Medeski Martin & Wood are the most interesting jazz combo I have listened to for 5, 10, 15 years? A trio from New York with a drummer, a bassist and a keyboarder (hammond & wurlitzer). They do a groovy mélange of jazz, funk, psychedelics and improvisation. The wonderful Motel de Moka made me discover them. Somehow I had filed them under boring standard jazz. I was so wrong. I am pretty sure Miles Davis would have liked them if he would have had the chance to listen to them (maybe he did, they started in 1991). They do make something new with jazzrock/fusion. A style I had given up on ages ago.

When Radiohead released the 160 KB/s mp3 version of their new album In Rainbows a couple of days ago it was like a pre-emptive strike against the downloaders. An official leak for which they could even charge money. I didn't hear of any versions which leaked before. They took control of the digital duplication process which prevents new cds to sell well these days. Additionally they announced a second cd (can it be as good as Amnesiac, their only great album, the leftover of Kid A?) to whet the appetite of the fans. A very clever marketing strategy as many people paid real money for the mp3s of rather low quality. The quality of the music wasn't great neither (see post below) but they have definitely proven that they are the band with the most realistic evaluation of the market situation. Kudos for that.

Thurston Moore about Sonic Youth's new project, a compilation album for Starbucks.

Solid, longish article including some downloads on the Gun Club. When thinking of Jeffrey Lee Pierce the first sentence coming to my mind is: "He was obsessed."

Weird. I still think that if there ever was a rock band it was Joy Division but at the same time I have this subdued urge to laugh when hearing Ian Curtis sing. LSD would have probably liberated it but unfortunately I never tried. Maybe even Cannabis would have done the job but I don't remember ever listening to them on pot.

Nick Drake doing the blues. If that song would have been the first song I'd have heard of him I probably would have never been as obsessed by him as I am.

i am totally falling in love with slowdive. a band i totally missed out in the first half of the nineties. as i was too busy smoking herbal substances and talking about the mysteries of everyday life. we were enlightened by each other and ourselves every night but we forgot about it the next morning. maybe that is what life is about. slowdive have a blurry vision of music/life. which is quite a precise vision if you think of it.

When speaking of exceptional female voices Rickie Lee Jones has to be mentioned. I first listened to her nasal girlish voice in my early student days in the mid 80s. It was a tape from the library, the live album Girl At Her Volcano where she sings some jazz standards together with her own songs. To me she seemed to be the female equivalent to Oskar Matzerath, the tin drummer who doesn't want to grow up from Günter Grass's famous novel on the Nazi days in and around Danzig (today the Polish Gdansk). Her voice has always stayed the voice of a ten year old until today. Unpolished, direct, intense and emotional. There is a new album out by her called Sermon on Exposition Boulevard which is a nice surprise in itself as she hasn't been too prolific in her career. I listened to a couple of the songs and I was impressed. Not by the subject matter - apparently she has turned to Jesus - but by the bluesy rockish orientation. Most of the time in the past I had seen her more as a jazz chanteuse (Ghostyhead where she embraced trip-hop and electronics was different though). Listen to the two songs over at An Aquarium Drunkard and judge for yourself. Especially the second one, Falling Up is a miracle of a tune which emanates the spirit which has taken possession of her. The kind of ballad which heads for the skies and is down to earth at the same time.

Concerning faith: is it just a coincidence that even Brian Eno (who has the word "rational" written all over his bald head) admits that he is "getting into the religion business" when he talks about his 77 million paintings installation? On second thoughts he is rationalising like hell there. Religion seen as a means to surrender. It makes sense but in his project he is using the computer to inject chance and multiplicity into his visual creation. Megalomania or a new concept of god?

Swen has got a link to a Google Video of a two part documentary (35 minutes) on Nick Drake called A Stranger Among Us - Searching For Nick Drake from 1998. Where his parents, his sister, Robert Kirby, Linda Thompson and other people who knew him talk about his life. It should be interesting for anyone slightly interested in the songwriter which has touched me most in my life. Whenever I hear any of his songs now I get goose bumps inside. It is more than 25 years ago now that I listened to his music for the first time and it hasn't lost any of its magic at all. It has become even more intense for me now as I have the feeling that I know each note in advance. His harmonies are so beautiful that they hurt. And his whispering soothing voice together with the romantic, forlorn lyrics he sings creates an intimate mood like no other music I have ever listened to.