Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Amanda Blank - Baltimore's answer to M.I.A.


Amanda Blank is on a bandwagon, but she's on a pretty good bandwagon. Blank follows in the steps of M.I.A. and Santigold as a female singer/rapper with an eclectic, electronic sound. In light of some of the explicit nature of her lyrics and her riot grrrrrl delivery, she also owes a huge debt to Peaches. That being said, she reminds me most of the great female hip-hop trio from the late 90s, Luscious Jackson (whom you should of course check out if you're unfamiliar with them).

My three favorite tracks are Make It Take It, Something Bigger, Something Better, and Shame On Me.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Alexi Murdoch - Away We Go



Alexi Murdoch is one of these Nick Drake guys. If you like Nick Drake, you'll like Mr. Murdoch's pretty voice, just slightly tinged with regret and longing, and his lovely acoustic guitar work. He worked on the Away We Go soundtrack and released some new material for the movie. I'd recommend Breathe and All My Days. Orange Sky is old, but is one of his best songs. While I'm on the subject of his old songs, Dream About Flying is also worth a listen, but isn't available on this album.