en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/sodastreamer/journal The Last.fm journal for sodastreamer. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/sodastreamer/journal/2005/12/06/2o5m_everybody%27s_doing_it,_so_why_not_me,_too%3F_my_albums_of_2005. Tue, 6 Dec 2005 20:23:41 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/sodastreamer/journal/2005/12/06/2o5m_everybody%27s_doing_it,_so_why_not_me,_too%3F_my_albums_of_2005. I do not claim to know all records that were released this year, although I wish I did. Also, I know a couple of songs from various albums that I do not own (yet?), who could well make / have made that list. Nonetheless:

1) Great Lake Swimmers - Bodies And Minds
2) Crooked Fingers - Dignity And Shame
3) Final Fantasy - Has A Good Home
4) The Big Huge - Crown Your Head With Flowers Crown Your Heart With Joy
5) Mi and L'au - s/t
6) Why? - Elephant Eyelash
7) Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
8) Chad VanGaalen - Infiniheart
9) Amandine - This Is Where Our Hearts Collide
10) The Decemberists - Picaresque
11) Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
12) Songs of Green Pheasant - s/t
13) The Angels of Light - ...Sing "Other People"
14) Boduf Songs - s/t
15) Malcolm Middleton - Into The Woods
16) Pinetop Seven - The Night's Bloom
17) Mice Parade - Bem-Vinda Vontade
18) Whip - Atheist Lovesongs To God
19) Vashti Bunyan - Lookaftering
20) Gravenhurst - Fires In Distant Buildings


Well, ok, whatever....]]> http://www.last.fm/user/sodastreamer/journal/2005/11/07/2o5l_artist_of_the_moment_%233_(ahhh..how_lame) Mon, 7 Nov 2005 19:15:43 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/sodastreamer/journal/2005/11/07/2o5l_artist_of_the_moment_%233_(ahhh..how_lame) Hello again...everybody,

the artist I'd like to bring you near this Monday evening is New York singer-songwriter Whip (aka Jason Merritt). His 2003 debut album Atheist Lovesongs To God, previously available on Zeal Records, recently got rereleased in the USA on Resonant. On first listen, just this last week, it simply blew me away! Wonderful melodies / songs, a tremulous voice reminiscent of the likes of Will Oldham / Bonnie 'Prince' Billy or Damien Jurado at their most calm moments. But from first listen I had a strong feeling, that I knew the voice from somewhere else. After some research my instinct got confirmed, when I found out from where exactly I knew that singing from. Mister Jason Merritt is also singer of esteemed alt-country band Timesbold. Always a favourite of mine, too. Nuff said for now...

Wanna find out more and listen to / download some songs? Go here, here, here or there.
For info on Timesbold you can always go here. There are loads of mp3s there, too. :-)

That's it for today,

Cheers
Markus]]> http://www.last.fm/user/sodastreamer/journal/2005/10/31/2o5k_artist_of_the_moment_%232 Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:13:00 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/sodastreamer/journal/2005/10/31/2o5k_artist_of_the_moment_%232 Well...hello everybody...

Today my artist of the moment is really an artist I listen to quite a lot recently. But that's no wonder as I got their album only last Friday. Ahh...the group that I'm talking about is none other than lovely The Big Huge. Maybe somebody, although I doubt it, has noticed them skyrocketing up my Top Artist Charts and wondered who that band is. The Big Huge is more or less Drew Nelson, whom some might know from his other group Sonna. He is aided on this project by some friends, such as Michael Lambright, Jim Redd and Chris Freeland. And before I forget it, the album
Crown Your Head With Flowers, Crown Your Heart With Joy has been released on Secret Eye.

How does it sound is probably what some of you are wondering now? I'll try to explain: imagine an American Alasdair Roberts or maybe Richard Buckner doing traditional British folk songs. I would also recommend it to the ever growing community of Vashti Bunyan fans.

If you want to find out more or listen to / download some songs go here or there.

Have fun, I definately have it!

Your pal,

Markus]]> http://www.last.fm/user/sodastreamer/journal/2005/10/24/2o5j_artist_of_the_moment_%231_%252B_literary_recommendation Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:02:41 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/sodastreamer/journal/2005/10/24/2o5j_artist_of_the_moment_%231_%252B_literary_recommendation So, my very first journal entry...

I guess the very reason why I decided to post something here was the realization that some of my favorite bands really don't have lotsa "fans" / plays on this site. So I thought it would be nice if I would post something about lesser known bands weekly. I hope I can live up to my goal!

I decided to start with a band who has almost no listeners, The Old Joe Clarks, but which I love dearly. I'll give only basic information here because I hope the interested reader will follow some of the links I will post later in this entry. The Old Joe Clarks, I guess, could well be labeled alt-country. Comparable to bands like Pale Horse And Rider, Richmond Fontaine or even to Crooked Fingers and Son Volt.

If you want to find out more go here or here. There might even be some sound samples floating around somewhere.


Literary recommendation:

Nick McDonell - The Third Brother

The New York Times wrote: "As fast as speed, as relentless as acid". And who am I to disagree with the NY Times. I copied down my favorite part here for everybody to read:

I have this letter I have been saving:

Dear Mike,
I'm not dumb. I know it's time for me to get better.
You can't be a bum anymore, is what Dad would have said.
Bums don't get anything done. A bum doesn't write the essays. A bum would pretend to be sick to leave school and live off his charred parents.
There is no justification for bums. They come in a million varieties and each one's got a different excuse.
There's the Sick Bum, the Heartbroken Bum, the Betrayed Bum, the Bum Who Doesn't Care---because he's
an Atheist Bum or a Shell-Shocked Bum or a Bum Who's Too Smart For His Own Good. There are the Invisible Bums whom nobody notices and the Bums Living Underground. There's no criteria for a bum except that he doesn't do the work, and like our father said, there's salvation in work.
That's what bums don't understand, that the greatest virtue in the world is action. Not being a bum. I just don't know what I'm going to do about that. Bums drop out and don't do the work.
It's all lack of action. Inaction, that's being a bum.
Death. Inaction. That's what I'm worried about. We are all bums when we're dead.

...(page 265ff)

Thanks for your time and sorry for being so long!

So...now...dear reader...don't be a BUM and give the Old Joe Clarks a chance!

See you around,

Markus]]>