New Thing #217: Bianca Merkley

Here's another entry in the "My Brother Has Very Talented Friends" category. This particular friend is named Bianca Merkley, and she just put out a new song called 'Hope' which you can download for free here.

(My brother produced that song. And there's the weekly Matt Sucich plug.)

I told you back in February that my brother and the folks he's befriended through the open mic music scene are quite supportive of one another.

It's also worth repeating that they're incredibly talented - so let me introduce you to Bianca.

I think I've only seen Bianca Merkley perform live once - if I'm not mistaken it was at Brick Cafe in Astoria on a night when I saw a bunch of the people my brother plays with one after another - it was a great night of music.

But I follow her on Twitter and whenever she posts something I check it out - and it's always enjoyable.

The new song, which she put out on Thursday, brought me to her website, where for the first time I heard quite a few of her songs in album form.

By that I mean, everything else I'd heard of Bianca's music was live in some way -  either in person or on a video somewhere. (Like her blog, for instance, where she posted another song she did with my brother - you can find a link to her blog from her website.)

The girl can sing. Sometimes she joins up with two more talented singers (Amy Vachal and Jamie Bendell, who I'll hopefully get to at some point before the end of the year) singing as a trio called C'est La Rie. (They tell you not to think to hard about what it means...that it just sounds nice. I think it translates literally to "Chest of the King". Or not.)

I don't want to be too gushy about my brother's friends, but take a listen for yourself. I think you'll recognize the talent.

But I know I'm somewhat partial - and not just because of my brother's involvement. He not only has good taste in music...he has good taste in people. And they don't come much nicer than Bianca Merkley. Go check out her music.

New Thing #210: VH1 Track By Track

I haven't listened to much (any) new music this week, because I'm still pretty obsessed with Sara Bareilles' new album. For the first week I was pretty focused on the first half of the album.

Now I can't get the second half of the album out of my head. (Particular favorites are Cassiopeia and I Choose You - which appears to be the new single...and also is probably soon coming to a wedding near you.)

I've also been poking around her website a bit this week - and that's how I stumbled across this week's Music Monday New Thing.

The main reason I went to the site was to find out Bareilles' tour dates - I mentioned last week (which includes my thoughts on the album, if you want to click back) that I would love to see her live - and I was disappointed to see that at least at the start it's only taking her to the western part of the country.

But while I was on the site I poked around and came across some really good stuff...and one of them made devoting two Music Mondays to Sara Bareilles worth it. (That's how much I like the album - I haven't even devoted two Music Mondays to my brother. Well, I kind of have. And maybe it's worth mentioning that he played at the Newport Folk Festival this weekend with The Lone Bellow - it's like Music Monday worlds colliding!)

In addition to a bunch of video of Bareilles promoting The Blessed Unrest, there's a link to a series of interviews she did with VH1. (The channel seems to love her - I think they take partial credit for "discovering" her and she is one of their featured artists. I wouldn't know - I haven't watched a music channel in years.)

(Also parenthetically, I tried to find more video of this VH1 series. It doesn't seem to be something they do regularly, but I hope they consider doing more of it. I searched their site for 'track by track', and this is what the search engine spit out - there might be some stuff there worth checking out. They also have pages devoted to certain artists, and Sara Bareilles is one. Another series of videos worth checking out are "Sara Bareilles Makes A Record" - there's 6 of them, and it's a quick inside look at the production of an album.)

Anyway, in the 'track by track' videos, Bareilles spends a minute or two talking about each of the tracks on the new album.

This is something I always wonder about - in fact, I speculated about the meanings of some of the songs in what I wrote last week. I was wrong in some cases, and I liked hearing the real stories, like:

-It turns out, disappointingly, that Bareilles was at a wedding in Germany when a friend texted her about a jog he took through a Queens cemetery, with the skyscrapers in the background. She has not yet even been in that cemetery, though she might if they film a video for the Chasing The Sun.

-As I grew to like Cassiopeia I decided to watch the video of Bareilles talking about each of the tracks. The more closely I listened to the song the more I thought, "Is this really a love song for stars?" When I saw her talk about it I realized, yes, it is.

-The fact that December is her favorite song on the album. I always wonder if artists have favorites.

-Finally, Bareilles talked about making the video for Brave. Fun fact - Rashida Jones (of Office/Parks and Rec fame...and many other things as well. Google it.) directed the video. It is a really fun, uplifting video.

I recommend three things: 1) Get the album. It's so good. I'm thinking, at this point, I like it even more than Kaleidoscope Heart. 2) Check out Sara Bareilles talking about each track at VH1.com. The link is above, but here it is again - this one will take you to 'Part 2' - the second half of the album. I just think she's the coolest. 3) Watch the video for Brave. I'll make it easy for you:

New Thing #203: The Blessed Unrest

I'm not sure if anyone does the upbeat song about the downside of love any better right now than Sara Bareilles. Exhibit A: Little Black Dress, off her new album The Blessed Unrest.

