Upon my recent review of Pandora and my excitement to share it with the masses I have discovered that has become first of all limited in its availability worldwide, and second, the artist profile that one creates barely plays the artist’s songs.  Sorry Pandora, but I’m not impressed any longer.  My “Zappa station” now plays ONE Zappa song per 10 songs and often, the same song? Lame.

I was introduced to an alternate online music source called LaLa and I have to say that I am rather impressed with the variety of artists available and also the amount of control the user has over listening to what you want (and all songs in their entirety!).  Please check this online source out and ditch Pandora since they are clearly a “bait and switch” site.  When they first introduced Pandora it was much cooler, not anymore.

I’m impressed how much Iron and  Wine, Nick Drake, and Elliot Smith they have, you can buy whatever you like at any time, but you can also create personal playlists to play, nice.  Ok, so here’s the catch- you can only listen to one song in its entirety once then you have to purchase it.  So, yeah, it’s free…but then it’s not, but the songs appear to be cheaper (.79 cents vs. .99 cents or more depending) to purchase than iTunes and the variety is pretty good. 

When you initially visit the site they give you 25 credits towards web songs you can add to a LaLa player which is free.  Each song is one credit and you can build a 25 song playlist after setting up a free account.  A cool thing is that you can listen to as many songs as you would like in their entirety prior to adding them to your playlist.  So, if you customize a playlist of things you might listen to all the time you might find the value in it.

Granted, Pandora is absolutely free but it has very serious limitations and becomes horribly redundant in its variety. 

Check out LaLa by clicking here and tell us what you experience.  Worldwide readers, please let us know if you can access this player as well.

Daddy’s ghost behind you
Sleeping dog beside you
You’re a poem of mystery
You’re the prayer inside me

Spoken words like moonlight
You’re the voice that I like

Needlework and seedlings
In the way you’re walking
To me from the timbers
Faded from the winter

-Sam Beam

(click for better view)

And the great releases keep coming as 2009 draws to a close. Here’s a taste from the new Sleeping States and Espers albums + a track from Iron and Wine’s 2009 collection, Around the Well. Hope these provide the quiet beauty you are looking for this Sunday morning… 

Sleeping States – Gardens of the South

Sleeping States main man, Markland Starkie has just released his latest long player, In the Gardens of the North, an album brimming with found sounds, layered harmonies, pensive tension and humming ambience. With Gardens of the South (like with much of the album) Starkie’s voice takes centre stage as it dips and swoons over the top of a sparsely swinging beat. And while the album rarely changes pace, each songs demands your attention, quietly rewarding those who take the ride.

Espers – Sightings

With new album III just released, Espers have continued to stretch the folk genre. There aren’t many bands who can blend the atmosphere of  early Black Sabbath with finger picked acoustic guitars, and electronic flourishes, but this is the swirling domain that Espers so fittingly occupy. On Sightings, Meg Baird’s vocals are languid and bewitching, providing an ethereal light to the swelling rhythms of the band. And there is just the right amount of blissful fuzz sitting in the background…

Iron and Wine – The Trapeze Swinger

Sam Beam knows the hypnotic power of a simple chord progression and he uses it to perfection here on The Trapeze Swinger. Add to that a stomping rhythm, blissful melody and vivid imagery and you have yourself a song that will stick with you long after the record has stopped spinning.

I didn’t really find The Swell Season’s Strict Joy as joyous as I had hoped it would be. It’s a swell album but doesn’t have a defining track that gives it a boost. That being said I haven’t exactly had my ear to ground in anticipation for the first video either but this one is well thought out and has some underlying tones to it. For those of you that don’t know Hansard and Irglovà were initially in a relationship for a time after the filming of Once but broke up shortly there after.

Enter the video for “Low Rising”.

The video was directed by Sam Beam of Iron and Wine fame and depicts those awkward moments either after a fight or a breakup. With each person trying to go about their daily life but all the while knowing that at some point someone has to say something.

