Listening In: Thoroughly Modern Frieders

Welcome back to Listening In, my weekly chance to spy on your listening habits.

I’m a music junkie, and I love talking about it. I’m always interested in what new tunes people have discovered, and what old favorites get them through their days. Hence, this little contest, in which I bribe that information out of you with free Patch stuff.

How it works: If you want to play, send me an email with your name and hometown. Each week, I’ll pick one name out of a hat, and I’ll reply to let the lucky winner know that the spotlight is on. If it’s you, your job is to send me the names of five songs you’re listening to.

The most fun way to play is to hit shuffle on your iPod, and write down the first five tunes that come up. But if you want to just scour your music collection and send me five choices, that’s OK too. I’ll list your selections and comment on them in this column, and you’ll win free Patch stuff just for playing.

This week’s contestant is Joel Frieders of Yorkville, who contributes to a music blog with a name so profane, I can't even mention it. Joel pressed shuffle and wrote down what came up. He provided his own witty commentary for each of the songs, and he’s so dead-on that I probably won’t have much to add. My comments will be in italics. Like this.

You’re on, Joel:

1. “Bigger Than Us,” by White Lies. I was introduced to White Lies by accident, by a friend called the Internet. The genre description included the term "New Wave" and I love listening to things I normally hate, because being pleasantly surprised is actually quite pleasant. White Lies manage to take a relatively weak genre classification like New Wave and give it a huuuuuge wall of sound-like backbone. Me loves them nows. Me too. This is from their second album, Ritual, which is one of the year’s best so far.

2. “Skinny Love,” by Bon Iver. Bon Iver is unbelievable. Jim Morrison wrote (in one of his books nobody read) that you shouldn't try and stop your depression, but rather enjoy it. Bon Iver is the guy who writes the songs that you enjoy listening to when you're depressed, but when you're not depressed, listening to them makes you feel thankful that people like Bon Iver actually exist. I have a goal of hugging this man someday. Right on. Recorded in a cabin in the woods after a bad breakup, Bon Iver’s only album so far (For Emma, Forever Ago) is a remarkable piece of work. Sad and joyous, stark and full, tiny and yet huge, like a dwarf star.

3. “Ariel,” by Stateless. There is this really weird progression of music that combines electro and r & b into this really erotic area where listening to music takes on an almost futuristic feel to it. Stateless are bonkers in this regard. Is it electro? Is it downtempo? Is it r & b? No dude, it's awesometastic. I can’t top that.

4. “I Walk,” by Deru. I love instrumental music. If you haven't heard of Maker (from Aurora!), he is one of the trendsetters in the genre of instrumental hip hop. One of the guys making a name for himself is Deru from Los Angeles. His creations are cinematic, ambient and completely creepy. Which is awesome to listen to when there's mud everywhere, you haven't seen the sun in 8 weeks and Orchard Road is clogged with people trying to cross Route 30 like their lives depend on beating the red light. Hadn’t heard this before now. It’s pretty great stuff. I’ll be tracking this down.

5. “Swim Until You Can’t See Land,” by Frightened Rabbit. People with accents are better people than you boring Americans. If you didn't know that, now you do. You are boring. But people with accents that are also boring, seem less boring to those of us without accents, therefore, Frightened Rabbit is awesome. “Swim Until You Can’t See Land” is an awesome way of looking at life with a don't give up attitude. And since the guy singing it has a delicious accent, well, you aren't so boring when someone with an accent is singing in your ear. I do love this song. Frightened Rabbit is from Scotland, and their second album, The Midnight Organ Fight, is a bit of a masterpiece. This one’s from their third, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, which isn’t as good. But I’m with Joel on the delicious accent.

Thanks, Joel. If you want to play Listening In, drop me a line.