I'm sort of bummed to be staying inside on the 4th of July, but have to be rested up for work tomorrow...so I've been enjoying the Bewitched marathon on TvLand and mellowing in the sounds of the cd sampler from Mojo's July issue, the music magazine's collaboration with the Communion record label.

It's so rare that I like every song on every sampler or cd I get to listen to...but in the case of this one: Oh. My. Gosh. Beautiful, beautiful stuff...

Stand-outs include: Michael Kiwanuka's "Tell Me A Tale"...Ben Howard's "Three Tree Town"...Jay Jay Pistolet's "Vintage Red"...Behjamin Francis Leftwich's "More Than Letters"....Kyla La Grange's "Walk Through Walls" (sounds a bit like Florence and the Machine in the best way possible!) and Daughter's "Peter" (this one is absolutely heart-breaking)

The Mojo "Collective Worship" inset of the mag (pp. 80 and 81) mentions Leftwich's "fine knack for a melody"...of all the tracks on this album, "More Than Letters" is the one I can't get out of my heart or head. I'm so excited there's more what that came from on Benjamin Francis Leftwich's new release, Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm.

This is why music magazines can be so dangerous...you discover more and more artists whose music you just have to have!:)

Oh my gosh!! Today (and for the next few days, at least) Amazon's MP3 store is offering two amazing, free samplers...I can't decide which I like better: this one or this one...

I think one reason I'm so excited is because on The End Records sampler there's a new song by Audio Bullys, a group I loved about six years ago and hadn't really heard anything new from since....their song "Only Man" dares you not to dance...and a track on the Cantora Records album, called "Crime Pays" by Bear Hands, is simply majestic and yet oddly cynical at the same time.

So much on both samplers that I just can't stop playing...think about checking them out and have a great evening!!:)

Singer Zola Jesus once said, "I want to write songs about things that are important...like why we're here, what the future holds and the apocalypse...maybe the apocalypse has already started. If you look around America, there's a lot of sadness and a lot of suffering. Most people turn a blind eye to it. I want people to come to terms with it."

As someone who grew up loving the bounce and wackiness of so many of my favorite 80s songs, I can't help but think today's music is so much sadder. People say today's music is worse than their own generation's, but I don't believe that's necessarily true. Maybe it's just that some of the best musicians writing and performing today are more accurately reflecting what's going on around them.

There's less escape and more truth today...and that can be kind of bleak, but it can also be kind of what we need.

I can't stop playing "Is It Fair Enough" off of Kingdom Come's new album, Rendered Waters. I read about their newest cd in Classic Rock's special AOR issue. I must have missed Kingdom Come when they first arrived on the scene in the late 80s. But I probably wouldn't been ready for them anyway...I was always on the lighter side of music back then.

"Is It Fair Enough" is both mesmerizing and maudlin, heavy on the drums and sad on the guitars. Its beat is so infectious I can't get enough of it...

I would definitely recommend checking out Classic Rock magazine. They aren't just invested in the past, but in current groups as well and their reviews are top-notch (though my wallet sort of resents that fact since I sometimes end up buying their highly rated albums.)

The sampler from the July issue of Uncut is just wonderful, full of terrific tracks like Little Willie John's seldom heard cover of "Fever" (my favorite version ever!), Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)," Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" and Bill Dodgett's "Honky Tonk (Part 2)."  Most of the songs can easily be found on other cds, but all of them gathered together on one disc make this extra awesome...worth the rather hefty cost of the magazine...whether you read it or not! :)

Here are some tidbits from the sampler write-up accompanying it:

-Sam Cooke joined the Soul Stirrers at the age of 15 in 1950...and seven years later would hit it big as a solo artist with "You Send Me."

-Smokey Robinson's "Shop Around" was Motown's first chart-topping, million-dollar selling single.

-Ray Charles would often perform "What'd I Say (Parts 1 & 2)" at the very end of his concerts, saying after it was over: 'That's the end for me. There ain't no encore, no nothin'. I'm finished."