Plagiarist Music Picks

First off, Scott at Stereogum has Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo A La Turk" available as a free download, for a limited time. Grab it, grab it, grab it, it's a jazz masterpiece. Whips me into a frenzy. (I'm so dorky.)

I finally purchased Illinois by Sufjan Stevens, and Rabbit Songs by Hem. Can't comment on the latter yet as it just arrived last night. Illinois is a masterfully created pop album. Thoughtful, inventive and lush in its vocals and instrumentation, it's a beautiful listen all the way through. But I emphasize all the way through. It's one of those albums that you need to hear from start to finish. Doesn't work as well for me when the iPod is shuffling. Purchase it on iTunes. And again, you can download two tracks, for a limited time, at Borrowed Tunes.


The original cover for Illinois before D.C. Comics got all litigious on his ass

I was psyched to see a comment on my previous blog post from C.C. Chapman, host of the Accident Hash podcast. I've been listening to Accident Hash as often as I can - makes great accompaniment for my workout - my only problem is that he's producing podcasts way faster than I can listen to all of them. So I've only gotten through two or three, but so far I can point you towards two great tracks: "Summertime" by Brother Love, and "sound scientist" by Bill.

"Summertime" is...well, I can't describe it except that it fits its namesake perfectly. "sound scientist" sounds like what might happen if you mixed a bit of Jason Mraz with some Jamie Cullum and Jamiroquai.

Both of these songs (as well as many others) can be found at C.C.'s new project, the Podsafe Music Network, which is essentially a place for artists to upload their songs and for podcasters to find songs to play. By having their songs on the website, the artists grant all rights for their songs to be broadcast, and the podcasters know they don't have to get permission first before playing the songs. A great idea and another brilliant way to promote unsigned artists.

Listen to Bill at the Podsafe Music Network here, and Brother Love here.

A few months ago, I was watching an episode of "Scrubs" from my bedroom. The song played during the last five minutes moved me enough to get my lazy ass out of bed and find it on the internet. I had a crappy copy (recorded from a stream) until yesterday, when it was released on iTunes. It's called "Closer" and it's by an artist named Joshua Radin. You can stream it on his website, and you can buy it at iTunes here. This song breaks my heart.

Nickel Creek also released a 4-song live iTunes exclusive, promoting their new album Why Should The Fire Die? The impetus to pick it up was due to the live version of "Smoothie Song," but the rest of the tracks are good too. "Jealous of the Moon" was written with Gary Louris of The Jayhawks.

I've been trying to find more pics of Nickel Creek back when they were just lil' tykes. They were so dopey and cute.

Nickel Creek now:



Nickel Creek then:



Look at Sara! SO CUTE! This was the last time that Sean Watkins (right) was ever taller than Chris Thile.