Josh Ritter is going to be playing at Cats Craddle this Saturday (thanks for the heads up, Alex!) He has a lot of his music available on his site for free, so if you like this you should check out the site and maybe see him live. This song, to me, reminds me of the Moldy Peaches except he tries to sing.

Source: www.joshritter.com

David Stith released this, his first album, in March under Sufjan Stevens’ label Asthmatic Kitty Records. I find the album a bit eerie, rich with heavily layered voices and harmonies along with complex instrumentation and rhythms. I feel a little guilty posting a song like this because it is a climactic part of an album that is undeniably a complete work. His music absolutely rewards focus and attention, and I hope people find it as rewarding as I do.

You can stream the entire album here: http://www.imeem.com/artists/dm_stith/album/trC7EEYO/heavy-ghost-album/

Source: http://ninebullets.net/archives/soangelicates-indie-corner-heavy-ghost-by-dm-stith

This is a song from a 2003 album by Kashmir from Denmark. I really didn’t discover them until I heard Ophilia off their 2005 album, No Balance Palace. They may be a bit too psychedelic for me, but this song has only hints of the trippy sounds that I don’t like. Found it on Indiepaws.

Source: http://www.indiepaws.net

Finishing out the week with a song off of the new Iron and Wine album released on 5/19. The album can be listened to in it’s entirety at http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/. It’s classic Iron and Wine with generally mellow music with solid harmonies. I preferred the more adventurous The Shepherd’s Dog, but still good quality music. Thanks for sending me this one Corey.

Source: http://stereogum.com/mp3/

Here’s another great song from Dark Night of the Soul. It’s credited here to Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse, but this song maintains so much of the Flaming Lips sound. One of my favorite things about the Flaming Lips is their ability to mix moods not only across an album but within a song without making it sound disjointed. This is no exception.

Source: http://www.indiepaws.net/

This creepy and passionate song comes from Elfin Saddle, a band from Montreal. I heard this band on Said the Gramophone for the first time a few weeks back. This is from an album that I believe the band officially released today. They will be coming to the Local 506 15th June and I have my calendar marked! Also, thanks to Scott for showing me this blog!

Source: www.saidthegramophone.com/

I heard about this album from a few sources. NPR has the entire album streamable on their site here which is where I first heard it. Then I was excited to hear about it on the tech podcast TWIT which is interested in the way this album is being released. Long story short, Danger Mouse has had trouble with EMI Records related to The Grey Album. He’s apparently not allowed to release this CD so this album will never actually be distributed. Instead you get a poster and a blank CD-R with instructions to do “Use it as you will.” Danger Mouse produces for Gnarles Barkley and created The Grey Album. This song is one of my favorite of the year so far. It’s one where it seems long enough at first but after a while you want it to be longer to satisfy your thirst.

Source: http://cellophanegirl.blogspot.com/

This is a song off Cloud Cult’s album from early last year. It’s succinct, I think too short even, but at least it doesn’t overstay its welcome. The band may be too feel-good for my taste, though. In my head I see a cheesy scene from a movie where a few people start dancing and eventually everyone gets involved, resulting in hilarity and joy.

I don’t know much about this artist, except he’s from France like Justice. I tend to like the use of rapid intervals, which is pretty common in electronic music, but this song takes it to an extreme. Almost to a fault. You can be the judge.

The title of the blog I’m reading about this song is “New Radiohead Song” as a joke. Vijay Kishore doesn’t have a lot of material out and unlike this one song his music isn’t that derivative of Radiohead. As usual, All Songs Considered introduced me to this song. His myspace page has a few songs up and there’s a decent amount of diversity there. I’m looking forward to seeing what else he puts out.

Source: http://www.ihopeyourearsbleed.com