Despite looking like a Norwegian Gozer the Gozarian, Robyn has really grown on me. Though quite different from another favorite song from her, Konichiwa, Bitches, the song Dancing On My Own would be on a personal Top Songs Of The Year list, if I did one of those. You can watch the original video, or just see her perform it at the Nobel Peace Prize concert (cause thats real and not made up!?!): (its the second song)
I haven’t done too much digging for string bands; my previous experience with them was limited to enjoying .357 String band from knowing Kate Brice and not enjoying Yonder Mountain String Band from hearing Joan’s ipod. But after helping dj for a bunch of Irish kids who wanted to hear “Mum-feerd!” every week, I fell in love with Mumford and Sons, a folk-rock band from England who has been getting a lot or radio play recently. If you’ve only heard Little Lion Man or The Cave, definitely give the rest of the cd a listen.
Their all of sudden popularity seems to have forced stations like WXRT to start playing more folk/string bands like The Avett Brothers, another folk rock band from North Carolina who are also worth a listen. They have been around a little longer and have a deeper catalog to peruse. I had not heard of their last album, I and Love and You, until more recently despite being on many blogs’ best-of-the-year-end lists, being produced by Rick Rubin and even going #16 in the us charts.
While I might mock Joan for her love of the Yonder Mountain String band, she did introduce me to Old Crow Medicine Show, a nashville band that seem to be hugely popular (and not new at all) with some people and unknown with most others. Wagon Wheel, from 2004’s OCMS album, is an uncompleted song found in a Bob Dylan bootleg that was expanded to now be their most famous song. Probably one of my current favorite songs:
Kate Micucci has been a few things like Scrubs and Raising Hope that have been entertaining in the small character actress roles, but nothing significant enough to remember her name. It wasn’t until recently that she has been on a few podcasts that I listen to that I connected the dots and looked her up along with her novelty act, Garfunkel and Oates. The folk-y parts of their songs aren’t my favorite, but the rapping portions are hilarious. They recently redid their video for Handjob, Bland Job, I Don’t Understand Job:
Last week I caught up with the posts on Pitchfork and Stereogum, today I was reading Pretty Much Amazing (and others) and found some gems worth relaying:
Girl Talk, who was just mentioned earlier this week, just released his new album, All Day. If you like listening to songs, but all of those songs, you can download it for free-zies at Illegal Art. Whether you like mashups, have A.D.D., or just like figuring out which songs are been mixed together, it is definitely better than Joan’s favorite Girl Talk: