Today's PopNose (available until Sunday) is a German song! And it wasn't me who suggested it. Of course I had to download the song after Tom's order not to. I thought it was a hint that it was another dance/hiphop track I wouldn't like. If you join the discussion and know what it is, keep it for you, will you? Weird to discover a band of your own country you have read about quite a bit on an English website. I am so totally off the German music scene, it's unbelievable. By the way it was the first PopNose I saved onto hard disk. Retro but in a good way.

P.S. This seems to be one of those songs you only like the first time you hear it. On second listen it is quite banal. I don't want to imagine being overexposed to this song on the radio/music tv.

Strongly recommended: Nusrah Fateh Ali Khan's 25 minute jam version of Haq Ali Ali Haq available for download over at the Tofu Hut. What a voice! When he does his long drawn-out "ahahahahah" is he expressing grief or joy? Is he singing to God (Allah)? It sounds as if he feels pain and bliss at the same time. What a hypnotic piece of music! The kind of mind altering stuff I prefer to any drug in the world. I should really stop this cliché-ridden dancing about architecture. Especially considering that I can't really dance.

Bekam gerade Arthur Russell's (s.a. hier) erst kürzlich erschienene CD The World of Arthur Russell (Soul Jazz Records) in der Post. So mag ich Funk. Normalerweise eigentlich weniger. Ziemlich verschroben und doch meist extrem tanzbar. Musik, die ins Blut geht. Die das Herz erwärmt. Von jemandem, der ungefähr so musikverrückt wie Roland Kirk und Captain Beefheart zusammen war. Leider gibts ihn nicht mehr. Er starb 1992 an AIDS. Wollte gerade einen Kauftip geben, was ich sonst nie mache. Diese essentielle Kompilation eines der verkanntesten Genies der Musikgeschichte mit sehr informativem Booklet hat mich schlappe 6,99 € gekostet. Gerade auf der Seite des Internethändlers, wo ich die Scheibe erstanden habe, sehe ich, dass der Preis sich nun doch auf die landläufigen 16,99 € beläuft. Die haben wohl bei der Preisauszeichnung anfangs die 1 vorne vergessen. Sehr sympathisch. Pleite werden sie davon nicht gehen, ich aber auch nicht.

P.S. Ich mach jetzt doch noch etwas selbstlose Werbung. Wer einen Meilenstein zum Spottpreis bei den Amazoniern bestellen will, der ist gut mit Loveless von My Bloody Valentine beraten. Kostet wirklich nur 6,99 € und ist auch heute immer noch so umwerfend wie vor 12 Jahren. Manche meinen beim ersten Anhören ihre CD sei defekt, andere hören einen Staubsauger im Rückwärtsgang. Ich war damals sofort bezaubert von diesen seltsam verzerrten Gitarrenflächen. It's all about textures. Wie da die betörenden Melodien aus dem Nebelgewaber sich langsam herausschälen ist immer wieder atemberaubend.

A couple of things I found out about the new Wilco album:

• The official release on Nonesuch is scheduled for June, 8th 22nd.
• It leaked about ten days ago.
• The lyrics to all songs are here.
• The first song At Least That's What You Said can be streamed right now at NPR.
• Sean wrote on it and Ryan Schreiber from Pitchfork as well.
• Both reviews were enthusiastic.
• I like the song too. It incorporates both sides of Neil Young. The naive sentimental songwriter vein in the beginning and the electric guitar freak-out penchant in the second half.
• A stream of the second song Hell Is Chrome is on radio rub (left upper corner; 2nd track) this week.
• This one sounds like a John Lennonish piano ballad around Let It Be. The guitar in the middle again reminds me of Neil Young with a slight Jimi Hendrix feel to it. That high-pitch "slide" really pierces my heart every time I listen to it.
• There was a useless ILM thread I won't didn't want to link to. But the recent answers from April on merit a link.
• The discussion on Glorious Noise is much more informative.
• There is a review of the complete album in the newsgroup alt.music.wilco.

war vorhin im frankfurter bahnhofsviertel in einem pakistanisch-indischen schnellrestaurant essen. komisches gefühl als einziger europäer unter pakistanis. einerseits kam ich mir vor wie ein eindringling. meinte sogar, die männer (z.t. mit kopfbedckung) würden mich mustern, ob ich ein spion wäre. andererseits fühlte ich mich ungeheuer sicher. wenn jetzt irgendwo eine bombe hochgeht, dann bestimmt nicht hier. völlig bescheuert, ich weiß. aber was kann man schon gegen gefühle machen?

das sehr cremige lassi war übrigens köstlich und ich konnte der mir etwas missmutig erscheinenden bedienung (ein mann) sogar ein lächeln entlocken als ich darauf hinwies. meine vorurteile bezüglich der reinlichkeit und wohlerzogenheit südasiatischer völker wurden mal wieder bestätigt als ich sah, dass zwei pakistanis nicht nur ihre leeren teller zurückgaben sondern sogar die stehtischfläche mit servietten saubermachten. musste an kerouac denken als er im zuge seiner beschäftigung mit zen, glaube ich, entdeckte, dass es ja eigentlich eine schweinerei ist, sich den hintern mit papier und auch noch mit der rechten hand abzuwischen. das macht man in asien mit links und mit wasser. immerhin benutze ich seither die linke hand für diese tätigkeit.

gerade beim radfahren die erste fliege verschluckt. jetzt ist frühling.

has a new album out: Ogle Some Piano. As the title indicates it is another piano release (the second after the wonderful mix of late-hour jazz with classical elements of Lull Some Piano) with some help of his Giant Sand bandmates John Convertino and Joey Burns plus the usual gang of friends.

