Ok, this has been around for a while, but if you haven’t seen Zach Braff’s broadcast from Indie 103.1 of five artists from the Last Kiss Soundtrack, you are in for a real treat!

Here’s a guy who loves music, and he manages to get a bunch of his favorite artists to not only offer their skills for a soundtrack, but have them all perform live in a very personal setting, one after the other! Ok, obviously Zach Braff is not just any guy, and he has some serious pull, but come on, who wouldn’t feel lucky to see so many of their favorite musicians all in one day? His awe and admiration for each artist in the interviews is sweet and genuine.

Lucky for me I like a lot of the same musicians as Zach, and I’m obviously not the only one, since the soundtrack he picked for Garden State won a Grammy!

I haven’t had time to watch all the sections yet, but the ones I have so far are good (I did see Sissy Spacek backing up her daughter Schuyler – very cute!). If you don’t have time to watch them all either, at least have a look at this clip on YouTube that led me to finding the whole concert. I was totally blown away watching Imogen Heap build up Just For Now loop by loop – LIVE!

It was from reading the comments on this clip that I found out:

1) Just for Now is a Christmas song (when I listened to the lyrics after reading that I thought “Duh!”, but it really hadn’t occurred to me before that.)

2) there was more to be seen besides this clip, and some quick Googling later I discovered the entire event on rehearsals.com. Yum!

Want more? Check the official websites of the performers: Schuyler Fisk, Cary Brothers, Rachael Yamagata, Imogen Heap and Remy Zero.

Check out this mini-interview where Imogen Heap lists the music she’s currently into, plus lists some of her musical firsts (first concert, first album, etc).

I almost think my favorite part is at the top where they list her instruments: Carpet Tubes, Vocals, Metal Gate, Keyboards, Kazoo, Programming …

Brilliant.

Two musicians I love are traveling these days. They both have blogs they update regularly that I find fascinating to read. Their little glimpses into other cultures make me want to get out and see them myself, but I guess it’s pretty much the next best thing!

Ember Swift is about two months through a three month stay in Beijing where she is immersing herself in the language, culture and the music scene. She has a degree in East Asian Studies and had always planned to go to China “when the music thing died down”, but when she realized that there was no dying down to the music, maybe she’d better make space to just go anyway, and see if she could find that place where music and the Mandarin language mix. Sounds like she’s having a blast following her dream, and her writing is really descriptive, poetic and insightful. I love how she even takes pictures of/explains the toilets in the floor on occasion – one of those different culture things you wonder about but no one seems to explain, till now!

Imogen Heap is really trotting around the globe and staying in all sorts of exotic places while she writes material for her next album. I just discovered her somewhat recently, but apparently she kept a regular blog the last time she made an album too. Says it keeps her accountable and actually working. (I totally get that!) She takes pictures and also little video clips which is cool. Her brain works in such amazing ways, it pushes me to explore wacky possibilities.

Anyway, a really cool thing is that their traveling paths crossed somewhat in Beijing recently! Imogen ended up playing at a festival called the Midi Festival, and Ember was there to see the performance! They didn’t actually meet or anything, but it was neat to make the connection after reading both their blogs. I ended up leaving a comment on Ember’s blog directing her to Imogen’s, but she couldn’t read it because a lot of MySpace is blocked where she was. She wrote me back to ask if I could copy and paste the text in an email so I did!

I feel all like I’ve brushed with fame or something, and all proud of myself for figuring the link out.

Anyhoo, check it out for yourself if you wish!

Ember’s experience:
http://tinyurl.com/ypu6vv

Imogen Heap’s experience:
http://tinyurl.com/38n6g4

Originally posted on my MySpace blog.

One of the “dangers” of MySpace (and the internet in general) for me is the way I can so easily discover great new musicians. It’s a blessing and a curse, because while I can often get my fix by listening to music players on websites, if it’s good stuff I’ll want to take it with me, which means racking up a bill on iTunes.

Here’s my three most recently added to my library:

Jose Gonzales – one of his songs is featured on bouncy ball advertisement that I’ve been mesmerized by the past few days. (while you’re there, check out the exploding paint and the behind the scenes footage too. I’m in awe of the kind of people who can come up with such outrageous and beautiful ideas.)

Anaïs Mitchell – love this girl. She’s been to Cafe Paradiso twice now and I was trying to hold out for her to come back so I could buy her new album from her in person but we’re not on her near future schedule and I couldn’t wait any longer. Had it on repeat for for a few times around at work, and again this morning. It’s funny the whole live vs recorded thing. I listened to the recording of “Your Fonder Heart” online very shortly after her last concert and I was a little disappointed because it didn’t have quite the same gorgeous ache i remembered when it was just her and the guitar a few feet away from me, but really how could it? And now, after the memory of the concert has faded by many months, the CD version is beautiful and wonderful and I had it on repeat many times over because I just couldn’t get enough.

Priscilla Ahn – Finally found her after trying to track down who was singing with Joshua Radin on one of his songs (he’s coming to Iowa City next month! Imogen Heap just mixed one of his songs!). Beautiful and whimsical stuff. sigh.

So now I’ve got plenty of fresh, heart happy music to go with the happy feelings in my heart from the new spring grass creeping in!