#10.  Iron & Wine- The Shepherd’s Dog (2007): Sam Beam, aka “Iron & Wine” spent most of his career as a disciple of folk legends like Nick Drake and Simon and Garfunkel, recording soulful, yet intimate lo-fi acoustic music.  On his second full-length album, Our Endless Numbered Days, Beam took a small step away from his previous recording approach.  Instead of just guitar, vocals and a four track, he brought in a few musicians; most notably his sister Sara.  He eschewed his home studio for a professional one, then brought in producer Brian Deck of Modest Mouse and Gomez fame.  Well, if Numbered Days was a small step, The Shepherd’s Dog is a giant leap.   Instead of Beam’s signature somber voice, there’s actual effects layered over a rich mixture of traditional and not so traditional sounds.  Don’t get me wrong, its not that he steers clear off-course here; rather Shepherd’s Dog is a welcome evolution.  Beam’s brand of traditional southern folk still comes through.   It’s just that there’s far more richness and color here. On “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)” Beam channels his inner Gary Wright with some old-fashioned blue-eyed 70’s soul.   Arguably the strongest track on the album is the brilliant romp “Boy with a Coin.” Against a backdrop of hand clips and guitars, the song speaks of youth and the innocence that comes with it.  Even when he comes home to his signature sound on “Resurrection Fern,” he does so “Nashville-style” with a lap-steel guitar.  Beyond the strength of the writing and production, the album is varied.  Its fun, emotional, yet engaging all at the same time.  If you ever thought Iron & Wine was a bit too low-key for your taste I challenge you to give it another look, you won’t be disappointed.

Faves: Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car, Lovesong of the Buzzard, Boy with a Coin, Innocent Bones, Flightless Bird American Mouth

Please, remember me happily…

Sam Beam es el genio detrás de Iron and Wine y éste tema es simplemente encantador. Pasa que cada vez que lo escucho  me es imposible no ser transportada a ese mundo, imaginario (o no) producto de sus composiciones tan prolíficas.  The Trapeze Swinger, algo así como “El trapecista” es una canción que promete desarmarnos desde el inicio y en donde Beam deja a un lado la austeridad instrumental que siempre lo caracterizó para regalarnos un armonioso abanico de sonidos de lo más variopinto. Yo recomiendo que la escuchen con audífonos y se dejen llevar por los sonidos que progresivamente se van presentando, acrecentando la complejidad lírica e instrumental de la canción (noten la flauta de émbolo que simula el sonido de un trapecio oxidado, ¡una delicia!). Es una canción de libre interpretación, extensa sin llegar a hartar donde el compositor ha sabido enganchar los versos  quizás algo repetitivos pero con la intención creo yo de grabar cual tinta indeleble el mensaje principal en la mente del oyente: “Please remember me…”.

The Trapeze Swinger (Around the Well, 2009)

For our anniversary, Matt and I spent the weekend in Lancaster, and went to the PFF in  Schwenksville.

It was a great trip. The concert that Saturday had a line-up of several bands, including Enter the Haggis, a celtic punk band that I was particularly impressed with.

Why we really went to the festival, though, was to see Iron & Wine. Sam Beam of Iron & Wine is one of my 2 favorite musicians (the other being Mark Knopfler).

Here are some photos from that concert.

• Ce groupe est un phenomene aux USA avec ses sonorités Folk, Soul, Blues et Hippies. Je vous parle du groupe Iron & Wine qui derriere ce nom se cache Sam Beam, le Leader compositeur chanteur du groupe.

• Un peu de Calme et de douceur avec Sam Bean, un style musical fort proche de celui de Bon iver. On y retrouve guitare acoustique, percussions soul/blues, des melodies berceuses et une voix grandement apaisante. Je n’ai pas encore ecouté leur dernier Album en date Around The Well sortit fin mai, mais Sam, sa soeur et son orchestre nous offre une musique riche, emotive, sincere et sans artifices. Achetez le!

Extrait : Boy With A Coin ♪

www.myspace.com/ironandwine

www.ironandwine.com

The last time we brought up Iron & Wine, I told a story about how I was really into the album Our Endless Numbered Days all the way up until I stumbled across a certain folk singer named Nick Drake. After hearing Nick’s songs and having my entire view of honesty in songwriting completely rearranged, suddenly Sam Beam’s beardy acoustic tunes, while still solid, seemed a bit lackluster.

