Pod packing

Trying to decide what to put into the little silver device is always a dilemma before a trip. With upwards of 98G of songs on one external hard drive which I'm sure will eventually be one of several music only drives, it's a hard task. Besides usual catalogs of Mahler, Mozart, Debussy, Poulenc, Nina Simone, I've decided on at least two additions this week.

Anjani Thomas' Blue Alert has quickly become a favorite that fittingly comes close on the heels of the 20th anniversary re-issue of Jennifer Warnes' The Famous Blue Raincoat. I never cared for Jennifer's mid- to late 1980s pop duets/movie themes. But I immediately connected with her as a kiddo when I saw her singing Easy to Be Hard on the Smothers Brothers back when she was in the L.A. cast of Hair.

The real surprise is Jens Lekman's Night Falls on Kortedala. I've loved Jens from when I first heard him six to seven years ago with Maple Leaves, and he gets better with each release. Besides being so adorable and a great ukulele player, he is seriously improving as a vocalist, or at least growing. He's never had a bad voice, but it's easy to dismiss him with his often silly lyrics that fool many people into pegging him as a Jonathan Richman for the New Millennium. Kortedala (the name of a hideously ugly planned community in his native Sweden shown below) shows that he may have more in common with Scott Walker (who'll also be featured heavily on my iPod as usual) than anyone imagined. There are several string intensive, lush ballads, such as the stunning opener And I Remember Every Kiss, a gorgeous tune without an ounce of whimsy or irony. But, as usual, there's just the right of whimsy. Regardless, Jens is quickly advancing on my scale of 50 favorite male singers, and certainly tops my list of Swedish pop artists. Kortedala is just an gorgeous, near perfect album that is so now yet also so rooted in the best of the past. And though there are tinges of sadness and silliness around the edges, it makes me feel so happy listening to it.

I've yet to get the new Roisin Murphy release but it will probably join Jens and Anjani. Sadly the new Annie Lennox album leaves me cold. And, what, no Madonna? Uh, no. Madonna-fre home and iPod here.

In the meantime, I'm seriously considering becoming a completely Apple-free home once my current iPod croaks. Want a guess on when yours will bite the dust? There is now a handy iPod death watch calculator. My favorite response to smug Apple enthusiasts who look at me with shock when I reveal that I don't share their enthusiasm is: "Think different!"

JunkThief Worthy: Weird But Harmless

When JunkThief was on a trip to Mesoamerica last year, he was thrilled to see a U.S. and a Guatemalan coworkers bond as soul sister because, as they put it, “We’re both weird but harmless.”

That’s pretty much the JunkThief vibe, and he’s always seeking out others with similar sensibilities. In other words, he gravitates to the eccentrics sitting in the corner at the party but hastens his step as the ranting loons in U.N. Plaza start coming his way.

In that spirit and realizing that he sometimes forgets to elaborate on why he has listed some of his favorites in the “Dumpster Dive” section of the column on the right, he felt compelled to mention Jens Lekman. Since the closest JunkThief ever comes to listening to top 40 radio (Does anybody? Isn’t it sort of like pay phones these days? Even low end drug dealers have cells.) is KCRW online from Santa Monica, he has no idea how well known Jens is in the U.S.

Unfortunately he often gets labeled as the “male Bjork,” mainly because he’s from another northern latitude (Sweden) and sings in English. Like most Swedes, his English could pass for that of a native speaker. He also gets compared to Jonathan Richmond (pretty fair assessment) and the Magnetic Fields a lot too, but he’s got his own quirkier, specific vibe. He’s written a song from the perspective of Rocky Dennis from the movie Mask and released titles such as “When I Said That I wanted to Be Your Dog” and “You Deserve Someone Better Than a Bum Like Me.”

He’s probably also the most famous person after Tiny Tim to bring the ukulele back to pop music. (And, no, don't worry, JunkThief never had the hots for Tiny.) After all the division over last week’s post about Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy, JunkThief is a bit cautious to talk about Jens appeal but does think he’s probably a heck of a lot better look than Neil albeit with a more endearing than arousing vibe. Grabbing a few tracks this morning, JunkThief felt compelled to explain the appeal. There is something puppy-dog cute about him with is under-sized fedora while plucking his ukulele on this YouTube clip of him singing his nordic chart buster "You Are the Light."