descargar my brightest diamond

To download, click on the link, and on the resultant page scroll down just a bit until you can click on the orange Download Now button. Scroll down on that next page until you see "Your download should begin shortly. If it does not, try Download file now." It never begins without me clicking on that link. Have fun!

American Music Club ~ All Lost Souls Welcome You to San Francisco
Band of Horses ~ No One's Gonna Love You
Basia Bulat ~ In the Night
Benji Hughes ~ So Well
Benji Hughes ~ You Stood Me Up
Benji Hughes ~ Why Do These Parties Always End Up the Same Way?
Benji Hughes ~ The Mummy
Benji Hughes ~ I Went with Some Friends to See the Flaming Lips
Bodies of Water ~ I Guess I’ll Forget The Sound, I Guess, I Guess
Bowerbirds ~ In Our Talons
Brazos ~ Mary Jo
Dirty on Purpose ~ Mind Blindness
Dr. Dog ~ The Ark
Dr. Dog ~ The Old Days
Fleet Foxes ~ White Water Hymnal
Howlin’ Rain ~ Dancers at the End of Time
Iron & Wine ~ Innocent Bones
James Hunter ~ Jacqueline
Jens Lekman ~ The Opposite Of Hallelujah
Jens Lekman ~ Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo
Jim White ~ Crash into the Sun
Kaki King ~ Two O’Clock
Ladytron ~ Black Cat
Lykke Li ~ Dance Dance Dance
Man Man ~ Top Drawer
Mates of State ~ My Only Offer
Mike Doughty ~ 27 Jennifers
Mike Doughty ~ I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress
Morning Benders ~ Crosseyed
Mudhoney ~ I'm Now
Mudhoney ~ In 'n' Out of Grace
My Brightest Diamond ~ Inside a Boy
My Morning Jacket ~ Evil Urges
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds ~ Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Nina Simone ~ Revolution
No Age ~ Eraser
Oxford Collapse ~ The Birthday Wars
Port O'Brien ~ I Woke Up Today
Ra Ra Riot ~ Dying Is Fine
Saul Williams ~ Sunday Bloody Sunday
Saul Williams ~ World on Wheels
Science for Girls ~ Northern Lights
She & Him ~ Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?
Shearwater ~ Leviathan, Bound
Shearwater ~ Rooks
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin ~ Think I Wanna Die
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks ~ Baltimore
The Acorn ~ Crooked Legs
The Acorn ~ The Flood, Pt 1
The Breeders ~ Bang On
The Dandy Warhols ~ The World The People Together (Come On)
The Dodos ~ Fools
The Dodos ~ Jodi
The Dutchess & the Duke ~ Reservoir Park
The Mountain Goats ~ Sax Rohmer #1
The Republic Tigers ~ Buildings and Mountains
The Whigs ~ Right Hand on my Heart
Tilly and the Wall ~ The Freest Man
Tilly and the Wall ~ Cacophony
Tokyo Police Club ~ In A Cave
What Made Milwaukee Famous ~ Resistance Street
White Denim ~ Shake Shake Shake
White Hinterland ~ Dreaming of the Plum Trees
Wolf Parade ~ Call It a Ritual
Wolf Parade ~ Language City

If you own a copyright and would like your mistakenly posted song to be removed, or if one of the links is not working, please contact Stella Splice.

Ist zwar beides nicht die Party Mucke aber sehr cool und mitreißend, da regen sich die Emotionen und Energie wird frei!

words in edgeways with my brightest diamond

If you were lucky enough to see Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise tour in 2005 then you will almost certainly have had an experience much like this: the incomparable Mr Stevens will have come on stage and personally introduced the opening act as My Brightest Diamond. He will then have left you peering quizzically at a tiny person alone on a huge stage. Said tiny person will have then knocked the breath from your body with the biggest voice you have ever heard outside of an opera house. After the show, you will have been desperate to possess this voice on a compact disc of your very own, only to find out that said disc does not exist. You will then have been very sad. Until now...

Despite having been available in the US for almost a year, and during that year having racked up an enviable array of plaudits and gushing critical swoons, My Brightest Diamond's debut album, Bring Me The Workhorse had not been officially released on these shores until last week. Having toured relentlessly with Sufjan as herself and as part of his own all-singing, all-dancing band the Illinoisemakers, and then with The Decemberists earlier this year, Shara Worden has more than paid her dues and refined her dramatic live persona into something quite unique and unmissable. Clare Byrne grabbed a chat with Shara ahead of her latest UK dates, including an appearance at this weekend's End Of The Road festival.

* * *

You grew up in a family of musicians. Do you think it was inevitable that you would become a musician yourself?

That's an interesting way of looking at it. I mean, there are a lot of people in my family who are not professional musicians. I think almost everybody has played at some time or other, but whether they decided to do that as a career or not varies. So I don't think that it was inevitable for me to do it as a career, but music is prioritised in my family; it's sort of a way that we communicate with each other and a way that we spend time together.

Your parents played religious music. What influence do you think religion has had on your music?

I think the beauty of my parents is that while we did have gospel music at home, and while they were doing church music as their careers, they listened to everything at home. I think in a lot of American families there's a real separation between what is considered sacred and secular, and thankfully my parents didn't have those categories. I think even in looking at soul music and rhythm and blues, and the connections between that kind of heritage and gospel...well, my grandparents are from Atlanta, Georgia, so I have that southern gospel thing, but that's really connected to the blues...it's all kind of one big continuum.