Just in time for him to completely screw with the sound, eh?

Honestly though, readers, friends, this album is not bad. The fact that it’s praised universally by people who universally praise indie rock and use phrases like “songs you won’t hear on the radio that are ironically perfect for the radio” (paraphrased from all-music-dot-com, basically the Rolling Stones of not having to pay to read crappy reviews) and I’m actually not saying it’s bad, albeit through gritted teeth, should say something about the album.

Really though, I knew where folk entrepeneur Sam Beam was going to head with this particular album. Why? Because Myspace told me. Back when I used to the site, for some reason “he” friended me, and when I looked over the site, it was all stuff that seemed to be written by a promoter rather than Gandalf himself (for one, “he” used way too many exclamation points, and come on, does he sound like the kind of guy who would ever use an exclamation point?)

Anyway, having received some details about The Shepherd’s Dog, I knew not to expect it to be another Endless Numbered Days, but honestly, I should have seen the amount of “indie” that’s been thrown into this recording coming.

For one, there’s a “varied” sound at play here which means that all kinds of instruments are being thrown into the echoey mix in order to convince the listener that these aren’t just re-hashes of the previous album’s songs with added go-nowhere scales played on “obscure” instruments (that seem to get a lot of play nowadays for being so “obscure”, I guess that’s IRONIC huh?! HUH?!)

Seriously, to listen to the third song, “Lovesong Of The Buzzard“, you’re basically hearing “Sunset Soon Forgotten” from Endless Numbered Days with extra instruments thrown in. Go listen to both of those songs and tell me I’m wrong!

The other problem is with the go-to genres that this, like many “indie” albums, chooses to derive some jams from. For one, you’ve got the second track, “White Toothed Man”, which is kind of an Eastern influenced sound, and then you’ve got “Wolves (Other Title In Parentheses)” which is a reggae-inspired song. This is all well and good, but in fact you’ve still got Sam Beam whispering the vocals (usually with a second, even whispier Sam Beam harmonizing which turns the whole vocal project into this long line of melodic hiss), so you don’t really get the feeling that the borrowing of these stoner-favored musical styles are really producing the desired effect. Whispered Reggae just sounds like a hipster stoner battling against his own cultural identity, and less like the Reggae those of us of other levels of chemical enjoyment consider “Reggae”.

Thus, considering these rather major complaints that would kill any other album (especially since it’s already been injured by automatic acceptance into the indie community), I can not condemn this album. It would be like beating up a hipster, which is something we all want to do, but to take that step and actually break an emaciated, flaccid, bearded child over his six pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon would be far less satisfying than it sounds.

Anyway, it’s hard to deny that the songs are catchy on this album, after all, he stole a lot of it from his other album, didn’t he? Worse crimes have been committed in music, I mean hell Motörhead puts out pretty much the same song every single time and you don’t see me complaining. Mind you, Lemmy could cook and eat me without thinking about it, and he’s probably on even better drugs than Sam Beam. Man, now my imagination’s starting to get away with me and I’m picture some crossover in styles between the two singers, man that is creepy and awesome.

So yes, the songs are catchy, the melodies solid and the addition of some other instruments, no matter how ho-hum, is at least enough to capture the attention of this fellow musician for over half of the album’s 49 minutes. After all, even though I knew this album wasn’t going to be as good as the album I used to adore, I still went out and bought it on the good faith that it would provide some dark, mellow music for me to relax to. Turns out I am just fine relaxing with hand-claps and sitars as well as acoustic guitar, and the nice thing is that roughly 40% of the album is still little more than Sam and a guitar, so the sound is not so far gone.

