Okay is a side and mostly solo project of Marty Anderson. The guy has a chronic stomach disease and can’t leave his house much. I think I heard this on NPR’s website. This song wasn’t my first choice of his but it works. Very emo, very epic.

This is a single from Phoenix’s new album due out May 25th. It’s free from their website: http://www.wearephoenix.com/ It sortof fits between our indie / electronica so I think it’s a good choice for this week where I am cutting back to two songs a week.

Ed’s not going to like this pick but he can deal. This is a Kaiser Cheifs cover and is produced by Mark Ronson, who won a 2008 Grammy for Producer of the year (unfortunately for Amy Winehouse booo). According to the experts at Wikipedia Lily Allen is a Mockney, which is a new term to me. That means she’s not as cockney as she acts, but she does it to get street cred. Sort of like the chimney sweep on Marry Poppins. I’m trying to add a little variety to my picks.

When Ed originally posted this there was no caption. This is one of those songs that really needs a caption otherwise it’ll just come across as screwed up. Antony came out with a new album recently, The Crying Light, which has gotten pretty good reviews from what I’ve seen. He’s a great singer but I think his voice and style won’t sit well with everyone. This song also falls into the interesting category rather than the good listening category in my opinion.

Another Dark was the Night song. This is much darker than the Illinois album sound was and I think will be a turn off to some people. Be warned, it’s ten minutes long, but it’s an epic ten minutes.

Here’s a song off Trent Reznor’s free album form last year. To me, a lot of the album was not very noteworthy, except for this song.

I don’t know much about this band beyond they’re myspace page. They’re from LA and are coming to Chapel Hill in a month or two. This is a pretty epic/emo song. The album came out last year.

This band from England released their debut album on January 19th. I’m really not diggin the synthesizer on this one – reminds me too much off the 80s, or the Killers, who I now have a strictly hate relationship with. I heard them first last summer, but I was afraid they might be putting it all on the table with this song. I’ll have to listen to the rest of the album.

This is off of a compilation album that just came out I think produced by two brothers who are in the National. The album looks pretty awesome, and what I’ve heard has been really good. The National’s last album Boxer kicked ass as well. I’m sure this song will be very high on my list for the year. Also, I’m sure this link will be inactive soon so make sure you keep this song on your hard drive.

This was one of my favorite albums from last year. Low is known for their minimalist arrangements, and I really like their vocals. This is one of the melodious of the songs that I like from this album.