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  1. Three for the Road

    Comments: 0
    29.Apr.08, 16:38 EDT Blog edited on: 29.Apr.08, 20:42 EDT
    “What’cha listening to these days?” It’s the music buff’s conversation opener, a bid to share discoveries, compare notes – maybe show off. So in case you were wondering, here are three discs that recently crossed my CD player – and have stayed there.

    Santogold, Santogold (Downtown): There’s something about females singing obliquely over angular, rhythmic tracks that makes me want to jump up and down. The debut album by Brooklyn toaster/singer Santi White (pictured) and songwriter John Hill mixes '80s empower pop with '00s dancehall: It’s Missing Persons meets M.I.A., complete with clap tracks and weird synth effects. Media from Rolling Stone to Interview have been salivating over tracks like "LES Artistes" since they first hit the Internet last year. Santogold finally arrives in stores today.



    Macaque, Chinatown EP: Another fem-punk New York new wave outfit, Macaque warble like Bjork and cavort like the Brazilian Girls. Evers’s vocals are seemingly cotton-candy light, but pack a not-so-hidden bite, as she taunts a "Big Man:" "I can’t wait to knock you down." Chris Hart’s beats are deliriously Garageband simple – you’ll wish you’d thought of them first. But Macaque did.



    Various artists, Independent Music for Independent Coffee Drinkers (sonaBLAST!): My colleague Wendy Case would probably call this collection of mellow coffeehouse anthems chirp rock. But it’s really good chirp rock. In a compilation of largely unknown folk singers, you’d expect to find several bad beans – but the quality control here is excellent. Mark Geary (who used to be my favorite New York bartender back when I called Irish pub the Scratcher my living room) is at his Nick Drake loveliest on two tracks, "Here’s to You" and "Obi’s Chair." Charlotte Kendrick is an endearing Luddite on "I Get Stupid." The oddball winner of the collection is "Violet Morning," in which Jamie Barnes sings with endearing, over-the-top sincerity and compassion about the day R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry collapsed from a brain aneurysm. I’d say these laidback tunes are more for the herbal tea than the espresso crowd – or maybe they’re for slow-grind aficionados (sorry, can’t stop the coffee puns).

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