I’m in love with NPR, and in particular the podcasts “This American Life” and “Radiolab.” They should be mandatory listening, as far as I’m concerned. Apart from featuring incredible stories, and addressing fascinating questions, they also contain really, really good music. As you may know, “This American Life” recently became a TV series on Showtime (you can stream on Netflix!), and their soundtrack includes some music from the band, Pale White Moon. If you are a fan of instrumental music definitely check out the debut album that released today called, Call of The Wolf Peach.

Pale White Moon’s music has an elegant, baroque sound that I really enjoy. “Heirlooms” and Yann Tiersen-esque “Sir Basil Humphrey’s House Oh The Hill” are my two favorite tracks on the album. And believe it or not, the band was able to somehow pull off using cicadas as instruments in the song, “The Seven Year Cicadas!” It’s actually enjoyable to listen to and they get major points for quirkiness. Instead of buying a sound sample of cicadas, frontman, Doug Slawin, went around New Haven, Connecticut to record. Awesome.

I think the story behind this album is really cool. Instead of Pale White Moon being a band, it’s more of a collective started by  Slawin. He dedicated the album to his hometown of New Haven, CT and got various people around his community to contribute. Read more about Pale White Moon at the New Haven Register.

Call of The Wolf Peach (2010):

(mp3) Pale White Moon – Heirlooms

(mp3) Pale White Moon - Sir Basil Humphrey’s House On The Hill

Buy at MF (only $6!)| Myspace