You can certainly hear the influence of opera on your music. What's your favourite opera?

My favourite opera is Debussy's 'Pelleus et Melisande'. It's kind of the anti-opera. It's just so subtle...without a doubt that's my favourite.

Do you still sing opera?

I haven't been able to study in a while, because I've been on tour, but when I'm at home I try to have a lesson every week. Because I'm not pursuing it...you know, as your body changes your voice changes so it's good to keep checking in and continuing to study, and that kind of work stimulates me so much.

There are so many different sounds on the record. What would you say your other main influences are?

I could name a hundred, but probably really poppy stuff mostly. Radiohead is my favourite band ever [My Brightest Diamond recently contributed a cover of 'Lucky' to Stereogum's tenth anniversary tribute to OK Computer]. Prince is a big influence. Nina Simone, Peter Gabriel, Tom Waits. Jeff Buckley, certainly...Björk, PJ Harvey. Tori Amos - I never give her enough credit. I never talk about her but she's definitely there. She's amazing...people talk about the Kate Bush references and I actually don't know Kate's work very well and didn't grow up listening to it, so I think I get some of what people hear as Kate Bush from Tori. I think Tori has even said that she isn't so influenced by Kate, but I think her range and the kind of dramatic moments in her music are similar, and I think I got a lot of that from Tori.

On your biography on your website it says that the name My Brightest Diamond came from the idea that music was a precious gift that you could give to the world, and I wondered whether that meant that you saw music as having a social function, and if so, what sort of function?

I think that the way I explained it in the bio is kind of an oversimplification. I feel like in any case, whether we have an experience in life or a relationship, something that's valuable to us...it's really about when you begin sharing it with other people. I was feeling like I had something really precious, and the music has become part of that but it started out being about an experience or a relationship and feeling like if I showed this beautiful thing to other people, even if it wasn't in a public way but with my friends, would they get it, or would they be like, "Oh, that's glass, that's not really a diamond." It's not as significant to others as it is to you. So I liked that image of having things that are valuable to us, and the question of what we keep in secret places and when we need to share them. And then when we can connect with people, and when people can share experiences with each other and we can take on each others' precious things - that's where intimacy is. So that's really what was at the heart of it. The emphasis is on beauty and richness, and sharing that with each other.

Most people I know who have been digging your music have gotten into it through Sufjan Stevens, and that's certainly how I came to it. How has being in his band affected your life and your music, and how do you think it affects the reception of your music for people to find you through him, giving that his music is really quite different?

Well, it's hard to say musically how he's influenced me, because the record was already finished by the time I started touring with him, and I think we write music from such a different starting place. So I don't know musically whether there's a crossing place between the two of us. But I think the way he is as an artist, and the way he makes decisions, and his integrity with the people he works with and with me, and just his attitude about art - that's been a major influence on me. And just being able to see how he deals with pressure and for me to be supporting him, and also feeling pressure but as a support person, those experiences have been invaluable to me. I've grown in confidence and in my own performance so much from not having the pressure of being the front-person. So I think that was the greatest gift to me, or one of them, in being in his band. But I think in terms of how people come to it, I think Sufjan's audience is pretty wide - it's not a hard-line folky audience. So there are some people who are really not into what I'm doing who are really into his stuff, and I think that's to be expected, but I think more so his audience is a listening audience and they really dig into things and come with attentive ears.

You worked on a project with rap group Jedi Mind Tricks. How was that? It sounds like that was something completely different for you...

Yeah, it was so fun. They contacted the label looking for a singer, and they heard my stuff and asked me to come in. It turned out that the artists and the producers weren't there, because with my touring schedule and everything we couldn't get everyone in the same room at the same time. So I had never the raps - I only had the music and the song title and an engineer. So I went in and recorded for three hours and gave them as many different options as I could come up with in three hours and then they cut and spliced and put everything together. It was so fun for me because I don't get to sing like that very often. And it's also nice when it's not your stuff because in a way you're less protected and you have less objectives about what you're trying to create, so in a way it was really a lot easier to do an improvisation and then write a hook based on that improv and not feel like you're censoring yourself. 

There's a lot of animal imagery in your songs. Was that on purpose or was it incidental?

You know, strangely, it wasn't on purpose. You know, like Justin Timberlake's first record has all that water imagery, like [sings] 'Cry Me A River', and then everything about lakes and oceans. I think there's some way that I understand people through animals or understand myself through encounters that I have with animals.

Did you grow up with a lot of animals around?

I loved them. We had animals around all the time. I was dreaming about having an animal if I didn't have one. I lived in nine different states growing up. But a lot of that, or some of that - my childhood, my elementary school years - was in the country. There was a lot of being outside. My grandfather was a farmer and we'd go to his place during the summer and you don't have any toys - you just have a hay-barn and rabbits and deer and tomcats. The next record [a string quartet album that's long been going by the name of A Thousand Shark's Teeth], I don't think there are any animals on it...oh, well, there's the shark [laughs].

When I saw you play live last year you played a great version of Jeff Buckley's 'Gunshot Glitter'. What other covers do you like to play?

That's the only song of his I do, although I do some of the same covers that he did. I love that song and I feel like it was something he didn't have the chance to realise, so I feel kind of obligated to play it. I don't know how many people have that recording or whether people can get past the funky production to hear the tune. So I feel a certain amount of responsibility [laughs self-deprecatingly]. I just want people to appreciate him...I mean, I know they already do. As far as other covers...I do a lot of Prince. I do a lot of Edith Piaf. And a couple of Nina Simone songs. Those are the main people.

