Rogue Wave, St. Vincent, Wilco, Tegan & Sara: shan whips out the mixtape. hello my devotees (because i like to pretend i have them),

i'm just twittering off this note to let you know i am not yet in season. it's august, and the tomatoes are doing their thing. i'm doing a lot of traveling in the next couple of weeks and i figure labor day weekend is a good time to come back in full swing.

so until then, here's a little mix tape of my Current Top Recommendations (she whips out the bold and everything) -- because if for some reason you aren't already really, really into them, it's high time that you are.

Rogue Wave - Asleep At Heaven's Gate (preview)
Rogue Wave is a very special thing to me. i mean, very special. in the world of independent music, they may very well be my Favorite Band... as in, they make the very small list of bands in my prefs before i just smash the whole thing with an ellipsis. also, i think i've cried at every live performance i've seen of them (did i really just admit that?).
this is why i have mixed feelings about their album leaking. you're always stoked for music ahead of its release date -- until it happens to you. and that's sort of what this feels like. i feel like going out on September 18th and buying six copies, just to aleviate my guilt.
here's my point: if you haven't been aquainted with the fellows of Rogue Wave, now is the time to do so. their music stitches itself into your little fibers and stays there, changing you. no, it really does. beyond beautiful harmonies, haunting progressions of pure pop euphoria. they are incredible masters of sound.
::::i will only do the right thing and give you their single.
Rogue Wave - Lake Michigan
Rogue Wave - Are You On My Side - from their last album, Descended Like Vultures. in giving you this song i feel like i am giving away a deep secret of mine. this song is beyond description.
myspace, hype machine

St. Vincent - Marry Me
if you haven't already been seduced by the spirited, spritely, spunky being that is St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), shame on you. all summer this lady carried both my sense of humor about life and my wonder for good, unexplored musical talent. she is refreshing like only a fellow female can be (i do mean that!) and she's fucking brilliant. choral and electronic elements hold hands with grungy, sexy love notes in a marriage (har har) of swanky pop wonder, with bountifully quotable lyrics to boot. it's too late to do the review i'd like to, but suffice to say this gets my Absolutely Tip Top Music Of Summer 2007, Hands Down award. (Rogue Wave isn't out yet!!)
::::exclamation of how much i love this album and this girl goes here.
St. Vincent - Now Now - this song might be everywhere, but i wouldn't be true to Toaster if i didn't make this your sample mp3 today. this is the song i have played and played and played until poor Annie probably didn't want to sing "I'm not" ever again. you will hear this song and you will need more.
myspace, the hype

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
oh, you know. you know. it's Wilco, for crying out loud. Jeff Tweedy. the man knows his music like you and i know the corners of our refigerator -- we open the door, and everything is familiar, everything is ours, everything may not be stitched to our memory banks (when did i buy this jar of capers?) but we can feel it, we have it, it is nourishing and ready for our use or disposal at any time. and if you think the refrigerator analogy is way in left field, it's okay, because no one can stand up to Sky Blue Sky's intensely amazing lyrics (par for the course). i could sit here all day going song by song and telling you my favorite parts. it does that to you -- you want to get into it, dissect everything, then let it wash over you. sing along. the quintessential alt country, and good god, it never disappoints.
::::just keeps getting better.
Wilco - You Are My Face - i have always loved how a single Wilco song can take so many directions in just five+ minutes. this is one of the greatest examples.
myspace, the hype

Tegan and Sara - The Con
no one is more surprised than i am exactly how much i like this album. T & S are an anamoly in my "typical" likes and dislikes -- but i guess they always have been. my love affair with their 2004 release So Jealous was fierce and brief, leaving (like usual) their imprint on an era and a passed time. The Con may very well do the same, but i don't think so -- not this time. something about relating to their upfront angst, their raw emotions, the tell-all lyrics and their inescapably girlish attitudes. yet there's also something about them that renders their music sexless, above that bullshit, on a plane far and well above a hype or a story. it's good. it grabs you. and you can just play it on loop, all day long.
::::take it from the title track.
Tegan & Sara - The Con - this song will bang on your head until it gets stuck in there for a good long glorious time.
myspace, the hype

woo! all done. this is really a list of Most Listened To the last month or few months or however long it's really been. i feel like i've been true to you, dear Readers Of NfT, in getting all of that out (even if you've already heard these songs a hundred times). now i can go on in peace these next few weeks and i'll be back sooner than you'd like (considering i'll be coming in with Labor Day...)

love and work holidays for all,
shan  shan  11:49 AM  |  view comments (4)