One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine — TEN.

No, I’m not going to rap the “Ten Blog Commandments” to you. That’s my way of saying I’m done for the day. It’s Saturday, I don’t want to feel like any more of a lame-brain, and I’m about to hit the first keg party I’ve been to since the passing of Danno the Clown on last year’s Independence Day.

That said, let’s wrap this up. Here’s the new Regina Spektor joint that was shipped-out to the internets moments ago:

It’ll be on What We Saw From the Cheap Seats, her sixth studio album that will make its way to shelves and all major digital outlets on May 29. In case you missed the first two singles, “All the Rowboats” can be watched and “Ne Me Quitte Pas” can be heard by following those respective links.

Regina. Tweet.

You know how I get obsessed with another artist every three-to-four months? Well this chick is my new, new. Lana Del Rey. I came across her first video a couple of months back, and her album Born To Die was one of my twenty quality CD purchases on Record Store Day.  If it wasn’t for buying the Jack White solo disc today, Del Rey would sure as shit still be in my player.

Tweet.

Let me know your thoughts on homegirl. She’ll definitely have a spot in whatever type of year-end post I plan to do for 2012.

Hey you, out there in the cold. Come, make yourself warm and cozy here at The Echo Chamber Blog.  Nice, isn’t it? There are no silly advertisements or spam pop-ups that could slow or potentially harm your computer – just myself and my old buddy, old pal Verbal Spacey writing about the music we enjoy and looking handsome whilst doing so.  Among a couple of other reasons (ie fame and riches), Verbal and I started TECB in hopes of having the subject and/or music of our posts be discussed, but, although it happens occasionally, comments and discussion are unfortunately few and far between.

That said, we do have a lot of friends, family, loyal readers, and subscribers that keep The Echo Chamber Blog in their daily/weekly routine. Their traffic is much appreciated, but it is truly the commenting on actual posts (not on the links we spread on FaceBook and Twitter) that we benefit from.  Leaving a comment on posts not only generates conversation, but also has more influence and staying power than any comment on a FaceBook thread could ever have.

For instance, no one is going to Google MC Such-and-Such and see how you “liked” a link to his song on FaceBook.  Search engines do, however, refer many to our site by way of our coverage on artists whose names aren’t as widespread as we believe they should be, much like the slew of locals (Rhode Island) we support and try to provide exposure for.  Your feedback, whether positive or not, helps promote the artist in mention as much if not more than our half-assed attempts at journalism. And it’ll be here forever…granted we continue to pay our rent to WordPress.

I chose to have that drawn-out preface for one reason only. Today on FaceBook I asked if any of my friends like Fiona Apple, as I planned to make this post about her new song “Every Single Night” from the forthcoming The Idler Wheel…. More than ten people responded with how much they enjoyed her music, and I’m using that positive response to bait my friends over to where I want the action happening – The Echo Chamber Blog. Spiel aside, give the song a listen:

She’s great, right?

So, my friends, what is stopping you from going the extra mile to leave a kind word on my stupid fresh website? If it’s nice enough, I might ask of your company when Fiona hits Boston on June 30 (details on the sidebar).

Can you feel me?

I guess Vevo allows the sharing of their videos now, which makes me happy to know that this priceless hip-hop gem can once again be viewed here on TECB.  That said, being able to post “Sixteen Saltines,” the second video from Jack White’s upcoming solo debut, Blunderbuss, due to hit shelves on April 24, makes me equally as happy.

Shout out to peanut butter and ceiling sandwiches.

This came in the mail the other day. Necromanzee Cogent, an album by Furze, a Norwegian one-man Black Metal band. (I Googled that, by the way.) It was sent to me by mistake by an Amazon seller who thankfully refunded me after I relayed what had happened. I figured I’d give it a shot…

And now I feel like I’m on some Drag Me to Hell-type-shit.  Pray for me. And the site, now that I’ve uploaded this nonsense into TECB’s media library.

For those of you that I’ve talked to about Jenny Owen Youngs over the past two weeks, this is her. I had heard of Youngs a while back, I believe it was from an Amie Street email newsletter, and then just last month noticed she’d be visiting Providence to rock The Spot, one of my favorite venues in the city.

Surprisingly, a couple of Echo-OG’s came with me, and we were all pretty happy with how the night went down.  I thought her live show was great and plan to start at square one with her discography. Literally just seconds ago I bought Batten the Hatches, her debut LP which bears the single “F*ck Was I” (the video you see above), from the Amazon.com application I have on my iPhone, so I’m sure to be back around writing a little more about her. Probably on Twitter, but maybe a full post up on this bid-itch we call The Echo Chamber Blog.

