Aterciopelados are one of my favourite Latin rock/pop bands, and Andrea Echeverri is obviously one of the main reasons. Her voice is playful and strong, and A eme o is a good example.
This song, taken off her "solo" album, is a love letter to her unborn child (she was pregnant when she composed most of the songs), an album of lullabies and happy rhythms, so different from her work with Aterciopelados and yet so familar.
Grab a pillow, hug it, and rock yourself to sleep...
The Mastodon post led me to their label, Relapse Records, and to the discovery of another cool band - The Dillinger Escape Plan. I'm not really an extremist, but I'm open to all kinds of music, as long as it got rhythm and reason; TDEP are labelled as metalcore, a fusion of heavy metal and hardcore punk (in other words, they're a niche within two other niches...)
Still, Unretrofied is quite different - it has electro influences and a psychedelic tone. That's perhaps why it's my favourite TDEP song - it's closer to my own "mix'em and match'em" approach to music.
Watch the video on the label's official YouTube channel.
Another cool (and a lot more punk) TDEP song is Milk Lizard.
I finally put my emusic.com subscription to sleep for a while, after downloading about 500 or so songs. One of the best heavy metal bands I would probably never have listened to, if it weren't for the enthusiastic reviews on emusic, is Mastodon.
Leviathan, the album today's song is taken from, is a cool take on Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Some might find it too calculated; I say it's perhaps the best example of "concept metal", in other words - metal rock for thinkers :)
Watch the zany Blood and Thunder video on YouTube.
Listen to more Mastodon on MySpace.
Everybody knows Katy Perry, whose infamous I kissed a girl was on heavy radio rotation all summer (if you don't know her, hide yourself in shame and then read the article on Wikipedia). How the *** did I manage to miss Hot 'n Cold is beyond me; it must be the all-time most popular song on my blog, with no less than 44 million viewings.
Enough already, watch the funny video on YouTube.
Or, if you feel brave, watch the "elderly remix" parody of Perry's breakthrough single here.
It's Monday, so Happy Mondays are the perfect band to blog about. They're British, noisy, and extremely eclectic (a mixture of rock, house, funk, pop,and world music). I'm not really a fan, but Stinkin Thinking makes me smile.
Today's song is a bit more experimental, though - don't say I didn't warn you :)
Watch Jellybean in concert here.
More songs on MySpace.
Today's video will probably reinforce the overall preconception that Japanese people are weird. After all, Inugami Circus-Dan is a gang of crazy-looking, uniform-wearing guys led by a Rubensian-shaped geisha with a horror make-up. And the drummer has long, pointy horns. And they drink their sugar with coffee !
Still, if you read the lyrics (this video is fansubbed in English) you'll find out that the apparent madness makes sense and the playful outside is just a mask for some disturbing philosophical questions. Still, you can enjoy Sen'nou (Brainwashing) even without looking for subtleties, so watch it and have fun.
If you care, there's a lot to read about them on Wikipedia.
If you just want more music, try Honto Ni Honto Ni Gokuro-San, it's funny enough even without subtitles.
The best Polish band you probably never heard (although they were actually aired on MTV Romania a few years ago), Myslovitz are still trying to become famous, after 14 years and 7 studio albums. The biggest pebbles in their road are probably their overly melancholic (bordering on the depressive...) tunes; I like them, but they're not for everybody.
The fittingly titled Sound of Solitude won't make anyone reach for a razor blade, though - there's a strong positive vibe and self-assurance in both lyrics and rhythm that made me put it on repeat mode. Maybe you will, too - watch the video here.
A LOT more about them can be found on Wikipedia.
An unexpected rags-to-riches story, La Quinta Estacion's rise to fame is (once again) proof of the star-making power of television.
The band was formed in Madrid in 2001; they failed to get a publishing contract there and got signed by Sony Music Mexico. They struggled to make ends meet for a few months, until one of their songs, ?Donde Iran? (Where will they go?) was chosen as a theme song for a major Mexican telenovela. Jackpot!
Today's song, El Sol Ne Regresa, was the first single from the band's second album. I was won over by the video's simple but effective idea - I won't tell you which is, you can see for yourselves.
More recommendations: Algo Mas and Me Muero.
If you're not really convinced yet, you might want to know they won the Latin Grammy Best Pop Album in 2006 and 2007, and also MTV Latinoamerica's Best New Artist - Mexico.
I've already described my clash with Turkish rock in the Mor Ve Otesi post; I believe I mentioned Duman and their defining song, Bu Aksam.
But Duman are just THAT good, they deserve their own song-a-day. Thus, if you haven't watched it before, watch Bu Aksam on YouTube.
Their music is a mix of grunge rock and turkish folk. If you liked Bu Aksam (meaning something like "Tonight" or "This night") you could do worse than listen to Aman Aman, Herseyi Yak or Koprualti.
To find out more about them, browse a fan site, www.dumanband.com - the official one is under construction right now, as they're going to release a new album in April.
There's a Romanian tradition called "martisor" - every year on the 1st of March, boys offer girls a small token of appreciation, a lucky charm tied up with a red/white string. Being the cheap bastard I am, I decided to get out of the hook easily by sending an e-mail "martisor" - a top 5 of the best male vocalists of 2008.
Being also very busy, I decided to simply go for Neon Limelight's excellent choices: Jon McLaughlin, David Cook, David Archuleta, Ne-Yo and Gavin DeGraw are not just young and good-looking, but also have good voices. Check'em out if their names ring no bell for you; my favourite song from their list is Cook's Heroes.
You sort of can see where I'm headed, can you?
Well, Aaron Neville has, IMHO, the best R&B voice you never heard. His best known song is a Grammy-winning track from 1989, a duet with Linda Ronstadt, "Don't know much". The sound quality is good, but the video... well, it hasn't aged well.
So I had to look elsewhere for a better video. I found it on Aaron's official web page, www.aaronneville.com - and because it's Flash based, I'll have to ask you to work a bit and reach Yellow Moon by yourselves. It's in the Photo/Video section. (hint: turn off the music player first, it starts automatically and doesn't stop when the video is played)
Enjoy!
