Friday Favourites - new music

It's been a while since I've done a Friday Favourites post, so I figured it was time to get back into the habit. Especially given that it's Friday, I'm a little bored with my 'to do' list and writing a blog post seems far more entertaining than actually doing any work. :)

I've been listening to lots of music recently. Funny, when I'm writing, I prefer silence -- no distractions at all. So given all that hard work on revisions for the past few weeks meant lots of silence, I've been making up for lost time catching up with some new tunes (or old tunes that I missed the first time round).

I know I should probably be all concerned about the privacy implications, but I really like the function in iTunes that says 'if you like that, you might like this'. I've found some awesome music that way. I've also found some great tunes thanks to friends posting clips on Facebook and the like.

So here's a few new fav's of mine I'd like to share with you.

First up, Aussie band The Panics. They've been around a long time but this song, Majesty, is reasonably recent and I adore it. Whenever it pops up on my iTunes shuffle, it's one of those songs that makes me stop and listen (this could be the reason why I don't play music while I'm writing -- I'd purposely have to listen to stuff I didn't like!). It's a story about Australia, with lovely lyrics that evoke key historical events in beautiful poetic images. (To the young eyes across the sea, Who live and return to sanctuary, Of defiant tales in stone, In a higher prayer alone, In the brightest chains of gold, In the furthest place from home.)



Pick number two -- a band I discovered watching the TV show Chuck, which has a pretty awesome soundtrack most of the time. Seriously, I watch that show with my finger hovering over the Shazam app on my iPhone. If the music programmer from Chuck needs someone to inherit their music collection for any reason, I hereby volunteer.

Anyhoo, the band I discovered was The National. I've since bought two or three of their albums and they've been on high rotation in my house and car. I find it incredibly hard to pick just one of their songs to highlight, but I really do love this one Fake Empire and am just a little bit in love with the low, gravelly voice of the lead singer. The song is five years old or so, but new to me.



(NB: Not the official video, but a goodie nonetheless.)

Another band that I discovered watching Chuck is Frightened Rabbit. I adore their song Keep Yourself Warm, but I won't embed it here as the lyrics are, shall we say, adult in nature. Click on the song title link if you want to know more... Don't say I didn't warn you.

Last, but not least, let's give a little airplay to a brand new Aussie band, Underlights. I heard these guys on Triple J and they're an 'unearthed' band, which means they're unsigned and if you're quick you might still be able to download this song for free from the Unearthed website.



They don't seem to have a filmclip (I guess that comes with having a record company) but this is such a happy, bright song, it seems just right for a Friday.

And on that note, I hope you have a great day and get to spend sometime in your own head listening to whatever music it is that does it for you. If you've got a track you think I'd enjoy, please leave a comment and let me know -- I'm not absolutely dependent on iTunes for exposing me to new songs!!