It’s been a little bleak here on Wednesdays, and I’ve been MIA for a couple of weeks — but hopefully you will all enjoy today’s musical selection and forgive the midweek blackout of late. The Blow, consisting of Khaela Maricich & Jona Bechtolt from Portland, OR, have been carrying me through a busy time. The music is rife with slick modern beats, but there is a super pop, super earnest candy center. Throughout the album there are many, many references to how hard it is for girls and boys to come together and I admit (with a blush and an eyeroll) that when Khaela sings “really you just injured my pride” I had a moment where I was like “um, did I write this song???” As usual, file under: better late than never.
Pile of Gold [MP3, 2.9MB, 160kbps]
Sam’s original post: 01/10/05
I was going to wait for Valentine’s Day to post this, but couldn’t because I’ve been waiting long enough as it is. The Blow is one unassuming Khaela Maricich whose catalog of come-ons is sultry, clever, and disarming enough to lure even the most reluctant players to bed. When I say players, I don’t mean Fabolous or Jermaine Dupri. I mean the mysterious outsiders, the John Cusacks of the world. To some such player, Khaela sings, “I’d love to make you nervous/I’d love to make you sweat/I’d love to make you breakfast the morning after…” How you gonna say no to that? And if you do, would you be pal and pass her number along?
The suggestion box here at 3hive gets worked overtime. We have blessed suggestions coming in from our kind readers, we have emails from bands and labels that we are also grateful for, and we get a whole lot of spam, as is expected with a published email address on the world wide web. There’s one spam email that we regularly get for an Indian television site (no, I’m not going to share the url, we don’t want to encourage them), so I was so close to passing over an email for All India Radio when it arrived. Not the one that’s the only Indian radio station broadcast in the real time over the internet. I’m talking about the one that’s the Australian downtempo electronica group inspired by the sounds of Indian street life and the KLF. And for a reference point for A.I.R., think no further than that other “AIR” band…yes…that’s the one…
The last time 3hive.com saw 
So Rob M. suggested this one because his cousin’s roommate’s best friend’s brother is in the band, or something like that; I coudn’t keep it straight. What I do get is the ambient beats and noise laid down by Corwin Trails. Pleasant melodies, event bouncy at times, coexist among fractured and warped samples and scratches. Walls are built and crumble, time stops and starts — it all reminds me of this paper I wrote in college about how, in his poem The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot subverted the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (Sure he did!) Providers of the soundtrack to the film version of this epic battle between physics and literature: Corwin Trails.
WJ Kington spends lots of time around his house recording found sounds, tapping on walls and household appliances and recording the results. Sometimes he just sits at the piano and records his improvisations. Rather than “perfecting” the recordings he’ll leave in sounds of passing trains and the crows scratching at his roof. What’s left are highly engaging compositions. I found these tracks via 
Despite the fact that I’m sensing a whole lot of holiday spirit from the 3hive dudes this week, I’m going to have to deviate from the norm and express my relief that the world has returned to its normal state of affairs. And in the coming days, I’ll have to step aside and let someone else find you all that hot new ghettotech version of Auld Lang Syne. In any case, the seasonal lights may still be up, people may still be out of town, but the madness is over. And for a grinch like me, that means some celebration is in order.
As my friends and family will attest, I’m a big fan of Christmas-y songs — new and old, classic and offbeat. So I’m always thrilled when I hear a new entry in the genre, such as this ditty from PostPrior (Midwest Product’s Ben Mullins and drummer/descendent-of-circus-acrobats Michael Kuzmanovski). PostPrior’s Touched Pilot EP is an icy cool treat in its own right, with its intricately composed and delightfully goofy new wave soul. But, for now, the lyrics to “Snow Orge” so you can sing along on the way to Grandma’s house: 
A great tip from 
I’ve been holding out on posting this one…holding out for the day when L.A.O.S.’s brilliant (not to mention educational!) “Panda Style” single becomes available to the masses—or to me, at least. Alas, it’s not widely available in any format and I can’t, according to the 3hive Oath, keep awesome free MP3 downloads to myself. L.A.O.S. (Large Amount of Soul) are a drum ‘n’ bass trio from Helsinki with a great ear for deep hooks, cheeky samples, and beats that won’t quit. “Drowning Deep Inside Your Soul” is a good taste of their sound. However, if you want to hear “Panda Style” you can stream it from their MySpace page, or download the DJ Abraham (1/3 of L.A.O.S.)