What's next for you? Will you be involved with Sufjan's next project or is it all solo stuff for the moment?

I think that I'm so interested in collaboration and I love finding new people that I really like. I get really excited by meeting artists that are doing something. It's just so stimulating and fun. I really like supporting and having a lot of different roles in other people's music. So I think that's always something that's open, although I don't have anything set up right now. I think my focus will be touring and getting this next record out. And trying also to be a person along the way. Being a person means maintaining your relationships and being on tour is the antithesis of that. It feeds your soul in one way, and then in another way it's not feeding the other part.

Clare Byrne
originally published September 10th, 2007

'Dragonfly'

Live version of Nina Simone's 'Feelin' Good'

Artist Album (label)

1. The Secret Chiefs 3 play Masada Book Two: Book of Angels, Vol. 9: Xaphan (Tzadik)
2. The Bar Kokhba Sextet play Masada Book Two: Book of Angels, Vol. 10: Lucifer (Tzadik)
3. My Brightest Diamond A Thousand Shark's Teeth (Asthmatic Kitty)
4. Opeth Watershed (RoadRunner)
5. Earth The Bees Make Honey in the Lion's Skull (Southern Lord)
6. Dave Douglas & Keystone Live at Jazz Standard, 4/10/2008 to 4/13/2008 (2 sets each night = 8 CDs worth, each set downloadable within 24 hours of the performance... cool stuff...) (Green Leaf)
7. Sigur Rós Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (XL)
8. Reptet Chicken or Beef? (Monktail Creative Music Concern)
9. John Zorn's The Dreamers (Tzadik)
10. King's X XV (Inside Out)
11. Glen Phillips (of Toad the Wet Sprocket) Secrets of the New Explorers -EP- (Umami)
12. Ashes Divide (Bill Howerdel of A Perfect Circle) Keep Telling Myself It's Alright (Island)
13. Mike Patton A Perfect Place (Ipecac)
14. Puscifer V is for Viagra - The Remixes (Puscifer)
15. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Lil' Tae Rides Again (Hyena)
16. Bill Frisell History, Mystery (Nonesuch)
17. Steven Bernstein (of Sex Mob) Diaspora Suite (Tzadik)
18. Hiromi Beyond Standard (Telarc)
19. Stebmo Stebmo (Stebmo)
20. Bobby Previte & New Bump New Bump: Set the Alarm for Monday (Palmetto)
21. Swami Late Plate (Previte & Saft) Doom Jazz (Veal)
22. Porcupine Tree We Lost the Skyline -EP- (Transmission)
23. Raquy and the Cavemen Mischief (Meef)
24. Aimee Mann @#%&*! Smilers (Super Ego)
25. Kaki King Dreaming of Revenge (Velour)

The 2nd half of 2008 promises to bring some potential great ones, too... Medeski Martin & Wood play John Zorn's Masada Book Two, 3 other Medeski Martin & Wood albums (later in the year), Secret Chiefs 3 Book of Souls (maybe), God of Shamisen debut, Extreme Saudades de Rock, Mike Patton's Mondo Cane, Mike Patton & Dan the Automator's Crudo, a new Sufjan Stevens (just speculating, since it's been a while), Ben Folds is working on one, Ani DiFranco always has something coming out, Jude's Cuba, Jon Madof's CircuitBreaker debut (and maybe another Rashanim?), The Tango Saloon's Transylvania, new Tristeza, Over the Rhine Live from Nowhere III, David Bazan full-length, George Hrab (maybe?), SFJazz 2008 with Dave Douglas & Joe Lovano and others, Frank Zappa's One Shot Deal, another installment of the John Zorn avant-metal trio of Mike Patton/Trevor Dunn/Joey Baron... and I'm sure another dozen or more that I'll dig from Tzadik.

~Dan - np: Reptet - Chicken or Beef?

http://www.myspace.com/mybrightestdiamond

King's X - XV: While some people kinda nay-sayed it, I give this one a thorough three thumbs up. Of course, I'm a long-time KX fan, and while some of their albums don't suit me well (um... Black Like Sunday), I think this album is pretty well rounded. I might'a chopped the opening track "Pray" (not normally a good sign to chop the lead-off), but I think the rest of the album does any King's X fan well. It's got the great bass rumble from Doug, and a great mix of lead vocals not just from Doug but also a handful from guitarist Ty Tabor... and even one from drummer Jerry Gaskill (only his 3rd or 4th lead vocal track for King's X... yay!). I think this album will stack up well in their vast catalogue.

Bill Frisell - History, Mystery: Great double-disc from jazz guitar great Bill Frisell. He also brings along a few favorite players of mine... Bungle / Zorn / Secret Chief 3's Eyvind Kang on viola and Sex Mob & Electric Masada drummer Kenny Wollesen. Also on the CD are Ron Miles (cornet), Hank Roberts (cello), Jenny Scheinman (violin), Tony Scherr (bass), and Greg Tardy (clarinet / tenor sax). I saw Bill Frisell, Eyvind Kang, and Rudy Royston last week in Eugene (review is here), and they played a few tracks from this record. Truly outstanding... and not like an uncashed check.

