Coming from the band Rilo Kiley, which should also become one of my Album of the Day’s, is Jenny Lewis. If there is an album I listen to more often than anything else, this is it.

Buy this album for the lyrics, she is an amazing songwriter. her singing is fantastic as well, for me, the lyrics to each song just takes away from everything else. If you ever have a chance to see her live, I would. I would also call this one of the best 3 shows I have ever seen.

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Album of the Day
A friend of mine turned me on to this band. One of my favorite songs so far is Lloyd, I`m Ready To Be Heartbroken. Good band, very Cardigans in feel to me. Check them out, they are called Camera Obscura, which is a pretty cool name, and also serves as a drawing device of the past.

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Heard a new artist named Tanya Chua. Either my google skills are totally weak, or she is just really underground. There is a ton of chatter about her, just no official website, and no where I can see to order any of her music.

If anyone has any relevant links, drop them into the comments please.

Susanna Hoffs - Susanna Hoffs
There are a lot of fans out there of the band The Bangles, what many people don’t know, is there is some newer stuff out there by the lead. If you were a sucker for Eternal Flame or Manic Monday, you really need to give this album a try. I honestly have to say, there is not a song on this album I do not like, they are all very well done, and very much in the same feel as something like Eternal Flame.

This is one of those albums you forget about having, the radio never seems to play it, and no one else seems to know about it, yet, on random, iTunes shoves it in my face. When that happens, its like I just discovered it all over again. As strange as my musical tastes get, I put this on my top ten of all time for certain, sadly, iTunes does not offer a sample, so you will have to use Amazon.

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Album of the Day
This is just freakish, I had no idea this band would be in the iTunes Music Store catalog. Fifteen is a small band that has been together and broken up more times than Microsoft has screwed people. Jeff Ott is the frontman, from what I can dig up on him, he lives in Santa Rosa California. For me, it is pretty odd to like a band that is so openly extreme liberal, but alas, that is the punk rock mantra, just usually not to such “hippy commune” ideals as what Fifteen stands for. I got into them when I was too young to care about what politics were, let alone know that my favorite genre of music stands for almost everything I am against. :-)

I really suggest you take a look at everything they put out, or at least everything they put out on Lookout Records. “Surprise”, which is my AotD is not in iTunes since it was put out on another label, hopefully you can sample some of the songs on Amazon. There is a good deal of overlap on the albums anyway, “Definition” will give you a good idea of what they sound like.

ITunes Samples | Buy At Amazon

Album of the Day
Nina Gordon used to be one of the singers in Veruca Salt, you may remember her from their hit song “Seether“. For some reason she is not in the iTunes Catalog, try the Amazon link below or just go to her site and listen to the multitude of samples she has put up. I would say, somewhere in-between Aimee Mann and Juliana Hatfield, but with a much more sultry twist to it. There are a few tracks that others have mistaken for Madonna, whom I am not a fan of, but it just goes to show how great her voice is on this album. Oh, and if you still think Skid Row is a damn fine rock band, like I do, this cover of 18 and life Nina Gordon does should spark some interest.

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Album of the Day
I think it was Supernova (Sorry, this is an acoustic live thing, iTunes does not have WhipSmart in the catalog) that first got me into Liz Phair, right about the time 120 minutes was on MTV and it was actually a good place to discover new bands like Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumkins, Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. and any number of other bands that by now most of you have heard of. Miss Phair is a tough one, her songs tend to be rather graphic and leaning on the side of something a guy certainly should not listen to. Her self titled release has a track aptly named H.W.C. which is an acronym for “Hot White Cum”! I don’t know about you, but female or male, I just have a hard time digesting that title. :-) What’s worse is it is probably one of the stronger tracks on the album, finding yourself singing along and realizing exactly what it is you are groovin’ to can be a little disconcerting! She’s definitely unique, her album is polished and well done, not to mention, she is pretty damn hot, is into the PlayStation, is good friends with John Cusac, and you have an all around nice little package. If you can get over the “girly” party of it, I suggest you pick it up or give it a listen.

iTunes Samples | Buy At Amazon

Album of the Day
This is pretty old, circa 1990 or so. You may remember the song "Sweet Jane" from Natural Born Killers: A Soundtrack For An Oliver Stone Film. I bought the original album, and since then they have released The Trinity Sessions which seems to have a whole lot more songs in the same spirit as "Sweet Jane", which is the only reason I ever got into this band. I never really liked any of the other albums, but this one, is just really good. Almost all the songs have that Mazzy Star "feel" to them, which is why it is such a nice easy album to listen to. If you liked "Sweet Jane", you are pretty sure to like the rest of the songs on this album, if anything get it just for "Sweet Jane" which is a remarkable peiece.

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Album of the Day
For those of you who do not know, Ben Weasel is the front man for a punk band called Screeching Weasel. Don’t bother with the main bands website, it has not been updated in ages. Either way, Screeching Weasel to many is considered to be in the same league as the Ramones. Personally, I like them a little better, but they certainly have a spot in punk rock history. I could never even begin to get across how important and influential they are to music in general. Most of you I am sure have never even heard of them, other than perhaps one stint where they put out a release on a semi-large label. If you at all care to understand just how important these guys are, take a read over at “Screeching Weasel is Dead” and see what I mean. This album, however, is not a Screeching Weasel release, but a solo album, and in my opinion, one of Ben’s better works.

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Album of the Day
I know, it is starting to seem like I am a total wimp for anything female when it comes to must, and for the most part, you are sort of right :-) My real roots in music come from punk rock, I like to consider myself the Matt Pinfield of punk rock, only I don’t actually know anything at all. I did just drop way too much money on a “system” in my car, and have just been into more well recorded stuff. Tigerlilly happens to be one of the better recorded albums out there. Some of her older stuff, some of the stuff she did in 10,000 Maniacs, while not bad, is just not *this* good. I am not saying one of my AotD’s won’t be a 10,000 Maniacs album, but when there are songs like Carnival with it’s rock solid kick drum that just hits you physically, I can not pass this up as anohter one of my favorites.

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Album of the Day
Hmmmkay, since I guess I officially started this blog and at least got it into a publishable phase around about yesterday or so, I guess I am one day behind on the AotD’s. Aimee Mann is one of those exceptional artists that just seems to go really unotived unless you travel in certain circles. Sarah McLachlan gets a lot more press, a lot more radio play, yet, in my opinion, can not hold a candle to the likes of Aimee Mann. More than likely you have hear here in the movie Magnolia, at least, that is where a lot of people started to take notice of her. She has been around a while, you old timers out there may still remember a day when MTV played videos, and one of them was by a band named ‘Til Tuesday which got semi-popular with a the hit “Voices Carry”

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Album of the Day
As time goes on, many of you will get a better feel for the music I am into, it is a rather broad range. The only thing you will never find me linking to or talking about in any high regard is hip-hop/rap, it’s just not my thing. I am going to try to add an “Album of the Day” to the blog every day, and link it up as best as I can so you can find it, and hopefully give it a sample. Today’s AotD is Celebrity Skin by Hole, which does not seem to have a website at all, so you are just going to have to deal with Courtney Love instead. Every time I listen to this album, I just have to wonder why it was such an under the radar release. Maybe it has a lot to do with Courtney Love being a pill popping control freak, I don’t really care, this is one of my top 50 albums of all time. The recording quality is superb, the lack of any similarity to her past “punk” albums is totally gone. Complete with a few subtle references to the late Cobain, this is just a awesome all around album, take a sample over at the iTMS and see for yourself.

iTunes Samples | Buy At Amazon