Album of the Day - Vagabond Opera

Portland's own Vagabond Opera has a new album, their fourth, called "Sing For Your Lives", just out this last September. You can hear excerpts from their site at http://www.vagabondopera.com. In the meantime, here is an introductory video from a few years past, among many others you can explore at YouTube:

Death By Misadventure

So we learn from the British press this morning that Amy Winehouse's death was by alcohol poisoning. Characterized by the Brit coroner as "death by misadventure." (Can't help but also think of Janis Joplin ...) More on this great talent.

Tim Hawkins on Aging Rock Stars

Laura Gibson & La Grande

We've been Laura Gibson fans around here ever since we heard her collaborations with the Portland Cello Project. And she has worked with Colin Meloy (Decembrists) and others in the Portland music scene. We have at least a couple of her CDs -- If You Come To Greet Me and Beasts of Seasons -- and continue to be charmed. A couple of weeks ago we heard that she has signed with a new label and will bring out a new album before too long. Hear the title track - La Grande -- from that album here. Gibson, incidentally, comes from another small Oregon town, Coquille. Now I wonder exactly where Jeremy Peterson ate that muffin?

Feist: Metals

Leslie Feist (of Canada's Broken Social Scene) is doing it again. I have been listening to her new Metals album, and it just keeps me wanting to play it again and again ... I thought of citing Get It Wrong, Get It Right as my Song of the Day, but the rest of the album keeps pulling me in, too. Started off as gentle background to my work day, but it is definitely going beyond that. You can stream some cuts at http://www.listentofeist.com/metals/ and take a look/listen to one of a number of her YouTube promos:

Radiohead, Again