Don't be a slave to your grave (breathe in, breathe out).

The longest night of the year has passed one week ago and I am now listening to some late night Bahamian Obeah/hoodoo music from the amazing musician artist, Exuma, and digging deep inside and grabbing out all that darkness in me and letting it go in preparation for the new breath of the new year. And here's my song mantra for it. From his first album. Dig those haunting low-end drums. Out with the bad, in with the good.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damballa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exuma_(musician)

Explosions pillaging the night.

Quiet night at home with the wife and baby boy, sitting at my desk (which is really just the farm table in our sun room) just starting to go through all the music I've loved this past year and attempting to begin to assemble my top album list of 2011. Have a feeling that this album will end up nearer to the top. Good stuff from a young lad from Boise, Idaho.

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https://twitter.com/#!/youthlagoon

http://lefserecords.com

There's beauty in that rainbow in the sky.

This post is dedicated to my wife, Bailey, and to welcome our new baby boy, Emmett James Johnson, into this world. You're the most beautiful and remarkable thing to happen to us. May you have an amazing life full of love, joy, adventure, friendship and wonder. 

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There's a big day coming. I can hardly wait.

Working from home the rest of the afternoon, at my favorite spot at the dining room table among all the big Southern-facing windows. Bailey and the cat are sleeping in the diminshing sun's rays and I'm listening to a vinyl reissue of Painful, one of my favorite Yo La Tengo albums, and just waiting for our little guy to make his grand entrance into our world. Can't wait to meet him.

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http://store.matadorrecords.com/painful

If you love someone it should feel good to let them breathe.

Haven't posted much lately as I've been completely wrapped up in work and more importantly, preparing for a little fella on the way. That said, I just wanted to quickly share a track from Friends that's been stuck in my head ever since I heard it. This one goes out to my lovely #1 gal who is about to be a momma.

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http://luckynumber.bandcamp.com/album/im-his-girl

Give the crumpet to Big Foot Joe, give the fanny to me.

Just some late-night-jamming. One of my favorite dirty songs of all time. And you gotta love those blown-out keys.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Romeo

Oh I have been wondering/wandering.

Caught this song on Sirius/XM driving in my car the other day. I hadn't really paid much attention to Laura Marling. Until now. This weary, old-soul voice hooked me in. And frankly, I'd like to think that she's singing about our cat, Sophia, but either way, this song is making me pay attention to her new album. Which so far is not too shabby, though this is the jam that really gets me.

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http://www.lauramarling.com/ 

Are you wanting to know, for sure?

Possibly the catchiest song I've heard in quite awhile. Good stuff. And I'm predicting here and now that this song has a 10:1 chance of ending up in a commercial or indie film shortly. Oh boy.

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https://www.facebook.com/dominantlegs

 

Lost & Found #1: Push Kings "Lonely Times"

In a new segment I'm calling "Lost & Found", I'll be sharing songs that I once had really loved that got lost to the ages for a bit, only to be rediscovered again.

For the first installment, we're going back to 1998 when I was the music director and a DJ at KPSU radio (1450 AM on your dial) at Portland State University. My radio show called "Empty Space & Points Of Light" (based off of a Jeanette Winterson quote from her novel, Sexing The Cherry) was on Monday nights from 6 - 8PM and this was a track from a band called Push Kings that I'd play with a fair frequency. Mostly because it always cheered me up. So here you go: an oldie and goodie, late '90s indie pop style:

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P.S. This track came to me via this Darla Records compilation: 

http://www.allmusic.com/album/r591996

http://bluehydrangeas.wordpress.com/2006/12/07/jeanette-winterson/

“The Hopi, an Indian tribe, have a language as sophisticated as ours, but no tenses for past, present and future. The division does not exist. What does this say about time?
Matter, that thing the most solid and the well-known, which you are holding in your hands and which makes up your body, is now known to be mostly empty space. Empty space and points of light. What does this say about the reality of the world?”

All I know, I want you on my team.

Starting the weekend out right by listening to my recent fave jam from Joe Goddard (Hot Chip), which is the B-side from his most recent 12" called Gabriel on DFA Records.

Check it.
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