Apresento-vos mais um link do tal movimento de "bandas folks não tão folks" que se unem pra fazer sons nos E.U.A. atualmente. Neste caso, tratamos de uma banda que muito pouco, quase nada, carrega do tal folk, senão instrumentistas de outras bandas que atuam "na área", como Heather Trost (violinista da A Hack and a Hacksaw) e uma musiquinha lá pelo fim do primeiro álbum, o Dance Party In The Balkans (2007), em que Zach Condon (vocalista do Beirut) empresta um pouco da sua belíssima voz para este álbum cheio de talentos.

O nome é em função de um semestre que Bethancourt passou no Alaska, fazendo não sei exatamente o que, mas na companhia de um laptop em que ele começou a brincar com edição de sons num freeware da vida e resolveu botar o projeto pra frente quando voltou pro New Mexico.

É meio místico, meio sexy, meio romântico (falando da escola, não em melar cueca).

Ouve aí, e me diz o que achas que é.

Os Álbuns:

2007 Dance Party In Balkans

[audio http://osaldalingua.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/take10b.mp3]
19 Lovely Lovely Love: Alaska in Winter
20 Strange Invitation: Beck
21 Sea of Love: Cat Power
22 Just Like a Woman: Charlotte Gainsbourg & Calexico
23 Doctor Blind: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
24 Só tinha de ser com você: Elis & Tom
25 Changes: Seu Jorge
26 Yellow Submarine: The Beatles
27 You My Lunar Queen: Cousteau
28 Boobar: Tindersticks
29 Hey, Don't You Cry: Stuart A. Staples
30 Serpentine: dEUS
31 Belle and Sebastian: Belle and Sebastian
32 Nature Boy: Lisa Ekdhal
33 Toothpaste Kisses: The Maccabees
34 John Wayne Gacy Jr.: Sufjan Stevens
35 Saddest Vacant Lot in the World: Grandaddy
36 String: Tunng
37 Eternal Flame: Joan as Police Woman
38 Love Will Tear Us Apart: Nouvelle Vague
39 Tire Swing: Kimya Dawson
40 Dream On Girl: Rita Redshoes
41 Seahorse: Devendra Banhart
42 Sacred Mountains: Aniwida And Nik Tyndal
43 JCB: Nizlopi
44 More Than This: Brian Ferry

Friday mashup:

- Alaska in Winter is my favorite discovery from the past week. It's like Beirut, but with serious downtempo dub.

- Photoshop Express was released yesterday. You get 2gb of storage and some of the more popular Photoshop tools in a convenient, Flash-based format. I still am hoping for Picasa for Mac.

- Yelp Boston asks, "When was the last time you threw up?"

- Divine Caroline posts the "Worst Artery Cloggers in America." Yikes, Chipotle is on here. My favorite is the "Just wrong, mate: Outback Aussie Cheese Fries." With 2900 calories and 182g of fat, now I understand why America has redefined the average ass size.

- The New York Times assures us that, yes, running can get you high. [thanks, Lifehacker]

- William Kowalski, a writer living in Nova Scotia, offers a Canadian perspective on an American classic: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsy. via Globe and Mail.

- Stereogum, et al debate the value of the Web Sheriff, a paid gopher who frequents mp3 blogs and politely asks users to remove select content by a certain record label ::cough Matador cough::. I really like some of the arguments made in this post about the role blogs that post mp3s play in spreading new music and, in turn, generating revenue for artists who are overcontracted and underpaid.

- What happens when you remove Garfield from Garfield comics? You embark on a journey "deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman."

Photo credit: Bjorn Hegardt via This is That

stellasplice's favorite albums of 2007:

Boxer ~ The National
MySpace Site Buy

Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild ~ Eddie Vedder
Buy and Listen

The Shepherd's Dog ~ Iron & Wine
MySpace Site Buy

Because of the Times ~ Kings of Leon
MySpace Site Buy

Marry Me ~ St. Vincent
MySpace Site Buy

Glory Hope Mountain ~ The Acorn
MySpace Site Buy

Buckle in the Bible Belt ~ Ha Ha Tonka
MySpace Site Buy 

Oh, My Darling ~ Basia Bulat
MySpace Site Buy

Music for the Motion Picture Once ~ Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard
MySpace Site Buy

Rust Belt Blues ~ Oliver Buck
MySpace Site Buy

The Stage Names ~ Okkervil River
MySpace Site Buy

These two were quite good, but I unfairly wanted them to be Wolf Parade and The Shins, respectively, so I never could fall for them wholeheartedly:
Random Spirit Lover ~ Sunset Rubdown
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? ~ Of Montreal (though it is my fav. Of Montreal disc)

I love the following artists. However good their 2007 discs may have been, they did not measure up to the artists' previous releases, so they have been relegated to addendum status:
The White Stripes
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
José González
Spoon
The New Pornographers
Beirut (he swallowed up Alaska in Winter, too)
Modest Mouse
The Shins
Elliott Smith
The Polyphonic Spree

Alaska In Winter - Your Red Dress (Wedding Song At The Cemetery)

[ALASKA IN WINTER; Dance Party in the Balkans]

[Myspace][official site]

When you're tired of listening to In Rainbows, be sure to check out Alaska In Winters latest, Dance Party In The Balkans. AIW are one of those mysterious bands who can't seem to gain any amount fame, despite richly deserving it. Think Beirut, with a dark electronic tinge. Zach Condon features on a few tracks.

Alaska In Winter - Dance Party In The Balkans.mp3

[From Dance Party In The Balkans, out now on  Regular Beat]