In other Bill Frisell May & June release news... the re-issue of the 1987 News for Lulu trio album with John Zorn & George Lewis is awesome. I think I was expecting more avant-garde music, but it's really concise/interpretive takes of compositions by jazz historical figures Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Freddie Redd, and Sonny Clark. It's out on one of my favorite Swiss jazz labels, Hatology. More News for Lulu is due in Jan 2009.

Aimee Mann - @#%&*! Smilers: Heard about this record last fall, then forgot about it. I don't know why I always forget about Aimee Mann, then she usually delivers more than I was expecting. @#%&*! Smilers starts out strong (my fav track is "Freeway"), and stays pretty consistently good throughout. I think it's her strongest albums since Bachelor No. 2 (and Magnolia), even though Lost in Space and The Forgotten Arm were both strong efforts, too. I'm trying to forget about "the holiday album" (shiver / barf).

Hiromi - Beyond Standard: I hadn't heard of Hiromi until sometime in late 2007 when I re-joined BMG for the brazillionth time. I needed to fill out a Jazz order, I heard some clips of her last one (Time Control), and it kicked my ass. I mean, piano jazz can be good (read: Thelonious Monk and early Herbie Hancock), but I tend to gravitate to brass (John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dave Douglas, John Zorn). Anyway, Hiromi is somewhat of a prodigy. She's blazing fast at times, gentle at times, and completely off the hook other times (in the good way, obviously). Her Sonicbloom band is just short of brilliant. I wish I was up in Seattle a few days ago for her multi-day run at the Triple Door.

Demians - Building an Empire: This was an impulse purchase, and I needed something to fill out my Opeth order. Demians are a progressive rock band from the UK. They are in the vein of Porcupine Tree (i.e.- good songs, non-lame vocals). Check 'em out if you get a chance. They're the sleeper / sneaker-upper album of the year so far for me. Like Abigail's Ghost for me last year, there always seems to be some good prog-rock that strikes my fancy, even if I've been generally tired of the genre as of late.

Opeth - Watershed: Pretty much everything Opeth has ever done is pretty good to me. They're sort of not death metal, but not not death metal. Lush vocals, death metal growl, acoustic & thrash guitars, ethereal effects and drum blast beats. It's a concoction that's both powerful and beautiful. This album is one of their best produced albums since the Steven Wilson production days (SW's just too busy, but still remains friends). And luckily this one sheds off the keyboards that I felt plagued their last one (Ghost Reveries). Quality death metal for the 21st century... SIDENOTE: Testament's new one (The Formation of Damnation) is also great metal for 2008.

Alanis Morissette - Flavors of Entanglement: This will probably come off as a horrible thing to say, and I mean nothing sexist about it (it could happen to a male artist, too), but Alanis' music is soooo much better when she's not happily in a relationship. Her long-time relationship (for entertainment standards) to Ryan Reynolds came to a halt recently, and what do you know? She turned out her best emotion-filled album in a LONG TIME. Her last two "new" efforts (So-Called Chaos & JLP Acoustic) were OK to me. This one is right back on track (even though I think "Straightjacket" and the b-side "On the Tequila"... um... don't seem to fit). It's sad that some people have to suffer for their art to be better. Again, nothing sexist about it - - I'm bettin' the next Silverchair (or other Daniel Johns' side-project) will be better as well... for similar reasons (even though the last 3+ Silverchair records have been amazing without relationship turmoil).

My Brightest Diamond - A Thousand Shark's Teeth: Stringier and less rock than her previous outing... yet still artistically sinewy with lush vocal gravity and brilliance. Shara Worden doesn't enlist Sufjan Stevens this time around, but brings in Inlets' multi-instrumentalist Sebastian Krueger and the Osso String Quartet to fill out her sound. This is a great record and a great addition to the AwRy / My Brightest Diamond catalogue. I look forward to seeing her live this year (if she hits the PacNW). The best explanation/description I have for her voice is... purely sublime.

For those who don't know of Shara Worden (i.e.- My Brightest Diamond), here's a live video from her last (gorgeous) album (a song called "Disappear"). Her voice is goosebump inducing (for me at least):

Thanks to Eithan's blog for the reminding me of that gorgeous performance / video.

Clodplay (aka Coldplay) - Viva la Vida or A Really Long Pretentious Title: I wasn't gonna buy this right away... but the opening week sale was a good one. Clodplay seems to be taking what Radiohead did a decade ago (or U2 two decades ago) and simply watering it down (more and more). And they're far more asshole-y about it (or at least Chris Martin). With that being said, I still like 'em. I just don't ever really feel the need to see them live ...EVER (too expensive... which is saying something coming from me). OK, I take that back. If they were touring with a reunited Faith No More (FNM opener or closer) or Pink Floyd (PF closer)... I'd go to that show.

But, anyway, good album. The sale price is still about $2 too much. My recommendation... get it used for cheap. Unless you're a rabid Clodplay fan. I imagine it'll grow on me, eventually... the last one didn't though. Meh. PS- "Yes" (#6) is a fantastic track. They need more like that...

Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust: Technically not out until next week, the download version came early this week... I postponed my usual "front of the line" Smodcast listening for new Sigur Rós. Right off the bat, it's more "accessible" than their previous (I thought/think people who said that about Takk were/are on... crakk). This one's slightly more rocky and less atmospheric, but still very much a Sigur Rós record. Perhaps what I feel makes it more "accessible" is that the songs actually feel like songs to me -- not just Hopelandic meanderings (which I also love). I'm only once through, but I really dig "Gobbledigook," "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur," "Við spilum endalaust," "Festival," and "Með suð í eyrum."

