Song obsession of the week:

“Tin Man” by Future Islands
“Baby Says” by The Kills
“Ballad of Spider John” by Willis Alan Ramsey

Today I read a nice wrap up of this year’s Decibel Festival on xlr8r.com. Didn’t make it to the festival this year so I was kind of keen on seeing what I missed. While I knew numerous names at the show this year like Zomby, Quantic, Bonobo, Amon Tobin, there are always so many musicians with whom I’m unfamiliar. So even reading reviews after the show bears fruit.

One of the sets that sounded great was by a young Detroit musician named, Kyle Hall. Clicking on the article link brought me to Hall’s website, Wild Kyle Oats on which I found this gem of a movie (short film – 19mins) about Detroit and it’s electronic music scene.

The highlight for me comes at roughly 5 minutes in, when “The New Dance Show” with host, R.J. Watkins, is being discussed. Mind-blowing moves. Totally rad. I mean my sister and I had “Soul Train” when we were growing up, but this show takes the cake and eat it!

Real Scenes: Detroit from Resident Advisor on Vimeo.

Came back to this song again today, and this video, and two different New York Times articles about Joanna Newsom today. “Good Intentions Paving Company” — has to be one of my favorite song titles of the last year, and today I listened to it twice finding that it was just as, if not more compelling, than the first time I heard it.

Some might say her voice is strange. And I would likely agree, although unusual puts it in kinder light, and compelling, intriguing, provocative puts it in the light in which I hear. If I had to compare, it’s something akin to Kate Bush, but I connect with this and the way it works with her lyrics and timing and the complex shifts of the song structure itself really make it beautiful and powerful.

I recommend seeing some vids of her playing the harp and singing too, because then you get a real sense of the breadth and depth of her virtuosity. Time to go get some of her work! Enjoy.

Can’t remember how I discovered these guys something like 10 years after the fact…I guess when I lived in NYC, it was before their time in the spotlight. I fell completely in love with Camp Lo over their jam, “glow”, which has a great video too–hittin like the first time I heard Outkast. It quickly became a staple in my dance party set.

Last party I played, I spoke with a woman after who dj’d in NYC in the mid-90s and was a huge fan. She said I’ve got to check out “swing” with Butterfly of the Digible Planets. That has in turn lead me to this jam and I’ve decided I need to go out an find “Uptown Saturday Night” pronto…Enjoy.

Kurtis Blow. “Basketball” is my son’s favorite song right now, but I love this song. REcession proof!