On Music: Trust WFUV, Zach Braff, Stephanie, and Me

I made some additions to the music library recently, and it got me to thinking that there are several people whose taste I trust almost implicitly. Sean Kilkelly (who gets enough pub on this blog without me putting his name in the post title) is among that crew, as he directed me towards Montgomery Delaney, Rachel Fuller, and even some tracks by The Who that I either didn't know or had forgotten about. He's also the person who (not The Who, but you get the idea) told me to go listen to The Grey Album (the combo of Jay-Z and The Beatles).

Big ups to SGK!

Yet there are others who come in pretty handy in the music recommendation biz. The radio is stil enormous, but the commercial stations are largely not getting it done for me. Yes The Peak is solid but they've lost an edge. They can be guilty of a touch too much repetition (here's more reggae, mon!). So that leaves me with WFUV from Fordham University - a college station that isn't run like a college station, especially since so much of their air talent is well-established in the industry.

I digress.

'FUV has been spot-on in helping me to get turned onto the latest by Death Cab for Cutie("I Will Possess Your Heart", and they played the ALBUM version, with the awesome instrumental into).

What? Actually play a song that is 8:35 and isn't "Stairway to Heaven?"

Heavens, no!

I must also give WFUV "mad props" for playing songs by Cat Power and Vampire Weekend.

Well done, indeed.

Now, who's Stephanie, you say? Well if you don't know, Steph is my niece and she and I have fairly similar tastes. When I recommend something to her, it normally works, and vice-versa. So when she told me to check out the soundtrack to the movie "Juno", I felt it was a no-brainer.

"Uncle", she said, "the movie and the soundtrack are both like 'Napoleon Dynamite.'"

She was right.

Finally there's my "friend" Zach Braff. You know - JD from "Scrubs" (soon to return for an eighth season on a channel to be determined). Zach and I have never met - we're MySpace friends.

Whatever. Close enough for jazz, no?

ZB (as he often signs his blog posts) is a master at a lot of things. He's great on "Scrubs", made a brilliant picture called "Garden State" (see it if you haven't, and really, how could you not?), and knows a thing or two about soundtrack pickings (Stephanie also compared the "Juno" soundtrack to "Garden State").

With all that said, ZB is producing and directing a video for an indy artist, Jay Clifford. Never one to doubt his musical taste, I downloaded the song, "Know When to Walk Away" and can tell you that it's really good.

Now here's the catch: Braff wants help of the common people to make the video. So go here, watch ZB's explanation (it's kind of funny) and download the song, even if you're not going to take part in the video process. You have until the end of May (might be sooner - I forget).

Trust me...and Zach...and Stephanie...and WFUV...and Sean (and yes, you too, Mick...though you don't blog enough...and Harold...and my family...OK, enough!). We know our music.