Fav of the above? Opeth, My Brightest Diamond, Hiromi, and Sigur Rós are my current cream of the crop for the ones above... but they're all pretty damn good. Regardless of my comments on Clodplay, too... it's a good one. Even though they're totally 2nd wave brit whine rock. ;)

Oh, and Secret Chiefs 3's Xaphan beats them all out for best album of the past 2 months (I guess that's why it got its own blog).

~Dan - pp: Tiptons Saxophone Quartet - Live on KEXP Sonarchy Radio (podcast link)
np: Bill Frisell, Eyvind Kang, Rudy Royston - Live at the Shedd, Eugene-OR, 6/7/2008 (thanks Mike!)

whoa... lot of tags on this post. Eh, that's what you get for a mega 10-album hustle. Oh, and yeah, "Clodplay" is the correct spelling of their name. ;)

Gisteren toen Nederland zijn overwinning tegemoet zag, kon een klein aantal voetbalweigeraren zich (gratis) laten overmeesteren van het zachte en toch stoere optreden van My brightest Diamond in Desmet in Amsterdam. Onovertreffelijk en onmisbaar!

De opnames van het concert zijn vanaf 28 juni Concert van de Week op 3VOOR12TV (digitale tv) en vanaf 30 juni te horen in 3VOOR12RADIO op 3FM.

My Morning Jacket Evil Urges Buy MP3: Remnants

Lykke Li Youth Novel Buy MP3: Window Blues

My Brightest Diamond A Thousand Shark's Teeth Buy MP3: To Pluto's Moon

Venetian Snares Detrimentalist Buy MP3: Kyokushin

Joan As Police Woman To Survive Buy .

Jape Ritual Buy .

Daedelus Love To Make Music To Buy

N.E.R.D. Seeing Sounds Buy

Joan Of Arc Boo Human Buy

Coldplay Viva La Vida Buy MP3: Violet Hill

Dananananaykroyd Sissy Hits Buy .

The Fratellis Here We Stand Buy .

Last week's Top 3 were:
1. Ladytron - Velocifero
2. The Zutons - You Can Do Anything
=3. Errors - It Is Not Something But It Is Like Whatever
=3. Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up Til It Was Light

Sorry about the lack of nugget-reviews this week, I'm on holiday!

(Au Revoir Simone Wearing the shirt they designed)

I have decided along with my friends at The Yellow Bird Project to write a weekly blog for their site. This doesn't mean i will stop writing here. I'm just going to be writing more!

In case you haven't heard, the Yellow Bird Project is a non-profit, charity organization, where they get artists we all know and love (Stars, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Hayden, Holly Throsby, My Brightest Diamond, Devendra Banhart, The National, Rilo Kiley, The Shins, Wolf Parade, Wolfmother, Broken Social Scene, King Creosote and Joseph Arthur) to design a t-shirt, with the proceeds going to the charity of the band/artist's choice. Some charities that have been chosen are: The Elliott Smith Memorial Fund , The Nature Conservancy, and Art For Change.

This is a very awesome organization and i am honored to be writing a weekly blog for them!

To view my Yellow Bird Blog click here!

Le mois de juin, ça ne vous aura pas échappé, vient juste de démarrer. Il amène avec lui un cortège d'albums qui sont plus qu'attendus par la blogosphère indie rock. Parmi eux, les excellents canadiens de Wolf Parade dont le At Mount Zoomer devrait sans trop de difficultés comblé les admirateurs de Apologies To The Queen Mary. Nous aurons droit également au dernier album de Shearwater (groupe auquel Jonathan Meiburg, ancien de Okkervil River, a décidé de se consacrer entièrement), Rook pas plus tard que demain. A retenir également la sortie de Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, dernier opus de Sigur Rós, et A Thousand Shark's Teeth de My Brightest Diamond.

[mp3] Wolf Parade - Fine Young Cannibals
[mp3] Shearwater - Rooks
[mp3] Sigur Rós - Gobbledigook
[mp3] My Brightest Diamond - Inside a Boy

Chris Walker Versus: So, it’s been a while. A Thousand Shark’s Teeth is finally here, or it will be on June 17. Would it be accurate to say this album is much darker than Bring Me The Workhorse?

Shara Worden: Dark is such a relative thing...I always feel like a fluff cake next to Tool or Portishead or [Nine Inch Nails] or Jesus and Mary Chain. I think I might be a pansy or a pink fairy. As for Shark’s Teeth, I do think the colors of the marimbas, bassoons and bass clarinets are darker sounds, but the lyrics feel much lighter and more playful to me than Workhorse.

CWV: Maybe ‘intimate' is a better word to use.

S. Worden: Yeah for me, it is generally more intimate. The nighttime atmosphere is a good one. Interesting creatures come out at night. It’s good for brooding. Maybe I need to leave the comforts of my dark velvet curtained apartment in Brooklyn and go to the summertime vibe of the west coast so I can write in major keys.

CWV: I was amazed to hear you used a Tricky sample on the new track, “Like A Sieve.” How’d that come about?

