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April 19 has been declared Record Store Day, which means…well, it means all you record fans should drop by your favorite store and show some appreciation that they still keep hanging on. I know I’ll be at either/both of my San Francisco locals, Aquarius and Amoeba (not that I need more than the thinnest excuse to drop by anyway).

Looks like it’s from an interview put together by Gibson. Whoever’s responsible, thanks–great to hear him talk about meeting and working with Lee.

Since I’m on the subject of ambient, atmospheric, cinematic-type records, thought I’d pass along another that’s been pulling me in lately: Second Childhood. It’s a collaboration between Hidur Gudnadottir, BJ Nilsen (he of Hazard and the brilliant Storm collab with Chris Watson), and Stilluppsteypa (try asking for those names at your local shop), came out in 2007 on the Quecksilber label (meaning you won’t likely find it at Best Buy–no one said this stuff would be easy to find, let alone pronounce). At any rate it’s a beautiful record–dark, moody, and low-key, though don’t think ‘quiet’ or ‘relaxing.’ Tension comes in waves, riding in on electronic washes, a slow-building rhythm (it’s subtle but it’s there…at times), and what sound like metallic echoes bouncing between empty cement walls. It’s a cavernous sound, haunting, dank, and shivering; it never pieces but does at times rumble, coming more from below than above. As cold and icey as it sounds much of the time (these guys are from Iceland, after all), it’s a lovely and beautiful album, one of my favorites from last year.

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I had high hopes for catching some great local music while in Thailand over the holidays. I’d heard a lot about what they call “Thai country music,” which is really a rough and rowdy brand of homemade rock ‘n’ roll called Molam that’s from the Isan region (northeast of the country). Never found any, as luck would have it. However, I did catch a few minutes of of this awesome blind guy (see photo), who was walking down Silom Rd in Bangkok, strumming an electrified four-string guitar (with only one string). 20 baht got me two photos and a 30 second listening session.

Met the guy behind this new playlist widget, SpotDJ, so I’ve been trying it out. Here are a few songs to test it out.

The music of Lee Hazlewood (free download via that link, btw) was steeped in ’60s stylized pop–he wrote great material on his own, but he also did some incredible covers, including this Righteous Brothers hit. It was a highlight on the classic Nancy & Lee album. The video below, though (man, so many great Lee videos have surfaced since his death last weekend), features Swedish pop singer Siw Malmkvist.