sixty * six

Here are three of my favorite Jeff Buckley live performances. I think these versions easily surpass the recorded ones, but let me know your thoughts in comments.

A beautiful song from a small, odd, and lovely EP from a band that seems to have received absolutely no attention at all. According to their MySpace page, they’re from Michigan; that’s just about all I know about them.

Full disclosure: I don’t like Radiohead very much. When some other web-publication named Kid A the number 1 record of the past decade, my emotional reaction was best described as “resigned outrage.” Perhaps I developed this attitude because most of my musical maturation occurred after their Lightyears-Ahead-Of-Their-Time electronic experimentation had been well absorbed into the indie-rock landscape, or perhaps it came about because I’m sick of people telling me how brilliant they are. Regardless, I have a tough time sitting through an entire Radiohead LP.

If you thought the vision of us slow dancing last night was terrifying enough from that side of the screen, try to imagine how we felt waking up this morning. Denver is far away and thus we’ve never seen Justin and Lindsay AKA Blind Annette in the flesh but just from spinning their angelic candle-lit dreamscape ‘Too Heavy’ we get the impression they would make us look like elephants on a frozen lake if it ever came to a fantasy dance-off. With wonderful Newsom-worthy vocals ghostly floating over this dazzling, mesmeric and effortlessly radiant track these guys are going the right way about becoming our favourite band from another world.

I was at a party. We were nodding, laughing, twisting caps from bottles and making introductions. Then someone lifted up his laptop and tilted the screen so we could see. What did it show? It showed a sad baby.

My Mom always told me the best way to get a girl naked is through music. Okay, she never said that, it’s more like, “When are you gonna find a girl and settle down.” “Gosh Mom, I’m fuckin’ trying my best here!”

But it is hard, I have high standards. And those standards come most into play upon the meeting of a girl who will one day be forced to read my every Muffin article. And it is with that idea that I present you:

You want a gentler side of M83 or Telefon Tel Aviv for the upcoming winter months? well Jakob Skøtt and Anna Cecilia will have a beautiful Syntaks LP out very soon to fill that void. They’re giving away this 2 song EP on here for free.

We’re going to have to go back to September 1st for this one… Hopefully my strange melange of praise and criticism of Chiddy Bang will still be fresh in your minds. On reflection, I’m still adamant that I’m right; great production, good flow, but more-than-questionable lyrics.