This past month of February, I have been working on new music as part of the RPM Challenge. As you might recall from past years, the RPM Challenge is a month-long endeavor to encourage musicians to create an entire album of original music, start to finish. That means write songs, record, mix, master and mail off a hard copy to the good folks who sponsor the event.

This is the third time I’ve taken part in four years. Here are my entries from 2007 and 2009 with Hello Come In. Incidentally, we also spent the entire year of 2007 making 12 original EPs which you can find here.

So now it’s March 1st 2010. This year I decided to mix it up and make music with people locally in Washington D.C. Working with me in collaboration is Robin Hilton and Meg Ruddick — both NPR Music coworkers. Robin I have worked with in the past on a few songs, Meg never before, so it’s pretty cool to try something new this year.

For this project we have named ourselves Golden Days and we’re proud to present our debut effort: It Was Over Before We Began.

Anyway, on to the music:

You can stream each track here, or download the entire album here.

1. It Was Over Before We Began

2. Year Of Dreams

3. Mind Control

4. Pig

5. Come Tomorrow

6. It’s A Weakness

7. Captain Kid

8. Bone Fragments

9. Scene

Produced by Golden Days
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Robin Hilton and Mike Katzif
at Hello Come In Studios & Small Good Thing Productions,
in Washington DC; February 2010
Artwork and layout design by Mike Katzif
Drums on “It’s A Weakness by Aryn Crowley
All Songs by Golden Days; Copyright 2010
Special Thanks to Hello Come In, Small Good Thing,
Krusher, for her unwavering patience and support
and our nearly half dozen fans.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a round-up of recent works I’ve played a part in at NPR Music. So here we go with a hail of bullets:

– Exclusive First Listen: Gorillaz, Plastic Beach

– Abaji: Tiny Desk Concert: This is the first video I’ve actually shot for NPR. I also edited the video and produced the page taboot.

– Song of the Day: Yeasayer: Tightly Wound And Dance Friendly

– The Gun Show: A Winter Workout Mix. Here I just sort of helped direct the photographer a little for this photo shoot. Then found myself playing the part of surly trainer. Yes I get paid for this.

– David Rawlings and Gillian Welch: Tiny Desk Concert

– First Listen: Massive Attack, Heligoland

– Low Anthem: Tiny Desk Concert

– First Listen: Beach House, Teen Dream

– First Listen: Charlotte Gainsbourg, IRM

– Elvis Presley At 75: Songs We Love

– In Memoriam: Musicians We Lost, 2000-2009. I did a majority of the building, researching and producing of this multimedia interactive page which was part of our End of Decade coverage. Looks pretty great I think.

– Def Jam’s 25th Anniversary: Songs We Love. In which I discuss LL Cool J.

– In Memoriam: Musicians We Lost In 2009. I was one of the main producers and researchers for this amazing interactive feature we did as part of our End of Year coverage.

Episode 2 : “Maracatu”

So while I spent some time in Ecuador, I was able to take some classical guitar classes and this series I will be playing them for the internet public.

Episode 1 : “Don Eugenio”

This year seemed to have an incredible amount of important figures pass away, more than most years it feels. And music was no different — including Michael Jackson, Jay Bennett, and shockingly Vic Chesnutt, who died on Christmas Day.

So as 2009 winds down, there’s still more to cover at NPR Music, including the fairly slick multimedia interactive of musicians who died in the last year. I played a big hand in putting this sucker together, from gathering songs and editing all the music clips to hunting down photos and general assembly.

Check it out here.

Over at NPR Music, we’re wading through 2009’s best music: the best albums, songs and miscellanea from the past year. It’s admittedly obsessive and music geeky, but hey, that’s what it’s all about.

My main contribution to our coverage is a round-up of the year’s best cover songs, a genre that I can safely say is one of my favorites. This year seemed better than most with an outstanding number of great compilation and tribute albums featuring a wide array of cover songs. Take a look at the list — including my favorite ongoing project, Beck’s Record Club — and see Youtube videos of all my song choices here:

Judging By The Cover: The Best Cover Songs Of 2009

Just read a review in Pitchfork of garage rock outfit, Turbo Fruits, a side project of sorts from the folks of the late Be Your Own Pet.

But really, I clicked on the link because of the rather familiar album art. Surely I’m not the first person to point this out the similarities with these two covers right?

Cover to Turbo Fruits‘ new album, Echo Kid:

Cover to Blood Sweat and Tears’ 1968 album Child Is The Father To The Man:

Some time ago — way back in October — I thought the new record by The Clientele, Bonfires on the Heath was durn good, so good so that I wrote a review of it for NPR Music’s Song of the Day. I even compared the band to a Polaroid picture. Then we got distracted with end of decade coverage, end of year coverage and a mountainous heap of other work. And I forgot I had even written this.

Well it’s live now. And the song “Harvest Time” still sounds pretty good to me. Very “fall” sounding.

Take a listen and read the review here: The Clientele: Pop On A Polaroid

Over at NPR Music, I continue my reign of recent Tiny Desk Concert videos that I’ve helped put together. This week, is Lightning Dust, who put out one of my favorite albums of the year, Infinite Light. This video is infectious thanks to the wonderful harmonies of the two female singers, presumably sisters.

Take a look below, and read my little write up here on the website.

Also on NPR Music today, I contribute to the Take Five series’ Top 10 Jazz Records of 2009 list as part of our end of year coverage. Here I write about one of my favorite guitarists, Nels Cline — notably of Wilco fame — who put out a great jazz/rock/folk/minimalist album Coward.

From time to time, I like to check in on recent musical performances on the late night talk shows. Here is are a few new finds from the ol telly.

Who knew Jimmy Fallon did such a spot on impersonation of Neil Young? Who knew the theme song to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air would make such a great folk ballad? I didn’t, but I’d say this is one of the best comedy bits I’ve seen Fallon do since he debuted on Late Night earlier this year.