How about some Pete Seeger?

If you’re not toiling 14-hour days in an unsafe factory or mine, you may like to take a moment today to give thanks for the sacrifices of workers who fought to make your job both easier and safer.

Yes, it’s May Day, a celebration for the workers of the world — except, say, in North America. We have to wait till September.

If Pete Seeger’s “Solidarity Forever” didn’t do it for you, how about The Internationale? I particularly like this wordless version, which sounds as if it might have been at home in the Woody Allen movie “Sweet and Lowdown.”

Of course, if you also want to be a neo-pagan, it’s also a great day to revive celebrations like Beltane or Walpurgis.

But now, a May Pole from Mad Men:

If you’re looking for a good way to spend a Saturday May Day afternoon, you could do a lot worse than watching old Pete Seeger videos on YouTube. Solid stuff.

Why yes, I do like the cover of this Psychedelic Furs album. I just wish I knew what the typeface was that they were using on it.

Oh wait — there’s a website for that?

Yes, in case you’re not typophile enough to know at a glance what font choice your favourite rock star has picked, you can check out Rock That Font. It’s a blog that’s just getting started, but it’s one of those ones you hope will be around for a while.

Here’s what they say about “All of this and nothing,” above:

At a time when most were watching Miami Vice and sporting Hypercolor, the Psychedelic Furs’ 1988 compilation All of This and Nothing delivers a minimalist black and white composition to near perfection. No bright attention-grabbing neons or funky typefaces here. Simply Univers in all lowercase (likely Univers 49 Light Ultra Condensed with tightened tracking). The neo-grotesque sans-serif was originally designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954 and released by the French foundry Deberny & Peignot in 1957.

As any graphic designer worth his or her salt knows, Frutiger’s numbering system was first used with Univers and adopted for use in the Frutiger, Avenir, and Neue Helvetica families. (The number used is a concatenation of two numbers: the first set defines weight and the second defines width and position.)

Ahhh, ’tis a blog that speaks to me.

Take this quick 15-question quiz!

Based on my answers, I should “give country radio a shot. Some of it will bother you, but you could be surprised how gratifyingly clever, sing-a-long-able, engagingly told and frankly touching a lot of it is”

And that is why I listen to folk. Go to hell, twang.

(via Coudal)

This morning, on the way to work, I happened to hear a great song on the radio. I thought I had heard it before, but I couldn’t place it. I got to the office and Googled the lyrics.

I listened to it a couple more times.

And then, it got stuck in my head.

I like the song, but it’s been on repeat over and over and over again for nearly 18 hours now. For a while, a clip of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” in a TV show booted it out, but that only lasted about 10 minutes.

So I’m posting it here, in the hopes that sharing it with blog readers will allow the song to leave my head and to infect you. I realize that this is mirroring part of the plot of The Ring. So be it.

Enjoy — Duffy’s “Warwick Avenue.” It’s a sad, sad song, with a sad, sad video, but Duffy has killer pipes. It’s a couple of years old, and I’m sure I’ve heard it before, but Amy said it was new to her.

Corinne Bailey Rae absolutely exploded onto the music scene in 2006 with “Like a Star” from her debut album. It was a huge hit in both the UK and the States, and the Leeds native instantly became a critical darling for her sweet voice and soulful music.

Rae drew accolades and racked up an impressive amount of awards, but unfortunately her musical career was put on hold after the sudden death of her husband, Jason Rae. After more than two years absent, she has just released her second album this past January called The Sea. The album is a mix of acoustic-driven songs and funky, orchestral tracks.

In particular, I really enjoy her song “Paris Nights/New York Mornings,” an ode to those nights you spend dancing and falling in love, completely carefree. It has such a great beat, and makes me want to get out of my seat and dance, but is also really dreamy and wistful. A great song from Rae’s sophomore effort.

Amy and I are finally all caught up on the third season of Mad Men, and we’re very excited about Season Four this summer. I’m still torn between watching it as we go, and waiting to buy the DVD set of the season, but I don’t think we’ll be able to wait.

So today, in a moment of randomness, I was Googling about it. Okay, I admit, I was looking for Season Four spoilers.

But before I came across that, I happened to find the original song that is used (in abbreviated form, in the end credits.

Here, in case you’ve never seen them, are the opening credits. They’re even better in higher-defiinition. Amy and I particularly like the nice touches like the splash in the drink, and the sparkle in the diamond.