Ninety second streams from Aquarius Records which brought this to my attention in their latest newsletter:

• Spangle Bib of Radiant Value
• A Memento Was Slid in Between the Actual House of Cards As to Maybe Remain

In the 2003 interview for Delusions of Adequacy Howe speaks of his third child, his scatterbrain, the new piano record, the relative success of Calexico compared to the father band Giant Sand, his Danish séjour, the Band of Blacky Ranchette and playing in bands which are not his own, Evan Dando, Kristin Hersh etc.

I dug a little deeper into Sufjan Stevens after yesterday's post on him. There is a phantastic story line on his beginnings he tells on his website:

The date and the place probably are true but the Mosaic tale with the milk crate must be a joke. Apparently his father from Lithuania and his mother from Greece split long ago. His first name is supposed to have been chosen by the leader of an islamic sect his parents were members of. Very mystifyingly dylanesque all this. Made up or not it really does not matter. Just listen to his music which does not need to be backed up by any mythical stories.

In 2000 he released his first album A Sun Came. It fuses indie rock songwriting with oriental sounds. My first pick from this album is A Winner Needs a Wand, a dynamic and sappy rock ballad bearing already most of Stevens' trademarks like his hushed voice, his love for infectious melodies and his musical adventurousness. The other song I found on the web from Stevens' debut was Demetrius. The title is already hinting into the direction that Stevens is very much into Christian religion and its history. Based on a nasty bass riff spiced up with another bass and a noisy guitar it nevertheless is a measured slow song which does not gain speed. Like Sonic Youth on sleeping pills cruising on the highway with the hand brake on. At the end the oriental reeds and the arabic singing woman make us wake up somewhere in a middle eastern souk.

2001's Enjoy Your Rabbit was a totally different affair. A purely instrumental concept album on the twelve Chinese zodiac signs touching on electronical avant-garde. It is interesting what Stevens says about electronic music in this interview:

There he summarised exactly what I think of most electronic music too. From this album I chose Year of the Dog which starts with electronic cats meowing and a superb mellow and warm xylophone melody. Then come muted humming vocals with a lot of reverb which go on for most of the song. The electronics which come with this are perfectly embedded in the organic setting. After half of the track though we have a change towards more experimental electronic sounds. Rather discomforting with some glitchy moments at the end.

On his 28th birthday last year Stevens' label Asthmatic Kitty released his third album, Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State (click on the places and you'll hear the sound clips and see some info on the places in the box on the left) which is probably his masterpiece up to now. It is another concept album. This time on his home state which is supposed to be followed by 49 releases on all the United States. I already wrote yesterday on Holland which still is my favourite of the songs I have heard of Stevens. The second song from Michigan I selected is Romulus. A very poetic folk-rock song dominated by the banjo on the not always easy relations you have with your parents.

The latest album has just come out two weeks ago. Seven Swans was recorded before Michigan and resulted from the same sessions. It was produced by Daniel Smith, head of the weird and funny Christian band Danielson Family and is rich in biblical images and generally more introspective. As Radiohead's Amnesiac it definitely is not a compilation of b-sides after what I have heard of it. I found Sister especially convincing. Evoking Neil Young's Cortez the Killer with its slow build-up it stays an instrumental most of the time with some divine humming of a women's choir. It is only in the last quarter of the song that Stevens' voice emerges and he sings in a very spiritual way about a sister in Detroit. The closer of Seven Swans is The Transfiguration (one minute stream). An exuberant optimistic religious song with banjo and oboe.

The next part of the fifty state series will be on Illinois. Sufjan Stevens recently (March, 5th) performed one song of it live in the studio of the very recommended two hour radio show Spinning on Air hosted by David Garland at WNYC. It was called Chicago (at 18'35'' of the 2nd clip). An upbeat banjo ballad on escaping from Michigan by travelling to Chicago.

Together with Low, Sixteen Horsepower and Tom Liwa Sufjan Stevens now belongs to my favourite artists who do not hide their christianity.

Further reading:

• Interview with Matt Fink for Delusions of Adequacy
• Kitty Empire on the startling rise of an American visionary in The Observer

Tinariwen's second album Amassakoul is album of the week at the BBC. You can stream the whole thing with realaudio. It reminds me of the 1994 collaboration of Ry Cooder with the Mali singer/multi instrumentalist Ali Farka Toure which resulted in the phantastic Talking Timbuktu. The kind of relaxing world music we love around here.

There is a reincarnation of the legendary I Love Music listening chambers at New York London Paris Munich! It is a kind of blindfold discussion on anonymised mp3s of the pop/rock etc. genre where you are not supposed to give away the artist or title if you know it. Tom will make available a track per week day. When the next song goes up, the artist and title of the former track will be revealed. Sounds excellent. A very good way to discover and discuss music you would probably never have listened to. Unfortunately today's song is not really my cup of tea. It is some kind of reggae dance rap stuff. But I am hopeful that there will be some music more to my liking soon. Via the old ILM chambers I discovered Pinback, Jeff Beck and Ida amongst others.