Dancing Mattress Productions

There's about a 50-50 chance this is the last M4A-format episode for a couple of months, anyway; at least one longtime supporter is having trouble with non-MP3 tracks. The long-term plan is to switch to BlueHost next year and set up separate feeds for MP3 and M4A.

Today's episode (right-click to download or open in a new tab or window) features these music tracks:

1. Dragonette: "I Get Around"
2. E-Zel: "Libertas"
3. Heather Edwards: "Escape"
4. Dragonette: "Pick Up the Phone"
5. Bethany & Rufus: "St. James Infirmary"
6. The Apples in Stereo: "Go"
7. Beth Bombara and the Robotic Foundation: "Conversation"
8. Alex Cuba: "Amor Infinito"
9. Heather Edwards: "Song About Nothing"
10. The Apples in Stereo: "High Tide"
11. Beth Bombara: "Abandon Ship"

... And I offer up a few words about no fewer than a dozen of my celebrity crushes, with embedded links to Internet Movie Database entries, fan pages, official Web sites, even the MySpace profile of one actress. I'm not sure if these links work for iPod Touch and iPhone users, but I do know they work in Quicktime if you listen to/watch the episode in a browser window.

(Total play time: 1:05:29)

Tracks 1, 4, 6 and 10 are courtesy of the IODA Promonet and may be downloaded at the Blogger site for as long as their promotions remain in effect; tracks 2, 3, 7, 9 and 11 are courtesy of Ariel Publicity; track 5 is courtesy of Music Alley; and track 8 is featured by arrangement with Rock Paper Scissors.

And, again, I hope to get a double feed going in the next few months, because I think there are potentially very cool uses and abuses for this sort of enhanced file format. Pod Across America would be a logical place to do things like this -- linking to travel and news sites from a given state, or to YouTube feeds from someone who regularly does outdoor video entries in a given state, for example.

In keeping with yesterday's New York-themed episode of Pod Across America, here's a video from New York's The Radiant, the second of their videos to be shared with us by the kind folks at Ariel Publicity.

(Right-click to download or open in a new tab or window.)

Previously featured: the video for "Say You Will" (last week).

Look for a new Mental Nomad Podcast on Wednesday, and Pod Across America concludes its three-part look at New York music on Nov. 15.

Part two of our three-part look at New York music is the traditional talking episode, and it's in M4A format -- though I'll probably double back with an MP3 in a week or two, as at least one loyal listener has had problems with the format change I'd started experimenting with at the Mental Nomad Podcast.

Here's what you'll hear today (right-click to download or open in a new tab or window):

1. Dar Williams: "The Baby Sitter's Here"
2. Joe Locke and the David Hazeltine Quartet: "What's Not to Love?"
3. Sirsy: "Revolution"
4. Bob Mould: "The Silence Between Us"
5. Jennings: "Doorway"
6. Suzanne Vega: "A Pornographer's Dream"
7. The Brian Setzer Orchestra: "One More Night With You"
8. Sirsy: "Mercury"
9. Brookville: "Nothing's Meant to Last"
10. Jennings: "Falling Higher"
11. Bob Mould: "Stupid Now"
12. Darrin James: "Crazy World"

(Total play time: 1:03:01)

Tracks 1 and 2 come courtesy of the IODA Promonet and may be downloaded at the Blogger site for as long as their promotions last; tracks 3 and 8 come from the album Revolution, generously provided by the band; tracks 4, 6-7, 9 and 11 come courtesy of Music Alley; and tracks 5, 10 and 12 come courtesy of Ariel Publicity. Track 3 was previously featured in Mental Nomad Podcast 94.

The Mental Nomad Podcast resumes on Wednesday, and the New York run of Pod Across America concludes on Nov. 15. (That episode's already finished, and was done in MP3 format before this one.)

Pod Across America heads south to North Carolina for the Dec. 1 episode.

Wherein we continue the experiment begun last week with .M4A-format episodes featuring embedded artwork and chapters that you allow one to skip forward or backward easily through the episode. Ideally, this should work with most media software and/or portable devices, but give me your feedback if you encounter trouble.

Here's what you'll hear today (right-click to download):

1. Josh Woodward: "Swansong"
2. Josh Woodward: "Sexy Nation Army"
3. Arrica Rose: "Porcupine in a Petting Zoo"
4. allMeadow and Rob Costlow: "Fruitful"
5. Luther Allison: "Soul Fixin' Man"
6. Michelle Hotaling: "Awakening"
7. Lena: "Perfect Day"
8. Gretchen Parlato: "Turning Into Blue"
9. allMeadow and Rob Costlow: "No Regrets"
10. Luther Allison: "Low Down and Dirty"
11. Arrica Rose: "I'll Love You Forever and Other Lies"
12. Gretchen Parlato: "In a Dream"
13. Luther Allison: "All the King's Horses"
14. Michelle Hotaling: "Sweet Clarity"

(Total play time: 1:02:32)

Track 1 is from the album Breadcrumbs; track two is a non-album track; tracks 3, 5-7, 10-11, 13-14 courtesy of Music Alley; tracks 4 and 9 courtesy of Magnatune; and tracks 8 and 12 are courtesy of the IODA Promonet and may be downloaded below for as long as their promotions last.

... And if you're thinking one of the songs looks like a Lou Reed cover and another looks like some twisted White Stripes cover (with some Justin Timberlake thrown in), you're absolutely right.

Pod Across America continues its look at New York music on Nov. 1, and the Mental Nomad Podcast returns next Wednesday.

Courtesy of the good folks at Ariel Publicity, here's the first of a couple of videos you'll see here from New York band The Radiant.