Putting aside the fact that the song sounds like a modern-day Supremes hit, it follows along in the footsteps of Love Song and King of Anything as happy sad songs.

Little Black Dress may not even be a single off the new album - right now the only one getting radio play that I know of is Brave.

But it's my favorite off another solid album by Bareilles.

I bought Bareilles' first album because I liked Love Song. I think I've written before that I like piano-heavy music, and that's what first piqued my interest about Bareilles. A friend gave me Kaleidoscope Heart, her last album, and that's when I became a legit fan. I love that album. (Actually, besides The Supremes, the song I thought of first when I heard Little Black Dress was Gonna Get Over You, one of my favorites from Kaleidoscope Heart, because it has a throwback feel to it as well.)

I'm not sure a week into it that I love The Blessed Unrest as much as I loved Kaleidoscope Heart, but I still like it a lot. Brave is a good song. Two of the next three songs on the album feature New York City, and you can never go wrong with me with songs paying tribute to NYC. There's a (surprise!) breakup song called Manhattan and there's a song called Chasing The Sun in which Bareilles sings about "a cemetery in the center of Queens." I think I'd still like it if it was a cemetery in the middle of the Bronx, but obviously I have my soft spots.

Towards the end of the album is a song called 1000 Times. It's about someone who's afraid to tell someone their true feelings. I kind of like the juxtaposition of that song on an album where the big hit is Brave - which is about encouraging people to "say what they want to say."

I remember hearing Brave on the radio a couple of months or so ago and knew that a new Sara Bareilles album was coming. I thought, though, that it would be in the fall. It was a really pleasant surprise when I saw the weekend before it came out that it was a mid-July release.

Of all the new music I've written about this year I think there's only two bands that I've decided I really want to see live. The first is The Lumineers.

The other is Sara Bareilles.

New Thing #196: Magna Carta... Holy Grail

Under normal circumstances I probably wouldn't have thought about buying Jay Z's new album. But if ever there was a New Thing for Music Monday, this is it.

It's not like I've never heard Jay Z music - it's all over the place. I've heard all of the singles on the radio.

But I'm pretty sure I've never listened to a full album before this one.

And I'm not sure I will again - rap just isn't my thing.

But I certainly get the appeal.

I don't quite know how to judge a rap album - is it different than other music genres? Am I supposed to focus more on lyrics than music? I sense there's more attention paid to the words than the tunes that you hear...but both make an impact.

For what my opinion is worth: I found the entire album to be very listenable. Certain songs stood out to me more than others, and those did so mostly because I liked the tune...not necessarily because of the words. I've heard this isn't the best Jay Z album there is - but it's still pretty good. I'm sure die hards would cringe knowing this is the album I'm basing my Jay Z opinion on (or maybe they wouldn't care - I don't know), but really - I get why he's so popular.

(Most of the words, if you're wondering, dealt with how rich Jay Z is. And how much more rich he wants to become. And a good percentage of them are dirty words. I am a grown man and there were times I thought to myself as I listened to this album, "Am I allowed to be listening to this?")

I particularly liked this album because it was good to run to. I listened to it three times in the first week during my longest runs of the summer. Coincidence? I don't know. But it's been a while since I had a go-to exercise album. It was good running music.

It also served as a way for me to be further exposed to the work of Frank Ocean, Beyonce, and Justin Timberlake - all featured on songs on the album. It's not like I hadn't heard of them or their music, but I don't own anything by any of them. I enjoyed what they did. And, I feel I should offer this admission: there's nothing I've seen or heard involving Justin Timberlake that I haven't enjoyed. The guy is talented and knows what he's doing. And I enjoy his work. There. I said it.

I'm sure this album will continue to serve as a running soundtrack for me this summer. It's about the only way I can listen to it anyway, considering I won't play songs with this kind of language in front of my children.

I'll just be the only runner in town blushing due to the strong language coursing through my headphones.

New Thing #189: Cups

You might find this hard to believe, but here goes: Sometimes I'm the last person to know about something trendy.

This often becomes clear during the school year when the students start doing something that I think is clever, and naively I think they invented it, only to discover too late that it's the coolest thing going.

Or at least, it was the coolest thing at the time.

Such was the case when I stumbled across this week's New Thing for Music Monday on Sunday night.

I was in New York for the 4th weekend, and I didn't experience any new music, so Sunday I went searching through some sites for something new.

After a quick glance through what's been hot on  iTunes I popped over to YouTube and clicked 'music'. One of the first videos to pop up there was Anna Kendrick's "Cups", which I guess is also known as "When I'm Gone" from the movie Pitch Perfect.

I had heard this song recently on the radio, and I feel like I had heard of Anna Kendrick. She's an actress, but I just looked at her IMDB page and I have no idea if I've ever seen her in anything. Maybe I'm confusing her with the baseball player Kyle Kendrick. Or Anna Friel or Anna Faris. Anyway.

