This video is incredible. Give it a minute to warm up.

To see more videos like it, check out ThruYou.

Maybe this is funny because it’s really late and I can’t sleep and I’m tried. But I don’t think so. It’s just funny.

Is. IS. IS!

Photo by Blind Pilot Music

I went through a really long musical drought. Nothing sounded good. I made a brief detour at Pandora and left unhappy: my digital radio station didn’t introduce me to anything I liked and repeated the songs I didn’t like too often. Honestly I love listening to complete albums. Pandora doesn’t suit me. I don’t like the next song I hear being selected by a computer program. It’s too cold, too calculated. I would rather listen to a podcast that someone has curated with songs he or she has heard and has made an emotional decision to share with me. If you feel the same way, check out Cheryl Waters from Music That Matters. Cheryl has impeccable taste. Cheryl introduced me to Blind Pilot and the drought was over.

Blind Pilot’s 3 Rounds and a Sound is simply breathtaking. The album is so rich I find myself getting lost in the lush melodies, the fidelity of the recording, the brightness of the instruments, and the warm, velvet vocals. Seriously, these guys can sing.

3 Rounds and a Sound vaguely reminds me of more melancholy moments of The Pernice Brothers’ Yours, Mine, & Ours, minus a little pop and electric guitars. Regardless, this album is definitely one of my favorites of the entire year.

From 3 Rounds and a Sound:

“Poor Boy”

“The Bitter End”

Who doesn’t love Sarah Palin impersonations, midgets, and Dolly Parton?

Honestly, that video is so freaking amazing. I hope Chloe and Keith get enough page views to buy something nice.

Art by Matt Dorfman

You know I love Dolly. And Dolly Parton is everywhere right now. Yesterday, NPR posted a great article about Dolly Parton’s song, Jolene, detailing the origin and history of the song.

Parton says that she got the story for her song from another redhead in her life at the time — a bank teller who was giving Parton’s new husband a little more interest than he had coming.

From Jolene:

“Jolene”

Dolly released Jolene in 1973 and it didn’t disappear into some dustbin. A testament to the universal appeal of Dolly is the number and variety of artists that have rerecorded her music: Jolene has been covered by The White Stripes, The Sisters of Mercy, Olivia Newton John, and many others.

In related Dolly news, the World of Wonder Storefront Gallery DollyPOP exhibition closed this week. There are a lot of great pieces in the exhibition. Matt Dorfman’s piece above is one of my favorite. If you are like me and couldn’t go to LA to see the exhition, there are lots of pieces scattered across the Internet. Metro Pulse and LA Weekly have great slideshows. You can find out more about Matt Dorfman’s piece and see a few more over at Mammal.

LA must feel like the center of the Dolly universe right now with DollyPOP and the opening of the 9 to 5 musical. Enjoy it while you can LA, soon Dolly will bring her musical to NYC.