The credits, in case you’re interested, are an homage. Says Wikipedia: “The titles pay homage to graphic designer Saul Bass’s skyscraper-filled opening titles for Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) and falling man movie poster for Vertigo (1958)”

Anyway, the song they used is a shortened version of “A Beautiful Mine” by RJD2. Give it a listen.

RJD2 - A Beautiful Mine

And heck, just for giggles, here’s a Simpson’s parody of those awesome opening credits. By the way, I dislike it when people disable embedding.

It is only mid April, and already the sun is shining brightly, the leaves are budding on the trees outside my window, and I can go on extended bike rides without a jacket. Hell, I can just go outside without a jacket. Summer, at least for now, has arrived.

I wanted, therefore, to find a summer song to post for this week’s Music Monday.

North Carolina band Annuals, as it turns out, has just the song. I fell in love with the band a few years after hearing their song “Brother.” It’s a song bursting with energy, with layer upon layer of instruments and vocals, building from a gentle opening to an absolute explosion of sound.

Oh heck, just listen to it.

Annuals - Brother

So I was excited to see that Annuals have a new EP coming out, called Sweet Sister. Their song “Loxtep” has the layered sound of “Brother”; it opens with flamenco-type percussion, and slowly gains electronic beats, a fuzzy guitar riff, and beautiful melodies. Unlike “Brother” though, it’s a much lighter song overall. It’s fun and catchy, and feels like the perfect summer song.

Annuals - Loxtep

Band of Horses have consistently blown me away since the release of their first major label album Everything All the Time in 2006. The album is a beautiful mix of indie pop and rock, kind of atmospheric, anchored by the lead singer Ben Bridwell. His voice is really interesting, and he can really belt it out.

With their second album Cease to Begin, their atmospheric sound was a little more flushed out and included some country overtones. Now the Seattle band is releasing their third album, called Infinite Arms. They’ve released a video for their first single, “Compliments.”

It’s a really catchy song and a bit harder than some of their previous stuff. I’m eager to hear the rest of the album.

And because I’m a big jerk and I forgot Music Mondays last week, here’s another Band of Horses song, one of my favourites from their second album, a pretty but melancholic love song.

Band of Horses - No One’s Gonna Love You

Check out Band of Horses on Myspace.

(Image from flickr user Julio Enriquez)

The Broken Bells are the newest indie super group; the main members consist of James Mercer, lead singer for The Shins, and producer/mixer extraordinaire, Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) who infamously mixed Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” and the Beatles’ “White Album” and is also one of the members of Gnarls Barkley.

According to the Wikipedia page, they began recording in secret in 2008, and just released their first album this year.

Their sound is a touch more Danger Mouse than The Shins, electronic and sort of dancey. You can definitely hear the production direction of Danger Mouse in the music. But they also seemed to experiment a little, and utilize instruments like horns and the organ like in their song “Vaporize.” I really like the song “The High Road” because it seems to be a great mix of both the musical styles. It’s a head-nodding, slow-jam song; it has a great beat and melodies, and I have been listening to it a lot.

Broken Bells - The High Road

Broken Bells on Myspace.

I’m a sucker for soft music, for folk music, and for poetic lyrics. So it goes without saying that I’m a sucker for singer-songwriter Laura Veirs. Hailing from Colorado, her music embodies each of the traits I mentioned, and so much more.

So far, Veirs has released seven albums, many critically acclaimed but not incredibly popular, which seems about to change with her latest release “July Flame.”

It’s full of gentle, guitar-driven songs, with a touch of orchestration, and Veirs’ clear, sometimes plaintive voice.

I especially like her song “Sleeper in the Valley.”

Laura Veirs - Sleeper in the Valley

This song feels like spring to me; it sounds earthy and full of warmth. There’s a definite touch of melancholy and coldness lurking underneath, but more than anything, it feels like hope and growth and the promise of life.

Check out Laura Veirs on Myspace.

If you missed the original, a man calling himself Merton made a great video singing improvised piano ditties to strangers on Chatroulette. I blogged about it a couple of days ago, noting that Internet scuttlebutt theorized that “Merton” was actually Ben Folds.

Whether he is or isn’t remains to be seen. But the unarguably real Ben Folds took to the stage last night in Charlotte, taking a laptop and a webcam with him, and did his own piano improv in front of a few thousand screaming fans — and a few random strangers. He calls it his “Ode to Merton.”

