The Easy Gramophone - June, 2007

1. Final Fantasy with Cadence Weapon - This is the Dream of Win and Regine
Final Fantasy - violin-looper, harpsichord-player, Arcade Fire collaborator, - has been one of The Gramophone's most frequent stars. In this session recorded for Canadian public radio, he plays his ballad of Win and Regine with the help of Saskatchewan's Cadence Weapon. CW, aka Rollie Pemberton, is one of the country's new hip-hop talents, and here he adds skips, clicks, glitch to Final Fantasy's staccato strings.
Download at: http://www.box.net/shared/lmbjl1as6z

2. Gooblar - 20th Century
Gooblar are a London band with an American spirit. There's nothing obnoxious in this: it's guitar-pop shot through with melody; electric guitars and oohs alongside drums and a little piano. 20th Century is a cheery eulogy for the era we recently left, its nostalgia reined to guitar-hooks, oohs, and self-aware lyrics. "I should worship something wiser," sings Gooblar's eponymous front-man, "than the century I'm defending / genocides and ethnic cleansing."
Download at: http://www.gooblar.com/music/music.html

3. Bowerbirds - In Our Talons
A song of accordion, nylon-string guitar and a bass-drum that thumps like wreckage against the shore. Brooklyn's Bowerbirds are a favourite of The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle, offering latin-tinged sea shanties and full-throated ballads. They sing all together, loud then soft, with the same maritine tone that marks The Decemberists' work - but better, much better, like if Colin Meloy actually gave a fuck.
Download at: http://www.burlytime.com/shop/

4. The Ballet - In My Head
Dancey indie-pop with strings, synths, and a voice like The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt. Better yet: there's a dance-beat, doleful lyrics, a chorus that'll summon everyone to the dance-floor. The glum and the gay, the wallflowers and the flirts, all of them giving coquettish handclaps as they dance in patent leather shoes.
Download at: http://www.thepirateship.org/

5. Michael Barthel - Hallelujah
At the 2007 EMP Pop Conference, Michael Barthel presented a paper on Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, looking at some of its covers (John Cale, Fall Out Boy, Jeff Buckley), and the way the song's become ubiquitous on primetime TV. The essay is online in its entirety, but just as exciting is Barthel's own shortform version of Hallelujah - playful, fun, and in fact pretty kick-ass. "Something of Cohen's defiance, sensuality, and triumph," he writes, "could just as easily inform a cover. A cover such as this one."
Download at: http://www.clapclap.org/2007/04/hallelujah.html