POPCAST #563 TREATS THE FOLLOWING: Death-colds, failed garage sales, toothaches and that pesky, life-y stuff.
RECOMMENDED USE: Popcast #563 definitely celebrates those uncertain and slightly uncomfortable moments in life that this pop doctor has a particular specialty in. The good news is that this precarious state makes for some fine pop music selections and the realization that hey, good art comes from discomfort so go take that furrowed brow and put it to good use (meaning: you know those popsicle sticks you've been saving for the past few years? yeah. its finally time to make that kick-ass scale model log cabin you've been dreaming about for so long. DO IT.)
SPECIAL NOTE: Don't fight it; Isao Tomita's spaced-out version of Clair de Lune was specially designed to make you close your eyes and imagine yourself floating in pastel-colored sea of possibilities. And yes, your rainbow sparkle space caftan really does look smashing on you.
1. California Dreamin': Bobby Womack | 2. Trouble of My Own: Slumber Party | 3. Changes: Stars | 4. Abducted: Cults | 5. Blank Slate: The National | 6. When Will You Go: The Dodos | 7. One Time Too Many: Phoenix | 8. It's A Shame About Ray: The Lemonheads | 9. Middle Cyclone: Neko Case | 10. Y: iamamiwhoami | 11. Miracle: Cocorosie | 12. Clair de Lune (Claude Debussy): Isao Tomita | 13. As Night is Falling: The Clientele
It's guest popcast time! This week the fantastically fanciful indie-baroque-folk (or as I prefer to call, indie barfolque…) band, Il Gato, stopped by the sprawling Nordic compound known as P&C studios to drop off a guest popcast and a most entertaining story about cats. Quelle merveille! This charming quartet is from San Francisco and they just got back from a grand debut at this year's SXSW showcase. Their current album All these Slippery Things probably needs a home in your record collection(available to stream and purchase here.) Here's a delicious mp3 sample, On Feathers & Arrows (On Burnt Pine), to whet your appetite; super win! This song makes me wanna don a bejeweled jumpsuit and aviator's cap and shoot myself out of a cannon (which is a good thing). So if you like old world strings and trumpets, melancholy waltzes, banjos, accordions, swelling horn sections and Italian cats then you're probably part gypsy. But more importantly, you're probably going to really dig Il Gato (and you're definitely going to dig this most premium music video of theirs).
Ok, sssh… Now its story time!
(an excerpt from the dusty tour-log of Il Gato bandmember Daimian Holiday Scott.)
After finally making it through all of the mazes and ladders and slides that lead to Pop & Circumstance's secret lair, the first thing we noticed was a funny feeling on our noses. We thought at first it was merely all of the feathers which P&C uses to keep their whole operation afloat, but it was not. It was the cats.
And there was a ridiculous amount of them. There was one driving the steering wheel of our now ascending room. There was one with tiny cat headphones manning the turntable in the corner. There was one in a sexy dress behind the bar whipping up Catmopolitans. There were two we had mistaken for door people who took our coats. In the midst of all of these cats there was us, il gato, and POPCAST #562.
Oh, and let me tell you, POPCAST #562 was far more catty then we can ever pretend to be. There were songs with cat, lion and tiger in them. There were pop songs, blues songs and folk songs. There were songs with cat in the title and there were songs performed by artists with cat in their name. There even was a song by an artist (Juana Molina) who used the cats from around her house in the recordings. It was straight cat crazy! And that is when we knew it was time to take our leave and float back down to the ground: happy to have made it to the secret lair, but oh so grateful to be back home.
1. The Lovecats: The Cure | 2. Cookin' Catfish: Albert Collins | 3. Wildcat: Ratatat | 4. Jimmi Diggin Cats: Digable Planets | 5. Dread Lion: The Upsetters | 6. Django's Tiger: Django Reinhardt | 7. My Tiger My Heart: The Boy Least Likely To | 8. Wildcat: The Rosebuds | 9. Cat Faces: Ugly Casanova | 10. Lion's Mane: Iron and Wine | 11. Trouble: Cat Stevens | 12. When the Catfish Is In Bloom: Requia/John Fahey | 13. Rio Seco: Juana Molina | 14. The Longer I Lay Here: Pedro The Lion | 15. Colors and the Kids: Cat Power | 16. All Cats: Six Organs of Admittance | 17. On Feathers & Arrows (On Burnt Pine): Il Gato
