LimeWire Music Blog

Look, even weapons-grade music geeks like us have lives, you know. Well, okay, not exactly lives as you might understand the term, but we at least have designated periods of time when we gather together with our loved ones and glare at them accusingly for not giving us that 5o lb. archival box set or insanely pricey 12-inch dubstep import single we’ve been dreaming lustily about for weeks (Oops, sorry, TMI?). Hence the brief holiday ellipsis in our weekly updates of the latest and greatest, but now we’re jazzed (as you’ll soon see) to sink our teeth into a brand new year of musical discoveries. Since most labels wait until a little later in the calendar to unleash their biggest attention-getters, we’re gonna sneak up on 2010’s first week of releases, slapping a couple of singles on the virtual turntable and trumpeting the tale of a NY jazz institution’s newest endeavors.

SINGLES GOING STEADY:

Butch Walker – Trash Day/She Likes Hair Bands
Butch Walker’s been a piping-hot producer for some time now, working with a strikingly diverse roster of artists including Hot Hot Heat, Pink, Weezer, Dashboard Confessional, The Donnas, and countless others, but he’s always found time somewhere in his busy schedule to crank out some roots-rockin’ singer/sonngwriter albums along the way. The latest, the intriguingly titled I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart, is due out next month, but here are a couple of new Butch tunes to chew on in the meantime.

J. Tillman – Wild Honey Never Stolen/Borne Away On A Black Barge
This one actually started out as a real-deal single on black wax with a hole in the middle, but now it’s been rocketed into the digital age for all you beautiful button-pushers out there. It’s conceivable that the moody-troubadour sounds of J. Tillman might have earned him a sizable following even if he hadn’t become the newest member of Fleet Foxes, but we’ll never really know for sure. To be honest, once you’re under the spell of these songs, you’ll probably be too busy soaking up the dreamy vibe to ponder such moot questions anyhow.

ALL THAT JAZZ:

The loose, low-key atmosphere of Greenwich Village jazz joint Small’s has made it a favorite for both musicians and fans for years, and it’s long been the best place to catch wee-hours jams by some of New York City’s finest players. A venue for both cult heroes and hotly tipped new talent, Small’s is something of an institution, and now it has its own label, SmallsLIVE, presenting top-shelf talent recorded right there at the aforementioned hotspot. You lucky pup, now you can snap up live sets by the likes of guitar hero Peter Bernstein, trumpet tornado Ryan Kisor, 88-key innovators David Kikoski and Kevin Hays, and more. Between them, these guys have worked with everyone from Wynton Marsalis to the Mingus Big Band, but here’s where they really open up and let it all hang out.

Peter Bernstein Quartet – Live At Small’s

David Kikoski – Live At Small’s

Ryan Kisor – Live At Small’s

Kevin Hays – Live At Small’s