I’ll be over here for awhile, trying it on, seeing if it fits.
Blogotheque offers a video of The Low Anthem playing This God Damned House in an abandoned train car, all fragile reeds and tender voices. Lovely.
Live ladies: Cibelle performs Punk da Periferia, Camille (on whom I’ve the worst crush) gives us La Demeure D’un Ciel using only her voice and a sampler, My Brightest Diamond tears down the house with Feeling Good.
We lost the amazing Lhasa de Sela on New Year’s Day. Blogotheque has posted a goodbye in the form of a collection of live performances in Montreal, including this smoldering performance of Con Todo Palabras.
Welcome to the Future, everyone.
I’ve been working up some old jazz tunes with a downtown combo. Here’s a quick read of Singin’ the Blues by the reed player and myself.
David Rumsey has put up a fantastic collection of historical maps overlaid on Google Maps.
For Pierce: ten candid videos from the current St Vincent tour.
Awesome Tapes From Africa is one of my favorite music blogs. This tape by Malian wizard Issa Bagayogo is an especially awesome example.
Kurt Vonnegut writes home after getting out of the prison camp.
“Sanjida O’Connell is the only woman to make the Bad Sex shortlist, selected for The Naked Name of Love, about a young Jesuit priest who is taught how to love by a gifted shaman woman on the eastern steppes of Mongolia.”
Arcade Fire meets Sergio Leone in the best mashup I’ve seen in awhile.
Henry Story had a bad week in America, the Fortress State.
“The EOG can be fed almost any petroleum-based waste plastic and will convert it into synthetic light to medium oil for less than USD$10 per barrel.” We move one step closer to armies of indigents mining rubbish pits for recyclables.
Ray Concepcion presents the Mountain Man quintet singing Appalachian loveliness at CMJ. (Magic starts at 1:25).
“Greeks founded the city of Massalia, or modern-day Marseilles, and soon began to mingle and trade with friendly local tribes of Ligurian Celts, turning the settlement into a bustling entrepôt.” Thus introducing wine to Western Europe.
What it looks like inside my mind. (Via Burstoid).
Graham Robb’s The Discovery of France is a delightful book, as others have noted.
Appealing daintiness is assured.
The Wright Brothers built beautiful bicycles.
