Poe is one of my favorite female artists. She has only released two albums, the first coming out in 1995 and the second in 2000. She has a very unique voice that can easily send chills down my spine. You may recognize her most radio played song, Angry Johnny.

She got into a bad situation with her record label, halting the production of a third studio album, which is a real shame. Now that she’s out of the contract, she’s getting her presence back out there via website with a blog and Myspace posts and emails. I hope this is all going to build up to a lot more music from her.

Some more of her vocals can be heard in some songs by a band called Conjure One. I think she has a total of five songs with them. Those songs are incredible. Conjure one also did work with Sinead O’Connor.

The link to her website is right here! Check her out, I think you’ll dig her.

Erlend Øye is a unique looking guy from Norway with bouncy, red, curly hair and usually prominent glasses. He actually looks like he could be a twin brother of a friend of mine, which I find pretty strange, since he’s such a peculiar looking fellow. But that’s neither here nor there.

Erlend is the talent behind the band known as The Whitest Boy Alive. He also has put out solo work and has another band called Kings of Convenience. More on those at a later date. His style of music is generally similar throughout – good mellow beats with kind of a light-hearted groove.

I’ve recently put these albums on for background music during games of Rummikub and some other group card/board games. It seems to ease the tension of games that are otherwise likely to start a feud or two. As you are hopefully hearing right now, Dreams, the 2006 release of theirs, has some great toe-tapping beats in it. Burning is the song that, I believe, has received the most exposure on the album. The songs have a great flow to them and I’d bet it would be hard to find somebody who can be in a sour mood while listening to this music.

The 2009 release of The Whitest Boy Alive is entitled Rules, sticking with the simple one-word album title. It’s more of the same type of sound. Intentions is probably my top track at the moment from this one. It’s got that synthesized vibraphone sound to it that just makes you want to do some tiny dance moves while sitting in a chair.

High On the Heels has an almost disco like feel to it. I guess you could say that about quite a few of the songs. The staccato keyboard style provides great melody and percussion. It’s simple, but just great to listen to I think.

Hopefully you’ll find his music as soothing and mood-lifting as I do. As usual, those links under the players there will take you to Amazon and iTunes to check it out. Thanks again Sweden!

Ghosts Of The Past – Starflyer…

Just a quick little post here about the album I’m currently listening to on lala.com. Ghosts of the Past is the name of the album. Starflyer 59 is the name of the band. I’ve got plenty of their albums, and for some reason they fall into the group of bands I forget about until I happen to see their name somewhere. When that happens, I’ll listen to them for a while, then let them fade away again.

So they just released this new album last month, and if you’re clicked play on that little embedded player there, you are hearing the same good sounds that I am as I write this! The album starts out just awesomely and keeps going strong for a good while. I just heard the Bread cover of Guitar Man, which has also been covered by Cake. They did it well I thought.

I’m now on track 16, and it seems to be losing momentum. There are 31 tracks on this 2-disc album, so I suppose that’s bound to happen. I’m going to keep listening to it and see how it plays out.

As for the genre of Starflyer 59, they’re kind of an in between type of sound. The two groups would be shoegaze and post-rock. They’ve got a somewhat distant sound, but it’s a bit more up front than most shoegaze stuff, and I’m still not sure how to describe post-rock, but I think it fits them pretty well. Pretty strong point there huh?

So anyway, check out the music, it struck me as something worthy of letting the world know about via this here site. If nothing else, it may provide some nice background music to get you through your workday Monday…day.

Goodbye – Ulrich Schnauss

Hey! Click that little gray play button on top of that player to the right there to enjoy some soothing sounds while reading this post.

I am a big fan of taking naps. Long ago, in fact, I think when I was in junior high school, I would listen to music as I went to sleep. Back then I remember the main albums being Metallica’s Black Album and Coolio’s It Takes a Thief. I also had a pretty sweet mix tape I recorded off of the radio. I still remember it having Anyone Can Play Guitar by Radiohead. Who knew they’d go on to make so much good stuff.

These days I tend to listen to more sleep-promoting music when trying to pass out. I’ve got plenty, and if you check out my Last.fm profile you will notice that my top artists all time are about half populated by artists like Carbon Based Lifeforms and Ulrich Schnauss. That’s mostly because I play them when going to sleep, and if it works, the album plays through, bumping up the play count of that artist while I’m passed out.

So, Goodbye by Ulrich Schnauss. It’s not quite an album that will make you pass out even if you’ve just chugged some Red Bull, but it’s quite relaxing. I don’t know much about the fellow except that he’s from the UK and makes good music.

This album is my favorite work of his. The opening track gives you a pretty good idea of what the album’s all about. Soothing sounds with a nice mellow beat. It’s like being wrapped up in a soft blanket, but with sounds, it’s wild stuff. Shine, the second track, is a bit off the path for this album. It’s a good song, but the vocals are a bit out of place with the rest of the songs.

By the time you get to the fifth track, if you aren’t asleep, it will likely put you under. It’s incredibly soothing and often sends some chills down my neck. Other notable tracks on here are Medusa and the title track, Goodbye. Medusa is kind of the power track on here. It’s got some slightly industrial sounding stuff. It almost a post-rock/shoegaze kind of sound to it, all while being very melodic and still relaxing. Goodbye is the song I’d want to listen to if I was riding on the back of Falcor through Fantasia. It’s quite magical really.

Alrighty, I think I’ll go have a nap!