S. Worden: Massive Attack is so bad ass and I also really like a lot of Tricky’s solo stuff. He has a tune called “I Be The Prophet” off of his solo record [Nearly] God and there is this amazing string sample that is so bizarre and irregular. So, for a long time I played around with my impression of that lick and wrote “Like A Sieve” based off that riff but finally I broke down and wrote Tricky a letter and said, “Hey dude. You rock. Can I please use your exact phrasing in my tune? I’ll love you forever…” and he said yes, so at the end of the tune we recorded that lick and it makes me happy every time it comes around.

CWV: So you recreated the sample instead of just, well, sampling it; that’s really cool. I know some songs from Shark’s originated in the Workhorse sessions, will any b-sides or song ideas from the Shark’s session make their way onto the next album?

S. Worden: Nope. I wanna start with a clean slate. I like using singles as a way of sneaking out older material or misfit songs, so some of them will be released that way. The songs from Shark’s Teeth span six years of writing and I thought at many times that I should just let the past lay where it fell and move on, but I had put so, so, so, many hours and a great amount of thought and energy into these songs and their arrangements that I felt I needed to honor that work. But now that it’s done I am so excited to leave off old ideas and begin with the present.

CWV: Addressing the album’s title, I was pleasantly surprised to find the one we’d all come to know it by really ended up being the final title. What does the idea, or the theme, of “a thousand shark’s teeth” mean to you?

S. Worden: Ha! Me too. It was picked rather arbitrarily four years ago, but like a kid growing into it’s clothes or something, it seemed to fit the final result, so we kept it. The title comes from the song “Goodbye Forever” that is talking about the things that prevent us from giving and receiving love and if, say, one could be free of the blockages, then one could hear the singing of the stars more vividly, feel the light of the sun, like the warmth of love, prickling all over your skin, like a thousand tiny shark teeth.

CWV: The musical climate has changed quite a bit over the last couple years, what, with bands giving away entire albums for free, and album sales dropping in record numbers...unless you’re Mariah Carey. What are your thoughts on the way music is obtained now? And how would you say it affects My Brightest Diamond?

S. Worden: Yeah, it’s an awkward subject. I think no one wants to hear an artist complain about it because people want the freedom, and frankly so do I. I mean, I downloaded Portishead’s record before it was out and was ecstatic. I am very hypocritical because I have a lot of illegal music but I also still buy a lot of music. Shark’s has been “leaked” and, of course, I am thrilled that people are excited about it. On the other hand it kinda puts a pain in my chest 'cause I survive as an indie artist completely off of album sales and I feel really strongly that concert ticket prices should be as low as possible and I don’t want to make music to try and be in car commercials. There is really nothing else that I have to offer people to buy than what I have recorded. I guess I need to make a perfume line? At the end of the day, I have to keep making art whatever the situation and whatever life doles out to me, I have to accept that. I mean, global warming and the situations in Iraq and Africa are far more concerning than downloading.

CWV: No, no car commercials please. I agree that global warming, and subjects like international affairs are far greater concerns than downloading on the grand scale of things, but music - how it is obtained, digested, and changing in our digital age - is still important because it’s something that affects us every day on a personal level. It has influence. People bond over music, it shape lives and identities (for better or worse). It’s important to ask questions like, and you don’t necessarily have to answer these: with the ease of downloading do albums, as a long player listening experience, still matter? Will kids today be moved by albums the same day you and I were, or our parents were? How does downloading affect the quality of music? How do consumers view artists and how do artists view consumers? And this is going off on a tangent but I often wonder if we’re reverting back to the Fifties when everything was single driven: you heard it on the radio, it was pressed to vinyl, and sold with a b-side. The end.

S. Worden: Dude, you are preaching to the choir here. Amen brother, amen!

CWV: Thanks. There’s just an optimistic part of me that thinks people still care about albums and supporting quality artists. I mean, I downloaded Shark’s when I found out it had been leaked, but I’ve also pre-ordered it on vinyl and CD. And I’d like to think I’m not alone; people know that purchasing albums by their favorite artists is vital to the longevity of this thing we all love. And, at the risk of sounding like a gushing school girl, I think people need an album like Shark’s, especially in the indie world where lately it seems like anything female fronted is garbage. She & Him? Forget it. And Scarlett Johansson has an album? Give me a break; I might steal that but I’ll never buy it. I think your band, your albums, are reminders that art is still alive in music, and if enough people realize that they’ll shell out the $11/$12 to own a physical copy. Or at least support you by buying it off iTunes, digitally.

S. Worden: Thanks for the love, Chris. I appreciate it. I, of course, am with you on the love of the album, the art of album making. But no matter what happens in popular culture, I think there will always be an underground of album lovers. As an artist, of course you want people to like what you do and support you, so that you can make more more more music the way you want to and have your life stuff: rent, bills etc. taken care of, so that you don’t have to have the day job. I don’t know where things will end up for me. I think the balancing act is working that line between dreaming big and working within your resources and at a certain point, it is out of the artist’s control. One foot in front of the other. One day at a time. Cue a Dolly Parton song here or something.

CWV: On a lighter note, the bonus EP that comes with the pre-order on Asthmatic Kitty sounds cool. Do those demos date back to the Workhorse sessions, or are they newer? Older?

S. Worden: We first started recording for Shark’s in September of 2004, (predating Workhorse) and then I added a lot of other instruments on to those initial string quartet recordings so that’s what’s reflected in these demos. They are kind of the final moment before they “hit the trash can” and I started over. In some cases, like for “Pluto’s Moon” I abandoned the string quartet direction and took a very different approach for the album. To me, showing the demos is a way of kind of revealing the skeleton, the process of the album and also a way of honoring the people that have helped me along the way, but weren’t ultimately represented on the final recording.

