Music Monday 11.24.08

Some best of the year lists are starting to come out, like Blender's top 33 (meh) and Paste (Paste website appears to be down, but the link should work again at some point).

I can't listen to Christmas music until I've eaten Thanksgiving dinner, but the minute I belch I'm playing Dunham Van Durham's Christmas from the Heartland.  I'm a bit biased since this album's artwork is one of my photos, but it's a really enjoyable and unique Christmas album.  It may be the perfect Christmas album for use during work because there's no singing.  It has a folksy, Americana flair.  I'm telling you, I think you'll like it.

I'm checking out a bunch of new music lately, mostly due to a friend passing me some Paste magazines from a couple of months ago.  One band that has me very pumped is Right Away, Great Captain! Check them out on MySpace.  Check out their new album, The Eventually Home at Amazon.

My computer speakers have been an embarrasing part of my music enjoyment.  The built in speakers in my Gateway Notebook are terrible so I always use external speakers, which are probably 6 years old.  For a year they have been continually cutting out because of multiple frayed wire issues.  So I went to pick up another cheapo pair of externals and discovered a whole new world of computer sound systems that I didn't know existed.  Shame on me.  Thanks to some birthday money (given by people who love me!) I purchased the Logitech Z-2300 THX-Certified 200-Watt 2.1 Speaker System (click for proper response). I didn't go surround 5.1 or anything, but I can now rattle the windows upstairs with an 8-inch long-throw subwoofer (click).  One of the best purchases I've made to increase my enjoyment of great music. 

Here are two of the first songs I played to see how great this system sounds. First, Elbow: "Grounds for Divorce" (warning: come chick is dancing around in a bar)...

Radiohead: "The National Anthem"...

Comments

[phil]

Steve : I'm with you on the Christmas music. Every year for the past 4 years, after all the cleaning up is done after thanksgiving dinner, we toast to Christmas with some homemade egg nog. We kick off the Christmas music season with Chris Martin singing have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Maybe after Thanksgiving we can hear your top Christmas records.

[Bob]

Don't forget about the greatest Christmas album of all time...Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God"...fresh, cool water for a thirsty soul. I must admit...I listen to it all year.

[eric Blauer]

Wow, loved the sound of that "Elbow" song...checking them out on iTunes now. But man, great balls of fire! that lady doing the head on a platter dance was dangerous bro...you should of warned me of the sharp turns ahead. eek gads...

[Steve McCoy]

Yeah, don't remember much about the lady. I don't think I've watched the whole video in a while. Sorry. :)