De La Soul feat. Usher, "Greyhounds"
De La Soul launched a Kickstarter in 2015 to record their new album using a new method. Tired of chasing and clearing samples, they decided to bring musicians in to the studio to record them playing a bunch of different things, and then used those sessions as their library of music to sample and construct the tracks. The resulting album, ...And The Anonymous Nobody, isn't one of De La's best albums, but how could it possibly be? It is very good, though, and clearly a different record from the ones that come before it. If you haven't listened to anything from De La Soul from after the Prince Paul years, you should listen to...well, Stakes Is High. And then The Grind Date. And then probably this one!
Andrew Bird, "Wait"
There are some moments on his early albums, such as this track from Oh! The Grandeur, where you can really hear his later sound coming through. This song could comfortably sit on The Mysterious Production of Eggs and not seem out of place at all.
Steady Earnest, "I Don't Know"
Steady Earnest is Dan Vitale's (Bim Skala Bim) side project, featuring various other folks from Boston area bands. With Vitale singing and writing songs, they're inevitably going to sound a lot like Bim Skala Bim. To my ears, there's a little less pop in the sound, and things are a little more upbeat. There's probably also a little less variation to the songs for Steady Earnest. Overall, Bim Skala Bim is the better band, but the three Steady Earnest albums are solid.
Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators, "One In A Million"
I started out writing this entry prepared to lament that Nicole Willis only recorded one album with the Soul Investigators. Whereupon I looked, and discovered that no, she's recorded three so far! And then I noticed that this song came from one of the albums that I thought I was unaware of which is in the library. Sometimes, I'm a mess.
LCD Soundsystem, "45:33 (iii)"
This track is the bit of 45:33 that gets stuck in my head most often. It just kind of floats in periodically when I'm doing other stuff.
Good set today!