We’ve been enamored with semi-indie darling Regina Spektor for years. (Seeing her live at TED 2009 didn’t hurt, either.) And part of her fascination lies in the ability to reinvent herself beautifully, without losing the core of her brilliance — charmed vocals, superb piano and incredible lyrical sensibility. That’s exactly what’s happening in her new album, Far, out today.

The entire album is an absolute gem, but our favorite track has to be The Calculation — delightfully upbeat and somehow Seinfeld-like in its ability to be about nothing particularly grand while capturing the great human truths.

And in case you sit there wondering how an album could possibly be this ridiculously good, it may have something to do with the fact that Jeff Lynne — named the fourth greatest producer in music history — is behind it. Well, that and Regina Spektor’s indisputable genius.

Another highlight comes from Laughing With, a piece of open-to-interpretation commentary on the hypocrisies of our belief systems.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rov3pV9PsRI

Snag Far today and ponder existential truth to the best soundtrack there is.

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Minnesota-based singer-songwriter Haley Bonar is a fascinating intersection of indie rock, pop-punk and folk. Channeled in a sweetly melodic voice, her lyrical sensibility flows from playfully light to deeply insightful in the stroke of an acoustic chord.

She’s part Aimee Mann, part Neko Case, part your favorite NPR Live session. And unpeggably novel at the same time.

If Haley’s voice sounds familiar, you may have caught her doing back vocals for another indie favorite of ours, Andrew Bird. But her latest solo album, Big Star, is a force all its own. Our top track: Better Half.

Among the singer-songwriter’s musical feats is a stride-stoppingly excellent cover of Dolly Parton’s Jolene.

And bonus points to Haley for her gig on our long-established favorite, Daytrotter, where you can snag the entire session for free.

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Today, we’re doing something a little different — we’re picking the brains of an indie band we love, Ghost Away, whom you may remember from encounters past. Their music is part Radiohead, part Byrne/Eno, part Beck, part experimental recording project unlike anything you’ve heard before.

And it doesn’t hurt that Eric Haag (vocals, guitar, keys, laptop) and Brian Medlin (vocals, keys, drums) are two incredibly smart, forward-thinking guys, either. 

You were among those few progressive artists to “pull a Radiohead” and give your albums away as free downloads online. What was your reasoning?

Brian: The idea was to get as many people as possible to hear the record. We’re very proud of it. It being our first record, we wanted to give people an excuse to check it out. Everyone is constantly being bombarded with new music on the internet. So I think people need an excuse to check something out for the first time.

Eric: Also, we produced it entirely on our own, out of our own pocket, recorded in practice spaces and living rooms, not expensive studios. We have released stuff through labels with other bands, them paying for the studio time and helping to promote it, but this was different. It started as a side-project. A just-for-fun kind of thing. We had been working on it for years, and just wanted to get it out there. We probably discussed this for about 5 minutes. We knew that giving it away for free would get it to the most people, and there was really no need to shop it around. If we had released in on a label, they probably would have been able to help promote it, of course, but we were impatient and just wanted to do it ourselves.

Possibly the toughest question to ask any music fanatic: What’s your all-time favorite album? Why?

Brian: This is a hard question, one I can’t truely answer. I can tell you that Radiohead is probably my favorite band. And I would have to pick Radiohead’s OK Computer. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s my favorite of theirs or it’s their best. It’s just the one album that comes to mind simply because it’s the album that got me into them. I loved it when it came out, and I still love it today. It’s a personal classic album to me, and I’m sure to many other people.

Bob Dylan is another one of my favorite artists. It’s just really hard to narrow down your favorites to one thing they’ve done. It’s really all about their entire body of work.

Eric: Yeah, I feel the same way. I have never been a good list-maker or favorite-picker. I agree Radiohead is one of the best bands out there, but it’s not because of one particular album, it’s their depth and breadth that make them who they are. For me it was Kid A that really made me notice them, and by the time Hail to the Thief came out I was practically salivating for it. But, can I say any of those are my all-time favorites? I don’t know. I feel like that question tends to imply that the album itself was genius in it’s vision. So I guess Kid A is probably my pick.

I am totally into the idea of rock band renouncing rock music and doing something else. I can completely relate to that.

