some tracks i thought you should hear

Here are some tracks that I've come across today that inspired me in some way or another.

The first is a song that I found on a new blog that my girl Andrea put me onto. One of her friends is writing about music in NYC and she posted about this chick Lykke Li here. Here is a cover of Kings of Leon's "Knocked Up" that is very appropriate!

Lykke Li - Knocked Up (Death to the Thrones remix)

I wrote up a Titus and Andronicus show on New Years Eve last week. Though I did not get the chance to catch their show, I was able to find some of their tracks online. One track, well two actually, grabbed me. Between part one and two of "Four Score and Seven," a wave of evolving sounds roll and crash in layers. Part one begins smoothly, building with rhythm and melody towards a finale of horns, guitars and waling lyrics. The symphonic climax of part one is celebrated in part two, beginning about where its first half left off, and embellished in grand rhythms, droning guitars and righteous chants.

Titus Andronicus - Four Score and Seven (part one)

Titus Andronicus - Four Score and Seven (part two)

The next track was recommended to me by my roomie. Animal Collective seems to release a new song every other week, and who's complaining? This one is apparently a tribute to a Grateful Dead song with similar lyrics, though the song's qualities are hardly reminiscent of their (the Grateful Dead's) sound. The first half of the song can be interpreted as an exercise in patience as initially intriguing rhythms and ambient, ethereal sounds set an anticipatory mood for three and a half minutes. However, when the voice finally breaks through, the doors to the clouds open and suck you out. The tension built by the intro is released enticingly- nothing short of irresistible. It's possible that the song's structure is meant to literally represent the name of the song - 0:00 to 3:31, hmmm, is something going to happen? 3:32 to the end, ahhhh "sky!"(finally).

Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky

Titus Andronicus and other New Years Eve Party Hardies

Titus Andronicus - well-loved lo-fi post-punk act from Jersey - is playing Mercury Lounge on New Years Eve. Their are still tickets available but you might want to get on it cause they're good and, well, it's New Years Eve; everybody and their mother will be trying to get in somewhere. Opening the late night set - starts at 1:30 - are The So So Glos. Earlier in the evening at Mercury are the Detroit Cobras, preceded by The A-Bones and The Underthings.

Also on the Bowery's bill are The Word, Robert Randolph's project that came before the Family Band. He'll be playing with John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin and Wood) and North Mississippi All-Stars. This is mostly a jam band kind of gig but it will definitely be enjoyable and all players will be nothing short of virtuoso.

Soulive, another funk/jam act, is sold out at Music Hall of Williamsburg; Patti Smith and Her Band (as billed) is sold out at Bowery Ballroom.