So the song's catchy, but then she starts doing this thing with the cups and clapping in the video, which the fifth graders spent most of last year doing. I thought it was something they had learned in music class. Turns out, it's from a movie.

So that's this week's new music. Hopefully I just helped you avoid doing something embarrassing by introducing you to this corner of popular culture. Maybe I should go see Pitch Perfect and write it off as a business expense.

Here's the video with the aforementioned cups performance:

Well look at this. Apparently she learned it by watching someone else. Wonder if the kids knew that.

New Thing #182: Despair by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

As you can tell by the picture, this week features another Starbucks free download. But that's not why I'm featuring it today.

I'd been holding onto it for a while, just because I hadn't pulled the trigger yet on listening to the song.

I figured I'd get to it eventually.

Then I came across a tweet from The AV Club about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' video for their song Despair - it was the first video shot at the top of the Empire State Building.

That caught my attention.

OK. First, let's clear up a couple of things.

I'm pretty sure I've heard of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before this. Why? I don't know. But enough so that I absolutely confuse them with the Ting Tings. (Why do I know the Ting Tings? I'm not sure if there's any other reason than the fact that they sing this birthday song from Yo! Gabba Gabba...but whenever my mind wonders who sings that song, it automatically answers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I guess it's the repetition of the names.)

Secondly, I was shocked to read about this being the first music video filmed atop the Empire State Building. How is it that it happens with Despair and not something iconic like Billy Joel's New York State of Mind? My guess is there were some big hoops to go through - but then again, it's not like there weren't movies being filmed up there. (For what it's worth, I read that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a New York band.)

Anyway, it surprised me to learn that. Here's The AV Club article about the video. The song's not bad. (Interestingly, the video is longer than the song I downloaded - it starts with about 2 minutes of acoustic singing, and then the 4:30 song as recorded.) But it's not like the song itself was the big draw this week - I liked the story more than anything else.

And the parts of the video that take place on the Empire State Building's observation deck are pretty cool - definitely worth whatever hoops the band had to jump through to get that video filmed there.

But nothing beats that last shot, which I assume is from a helicopter. That has to be one of the coolest music video shots I've ever seen. Here's the video:

New Thing #175: My Only Problem With You

If you follow my brother on-line on any of his various social media outlets, you probably could see this coming. He put out a new song last week.

And that earns him an automatic berth into the 'Music Monday' section of '365 New Things In 2013'.

Which I'm relieved about because I didn't want to go through this whole year without devoting a post solely to his music.

I've directed you to Matt Sucich's website before, but - this is new too - he's updated it since I've last linked to it. So visit there to find out more about his background, and to find his new music.

There's actually a bunch going on with my brother these days - he just got back from Delaware where he played in the Firefly Music Festival.

Ahead of that appearance he released the new song I'm here to tell you about today - it's called My Only Problem With You, and Matt's especially excited about this release because if you act quickly you can get a limited edition vinyl copy of the music. (To be honest, I have no use for the vinyl unless I wanted to get him to sign it so I could put it up on the wall...I have nothing to play it on.) You can just download the music without getting the vinyl, too, I think.

I remember liking My Only Problem With You when I heard it for the first time - if I'm not mistaken he played it at his last album release show. I remember being struck by the lyrics.

As part of the build-up to this release and his participation in the festival in Delaware Matt did an appearance on WXPN in Philadelphia, in what I guess they call their Folkadelphia Session. I know I'm biased, and I'm sure you're taking that into consideration as you read all this, but I think it sounds amazing. Check it out for yourself - Matt played four songs, all acoustic, for that session.

You may notice that site also wrote some nice words about Matt. So did Ryan Spaulding recently. Spaulding was responsible for bringing Matt to SXSW in Austin, Texas as part of the Outlaw Roadshow back in March, and last week he had some nice things to say on his blog as Matt released his song.

I guess I'll take advantage of this opportunity to leave you with a video of my brother, since I've done it for so many other musicians about whom I care a lot less. Enjoy, like him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter. This is a live version of My Only Problem With You from February:

New Thing #168: Mozart

When I first started '365 New Things In 2013' and decided to do new music each week, I thought I'd be listening to a lot more classical music. By which I mean, I thought I'd be listening to some classical music. (Because "some" is more than "none".)

But here we are, almost halfway through the year, and this is the first time I've taken on classical music.

And even now, it's not like I sought it out.

So here's what happened.

I went to New York last week, somewhat unexpectedly. Then we drove straight to Vermont for an already-planned weekend away. While in New York, I figured I'd borrow a CD I'd never heard from my brother, listen to it on the drive from New York City to Vermont, and have my new music taken care of.

When I asked him for a CD he laughed at me, implying he wouldn't know where to start finding a CD that he probably hadn't handled in more than ten years. I insisted anything would do. He didn't think it was possible.

So instead of a four-hour car ride filled with new music, I fretted over where I was going to find new music.

