• Friday Five

    The Friday Five: February 27, 2009

    Shuffle It! Shuffle It Good!

    For those who have not joined in the Friday Five here is all you need to know; each Friday I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five and drop a little knowledge and insight for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes we have guest, but most of the time it’s just me.

    The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments. The more the merrier!

    The Five:

    “18 Months” by Kingsbury (from This Place is Coming Down, 2004)

    Kingsbury is a brilliant experimental indie rock act out of Orlando, Florida. Intensely personal and emotional it’s hard to imagine that they originate from the “Happiest Place on Earth”. Watch this space for much more on Kingsbury in the coming month.

    Squeeze Me Macaroni” (mp3) by Mr. Bungle (from Mr. Bungle, 1991)

    By now the news of Faith No More reuniting has taken every corner of the internet by storm, but I’ll be damned if I would only be more excited if Mike Patton reformed Mr. Bungle.

    Here on Earth/The Opening” (mp3) by Leerone (from Imaginary Biographies, 2007)

    I can’t get enough of Leerone‘s quirky piano driven singer-songwriter sharp-tongued pop (which she describes as “The musical equivalent of an ice-cream sundae with a vodka chaser”). She is an incredibly talented artist who goes as far as handwriting every correspondence with humble small-time blog editors (which is deeply appreciated). I expect that we’ll be seeing much more of her in the future.

    “O salutaris hostia” by Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble (from Officium, 1994)

    This record takes the Gregorian Chants that your mother loved in 1994 and added the ‘smooth jazz’ sounds of Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek to a nauseating soothing effect.

    “White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes (from Fleet Foxes, 2008)

    I still do not care much for this record, but if I had to pick a track to listen to it would be this one. The folk-rock revival sound just does not depart enough from the forefathers enough to entice me to listen more, now where’s my copy of “Horse with No Name”…

    What’s bringing the weekend home for you?

  • Rock

    Digging the Virtual Crates: Faith No More

    While we anticipate Pete’s no doubt exhaustive coverage of the Austin City Limits festival (and the trip home) I thought I’d dig back in the virtual crates to deliver some video-gasmic love for the brilliant Faith No More. I was digging through my collection last week and stumbled across my copy of This Is It: The Best of Faith No More (Amazon | iTunes) and was amazed at how kind time has been to these tunes and furthermore how well they’ve aged. From “We Care a Lot” through the flopping fish right up to “Ashes to Ashes” I actually ended up digging out my copies of the rest of their discography (I have to pick up Album of the Year) and spending some quality time getting reaquainted.

    The one that got everyone hooked.

    The entire Angel Dust record is a classic.

    Personally, I might actually like this version better than the original.

    Bonus!!

    I’d be completely remiss if I did not include at least one Mr. Bungle performance.

    Enjoy!