Plan for rain

Image: Susan Schwake

Children of the Polka - Children of the Wave

This being Chicago and me being half German, I've obviously heard and, more importantly, witnessed--in all its pink petticoated glory--polka. Trust me, this isn't polka proper. Generated by a clutch of conceptual-minded Australians, it's more like hearing polka's lusty shuffle and twirl through a thick wall as it bleeds into the lackadaisical murmur around you, winds through the hiss and sputter of espresso machine, clings to a car slow-rolling by with its windows down, pouring its sweet syrup of country radio onto the sidewalk. "Polka" is the most "pop" song on Children of the Wave's album, but if you like experimental folk with stretches of ambient and field recordings (who doesn't, you ask!) you'll be quite pleased with it, I think.

From Carapace (eMusic), Myspace


I Lost My Colour Vision - Burning Hearts

So that last track wasn't for everyone. But I don't even want to know you if you don't immediately love--or can't come to love--this song. Seriously: Don't ever speak to me again. Sounding for all the world like Swedish popsters, Burning Hearts are, in fact, Finns. Finns who memorized the Magnetic Fields' giddy, gaudy and oh-so-melancholy The Wayward Bus and perform it back at twice the tempo.

From Alboa Sleeping (Amazon), Myspace