Finally, loathe as I am to accept any part of hipster culture, I will admit that the oft-pretentious, acoustic drudgery that occurs within its circles is technically better than anything on the mellow side of the musical spectrum nowadays. We’ll never have Country music like we used to, and we’ll never have Folk music like we used to, for the mere fact that both of those styles and their plain-spoken poetry died with a generation that didn’t have Myspace pages written by promoters speaking from the mouths of glossy .jpeg’s of the artists you think have it all figured out but, like you or me, are just in it to make a buck. No, acoustic instruments might still be en vogue and even the folkier “obscure” instruments might be the ****IRONIC**** tools of “modern” music, but the simple lifestyle that bore some of the best music to ever be created by white people (and seriously white people do not have a lot going for us in that historical context) is now behind us, and so whispery, bearded songsters like Sam Beam and Iron & Wine are all that our children have to look back on once they finally destroy Johnny Cash’s back catalogue by converting it to hip-hop. But that’s a whole other diatribe that we’ll probably be too disgusted to bring up here again on Album Du Jour.

The point is, it may not be folk like your folks liked folk, but it’s close enough for folk, so you might as well folk your eyes out.

Around The Well

WordPress has decided to eat my post about Iron & Wine’s collection of b-sides and rarities, All Around The Well. You are now left, then, with a mere precis of what I said: this is a wonderful collection, which you should all listen to, since it is not a label cash-in as these things often are but a quite delightful map of a journey taken from bedsit to band by a very subtle artist with a distinctive, and creative, style. Lovely. (The album, not, obviously enough at this point, WordPress).

You can hear ‘Belated Promise Ring’ from the second disc of the collection at the Iron & Wine MySpace. Beg, borrow or steal, too, the version from disc one of ‘Waitin’ for a Superman’.

I mentioned the pride of place taken by Sam Beam’s ‘Flightless Bird, American Mouth’ in the movie of Twilight the other day. But after hearing it I went out and bought Around the Well, the new two disc set of Iron & Wine rarities. Besides coming complete with more old school tape hiss than any record deserves to have, Around the Well is what it says it is, a selection of bibs and bobs, but there are more than a few gems amidst its 23 tracks, not the least of which is this cover of New Order’s ‘Love Vigilantes’. Not what you’d call an obvious collision of aesthetics, but it works beautifully.

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*Economics: This brief history of the world over the past 200 years – in vizzie form narrated with an awesome accent – is simply wonderful. I strongly urge you to watch the video if you are a human being with a mind or know any human beings with minds. [stubbs or reed]

*Books: The next major book deal from the world of the internet is upon us: Goths in Hot Weather. Did the creators of this blog not know about Tumblr? [urlesque]

*Politics: Former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic is running for county clerk of Wahkiakum County in Washington. County clerk. Heh. Geek.

*Offices: Check out David Byrne’s office on this video slide show. [psfk]

*Update: Friend of the listenerd music blog Spin City KIND OF almost knows that dude who started the Sasquatch dance party that we (and everybody else) blogged a few days ago.

*Podcasts: Friend of the listenerd music blog The Blisslist did a playlist / interview on Breakthru Radio. You can listen to the mp3 of the show here. Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam was not on it.

*Gardening: Horticulture jammers gets a new weapon – the seed bomb. Have I mentioned that I like to activate the nitrogen in compost heaps by urinating in them? Remind me not to. It would be embarrassing. [eyeteeth]

*Twitter: Twitter user @poeks has created Twitterbelle, a useful tool for seeing whom you have most favorited. The site’s especially handy for serial favoriters, such as those who frequent Favrd. If you don’t use Favrd, you should probably consider it. Unless you are bad at twittering.

*Local assignment: This is for someone at Heavy Table, or any other locals smarter than I am (the list as long and distinguished).

I’d like for someone to put Twin Cities neighborhoods on a Google map. Then I’d like residents of those neighborhoods to be able to indicate what restaurant or food experience they feel they’re lacking in their area. Then I’d like other users to be able to agree or disagree with them, or suggest alternatives.

For instance: I live in Como Park. There’s no pizza here. My neighbors all acknowledge the lack of pizza. Some have suggested alternatives. Some are OK, none are perfect (or even, really, that great). This idea properly executed would serve as both a nice recommendation engine for residents by micro-region and also a VERY useful tool for companies or marketers looking for food-related needs gaps. (Let me stress: This is not REVIEWS – which many sites have. The emphasis is flipped and consumer need is at the forefront. This is important. Or something. Thank you.)

