Friday, March 05, 2010

Friday Night Videos



The Northern Uganda Livelihood Project is a non-profit sponsored by Oxfam International and the Norwegian Refugee Council that gives women in Northern Uganda access and ability to create their own sustainable livelihoods. The expansive hipster collective Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros recently donated money from the sales of their new record to The Voice Project, one of it’s programs, so women in Gulu could start a new farm. In gratitude, the women perform the chorus of the band's Home in the video above. Home is performed in the video below by The Magnetic Zeros themselves, starting at around the 5:00 minute mark, after Janglin' and followed by 40 Day Dream. Interestingly, they appear to be performing in somebody's office.

Nashville's Josh Rouse has been one of my favorite singer-songwriters ever since I first heard the album 1972 back in 2003. I often feel that I'm in the presence of quiet genius when I listen to his music. Rouse moved to Barcelona a couple years ago and in 2007 released an EP with Paz Suay entitled She's Spanish, I'm American. He now has an album coming out of Brazilian songs sung in Spanish. "I know it's kind of funny, this Midwestern guy doing Brazilian songs in Spanish," Rouse said. "I don't know if it fits, but I like the way it feels." Here's a video of Rouse in Barcelona performing one of his older numbers and one of his new Brazilian songs.


Artist-producer Danger Mouse has produced some memorable music over the past decade. In addition to his mash-up masterpiece The Grey Album and his work with Gnarls Barkley, he collaborated on an album last summer with indie-rock recluse Sparklehorse entitled Dark Night of the Soul. The project included a 100-page photo book by David Lynch. Now, Danger Mouse has collaborated with James Mercer, lead singer and guitarist for The Shins, to form Broken Bells. They played their first-ever live performance at the Bootleg in L.A. back on February 19, and there's video on YouTube of them performing Tommy James' 1968 hit Crimson and Clover in Paris on March 1.


On The High Road, Mouse plays organ, drums, piano, synths and bass, while Mercer's on vocals, guitars, and bass; the official video for the song has a definite David Lynch vibe to it.


Finally, Twin Sister's music has been described as "'80s delay-pedal shimmery-ness" with "nods to '70s muted-fretboard soft rock soul, as well as a pastoral folk thing going on. Basically, dreamy and beautiful stuff. " If you want to know what that might actually sound like, hear for yourself:


That's all I've got for tonight. Sorry for the rambling, somewhat random nature of this post, but I hope that you enjoy some of the music.

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