The Easy Gramophone ft Lavender Diamond

1. Lavender Diamond - You Broke My Heart
An army whose banners bear broken hearts, whose chests ache from yesterday, whose leader is a woman named Diamond with a hard and glittering voice. This is the anthem that leads the chargers down the hills, that drives them straight back into life. A jangling juggernaut, a joyous self-assertion; Fairport Convention armed with lances, marching boots and steely, flashing eyes.
[from Cavalry Of Light (self-released)]
download at: http://www.lavenderdiamond.com/music.html

2. Dokaka - Smells Like Teen Spirit
This Japanese beatboxer has worked with Bjork, composed video game themesongs for Nintendo, but here he's just a nubby black goblin, something with red eyes and sharp teeth, chattering, eyes rolling, stark raving mad. It's like he's taken Nirvana's hit, chewed it up, and now sings it in a stream of gibberish, black birds flappin' and jerkin' out of his open mouth.
[unreleased]
download at: http://dokaka.com/media_sounds.html

3. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - House Fire
A Missouri band with a nonsense name, a name that's awful to the point of absurdity, a name that's so bad even an acronym can't save it. But SSLYBY have recorded a song that's warm as wool. Let indie guitars take you by the hand and into a better place, a hotter place, somewhere for kind and double-tracked vocals, where flames lick beyond the door.
[from Broom (self-released)]
download at: http://www.morawk.com/boris/

4. Clinic - Jigsaw Man
Although it's the juddering flip side to Clinic's recent punky single, Tusk, Jigsaw Man is more Wicker Man than Sex Pistol. Melodica slips between Eastern percussion and blurry guitar thrum, Ade Blackburn like a ghost in my ear. A spell of a song, instantly compelling, something to wear round you neck as you burn things in the fog.
[from the upcoming 'Tusk' (Domino)]
download at: http://www.clinicvoot.com

5. Regina Spektor - Baby Jesus (live at Toad's Place)
Since we lack a time machine, I cannot take you back to Cabaret Voltaire at the beginning of February, huddling in the dark as Miss Spektor plays this unreleased song. So we have the next best thing: a recording from Connecticut last year. It's a story of apocalypse and shop-window displays, "Halle-loola-loola-looling" believers that intend to spit on your grave. Touches of Mozart and a nod to Porky Pig, but beyond that a sarcasm matched only by the song's sharp and swooping melody. More fun than a barrel of crucifixes.
[live on 3/2/2005]
download at: http://www.reginaspektor.net/