Yes, I just said needs gaps. If there’s something out there already that fulfills these purposes, I apologize for my ignorance and would use it.

So. I’m working on a piece about vampire lit for the July issue of The Australian Literary Review (the June issue of which is in tomorrow’s Australian, just btw) and as a result I’ve spent the last few weeks reading more crappy vampire novels than any sane person should have to. But having waded my way through the books I’m now having to get to work on the movies, which is why, last night, I found myself in front of Twilight.

Now even before I saw it I knew it was meant to be at least interesting, if only because it was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who directed Lords of Dogtown and Thirteen (and who, if memory serves, was rather unceremoniously dumped off the sequel after Twilight was deemed too “arty” by the studio) but I have to say I wasn’t expecting a lot, so the reality came as something of a pleasant surprise. In fact the film itself is a bit of a treat, at least until the grinding of the plot machinery takes over in the second half. Bella and Edward are a little dull, but everyone around them is wonderful, and Hardwicke lends the otherwise fairly routine material a slightly off-kilter sweetness that’s difficult to resist. Even small scenes, such as the one in which Bella’s father introduces her to Billy and Jacob are beautifully staged and composed. Of course it all goes wrong once the plot takes over, but until then there’s a lot to like.

Less obvious is the sheer gorgeousness of the film as a film, not just in terms of its cinematography and use of location, but in terms of editing and sound and, rather more obviously, music. Rather than the bombastic rock one might have expected, Hardwicke has assembled a soundtrack built around guitar music by Carter Burwell and a collection of tracks by Paramore and Linkin Park. But pride of place in the film goes to ‘Flightless Bird, American Mouth’, the stunning closing track from Iron & Wine’s 2007 album, The Shepherd’s Dog.

I’m not sure The Shepherd’s Dog is the place to start for anyone new to Sam Beam’s very particular genius (I’d probably send a newcomer to Our Endless Numbered Days) but anyone wanting a taste of what he’s about might want to spend a moment or two listening to the live recording of ‘Flightless Bird, American Mouth’ below.

And if you’re marvelling at the beard, apparently he doesn’t like to talk about it. (Annoyingly I read something just the other day about the cultural significance of the crazy beard thing, but I can’t remember where it was, so if anyone else saw it, and knows where it was, please let me know).

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This is one of the few people on Earth who will not do a podcast with me through robot-voice megaphones.

Sam Beam covering New Order? Yes. Please.

Iron & Wine – Love Vigilantes

.

And here’s the original, just because it’s awesome…

Track 6: Innocent Bones

I don’t listen to this one a ton, I think maybe because I just zone out while I listen to it, and that’s not usually what I like to do, especially whit Iron & Wine. His music is so gorgeous, you want to get every last intricate detail. The vocals on this one are reminiscent of something he would have recorded on Creek Drank the Cradle; very breathy and quiet, but still understandable. However, the production is just like the rest of the album. This song is very Caribbean touched, and at 3:43 is one of the shortest songs on the album.

Track 7: Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)

The title track doesn’t disappoint. It has a fast beat, and a constant bass strumming. The acoustic guitar is almost completely gone on this one, but there happens to be a great electric riff. There’s also a little piano splashed in there, another uncommon thing for Mr. Beam. This is one of those songs that even though there’s so much going on, it sounds like it’s coming at you from about a mile away; some slight echo in the vocals and a constant background drone help to add to the storytelling effect of the song. It also features one of the longest outros to be experienced in an Iron & Wine song.

Track 8: Resurrection Fern

I kinda liked this song at first, but I didn’t think it was anything fantastic. The harmonies are great, but that’s a usual I&W motif. And then I went on iTunes, and everyone said it was the best song of the album. What? There are at least 5 better songs on this disc. I mean, this song is good, but way overrated. And then my sister’s friend Stacie, someone I have a lot of respect for, was talking about I&W, and said “Oh yeah, Resurrection Fern is my favorite.” Am I missing something? Is there a hidden meaning here that I’m not getting? What’s so great? Please, If you read this and you know, comment.

