Panda Riot: Seeing “Paper Planes” in a different light

This is an absolutely lovely cover of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” song.  That’s about all I can say without just letting you listen to it…. absolutely lovely.  Sans gun shots, but I think that’s a good thing for the tone Panda Riot seems to be setting.

M.I.A. – Paper Planes (Panda Riot cover)

The Decemberists: And the Bridesmaids

This was a wonderful little surprise at the Pop Apocalypse blog.  I had no idea The Decemberists were concocting this little gem, but that’s just like The Decemberists.  In this respect, I could even draw a comparison between them and Of Montreal.  Both are so full of music that they just can’t help releasing records kind of like beautiful farts that just escape from you.  This recent gas expulsion is entitled Always the Bridesmaid: Single Series and is being released in three volumes on pretty colored vinyls.  This is actually a nice concept, because they are letting their record company Capitol release this album digitally in the US, while The Decemberists and some other independent labels are handling the vinyl distribution.

Well besides the background of this album, this is a great little album.  I think it is named very appropriately.  Each one of these songs is a beautiful single, but not exactly the errr… bride.  In my opinion, the Maid of Honor would be “Valerie Plame” (if that really is her name).  And you’ll definitely want to stay until the end of the song where The Decemberists break out in this Polyphonic Spree moment.  Word on the street is that this might also be a sort of continuation to “The Bagman’s Gambit”.  You can decide what you think of this little bridesmaid below, and feel free to expound in the comments.

The Decemberists – Valerie Plame

The Decemberists – The Bagman’s Gambit

Fredrick: Nice

This is a nice song.  It reminds me of singing sweet hymns in church, which is nice.  Swedish nice.

You can find a much fuller review here at i’m waking up to blog.

Fredrick – Black Fur