
I somehow managed to reach full-bore adulthood without hearing a lick of Tom Waits . Which is probably all for the better: as I've noted many times , my long-standing preference for melodic voices is only now giving way to a mature appreciation of the unique beauty that springs from powerful truths filtered through broken instruments. And anyway, the Tom Waits songbook is eminently adult, both in the way it looks at the world through bleary, jaded, ancient eyes and the way it rattles about with themes of alcoholics, lonesome trainwatchers, [...]
Here are The Wheel's Still In Spin's suggested new releases. Mos Def – The Ecstatic. Download "Life in Marvelous Times" (mp3) from RCRD LBL. Download "Quiet Dog" (mp3) from RCRD LBL. Download "Casa Bey" (mp3) from RCRD LBL. This album is an example of what a good hip-hop/rap album should be. There are a few guest spots, but they're logical (Talib Kweli) and worthy (Slick Rick). The lyrics are political and poetic. It has a conscience, message, and deliberate purpose. The production is original and unrepetitive. The tracks are supported by uniquely appealing beats. Sonic Youth – The Eternal. [...]

If there's an over-arching idea to the album, it's about how to capture a moment before it's lost forever. The album was written, recorded and mixed in a little over two weeks- a miniscule timescale in these times of recording, re-recording and digitally manipulating every note of every part played. This is a record in its truest sense: a record of an event. The event is a group of people standing in a room and playing a song together - this is what you're hearing and this is why listening to these songs feels like such a privilege. We're being [...]

Kathryn Williams and Neill Maccoll release their new album, Two , on June 9th. Check out the single "Come With Me," featured below. audio: Come With Me http://www.williamsmaccoll.com / http://www.myspace.com/william smaccoll http://www.nettwerk.com/
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: A Hawk And A Hacksaw : "Kertész" [mp3] other Hawk And A Hacksaw posts at Largehearted Boy Howe Gelb : "World Stand Still" [mp3] other Howe Gelb posts at Largehearted Boy Hungry Villagers : "Tree Full of Ghosts" [mp3] from Little Fingers (out [...]

I first heard UK-based singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams a few years ago, when tracks from her 2004 major-label all-covers release Relations began to show up on the cover blogs. Since you, too, are a reader of music and cover blogs, you've surely heard her gorgeous, tense version of Nirvana's All Apologies from that album. And you may remember her dreamy and delicate cover of Spit on a Stranger I posted, alongside the Nickel Creek cover of the same tune a few months back, when we did a feature on Pavement [...]

Quite possibly the best song I've heard all year, I've just had to listen to it 4 times straight through on repeat whilst catching the tube into central London. Kathryn Williams' new album 'Two' with Neill Maccoll might be classic Radio 2 fodder, but the strength of the songwriting & performances make it so much more than just a guilty pleasure. This gentle song about the point at which a friendship develops into something more in the early hours of a party that is winding down just does something magically intimate, the vocals are pitched perfectly in the [...]