Music Report

Welcome to the March Madness edition of The Report. Hold on to your brackets and we’ll get started.

Of all the bizarre alliances, Sports Illustrated’s NCAA Tournament blog includes a playlist with an mp3 download a day curated by indie music blog Gorilla vs. Bear. Scroll down about a quarter of the way and start downloading.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_blogs/ncaa_tourney/2008/

Last week you got a sweet recommendation from the African music scene. But there’s more . . . FRESHLYGROUND (caps not for emphasis just how they spell their name). Absurdly positive themes pervade their music which contains elements of traditional South African songs, jazz, blues and indie rock. They’ve played the World Cup’s closing ceremonies and the opening of the South African Parliament, so you know legislative types are feeling them.
http://www.freshlyground.com/

I like Singer-Songwriters as much as the next guy but they start to run together after a while. Not so with Mat Kearny. He does the whole singing and strumming thing—reminding quite a bit of Chris Martin of Coldplay—but then, out of nowhere, he’ll break off 40 bars or so of lightweight rapping. Kearny’s songs have appeared all over TV from Scrubs to Friday Night Lights to NCIS to Grey’s Anatomy and many, many more. The only caveat is that his music may have some subtle Christian undertones.
http://www.matkearney.com/

New releases are on the horizon from Brighton’s the Kooks and New York’s own We Are Scientists, although they too are bigger in the UK than they are with domestic audiences. Click below for “Always Where I Need to Be,” the first single from the Kooks’ sophomore effort Konk to be released on tax day. We Are Scientists’ Brain Thrust Mastery arrives this coming Tuesday but the consensus is that it only occasionally gets the job done. Sample the first single, “After Hours,” for yourself by clicking the second link below.
http://del.interoute.com/?id=9106c628-ac93-4544-a040-0de8d73db700&delivery=stream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv2_LSIujHk

If your current internet radio stations are getting stale, navigate to Sky.fm broadcasting over-0 mostly high quality channels out of the UK. Nothing too edgy but good, consistent playlists. My favorites are the jazz stations and the 80’s station.
http://www.sky.fm

In the live show department, innovative jazz trio and Music Report favorite The Bad Plus are playing the legendary Blue Note tonight through Sunday. Also this weekend, Cleveland’s own Bone Thugs-N-Harmony will be playing a show at BB King’s Blue’s Club on 42nd Street.
http://www.bluenote.net/newyork/schedule/
http://www.bbkingblues.com/schedule/moreinfo.cgi?id=2975