Blog Round-Up - Aloe Blacc, Beirut, Field Music, the bird and the bee

Here are a few links from around the web today that I will definitely be checking out:

Analog Giant posted a new song by DJ Day featuring Aloe Blacc and a new Stacey Epps song from Stones Throw Records.

Brooklyn Vegan has "I.C.E." -- a new Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra song. (Fans of TV on the Radio should definitely check it out.)

Covert Curiosity posted Arizona and My Party from the new Kings of Leon album Because of the Times, which is scheduled for an April 3rd release. Mr. Curiosity says it's decent, but not great. That fits pretty well with the early critiques I have heard. Still, I am looking forward to hearing more of it, and looking forward to seeing the On Call video # worked on a few weeks ago.

Free iTunes Downloads has a link to the new k-os single "The Rain." k-os is a hip-hop artist from Ontario.

Idolator posted a couple of Los Lobos songs from The Town and The City. I really like Los Lobos. I saw them live at ACL fest a few years ago, and they were really great.

I Guess I'm Floating has a Beirut demo, entitled "Interior of a Dutch House." As you all know, I am a huge Beirut fan, so it's great to hear something earlier than Gulag Orkestar. Check out my earlier Beirut posts here.

Instrumental Analysis has three Jeff Buckley songs from Grace. Because I listened to Tim Buckley a lot as a kid, I have always loved Jeff Buckley.

Lifehacker posted 12 iTunes scripts I am excited to use. The scripts do everything from removing dead tracks (the ones with little exclamation point) to automating adding lyrics (without using Sing That iTunes on the dashboard).

Noise for Toasters has three songs from Field Music's Tones of the Town, one of my favorite albums of the year so far, and the video for She Can Do What She Wants.

So Much Silence has a review of the bird and the bee. I have really enjoyed them lately, and I will get around to posting about them at some point.

Austin Sound has a track from Austin band The Carrots, who I originally heard via The Voxtrot Kid.

The Week That Was

This was an interesting week. Lots of work and a stomach virus kept me from posting much.

Tonight seemed excellent. I got repeated, adorable calls from my mother who was in Miami as I made up a playlist for my two dearest friends who are each going through break-ups (the master list is about 61 songs long, so I am arranging and editing before I can post it).

As I began this post, I got the panicked phone call and jumped in my car to rescue my friend. So, overall, an improvement in my life and strife in theirs.

I spent a lot of time this week listening to:

1. Break-up/sad/hopeful songs for the Playlist/Mixtape.
2. Andrew Bird. Wow, what songs. I love love love Heretic. It's just extraordinary.
3. The Rifles. I love the live cover of Inbetween Days from Radio 1, in addition to
   
4. Aloe Blacc. I am awaiting my cd from Amazon, while I play the hell out of Gente Ordinaria.
5. Instrumental versions and covers of Am I the Same Girl.
   

New Soul Music - Aloe Blacc

When I hear I really great new song, I have to hit replay and then I need silence. Then I email all of you to say "you have to buy this now!"

It happens rarely.

The last time I can remember doing it was John Legend's first album, which I bought because I read a review that compared him favorably to the Titans of Soul (Smokey, Stevie, and Marvin). Before that, it was D'Angelo's Voodoo and Charlie Hunter's Songs from an Analog Playground, which are in my top-10 albums of all time. (I ended up buying at least 5 albums of each from Amazon and shipping them to [some of] you.)

Ian on Notes from a Different Kitchen posted a few new soul tracks this morning.

I downloaded Aloe Blacc's Gente Ordinaria, which hits all of the things I love: it's a cover of Ordinary People in Spanish, but where the original is a spare piano track, this is a lush tropical arrangement with horns and drums. Because it couldn't get better, he also throws in the "la las" of My Cherie Amour.

Check it out here (Gente Ordinaria, Aloe Blacc) and then buy the album here.

In case my exhortation is not enough to convince you, here is part of the review from The In Crowd:

It's hard to really do this album proper justice in a review: dude basically takes sounds from the entire spectrum of the black musical disapora from jazz, blues, black folk field music to R&B, afro-latin jazz and hip hop and distills it down to a single, thoroughly modern yet unique sounding album.

So, buy it. Now.