Musics

So, I've been finding all sorts of nifty music from all sorts of odd places lately. First was the discovery of Podcasts a month or 2 back, and everything else sort of snowballed from there.

I'm a huge fan of cover songs (songs performed by Not the original artists) - but usually only when they're either done better than the original, or with such a new take that it becomes an entirely new song. Gipsy King's version of The Eagles' Hotel California is a great example. As is Israel Kamakawai'ole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Well, I found a Podcast devoted entirely to covers called, appropriately enough, Coverville. I've gotten some great music off there. So far, my favorite has been a version of Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back, by a guy named Jonathan Coulton. I've played it for salixmom, and she prefers the original, but I've passed it on to a few friends, and they all agree with me that the insane humor of hearing that song performed by acoustic guitar, mandolin, and banjo with a soulful melody makes it highly enjoyable.

That's gotten me into mroe of Coulton's music, which is all available for free downloads as mp3s from his blog. At this point, I am very fond of My Monkey and Someone is Crazy. But, then I found out about Shop Vac.

I'm a huge Fountains of Wayne fan, and Shop Vac is apparently JC's attempt to imitate the "funny tragic suburban angst power pop ennui" of Fountains of Wayne. But, he also provided a link to Robbie Fulks' "Fountains of Wayne Hotline". Look here for a nifty discussion of how the song came about, and FoW's reaction to it. This song really gets me rolling. A, it's a great song if you ignore the 'hotline' discussions. B, the 'hotline' discussions themselves are hilarious, and really get at the heart of the FoW ouvre (what the h*** does that word even mean?). So, I highly recommend that everyone goes and gets all this music, and listen heartily.

And finally, There's Charlotte Martin. lil_pixie emailed me a while back saying she had gotten this from a friend, and thought I'd like it. Man, was she right. This is the album Tori Amos should have released after Little Earthquakes. There's slightly soulful/haunting qualities to some of the vocals, amazing piano work, and just ever so slightly the addition of oddity and weirdness that makes it not quite so mainstream/listener-friendly. Just like Tori's earlier work, before she got all freaky and alienated much of her fan base (myself unfortunately included). This isn't the easiest album to listen to at some spots, which is I think why it appeals to me so much. It's the direction I thought Tori was headed, and it's just as good. Now, i don't know that any of the tracks can compete with 'Winter', 'Crucify', or 'Silent All These Years', but I must say, 'Your Armor', 'Every Time It Rains', and her take on the Rolling Stones' 'Wild Horses' (yes, a cover!) certainly give Little Earthquakes a run for it's money.

OK, wow. taht was long-winded.

No worries.

Enjoy the tunes.