Covers for Sunday

I know everyone with a blog seems to do it, but why not? I may make a weekly thing of this, although it's possible I'll have forgotten by next Sunday. Anyway here are 6 covers for you to enjoy:

Waiting For The Man by Belle and Sebastian (Originally by The Velvet Underground)

Crazy by Of Montreal (Originally by Gnarls Barkley)

You Are The Everything by Redbird (Originally by REM)

I Will Survive by REM (Originally by Gloria Gaynor)

High and Dry by Jorge Drexler (Originally by Radiohead)

Back In Black by The Hives (Originally by AC/DC)

A Tribute To Dreads

Just a short post for now because:

1) It's been ages since I've posted anything and;

2) I've got a huge post coming up in a couple of days.

Today my wife shaved her dreads off and so, in rememberance of them here are some tracks by dreadlocked musicians.

War Pigs by Faith No More from The Real Thing (Buy)

Exodus by Bob Marley & The Wailers from Exodus (Buy)

King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown by Augustus Pablo from Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown (Buy)

Get Up, Stand Up by Ben Harper & Ziggy Marley

Angels of the Silences by Counting Crows from Across A Wire: Live In New York City (Buy)

And finally in tribute of my wife's new found baldness:

Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) by Skunk Anansie from Stoosh (Buy)

An edited post.

Totally unrelated to the original content of this blog, but today was my daughter's First Communion. As well as making me feel old this gives me the perfect opportunity to share some Gang Gang Dance with you all. Enjoy.

First Communion from the album Saint Dymphna (buy)

The Rural Alberta Advantage

It's undeniable that the way we find music has changed since the internet became available on a widespread basis. Now, you can argue if that's good or bad, but that's for another time, and maybe another blog. But the way we can access music has changed. Some bands, and it seems to me an increasing number, use the internet to reach people that wouldn't normally be able to easily, if it all, get to hear there music. Albums may be streamed or tracks made available.

In the latter category fall The Rural Alberta Advantage. I'd read in a couple of places about them so I went to their website and had a look around. They had 2 songs for download. So I downloaded them and fell in love. I decided to buy their album, Hometowns, but my wife beat me to it and bought me it for Valentine's Day.

It was even better than I'd hoped. Comparisons with Neutral Milk Hotel are often drawn in album reviews and that is valid to a point, especially as lead vocalist Nils Edenloff does sound like Jeff Magnum. But to just listen to it expecting a Neutral Milk Hotel clone does the album a disservice. It's a great album in it's own right. The songs are well written, the playing is great, especially the drumming, and the lyrics are delivered in a way that sounds heartfelt without being overbearing.

Simply put it's an awesome album. The Rural Alberta Advantage were signed to Saddle Creek and the album will be re-issued on CD and LP. it's due for retail release on July 7th, but if you preorder it'll be dispatched on June 23rd, and you get a full digital download on buying the album. I know I'm starting to sound like a commercial for the album now, so I'll stop. But it is really, really good.

Don't Haunt This Place

You can preorder the album here.

Let me introduce myself.

I spend a lot of time listening to music. And I spend a lot of time finding music to listen to. I live in a place that has no independant or 2nd hand record stores, and only one chain music shop. And that's half full of dvds. Consequently I spend a lot of time going through blogs to find music I haven't heard before. You can check out the blogs on my blog roll if you want to see where I look most often.

So I thought I'd start a blog and share the music that I like. Hopefully someone will find music they like here.  Here are two songs that I'm currently listenting to a lot. I hope you enjoy them.

The Avett Brothers - At The Beach from the album Mignonette (buy)

Cold War Kids - Against Privacy from the album Loyalty To Loyalty (buy)