The varied blues of the Pacific

Disclaimer: contains jazz guitar.

This is necessary because, alas, jazz guitar tends to be "smooth" these days, inspiring a personal suspicion of any and all jazz guitar. Wes Montgomery, by contrast, is jazz guitar done right, less smooth and more intricate, with a bite to match.

Anybody Jimi Hendrix cited as an influence has to know what he's doing, no?

Wes Montgomery
"West Coast Blues"

It's summer somewhere

It was getting colder in southern Texas, and for a while there you might have regretted not putting on an extra layer.

We're back to no-jacket-required weather, but I first heard this track with fuzzy slippers on and a cup of cold-fighting ginger tea. Under those circumstances it evoked (in spite of the brief appearance of snow in the video) that summer vacation vibe of warm lazy days filled with concentrated leisure, ideally involving a deep supply of iced beverages. Kind of like what our good friends on the other side of the equator are enjoying nowadays.

All that and more than a little Beirut to boot.

Seabear
"I Sing I Swim"

Fluffy clouds

As a city kid, I get a little uncomfortable in the vast expanses of emptiness the countryside represents. But parks? Parks are awesome. And this track is complete and utter post-picnic, on your back fluffy-cloud-watching music - like a long lost, unfinished Nick Drake outtake.

It's that beautiful.

Loose Fur
"Chinese Apple"

Masks

Because, sometimes, you can go back.

Howlies
"Angeline"

Giving thanks for the soul

It's Thanksgiving in America, a time of extravagant overconsumption as only the US can manage.

Here's some food for the soul to go with all that turkey and pumpkin pie.

Sam & Dave
"I Thank You"

Mayer Hawthorne hearts that vinyl sound

The old-school 60's soul influence is impossible to ignore, but Mayer Hawthorne adds a deadpan, dry humor you wouldn't expect from the genre. It's as if Curtis Mayfield had been a Brooklyn hipster.

It's really, really good.

Mayer Hawthorne
"Just Ain't Gonna Work Out"

Hips don't lie still

With rebuilt cumbia, a high-tech donkey cart, colors that push the bounds of brightness, and more than a passing nod to the 80's, damned if this track doesn't get me happy and bouncing every time.

Systema Solar
"Bienvenidos"



PS - The grammar nerd in me also feels obliged to point out that "system" is properly spelled "sistema" in Spanish. But only after the happy and bouncing part of me is done with the track.

It's bigger than be....bop....be....bop....be....bop.....

The original hipster (trademark pork pie hat and all), this is Lester Young and some classic, classic bop.

I likes me a good beat.

Lester Young
"Blues for Greasy"

Borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered 80's

Allows for reinvention.

Which is why this track can be very reminiscent of the original (non-Donnie Darko) version of "Mad World" and not actually sound a whole lot like it.

For your aesthetically crafted, fluffy-yet-dead-serious pop entertainment.

Friendly Fires
"Kiss of Life"

Dreams you've left behind

It's hard to mistake Casiotone for the Painfully Alone for anybody else - that offhand, growly-yet-pained voice, the downbeat complicated lyrics of somebody who thinks too much, the literal use of a Casiotone.

Juxtaposition that with footage of Disneyland in the 60's and I get a sense of lost ideals and dreams unfulfilled.

Maybe it's just me.

Hallelujah.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
"Optimists vs. The Silent Saints"

The first frontier: space

This starts off pretty slow and spacious, and then stays that way.

Because, sometimes, you just need to get your mesmerize on.

Anni Rossi
"Central Utah"

A man walks into a bar...

There are very few good storytelling songs anymore. (Outside of country music, anyway). I suppose then it's no surprise that there's more than a little country in there with the Neil Young, Van Morrison, Sam Cooke and everyone else mentioned.

The aftermath of a breakup can have some pretty far-ranging, unexpected consequences.

Roman Candle
"Why Modern Radio is A-OK"

You! Me! Icarus! Dancing!

It's always good to go dancing.

There are better songs to actually, you know, dance to, but this is an excellent take on the idea of dancing - which is quite odd, if you think about it.

The video retells the Daedelus and Icarus tale in a 1960s-PBS aesthetic. Quite well, too.

White Rabbits
"While We Go Dancing"

Love it or leave it or maybe both or maybe neither

Incomplete information sucks, in financial markets as well as matters of the heart.

I heard this and couldn't figure out what it reminded me of; it was a great surprise when it was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, not because the sound wasn't similar but because it manages to be both darker and more solid on its footing. As such it's in a completely different mental category.

To my mind, a better one.

Giant Drag
"This Isn't It"

The Duke visits the Far East

I personally can't discern any influence from the "Far East." The fact that it's rather a classic, rainy-day-afternoon Ellington track is by no means a criticism. Classic Duke Ellington is good stuff.

Duke Ellington, et al.
"Isfahan"

Just add blanket

Low-production-value animation can look cute and endearing or just...bad. This is actually a good example of how to make a video using common household items, which works well with the low-fi, dreamy-honest yet confident quality to the track.

It's like staring at the ceiling late on a rainy night, wide awake for no reason at all, not nervous, not excited, just thinking odd thoughts with the knowledge that, while you are definitely going to be sleep deprived in the morning, the coziness is set to 11 in the meantime.

