There are a number of reasons why I may have woken up this morning feeling sick…The late-night walk in the rain I took yesterday could have been a factor. There’s the chance that I could have come into contact with that “stomach bug” I’ve seen everybody on the internets griping about for the last few weeks. Or it could just be that the crushing sense of doom hovering over our uncertain nation has finally given me an ulcer, or a good old-fashioned tummy-ache at the least. All I know is that I rest easy in the knowledge that it’s not morning sickness…Hooray for being a dude!

Jumping from genre to genre like I do in these “shuffle” posts probably isn’t gonna help the queasy feeling in my belly any, but a blogger’s gotta do what a blogger’s gotta do. So if I’m gonna shuffle myself up I might as well go all out and start the shuffling with a record that not only shuffles between genres quite a bit itself, but which has actually been shuffling on my iPod for a few months now. That record—which dropped at the tail end of ‘08—is Joemus, the latest album in avant-garde singer, songwriter, musician and journalist Momus‘ extensive catalog which finds the eclectic Scotland-born, Berlin-based eye-patch enthusiast collaborating with Glaswegian Breakcore producer Joe Howe. The result is something like an animatronic cabaret show where a fusion of baroque orchestra-pit acoustics and laptop glitch provide the backdrop for glittery Glam-Rock burlesquery, speak-easy Jazz balladry, gin-joint dirges and macabre vaudevilliany. If Schneider TM collaborating with Hot Chip, Timbaland replacing Keri Hilson with Antony Hegarty, OutKast’s André 3000 making a Bruce Haack tribute album or laptop music that doesn’t sound like The Postal Service appeal to you Joemus is gonna shuffle up your guts in the best way possible.

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Last Saturday L.A.-based emcee and music aficionado Micah James re-posted the video for “Run Run,” a Summer favorite from last year by Swedish girl-group Those Dancing Days, on his Facebook wall. Earlier the same day I resolved to finally delete Swedish Indie-Pop Lolita Lykke Li’s outstanding 2008 debut Youth Novels off my iPod to make room for something else. Freshly reminded of the awesomeness of Scandinavia’s music scene, and with storage space practically begging to be filled, I picked up a pair of new releases bearing some notable Nordic names.

The initials of the first of these names, PB&J, are of course synonymous with one of the most classic lunch items in all of creation, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The band who shares those initials—eclectic Stockholm, Sweden-based Pop trio Peter Bjorn and John—made those three letters and an ampersand their own when they released the feel-good song of the century, “Young Folks,” in 2006 to widespread acclaim and countless licensing deals. Since they made the whole world whistle along with their infectious hit they’ve released a mostly instrumental digital and vinyl-only album, played around with solo projects, and group-member Björn Yttling produced the afforementioned Youth Novels for Lykke Li. This week they finally release Living Thing, the long-awaited follow-up to their 2006 breakout Writer’s Block.

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