Sunday, March 30, 2008

Album release countdown: The Weepies, Hideaway


Here at Lost Things Found, we've set the countdown clock for April 22 when the Weepies' new album, Hideaway, will be released. The title track appears on the April Paste Sampler and I love it already. It does not seem to exist on the Internets anywhere, but to tide yourself over until the big release, head over to the Live Music Archive and listen to a couple of full live sets from the Weepies circa 2004. Or check out this NPR studio interview from 2006.

Want more info on the Weepies?
Previously on LTF: All That I Want

Monday, March 17, 2008

Floating on 'Air'

Have you seen this Macbook Air ad?



The song is "New Soul" by Israeli singer-songwriter Yael Naim. Listen to the whole thing at her MySpace page. You know I'm a sucker for some happy la-la's in a television commercial. And I love the angelic oohs at the very end.

Also, is it just me or does her voice sound remarkably like Leona Naess's?


If you're interested in hearing more, check out her self-titled album, where you can hear her multi-lingual talents and the French jazz influence as well.

Oh, and: While you're at her MySpace page, check out her haunting cover of the Britney Spears hit "Toxic."

Double update: Stream the whole album for free here!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Looking and listening

A couple of really great music documentaries have passed before my eyes this week - if you're looking for something to watch that is both visually interesting and musically inspiring, check out either of these:


Jeff Tweedy, Sunken Treasure

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog to find the Wilco front man's solo acoustic DVD on this list, but even for those who are not rabid Wilco-philes, this DVD is well worth checking out for its gorgeous cinematography and the between-set interviews with Tweedy himself. The doc essentially takes you on the road with him as he plays a series of venues along the Pacific Coastline, splicing the live performances with sympathetic-yet-realistic images of America as seen from a tour bus. Meanwhile, Tweedy ruminates on the nature of being a professional musician and displays a depth you don't normally associate with rock bands. An example: "Everybody suffers. The world is built on how well you cope with your suffering, how well you transcend it and move past it, and what you learn from it." Check it out.


Heima

This beautifully crafted music documentary about Icelandic band Sigur Ros is as much a documentary about social and economic conditions in Iceland as it is about music. The documentary follows the band as they return to Iceland to perform a series of free, unadvertised concerts, many of which take place in unusual venues in small villages throughout rural Iceland. (One performance appears to take place on an abandoned fishing tanker.) The band's lush, expansive indie-pop sound (they are one of the few bands for whom I advocate use of the term "emo" and consider it high praise) creates the perfect soundtrack for the cinematic tour of Iceland. Again, interviews with the band are spliced throughout, but what really lingers after watching this doc are the faces of the Icelandic villagers of all ages who show up at town halls, empty fields and abandoned fishing tankers to hear the music. You come away with an appreciation for Iceland as an impossibly lovely and mournful place, and perhaps the only place in the world where Sigur Ros's classical-music-on-the-moon sound makes perfect sense.

The best part? You can watch the doc in its entirety on YouTube completely free. Don't miss this.

Happy watching!

Monday, March 03, 2008

More bacon than the pan can handle


I'm sure you'll be hearing more from me about Mike Doughty in the coming weeks (I have tickets to see him at the Pabst on March 21), but I wanted to take a moment to put the official LTF stamp of approval on his latest album, Golden Delicious. It's a totally likeable pastiche of the rhythmic power-pop he became famous for with Soul Coughing and the pop culture poetry that he has honed in his solo career, while displaying elements of the electronic music he's been dabbling in recently. The result is excellent.

All of the tracks are solidly enjoyable, but early standouts include "I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress...", "Like a Luminous Girl," and the first single off the album, "27 Jennifers."

To listen to two of those songs, visit his MySpace page.

Sidenote: Doughty's last album, Haughty Melodic, is one of my desert-island discs. There is nothing I don't like about it and I swear it actually gets better with every listen. If you haven't heard it yet, listen to "I Hear the Bells" on his MySpace page and then, get the album.

Oh, and: Listen to the album first, and then check out this live set and interview originally broadcast on WXPN, now archived on NPR.org. Hear stories about smoking pot with Ani Difranco, how he reveres Jose Gonzalez, and how he thinks the universe began with an E Major chord.