Allie Moss - Corner

Oh my gosh! I never knew how much time I spent online until I didn't have it forever! I would have posted from my phone, but it wouldn't let me.

Hi everyone! Drew, welcome to the blog. Great songs so far! It's nice to get a male opinion on this thing. Right now, I have plenty of free time on my hands, so I will definitely be posting more regularly. I missed it! Here's the latest song I've stumbled upon and really liked. Allie Moss frequently tours with Ingrid Michaelson (one of my faves), so you have already most likely heard of her. She has the same kind of sweet, little voice, but Ingrid is still my favorite for several reasons including lyrics, voice, and song variety.

Fire In The Sky--John Butler Trio

Molly Houston put a couple of songs by the John Butler Trio on my last CD. The other one is "Losing You". Also great and bit of a different sound. This appeals to the earthy-crunchy side of me!

Lucy Schwartz - I don't know a thing

When people hear this song playing they always ask who it is. It just has a way of catching your ear. Lucy Schwartz is a new talent on the singer/songwriter scene and is someone worth keeping an eye on. I would group her with the likes of other newcomers like Amie Miriello, Amy Kuney, Marit Larsen, and Kate Earl to name a few. She just (as in 2 days ago) released a new EP called "Help Me! Help Me" it has a bit of different sound and I especially like the first two tracks, Help Me! Help Me! and Those Days. You can listen to some of it on her myspace page.   Her songs have been featured on many a TV show and in a few movies, so you might recognize her. I think this song is just really cute and fun to listen to. I'll be back tomorrow with some more testosterone fueled music. But enjoy this for now. "Only thing I know is I don't know a thing."

Basia Bulat - Heart of my own

I came across the Canadian, Basia Bulat one year when I was looking at the line up for SXSW and really liked her. At the time the only songs itunes had available were "In the Night" and "Snakes and Ladders" which I both really like. But now she has a new album out called, A heart of my own, and I really really like it. She has an interesting voice and uses a lot of strings and keyboards so she doesn't come off as another chick with a guitar. Her sound is very unique. Her song, Before I Knew, was in a Subaru commercial which you might recognize and I almost posted it because I am a sucker for hand claps in songs. But here is live version of "Heart of my own" found on her new album. (This is one of those ones that you might want to check out on itunes to see what her cd version sounds like, also check out her website for clips of her songs).  

Angry Johnny and The Killbillies--Toad

A departure from my normal posts. Angry Johnny is another western mass band. Angry lives in "Hell". That's what he calls his dwelling. I have never been allowed to go. My brother, John, said, "Sammy, it's not really a place for girls." And it's one of the few times my feminist self didn't shine through. "Toad" is a tragic love song. This video is old. 15 years. From The Baystate, which is a great dive in Northampton. Spouse sings a song about it. Anyway--guitars, chicks and nice lyrics will probably return tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy something a little different.

Sarah Dashew--Everywhere You Go

This isn't the song I wanted to post, mainly because I never heard it. I found Sarah Dashew with Genius on iTunes. "Hash It Out" was the single from her album and was on a couple TV shows. Her album was produced by the same person who produced Wallflowers and other notables. I bought the album on a whim and like it. "Brad Pitt" and "Jealous Girl" are my favorites. It's a long clip, but there weren't a lot to chose from. And I didn't want to go with some of the covers that were available. It's just about exposing people, right? =)

If Jess has heard this guy I quit

Luke just signed a record deal with a small label here in New York. I swear he looks like the wolfmother, he's enormous and has a huge beard, but sounds like Ben Folds or something. Me and my buddy Brian saw him at Pianos here in the city, and his stuff was awesome. This is my favorite of his songs. I just love the lyric "play a little game a chess, watch a little meet the press". Also check out "Battered Apartments", "I Hope You Like this Song" (my other favorite), and "I'm Sorry I'm Not Hotter". And, as the title says, Jess, if you've heard Luke before, this is my last post.

Ayo - Slow, Slow (run, run)

Ayo is an Afro-German singer/song writer who currently resides in Manhattan but has released her albums in Europe and has done really well. She will be doing some concerts with my other favorite, Charlie Winston in the near future. I first heard her in Turkey nearly a year ago while we were waiting for a local band to come on stage they had some music tv station on and I wrote her name down, now I am glad I did. She reminds me a bit of India.Arie. From her debut album, Joyful, I suggests listening to "Down on my knees", "What is love?", and "Life is Real" is my favorite. It is music to make you feel good. Enjoy.

