All Songs Considered, and the music programming in general, gets way more exposure and can be shared in amazing new ways. I have subscribed to the All Songs Considered podcast and Concerts podcast for a while now. Awesome stuff. And I’ve gone to the website and added things to the online playlist to listen to them more than any other music site. Also awesome stuff. Great way to hear artists you love and discover other artists you didn’t know you loved.

But yesterday was the first time I discovered the Tiny Desk Concerts. Bob Boilen gets a musician (or group) into the NPR offices – his office, specifically – and sits them down behind a small desk and gets them to play a few songs for the NPR staffers who take a break to come listen. It’s videotaped and put online for us to just sit in awe of what an awesome office NPR’s must be to work in!

Well, anyway, the first two sessions I’ve watched are town of my favourite musical groups. The first, Swell Season, better known as “that guy and girl from Once who won an Oscar for their unbelievable music” insisted on playing 6 or 7 songs instead of 2 or 3.

Naturally that video made me want to check out who else stopped by the Tiny Desk, and I quickly noticed that the Great Lake Swimmers made an appearance. Maybe you don’t know them, their music is soft and folky but sweet and beautiful. They’re also from Toronto, so may get some more airtime here, although they tour (and sell records) widely. The music in the video is representatively beautiful; that guy has one amazing voice.

And a bonus below the jump: Falling Slowly video from the movie.

Perhaps part of the reason I have wandered from DMB – although by no means do I suggest I stopped listening altogether – is that a lot of their recent work has simply not been their best. This is something Dave himself will admit (now, at least), and even though some of the recent music has been good, it hasn’t had the lasting impact much of their earlier work has had. So I was both eager and nervous about the new album that dropped last week, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

There’s no way I wasn’t going to buy this album, listen to it, and most likely I was going to enjoy it. But would I love it? The short answer is that I love it. Perhaps there was a bit of extra purpose behind this album as it’s the first the band has made after the tragic death of Leroi Moore, their unbelievably talented sax man, or perhaps the band has simply re-found a certain magic that had drifted on previous albums. All I know is that I can’t get Funny the Way it Is out of my head and each song is more gripping than the next.

I find it a bit ironic that most of my time with DMB has been spent introducing others to their music, and I’ve found that time and again people embrace and really like the music, even want to go to concerts with me. I’ve been more likely to introduce somebody to Sufjan Stevens than DMB lately, but with this latest album it’s like DMB is trying to find me again. The pre-order offer included a bundled live concert 3-cd set from an Alpine Valley show – a place I’ve seen the band perform more than any other – and yesterday Dave Matthews himself sat down for a rare one hour interview, on CBC Radio of all places. The album even debuted at #1 on the charts, which must be a first for the band.

So now I find myself looping a lot of DMB again and it feels awfully darn good. Embedded below are some goodies from the band and their frontman.

Dave Matthews on Q with Jian Ghomeshi, telling a monkey story. It’s a radio show, but they film it and it airs on CBC tv as well. For the full interview you can download the podcast (mp3) or find it on iTunes.

Funny The Way It Is music video. If it doesn’t play for you it’s also on YouTube (where you can also view it full screen.

Click here (and then on the video) for a musical holiday greeting from rIAm’s and my latest favourite musical artist.

(sorry for all the clicking, but i’m not feeling like recreating the same link at the moment) — hat tip to Ari, though!

I’m on my third listen of the album and can say with pride that Neil Young is the best product-of-Canada artist my homeland has ever exported. And it makes me damn proud that a Canadian can sing so proudly about America yet has the balls to write lyrics that question what the Bush government is doing abroad and at home. Without listing all the atrocities, duplicity and shortcomings in detail, let’s just call it The Whole Bush Bang™.

That’s all I have to say right now. I am starting my descent back into that submerged place. People, keep on rocking on the free world and as Young sings on this album, let’s impeach the president…

In any case, we saw a great show tonight. Weezer was headliner #1. They started kind of so-so but by the third song came together to play a real tight set with lots of great songs. Made me feel kind of old when I realized their cd I tried to wear out playing so much came out in 1994. But they played the great songs from that album. And apparently they’ve made new music since then (who knew?). That stuff was pretty good too.

Headliner #2 was Foo Fighters. They rocked. Loud. In fact, they are on their Loud As Possible tour. Or something like that.

In related news, my ears say they should be back with sound by tomorrow afternoon.