Then we got to the house we were renting, and the shelves were lined with CDs. Problem solved.

Among the CDs was quite a bit of classical music, so I figured this would be my first opportunity to dive into that genre.

I picked Mozart, just because. And this is my biggest problem with classical - I feel like it is so tremendously expansive that I have no idea where to start. Mozart? Beethoven? Bach? Something else? (Or maybe it's not that expansive. It's just those three guys, right?)  Do you go in a chronological order? Do you have to do symphonies in numerical order? I just don't know what to do and it gets overwhelming.

So I picked this one off the shelf and hit 'play'.

It was very pleasant to listen to, and it seemed perfect for some nighttime listening at a home in woodsy Vermont. I could actually see it playing on an endless loop at my house, too - I definitely get the appeal of classical music as background music in your home.

But I know there's much more to the music - the art of it, the story behind it. I just don't know how to get that information.

The liner notes on this disc helped. I guess I should tell you what I listened to from Mozart - it was Symphony No. 41 in C major (does that matter? Probably not, but it says it on the album), which had 4 tracks (that probably didn't matter in Mozart's time, but it mattered to me), and then Divertimento, K. 136 (D Major. 3 tracks.). The liner notes suggested the divertimento (is that a type of a thing? It sounded like it was a category) wasn't really a divertimento, but people didn't really know what it was intended to be. The symphony, I guess, is more commonly known as 'Jupiter'.

I was a little disappointed to not recognize any of the music in either selection. That's always a pleasant surprise with classical music, when you see a title that makes no sense to you and then you hear some of the music and you're like, "I know that!"

What I did like, though, is making historical connections. Mozart lived from 1756-1791 (also now on the to-do list - finding out why Mozart died so young), and Bach was a big influence on him. I like reading that he was writing this music in 1772 (16 years old!), which is around the time of my favorite period in American history. It's easy to get caught up in what was happening in America at that time, but I like reminders that there was a whole world of history and things happening at the same time.

So I guess that's all I have to say for now on classical music. I hope that sometime in the next 26-plus editions of Music Monday there will be other ventures into classical music. If you have any suggestions on where I should go next or someplace I could start my classical adventure, put them in the comments. I'd love to know what I should be listening to.

New Thing #161: The Tonys Opening Number

I won't lie - it's been kind of a crazy week. I haven't had a chance to listen to any new music.

I figured on Sunday I'd listen to one of the songs nominated for a Tony Award and call it a day.

As it turns out, I don't think they nominate individual songs - just the musicals themselves, as far as I can tell.

Still, I figured if I watched the Tony Awards long enough Sunday night I'd find something new worth writing about.

I didn't have to wait long.

Neil Patrick Harris, the host of the Tonys, opened with a musical number that paid tribute to a number of Broadway shows as well as the fact that the event was back (I think?) in Radio City Music Hall...sorry for not knowing for sure. This is not my area of expertise. (New Thing!)

I know this, though - the musical number was awesome.

If you didn't know, Harris is talented. He's hosted this show before, and I think I saw him do it. Or maybe that was the Emmys. But he did a similar song-and-dance routine there too. (He did say during the Tonys that it was his 4th time hosting this show.) He can sing, he can dance, you probably know he has great comic timing...he's talented.

This act featured some circus acts - that's him jumping through a hoop in the picture above - and some magic, a la Pippin, and spoofs/tributes of a number of other shows, including singing from the top of a cheerleader pyramid, a la Bring It On.

I'm not sure if this is the type of thing that gets put on YouTube or not, but it's worth a search to see it in its entirety...whether or not you're a fan of Broadway shows.

The song itself wasn't bad. Probably called something like It's Bigger, if you need help with your search.

As a quick bit of background info, I'm not the biggest Broadway fan in the world, but I do enjoy a good show. And what Neil Patrick Harris does - man, am I a fan of that. I'd love to be a singing, dancing, emceeing act. Even acting - I'd like to give that a whirl. For now, though, I'll just have to continue to live it vicariously.

UPDATE: Here's the video from YouTube:

New Thing #154: It's A Beautiful Day

I'm sure there are people who don't like Michael Buble. I thought I might have been one of them back when Haven't Met You Yet came out.

It was constantly on the radio and I wanted to think it was overplayed before I just admitted to myself that I loved the song.

Then I came around to realizing that in addition to being a talented singer, Michael Buble was a pretty friggin' cool guy too.

Really.

At least I think so, anyway.

I've never met the guy (obviously?) - but everything he does seems to be done well,and with a hint of self-deprecating humor to boot...how can you not like the guy?

And his new song is likable too.

I don't know what it's like around you, but here it's been getting a lot of radio play.

It's called It's A Beautiful Day, and it seems that DJs are contractually obligated to say every time at the completion of the song, "That's the happiest song about a breakup that you'll ever hear."

And they're right. It is.

It's not all that different from Haven't Met You Yet, which is to say it has that certain Michael Buble feel to it - it sounds like a Michael Buble song.