Shelley Short
"Time Machine/Submarine"

The thrill of it all

Imogen Heap doing "Thriller." No video. No way I wasn't going to post this.

Imogen Heap
"Thriller"

Holiday

There are times for thinking hard, for feeling things deeply, contemplating your own mortality and the choices that have led you to this point. There's a time to think about what you truly believe, what you're committed to, and what you would like to accomplish in your time on Earth.

And then there's a time for a holiday from all that.

The Eames Era never pretends to be more than a cute, warm and cozy way to decompress - all work and no play, etc. - but it achieves it quite well.

Kick back and take a load off - the world will still be here tomorrow.

The Eames Era
"Watson On Your Side"

Fascination

Synthpop that's a little light on the "pop" - as if Blondie had not been so much contemporaries of Sonic Youth and Talking Heads, but had grown up listening to them instead.

Interesting how the dynamics are almost like a jazz band, with the focus shifting from the voice to the synths to the guitar, with a final, definite full stop at the end. All that's missing is a drum solo.

Monsters Are Waiting
"Fascination"

Nostalgia for things you don't even remember

Madder Rose never got as big as, say, Mazzy Star, or Veruca Salt, or even Luscious Jackson. Those bands are quite nostalgia-inducing, so it was a bit weird when I heard this song recently and it inspired nostalgia though I'd never heard it before. You can't really say they were ahead of their time - this is a great track but it positively screams 1994 - but criminally overlooked, why-didn't-anybody-tell-me-about-them-in-1994?

I'll go there.

Madder Rose
"Car Song"

A theory of moral sentiment

I like this track a lot and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's because it manages to be tragic, wide-eyed, sentimental and not be ridiculous. Maybe it's that soothing, lullaby-like voice and the memories of when, as a young hopeless romantic, I kind of felt this way too.

Whatever it is, it's been running through my head all day.

Gregory and the Hawk
"Boats and Birds"

Can't buy me love

Even people who don't know much about jazz know about Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. You discover Sarah Vaughan is the next step - until I started looking into jazz, I'd never heard of her - and it's a good thing, like when you realize there are more types of wine than red and white.

You can hear the love in the voice on this track especially.

Sarah Vaughan
"I Can't Give You Anything But Love"
Live in Australia, 1965.

Pwned

Interesting study in point of view when you set up the lines, "Them dress up in a jacket and them dress up in a tie, want to deprive a man from my rights, them a murderer" to video game characters shooting each other. The whole video game gunplay thing might go better to, say, DMX, or Rob Zombie, or even Peter Tosh. Notsomuch this particular track, despite the title.

Said title being a most classic, classic reggae cut from the most classic, classic Barrington Levy.

Barrington Levy
"Murderer"

The revolution will be animated

Emphatically not creepy.

Taking the best parts of the Powerpuff Girls, Gorillaz and bright, happy colors in general, this is as good as cartoon escapist urban fantasy gets. It's always a good sign when there's so much happening you have to focus on either the music or the video (or concentrate really hard) to catch everything.

Check her website (note that the sound comes on immediately), especially if you speak French. It's quite colorfully entertaining.

DJ Missill
"Forward"

Underground

For some reason the track reminds me of the band dada from waaaay back in '94.

The video involves a gnome. Getting tied up. And then escaping.

Many a moon since Halloween and I still can't seem to let go of the creepy...

Cage the Elephant
"Back Against the Wall"

Elvis PSA

Nothing to do with Halloween/All Saints' Day/Dia de los Muertos/goth-related themes, but possibly the creepiest song released by the late Mr. Presley.

Which might very well explain why such a good song is so completely unknown.

Elvis
"Little Sister"

In the closet

And Halloween-All Saints' Day-Dia de los Muertos week ends today with a classic Louis Armstrong track that demonstrates Halloween-related songs have been around since the 30's.

Plus, dude, Louis Armstrong. That's respect right there.

Louis Armstrong
"Skeleton in the Closet"

Fear the reaper

You may have seen this before, and you've definitely heard this one before, but it's still creepy as all hell, which is what we're going for after all.

Blue Oyster Cult
"Don't Fear the Reaper"
From the 1994 TV miniseries version of The Stand

Oscuridad

Feliz Dia de los Muertos!

Projector are a band out of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.

I don't know much about them other than that they sound a little like Caifanes/Jaguares and produced this awesome Dia de los Muertos video that manages to be simultaneously electric and dark, atmospheric and striking.

And the music is pretty damn good too.

Projector
"Bolero"

The living and the dead

I lived in Mexico as a young lad, and I have memories of the Day of the Dead - distorted and filled with more impressions than understanding, but powerful nonetheless. One of those memories is the smell of pan de muerto (which is more complicated to bake than I imagined, involving a long list of ingredients and fairly exacting directions) baking in an outdoor, wood-fired brick oven.

This song shouldn't spark those memories, but it does.

Jolie Holland's voice doesn't seem to worry too much about the presentation, focusing instead on making every sound an urgent expression of emotional intent. And it might just be the dialogue between that voice and the sound of the guitar - solid, grounding, connected to the earth - that gives the song its power. Maybe. It's hard to tell how much is the song and how much is nostalgia.

Dig the outfits - especially the nod to Frida Kahlo at the end.

Jolie Holland
"Mexico City"