The best thing about New York is not how it’s a treasure trove of new music but how that music can spring out of the most unlikely places and surprise you. Last week, during a short sojourn in the city that never sleeps, I was sitting on a bench outside the Gourmet Garage, a deli in SoHo, eating a relaxed breakfast (yummy roast-beef sandwich, hot split-pea soup and coffee) when a pick-up truck roared down the street I was facing and three guys jumped out. You’re not likely to have an impromptu music video shoot like that surprise you amidst the commercial bustle of mid-town Manhattan but go further uptown and there could be other delights waiting for your attention.
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Posted by Sanjoy Narayan on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Filed under Download Central · Tagged A&R, Adam Cole, Alex and Adam Cole, Alex Cole, Alright Junior, argus48, Arlene’s Grocery, Big Apple, Brad Nowell, Conor Bennett, Download Central, Drums & Tuba, Gourmet Garage, I Hate You Baby, John Ross Michaels, Jonny Chan and The New Dynasty Six, Jonny Spent the Night in Jail, Matty Amendola, Myspace, New York, Sanjoy Narayan, SoHo, Steve Demeo, Sublime, The Upper Cuts, Twitter, White Hot Spotlight
I have gushed before about The National’s Matt Berninger and his deep baritone voice and their songs with highly literate and intimate, if a bit self-absorbed, lyrics. The two albums of the Brooklyn-based band that I like—Alligator and Boxer—do routine overtime on my playlists. I like the sad (yet not soppy) undertone in many of their songs and the nice dose of intellectualism and wit. It would be fair enough to say The National is among my favourite bands.
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Posted by Sanjoy Narayan on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Filed under Download Central · Tagged 4AD, Alligator, argus48, Blood Bank, Bloodbuzz Ohio, Bon Iver, Boxer, Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows: The Songs of John Prine, Bruised Orange, Carl Newman, Challengers, Chen Shinki, Dan Bejar, Deer Tick, Destroyer, Download Central, For Emma, Forever Ago, Glue & Shinki, High Violet, Indie, indie band, Jimi Hendrix, John Prine, Justin Vernon, Matt Berninger, Neko Case, Records, Sanjoy Narayan, Speed, The Best of March Compilation, The Crash Years, The National, The New Pornographers, Together, Twenty Miles, Twin Cinema, Twitter, Zumpano
It’s the curse of plenty. When collecting tends towards hoarding, choice becomes a real problem. And that has been happening to me. The rate at which I’m amassing music—courtesy the scores of feeds from mp3 blogs that I subscribe to and the huge number of podcasts that unfailingly land in my iTunes each week—is far higher than the rate at which I can listen to them all. Some weeks back, a reader and occasional admonisher, Sanjay Ghosh, while commenting on the web version of this column, observed how when you have hundreds of albums, your attention per album gets really small. I couldn’t agree more. Read more

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Posted by Sanjoy Narayan on Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Filed under Download Central · Tagged 69 Love Songs, Alessandro Moreschi’s Ave Maria, argus48, Audrey Hepburn, Band of Horses, Billie Holiday, Billie Holiday’s All of Me, Bloodbuzz Ohio, Breaksfast at Tiffany’s, Check The Door, Dinah, Django Reinhardt, Download Central, Go, High Violet, In The Dark, Infinite Arms, Iron Maiden, iTunes, Jon Birgisson, Jon “Jonsi” Birgisson, Jonsi, Keller Williams, Keller’s Cellar, Killers, Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday, Moon Moon River, Moon River, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Ponys, Sanjay Ghosh, Sanjoy Narayan, Sigur Rós, The Beatles, The Contrast Podcast, The Magnetic Fields, The National, The Roadhouse Podcast, The Whigs, Tony Steidler-Dennison, Twitter
It was 1977. I was, er, let’s just say, very young and had my first brush with southern American rock bands. An older cousin had handed me an LP, The South’s Greatest Hits, which had come out that year, and with it began a torrid affair with southern rock bands, an affair that, as you shall soon find out, has passed the test of time. The South’s Greatest Hits had stellar tunes by stellar bands. I got to listen to the Allman Brothers Band, Charlie Daniels Band, Elvin Bishop, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dr. John and others. I was hooked. Read more

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Posted by Hindustan Times on Saturday, April 3, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Filed under Download Central · Tagged Allman Brothers Band, argus48, At Fillmore East, Birthday Boy, Blackfoot and Thunderhead, Charlie Daniels Band, Congratulations, Disco Biscuits, Download Central, Dr. John, Duane Allman, E-40, Eat A Peach and Brothers and Sisters, Elvin Bishop, Gov’t Mule, Grateful Dead, Gucci Mane, Hittin’ The Note, Hood, Jerry Garcia, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker Band, MGMT, Patterson Hood, Ronnie Van Zant, Sanjoy Narayan, Southern Rock Opera, The Big To-Do, The Drive-By Truckers, The Fourth Night of My Drinking, The South’s Greatest Hits albums, The Wig He Made Her Wear, This Fucking Job, Truckers, Twitter, Warren Haynes, Wet Willie, Whip It Up