Sunday Already?

Since half of everything good on this site is something I have stolen from better bloggers like Whitney Matheson, I thought, "Hey! Why not steal more?" So here's my version of Whitney's "my week In Pop" review:

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Best TV show I saw:
Burn Notice, which is perhaps the most entertaining show on television, and the season finale ("Lesser Evil") was no exception. Season 2 definitely went out with a bang, a looot of bangs. If you haven't yet seen any of this hilarious and addicting spy dramedy, I urge you to rent Season 1; it'll be the best 5 bucks you spend this week.
I also enjoyed: Life -- it's always funny, surreal, and suspenseful. This episode ("Hit Me Baby") was particularly good and Zen-y. Dollhouse -- it took me a few episodes to get into it, but Joss Whedon never fails to hook you. His new series is thankfully getting better and better. Speaking of Joss (and shaky starts and becoming better and better), I've also been catching up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I am in Season 3 and am now quite obsessed, as my friends and family can well attest.

Best movie I saw: Sadly, I only saw one movie this week, so Watchmen is the best (and the WORST) by default...
Best album I heard: It's pretty much a toss-up between Matter and Light, the new album by my favorite local band (a colossus of weird folk, bluegrass, and alternative country), The Theater Fire, and Blood Bank, the new EP by singer/songwriter indie-sensation, Bon Iver. I'll hopefully jot down a little album review on each of these shortly.
I'm also listening to: Alela Diane's two albums, The Pirate Gospel and To Be Still, as well as lots and lots and lots and LOTS of Daytrotter sessions -- too many to count, in fact.

Best book I read: Um...prob'ly Moby Dick, which, while I hope it isn't really "The Great American Novel", is damn good. Thanks, Dr. Shank, for helping us wade through it.
I'm also reading: Slayer Slang - a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon, by Michael Adams, and I am only half as ashamed as I should be for reading that. But hey, go easy on me; it was a gift!

Ok. There be my list. So what's on yours?
Read, Kindly Light...

Alela Diane at Futureappletree Studio 1

OK then, before we get started, a little introduction:
"Daytrotter" is a recording studio and a website site run by Sean Moeller in Rock Island, Illinois. Hundreds and hundreds of up-and-coming indie bands of all shapes, sizes, and sounds flock here to record new songs and new versions of old songs. Every day Daytrotter receives a new band which will record 4 songs; every week there are 7 new bands and 28 new songs. On the Daytrotter website, you can download literally thousands and thousands of songs LEGALLY and FOR FREE! I myself have already added nearly seven hundred songs to my iTunes library.
Let me explain how cool this all is to you in another way -- Whitney Mattheson of Pop Candy placed Sean Moeller, the founder of Daytrotter, at # 77 on her "Top 100 People of 2008" list!

Now, in the website's own words:

What Daytrotter is attempting to do is to not kid around with you and tell you that we found something that you never knew existed. We are going to contribute to the musical landscape, not just toss it around like a used book or a stolen pick-up line. We’re going to give you something that you truly have never heard. We are not giving you songs from someone you love’s record album, thereby stealing from someone you love. We’re giving you exclusive, re-worked, alternate versions of old songs and unreleased tracks by some of your favorite bands and by a lot of your next favorite bands. (...)
These fine people – as they’re traveling through America’s heartland – take two hours out of their travels between shows to stop in for a Daytrotter Session at Futureappletree Studio One in downtown Rock Island, Ill. The name of the city is not ironic. They use borrowed instruments, play with their touring mates, utilize an often unkempt toilet, eat some food and then cram back into their vans for the last half of the drive. What they leave behind is a pile of ashes, sometimes a forgotten stocking hat and four absolutely collectible songs that often impart on whomever listens to them the true intensity that these musicians put into their art, sometimes with more clarity than they do when they have months to tinker with overdubs and experiments. These songs are them as they are on that particular day, on that particular tour – dirty and alive. We want you to make this your new home as it is ours. We promise that you will love it here. (...)
The Daytrotter recordings are made with minimal mic’ing, through discrete preamps and with some limiting to the mixing console, where they are printed to 1/4” analog tape running at 15 inches per second (usually BASF 468). The analog master is later transferred to a computer and converted to MP3.
There is no set formula or pattern to the recordings, no specific mic setup, etc. They are all live, no overdubs, straight to tape. What you hear is what happened in the room that day.

{about Daytrotter}

Now that that little intro's out of the way, let's commence with the first installment of Your Dayly Dose Of Daytrotter, featuring Alela Diane! I highly recommend her; she is a folk singer/songwriter who uses simple, understated intstrumentation to better emphasize her beautifully lilting and haunting voice and her full-wrought lyrics. My favorite song on the first session is "White As Diamonds"; on the second my favorites are "Age Old Blue" and "Oh My Mama", which I think are her best songs to date.


Here's Alela Diane's 1st Daytrotter Session (May 11, 2007)
Alela Diane - Welcome to Daytrotter
Alela Diane - My Brambles
Alela Diane - The Rifle
Alela Diane - To Be Still
Alela Diane - White As Diamonds


Alela Diane's 2nd Daytrotter Session (September 27, 2007)
Alela Diane - Welcome (again) to Daytrotter
Alela Diane - Age Old Blue
Alela Diane - Dry Grass and Shadows
Alela Diane - Oh My Mama!
Alela Diane - The Alder Trees

Ciao, folks. Happy Sounds.
Read, Kindly Light...