friday mp3

It's Friday night and I'm watching a special on eight-year-old breastfeeding children, women who treat dolls as their own kin, and women who manufacture kids for other parents. Time for the first Friday Mp3 of 2009. This week's selection (the first one in a while, actually) is by Amy Thibodeau, a Barrie, CA, based musician who creates some semi-femi, feisty-flanked electropop. Slightly comical in its synth, "Day Break" sounds like an out-of-control bicycle in an old Tex Avery cartoon. [God, what does that even mean?] Enjoy the bubbly grrrl-power pop.

Download "Day Break" from Thibodeau's iSound
Buy Thibodeau's albums from Amie Street

Hypnotizing and gorgeously constructed, "Rapt In Cold Sheets" is a spectral memento from the a cappella realm of promising newcomer Kate Westfall. Westfall's debut album, VoKate, is a collage of grunts, hums, and harumphs à la Bobby McFerrin. Combined with said menagerie of vocal confetti is Westfall's gentle-yet-taunting singing. "Rapt," however, is sung with such reassuring measure that the listener can't help feeling calm and, perhaps, a little bit frightened. The angelic chirps and motherly drone of the background brings "Rapt" up to the pinnacle of emotion sans the maudlin expression.

Download "Rapt In Cold Sheets" from MediaFire
Check out Kate Westfall's MySpace
Buy VoKate at Amie Street

While "moving" is a word I prefer to use sparingly, I think it can certainly be applied to this tiny masterpiece from Days To Come. Sounding like the sum of human sadness, "Recurring" is melancholic but not meandering, blissful yet bitter, and "moving" without being overwrought. A superb ending to just about any season.

Download "Recurring" from Download.com
Buy Days To Come at Amazon
Listen to more Bonobo at Last.fm

As you can probably surmise from the timestamp on the previous post, I wasn't online for my daily Squid duties. Thus I unfortunately missed posting "Friday Mp3" and "Track of the Day." To make up for it here's Friday's Mp3, "Case of Daniel," by Laura A and The Bad Grades. A Nashville-based folk-rock outfit, Laura A and The Bad Grades craft simple yet profusely catchy numbers. "Case of Daniel" is a foot-tapping, soulful piece replete with determination and longing.

Download "Case of Daniel" from Megaupload
Check out Laura A's MySpace
Buy the album from Amie St.

Here's something a little "different" to say the least. Jandek, an outsider musician from Texas, has released over fifty maddeningly experimental albums since 1978. While some may simply dismiss Jandek and relegate him to the crap stack, it takes a real appreciation of music to listen to this man's disparate blues. In "Janitor's Dead," Jandek's (whose identity is still unknown despite a handful of live performances) atonal singing (speaking?), meshes oddly with the frenetic twangs of the guitar. From 1989's The Living End. Get it at Amazon.

Read the ultimate guide to Jandek if your interest has been piqued.

Download "Janitor's Dead" from FileFactory

Saying you're a fan of "Einstürzende Neubauten" is certainly within the upper confines of pretentiousness. Regardless, enjoy the sonic palette of these unmistakably-German experimentalists in "Weil Weil Weil." There's no reason you can't be part of the avant-garde fun. Get the album at Amazon if you're interested.

Download "Weil Weil Weil" from Last.Fm

Welcome to the first installment of Friday MP3---which is pretty self-explanatory. Here's a cut from PJ Harvey's To Bring You My Love. Downloads are available for a week. Get the album at Amazon if you're interested.

Download from Sendspace