Your Weekly Download Lowdown

Always Something Good to Listen To

A couple things to recommend for your listening pleasure on this cold, post-Oscar February morning.

First up- Hot on the heels of a European trek opening for Fleet Foxes (and upcoming Elbow dates), Ottawa’s the Acorn are back with a stunning Daytrotter session. This is one band that has managed to completely beguile me with their music and compelling lyricism. At times reminiscent of the Talking Heads with latter period Talk Talk thrown in for good measure I am eagerly anticipating the follow-up to their excellent Glory Hope Mountain from 2007. Part biographical narrative, part surreal fairy tale, Glory Hope Mountain is the story of Gloria Esperanza Montoya. Based on interviews recorded in early 2006 by her son, Acorn songwriter Rolf Klausener, the album is a sonic retelling of the stories from her early life in Honduras to her eventual immigration to Montreal in 1972. It remains one of my favourite CD’s in years.

If you don’t own it yet, go out and get it today. It is just that spectacular. The Daytrotter Session features a number of tracks from that release.

Up next from Minnesota Public Radio is a great studio performance featuring Antony and the Johnsons with songs from their latest CD, “The Crying Light”. The release is doing extraordinarily well across the pond and this session goes a long way in illuminating that secrets of that success.

Songs performed: "Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground," "Epilepsy Is Dancing," and "Another World."

Lastly, an NPR World Café Session featuring the Denver-based band DeVotchKa. The band has found widespread support for its film music (in Little Miss Sunshine and others) as well as its five full-length albums, the latest of which is last years brilliant "A Mad & Faithful Telling". During this session, eclectic singer, Nick Urata talks about crafting DeVotchKa's breakthrough film soundtrack, as well as his admiration for “Old Blue Eyes”, whose songs the band often covers.

Listen here.