Awesome:

(via Gizmodo)

I am a sucker for slowed-down, acoustic covers of popular songs, and since I took piano lessons for many years, I have a not-so-secret love of piano as well. So this tune hits a couple of very big buttons in me.

Jamie Cullum is an English piano singer-songwriter, with a jazz-pop fusion thing going on that I really got into earlier this morning when I heard him being interviewed on Q.

Although he played snippets of a couple of songs, I was particularly taken with his cover of Rihanna’s “Please Don’t Stop The Music.” So when we got home, I immediately checked out the video. If you like jazz-pop covers, you’ll like this. Or, if you like exploding piano porn.

Apparently, exploding pianos are kind of his “thing” — according to the website, he’s “lost his keys” (by which be means piano keys .. because they exploded all over the place) and if you participate in the scavenger hunt and find them, you could win a private living room performance with Jamie Cullum and a piano. And you get to keep the piano.

Which is cool if it doesn’t explode. And, I guess, really cool if it explodes and you get to just walk away all nonchalant, like an action hero, like he does in the video.

If you’ve been living under a rock, Chatroulette is the latest internet sensation, where you are randomly connection — webcam, microphone and all — to a random stranger on the web. You have no clue who the other person is, and you can disconnect and reconnect to someone different at any time.

It’s a little bit like mainlining The Internet, especially if you remember the early pre-corporate randomness of the early internet.

Also, it’s got a lot of creepy guys doing very unsexy sexual things.

But this is awesome:

The scuttlebutt is that this is Ben Folds. Which would be cool. But what does it matter? This is wonderful no matter who the man in the grey hoodie is.

(Sorry guys. I’m unemployed right now, so the days kind of blur together!)

I first came across The Temper Trap while watching (500) Days of Summer — which, by the way, is an adorably charming film.

Digging the beat and vocals of their song “Sweet Disposition” I looked over at Grant and said, “Wow, this song is great!” He gave me a funny look and said, “I’ve had this song on my iPod for awhile. I didn’t think you would like it” all because I told him I didn’t really like electronic music. Except, I do, but there has to be actual singing and not just a non-stop beat.

Anyway, back to The Temper Trap. They are from Melbourne, Australia, and have released a self-titled EP in 2006, and a full-length album called “Conditions” in 2009.

Their sound is up-beat yet atmospheric, especially with sometimes dreamy falsetto of lead singer Dougy Mandagi. I would probably say their sound is mostly dance/pop with a bit of rock thrown in for good measure.

“Sweet Disposition” is insanely catchy, so have a listen!

The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

(Photo by Amy of the bubble fun that always takes place among the audience at the Winnipeg Folk Fest main stage, from 2008)

Today was the day that the Winnipeg Folk Fest announced its lineup. This always gets Amy excited, Last year, I read her some of the highlights from a newspaper article while we coffee’d in a Starbucks, and she slapped her palm down on the table and shouted “shut UP!” she was so thrilled. That was for Iron and Wine, who fulfilled her excitement with a great performance last year.

This year’s performer list looks, if anything, better and more exciting than last year. Some of the names that made Amy go “squeeeee!” on her Facebook are, Andrew Bird, The Avett Brothers, Emmylou Harris, The Swell Season and Sarah Harmer, but there’s too many to list here.

But I’ve always appreciated Winnipeg Folk Festival for the opportunity to explore new-to-me artists as well, and it’s some of the names I don’t yet recognize that intrigue me the most.

I’m considering a 100-day blogging project, wherein I (and perhaps Amy) explore each of the artists coming to Folk Fest, and post about each of them individually. With 65 artists currently on the list (and they often tweak the list, adding a few as they get contracts signed) that’s more than one every other day. That’s ambitious, I know, since it would include listening to albums and trying to be fairly good about giving them the consideration they’re due.

Are readers interested in that scope of a project? Or is it too far outside what Absurd Intellectual is to you? I’d also consider dropping a few emails/phone calls in the right direction to see if I could score interviews with some of the performers. (Shout-out here to Curtis at Endless Spin, who has done an excellent job on the political front with his candidate interviews during the provincial NDP leadership race and the recent byelection in his home riding.)

One year I covered the Winnipeg Folk Festival in a moderate way for the Brandon Sun, and while a press pass had its advantages, lugging a laptop and camera gear from stage to stage wasn’t exactly the best way to spend the weekend. So Amy’s kiboshed any live-blogging of the festival this year, but I could probably get behind some tweeting, if I can ever get my phone set up.

Thoughts?