And some of those songs are so hard to understand how they arrived there, which is a beautiful thing.

Anyway, other albums that I feel almost as much love for are Demon Days by the Gorillaz and Beck’s Guero. Also, David Byrne’s Lead Us Not Into Temptation, and Phrenology by the Roots. All of those would be in consideration, but can any really top Kid A? Probably not.

If your music was a type of ethnic cuisine, what would it be? Elaborate.

Eric: Well, it’s not Ukrainian. We don’t sound like cabbage and pierogies. And not Spanish, cause we’re just not sexy enough. Not Indian, because that would imply it was colorful and playful and fun. And we haven’t done much like that yet.

Maybe our music is Japanese. Siberia is at least. It’s cold and raw, but it’s also got some spicy beef in there. We are hoping to make a Mexican album next.

Eric, your “day job” is graphic designer. Do you find any overlap in the creative processes of design and music? Which one gives you more “flow” – you know, the kind of work you get completely absorbed in, time stops, you forget to eat, drink, sleep?

Eric: Well, they both do that. The best stuff tends to happen when you get in that zone. When I was in art school, that definitely happened all the time. But now, more and more, design is just a day job and it’s not something I stay up late doing just out of passion. It’s commercial art, after all, and not really about personal tastes as much. I will stay up late doing it if I have to meet a deadline, but otherwise, I pour most of that kind of energy into my music. It is now the thing that makes me lose sleep and skip meals and and forget to take my dog on a walk.

When I’m working on my own writing lyrics or writing a new song, or trying to make some beat on the computer, it happens a little. But when we get together, it’s even worse. We sometimes stay out until 4 or 5 in the morning, just messing around with stuff, and I’m not someone who will just stay out that late for no good reason. We’re not teenagers anymore.

But when you get wrapped up in it, time just flies by. When things just start to come out, you have to take advantage of that energy. In that way, all creative things are like that.

You have to learn to let yourself get absorbed in it until you get that “flow.” It is so much better than sitting in your apartment beating your head against the wall.

It’s all fun and games until someone goes broke: What’s your prediction about the future of the music industry and its business model?

Brian: Well, being musicians, I guess we’re a little uncomfortable with that question. Well, not uncomfortable, but we just don’t spend much time thinking about that. We all know that it’s nearly impossible to make money as a band right now. It seems like the industry is being turned on its head.

We had a friend tell us recently that he thinks there are only like 5 bands out there making any profit off of what they do. That is not to say you can’t survive, breaking even.

Eric: But making money is a whole other thing, and apparently that doesn’t really happen anymore. If it every really did at all. It is harder and harder to make money off of recordings. Even those that cost $500,000 to make.

I don’t think hard-format music will ever completely vanish, though. Vinyl is on the rise again. It’s nice to hold something in your hands. It makes it feel more valuable.

But, we all know, that it probably won’t be a mainstream thing anymore. Pop stars won’t be able to count on selling a million records anymore. It just won’t happen. Live music will probably continue to be the best way to make money as recordings become more and more devalued. Bands have more and more ability to make and distribute their own music without the help of a label. But, labels will stick around. For real bands, maybe they’ll pay for studio time in exchange for a percentage of live profits, and not expect to make much off of the actual recorded music. For pop stars and the like, they’ll pay for expensive recordings with the hope that they can license it for commercial use and continue to sell out huge venues.

Anyway, I’m just rambling. I really have no idea. We have one foot in the industry but don’t really like to speculate too much. Brian spends almost all his time around other musicians, spending as much of half of his time lately out on the road. He says it’s not a subject that comes up much. We just think about making it. Not really selling it.

To simplify things, though, it may help to say that the music industry will always be people making music and trying to make a living off of it. It will be paid for one way or another.

Artists will have an increased ability to peddle their own wares, but there will always be the salesmen of the world around to help sell it. Who knows what the exact methods will be.

Thanks, guys. Pleasure having you. Rock on — hope to see you on Coachella or SXSW stage soon.

You can catch Ghost Away on MySpace, snag their albums for free on their website, and follow them on Twitter for a glimpse inside the minds of incredible talent.

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We’ve had our eye on Anathallo ever since their fantastic Coachella 2007 performance. Their brand of chamber indie-pop is simply unlike anything else out there — vocals that blend the lightness of youth with the intensity of life and lyrics that speak to the troubled enlightenment of the quintessential twentysomething, all wrapped in superb multi-instrumentalist percussion.