Sarah Harmer--I Am Aglow

I acquired this song when I went to SXSW. It quickly made it's way onto a Valentine's Day CD. "Basement Apartment" was probably the first song of hers I learned. And I also really like "Coffee Stain" which comes up with frequency on my Pandora. (Probbaly because I gave it the thumbs up.) =)

Lyle Lovett--If I Had A Boat

This is one of my favorite songs. I never skip it when it comes up on my massive iTunes shuffle and I find myself singing it from time to time for no reason. I love Lyle Lovett. People can say what they want, but I think he's so underrated as a song-writer and a performer. (Saw him at SXSW and it was great.) Dave Matthews covered this song, which people may have heard as well.. "If I Had A Boat" came out on the "Pontiac" album, his second.

Football Sunday

So right now the Jets are desperately trying not to lose control of this game, and although I'm a Giants fan, I've got to support the New York team before the Colts. Anywho...I thought I would post something. Jess mentioned these guys with relation to Langhome Slim, so I thought I would toss up one of their newer songs. Pretty cool, I think that they sound like a folksy version of Jon LaJoie (that hilarious Canadian guy who sings inappropriate songs on Youtube and FX's "The League"-seriously, check him out). Enjoy!

The New Pornographers - Go Places

This song gets put on repeat a lot. It's kind of my theme song, which is probably why I have been so reluctant to share it. The lyrics are pretty fantastic. Not to mention the band itself is made up of a lot of all-stars, you might recognize Neko Case's voice as the female singer and the rest of the Vancouver based band includes Zumpano's Carl Newman, The Evaporators' John Collins, Destroyer's Dan Bejar, cartoonist/filmmaker Blaine Thurier, and drummer Fisher Rose. Even though this band is essentially a side project for everyone in the band their success with their past two albums, Twin Cinema and Challengers, would make you think otherwise. I especially love the Challengers album which is more mellow but it is one of those rare albums where I enjoy every song. The best news of all is that they are coming out with a new album this May and I really like their cover art too. Stay tuned!

Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love

Yay new feature, we're on Twitter! (I am deathly afraid of tweeting but I have no problem following) Yeah I'm the unemployed one who had the time to make a twitter account for the blog. Total dork, I know. What is even dorkier is that when I went on a wild and reckless clicking adventure through musicians on twitter, the twitter website actually told me to chill the fuck out. Seriously, I am not allowed to search for more people to follow. So far its been thirty minutes, I'm hoping the search ban is lifted soon. do...dooo...dooo.

So in the meantime I have stumbled on some songs. I will tell you how I do these weird things and stumblings upon. Ready for this? Its like 7 degrees of separation except with music and it never comes round circle...but whatever same thing in my mind...

Here it goes: twitter page of Amy Kuney --> She tweeted about Matt Morris so I click the link --> Takes me to his homepage and clicked on his myspace link to hear his music--> I am not satisfied/ can't decide if I like him in the myspace clips so type him into itunes --> Listen, get bored, scroll to playlist section under Matt Morris' itunes page --> Click playlist called New Hit 2010 --> click through songs really quick until one catches my ear --> Decide I liked the first 10 seconds of Jason Castro and decided to blog about it--> in the process of blogging about this song I find out he was an american idol 3rd placer in 2007 --> I get embarrassed because although I am not anti-everyone-who-has-been-on-american-idol, I am just not ready to go there yet --> Go back to Matt Morris page and click on the only other playlist called "Dunno?..Do you?"--> instantly click on Florence + The Machine cause I keep seeing this band --> Really like it, click on artist and then choose favorite song.

Then I realize the song I choose I like because I know I have heard it before....guess what? It was last week's awesome Grey's Anatomy song. I almost decided to start over and find a new song but oh well, I am committed now. I could have found that a lot easier, say by going to the tune finder website and checking out Grey's songs like I usually do every week. Instead I did it the long way and now look really stupid for finding a random song that wasn't even random at all. Buttttt... I like it a lot, her other stuff rocks too. Get it while its hot.

