That’s “Fragment VIII,” by Library Tapes, from their Fragment LP. Their Myspace page has much more. Also try their last.fm page.

How Pumpkin pie is made

Yeah, the pod people have apparently taken Fred again. He’s listening to folk. And really liking it:

That’s the title track from Tenebrae, by Theo Angell. Hear much more, for free, here.

Since I’m on vacation all this week I feel justified in rolling up my sleeves, untucking my shirt and posting something completely ridiculous this morning.

May I present to you “Bohemian Rhapsody” as sung by The Muppets. Of course the song had to be made kid friendly so the lines “Mama just killed a man/Put a gun against his head/Pulled my trigger now he’s dead” have been completely taken out. There have also been some moderate changes through out but it’s still worth a watch since they try and stay true to the original video.

Call it an executive decision if you will, but something says that Patrick and Fred won’t be getting together Thanksgiving night to determine our contest winners. So take an extra day to enter our drawing for the free Orba Sqara LP and signed poster.

Rules are simple and entry is free: send us an email at themuseinmusic [at] gmail [dot] com. Write “Orba Squara Contest” in the subject line. Wait for your notification early next week. Winners will be required, natch, to submit some kind of physical address. Loot will be delivered pony express. Deadline to enter is Friday night at midnight, CST. If you share a last name with one of the founding bloggers, you are ineligible to win.

Good luck!

Being my weight, upon waking this morning.

I only mention this because, while giving me a massage a few weeks ago, the therapist asked me how much weight I planned on gaining during the holidays. Putting aside for now the wisdom of asking a naked 41-year-old man with a fragile male ego about his history of weight problems, I told her I wasn’t planning on gaining any weight this holiday season. That the culture around the annual spare tire was downright silly. That 35 days of exercise certainly counter-balanced two overlarge dinners and a few parties. That, when you got right down to it any 35-day period — taken at random from any point during the year — would involve two overlarge dinners and a few parties. Did she plan on gaining five pounds every time she closed the book on another 35 days?

She called bullshit. I accepted the challenge.

Let’s see who blinks first. Being the last day before the holiday season begins (which, serendipitously enough, turns out to be exactly 35 days long this year), I can tell you with all honesty that my weight, today, in pounds, is 173 and some change. Place your bets.

UPDATE: Marginal Revolution chimes in on not overeating today.

Stream it here (the media player is top right). Also find a live interpretation just below, but make sure you follow the link to hear the studio version: dissonant, chaotic, jazzy, mechanical. All the things that make music worth hearing.

From their 2006 EP titled, simply, B.

(By the way, someone drop the hint to Patrick about buying me some flowers. Turns out this is post number 1,000.)

We mentioned before that Frightened Rabbit are working on the release of their third LP which is slated to hit the shelves on 3/1/10 via Fat Cat Records and features the lead and stellar track “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”. Now the boys have made an appearance on The Marc Riley show on BBC.6 There they debuted two additional tracks, “Living In Colour” and “Nothing Like You”. Both tracks are great. March is going to come very slowly.

“Living In Colour”

“Nothing Like You”

“Swim Until You Can’t See Land”

You can hear the entire session here.

Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond is one of two diamonds that is touring with The Decemberists playing her role as Margaret in the concept album. Somehow on the side she has found the time to contribute a song to Through The Wilderness, an album of Madonna covers benefiting Raising Malawi.

I understand that this is for a good cause and props to them for the effort but let’s talk about the video and song that you are about to subject you self to below. “Like a Prayer” is an iconic song of the 80’s at what most would consider to be at the peak of Madonna’s career. Not only was it a great track but also drummed up quite a bit of controversy with the cross burning video. Now I enjoy a good cover song but am also a firm believer that when a cover song is presented it should add something to the original track, not necessarily making it better, just different. Taking the low production of the video out of the equation for a moment and just listening to the song you might never be able to tell the difference between the original work and the “new version”. Madonna has a little bit of a higher voice but other than that you would think that you were listening to karaoke at the local sake bar.

Now the video. Wow it’s bad and I really hope that it was done that way on purpose. The 80’s extravaganza of bad CGI and even worse “acting” on Starks’ end make for a painful 4:46. Starks seems to be trying to live out her Marry Poppins/princess fantasy all the while being bombarded by flaming worlds and psychedelic animals sings the chorus. This is truly one of the worse videos that I have ever seen, especially from someone that is supposed have some production money.

Big, shouty, banging, complex LP from Hallelujah the Hills, which we missed by exactly 62 days, but hey, you’re still reading. Tagline: “you can’t kill the signal.” No, sirrah, you cannot.

Highlights are “Allied Lions” and “The Echo Sequence.” Download “Classic Tapes” for free here.