CWV: You’re going on a brief tour before and after Shark’s hits store shelves, will their be a larger tour to follow or is that it for this year?

S. Worden: Yes, yes! Tour, tour, play, play, play! We will be doing string quartet tours in the fall.

CWV: Good to hear. So, have you come across any Chateau l’affite 1984 lately?

S. Worden: No, these days it seems like it’s only bottles of wine from 2006.

CWV: So sad. Blame the recession. Well, it’s been a pleasure, as always. Anything you’d like to say before we conclude?

S. Worden: Hip hip hooray! And a toast to you!

A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, in stores June 17, is available for pre-order in both LP and CD format (with bonus EP) at Asthmatic Kitty. Be sure to catch My Brightest Diamond on tour. Remaining show dates (before Fall):

06.09.08 Other Music (Instore), New York, NY
06.14.08 Hultsfred Festival, Hultsfred, Sweden
06.17.08 Blender Theatre at Gramercy, NYC, NY
06.20.08 Berklee Performance Center, Boston, MA
06.27.08 Le Rock dans tous ses Etats, Evreux, France

Pre-order A Thousand Shark's Teeth.

My Brightest Diamond [Official] [MySpace]

Noem haar gerust extravagant, Shara Worden, frontvrouw van My Brightest Diamond. Dat uit zich in haar haardracht en kleding, maar ook en vooral in haar muziek. Op haar vorige cd ‘Bring On The Workhorse’ legde ze meer de nadruk op het rocken, maar dat ze ook ingetogen kan klinken, blijkt uit ‘A Thousand Shark’s Teeth’, het tweede album van haar groep.

Asthmatic Kitty Records verblijdde ons al met Sufjan Stevens en Castanets. Maar er zitten meer pareltjes aan die kroon. My Brightest Diamond is er daar een van. Wie haar vorig jaar op Pukkelpop of in Trix bezig zag, kan dat getuigen. Haar stem is op zijn zachtst gezegd uniek en ze verkent dan ook alle mogelijkheden van dat instrument op deze plaat.

Het grootste deel van deze songs werd eigenlijk geschreven voordat er sprake was van het vorige album en dat is duidelijk te horen. De nadruk ligt meer op de strijkers, de klassieke instrumenten, zeg maar. Inside A Boy, de opener sluit nog aan bij de vorige cd met haar krachtige stem die begeleid wordt door aan Jeff Buckley refererende gitaarexplosies. Vanaf het tweede nummer (The Ice And The Storm) wordt de klemtoon echter geleidelijk aan verlegd.

Apples en From The Top Of The World kan je nog catalogeren onder popsong, maar met If I Were Queen is de rocksong volledig omgebouwd tot intiem luisterliedje. De strijkers nemen het bewind over en fungeren als achtergrond voor die steeds weer intrigerende stem. Op dat ogenblik is er geen sprake meer van gitaren of drums. Dit is welhaast kamermuziek (voor zover we daarmee vertrouwd zijn).

Die muzikale koerswijziging – voor zover daarvan sprake kan zijn bij iemand als Shara Worden – wordt de rest van het album gehandhaafd, al komen de meer vertrouwde instrumenten wel hier en daar terug bovendrijven. Het is dan ook voor de doorsnee popmuziekliefhebber geen eenvoudig album om aan één stuk uit te luisteren.

Thematisch wordt er veelvuldig geput uit de wereld van de fantasie. Sprookjes en kinderverhalen vormden de basis van nummers als Like A Sieve en From The Top Of The World. Toch liggen die invloeden er nergens dik bovenop. Worden past alle thema’s aan aan haar eigen leefwereld.

Met The Brightest Diamond wordt de oorsprong van de bandnaam blootgelegd. Het nummer lijkt steeds opnieuw te beginnen met een fluisterzachte ritmesectie en subtiele strijkers op de achtergrond. Halverwege gaat het volume dan toch iets de hoogte in. Op een of andere manier ontbreekt in dit soort nummers toch de explosie, een indruk die trouwens wel vaker terugkomt bij het beluisteren van deze plaat.

Op een podium weet Shara Worden steeds te verbazen. Dat heeft ook te maken met het feit dat zij alleen al een show weet te dragen (getuige haar solo-optreden in Leuven). Deze plaat laat ons achter met een dubbel gevoel. Er staan liedjes op die je sprakeloos achterlaten, maar daartegenover staan een paar nummers, die aan ons niet echt besteed zijn.

Copyright : daMusic

The latest label to get the spotlight from thefourohfive are the rather fantastic Asthmatic Kitty Records. I remember the first time i came across Asthmatic Kitty Records, i must have been about 18 and it was around the time i got into Sufjan Steven's music to an almost obsessive level.

After spending months listening to any Sufjan track i could get my hands on i decided to research more into the label, because surely a label that had such a great talent on its roster would harbour even more unique talent? and god damn i was right. Everywhere i looked i was confronted with bands that all sounded different to one another but still managed to hold a commonality, they were quite simply all good. Simple as that really.

We managed to catch up with Michael Kaufmann (A&R) from Ashamtic Kitty to discuss various issues ranging from illegal downloading, all the way through to Radiohead.

