Cracks in the Facade: March Madness Pop Playlist

It's Friday and I'm cooling my jets a bit from work while reformatting my TiVo and researching some delicious vittles for this Sunday's Oscar party. (Just to get Kat's mouth watering, one dish will be some red pesto salmon cakes from the latest issue of Delicious, one of our fave British food magazines. And yes, you can laugh all you want, but our favorite foodie mags--Delicious, BBC Good Food, and Olive--are all from Britain and they kick ass over Bon Appetit, Everyday Food, etc. as they just seem much more adventurous and worldly in their use of ingredients as well as being a bit more veg-friendly. OK, enough of this parenthetical detour...)

Anyhoo, thought it might be a good time to come up with a playlist of tunes that have been processing through iTunes of late.

Speaking of late, I feel like I'm coming to the party late in regards to two artists--Matisyahu and Seattle's own Blue Scholars. If you're not familiar (as I wasn't until earlier last month), Matisyahu is the Hasidic reggae singer--aka, the white guy singing/toasting to the skanking grooves with the long fuzzy beard and tall black hat. His last album (Live at Stubbs - see Amazon or iTunes) returned a reggae vibe that had long been gone. You can also check out a performance video from Stubbs of "King Without a Crown" (hat tip to B. Shilliday at Left of Center)--the best part is when he stage dives(!). His new album, Youth (see Amazon) comes out on Tuesday.

A few weeks ago, Facade Friend Scratch passed along a CD of the Blue Scholars first album, which got a lot of notice and awards here in Seattle about a year back. They're a rap/hip-hop duo that definitely kicks it old school and are kindred spirits of Jurassic 5. They can get a bit didactic sometimes on their debut (see Amazon), but they've got some tasty loops that give a nod to 70s soulful jazz and I dig their progressive political stands. The CD has been a constant soundtrack in the car ever since we pushed Play. Definitely check out "Motion Movement" ("the roof is on fire/what's your solution?" ), "Freewheelin" (a nice nostalgia trip to 1990s Seattle), and "Blink" (the most political/anti-BushCo of the batch).
Two songs that I've turned to a lot when I need an afternoon pick-me-up (when a double shot of espresso just won't do) is the single by Iceland's electropopster Eberg available at iTunes, with the expansive "I'm Moving to Wales" and the cheeky "Love Your Bum." Truth be told, it's the last song that gets my booty shaking.
Just listned to both versions of BBC's Blue Room (Saturday with Rob DaBank and Sunday with Chris Coco), and both DJs exuberantly played the new Flaming Lips UK single, "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song." (It looks from the iTunes store that the first US single might be "The W.A.N.D.") The first go-round, my first reaction was what a misfire. But after hearing it a second time, I went all ELO on it (i.e., I couldn't get it out of my head). I think it's gonna annoy the heck out of Mrs. F (funnily enough, there's a lot of repetitious "yeah yeah yeahs" in it), but it's very catchy and has a nicely buy-the world-a-coke progressive message.
I haven't been that big a fan of British neo-wavers Maximo Park, but their song from the Help: A Day in the Life (see Amazon and iTunes) made it on to my end-of-year CD and this new remix of "Stay" (featured as a free download at Salon) has been given a big, Bowiesque orchestral treatment that puts the original jagged guitar mix to shame. Speaking of free downloads at Salon's Audiofile section, I also recommend the delicate, acoustic "Ain't No Jesus in Here" by Sweet Billy Pilgrim.
And speaking of delicately lovely acoustic tunes, I've been quite smitten with Iron & Wine's iTunes exclusive redo of New Order's "Love Vigilantes" (sung with his sister).
Just in time for a big win for Brokeback Mountain at the Oscars on Sunday, Willie Nelson has a sly single "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)" available exclusively at iTunes as well ("and inside every cowboy/there's a lady who'd love to slip out").
Nightmares on Wax returns with a preview of its new album called "Passion"--a slow, moody chill-out in the vein of Zero 7 (who also will be coming out with a new album this spring--The Blue Room has been playing the single, with singer Jose Gonzalez, the last couple of shows).
Another new release I'm looking forward to is Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche's Duper Sessions (see Amazon for preorder). I bought the first single, "Minor Detail," from the Belgian iTunes store (thanks Deege!) and it's a minor 50s-esque pop jazz marvel.
I'm always a sucker for Indian/Arabic/Persian electronica, and the remix EP of two tunes from Turkey's Niyaz (see iTunes) is right up my alley (I recommend Midival Punditz re-do of "Allahi Allah").