Nicolas Jaar - "John the Revelator". More than a year since Nicolas Jaar first wrote me, then a 17-year-old with a remarkable track - "Little Stone" - and pockets full of promise. Now he's grown up a little; got lost in Istanbul's fog, had his shoes shined, bought old blues & new dubstep records at the bazaar, drank water from a fountain, met a girl, lost her, bought a square of lace, climbed a hill, left a mark in the dirt with the heel of his shoe. Nicolas Jaar doesn't record as Nico any more - he's given up his claim. But he's not taken one step back from the sounds rattling in his head, in his yesterdays, all those skip- and slip-ping songs. [more]

Vic Chesnutt, Elf Power and the Amorphous Strums - "Teddy Bear". Veteran songwriter Vic Chesnutt follows up his collaboration with A Silver Mt. Zion by teaming up with the psychedelic jamsters called Elf Power. The result is hot and fuzzy, American Gothic in the manner of a red & black wool sweater. On "Teddy Bear", Elf Power lend him a reggae backbeat, a bona fide bassline, but Chesnutt doesn't exactly know what to do with them. The song is like a recurring dream, different at every instance but with the same line repeating; here some whispers, here a spacey synth. Can't tell if it's a song about getting sick or about getting well. [buy]

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Montrealers: Great show at Il Motore tonight (Thursday). Micro-sets by Julie Doiron, Handsome Furs, the Luyas, Adam & the Amethysts, Miracle Fortress, Shapes & Sizes, Elfin Saddle, Snailhouse, Nut Brown and Patrick Gregoire (Sister Suvi/Islands), in celebration of Phonopolis and Pome Records' 1st birthdays. $8!

Edinburghers: Great (free!) show coming up at Cab Vol on January 29. The SL Records "Late Late Xmas Party", featuring performances by Withered Hand, Paul Vickers & The Leg and Greg Dodgson.

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Elsewhere:

Love this blog of a 15-or-maybe-16-year-old going alone for a $280 dinner. So much personality is squeezed into his prose - I can't help but imagine a particularly well-written character from a new indie film.

The Blogotheque has selected Forest Fire's Survival as their favourite album of 2008. As we have said before, it is a terrific album - with one of our favourite songs of the year. The limited edition CD is sold out, but you can get the whole thing from Catbird Records - as an absolutely free download.

The 2009 Bloggies are accepting nominations. Last year we (absolutely infeasibly) won the popularity contest for Best Music Weblog. The year before, we were nominated for Best Writing and then got demolished by Go Fug Yourself. Can't tell you whether we ought to be nominated for anything this year, but certainly you should vote for some of the wonderful blogs listed there ---->> on our sidebar. (It was a particularly good year for The Big Picture [source of today's photo], Five Whys, La Blogotheque, It's Nice That and My Love For You Is A Stampede Of Horses.)