So check it. I have two wonderfully smooth and punchy tracks sung by two wonderfully smooth and punchy female vocalist. The first being "Somebody's Baby" by El Perro del Mar.
At first glance it may look like some latin band's cover of the fairly dated Jackson Browne tune. Instead it's a Swede's fresh take on good old fashioned bubblegum pop. How did I stumble upon this toe-taping, head swaying song you may ask? Well, you may or may not be familiar with La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows series (if you haven't seen any of these you MUST go there immediately), but as I was perusing the videos I came across this one featuring El Perro del Mar and Lykke Li.
You see my friend Richard had sent me a link to Lykke Li's music video for "Little Bit" and I was on my usual internet rampage to get more info about this girl with the beautifully layered video so when I saw this I was intrigued to get a "live" taste of what this artist had to offer. Instead, I was tipped off to El Perro del Mar - the music project of Sarah Assbring. So take a listen to both her live version - here - and her studio rendition.
Now for lady #2.
Okay, so technically the next song comes from a duo (one part female, one part male) but the vocalist is a woman so I think it still counts. Inara George has one of my top ten favorite voices of any modern day female vocalists (Leslie Feist being number one, of course) and Greg Kurstin's cool and quiet ways make him a man of mystery and intrigue - not to mention the fact that I find it so cool that one of his major musical influences is Burt Bacharach. I first fell in love with this band when I saw them at the troubadour for the release of their self-titled debut, "The Bird and The Bee". Since then they have put out a number of EPs. However, last month they came out with their second LP entitled "Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future". The track I can't seem to get enough of is "My Love".
As a side note: The Bird and The Bee get extra points for being so kind to me. You see, two years ago, when I was trying to figure out who I wanted to record for my junior project I thought I would just shoot for the stars and ask them to come in to my class so I could record them. So I sent them a message through myspace and to my complete surprise a few days later Inara responded with the sweetest message. She was so appreciative that I had thought of them for this project but was sorry to turn it down seeing as though they were traveling around the country on tour. Now whether or not this is completely true is not the point (I doubt they would have come in even if they were in LA) but the fact that she even responded will forever insure that The Bird and The Bee will always hold a special place in my heart.
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