Music Monday: Marques Toliver, Giraffes, Rob Blackledge & More…

More music picks for your Monday. If you like what you hear, use the links provided to snag it for yourself from Amazon. Doing so through us gives us kickbacks, and those help pay for stuff like more bandwidth. And also so we can buy more music.

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First up, we have Marques Toliver with a live performance from an episode on Live on Jools Holland last year. Man, I am a sucker for strings.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

His stuff can be found as MP3 downloads on Amazon.

Here’s a live version of this delightful song from The Giraffes, “Having Fun.” It’s something you should hum when you head back to work, whether that’s today or tomorrow. Also of note: check out how the song title that comes up on the screen is hilariously wrong.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Damn, that band is wickedly tight. That song is from their self-titled album, available from Amazon either as an MP3 or CD. Note: the CD you can get used for next to nothing.

This is Rob Blackledge and “Beautiful Mistake.”

Direct link for the feedreaders.

I dig this muchly, though in trying to find out where I originally got it from, I’m drawing a blank. The album the song is from is A Song Like This, and it sounds like a different version. But there you have it. It’s available from Amazon as an MP3 download.

Next we revisit Various Cruelties with their latest single, “Neon Truth.”

The full single (with both “sides”) can be snagged as an MP3 download for less than $2 from Amazon.

Here’s an artist I discovered from the compilation double CD set, BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music: 2006. This is Mercan Dede from Turkey with “Ab-i L’ai.”

Direct link for the feedreaders.

It’s weird as hell that the set’s not available for MP3 download, but as I type this you can get thirty-two tracks of goodness for less than $9 used.

And we end up with a fantastic live track from Need Coffee fave Regina Spektor. This is from her 2005 Live at Bull Moose EP. It’s “The Noise.”

Direct link for the feedreaders.

The CD’s out of print and I believe that’s the only place to get the track. The five-song CD’s a bit pricey so I would go for the MP3 version despite the live version of “Carbon Monoxide” being on the CD only. Rob snagged me a copy of this CD while the snagging was good, so many thanks for that.