Listening • Mp3 Digest: May 17, 2006

Canada’s Bedouin Soundclash should be the bearers of a new wave of pop reggae, but that’s not a wave we’re going to see anytime soon, is it? That doesn’t change how terrific their newest work is; note, in particular, the wildly off-kilter bass lines that wrap up “Shelter” in so much lazy energy.

» Hear Bedouin Soundclash at Awesome Until Proven Guilty


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Whatever you may or may not know about Cam’ron, you probably don’t know he’s got a rough case of IBS—“irritable bowel syndrome” to you and me. The symptoms of IBS are many, harsh, and hardly anything to laugh at. Here, however, they result in a great song, whose honesty is honestly refreshing.

» Hear Cam’ron at Fluxblog


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If the song “Enemy Shit” is any indication, Judson Frondorf is making some wonderfully broken laptop music—it’s the song that’s in pieces, however, not the laptop. Layered vocals and samples abound.

» Hear Judson Frondorf at Ack Ack Ack


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An extraordinary overview and collection of piano works that “jazz” classical music—the effect of which is not as gimmicky as it sounds. What Nina Simone does to Bach’s “Fugue No. 1 in C Major,” especially, must be heard to be believed.

» Hear James Booker; the Nat “King” Cole Trio; Nina Simone; Bud Powell; Herman Chittison; and Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli, and Eddie South at Moistworks


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Baltimore’s Pony Tail is making anything-goes rock that screeches and churns and warbles and somehow manages to keep it all together. And then takes it another step further. Unsure if the screaming is human or amplifier.

» Hear Pony Tail at Everything Is Fire


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In the early ’90s, when every band wanted to be My Bloody Valentine, many took the plunge and just sounded like My Bloody Valentine. Was the idea that nobody would notice the tiers of effect pedals strewn across the front of the stage? Though this mystery will be lost to the sands of time, now, 15 years later, Asobi Seksu is playing the same game, though to far more pleasing results. That is to say: If you like My Bloody Valentine, you’ll most likely love this.

» Hear Asobi Seksu at I Rock Cleveland


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For many, the musician of the moment is surely Beirut, and for better reasons than just because he has genius written all over him. And it’s an apt label: Excepting the live show, it’s a one-man act, the man in question is only 19, and it doesn’t sound like a thing that’s being done by anyone else—at this very moment. Particularly great: the world music (yes, you read that right) percussion on “Postcards From Italy.”

» Hear Beirut at 3hive


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With its cool sheen and inner glow, “Lazy Eye” is a perfect modern rock song from Silversun Pickups, the future favorite band in the world for everyone who loved “alternative rock”—but hated when the term was coined. For us, this song is officially on repeat.

» Hear Silversun Pickups at My Old Kentucky Blog


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If ever there were a name that did the job of describing the band’s music, it’s the Twilight Sad, especially were you to say it with a Glaswegian accent. The track featured here is particularly thunderous and sad—a marvelous, drone-y wall of sound.

» Hear the Twilight Sad at Music for Robots


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If there’s one true thing about binge listening and exhausting a hit single, it’s that the more remixes there are, the further your appetite is extended. So for everyone who’s almost—though not quite—sick of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” here are four remixes to stave off the inevitable.

» Hear Gnarls Barkley at Awesome Until Proven Guilty


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Loudon Wainwright III, TV dad on Undeclared, real-life dad of Rufus, has been making music for so long there’s just no excuse for never having taken the time to hear him. Here then, a song for summer swimming, accompanied by no good excuse. Enjoy.

» Hear Loudon Wainwright III at Said the Gramophone

 —Andrew Womack, May. 17, 2006

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Bedouin Soundclash, Beirut, Bud Powell, Cam'ron, Django Reinhardt, Eddie South, Gnarls Barkley, Herman Chittison, James Booker, Judson Frondorf, Loudon Wainwright III, Nina Simone, Pony Tail, Silversun Pickups, Stephane Grappelli, The Nat "King" Cole Trio, The Twilight Sad