Or a song he sings, I guess.

I'm not sure what the deal is with his songs - there's the occasional new original song, but I think most of what he does is covers.

Whichever...there's no denying it - the man can sing.

And that humor I talked about - it's on display in the video for his new song, which I'll leave you with.

If you haven't heard the song yet, I'm sure you will - this is another one that I sense we'll be hearing throughout the summer.

New Thing #147: Of Monsters And Men

What do you get when you cross Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros with Ho Hey by The Lumineers? In my mind, at least, you get Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men.

(If you want further explanation of that, leave a comment and I'll try to bring you inside my head.)

Little Talks has been my recent musical obsession - I can't get enough of it.

And I wasn't hearing it enough on the radio this week, so I took matters into my own hands.

I bought the album.

It's called 'My Head Is An Animal', which is a line in the first song on the album.

And what I didn't realize is that I actually knew three of the songs on the album.

Little Talks, of course, is pretty well known. (I posted the video at the end of this post in case you're not sure you know it.) And King and Lionheart is getting some radio play right now as the newest release. (Though probably not in wide release - I've only heard it on the independent station here, not on the big hit stations like Little Talks was.)

Similarly, I was surprised when Mountain Sound played on the album - I recognized it instantly, even though it had been a while since I had heard it. It got some pretty extensive radio play recently too...at least, around here.

The rest of the album is fine. Nothing over the top great, but nothing terrible. I really like the female singer's voice - and there are a couple of songs on the album where she gets featured prominently (rather than a split). The male lead sings quite a bit too..I can't decide if it's an even balance between the two or if he is featured more. I'm leaning toward an even balance.

The band is from Iceland - and apparently Little Talks has been around for a couple of years, and the album has been out for one. You can get more info about them at their website.

New Thing #140: Boston Strong

I'm not thrilled about doing a Boston tribute song on a day where the Rangers trail a series with the Bruins 2 games to none. But this was the new music for the week, so here we are.

It's a song called "Boston Strong", and the artist is a guy named Young Beedah.

I read about it last week in - of all places - Sports Illustrated.

And it was in the strangest of contexts.

Maybe this happened to you too - I was reading an article in SI about the Vanderbilt pitching staff. They have another talented staff, following in the footsteps of guys who have already made an impact in the majors.

But in the article they mention this guy named Tyler Beede, a pitcher on the team, who was playing in Fenway Park the week before. Playing, as in his song played over the loudspeakers - Jarrod Saltalamacchia chose it as his music coming to the plate.

It's called "Boston Strong." I guess it was originally going to be released this summer, but after the Marathon bombing, Beede moved up its release. He's from Auburn, Massachusetts, and I guess it was his way of dealing with everything.

I didn't know what to expect - I guess my expectations were low. But I rationalized and figured, if Saltalamacchia was willing not only to give the song a listen but also to use it as his at-bat music, it's the least I could do.

And it wasn't terrible. So our first rap Music Monday belongs to Young Beedah...and if I trust the YouTube description it's a remix of Macklemore's "Can't Hold Us."

Also, for what it's worth, the reimaging of the 4 major Boston sports teams' logos at the beginning of that video is pretty cool.

New Thing #133: Clover

One of the most unoriginal things I've done in my life is become a fan of Huey Lewis and the News. I only liked the band (at first) because my eldest cousin, who I looked up to, was obsessed with them.

(That's the cousin in the picture at the left - plus me, my brother, and Huey Lewis.)

I listened to a lot of sports radio - hardly any music on my own - so when people asked what my favorite music was, I just said I liked Huey Lewis.

Later, when I actually did listen to them and owned their albums, I really did like them.

And Huey Lewis is in the top 3 of my early music influences - along with Billy Joel and Elton John.

About the only trivia I knew about Lewis, though, was that his real name is Hugh Anthony Cregg III.

But this week I learned a little more about him.

I'll explain the picture in a minute. First...Huey Lewis and the News is (are?) releasing a 30th anniversary edition of 'Sports', their (its?) hit album.  The album features live versions, I hear, of all of the songs on the album.

So as part of the promotional tour, I guess Huey Lewis is making the media rounds. He was on two of my favorite podcasts in the last week - WTF with Marc Maron and Bullseye.

That means I heard two versions of his stories - sneaking onto a plane to travel to London for a year in Europe at the insistence of his father rather than going straight to college to play baseball, his brief time at Cornell (brief because he wasn't as interested in engineering as he was in music), and how Robert Zemeckis and he differ on the story about how The Power of Love came to be used for Back to the Future.

It also means I heard twice about his early music experience before 'The News' - he played in a band called 'Clover'. I had no idea.

I found a couple of their songs on YouTube - including one in which Huey Lewis sang lead. (He was primarily a harmonica player in the band, and it seems like this one is  a rare one where he sings. I put that video at the end of this post.) As you can probably see, that song sounds a lot like Huey Lewis and the News, mostly because of Lewis' voice. Overall - and especially the ones where Lewis is just doing harmonica or percussion - the songs have a more funky, 70's-ish vibe.

