today’s tunes: leap year by plus/minus

in honor of today’s date, here is a song titled “Leap Year” by a band called +/- (Plus/Minus).  I don’t really know a whole lot about the band – but it is once again a band I was introduced to by WOXY.com.

She says, “Here is someday. 
We’ll find some way.”
Nothing’s put upon me

Search lights, helicopters
Sound the all clear
Someone’s pulling me in

She smiles and I leave my feet
She tries to bring the world out of sleep

All my indecision
Lacking vision
She holds a skeleton key

Leap year in our own way
Armistice Day
She is everything

She smiles and I leave my feet
She tries to bring the world out of sleep

Everything
She said, “Here is someday. 
We’ll find some way.”
And pulled me in.

today’s tunes: you are the best thing & o sleep

today’s tunes is a double-shot, first featuring a song from Ray LaMontagne – a pretty sweet live version of  “You Are the Best Thing”.

2nd up is a new song from Lisa Hannigan‘s new album Passenger (I’ve posted about her before here and here), where she does a duet with the same Ray LaMontagne, a song called “O Sleep”.

today’s tunes: working for a nuclear free city

today’s tunes is yet another great song I found via WOXY.com (the now extinct independent radio station from Cincinnati, Ohio).  the song is “Asleep at the Wheel” by the band Working For a Nuclear Free City (WFANFC).  this version was recorded live in studio for WOXY.com as part of SXSW 2008 in Austin, Texas.

40 years ago today: led zeppelin IV

40 years ago today, Led Zeppelin released their 4th studio album, which has come to be known as IV.  these days, I have pretty varied musical tastes, but Zeppelin is still my favorite…. they are the best rock and roll band ever.

the album has “Stairway to Heaven”, probably their most famous song, as well as “Black Dog” and “Rock and Roll”, but for today’s tunes I’ve chosen instead “When the Levee Breaks.”

sit back and enjoy.

today’s tunes: sail

today’s tunes is for my brother Q. he showed me this song a few weeks ago and said it should be my song to get pumped up for sailing. for some reason, the song has been stuck in my head for the last few days… the song is weird but it grows on you.

(I guess you can’t watch it embedded here… click through to watch it on Youtube.)

today’s tunes: skin of my yellow country teeth (CYHSY)

for today’s tunes, a catchy tune from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (CYHSY) titled: “Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth”.  the video was made by some students, but it’s not really clear who they are or where they are students, but it’s pretty creative:

Just listen to me I won’t pretend to
Understand the movement of the wind
Or the waves out in the ocean or how
Like the hours I change softly slowly
Plainly blindly oh me oh my!

CYHSY is yet another indie band that I discovered several years back listening to their Lounge Act podcast from WOXY.com while living in Cincinnati.  they have a very distinct sound, and the lead singer’s voice is… well… interesting.  the band’s music grows on you, though, really it does.  the band’s 3rd album, Hysterical, is set to release soon (September 2011).

today’s tunes: a sail & knots – lisa hannigan

I mentioned in the previous “today’s tunes” by Damien Rice that more would be coming from Lisa Hannigan – and today we have a double-dose of today’s tunes.  Lisa Hannigan, after being dismissed from singing with Damien Rice, has set off on her solo career, and is just about to release her sophomore LP, titled Passenger, available September 20th.  I have only heard of few of her songs so far, but am pretty impressed by her voice and musical style, and it seems that both of her albums (Sea Sew and now Passenger) have strong nautical themes.

the first song for today’s tunes from Lisa Hannigan is called “Knots”, with the video filmed on board a sailboat, no less! (note: I guess that embedding the video is disabled, so click through to watch it on Youtube.)

the second song for today’s tunes from Lisa Hannigan is “A Sail” (this is just the audio track):

HT: 24bit, a sweet little site about music.

today’s tunes: 9 crimes – damien rice

today’s tunes is the song “9 Crimes” from the album 9 by Damien Rice.  this song, as well as most of the album, features Lisa Hannigan on back-up vocals.  you’ll soon here more from her in a future today’s tunes post.

today’s tunes: the National – exile vilify

love the band, and I do like the song… but this is a rather strange video for the song “Exile Vilify” by The National.  the song is for the video game Portal 2 (I’m not a video-gamer, so don’t ask me…), and the above video is the winner of the video contest for the song/game.

HT: twentyfourbit

today’s tunes: on the ocean – guster

today’s tunes is from Guster, in honor of their release yesterday of a new EP titled “On the Ocean“.  the EP is (6) songs, composed of various b-sides and live acoustic versions of songs from their recent album “Easy Wonderful“.  more details on the EP and each song on it can be found on the Guster website (scroll down to 7/12/2011).  Guster recommends buying:

…the actual, physical version because of the special limited edition die cut artwork.

I haven’t ordered it yet, but I think we have just about every other Guster album, so I’ll probably get it sometime soon.  here’s the video for the original version of the song “On the Ocean” from their album “Easy Wonderful”.

 

On the ocean
I think we’re taking on water
A storm is on the way
But I will hold on anyway