Track 9: Boy With a Coin

This was the first Iron & Wine song that I knew (other than “Such Great Heights.”) And it’s still one of my favorites, if not my favorite. I love how the key and harmonies are mildly creepy, and how the handclaps speed up during the chorus. I love the guitar solo, I love the imagry it brings up, I love how the verses end, I love the “Aah’s” I love the guitar melody. This is the best of the best right here. As the song starts, you can already tell you’re in for something good, even the melody of the verses is interesting, but not strange enough to be jarring.

“A girl with a bird she found in the snow that flew up her gown, and that’s how she knows that God made her eyes for crying. That bird then left the ground, and circled the earth.”

Track Ten: The Devil Never Sleeps

Now, here’s a really strange song. It’s completely piano driven! Hardly any guitar at all! And it’s refreshing and fun. An upbeat sarcastic look at (What? Southern Society? I don’t even know.) This is by far the shortest track on the album (only 2:07!) but it’s still a fun little jaunt into what Sam Beam would be if he was a pianist: still good old Sam with his Southern Gothic poetry. Fantastic. Everybody bitchin’; there’s nothing on the radio.

Track 11: Peace Beneath the City

This one actually leaves me a little cold. It seems foreign to me, like my brain just doesn’t want to listen to it. It’s a weird sensation, let me tell you. Maybe you’ll love this song, though. So I’ll leave it alone.

Track 12: Flightless Bird, American Mouth

I was a quick, wet boy, dive into deep for coins…

This song is really powerful to me – it might be one of the most beautiful sounds ever produced by humankind. This is the other song that my mother has voiced her opinion about. She said, simply, “This is so beautiful.” and I don’t think she could have captured it any better. This is another one where I don’t even care what the lyrics; I just like to sit and listen to the noise. Especially during the outro – it’s all kinds of arpeggios going at once and overlaping, with “aahs ” and “La la la’s” and “Ah ha’s” going over it in a wonderful conglomeration of sound. Truely fantastic.

In a frozen copse of trees.

For my next review (I’m on a roll! Heh.) I’m gonna go way back. All the way back to, like, 2007. Holy Shit! Such a long time. And what came out in 2007 that I still listen to all the time, you ask? Well, a lot of things, but this is one of the most notable ones. I give you:

Iron & Wine:

The Shepherds Dog

Track one! (Pauses, stares at the screen, then the keyboard.) What’s track one? Hold up, let me open iTunes… *cue elevator music*

Aha! Track one! Pagan Angel and A Borrowed Car. What a fantastic song. You know, I named this post before I even knew what the first song was, and ended up naming after the first lyrics on the album. KZS. (KraZy-aSs. Don’t ask. Just embrace.) I’ve listened to this song *checks playcount* 47 times, and I still don’t know all the lyrics. Wanna know why? Because I just sing the backup vocals to my hearts content. They’re so much fun! And so easy! This was one of my favorites back when the only reason I knew who Iron & Wine was *now pause because I hate it when there’s the same word twice in a row even when it makes sense* was because he was mentioned in Questionable Content and I decided to LimeWire (who uses that awful thing anymore) every band mentioned in the entire comic. Alright. Now to actually talk about the song. *presses play*

Quiet beginning. Makes me turn it up everytime. And you know what happens then? You’re engulfed in the fantastic noise that Sam Beam is gracing the world with. I always picture every single lyric of this song, word for word, as they happen.  Smoke drifting up out af a cirdle of snow heavy branches, coming up from a fire keeping a large bearded man warm. Possibly accompanied by a wolf. A dead body floating in a harsh gray ocean. The flaming sword of a red haired angel looking sexy, with God in the background just shrugging. You get it. This song just makes me want to do nothing besides listen to it, which is a very powerful thing in this world of distractions. Luuuuuh leather boots. Beauuuuuu chapel pews. Mooooorrrn at the well. Eeeeeeeee all the horses fell. Snnaaaaaaaa posibility. And how about that last image?

While with his gun the pagan angel rose to say
“My love is one made to break every bended knee”

I love you Sam Beam.

