Dark Was The Night - Or the art of gathering an impressive list of artists for a compilation

In case anybody missed it (I just found out!!- oops), check out the list of songs included in the latest edition of the Red Hot compilation released a week ago here. Impressive: from Andrew Bird to Blonde Redhead, from Cat Power to My morning Jacket, all kinds of styles by the elite of the "indie/alternative" scene today. Bound to be a few tracks you'll want to listen to. The ones I've looked up are previously unreleased covers.
An example: Feist and Ben Gibbard's cover of "Train song" here. And because of this great site, Stereogum, I found out about the original by Vashti Bunyan. Agreed, quite gorgeous:

Definitely worth checking out.
Official website here.

Brits, Girls aloud and School of Seven bells

Woke up reading about the Brits, had forgotten about it. Duffy was proclaimed winner of the night but seems to me the ones that made the most of it are this group Girls aloud with their performance of "Promise". I had never heard of them before, but just watched the video and they certainly made the most of their opportunity. Truth is the song is catchy bright fizzy brit untrascendental pop at its best, and the performance... a blast, not to miss the guys' terrible white suits and the faces they made trying to look, uh, "attractive and intriguing"?. That's always a crack....(and easier on the fans, guys, it's annoying); girls, on the other hand, fantastic, managed to stay classy and pulled it off really well (the blonde, Sarah, great voice, minute 4.07 is amazing). It's gonna have everyone buzzing; I really like it. Still best British single of the year seems... excessive; most spectacular tv performance, could be.
Estelle's "American boy" mixed with the Ting Tings was also worth watching (loved the version she did with Kanye West at the Grammys too).
On a completely different page, met School of Seven bells' people yesterday(cool) (very, they're really nice and they sound fantastic live). A few days ago they released the official video for "Half asleep" and they're currently touring pretty much all over the place. And for UK's April gigs they'll be supporting Bat for Lashes (!), which is pretty impressive for a band that has practically just released their first album. Even more impressive is how they achieved this.
Boring me asked them my usual question: what are they listening to these days? (but I really am curious!). Well, lots of different stuff but a name they dropped is Fever Ray , The knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson's solo project. (I didn't tell them about my blog, hope they don't mind my sharing it - I should have mentioned it though). Then got home, watched CSI NY and their "Prince of peace" was in it! Serendipity after serendipity.
The only pic I have is blurry and doesn't do anybody justice, but (they're much handsomer in the flesh -forgot my camera, had to use an old one)... lucky me, I get to wear a black spot !-should have made it larger though!!

Other things:
* Youtube has removed one of the clips I uploaded. Ingrid Michaelson singing Edelweiss bothers The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. Whatever. Hell, I get it, nobody's heard that song before!. Nobody cares but...
* Somehow deleted my whole itunes library, which is pretty inconvenient. Nobody cares either but ... Bummer. For what I've googled, looks like I need to download a program to transfer songs from my ipod to the library, if anybody's done it pls let me know which you used!

And now I'm off to get me a fuchsia feathered fan !!

Today

Things I found out about today since I woke up this morning at 7.45 am (urggg):
* There's this very extensive interview to Neko Case in Paste Magazine's online thing here. BTW a very good source for discovering new fresh music I often use are Paste magazine's samplers (cds they give away for free with the magazine. You have like 20 tracks of all kinds of music, there never fails to be one or two ace discoveries - also a few very forgettable boring ones, course).
*I came across this music blog with a bitterly fantastic name: It's hard to find a friend. Yes. On the other hand, it's easy finding a crappy stupid mean human being ready to lie and hurt you for no particular reason. Phonies. Yess.
*Found out Cat Power released a new covers EP in December (Dark end of the street).Just as I'm writing this, the radio station I'm listening to (I hardly ever listen to the radio) plays...Living proof (it never does). Et voila, sometimes, the world does seem to turn around you, if only for one spin.

A Heads UP!

Who's up for a cool dance track?. Plus you can go here and download it for free... Nice. Singer is Chairlift's Caroline Polachek, lending a hand to Flosstradamus (never heard of them before, but sounds good).

Annuals at the World Cafe

Annuals (World Cafe FAN, Jan. 30Th).

What's most remarkable about this band are the double drums in some of the songs. Really curious to see two drummers onstage, a first for me. I asked main drummer Donzel Radford about it, he said they love drums (obviously) and music seemed to ask for them. How do they do it?. Go to recording studio, one drummer to the left side, one drummer to the right, try, and see what works. Not much room for improvisation?. Uh, no.... And how long has he been playing drums? (he's pretty amazing at it). Practically since he could hold a pair of sticks in his hands..
Uploaded a mini clip of "Confessor", off their last album, on YouTube here.
And Rachael Yamagata was in the audience (and she didn't run when she saw me!!!- you'd have to read previous posts to catch this. I behaved and didn't ask her anything this time).
By the way, itunes' free single of the week is Alela Diane's. Go for it.

Dr Dog, "are you my curse or are you my friend?"

Philly's own Dr Dog, at Philly's World Cafe today, great show. Line's from one of the songs they've played, "The rabbit, the bat and the reindeer".Quite a few good songs, pretty cool bunch to watch, amazing drums.

You can listen to the broadcast at XPN's website.
Uploaded "The breeze" on youtube here. By the way, what a pain youtube has become lately, seen the new ads with sound that slow it down even more and are imposed on you these days?. Stinks...greedy greedy humankind.

The coolest concerts I know of - Artist Den

In case you're not familiar with the Artist Den, they are responsible for the coolest concerts around: these are "secret" concerts in non-musical fantastic venues such as museums, old ships, churches... all with great artists, for very small audiences (partly lucky fans -tickets are free- partly members. Really fair, I'd say). These concerts are taped, and they've just announced they're finally starting to broadcast them starting this February. First one to air is Alanis Morissette.

I was so lucky to attend Jakob Dylan's in NY in September (check out my blog's september archives, I entered to win tickets, entered my guy too...I didn't win them, he did, which is funny because he's as musical as a log!!- but ok, got to go -which is what matters - plus he enjoyed it a lot) and they've already posted a mini clip of it here (place looks way bigger than it actually was). There's also this one on youtube.
For other artists appearing and for the tv schedule go to their site.

To the good times lyrics - Elin Sigvardsson

Cheers to all the good times we’ve had
Cheers to the things that we will regret
I long for you I’m out of my head
You’re all around my heart
You’re inside my bed

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
And the ones we won’t get
Cheers to all the tears that I cried
Cheers to the loneliness and the wine
I long for you
I see you everywhere
------infotaupe.blogspot.com----
You’re stuck on my mind
Tangled up in my hair

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
And the ones we won’t share
Cheers to the walls
And Cheers to the floor
Cheers to your feet
When they walked out the door

I long for you
More than ever before
The night’s a joke
And the day’s such a bore

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
They won’t come back no more
Cheers to the plans and the house by the sea
There sails our boat
There falls the balcony

I long for you
That is still haunting me
Those visions of us
Just won’t let me be

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
And the ones we won’t see
Cheers to the glass I pour in the sink
Cheers to the olive in your favourite drink
I long for you but don’t say you’ll miss me
There’s no use in lying
If that’s what you think

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
It didn’t mean a thing
Here’s to the good times we’ve had
That just didn’t mean a thing
*************************************
As it turns out the other Elin lyrics I posted on my blog are one of my most visited pages, so I'll post other songs of hers I can't find on the net!