue – Don’t Let Go (Love)
Brownstone – If You Love Me
Ginuwine – Those Jeans
Will Smith – Summertime
Seether w/ Amy Lee – Broken
Dreamcatcher – Sona

I keep a rather short playlist and then rotate it out when I get tired of it. I think maybe I’m living in the past, listening to so much New Jack, but I have to admit it was when I liked music the most. I have a whole list of 90’s hits that I want to download but I’m short on cash right now. My birthday’s in May so I’m hoping I get a bunch of iTunes gift cards.

I’m afraid to say it but I’ve never heard of Sleater-Kinney. When I get home and can listen to them loud (in school right now) I’ll have to jump on BarnesandNoble.com and see what their all about.

[GoGoMassacre]

I have THE weirdest taste in music but here's the stuff I've been listening to alot lately:

GWAR!!!
Pink
Justin Timberlake
Slayer
Patsy Cline
The Monkees
Nothingface
David Bowie
mc chris
Iggy Pop

[faerietails]

yup, pandora.

i feel like i fell in love with sleater-kinney all over again over winter break, only faster and harder (even though i never stopped loving them). i've also been listening to a lot of scissor sisters lately.