A Beautiful Place In The Country

Elena Willis - In A Beautiful Place In The Country (2003)

Yael Naim - Bachelorette [Bjork Cover] (mp3): A blade of grass bends seductively at its middle and touches the tip of its lamina to the moist soil to its left, raises straight again, and then to its right. Dusk is the smoky lounge tonight. Its individual form disappears into the hypnotic synchronicity of the lawn's dance. Sway and stop, sway and stop with the bass, tighten with the tapping heel of the claves. Everyone is crowded on the dance floor tonight.

[See Yael Naim in Madison on 10/25]

Please, Please, Come Out and Play

Amy Bennett - Exposure (2006)

This is the cold pressure of rain like whiskey on the roof of your mouth. It is the sustained drench of days counted at the pace of thoughts left alone to concentrate. What does the mouthful say? That your salivary glands are a slow-motion car wash. And that every experience sounds better when gargled with the members of a choir.

Peter Broderick - Games Again (mp3)


Peter Broderick - Below It (mp3)

All Those Times I Hung My Head To Keep The Beat

Curtis Mann - A Gathering Hilltop

I haven't forgotten about you. I've just been thinking about you so much that I didn't have time to write all my thoughts down. So here they are: Your shirt is wrinkled. It's important to regularly check that a smile is your default expression or you may be sending the wrong message. Contracts should always be written and signed. One day I'll tell you all you've done for me. It's time to get back to the games again.

School of Seven Bells - Face to Face On High Places (mp3)

Judging by Swollen Feet

Photo by Phil Ejercito (more here)

Thanks to everyone who came out in support of Forward Music Festival this weekend. It was an incredible sight to see music fans jumping from venue to venue and enjoying what Madison has to offer. We hope you enjoyed the experiment as much as we enjoyed experimenting.

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Feet Asleep (mp3)

Prayer For The Doers

Carey Young - Body Technique [after Encirclement, Valie Export, 1976] (2007)

Yeasayer - No Need To Worry (mp3): Voices waft into the air like dust to describe their becomings in this prayer. They are cells that once belonged on the skin, at large family tables, in grad schools and Gaussian corrections. They remember once building attempts to steal away and start new. But now the voices build piles of themselves, coating the books on the shelves and resting in gray clumps in corners and under the stove.

Pink and Big

Edward Del Rosario - Contest of Champions II (2007)

The Hood Internet (Mickey Avalon vs. CSS) - Dick Move (mp3): A nasty grinder for the late night peacocks on the town tonight. Careful unzipping your pants and whipping out your metaphors in public. I take that back, don't be careful, be awesome.

2008 FMF Preview: A Catapult Western

Corey Arnold - Lonliness (2002)

Artist: A Catapult Western
Website: www.acatapultwestern.com
Regional Connection: Based in Madison
Showcase: September 20, 2008 at Cafe Montmartre
Co-Performers: Gentlemen Auction House

The performance at Forward Music Fest will be the last for Madison's own A Catapult Western. Jason Nyberg will be moving to Austin Texas to give their booming music scene a shot. If you haven't tasted their lullabies of shut-ins and dark beer, Cafe Montmartre will provide the perfect atmosphere. It's bound to be bittersweet and unforgettable.

A Catapult Western - Back Up To The Wall (mp3)

She Was Killed When She Was Young

Travis Millard - Feelings (2008)

We are our words and our worst. Except when we are not. And then it's difficult to explain. And even more difficult to ever sound authentic again. Except that we can tell the difference in ourselves. For holes and sticky fly paper, there are scissors and ladders to remedy a situation too gruesome. For fist fights without reasons, there are choices to never return.

Orouni (featuring Mina Tindle) - The Perfume Conspiracy (mp3) [Buy]

People in Order

Lenka Clayton and James Price - People in Order

2008 FMF Preview: Stars Like Fleas

La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows - Stars Like Fleas

Artist: Stars Like Fleas
Website: www.myspace.com/starslikefleas
Regional Connection: Keyboardist Ryan Smith is from Madison
Showcase: September 20, 2008 at the Orpheum Theatre Stage Door (9pm)
Co-Performers: The Pale Young Gentlemen, Rock Plaza Central

Stars Like Fleas is one of the secret gems of Forward Music Fest. Hailing from Brooklyn and venturing out of the city for the very first time to tour in eight years of existence, the collective's layered instrumentation wanders like an intricate sound experiment. But don't take my word for it, LeVar Burton. Pitchfork called their new release The Ken Burns Effect "one of the year's most ambitious and daring records" and NPR referred to it as "a work of mad genius". Aptly named as the slow pan of documentary film, the Fleas sound is focused and reflective yet wildly intriguing.

The cluster of like minds yet divergent thoughts is led by Shanon Fields and Montgomery Knott at the core. Other members include madisonian Ryan Smith, improv musician Shelley Burgon, Ryan Sawyer (from Fiery Furnaces, At the Drive-In, TV On The Radio, and currently the Tall Firs), Jon Natchez (from Beirut, White Rabbits, and Bishop Allen), and sometimes Sam Amidon of recent All Is Well fame.

Stars Like Fleas - I Was Only Dancing (mp3)

Is This Cheese?

Erwin Wurm - Inspection (2002–2003) [From "How To Be Politically Incorrect"]

Larytta - Is This Cheese (mp3): I love the repetition of banal confusion in this track. He cannot remember, he asks questions, he examines faces in a crowd like they're books on a shelf, he wants to know the was party good or if the party was bad. He is staring at his shoes and asking their traction where he's been. Because he can't seem to keep track on his own, and he can't seem to understand.