The Sweet Sounds of Summer

I figured I would do this at some point, its a bit of a cop out blog post but I thought It might be interesting to some of you. I figured I would put together a blog of the music that I'm listening to the most this summer. I spend a minimum of two hours each day (round trip) traveling for work, so I've had lots of time to explore music both new and old. I also have fairly quick internet at work and Russian law is somewhat more relaxed than the US so I am getting new music for free.

So here is what I've been listening to:

The Band:HHH. 

The Reason:How could I not listen to the Hungry Hungry Hypocrites? They are a home town band from Glastonbury, I used to be their roadie, I played upright bass for them at a show, they 

played a full show in my living room, and we used to all be part of a traveling street percussion ensemble (The Jew Man Group). They have grown a lot since the days of spur of the moment Pinebrook show's and Coffee House, but they haven't lost their eclectic feel. 

My favorite tracks:The Prickly Pear highlights the band's immense strength in song writing. December is a good track and shows Simonich's stellar vocals. 

Conctact: Website  or Facebook or MySpace

Final Word: From a recent, New Haven Advocate concert review "The performances have not yet caught up with the songwriting, but this is a good snapshot of a band finding their sound." I attribute this only to their stellar song writing (Love Handle?)

The Band: DJ An-Log

The Reason: He basically took DJ DangerMouse's idea from the Grey Album but instead of using the Beatles, he used Death Cab For Cutie. Now you know me, and I'm no Death Cab fan but the outcome is surprisingly good. To be honest the engineering and mixing quality of An-log's album "Death Cab for Hova" makes Danger 

Mouse look like a rookie. The sound is better, the constitution of the original music is better kept, and all in all I think its much more fun to listen to.

Favorite Tracks: "What Hova's Mom Said" and " Dirt into The Dark" are my favorite tracks off this album, but all of the tracks are good in their own right, these just happen to speak to me.

Contacts: Facebook or LastFM(free downloads)

Final Word: Not exactly an up and coming artist or really an artist at all in some senses of the term, but fun to listen to, no doubt. I have the torrent for the whole album if you want it... let me know.

Artists I Recommend (but am too lazy to write at length about)

-The Magic Numbers: Credit to HHH for the introduction. Download Mornings Eleven... its good plain fun music.

- A Tribe Called Quest: I'm a sucker for old school hip-hop and in my opinion you should be too. Check these guys out if you want to expand your knowledge of the oldies. Can I Kick It features a Lou Reed sample... how could you go wrong?

-Jamie Cullum: Credit to Ali Lavine for the introduction via a stolen and ripped iPod. Good relaxed piano music. My Dad referred to him as "Harry Connick Jr for [my] generation." Check out Photographs its my personal favorite of his.

I'm working on the camping story, but its long and I'm lazy...go figure.

-Craig