Track Two! White Tooth Man. I didn’t like this one at first, but then it grew on me. Just like how the intro fades in, it faded into my… thing. Wow. That died. Anyway, song. There are so many lyrics flying by you, it’s almost overwhelming. Not almost. It is. And then you get a break at 55 seconds with these amazing harmonies. It lasts for 12 seconds, and then you’re right back into the crazy. Aw man.

Track Three! Lovesong of The Buzzard.  Another early favorite. When the guitar goes into the high part in the sixth measure, you’re just like “Yep. This is gonna be good.” Yesterday the solace of a Poison Fish. Tomorrow I’ll be guessing on her blood red lips. Cue the organ! Cue another harmony! Cue whatever that is! (Guitar? or something more sinister? Who knows? It seems awfully swoopy for a guitar. I notice that Sam often puts really long instrumental breaks between two verses and that’s the whole 4 minute song. Works for me.)

Tattoo of a Flower on a broken wrist.

Track Three! Four! Carousel. You know an album is good when not only do you love it, but your mother requests tracks from it. This is one of those tracks. Mama Kathleen loves this one, and that love is more than justified. This track was discovered after the initial wave of buying random I&W songs on iTunes, but before the very last couple of tracks from this album were discovered (last ones being White Tooth Man, Innocent Bones, Wolves, and Peace Beneath The City) One time this song came on in a random play and one of my friends turns to me and goes “What the fuck is this shit?” That’s when I knew I had two things in my hands. A polished turd, and a true gem. So I threw out the turd-friend and treasured the gem-song. And now! Song!

Almost home when I missed the bottom stair. There are a lot of people who hate the autotune. This is one of those places where the autotune is so beautiful and so right. This song would not be the same without the (warbling? That seems like too much of a negative thing to describe this wonderful sound.) and the pause before the word “bees.” is just so amazing. Who new a pause could be a powerful. I sure did. and the part the begins at 1:57? Best part of the whole album. Hands down. All the way through 2:49. And then that gorgeous guitar comes back in. That’s another thing about I&W songs. The guitar usually has the hook if there is one. Who cares about the vocals, just listen to the instrumentation! When that crackhead built a boat, ans said “Please before I go; May our only honoured bond be the kinship of the kids and the riot squad.”

Track Five! House By The Sea. Is that a sax? I can’t tell. Well it’s great either way. Huh! There’s the guitar! And instant harmonies. Always good. I love harmonies the most. One of the few songs on this album that actually makes you want to dance. It also tells a fantastic story; definitely listen to the lyrics on this one. He sounds almost desperate on “Changing the sound of my name” It’s just so awesome. Alright. I’m tired. I’m probably gonna publish just these tracks and return at alater date when I can think. Do you see the review for this song? It sucks hardcore. Becaus eI can’t think of anything to say. Because. I’m tired. Goodnight.

*Podcasts: If you want to see the guy with the huge beard who refuses to do a podcast with me (his name is Sam Beam and his band is Iron and Wine), check out this video, for the song “Love Vigilantes.” I will now recommence crying into my cupped hands.

*Belief: What will your grandchildren be embarrassed you did or believed in? Circumcision? Self-medicating? Meat eating? [waxy]

*Graphics: The Daily Swarm’s commentary on Project Playlist acquiring Total Music. A pile of fecal matter. Steaming.

*Like, art: Do you want to see a pigeon going down a drain? From an exhibit called “The Space Between.” I once ran over a large goose while driving at night and it was extraordinarily sickening and depressing. FYI. [eyeteeth]

*Television: Everything Tracy Jordan ever said in season three of “30 Rock.” [urlesque]

*Videos: The Cold War Kids have an interactive music video called “I’ve Seen Enough” out. I remember when music videos were on on tv. And, like, had chicks. Dancing. And shit. [fimoculous]

*Architecture: The world’s architecture rendered in Legos. I once built a tower straight up, reaching toward the sky. Minutes later it was destroyed by the capricious whim of a two-year-old child. This is how one learns patience.

*Ideas: Eat Me Daily explores the idea of a Grand Unification Theory of Cutlery. Also highly recommended, Gordon Ramsay Swears at You. (Push the button on his head. The red one.)

*Today’s links: D. I’m a little worried about Lyrical_Miracle. He’s been suspiciously quiet lately….