Mariee Sioux - Buried In Teeth

Whether it is a terrifying dreamscape or a coalescing mysticism, one way or the other another world is painted by the lyrics chosen Mariee Sioux Sobonya.

I find the a razors edge between wisdom and fright laid bare by this tune. Yet, despite the complex imagery every chord is warm and inviting, like a new home.

Mariee Sioux on Myspace

Tammar - Yung Jun

I ran across Tammar about a year ago, and they have everything I like about shoegaze rock and yet, manage to transcend the genre (as I think of it) by taking the low humming rhythm and bringing it to a crescendo. What eventually comes is a true-roots rock'n'roll sound that pulls all my strings.

This song is one I could listen to again and again. The melody and beat captures me, but the vocals won't let me go. I'll leave you with another incredible performance from the same album, Visits - a song called Last Line. Bring on the encore!

Tammar on Myspace

CocoRosie - Japan

CocoRosie starts this tune with a jack-in-box-esque melody and infuses it into a march that leads me on a journey like the pied piper. Their song, Japan, pulls sounds from a variety of different places and blends them together and it's this combination that seems to take parts of the world and parts of life and bridges them together into something mesmerizing.

It's lowbrow, it's highbrow, and at first it's a juxtapozition of the two, and then it's very distinctly a marriage between them. The variety of mood, tones, and instruments working in harmony makes me think "Yeah, okay, this could all work out."

CocoRosie on Myspace

Icarus Himself - Digging Holes

I don't have much to say about this track besides I'm just enamored by it. It feels always on the edge of falling into a waltz, the carousel-like organ certainly helps the effect. The song starts with a quiet intro, but picks up at the 0:35 mark.

Please enjoy.

Icarus Himself on Myspace

Sunset Rubdown - For the Pier

Spencer Krug’s vocals are reminiscent of those from Andrew Jackson Jihad’s Sean Bonnette, which left me to first mistake this as another project of his. Krug though, is also a musician of many projects (another being Wolf Parade which I too found through Pandora) and here he lends his vocals to this quiet epic. You’ll regret missing a single note, so I strongly suggest cranking it up.

This particular track is something that has moved me and I feel a deep need to share it because of that. I hope you enjoy and perhaps do the same.

Sunset Rubdown on Myspace

Hedgehog – The Band

A documentary about Chinese punk rock in Beijing brought to my attention an indie group by the name of Hedgehog. Their wonderful sound is somewhere along the lines of the Pixies, combining fantastic melodies with great sensibility. I had to go out of my way to find somewhere to buy the 2012 album, Sun Fun Gun, where this song comes from.

I can’t understand the lyrics, but I don’t mind; I am nevertheless reminded of the spring.

Hedgehog on Myspace

Hans Zimmer - You're So Cool

Hans Zimmer has a long history of Hollywood’s film scores, though they don't include the iconic third trailer for Inception. In 1993, True Romance came out with a mind-blowing cast of stars, however, Hans's score is the only part of that film that I would hold onto today. Cue the theme:

Here he lays an youthful, optimistic tone for a lovely journey that is still ultimately delicate. I think its exuberance only loosely fit the movie, but it's beautiful anyway.

Wilco and Billy Bragg - Blood of the Lamb

This folk march reeled me in after hearing it for the first time on Pandora, which is about as good a music service as you're going to get.

Both Wilco and Billy Bragg have their moments, but the collaboration seems on a whole different level. I get the feeling it was unearthed from southern gospel, but that doesn't keep me from enjoying every second of it.

Wilco on Myspace
Billy Bragg on Myspace

Dead Man's Bones - My Body's a Zombie For You

So here's a second helping of spooky duo, Dead Man's Bones, in light of the recent Halloween festivities.


The range of Gosling's voice really pulls me in on this one. It reminds me of some of the often overlooked great vocalists of the 80's like Echo and the Bunnymen.

Dead Man's Bones on Myspace

Sparklehorse - Ghost of His Smile

Techno rock with a rough sampled sound goes straight to my heart. Here Sparklehorse delivers in a cute, rambunctious tune.


To generalize, Sparklehorse is a soft-tempo'd lo-fi folk band from North Carolina. Lately they've made some headway, collaborating with Danger Mouse and film maker David Lynch on their latest album "Dark Night of the Soul."

