This installment is all French.  Well, mostly French. Let’s just say the inspiration was French. I’ve been to France more than any other foreign country and I love it terribly. I don’t speak any french, and can never remember how to ask people if they speak English. The French make excellent music.

Acid Washed

Thanks, Spotify. While you may only pay artists .02 pennies every time I listen to one of their tracks, you are enabling junkies like me to find new music with little to no effort. This is one of those.  I clicked on Mr. Oizo’s related artists, and these guys came up. I don’t think they sound much like Oizo, but ho hum. They are rad.

Bot’ox

This is a little more weird, a little less dancefloor.. quite good (if you click this, listen at least past 3:00).

Lindstrøm & Christabelle

No, these folks aren’t French. Gys hipped me to Lindstrøm a while back, and I listened this record for weeks on end. I even hooked a few other people on it.  Coming back to it now.  On first listen you might find this track totally cheesy, or tongue in cheek. Too bad. You take yourself too seriously (Yeah, I’m guilty of that almost all the time). But come on. This is totally sexy, and almost perfectly produced. I say almost because I would never let that guitar solo stay. I spent too many years listening to Low to get behind guitar solos.

And I must post this one, because of this bassline.

Principles of Geometry

Another group I found via Mr. Oizo. They did a remix of Z, which is one of my favorite jams. I will not make the Boards of Canada reference.

Joakim

I knew nothing about this guy until 20 minutes ago, and now I’ve watched a studio walk through of his space and I feel like I know him. I dig how unassuming his attitude towards gear is. I won’t make the LCD Soundsystem reference.

SebastiAn

Digging this.

The project I worked on last year with David Krakauer and the Madness Orchestra has now been released and is for sale at Tzadik.com.  Go check it out and tell me how it sounds!

Welcome to Listening Jail, where I force you to listen to the music that’s been in heavy rotation in my life.  This episode is late, and all over the place. Don’t forget to check out all the links posted throughout the text – they link to other awesome songs.

Mr. Gnome

This was my theme song for the month of January.

Brian McBride

This whole record is great. I’m positive I will be posting more of his music in the Listening Jail.

Slint

I learned of Slint from a Heavy Vegetable lyric – “they don’t play slint on the radio.” It’s almost true.  WMBR has played Slint only three times in 2011.  This record came out in 1991.  20 years ago.  If only I had heard this then.  Killing.

The Angels of Light

It’s so hard to choose one song from this record. I usually listen to the whole thing every time I put it on.

Eric Burdon & The Animals

I used to listen to this LP as a kid, and I never made it past this track.  I finally found it on youtube, and here it is.  That bass sound is insane. I could listen to 2:26 to the end forever.  Kind of out of character for me, but man I dig this.

Nest

I saw a link to this record on some random music blog, and decided to check it out.  Often times I get weirded out by ambient music.  I’m often very skeptical of the craft involved in it – how much of the enjoyment is brought to the party by the listener vs the performers. whether it’s just some folks wonking out for 40 minutes, or if there is real purpose and drive behind the music.  A wise friend of mine once gave me great advice on this topic: “Do you like it?” Yes. I do like this. This is from a 4-song EP and I generally listen to the whole thing at once.  Also check out this track. Excellent piano part.

Siriusmo

Ok, so I happened on one of his tracks via a related video on a Mr. Oizo track.  Since that moment I have pretty much listened to nothing but Siriusmo.  Basically he has seemingly endless nasty techno tracks, and millions of slamming disco house tracks.  And they all kill.  It’s production like this that makes me feel like I’m in the stone ages.

He is seriously good, and not just for the techno heads.

Anyway, insanely bad ass.  I had to choose one track to put down here as the main video.  It wasn’t easy.

No. Scratch that. I had to post two vids. This is the sound of me blasting along in a Porsche 928 with brown leather driving gloves and a light blue oblong duffel bag full of brand new white T-Shirts.  Too specific?

And go listen to that Zombie Nation remix – it is an absolute beast. (Click on the word “Nasty”)

Mr Oizo

Always a favorite of mine – I had missed this record when it came out.  Catching up on it now.  I wanted to link up the track “Ska”, but copyright infringement on youtube keeps me from doing so.  This is also a stellar track.

Our Broken Garden

This is one of those songs that I could have gone either way on – it’s either absolute brilliance, or way too cheesy. What took me towards brilliance is imagning this in a live setting – where the production would be much more sloppy and gritty.  If I heard this song at a live show I would buy the record. Oh, and if you want to hear the studio version it’s here. Also check out this song – also live.

Welcome to Listening Jail, where I force you to listen to the stuff that’s been blowing my mind recently.  This episode is predominantly female artists.

Catherine Ribeiro

She rocks.  Apparently she was one of the French Chanteuses singing folk/pop music in the 60′s.  If I’m going there, it’s usually Francoise Hardy. My money is on her freakout stuff with 2bis and Alpes. The record with 2bis is one of my all-time favorites, and is high on my list of recommended listening for people looking for inspiration. This is from a different project (I think) with a group called Alpes. Killing

Hanne Hukkelberg

Yeah. Bad Ass. Absolutely ridiculous. Her first record was on heavy rotation on my iPod for at least a solid year, and then fell by the wayside. I accidentally skipped her second, and thanks to Spotify have been catching up on a lot of stuff, Hanne included. I strongly suggest checking out all of this stuff – inventive and heart-felt.

Charlotte Gainsbourg

I had totally dismissed Charlotte Gainsbourg for some reason. Bad idea. This record (IRM) has been growing on me. Reminds me a bit of the Wendy & Lisa record “Girl Bros.” Also check out the track “Trick Pony.”

Blonde Redhead

Eternal favorite of mine. Pretty much can do no wrong by me. I have not stopped listening to this record since it came out, mainly the last 4 songs.

Morena y Clara

I stumbled across this on tour last month. The video is spectacular. Yes.

Las Grecas

Also in the late 60′s/early 70′s Catalan funk era is this banger. Absolutely in love with the guitar in the intro. And the video.

Andy Stott

And now for something completely different. If you’re listening to this on iPod headphones or your computer speakers, just stop right now and go get a real set of headphones/speakers. Then turn it up. Yeah so the heavy side-chain compressor is a little played out, it doesn’t matter.  This is artful use of a technique and it serves the vibe. Also check out North to South from the same record.

So October was full of some serious shrekking, from New York to Paris, Kiev, Gdansk, Innsbruck, and everything in between.  It was with David Krakauer and the Madness Orchestra, of which I am ostensibly a part.  It truly was mad – we had one day off and two nights without gigs in 19 days of touring. I actually did find something on the youtubes from that tour.

The material for this tour was a mix of David’s music and John Zorn’s music from The Book of Angels. This is where all the Masada music comes from and is some of my favorite of his output.  After this grueling but amazing tour was over we had a week off, then headed into the studio.  We laid it all down in 6 hours and I still had time to catch a Plainville concert in Brooklyn.  Badass.  Anyway, I’m just posting to let you all know that this record will be coming out on Tzadik at some point in the future and it will be burning.

Carry on.