As for meeting Huey Lewis? I've told this story to many people verbally, but I don't think I've ever written it. (I often tell it when I wear that orange shirt I'm wearing in that picture. I call it my 'Huey Lewis shirt'.) My cousin and I used to go to Hofstra in the summer to see Jets training camp. The day we went that year (according to the time stamp I guess it was 2005) Huey Lewis and the News played a venue on Long Island. My brother, through his radio job, thought he could get us tickets. As the day progressed, he thought he could even get us backstage to meet Huey Lewis. This was thrilling news. (It was almost too thrilling for my cousin.) But I couldn't meet Huey Lewis dressed in a sloppy Jets t-shirt.

So off to the mall we went. Eddie Bauer had a sale on these orange shirts. There was a whole rack of them, only $10. Sold. We went to the concert, got pulled into the 'Meet and Greet' area, Huey said to us, "You guys are cool, right?" My brother finagled some autographs (I have a 'Fore!' record autographed) and the concert was excellent.

Pretty great memory.

I don't know where you stand on Huey Lewis...but give it a shot - it's good music.

New Thing #126: Neutral Milk Hotel

Last Monday or Tuesday my Twitter feed was filled with excited news about Neutral Milk Hotel. My New Thing antennae were raised - might this be new music I should check out?

The big news? They were touring!

It seemed to me like an overreaction.

Unless, I thought to myself, it was a group that hadn't toured in a long time.

Then a little alarm went off in the back of my head because a memory was sparked and I knew that Neutral Milk Hotel was going to be my next Music Monday experience.

When I was in Quebec I was talking with a friend of mine about podcasts. I think it was podcasts. Or passions. Things we were obsessed with. Or quirks. Like the fact that I had to listen to all the episodes of a podcast before starting to listen to a new podcast. Or obsessions about quirks and passions. I think I was doing most of the talking.

Anyway, she said that she didn't think she had anything which she was as passionate about. Then she stopped and thought and said that there were certain bands that she was obsessed with and if given the opportunity she would follow them around from performance to performance.

She asked if I had ever heard of the Elephant 6 collective. I had not. She mentioned a number of bands and singers, and started telling me about this guy she had run into in a Brooklyn bar and how he was a somewhat reclusive singer for one of the bands in the collective and if he ever got that band together again to tour it would be the best thing ever.

I thought that qualified as pretty passionate.

Turns out, after I heard the news about Neutral Milk Hotel I vaguely remembered that this was the band that she was talking about and Jeff Mangum, the lead singer, was the guy in the bar, and all the pieces fell into place. It was just so weird that she brought that up and then less than two weeks later that exact thing happened.

(It's also weird to see the words Neutral and Milk and Hotel together. I wonder if the band just thought of three words that have absolutely no relationship with one another and picked those three words for its name. Because I have trouble getting past the fact that it makes no sense to me.)

I asked her to borrow the album "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea", and she told me I should probably listen to it 6 or so times before making any judgments. For some reason this comment coupled with what I remember her telling me in Quebec made me think it was really heavy (like heavy metal) music that I wouldn't like. But I was willing to give it a shot.

Then I texted my brother. I asked him if he was familiar with the band. He said he was - a friend had told him about them in college. I asked if he liked them. I'll show you the conversation from that point forward - he's gray, I'm blue:

He closed by telling me he'd save specific thoughts for after I'd heard the album.

The fact that he thought it was a masterpiece made me start thinking I would like it - because, and I don't think he'd disagree - my brother's music tastes in college were somewhat unrefined. If this was something way outside the box, he'd probably have hated it at that time. So I was encouraged.

I have to tell you - it did not take me 6 listens to like the album. It opens with some guitar strums that I immediately liked. And my initial thoughts about what kind of music it was were wrong - I don't know if I can describe what it's like, but it's good.

I think that first song is my favorite - it's called 'The King of Carrot Flowers Part One". I also liked the title track.

I'm not sure I listened all that closely to the lyrics - as I listened I kept waiting for something to hit me that I wouldn't like, because of the cautious way it was set up that I may not like what I heard.

But I liked it.

I won't be following this much-awaited tour around the world...but I like the music.

(One note: I'm not sure if my brother even realizes this, but I wouldn't be surprised if in a subconscious...or maybe conscious, I've just never spoken about this with him...way Neutral Milk Hotel influenced his music. There's a similarity not in singing style, but in guitar style. Especially the opening to the song "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" and his "Brake Lights". Just pointing out the similarity.)

New Thing #119: Madeleine Peyroux

I'll admit it - I'm mailing this one in a little bit. It's been a busy week, and I haven't had much of a chance to listen to any new music.

Luckily for me, as I headed home Friday night for a late night of preparing for Saturday night's auction, the Starbucks I stopped at for my late-night fuel had some 'Pick of the Week' cards left over.