(Right-click to download or open in a new browser tab.)

Look for your regularly scheduled Mental Nomad Podcast about midday Wednesday -- allowing a little more time for the Halloween special and this video to get some download love before that goes out on the feed.

Look for the second video from The Radiant, for the song "I Don't Need a Reason," later this week or early next week.

This year's Halloween episode is almost as much as a surprise to me as it is to you. The Goldstars e-mailed me the opening track out of the blue -- having appeared in the 2007 Halloween episode -- and that got the ball rolling for this half-hour special.

Here's what you'll hear today (right-click to download):

1. The Goldstars: "Halloween Hell"
2. Jonathan Coulton: "Re Your Brains"
3. Burning Babylon: "System A Vampire"
4. Black Velvet Elvis: "Hellhound on My Trail"
5. The Astronauts: "Vampire Strippers"
6. Tom Smith: "Cthulhu Fthagn"
7. Ken Kurland: "Halloween Spirits"
8. Electric Frankenstein: "Coolest Little Monster"
9. Mama's Dirty L'il Secret: "Vampires in the Sun"

(Total play time: 31:51)

Track 1 is from the digital-only album Tasty Instrumentals, 3 and 8 are courtesy of Magnatune, and everything else in today's show was found at Music Alley. The Jonathan Coulton song was previously featured in Mental Nomad Podcast 65 back in 2007.

A regularly scheduled Mental Nomad Podcast will be coming your way Wednesday, and Pod Across America returns for the second of three New York-themed episodes on Nov. 1.

Courtesy of Ariel Publicity, here's an animated video from Montreal's The Blue Seeds, who are on the Sale Cabot label.

(Right-click to download the 37.4MB .MOV file.)

The video, directed by Stephane Fournier, was nominated for best video of the year at the Vimus Festival and at the Holland Animation Film Festival.

Switching to this format allows me to embed artwork and create "chapters" so that if you don't want to hear me blather, or you don't like one song but think you might love the next, you can jump ahead in the show. If downloads fall substantially, or a lot of people complain to me, I may go back to MP3 format; down the road, when I move to another host, I might make shows available in both formats.

Here's what you'll hear today (right-click to download):

1. Pink Martini: "Bitty Boppy Betty"
2. Fat Freddy's Drop: "Pull the Catch"
   
3. Slo-Mo feat. Mic Wrecka: "County"
4. Dr Kuch: "Spend More Time With Me"
5. Emmet Swimming: "The Dance"
6. Post Death Soundtrack: "Anywhere Out of the World"
7. Pink Martini: "Ou Est Ma Tete?"
8. Pink Martini: "Ninna Nanna"
9. Emmet Swimming: "Don't Call Her"
10. HOBEX: "Inner City Blues"
11. Slo-Mo feat. Mic Wrecka: "Home Is Where the Heart Is"
12. Dr Kuch: "Orange Bossa"
13. Emmet Swimming: "Waving at Cars"

(Total play time: 1:06:10)

Tracks 1, 7, 8 and 10 courtesy of IODA Promonet; tracks 3, 5, 9, 11 and 13 courtesy of Ariel Publicity; track 2 courtesy of Rock Paper Scissors; tracks 4 and 12 courtesy of Magnatune; and track 6 courtesy of Music Alley.

This week's Post Death Soundtrack song is a Dead Can Dance cover, and the HOBEX contribution is, of course, a cover of a Marvin Gaye classic.

IODA-sponsored tracks may be downloaded at the Blogger site for as long as their promotions remain in effect.

We start a three-part look at New York and its music with a mix that sways from the sweetness of jazz and the timeless appeal of folk music to the edginess of city life. Sometimes all at once. (And isn't all music really folk music? It comes from people, after all.)

Here's what you'll hear today (right-click to download):

1. The Kathy Fleischmann Band: "Accomplishments"
2. The Kathy Fleischmann Band: "He's Erasing Me"
3. The Kathy Fleischmann Band: "C Word"
4. Simavi: "The Way You Look Tonight"
   
5. The National: "Wasp Nest"
6. Noam Weinstein: "Assholes in Training"
7. Noam Weinstein feat. Norah Jones: "I Could Lie To You"
8. Noam Weinstein: "Orgy On The F Train"
9. Simavi: "In the Still of the Night"
10. Blake Leyh: "Red Hot Cold Cuts"
11. Citizens of Contrary Knowledge: "Beautiful Dreamer"
12. Bethany & Rufus: "900 Miles"
13. Cupero: "Quiero Tu Amor"
14. Cupero: "Life Is a Moment"
15. Blake Leyh: "51 Canal"
16. Lita (Ford): "Kiss Me Deadly"

Sources: Songs 1-4, 9, 11, 13-14 from Ariel Publicity; songs 5-6, 12 and 16 from Music Alley; song 7 from the album Above the Music; song 8 from the album Enough About You; songs 10 and 15 from the album X-Ray Yankee Zulu Tango. Song 7 previously featured in Mental Nomad Podcast 30; song 15 previously featured in MNP87.

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Reminder: The video for "Isis Unveiled" by ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is available for download until Oct. 21. (Right-click to download.)

Courtesy of Ariel Publicity, here's a video featuring electronic artist and singer Jennings, whose Ariel profile lists both Nashville and New York City as her stomping grounds.

(Right-click to download.)

The Pod Across America episode scheduled for today will be heading your way in a couple of days. Ye Olde Podcaster made a boneheaded error and deleted his show notes, so they'll have to be reassembled when he gets back to the computer he used to produce that episode.