Sparklehorse on Myspace

The Orb - Toxygene (7” Edit)

I imagine this as the perfect music to back up an epic battle between two Gozilla-sized giant robots. In fact I’ve written it down in just such a game design document of mine. Never mind, to the music!

I’ll try to keep to only rare tastes of electronica, but this is one I felt like sharing. Three minute diddy (quite short by electronic standards) captures some of the hard bass thump-beats I tend to prefer while having a playful arrangement of (almost) actual bells and whistles.

The Orb on Myspace

Blonde Redhead - In Particular

Blonde Redhead is one part Japanese and two parts Italians. The trio met in New York and have become a distinctively American band, performing mostly in English, but also Italian, Japanese, and also the official international language French. I find whether you speak the language or not, music rarely needs to be translated. Lyrics pick up here at 1:24.


Blonde Redhead has produced about a dozen albums, and I feel each one is better the previous. Recently they've leaned more towards rockish shoe-gaze. Their true knack might be finding a way to make every song seem sad. You may have to find more to realize what talent that is.

Blonde Redhead on Myspace

The Faint - Posed to Death

The Faint's debut album was a world of mediocre indie rock, so the band went back to the drawing board and went back to early 80's Moog synthesizers. The sound that came after was a mix of comical square waves and rusty distortion pedals. Head-turning, potent, and energetic. Don't adjust the volume, the music doesn't start until 0:23 and it kicks in at 0:40.

What you hear now is actually from Danse Macbre, their noir follow-up to their break-out album Blank Wave Arcade. Wildly different from eachother both albums hit uncharted territory in a seemingly "throw-back" sound. If you look more recently, The Faint have found their home in thumping of rock-charged Dance beats.

The Faint on Myspace

Tom Waits - Long Way Home

I'm a sucker for Tom Waits, but this is one of my favorites. Tender, yet rugged, Waits lends his signature voice to a delicate waltz.


Released as part of his 3 disk B-sides: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards, I'm shocked to see such a solid song stashed away in the annuls of his archive of work.

Tom Waits on Myspace

And You Will Know us by the Trail of Dead - To Russia My Motherland

With a name any metal band would love, And You Will Know us by the Trail of Dead, delivers a surprise in the form of this masterfully arrangement by (I believe) violinist Hillary Hahn.


Normally art-rockers, Trail of Dead gives us something short, sweet, and something definitely out of their ordinary.

Trail of Dead on Myspace

Gangpol und Mit - Ghetto Galaxy

Gangpol und mit are a strange mix. One part 8bit-pop, one part distortion rap; their music is super fun and super fast. They are part of the exploding French electronic scene, though have been touring extensively in Japan along with Carton Park stopping by various schools along the way.


Gangpol’s live performances are accompanied by absurd flash animations; some of which you can also catch on their 2007 DVD titled The Hopelessly Sad Story of the Hideous End of the World. I’m definitely hoping they’ll make a jump over the ocean and do some touring in the states.

Gangpol und Mit on Myspace

The Knife - Rock Classics

Nordic electronic nouveau artists, The Knife, lay down a brilliant and bizarre track from their 2003 album Deep Cuts. I've always appreciated The Knife's use of dirt-simple electronic samples - which sound like they've come from the seventies or eighties.

This rythmic diddy really brings down-tempo to a new level. At times the song is thrown into a spin by the atonal vocals, it's then you're glad to have the hard-railed beat to hold onto.

The Knife on Myspace

Rigil - Marble

Marble is a pretty big departure from the other tracks on Rigil’s debut album, Concertina Heart. Consisting almost entirely of layered vocal tracks, the song slowly builds from a single meek voice.

There is great juxtaposition between the somber lyrics (which paint a graveyard scene) and the warmth of Rob Slade’s voice. Somewhere in there we’re taken on a journey into the light at the end of the tunnel.

Rigil on Myspace

Parenthetical Girls - Windmills of Your Mind

I’ve sought out dozens of different versions after hearing the Parenthetical Girls’ take on the song Windmills of Your Mind original written in 1968. None compare in shear brilliance to this one. I doubt any other song has gotten stuck in my head as much as this has in the last couple months.


The composition perfectly reflects the confounding song progression, as well as the tempo and time signature which seems to bend like waves. Even lyrically the song is a labyrinth.

Parenthetical Girls on Myspace