Which brings me to here. The most roundabout way of arriving here at this video that I now really like, thanks for bearing with me (all 13 degrees of separation worth). And in case you were wondering in the time to write all this, Twitter will still not let me search people.



Does anyone else get weird Grace Slick vibes from her. I don't know what it is. But check her out here and decide for yourself:

Housekeeping

Here are some updates and plans for the blog which will (hopefully) be implemented soon:

First of all, welcome to Drew! I had an amazing time visiting Katie and Drew in NYC this past weekend, and we did some good old fashioned music swapping and I really liked the stuff Drew showed me. So now here he is. Keeping the blog an eclectic mix of music is key. It will be great to finally have a male perspective. Thanks Drew for your new posts.

Secondly, I was going to add a brief little profile thing for all the regulars that will appear at the top of the page. Basically a copy of this music blog (from which I have shamelessly stolen music in the past, however I did beat them to Marit Larsen): http://aurgasm.us/ . So you can draft your own witty profiles or if you don't want any part in being acknowledged just let me know.

Thirdly,  I am going to start to switch the format around and fool with some html things so if it looks really different day to day or completely messed up don't be alarmed, all the content will stay. (If anyone wants to volunteer to do the html for me I will pay you in mix tapes including the complete 4 years of Valentines day mixes) :)

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for their participation over the past three months. We have 95 posts over that short span of time with only a few double postings of artists which means roughly 90 different "under the radar" artists have been featured on our blog. It looks really great and I am proud of everyone's input and our wide range of music that has been represented here. Keep up the good work and also thank you to everyone who reads and appreciates the music as much as we do here at the New Music Collaborative.

Stay tuned.

Susie Suh - Shell

Here is an oldie but a goodie from 2005. Susie Suh has recently relocated to Paris to find some inspiration so you should look for some new stuff soon. She has a lot of songs that compliment the dreary winter weather days. She also has a Fiona Apple kind of voice which is very pleasing to the ears. Some of my favorite songs of hers are her duets with Peter Bradley Adams (who happens to sing one of my favorite songs from last year, more on that later) and AM. Her really popular hit, All I Want, was used in some TV shows. I also suggest checking out the Bakman Tapes, an EP released this past June. 

Kate Nash - Other side of the pond

I actually took the day off, got to love four day weekends! I really like her sound, she performed her UK hit "Foundations" at the Isle of Wight festival, and has a new album coming out in 2010. Listen to that one as well if you have a chance, but this is something new from her.

**Added by Jessica: This was on my list of postings but Drew beat me to it. I wanted to give my highest recommendation to "Foundations" and "Merry Happy". If you don't check them out I will be really angry and continue to post only tektonic dance videos. seriously. Her lyrics make me laugh all the time. This is so worth adding to itunes! **

Happy monday

So this if my fist post, please forgive me if I don't do it right! Very cool band from British Columbia, one of the songs from their debut album called "druganaut" was stolen for a car commercial (seems like they're taking all the good songs these days!). Enjoy.

Jeffrey Foucault--Mesa, Arizona

One of my favorite songs! Love it! Boston guy on Signature Sounds label, where Lori McKenna started. Ghost Repeater is great. One For Love too.

Del Amitri--Tell Her This

I actually like this band. Well, I like what I know of them. I actually have never bought an album. "Be My Downfall" is another personal favorite. For some reason, I'm continuing with my pulling songs from the vault theme. I need some new stuff! =)

Dancing

Helloooooo...anyone out there? I didn't think so. Even though we three bloggers talked about posting on Tuesday there has been no follow through. Lame. So no music today. Instead I just wanted everyone to know that for some weeks now I have been trying to learn how to dance Tecktonik. Of course I could only dance like this in europe for it to be accepted as cool, I don't think they would appreciate this in the US of A. This is not a joke. I love techno and electro and everything in between and I think I actually have some sort of hope of learning how to dance if I did it like this:

However if you don't do these moves quite right you end up looking more like this:

Slow Club - It doesn't have to be beautiful

Here is some alternative folky fun from the UK. This song just happened to have the best video but they have a lot of other songs that you should listen to before you pass a final judgement. Specifically, "When I go" because it reminds me of that song from the movie Juno. They even use glass bottles as instruments. Also check out "Christmas TV" which was featured on Chuck this year and "Me and You" because it will make you laugh.