This year, we were delighted to find Anathallo equally fantastic at SXSW — be your own judge with this free copy of The River.

Taken from Greek, anathallo means “bloom again” — a fitting allegory for the band, which was conceived in 2000 only to live through several line-up changes over the next six years, until it was finally reborn in 2006 as the current 7-member neo-orchestra.

Anathallo‘s latest album, Canopy Glow, is a captivating cascade of vocal harmonies, chamber magic, and lyrical sensibility that makes you want to go out and just live. It’s part Vampire Weekend, part Kings of Convenience, part Fleet Foxes, part something else entirely.

So give Canopy Glow a listen — if for no other reason, then just because it’s not every day you hear a trombone, a flugelhor AND an autoharp in an indie band.

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With harmonies that give Fleet Foxes a run for their money, vocals reminiscent of The Magnetic Fields, and cinematic beats that channel Scandinavian favorites like Sambassadeur, indie popsters The Botticellis took the speed lane to our (disappointingly short) best-of-SXSW-2009 list. 

Their sun-drenched sound and dreamy guitars come, unsurprisingly, from Southern California. And while a clear nostalgic connection with surf culture oozes from their music, deep lyrical sensibility and unique analog production make The Botticellis a delightfully unclassifiable force of their own.

Their debut album, Old Home Movies, is every bit as excellent as their eponymous SXSW track, which you can snag for free right here.

You can also spot The Botticellis (and a ton more free downloads) on Daytrotter, easily the best up-and-coming music site around, and one we’ve been enamored with for a long, long, long, long time.

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We’re still making our way through 140+ hours of SXSW music, having found less than twenty 5-star-worthy tracks to date. But but with foot planted firmly among them is Kat Edmonson — a refreshing oasis of raspy, jazzy goodness among the barren landscape of indie punk-pop-rock mediocrity.

Her latest album, Take To The Sky, is a delight from start to finish, including the best cover of Summertime we’ve heard in quite some time. In fact, it’s the best new jazz vocal we’ve heard in quite some time, period.

Part Duffy, part Madeleine Peyroux, Edmonson blends the magnetism of French jazz with the British school of raspy vocals, intertwined with notes of social responsibility reminiscent of the California indie scene — all by way of Austin, Texas.

You can download her excellent SXSW single, Just One Of Those Things, free from the festival website. And take our word for it — the entire Take To The Sky album is every bit as good.

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As we’re slowly digesting the usual mix of the good, the bad and the unfortunately mediocre from this year’s SXSW, we’ll spare you the latter two by focusing on the former: One of our favorite SXSW performers was actually an old indie favorite of ours.

Lisa Hannigan‘s brand of vocal delight and instrumental perfection is part Emiliana Torrini‘s charmingly off-quilter vibe, part Ingrid Michaelson‘s soft intensity, part the haunted harmonies of Fleet Foxes. In other words, Damien Rice and Vampire Weekend rolled into one big Y chromosome.

The Damien Rice comparison isn’t at all groundless. Lisa made her name accompanying Damien — they’ve recorded a number of fantastic duets, most notably the brilliant Cold Water. They even have a surprisingly well-directed video to their credit.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, the two parted ways nearly two years ago when Lisa left the band due to creative differences. But her first post-Damien solo album, Sea Sew, is superb — so we won’t go writing her off as a has-been piggybacker just yet.

Lisa’s SXSW performance of Lille was breathtaking — luckily for you, the track is a free download on Amazon, so do take advantage. And, while you’re at it, consider the Sea Sew album in its entirety — it’s excellent from start to finish, a rarity with album releases these days.

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Every once in a while, we wonder what happened to rock. Real, gritty, sung-from-the-back-of-a-smoky-bar rock. When did it stop being “in”? When did it steal candy from Brooklyn’s hipsters and get reported to the uncoolness police?

Luckily, we don’t subscribe to such regulations. Good music is good music. And Keep It Hid, the solo debut of Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, is pure rock indulgence, good music supreme.

