Hey hey hey I've got it, she she she she's got it, world cup fever.

World Cup fever officially started today.
Here are a few of my favorite world cup songs:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/?cc=5901&ver=us

The ruins were wild.

I love The New Pornographers more and more.
Plus, you just can never go wrong with Neko Case and that voice.
That voice. She could sing about anything and I'd just get lost in it.
I know the album's been out for a little bit but it's just hitting me in the right way today so I felt like sharing it.

http://www.thenewpornographers.com/

Burn bridges/make yourself an island.

Warm, fuzzy summertime jams from a band that is keeping most info about them pretty obscure (or at least funny) at the moment.
(http://pitchfork.com/news/38496-rising-dom/).
That said, they'll be playing again in NYC at Knitting Factory and Music Hall at the end of the month and I intend to be there.
Get yr happy Friday on:

http://www.myspace.com/imfur
http://www.burningmillrecords.net/

I'm taking over/into the light.

As it goes, I liked Bloc Party for about a nanosecond when I first heard them, and then, not so much.
At all.
They were too emo for me (and boring) in a way that I couldn't jive with.
So it was with some surprise that I found myself kind of digging the new Kele album,
the singer's new solo effort, which is pretty all over the place, sounding at various and simultaneous times like Depeche Mode, rave, B-Pitch Records and indie R&B.
Far, far better than his old band, in my opinion.
Give it a listen.

http://www.iamkele.com/

You've got such a psychic life to live.

I picked up Roky Erickson's album "Never Say Goodbye" back in 1999 from Ozone Records in Portland, Oregon.
Though I was just starting to familiarize myself with him as an artist back then, this album in it's stark, vulnerable tone caught my attention immediately and never let go.
I've always envisioned this particular track to be playing during the end credits of a film:

Many of these tracks were actually recorded during a stint in a mental hospital, and it's rawness is both heartbreaking and beautiful.
Read a little bit about the story of the album here:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0jfpxqtjldde

Also, I think it's a pretty hard album to come by these days, so if you'd like, you can download the whole thing here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=40di1zpk

http://www.emperorjones.com/roky.html