What is it with Sweden and insanely creative music?

It must be the cold weather, but the Swedes sure know how to make interesting, cutting-edge and insanely creative music. The latest evidence? David Sandstrom & Co.'s amazing cover of Wilco's "Jesus, Etc." on YouTube. What a gorgeous, ethereal, haunting version of an already-amazing song.



I couldn't agree more with YouTube commenter lseymour, who said, "Who spiked the Swedish water table with magic music dust that makes all the music from Sweden so unbelievably good these days?"

(Thanks, Paste!)

Lapping up "Paste"

Well, I finally broke down and bought my first issue of Paste Magazine the other day and I think I'm in love. It says it covers "signs of life in music, film and culture" but it's heavy on the music and WOW - do they have amazing taste in music. Absolutely the best place to hear about the best of the best of new music plus overlooked gems.

But my favorite part is that every issue comes with a CD sampler hand-picked by the people at Paste - so everyone gets to benefit from their amazing musical tastes. I'm currently grooving out to the September CD sampler, which features 20 amazing tracks, including:

"Car Crash" by Matthew Nathanson
"Trouble" by Over the Rhine (Remember that you can listen to Over the Rhine's newest album in its entirety over at their MySpace page)
"The Minute's Gone" by PJ Olsson
"Get To Love" by the Old Ceremony
"Darlin' Do Not Fear" by Brett Dennen
"Through the Trees" by RF and Lili De La Mora

For more information on the CD samplers, visit the Web site. And for even more awesome recommendations, try "Paste Recommends." Or listen to their "Culture Club Podcast."

Seriously, I could spend hours here. Totally in love.