This week I asked my Twitter friends 1) Who their favorite jazz vocalists are and 2) What soul-crushingly beautiful music they’d recommend. Here’s what they, aka you, said:

Favorite Jazz Vocalists

• Lady Day • Nat King Cole • Frank Sinatra • Cab Calloway • Ella Fitzgerald • Louis Armstrong • Diana Krall • Mel Torme • Bill Weathers • Nina Simone • Billie Holiday • Sarah Vaughan • Bobbi Humphrey • Diana Krall • Betty Carter • Little Jimmy Scott • Madeleine Peyroux • Patricia Barber •

Soul-Crushingly Beautiful Music

• Sigur Ros • “Go Now” by the Moody Blues • “I Get Along Without You Very Well” by Carly Simon • Neko Case • Emmylou Harris • Riceboy Sleeps • “Possibly Maybe” by Björk •  Other Lives • Ray LaMontagne • Neil Young • Annuals • Jeff Buckley • “Oriental Melody” and “Cool New Way” by Joe Satriani • Kings of Convenience • The Sundays • Mazzy Star • The Cure (Disintigration-era) • Leonard Cohen • Sufjan Stevens • The Sublime Goodness Mixtape 2 • Patty Griffin •

My ears will be warm and full for weeks. Thanks to @jimmymarks, @allspeeds, @solis510, @ali_shafai, @vanessahenry, @morrischris, @jhoop98, @andrewshepherd, @lisarandolph, @bradywalen, @dericjones, @mmpartee, @nunispramp for that.

Update 7/1: I’ve added four jazz vocalists and a spelling change from @astigmatic, who let me know that, “It’s Krall, the singer, not Krull, the awesomely bad fantasy thriller from 1983.” Thanks, Aaron.

PS: Add to the list by posting your favorites in the comments.

I wrote a song yesterday from my hotel room outside of Minneapolis. I think I’ll probably add to it, but here’s a quick-and-dirty little recording I made this morning of what it is right now. Hope you enjoy it:

Notes From a Hotel Room in Minnesota (MP3 download)

Lyrics:

For days upon days
I’ve been dreaming awake
of you calling me up,
and we know just what to say.

But doors have been shut
and the well has run dry
and my cast iron throat
it can’t ask for advice.

We say cheers to the present,
we empty out the glass,
talk about where we’re headed
as we drink down the past

Shawn sat on the plane
and drank ginger ale.
He told me the stories
of how he had failed.

His family was waiting
in Saskatchewan
to start their new lives
in the hot Florida sun.

“I spent years breaking things
that I love the most
and feel cheap when I pray:
‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost.’”

Sit down on the train
and they all look away -
staring down at their coffee
and the newspaper page.

We’re all packaged well
we’re all wrapped up and bound
we all practice distraction
and don’t make a sound

We have our smoke and mirrors
we have our one act plays
we’re all trying to scream
in the quietest way

I just found out my friend Trey ordered one of these. He is now the most futuristic person I know.

Here’s the good news: Amazon is giving away hundreds of free mp3s, including tracks from Ani DiFranco, The Streets, Jackopierce, My Morning Jacket, and Loudon Wainwright III. Click here to get em while they’re hot.

There is no bad news. Happy Thursday.

(via kottke, via the millions)

I’m sorry but this is just mind-blowing.

(via Centripital Notion’s Final Fantasy - Owen Pallett)

A VideoSong is a new Medium with two rules:

1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).

Here are two from Pomplamoose, a musical collaboration between Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. I love them.

I had a friend tell me once that recording in the studio changes the way you listen to music. It’s true, witnessing the layers interweave gives listening a new shade. You begin to notice things in music you never would have before.

This kind of talent and creativity wakes me up.

(Big dap to Paul McEnany for pointing this out.)

Tomorrow is America’s birthday, and America wants you to celebrate hard. But tomorrow is also Independent’s Day, a worldwide event to raise money for the indie music community and associated charities:

Starting in New Zealand and ending in the US, activities include the largest ever auction of independent music memorabilia (via eBay) and limited edition albums featuring the cream of independent talent from all over the globe, all supported by a comprehensive retail campaign and a series of one-off music shows and retrospectives across TV and radio.

The U.S. album includes music from Ani DiFranco, Devandra Banhart, Dave Barnes, & Tokyo Police Club, among others.

Also good news on the indie music front - Dallas Does Indie’s Jasien Swords has launched an indie HD radio station, The Indie-Verse, with CBS Radio:

The station can be heard right now by anyone with an HD Radio on 105.3 HD - 2, not to be confused with LIVE 105.3 which is still remaining an FM Station. The hope is that at some point in the near future you will be able to hear the station in FM, but just like most things worth waiting for, the process will be slow and calculated.

…In the next few weeks, we will be launching a website where anyone, anywhere, can stream the station 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

If you don’t already subscribe to the Dallas Does Indie podcast, you’d be wise to do it now.

I didn’t even know there was a such a thing as HD radio. But this was a good way to find out.

Happy July 4th, everyone.

I don’t know whether it’s my love for the Old 97s, hand-made toys, music, sappy stuff, or all of the above - but this spot for Fuse made me happy:

(via Ad Age’s Creativity Weekly)

The music from this new VW spot, by DDB London, is a made from a compilation of sounds recorded in and around the Golf and was composed and produced by Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll.

When I saw this, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Lasse “Crazy Eyes” Gjertsen’s “Hyperactive…”

…and Wieden + Kennedy London’s ‘06 Civic Choir:

Dear Europe: Why do you get all the special hotness?

(via Fresh Creation)

The new album by Icelandic band Sigur Rós, “Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust,” which means “With a buzz in our ears we play endlessly,” is available for listening on Last.fm. This gives you a two-week head start to collect scene points before the album’s release on June 23rd.

(via Dailyswarm)