Tuesday, December 04, 2007

297 - November Music

Sigur Ros - Hvarf e.p. (disappear)
Listen here.

A new EP with some new songs and some new recordings of older song...some epic, some not so. The highlight is the recording of Hafsol which has been a fan favorite at their shows with the bassist using a drumstick to tap the strings to create a percussive bass jam.

Sigur Ros - Heim (Home)
Listen here.

Heim features six live tracks recording acoustically from natural locations around Iceland...fjords, green fields, carverns, etc. This is either the soundtrack or the live music from their tour film/dvd called Heima. Heima was suppose to be released late November, but I think distributer problems is pushing this back to December. I am very much looking forward to this release.

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This is the time of year when radio starts playing Christmas music the day after Halloween. I am not afraid to admit the I enjoy Christmas music, but I usually wait until Thanksgiving to pull out the old records.

My favorite Christmas music is the old stuff, the classics where Bing is King. But I have pretty much collected all the good old classic Christmas music. The last few years I have been interested in finding modern artist making non-cheesey Christmas music. I have been interested in new original songs about this winter season. Some of my favorites have been Over the Rhine's the darkest night of the year and snow angels, Sufjan Steven's Christmas EP boxset colletion, Bill Mallonee's yonder shines the infant light, Low's Christmas EP and others. Maybe some day I'll make a list.

Here are my selections this year:
Mindy Smith - My Holiday
Listen here.

Mindy Smith is an americana folky singer/songwriter from Nashville. This album is a mix of new orignal songs with some traditonal. The new songs celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and the birth of Christ. Very good listen.

File this under "acoustic christmas."

Joshua James - Fields & Floods EP
Listen here.

I am not sure how I stumbled upon this album on the Internet, but it has been a good find. Joshua James is an indie folk singer from Nebraska and that is about all I know of him. The music is quiet and lo-fi and very moody much like Low's Christmas album. One orginal song and the rest are mostly Christmas Hymns with a couple holiday songs.

File this under "mysterious christmas."

3 comments:

Achtung BB said...

I've been looking for the Sigur Ros movie too and haven't seen it anywhere. I heard they were going to Lawerence to debut it.
I don't listen to a lot of the classic X-mas albums. That's more Deb. I don't mind some more modern stuff. "Snow Angels" is an amazing X-mas album. That would make the top of my list.

shakedust said...

Mindy Smith sounds a lot like Sara Groves to me.

Portland wawa said...

I may check Mindy Smith out. But my officemate may not appreciate me listening to it right now.