Christina's pick: "That's Us/ Wild Combination" by Arthur Russell

Arthur Russell is the Van Gogh of the AIDS era. He was a small town Iowa boy who came to New York to make music / play cello and do other weird shit in the village, back when the village was actually weird. He died of the disease at age 40, and was relatively forgotten until a recent resurgence of the one album he put out. I feel nostalgia for this era in New York, and for him, even if it was years before I was alive. Here is a great New Yorker article about him that came out a couple days ago.

Loren's pick: "Open", Rhye

One of the main reason's I thought about starting this blog was because I am a podcast queen! But if you listen all day all things quickly run together and repeating (yes, the The Heart did a cameo on Note to Self today and I almost sent Anna Sale a gift for her new baby.) It was clearly time to reintroduce some music to my ears. So, its ironic that I learned about today's artist from my favorite music podcast Song Exploder. but once I heard his voice I fell hard. And he has some mean musicians from great trumpets to beautiful violins. I actually could have chosen any song on his albums...like I might have a new fav artist. Each song is so atmospheric, takes you on a mini adventure, and his voice is like the sweetest driver.