New Music Monday

I got some Amazon gift certificates for my birthday, and I'm finally getting around to spending some of 'em!

About 3 months ago I discovered how great it is to download music from Amazon instead of iTunes - it's cheaper and Amazon doesn't put the lame whatever-you-call-it limitations on the way the music comes to you. It's easier to transfer between cd's and computer and iPod and all that yada yada. (Now mind you, I don't buy music and give it to others, if that's what yer thinkin...)

ANYWAY, on to my new purchases that I am just loving....

M. Ward "Hold Time" http://www.myspace.com/mward
I came through the back door to M. Ward. I liked what I had heard on a Paste sample CD of this new little group called She&Him about 8 months ago, and got their CD. Then Justine Wieland, one of my favorite music junkie pals, got tickets to a She&Him concert and let me join her and then BAM I was hooked. And then I lamely figured out that um, M. Ward is WAY more talented than just this little side act thing he was doing with Zooey Deschanel...

So discover M. Ward if you haven't already. Check check check out these lyrics from "Fisher of Men" off his new album. They are so great and complicated and not predictable. How refreshing. And get over it if you don't like the jangly Johnny Cash sound. The lyrics are crazy wonderful.

He tied a feather to the hook for to get you to look
And by the time you know what took you, you already took
He's got a line in the water, he's a fisher of men

He put the thorns on the rose for to get you to bleed
And by the time you know what stuck you, the pain's in deep
He's got a line in the water, he's a fisher of men
He's got a lot on the line, he's a fisher of men

He's a fisher of men and he's wise as a prize fighter
He's like a soul miner mining souls on down the great divide

He put his name in my verses and his name in the hook
Before I knew what I was cooking, it was already cooked
He's got a line in the water, he's a fisher of men

And he put his name in my chorus like the dark before the dawn
So that in my hour of weakness, I'd remember it's his song
He's got a line in the water, he's a fisher of men

You can also get a live concert of this album on one of my favorite podcasts, Live Concerts of All Songs Considered http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15681603 Which you should be taking advantage of if you aren't already.

Bon Iver "Blood Bank" http://www.myspace.com/boniver
Just like M. Ward, and let's be honest, almost all music I listen to, I discovered Bon Iver (pronounce "bone ee-vare") through Paste magazine. I fell in love with "Skinny Love" and "Flume" immediately. Check out the full first album if you haven't - "For Emma, Forever Ago." his first album.

I don't want to say much about it. It's just like soup and warm bread - Bon Iver music is comfort food. Dense music, layered harmonies, acoustic and electric - not too much of either, complicated but intriguing lyrics... the music just sort of wanders around the house and makes it feel relaxed and restful. I like it. Nuff said.