You can just see him pouring himself a somber glass of whiskey, sitting out on a Southern porch with his old guitar and a half-smoked cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth, trying to unravel the paradox of melancholic anger while thinking of your sister in ways you don’t want anyone thinking about your sister.

With sound that’s part Johnny Cash, part Gnarls Barkley, part Lenny Kravitz’ infamous guitar, Keep It Hid takes real rock by the grimy collar and drags it out of its pop culture slump.

via Very Short List

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Today, we’re doing something different. Instead of the usual indie up-and-comer, we’re going back to the idea that the best of innovation comes from taking tradition and flipping it on its head. In music, it doesn’t get more traditional than orchestras. So, today, we’re looking at three groundbreaking ways of orchestrating orchestras.

HAMBURG PHILHARMONIC

Last Monday, the Hamburg Philahrmonic put on a grand show — in fact, it was the world’s biggest music performance.

Instead of their usual venue, the 100 musicians took to the city, dispensing across 50 locations, replicating the layout of a concert hall stage on a much larger scale.

Overlooking this grand stage from the top of St. Michaelis Church, Hamburg’s highest point, the conductor worked her magic.

The musicians themselves were connected with each other via live video feed, with flatscreens propped right next to their sheet music — a wonderful metaphor for the classical-two-point-ohness of the stunt.

Watch the teaser video to really grasp the brilliance of this endeavor and the scale of the performance. Genius.

via GOOD

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL AT TED

Gustavo Dudamel is known as one of the most exciting and animated conductors of our time. He is also one of the youngest.

At last month’s TED, he led a truly jaw-dropping performance that elicited a standing ovation like no other — he conducted The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, composed of the best high school musicians from Venezuela’s life-changing music program, El Sistema, of which Dudamel himself is a product.

The performance is nothing short of awe-inspiring. But, more importantly, it’s a testament to the need — the urgency — of preserving and advancing music education, of harnessing youth talent, of fostering the culture and the cult of musical genius.

GOOGLE COLLABORATIVE ORCHESTRA

We firmly believe collaboration is the future of every aspect of culture. And Google is taking the lead on the music front. Last week, they announced the winners of the world’s first online collaborative orchestra.

The contest called for professional and amateur musicians to “audition” for the 90 spots on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Entries came from over 30 countries on six continents, with musicians playing some 26 different instruments. The 90 international winners, who will travel to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall, were selected by the YouTube community and a panel of performers from the world’s most renowned orchestras.

You can see all the winning audition videos on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra Channel. They are, needless to say, phenomenal.

The orchestra will participate in a collaborative summit for classical music in New York next month, wrapping up with their Carnegie Hall concert — which, by the way, will be conducted by none other than San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, also founder of New World Symphony  and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Here’s to making collaboration the new classic.

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In 2007, four fantastic musicians came together in Brisbane to form an equally fantastic band. It was called Goodnight Vienna. Then they got a legal threat — from none other than Richard Starkey Jr., better known to the rest of us as Ringo Starr. Turns out, Goodnight Vienna was the name of Ringo’s fourth studio album and although he “thoroughly enjoyed the music,” he felt “obligated to dissuade any profiteering which resulted from the use of his intellectual property.”

Ahem.

So, naturally, the band changed its name to Blame Ringo.

Genius.

Today, Blame Ringo is on a mission to seek revenge on Ringo — which, of course, is just a tongue-in-cheek front for imparting their excellent music on the unsuspecting world. And excellent it is — if Fleet Foxes, Beck, I’m From Barcelona and Guillemots went on tour together, Blame Ringo would be that tour — vocals that flow from hauntingly cloudiness to peppy sunlight, guitar solos that can put George Harrison to shame, and an occasional jazzy trumpet that’s like the dash of cinnamon on top of your cappuccino, taking it from delicious to pure delight.

And, yes, there may be a bit of that Beatlesque vibe in there, too.

But what we loved most about the band was their wonderful and clever promo for Garble Arch, the first single from their debut album Lucky Number 9 – A Day in the Life of Abbey Road, an utterly delightful stop-motion video shot on, yes, the Abbey Road.

So if you’re a Beatles aficionado, an appreciator of quirk, or just a lover of really, really good music, grab Lucky Number 9 and join the conspiracy. And take a moment to explore the band website, full of delightfully hilarious nuggets of anti-Ringo propaganda.

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