It might seem that the library is not the best place to find cutting edge music but you’d be surprised. I’ve found Joan of Arc, Snow Patrol and even the english rap group The Streets. My latest find is a folk supergroup called Ollabelle. I don’t know much about them but their 2004 debut is great. The style is some kind of rockin’ gospel. The songs are mostly traditional numbers but the band infuses them with a lot of energy and supurb harmonies. The two tracks below are John The Revelator and Elijah Rock:
Speaking of libraries, I have a homework assignment for you. Toby and I just saw “City of God” on DVD — I can’t think of a better movie I’ve seen all year with the exception of “Van Helsing” (just kidding)!
Anyway, part of what made the movie so good was the soundtrack — funky Brazilian stuff, maybe some jazz. Your research skills could be put to good use here, and perhaps you can even do a special post on great soundtracks?
I vote for “A Clockwork Orange”, “Private Parts”, and “To Live and Die in L.A.”.
Which library do you go to? While not necessarily cutting edge, I’ve managed to find a lot of nice stuff at Sulzer, including an album of Blind Willie Johnson, who cut the original “John the Revelator” The best thing I probably got there was a double CD of Edith Piaf, or maybe this really great Uruguayan accordion by René Marino Rivero.
–Joe
PS why did you switch from MP3 to WMA? I’m new here, but from the name and subtitle of your blog, you didn’t set out to use the dark side of the force?
I go to the new oak park library. And on the question of wma vs mp3 I’m not sure how to create the files except to use the windows media player is there some free software you’d recommend to burn and rip? Thanks for checking in.
Well, I’m a Mac user, so I’ve been using iTunes for a while — but of course, it’s available for free for Windows too and can be used to rip MP3s By default, I think it rips AAC, which is only good for iTunes and iPod users, but it can be set in the “Importing” preferences. I bet that Windows Media Player can rip MP3s too, but maybe not…
[...] Ollabelle to contribute to the new song “A Town Called Amen” (wrote about `em first here), lending the song it’s slight gospel feel. For “Crash Into The Sun” he’s [...]