This sunday, March 8, the International Women’s Day is celebrated and it is the perfect excuse to drown yourself into a vast sea of music made by women, so we are sharing with you this astonishing blog: Guitarwomen, where you can find a huge amount of music from France, Iceland, USA, UK, Mexico, Spain, Brazil and many other places, it is a large catalogue of female related artists. Some of our favorites would be: Pee Shy, Vive la Fête, Camille, Róisín Murphy, Veruca Salt, Natacha Atlas, Le Tigre, Katia B, Tori Amos, The Like, Cibo Matto, Sonic Youth, Sara Valenzuela, Lyambiko, Emilíana Torrini, Björk, Cibelle and Au Revoir Simone, among many, maaany others. You can find there some Doo-wop, Metal, Pop, Punk, Electronic, some Jazz, and a lot of Rock… (sadly they forgot about Funk and Hip-Hop).

Celebrate women and enjoy their music!

50 years ago today was the day the music died. On February 3, 1959, a small plane crashed in a corn field in Iowa, killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.

The influence of these musicians on contemporary music is undeniable, especially Holly who was a role model for the Beatles and everything that came after, he was the first one to configure the band with two guitars, bass and drums, and Valens a precursor of the Chicano Rock movement. La Suite 303 remembers this sad event in music history.

Listen to one of our favorite songs of all times: Everyday by Buddy Holly.

 

 Everyday: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is the time of the year when we present to you the La Suite 303’s Podcast about the best songs of the year, according to our personal taste and perception. Remeber that the tracks are listed alphabetically since we don’t believe in assigning numbers to them (Who’s to say which is the best overall track?). We have several choices this year but we sum it down to around 20, that’s always our criteria, we always say “20 tracks, more or less”, so some tracks didn’t make it to the list, but it is worth to mention that this one didn’t make it, because of an opinion clash between the editors, one of the reasons was “it’s not daring enough” and also it was not a new song but it was noticed (and charted in the USA, UK, New Zealand and Canada) until 2008, it is: Handlebars by Flobots (Denver, USA) and we were not the only ones disagreeing, as you can read here. Once again enjoy this issue! These songs, like last year’s, are really great!

LaSuite 303 - The Best Songs of the Year 2008:

All The Wrong Places (Sensibility) by Dead Pixels
(London, UK)

Día by Juana Molina
(Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Errata by Xploding Plastix
(Oslo, Norway)

From Stardust To Sentience by High Places
(New York, USA)

Gun by Emiliana Torrini
(Kópavogur, Iceland)

Lights Out by Santogold
(Philadelphia, USA)

Mansard Roof by Vampire Weekend
(New York, USA)

Music Takes Me Up by Mr. Scruff
(Manchester, UK)

Náttúra by Björk
(Reykjavík, Iceland)

Parachute by Shugo Tokumaru
(Tokyo, Japan)

Profanity Prayers by Beck
(Los Angeles, USA)

Rising Up by The Roots (featuring Wale & Chrisette Michele)
(Philadelphia, Washington DC & New York, USA)

Serenade by The Naked And Famous
(Auckland, New Zealand)

Shoulda Known by Atmosphere
(Minneapolis, USA)

Showtime by Quiero Club
(Monterrey, Mexico)

Snake Patrol by Hint (featuring Gavin Stenhouse)
(Leicester & London, UK)

Suspendida Del Cielo by Taera
(Madrid, Spain)

The Girl Ain’t Preggers by Grampall Jookabox
(Indianapolis, USA)

White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes
(Seattle, USA)

Won’t Say Anything by Hello Seahorse!
(Mexico City, Mexico)