In the meantime, tell me a story. Do you like the video? Were you already a fan? Will I like her studio albums even though her live performance seemed way heavier than what’s on record? It would be much appreciated, and you’d probably be the first person in the history of TECB to comment on a post filed in the “This Is Not Hip-Hop” category.

Yessir, this is my second Regina Spektor post within hours, and I’m glad to have it be. She looks fly, and the video for the lead single “All the Rowboats” off of her forthcoming LP What We Saw From the Cheap Seats, directed by Regina’s homegirl Adria Petty (Tom’s daughter), is just as nice as her lovely face piece.

Creek it, and creek my critique of “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” as well as my post on the audio for “All the Rowboats.”

Shame on you if you don’t comment on one of the three.

Love,
Chris @ TECB

In 2002 Regina Spektor released her sophomore album, Songs. Aside from the recording equipment, it was Regina and a piano. Nothing else. Each of the twelve tracks were completed in one take, and the outcome is something I’ve pressured many of people to witness. It’s raw. It’s breathtaking. It’s the reason why nine out of every ten music journalists can’t muster-up a string of words about Regina without using “quirk.”

She signed with Sire Records a year or so later and put out Soviet Kitsch in ‘04, the album I consider to be Spektor’s masterpiece – a perfect balance of minimalism and production, erraticism and composure, grit and polish.  The subsequent albums – her break-out Begin to Hope in ’06 and Far in ’09 – both featured a more accessible, pop-driven sound from Spektor, especially the latter, which may or may not have been over-produced by my standards. (Some days I can dig it, others I want to horse-kick Jeff Lyne.)

Recently we’ve been able to hear selections from What We Saw From the Cheap Seats, Spektor’s sixth studio album due out at the end of May.  I posted “All the Rowboats” when it was released, and now “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” a track originally released on Songs, has been re-recorded and distributed over the internet as the album’s second single.

Although I’ve always been partial towards the song, about a month back I saw Woody Allen’s latest, Midnight in Paris, and my liking for “Ne Me Quitte Pas” has skyrocketed.  I’ve been obsessed over Owen Wilson’s character – an easy-going middle-aged guy with aspirations of a career change, caught in the middle of a feeble relationship. Essentially, I noticed a lot of parallels (big nose, nostalgia-obsessed, trying to figure out life) between him and I. The only major difference is that I would never give up an opportunity to hit the sheets with Marion Cotillard.

Anyway, the connection between the song and the film is that Wilson’s character spoke of loving Paris when it rained, and “I love Paris in the rain” is a line repeated by Regina throughout “Ne Me Quitte Pas.”  Now. Those that know me can vouch that I’ve never spoken ill about Regina and her music, but this updated version has me crying in my soup.  It sounds like the music that could have run in the opening credits of Weekend at Bernie’s or been in a Chiquita banana commercial or something. I mean, it’s alright, but it’s more bubbly than I ever expected her to sound.

Give it a whirl for yourself…

Here is the original:

And this is the newbie:

Speak your thoughts below. On the songs. On the movie. On Paris. On the upcoming album that I’m still very excited about, regardless of what I just wrote about this song. On whatever you so please.

Thanks.

Occasionally things get a little slow around here at TECB. It’s not that Verbal and I don’t have anything new to bring, but, apparently unlike these other dick-biting website clones, more along the lines of having lives outside of the internet. Verbal has school and a girlfriend; I have a full-time job and Jim Beam. What we do here is all extracurricular, obviously on our free time.

That said, it looks like there’s no better time than now to clean out my inbox, and Regina Spektor is my number one go-to. I’m a huge fan of homegirl, and I relish every opportunity of posting music and/or news related to her. She’s gracing our page now by way of her debut single from the upcoming What We Saw From the Cheap Seats, her sixth full-length LP expected sometime in May. Take a listen:

Other Regine news I was excited to hear is that she’ll be releasing some new vinyl on this year’s Record Store Day. To somewhat counteract that great news, I’m pretty sure none of the music being released on the limited edition pressing will be in English. Regardless, I’ll be buying a copy along with various other pieces of music on that fine day.

Let me know what you think of the song. I’m still waiting for the first TECB reader to come out of the woodwork and admit they enjoy Regina’s music. Personally, I only know about three people so far. Be my fourth.