Music on the go

Props to friend of the program @chgoble for pointing us to La Blogotheque’s video-taped concert series on his hot new blog, EpiBlog, connected to his hot, less-new magazine, Epilogue (I’m contributing to the blog; details forthcoming). I’ve just spent the past good-long-while watching them.

The concerts are all taped – the appropriate adjective is, I think, lovingly – in public spaces of sorts. Buses. Bars. Elevators. Here are some favorites:

Beirut – Nantes

Bon Iver – Skinny Love

Note to all concert videographers: watch the crowd.

Phoenix – 1901

Aural story of the week

We like Bon Iver. “Blood Bank” is about meeting a girl at a blood bank:

Well I met you at the blood bank
We were looking at the bags
Wondering if any of the colors
Matched any of the names we knew on the tags
You said “see look, that’s yours!
Stacked on top with your brother’s
See how the resemble one another
Even in their plastic little covers”

Bon Iver can do anything

Chalk this up as a cringe-inducing idea that – god knows how – just works. It’s Justin Vernon and Bon Iver playing The Outfield’s “Your Love.” Yes, that song about Josie. The fun starts at 47:50.

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Other than that, you should really listen to the whole show (they say it’s their last for a while) while you’re staring at your work computer. At least listen to Creature Fear (11:20) and For Emma (1:10:00).

Amazon Over Apple

It’s a musical day here at Meanderings. Amazon is selling the 3rd best album of last year – For Emma, Forever Again, by Bon Iver – for five bucks. You should go buy it.

This reminds me of a public service announcement I’ve been meaning to make: the Amazon MP3 store kicks the iTunes Store’s digital ass in every way. There’s no DRM, it downloads straight into iTunes or whatever you WANT to use, and more often than not, it’s cheaper. They have great deals like this, but more generally, you’ll probably save a buck or two per album: if you bought the three non-Michael Jackson albums on iTunes’ Top Ten (Black Eyed Peas, Regina Spektor, and the Transformers soundtrack) on Amazon, you’d save 10 bucks.

Make the switch.

And The Songs

And my ten favorite songs, none of which I’m embarrassed to admit (here’s looking at you, No. 3):

1. MGMT – Time To Pretend
2. Bon Iver – Skinny Love
3. Beyonce – Single Ladies
4. TV On The Radio – Lover’s Day
5. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals (the whole darn thing)
6. Blind Pilot – One Red Thread
7. My Morning Jacket – Highly Suspicious
8. Lil Wayne – Tie My Hands
9. Coldplay – Viva La Vida
10. Conor Oberst – Moab