Podcast Tracklist:
01 - Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
02 - Emiliana Torrini - Gun
03 - Beck - Profanity Prayers
04 - Hello Seahorse! - Won’t Say Anything
05 - Santogold - Lights Out
06 - Dead Pixels - All The Wrong Places (Sensibility)
07 - Atmosphere - Shoulda Known
08 - Grampall Jookabox - The Girl Ain’t Preggers
09 - Hint (featuring Gavin Stenhouse) - Snake Patrol
10 - Mr. Scruff - Music Takes Me Up
11 - The Roots (featuring Wale & Chrisette Michele) - Rising Up
12 - Taera - Suspendida Del Cielo
13 - Vampire Weekend - Mansard Roof
14 - Shugo Tokumaru - Parachute
15 - Juana Molina - Día
16 - The Naked And Famous - Serenade
17 - Quiero Club - Showtime
18 - Björk - Náttúra
19 - Xploding Plastix - Errata
20 - High Places - From Stardust To Sentience

 

 The Best Songs of 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hi, first of all, I want to thank you for your support through 2008, and for continuing to read our reviews and listening to our podcasts. We know 2008 was not such a prolific year for music, compared with other years, anyway, soon we will have a Podcast with our own selection of the best tracks of the past year. Along with this post I want to share this video with you in which some guys play Jingle Bells using only microwave ovens and a lot of patience, it reminds me of that video we presented before named Six Drummers in which creativity is the main factor.

Recently I discovered an incredible documentary called: Touch the Sound: A Sound Journey With Evelyn Glennie, and one of the things that I’ve found so appealing about this film was the fact that Evelyn Glennie is deaf since her childhood, but she’s also a remarkable percussionist. Through this documentary you can come to understand her silent life and her perspective on how she, literally, touches the vibrations of sound and how, despite her incompleteness, she has become a renowned musician nowadays. The director Thomas Riedelsheimer made a fantastic filmmaking work showing us her vision of this world in a unique and suggestive way.

She also has made contributions with some other artists in which Evelyn appears to be listening to every note on their performances because she made perfect synergy with them. From the crowded streets of New York City to a relaxing garden in Japan, She travels through, not only an amazing journey around the world, but also a deep journey into herself by which music lovers, like myself, are happily delighted.

Featuring:
Evelyn Glennie & Fred Frith. (this video)
Evelyn Glennie & This.
Evelyn Glennie & Za Ondekoza.
Evelyn Glennie & Roxanne Butterfly.
Evelyn Glennie & Jason “The Fogmaster”.
Evelyn Glennie & Horazio “El Negro” Hernández.
Among others.

On August 2006 we decided to make a meticulous research about the contemporary Mexican music scene to select some of the most  interesting and remarkable tracks, the parameters were simple: at least one Mexican musician had to be directly involved in the project, at  least one studio track should be recorded (but an album would be better), and it had to be done in this decade.

More than 100 artists were picked, an MP3 compilation was made and it was distributed among close friends, the idea of a documentary film  was even discussed (but, unfortunately, we all have day-jobs and other things to do). Enclosed in that compilation were acts like Café Tacuba,  Julieta Venegas, Nortec and many others that are not included in our podcast tracklist, simply because on Suite 303 we always focus on the  not-so-obvious artists.

Needless to say that thanks to the Internet, the exposure to greater influences, DIY recording and other  contemporary issues, the quality of the new Mexican talent has recently improved and it is easier to get close to their music.

Please enjoy Mexhibit A, a contemporary Mexican  music podcast!

Tracklist

01 - Intro: Organillo
02 - Shy Genius - Mumerats
03 - People Project - Segundo Piso
04 - Muna Zul - Voto De Silencio
05 - Falcón - I Lobby
06 - Villa Jardín - Misiones
07 - MC Luka - Lupita’s Taco Shop
08 - Sonex (featuring Rubén Albarrán) - La Bamba
09 - Los Músicos De José - Nebulosa
10 - Maple - Pixel
11 - Faca - Nightshot
12 - Jorch Mono - Real e Imaginario
13 - Chikita Violenta - Turnaround
14 - Sub-Division - Blue Boy
15 - Maniquí Lazer - Mrs. Lazer
16 - Titán - Odisea 2001

 

 Mexhibit A: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The basic idea for this podcast came from a series of questions: how would it be if a band plays one genre and the next one plays this same genre combined with another and so on? would the change of rhythms be seamless and fluid? To answer those questions we’ve just put the concept into a playlist.