Dragonette - Don't Be Funny

I can't really tell you much about Dragonette. They are Electro/Pop/Rock ish. They are from Canada. That's it. Seriously the first few google results turned up nothing too exciting. Wikipedia had nothing exciting to say either.

What I can tell you is that this song, for reasons unknown to me, makes me make want to do ridiculous dance moves alone in my room. Like circa 4th grade dances that everyone made up with their friends that involved lots of square steps, arm crossing, and whatever jazz steps your friends could remember from their short stint in dance classes. Usually these dances involved spice girls and TLC. So yeah, I want to do the same old ridiculous dancing (lets be honest my dancing hasn't improved since then) but at least I have upgraded the music. I don't know why I am admitting to all of this but just listen to it, see what effects it has on you. Also check out Pick up the Phone, great for a ring tone! (I am a huge dork today)

Amie Miriello - Brand New

This is one of those songs that has great rock-out-in-my-car-alone-ability. The car is my shower, what can I say? It is one of those that has a catchy line that I just can't ignore: "when I see you driving in your car looking like a f**ing star won't you give it to me" and then I turn to my left to notice the truck driver laughing at my car-sing-a-long intensity. True story. But whatever.

Amie Miriello is an up and coming artist who released her debut album way back in September of 2008. I have been hoping for new stuff for a while, but for now there are some other good songs like coldfront and I came around worth checking out. She also has some TV placements coming up, although she hasn't announced which shows, maybe you will recognize them when you hear them. (Side note: they took out the bad word in this video making it a few times less fun to sing along with) 

Emmy the Great - Dylan

Just because I don't know how well the last link worked out I will post one more for today. I am posting this because I just keep coming back to it. It is one of those songs that comes on my ipod and I say to myself "Who is this? And why do I not know it yet?" I have done that countless times over the past three months with this song. I don't know what it is about it but it just catches my ear like that. Maybe its the violins, or maybe its the snarky lyrics "and all the things to talk about that I could say to you, like reading an Italian book from the 13th century, is not that hard to do." Whatever it is, I like it.

Emmy the Great is a UK band with a few other good tunes like "Edward is Dedward" (which you should listen to just because the title is so fantastic), Canopies and Drapes, and their cover of Where is my Mind? is really something fantastic.

Lori McKenna - Monday

Just because it is Monday.

Actually she is a local Bostonian and has been around for a while. I came across this song thanks to Boulais who put it on a mix quite a few years back and it has been a staple in many playlist ever since. Thank You! I would write more about Lori McKenna but she is all over the internet so you can find out for yourself. Enjoy!

Monday Afternoon - Lori McKenn...

Elizabeth & The Catapult - Complimentary Me

This Brooklyn based trio, Elizabeth & the Catapult, are a lot of fun. Their debut album "Taller Children" is great and I listen to almost every song on it making this one of those tricky artists to pick just one song from. Complimentary Me has a lot of layers that I really enjoy starting with a french sound, swinging into bluegrassy type of thing, hand clapping, and banjo, paired with great lyrics, it is a little gem. But you should also consider checking out "Race You" a really cute little song, Taller Children, Momma's Boy, and Hit the Wall which has a great jazzy kind of sound. This band really blends a lot of different styles which creates an impeccable album that is nearly impossible to tire of. Consider purchasing it for $6.99 on itunes for 15 songs. Doesn't get much better.

Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance

All I know is; Oren is personally invited to my bedroom to sing me to sleep every night. I first loved this song because of the video which has actually been nominated for some awards. Then I listened to it a few more times and it just sunk in. I love it. It is unique, creative, and Oren Lavie, an Israeli, has a most dreamy rich voice. He might remind you a little of Josh Rouse and Jose Gonzalez. I am really bad at making comparisons like that but I don't think I am that far off. He has great relaxing music I could listen to the album all day long. The last thing I fell in love with (which is usually the first thing I notice, weird) were his lyrics which he also won an award for. But I love:
"Soon she's down the stairs
Her morning elegance she wears
The sound of water makes her
dream
Awoken by a cloud of steam
She pours a daydream in a cup
A spoon of sugar sweetens it up"

Rufus Wainwright--Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

Anthony got me two tickets to Rufus Wainwright for Christmas. He's playing in Northampton at The Calvin. Very excited. This is one of my favorites. Hallelujah is also GREAT!