New feature: every week I’ll upload 10 songs which, for one reason or another, have interested me in the past week. They don’t necessarily have a thematic unity linking them, since they are just random selections.
I’m no musical snob, but I do like to share music with people. So if anything sounds interesting, get it before the Rapidshare link expire.
All songs are encoded in mp3 format @ 192k bitrate using LAME. I thought about doing lossless loads, but that would take up too much bandwidth, and most people don’t have the equipment to tell the difference.
For the week of February 3rd, 2008: click here.
1) Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Cursed Sleep
This is from The Letting Go, the second album Will Oldham recorded under his current moniker. “Cursed Sleep” is the fourth track on the album. I like the instrumentation and the harmony that Dawn McCarthy sings.
2) Cat Power – New York
This is off Cat Power’s new covers album, Jukebox. “New York” is the first track, and I enjoy Cat Power’s ironic take on the song, turning it from a celebration of big city life into a song about resignation.
3) Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, and Sonny Rollins – After Hours
Diz, Sonny Stitt, and Sonny Rollins basically just jam this one out in such a chill manner, just like the title indicates. Listen to this at 3 in the morning with a single malt scotch and you’ll know exactly what I mean. This is from Sonny Side Up, which is probably one of the best pure jazz jam records in existence.
4) Eric Dolphy – Glad To Be Unhappy
This is Eric Dolphy covering Sinatra. Nothing really to say here other than that I like, a lot. From Outward Bound.
5) Jascha Heifetz – Sibelius Concerto in D minor for violin, First Movement: Allegro moderato
I think Heifetz really “owns” this Sibelius violin concerto, because out of all the performances I have of this concerto, Heifetz’s performance is matched by none in terms of pure playing. This is from a collection of Heifetz performing violin concertos by Sibelius, Prokofiev, and Glazunov.
6) Oliver Messiaen – Quartet for the End of Time, Fifth Movement: Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus
Translated, it means “praise to the eternity of Jesus.” The quartet was written while Messiaen was in a German concentration camp during WW2.
7) Jonny Greenwood – Prospectors Arrive
From the There Will Be Blood soundtrack. I include this track as a companion piece to the Messiaen piece, since even a listener untrained in classical music, such as myself, can detect the similarities between the two pieces. This should come as no surprise since Jonny Greenwood has explicitly stated that one of his formative influences is Messiaen.
8) LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends
From Sound of Silver. I just happen to like this song.
9) Nine Inch Nails – La Mer
From the Left side of The Fragile, which is becoming my favorite NIN album. I happen to think that Trent Reznor is a much better composer than he is a lyricist, since some of his lyrics border on the ridiculously juvenile/emo angst, which is kinda embarrassing for a guy who’s approaching middle age. But there is no denying that Reznor is a first-rate composer, as this instrumental track shows.
10) Sam Cooke – You Gotta Move
From Night Beat, which is a stripped down soul record. I love Sam Cooke, always have, always will, and like the song says, sometimes you just gotta move on, from whatever it is that is troublesome.
The Sympositorium 
February 12, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I wouldn’t say “Night Beat” was a stripped down Soul record as much as it was Sam’s foray into Blues. However, it did show my uncle’s amazing talent for making another style of music come alive with his touch. And while “You Gotta Move” takes a back seat to songs like “Lost and Lookin’,” “Trouble Blues,” and “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” on the same album, it’s a fun song nonetheless.
Erik Greene
Author, “Our Uncle Sam”
http://www.OurUncleSam.com