Spectrum is a podcast that goes from one genre to another without any abrupt jump in music styles, this was made possible by a variety of genre daring artists that are the key to open new musical frontiers. Fortunately the resulting playlist answered our questions: you can go from loud guitar sounds to smooth percussions, or through jazz, hip-hop or rock without any brusque rush as long as you put between those pieces the right ligature of genre-blended music. So we leave it to your appreciation and we hope you can enjoy this little spectrum of styles as much as we did, and maybe you can suggest your own musical spectrum or, why not? you can challenge us on how to go from one genre to another and try to make it smooth.

Tracklist

01 - Ryo Fukui Trio - Early Summer
02 - Digable Planets - Dog It
03 - Akitaka Tohyama & Kenji Ninuma - The Moon And The Prince
04 - Torpedo Boyz - Chickee Pow!
05 - Pop Levi - Sugar Assault Me Now
06 - Álbum - Es Fácil
07 - Cyndi Seui - Micro Bitz Touch Of Lipz
08 - Aïwa - Yiyi
09 - Amadou & Mariam (featuring Manu Chao) - Coulibaly
10 - Antibalas - Indictment
11 - Vern Blair Debate - Ooh Ah Ee
12 - Elizabeth Shepherd - Reversed (Nostalgia 77 Remix)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Recently I traveled for the first time to Newcastle and Gateshead and near the River Tyne, just in front of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, you can find The Sage Gateshead which is an impressive edifice and a center for performances, musical education and conferences, built by Sir Norman Foster and Mott MacDonald. It has the best in acoustic performance, and sustainable architecture and besides the usual concert and conference activities, in this magnificent space you can also see soundchecks, rehearsals and workshops in progress.

You can find inside a striking public library that focuses mainly on music with technological equipment, stocking books, a CD library with listening stations, current music magazines and computers with free internet access, subscriptions to music websites, music software and midi controllers, so you can borrow music books and scores, learn and compose using music software, or even find a music tutor in North East England.

It is open 7 days a week and this year’s upcoming performances will include: Bon Iver, Roots Manuva, Eddi Reader, Brad Mehldau Trio, Elbow, Michelle Shocked and Herbie Hancock. The Ticket Office telephone is: 0191 443 4661.

The story behind this podcast began last year, when I was planning a flight to the city of Guadalajara, Mexico to witness one of the most important music events of my lifetime: Björk’s only performance in Mexico, the verminous organizers named that festival Sonofilia in which also played Ratatat, MSTRKRFT, Jay Jay Johanson and Claude Von Stroke.

The odyssey to share with Björk, just a couple of hours was really an ordeal, at the end, through the poor organization and the fact that the “venue” was located on middle of nowhere, the episode culminated as one the most exciting and enjoyable experiences that I have ever had, Björk definitely enlightened the audience… but how is this event related with this podcast?, well, is difficult for me to confess that I’m a little nervous when I’m on a plane, so before I started my trip, I decided to make my flying experience truly comfortable by making a playlist for me in such a way that I would focus my attention entirely on the music instead than on the physics involved in the flight process.

The musical spectrum that I’ve selected here is relaxing but I think at the same time it’s bright and ethereal and, in some tracks, cacophony and abstraction prevails, in fact, I tried to design a concept through which the whole tracklist would reach, in some way, a complete journey of frequencies in order to let the listener enjoy those magnificent landscapes that the windows of an airplane may offer.

If you are going to fly somewhere this podcast could be your perfect companion on your flight, if you are scared to fly …and also if you’re not.

01 - Boards of Canada - Over The Horizon Radar
02 - Sidsel & Bugge - Out Here. In There
03 - Plaid - Ralome
04 - Yanokami - Owari No Kisetsu
05 - Rei Harakami - Come Here Go There
06 - Trentemøler - Snowflake
07 - Nils Petter Molvær - The Beginning (From The Film Edy)
08 - Hiroshi Watanabe - Sui-Sei
09 - Cornelius - Sleep Warm
10 - EKP - Leaving You Wondering

 

 Music for 30,000 feet: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download