Lower your expectations and Bon Iver

OK, we're back from a brief hiatus. Sort of. I am beginning to realize that my attempt at daily posting on this blog was a little bold, and I am pretty amazed that I was able to keep it going for this long. So as an act of quality control and time control I'm going to have to scale it back slightly. We'll still have our weekly updated lists on Friday, and if there isn't a list to post then there will still definitely be a Friday post always. Tomorrow we have a great list from Megan that will go up, and will blow your mind. Still a lot to cover from this Ricky list, but I'm really going to have to get ahold of some of the stuff because I don't have any of it. I don't think I'm going to set a schedule of posting, like Monday, Weds, Friday unless that is something you really want to see. It will still definitely be about 3 times a week. Then once we have the Megan post we'll go back and start getting into some of these old lists. Still waiting on a Matthayes, and TJ has already started his Recommends list number 2. Don't let him lap you...you should make a second as well. Anyone make one of these Gittings recipes yet? I could really go for some curry right now.

I'm pretty sure most of the readers of this blog already know about Bon Iver. This comes from the Gittings list and he strongly urges you to check out For Emma, Forever Ago. He also recently released an EP called Blood Bank which is good, but not quite as good as Emma. I stand behind both of these picks. Here is his website to check out, and a pretty comprehensive Wikipedia entry (the part about For Emma, Forever Ago is particularly interesting). The album is pretty soft and contemplative, mostly (if not all) acoustic. But the arrangements are very thick, with layers and layers and layers of vocals that sort of remind me of Dinosaur Jr's "Feel the Pain" where whatshisname sings in octaves. I was curious how he recreated it live and according the wiki entry he depends on his audience to sing along to achieve the vocal layering of the record. This youtube clip is him performing by himself, but I really recommend you check out the album. Oh, and not suprisingly it is available from (the awesome) emusic.com. Here is Flume from For Emma, Forever Ago: