Around the Bend

• filed under Music

There are several music blogs that I visit regularly — I start each day off with LargeHeartedBoy for a daily collection of carefully curated links and downloads.  I love the writing and the taste at SaidtheGramophone, and BrooklynVegan lets me know what I am missing in New York City by living in DC.  They and countless others were the inspiration for this effort.

Here are some interesting things I found this morning:

Popsongs is an effort to write about every single R.E.M. song.  I can’t say that I have studied every post, or even most of them, but I visit from time to time to read the author’s description of my favorite songs, and compare them to my own.  I find this gentle obsession with the band comforting — I would have no interest in writing about each of R.E.M.’s songs, but I’m glad that someone does.

Apparently I am not alone in this view — it appears that Michael Stipe himself has visited the site to take reader questions.  (Yes, I know, given that this is the Internet it is possible that it isn’t really Michael Stipe, but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief.)

My Old Kentucky Blog snared an interview with Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, and as a bonus he’s posted a haunting cover of Paul Simon’s Mother and Child Reunion by the Grizzlies.

I have GorillavsBear to thank for introducing me to Beirut.  Here he introduces us to Joose Keskitalo, a Finnish singer-songwriter who i don’t like as much as Beirut, but who seems worth investing some time in (and yes, tracking down his album to buy will be half the fun). It’s not clear to me how Finnish singer-songwriters are brought to the attention of American music bloggers, but I’m glad they are.

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