And double lucky - this week's 'Pick of the Week' was music-related.

The song is "Bye Bye Love" by Madeleine Peyroux.

And if you're wondering, yes, it is a cover of the Everly Brothers' song.

(I'm going to go ahead and think that "Bye Bye Love" is famous enough that everyone knows it. But I think I am skewed by which '50's songs are well-known or not by wide audiences...especially those my age. See, I grew up in New York, and arguably the best station in New York City as I was growing up [or maybe only the one we listened to in the car as a family the most] was WCBS-FM, 101.1. The Oldies station. So my oldies knowledge, I'm sure, far surpasses my peers. But, the point is...I think everyone knows "Bye Bye Love". If not for the original song, then for its appearance in the Paul Reiser movie, right?)

OK. Back to Madeleine Peyroux. I can not for the life of me figure out which of her songs I've heard before. I searched her web page, I searched iTunes - I do not see a title of a song that I recognize. But I know that I heard her once on the radio, and though, wow, she sounds old-fashioned.

I'm pretty sure it was an original, not a cover. So that narrows things down. Because she mostly does covers, though there are a couple of albums of original work. So let me know if you know what her most famous song is. Because I'm sure that's what I heard.

This cover is a slowed-down version of "Bye Bye Love" - and, befitting the category into which iTunes has it organized, much jazzier.

I do like Peyroux's singing, though it's not something I can sit and listen to all day. For reference - think Zooey Deschanel's vocal style. (That would probably burn up Peyroux to hear, right?)

Well, that's all I got. I like at least getting the exposure to these songs I wouldn't otherwise hear thanks to Starbucks.

OK. I'm not confident everyone knows the original. Here are the Everly Brothers:

New Thing #112: A New Life

Here's another music New Thing courtesy of Starbucks' 'Pick of the Week': It's "A New Life", by Jim James.

You may know James from the band My Morning Jacket - this is one of his solo efforts.

I'm sorry to say that if you're interested in this song you're going to have to buy it yourself - this 'Pick of the Week' is actually the 'Pick of A Couple of Weeks Ago'.

First, some history: I own one My Morning Jacket song (I think thanks to a free Starbucks download from a couple of years ago, actually), and I don't know that I'd heard any Jim James solo music before now.

But I certainly know about him - my brother cites him as one of the major influences on his own music career. (Also there's this, which I've always found amusing: apparently this is no longer true, but when he did solo work in the past he went by 'Yim Yames' rather than 'Jim James'. And for all I know he still spelled it 'Jim James'.)

What's interesting about this song - "A New Life" - is that it's like it comes in three parts - the beginning is almost a cappella, very vocal with limited background music; then the middle is more rhythmic; and it ends almost sounding very oldies-like - the vocal sound changes and James sounds like he's channeling his inner Jay and the Americans when he sings his last words. Then as the song fades out it has a very 1950's-sounding feel to it.

The name of the album on which you can find the song is called (I think) 'Regions of Light and Sound of God'

Just for the heck of it I re-visited the original My Morning Jacket download I had - it's called "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)". It's a good listen. I've heard enough good things about My Morning Jacket and Jim James himself that I'm not surprised to find that I enjoy these songs...and find that I'll probably be looking into their music in the future.

Meantime, I found this video of James singing "A New Life" at this year's SXSW for you to enjoy:

New Thing #105: Arcade Fire

I asked Justin if he knew of any music from Quebec, since I knew there would be a Music Monday while I was in Canada. He told me that Arcade Fire was from Montreal.

I didn't think that was any good, because my mind was focused on Quebec City, where I was headed.

Then it dawned on me that Canada has provinces, and Montreal is in the same province as Quebec City...the province of Quebec.

And I thought that was just perfect.

It may be unfair to say the New Thing here is Arcade Fire - really I only focused on two of their albums - 'Neon Bible' and 'The Suburbs'.

But it is fair to say they are new to me - I knew nothing about them. Well, I remember when 'The Suburbs' came out - it got a lot of attention - but I had never listened to any of Arcade Fire's music.

And actually, as I listened to these two albums, the biggest surprise to me was that there was a female voice on some of the tracks. Turns out, the band is fronted by a husband and wife.

And, as I looked up more information on them, I remembered 'The Suburbs' being such a big deal that year because it won big at the Grammys. And there was an attention-grabbing interactive video for 'We Used To Wait' that allows you to include the home you grew up in as part of the scenery. (Joke's on them - I ran it, but the house I grew up in, though at the same address, looks completely different due to a renovation. Not quite the nostalgia they were going for...but still pretty cool.)

Justin told me he liked these two albums a lot - he said 'The Suburbs' "is very good as an entire album. For sheer song goodness, though," he wrote, "I prefer [Neon Bible]."

