postcard from home

As I was playing with my new NPR app the other day, I listened to a couple podcasts from The World series and caught a story about Cesaria Evora's new album.  I love many of her songs, and was not surprised in the least that I really enjoyed the snippets I heard from her new album, "Nha Sentimento." Having just returned from Portugal a few months ago, the Portuguese language has now taken new meaning for me and I am able to enjoy Cesaria's music on a whole new level now.

I really enjoyed listening to Sentimento, and absolutely love the Arabic influence from her collaboration on this track with Egyptian musicians. I found out from the podcast that she had to go open heart surgery recently, and so querida Cesaria, esperamos ver-te de novo! Get well soon.

My friend Dan gchatted me the other day with an awesome new find.  I don't know what else to say except that I love everything about this song and how it all comes together - the beat, the lead singer Sarah's beautiful voice voice, the guitar, the words, the melody. It's perfection. 

I don't know much about the band, except that they are relatively new to the scene and from Saratoga Springs, NY.  Matthew Loiacano, describes Phantogram's sound as "street beat, psych pop", which I actually find to be a very fitting description. Found that info via my trusty wikipedia source :)

They're playing a few shows in Europe currently, and I'm definitely keeping tabs on them to see if they come around these parts to play a show some time soon. Come to DC Phantogram!

So here it is, When I'm small, by Phantogram!