October is always one of my favorite months. I love when summer starts to go away and it starts to get cold again. We have been having some October rain out here in Los Angeles that has been fabulous! This also means that Halloween is right around the corner! Many labels save their big releases for the end of the year, which also makes this time of year exciting for those of us that love music. October 12th is a big release day -- three of my favorite artists have releases on this date! It's almost too much to handle! Sufjan Stevens, Belle & Sebastian, & Antony & the Johnsons all have new albums -- all in one day! I have been patiently waiting for Sufjan to continue his series on all the 50 States. He gave us the brilliant Illinois and Michigan and then nothing else. I am of course wanting California and New York, but also all the States in between. I am hoping that he has actually been working on them in secret. He just continues to release these other albums to distract us, right? But then in a couple of years he will release a comprehensive 50 state box set. It will have an album for each state and also contain 2 7"s for the commonwealths and it will come with a puzzle. I could even be satisfied with an album of 150 songs with 3 songs for each state -- just give me something, Sufjan! A 7" for each state would also be amazing! His new album is called Age of Adz. I sort of had a strange reaction to it at first. It incorporates some electronics and at times sounds like a Lil Jon album...but it is still Sufjan, and I still love it. I just takes a couple of listens.

Belle & Sebastian's new album Write About Love also took a couple of listens to fall in love with. I was sort of still on my Belle & Sebastian high from seeing them in Vegas. And I do love the contest they ran to get fans to write about love. There are some great songs on Write About Love for sure but I really could have lived without the Norah Jones duet. I know this band is both easy to love and hate. Some people are very proud of their hatred of the band. I am one of the lovers of the band and I always will feel the same.

It is hard to believe that September is almost here -- it seems like summer just started! But before we know it the kids will be back in school and we will all be getting ready for the holiday season. I love this time of year... The end of summer, I mean. I was actually one of those weird kids who didn't mind going back to school. I looked forward to the end of summer and the beginning of fall and winter. The award season is also right around the corner and the Emmy Awards are this Sunday! I am thinking they are actually going to be very funny this year since they are hosted by Jimmy Fallon. I do still love Jimmy Fallon from his SNL days. I am rarely up late enough to catch his show but I do like it whenever I manage to watch it. I still think that Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon should host the Oscars together. And yes, the Oscars are also right around the corner -- the Oscar nominations will be given out January 25th and the actual Oscars will be on February 27th!
                                                                                                                                                                       
It has been a couple of slow weeks for music new releases. Arcade Fire week was amazing a couple of weeks ago but it was all sort of downhill after that. Now things are getting exciting again this week! The great end of summer albums are coming out and there are some fantastic albums right around the corner to get us through the end of the year. Additionally, there are some exciting new EPs and singles and 7"s out this week. No Age put out a new single called "Glitter" on 12" and 7". They have a new album, Everything in Between, out on September 28th. Blonde Redhead released "Not Getting There" as a 12" this week. They are one of my absolute favorites who never let me down and I can't get enough of them! They have a new album out on September 14th called Penny Sparkle. I still remember the first time I heard Blonde Redhead. That girl has one of those amazing voices and I have never heard anyone like her. Glad to have them back in my life! I assume by now that everyone has heard them but if you haven't, check out A Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons and In an Expression of the Inexpressible first.

#1
Sigur Ros-Agaetis Byrjun
(Play it Again Sam) 2000




listen to "Ny Batteri" by Sigur Ros....




#2
Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Fever To Tell (Interscope) 2003






listen to "Y Control" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs...






#3
A Place To Bury Strangers-
A Place To Bury Strangers
(Killer Pimp) 2007

I am now even more obsessed with Antony & the Johnsons. After their amazing show last week it is really all I can think about it. I was completely blown away by the show. It was tragic and sad and beautiful and wonderful all at the same time. This was also my first trip to the Disney Concert Hall. What a perfect place to see him play. I seriously just wanted to stay there all night. I kind of want to live there permanently. We did sort of feel like tourists walking around the venue and looking around at everything, sort of like how tourists do when they first visit New York City and can't stop looking up at the skyscrapers. He ended up playing a bunch of new songs that were not from the recently released EP. I don't think I even noticed any of the songs from the EP that night. The new songs sounded fantastic and I am now even more excited for the new album next year. There were of course songs that I wanted to hear that he did not play, but he did manage to play some of my favorites, including his cover of "Crazy in Love" by Beyonce. It was a fun crowd to be around as well -- many celebrities were in the crowd that night. I was sitting next to a certain reality star of the show Work Out. Totally random. It just made me happy that he was a fan. Everyone was just in awe of Antony that night. It will be hard to compare other shows to this night. It was really that good.

Not a whole lot out this week. Christmas is around the corner, but once again the labels don't seem to have a whole lot to offer us. There is one new album that I have become a bit obsessed with. For some reason it took me over 10 years to finally discover Windy & Carl. I have long been a fan of the label Kranky. This new album Songs for the Broken Hearted will be their fourth on Kranky. Before this were Depths (98), Conciousness (01), and The Dream House (2005). They have also had about 6 or 7 other albums in between those Kranky albums over the years, in addition to a 3CD compilation in 2002 called Introspection. I have heard of them but never really gave them a listen until now. I was just waiting for somebody to tell me to listen to them, but it never happened. I thought they were a little too new age for me or maybe a little too experimental, but I really didn't know for sure. I gave this new album a listen and fell in love after the second listen. They almost sort of hide their greatness within the album. You may not find it right away. The casual listener could easily dismiss the album as another album of ambient droney shoegaze, but you just sort of have to open your mind a bit and let the album sort of take over. There are brilliant short little songs with vocals hidden between the rest of the album, which is mostly ambient sort of guitar pieces. The album is also very full of emotion. Depending on what kind of mood you are in, it could either drive you to tears or make you feel happy and content. This is another sort of album that I think of as musical therapy.

I love the simplicity of this:


Finally, finally, after about 3 years of waiting, Antony and the Johnsons will be releasing an EP on Oct 7 entitled Another World. To celebrate the release, Antony is playing two US concerts, one in LA and one in Harlem, with full orchestration co-arranged by the brilliant Nico Muhly. Those dates are here. There will also be two dates in the UK. Antony's next full length, The Crying Light, will apparently be released on January 21, 2009.

If you somehow missed I Am A Bird Now, which won the Mercury Prize for Best Album of 2005, do yourself a favor and grab a copy. Or if you aren't in the mournful mood, you can check out Antony's flawless vocal contributions to Hercules and Love Affair's self titled album. This should get you up and dancing:


And if you wanna hear Antony singing "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," click here.