I agree with him. Here are some of my own thoughts:

The first thing I thought when I listened to 'Neon Bible' was how much I was reminded of The Killers. (But I don't know who came first. Maybe for many people The Killers remind them of Arcade Fire.) I feel like I've heard 'Keep The Car Running' before, and I thought 'Antichrist Television Blues' sounded very Bruce Springsteen-esque.  My favorite of the songs, I think, was 'Intervention' - I like the organ intro a lot and the song overall is good.

I don't know that I had a particular favorite from 'The Suburbs', but I liked 'City With No Children', and I thought it was interesting that there are two 'Part II' songs on the album...and I liked 'II' better than 'I' in both cases.

But overall I really liked Arcade Fire. I know I'm late to the scene, but that's why I'm doing this. There's one other studio album by the band...what I've learned from these two albums is that I might have to look into that one.

New Thing #98: Next To Me

I was in the car with the family last week and we switched past the popular music station. The Top 40 show was on...the one that Ryan Seacrest hosts.

He played an interview with this singer - I didn't catch who she was, but I heard an accent - and then played her song.

I thought it was someone else, and as I listened to the song I was convinced I knew the singer.

Turns out I didn't - it was Emeli Sande, who I'd never heard of, and the song was called 'Next To Me'.

I don't know how long the song has been out around here (it's been a hit in the UK, I think). I got the impression from the interview that it was brand new, but I came across a video from the Jimmy Kimmel Show where she performed it in February.

Regardless, it was the first time I heard it.

I think it's catchy.

And I'm not sure exactly why - maybe timing, maybe just the way it feels - but I think it's going to be huge this summer.

And I like when I'm in on the ground floor of one of those huge summer hits.

New Thing #91: Overwhelmed and Home

We'll call this an April Fool's Day 2-for-1 Music Monday special. These aren't necessarily two new songs - they've both been around for a while.

But I bought them both over the weekend and as a result I heard them both all the way through for the first time.

One is 'Overwhelmed', by Tim McMorris.

The other is 'Home', by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

I'm willing to bet you've heard at least one of the songs.

I've never heard 'Overwhelmed' on the radio, but it's certainly had its share of play over the TV airwaves. You may recognize it from this Sam Adams commercial:

I really liked the song the first time I heard the commercial, but I only just finally downloaded it for the full version. The commercial gives you a pretty good flavor of what the full song is like, but that's OK. It's a really sweet love song.

'Home' is a song I think I heard first on the radio. Then it popped up in an NFL commercial.

It's another song that I looked forward to hearing in the commercials, but only just decided to add to my personal collection. (I was surprised to find that what I heard on the radio is a shortened version - the one I downloaded is extended.) I also had a conversation this week with someone where this song came up...so it reminded me how catchy I found it.

It's rare that I am moved to make a purchase of a product by commercials. Sometimes I try to resist it, especially if the ads are particularly aggressive.

But what's funny is, I think I've always been a sucker for the songs featured in the commercials. I'm going to say it began with Apple iPod commercials a while back - I feel like they've ushered in this new wave of using catchy music to draw attention to their TV ads.

So I downloaded two songs I like. If I was feeling super adventurous this weekend I might have gone for the full albums. But I wasn't.

New Thing #84: 'The Presidents' by Jonathan Coulton

A couple of months ago there was a big flap on Twitter involving the TV show Glee and a guy named Jonathan Coulton. Coulton seemed to be a pretty big deal among some of the folks I follow on Twitter.

Apparently Glee used one of Coulton's songs (an arranged cover - is that what it's called? It was a cover, but he did it in his own style.), the way he had arranged it, but the show didn't give him any kind of credit.

Then I heard an interview with Coulton on the 'Bullseye' podcast.

He's a prolific, independent singer/songwriter with a large, large following.

So I looked into him a bit for this week's Music Monday.

One song in particular stood out to me, partly because it is closely connected to a big theme in my life right now - the presidents. (My students are researching the presidents, my daughter is very interested in them, and yesterday we saw the link to the doodle-drawings of the presidents...as well as a tangible representation of my daughter's aforementioned interest.)

The song is called 'The Presidents', and it was originally released in 2005, but it appears Coulton does updated versions through Obama in his live performances. (It also appears the song is a bear to perform live, and his live performances often involve stops and starts because it's hard to remember the order. At the end of this post is a video of one such performance with minimal errors.)

It's fun, it's funny - except for some slightly strong language it would be fun to share with my class. And my daughter.

In the interview I heard with JoCo, as he appears to be known, he was working full-time in software and doing the music as a hobby before giving up his job to pursue what he loved all the time. His bio is here - I think his big claim to fame was releasing a song a week for a year on his web site. (That seems like an activity I can get behind.)

You can preview and purchase his music here ('The Presidents' is on the 'Thing A Week Three' collection) - and I'm pretty sure I knew nothing about him before I heard about this whole Glee thing in January.

But maybe you can help me out here: I'm sure Jonathan Coulton is a New Thing to me...but if that's the case then why does he seem so familiar?