Video editing is not something I'm necessarily good at, by any means, but I enjoy playing around with Windows Movie Maker. I've never really had any video files to mess around with, mostly because I'm too lazy to grab the camera and make my own. Now I can rip other people's videos and mash em all up. It's like a collage, really. But with videos.

So here it is. A mash up I made today using a My Brightest Diamond song, "Golden Star," and videos of show choirs on the You Tube.

Sorry the files weren't the greatest to start with and then a couple of conversions later they're down right pixelated. Meh. It works.

Gospel - Paper Tiger
Parov Stelar - Odessa
My Brightest Diamond - Black & Costaud
Voice of the Seven Woods - Sayai Nova
Shitmat- The Fern Britton Experience
Silver Jews - New Orleans
Awesome Colour - Outside Tonight
Telepathe - Chromes On It
Tomahawk - Sun Dance
Cadence Weapon - In search of the Youth Crew
Arab Strap - Driving
Jay Retard - See/Saw
Wolf Parade - Language City
Cloudland Canyon - You & I
Guapo - The Planks
Automat - (The) Advance
Gravediggaz - Blood Brothers
James Horner - Moving Jenny
Bondage Fruit - Hikou Suro Ko
Timo Maas - Hard Life
Art Zoyd - Baboons Blood
Food for Animals - Swampy
Baroness - The Birthing

Toby and myself return next week, Monday 26th May from 9pm.

I have finally seen Radiohead live. It was absolutely amazing. To celebrate this new pinnacle in my concert going career, this week's mix is a collection of artists performing their finest.

Thom Yorke and Björk - I've Seen It All
Timbre - Like Spinning Plates
Christopher O'Riley - Pyramid Song
My Brightest Diamond - Lucky
Sia - Paranoid Android
Mark Ronson featuring Alex Greenwald - Just
Vampire Weekend - Exit Music (For a Film)
The Flaming Lips - Knives Out
Travis - Fake Plastic Trees
Iron & Wine - No Surprises
Chris Thile - Morning Bell
Prince - Creep

Och inte att förglömma!!! The Futureheads släpper nytt album om 5 dagar!

The Futureheads - Houds Of Love

Lately, I've been seeing lots of exotic birds outside my window - you know, birds that really shouldn't be in Dallas in the summertime. So, in honor of those brave souls, I present this mix:

Fly Away, Little Hummingbird

1. Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters - MGMT
2. Bird Flu - M.I.A.
3. Skin Is, My - Andrew Bird
4. Bluebird - Swan Lake
5. Drunken Butterfly - Sonic Youth
6. Hummingbird - Born Ruffians
7. Hummingbird - Wilco (from Kicking Television)
8. Majesty, Snowbird - Sufjan Stevens
9. Ornithology - Charlie Parker
10. Dragonfly - My Brightest Diamond
11. Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of Places Where Lovers Have Wings - Sunset Rubdown
12. Bird and Flag - The Sea and Cake
13. Blackbird - The Beatles
14. Little Trip to Heaven (On The Wings of Your Love) - Tom Waits

Download: Fly Away, Little Hummingbird (.zip file)

10. Cat Power - Jukebox

Verre van haar beste plaat, coveralbum, met toch weer enkele fantastische bewerkingen van Chan Marshall. Topsong: Metal Heart.

9. Sigur Rós - Með Suð í Eyrum við Spilum Endalaust

Niet zo sterk als hun grote drie studioplaten maar het blijft Sigur Rós uiteraard. Hoog niveau over de gehele lijn, al staat er geen wereldnummer op. Topsong: Ára Bátur.

8. dEUS - Vantage Point

Stap vooruit na Pocket Revolution. Ik ben geen dEUSprediker maar vind het wel verwonderlijk dat ze niet groter zijn in het buitenland. En ik geloof niet in het antwoord dat ze niet goed genoeg zijn. Omdat ze van België komen? Is Soulwax niet het tegendeel aan het bewijzen? Of wordt dat succesverhaal verbloemd? Enfin, Vantage Point is echt een sterke plaat. Topsong: Eternal Woman.

7. Madrugada - Madrugada

Misschien wel het beste wat ze ooit op een plaat hebben gekregen. Hopelijk niet hun laatste. Topsong: Whatever Happened to You?

6. This Will Destroy You - This Will Destroy You

Een van de betere van de nieuwe postrockbands. Vrij klassiek, met leuke toevoeging van elektronica. Topsong: A Three-Legged Workhorse.

5. My Brightest Diamond - A Thousand Shark's Teeth

Tweede plaat van Shara Worden en tweede fantastische. Valt wat terug op het einde maar biedt enkele fantastisch mooie momenten. Topsong: Black & Costaud.

4. Girls In Hawaii - Plan Your Escape

Jawel, een Belgisch album op plaats vier. Hun debuut was al een openbaring. Dit is zelfs nog iets sterker. Wellicht mijn favoriete Belgische band. Topsong: Shades of Time.

3. A Silver Mt. Zion - 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

Het is geen Godspeed maar het komt in de buurt. Van het beste dat postrock te bieden heeft. Topsong: Blindblindblind.

2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Dé nieuwkomer van het jaar, toch wel. De droom van elke singer/singwriter. Topsong: The Wolves (Act I & II).

1. Portishead - Third

En ik was dan nog niet zo'n grote Portisheadfan, maar dit is zeer straf. Mocht wel na 11 jaar wachten. Topsong: The Rip.