SALON

Wednesday, Jan 5, 2005 9:00 PM UTC

Flash-forward 2005

The year ahead promises records from Beck, Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, even Paris Hilton. Plus: Free music from Marianne Faithfull, Iggy Pop and more.

By

Topics: Music,

Welcome to Wednesday Morning Download v.2005. There’s plenty of music to look forward to this year: a hotly anticipated rock album from Beck; a new record from 2004′s MVP, Kanye West, with a guest appearance from the much maligned but often brilliant John Mayer; welcome returns from Stevie Wonder and Scott Walker; near surefire genius from Outkast; near surefire comic relief from Paris Hilton; and the solo debut by hit-making production team the Matrix, which promises to be a work of evil genius.

And then there’s all the free music, which is what I’ll be tracking down for you. I’ve got a bunch of exciting tracks lined up already, but as always, I’d like suggestions. So if you know of a free and legal download that you think would be right for this column, post it on the Wednesday Morning Download Table Talk thread, or e-mail me.

“My Friends Have,” Marianne Faithfull, from “Before the Poison”
The majority of Marianne Faithfull’s new album, and ANTI records debut, was written by either PJ Harvey or Nick Cave (five and three tracks, respectively). Faithfull’s decision to have the two not just write songs but also produce them and provide instrumental accompaniment was both gutsy and canny. Gutsy because she’s inviting direct comparison with two such forceful, unmistakable artists; canny because it pays off so well. The Harvey tracks, performed with her longtime drummer, the brilliant Rob Ellis, and Portishead’s Adrian Utley, are especially effective, her guttural, punky songs suited perfectly to Faithfull’s cragged, desperately sad voice. Free Download: “My Friends Have”

Jens Lekman, Department of Forgotten Songs
This is a real treasure trove, a biweekly updated collection of unreleased demos, rarities and b-sides from Swedish wunderkind (and WMD reader favorite) Jens Lekman. His precocious baritone and ambitious lyrics can sometimes come off as a tad too self-conscious, but Lekman’s home-studio genius is astounding. Track after track combines samples, sequencing and a variety of live instruments in such unexpected but delightful ways that I think the young man has already surpassed the production skills (if not the songwriting) of his musical father, Stephin Merritt. My favorites from the current batch of songs include “Pretty Shoes,” “Bois-bis-o-boisa,” “Pocketful of Money” and “At the Department of Forgotten Songs,” but everything here is worth a listen. Free Download: “Department of Forgotten Songs”

“Ditshe Tshiekutala,” Konono No. 1, from “Lubuaka” In order to achieve success in the lucrative world-music market, it helps to be either slick and Westernized or rustically, sloppily traditional and “authentic.” That’s a shame, because it’s so often music that falls somewhere in the middle — rooted in tradition, but not dogmatically so — that is the most exciting. Konono No. 1 is a Congolese group that is driven by three thumb pianos, or likembes, amplified to the point of distortion and playing trancey, repetitive loops, surrounded by a cacophony of junkyard percussion and shouting voices. I fear they’re neither smooth enough for Starbucks nor primitive enough for trad-music fetishists, but they sure are fun to listen to. This link comes via Fat Planet. Free Download: “Ditshe Tshiekutala”

“The Matter (of Our Discussion),” Boom Bip, featuring Nina Nastasia, from “Blue Eyed in the Red Room”
Although it’s not going to be released until mid-February, there are already two mp3s available from hip-hop producer/electronic music composer Boom Bip’s upcoming “Blue-Eyed in the Red Room.” “The Move” (click here for free download) is a hugely satisfying feel-good mélange of analog burbles, digital clicks and woozy synth string sounds. In “The Matter (of Our Discussion),” Nina Nastasia gives a typically clear-voiced, understated performance over drifting, slow-moving clouds of harmony. Free Download: “The Matter (of Our Discussion)”

“You Better Run,” Iggy and the Stooges, from “Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough”
Junior Kimbrough, who died in 1998, was one of the great modern bluesmen — but to call him a “modern bluesman” feels wrong, as Kimbrough, with his haunted, modal blues and obvious but apparently unconscious ties to African music, seems so much the product of a shadowy, mysterious past, keeping the enigmatic air that surrounded early bluesmen like Skip James alive well into the ’90s. Now Fat Possum records is preparing to release a tribute record, with versions of Kimbrough’s songs performed by artists like the Black Keys, Spiritualized, Mark Lanegan, Jim White, and the Fiery Furnaces. Although Kimbrough certainly deserves wider recognition, the idea of a tribute album is, in this case, a questionable one, because his greatness was so completely in performance rather than composition. Iggy and the Stooges’ punkified version of “You Better Run” is fun, though, especially with Iggy substituting his own name for Kimbrough’s in spoken sections: “On the way home I said, ‘Baby! You might still get raped.’ She said, ‘Oh, Mr. Pop!’” Free Download: “You Better Run”

Thomas Bartlett is a writer and musician in New York. He maintains a blog called doveman. More Thomas Bartlett.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
359 points360 points | 350 comments
vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
269 points270 points | 28 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
233 points234 points | 32 comments
vote
Austerity Kills: Brian McArdle, a 57-year-old man who had had two strokes and could barely walk, was found "fit for work" by a government subcontractor, and had his benefits stopped. He died the next day.
115 points116 points | 15 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills -- radical cuts destroy economies and lives, and the honest numbers and economics keep proving it
120 points121 points | 14 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations