Rainer Maria + Rainer Maria Rilke

Featured Artist: Rainer Maria

Formed in the Midwest and currently residing in Brooklyn, Rainer Maria have written and recorded four studio albums: Past Worn Searching (1997), regarded by some fans as still their most intensely personal work; Look Now Look Again (1999), which landed on Spin magazine's Top 20 Albums of the Year list and brought them to national attention for the first time; A Better Version of Me (2001), which reached number one on the CMJ college radio charts; and Long Knives Drawn (2003), whose single "Ears Ring" was in rotation on MTV2.

2004 saw the release of their live CD/DVD Anyone in Love with You (Already Knows), the first comprehensive document of their legendary live performances. The band celebrated its release opening for Coheed and Cambria on a summer U.S. tour.

The band returns this year from the studio with Grammy Award-winning producer Malcolm Burn (Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop et al.) and plans to release their as-yet-untitled fifth studio album in the fall of 2005. An immediately recognizable yet very different record for the band, the production is big, atmospheric, and extraordinarily moving. Fitting for an equally jaw-dropping batch of songs.

Rainer Maria - "Breakfast of Champions"
Rainer Maria - "Artificial Light"
Rainer Maria - "Ears Ring"
Rainer Maria - "The Double Life"
Rainer Maria - "Tinfoil"

Featured Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke

For the first time, I'm pairing a featured artist with a featured poet. I'm an English major, give me a break. Anyways, you should check out Rainer Maria Rilke because he's smooth as butter. Plus, he has a mustache, so I get to kill two birds with one stone by deeming the mustache of the day as The Poet Stache.




My favorite: "Falling Stars"

Do you remember still the falling stars
that like swift horses through the heavens raced
and suddenly leaped across the hurdles
of our wishes--do you recall? And we
did make so many! For there were countless numbers
of stars: each time we looked above we were
astounded by the swiftness of their daring play,
while in our hearts we felt safe and secure
watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate,
knowing somehow we had survived their fall.

Night
The Swan
Spanish Dancer
Eve

Matt over at You Ain't No Picasso features "that song" from the Weatherman preview, which just so happens to be Iggy Pop's "The Passenger." Go get it, it's awesome. PS. Matt's sick. Send him some chicken soup.

And don't forget to submit a caption to the caption contest below for a chance to win a copy of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity.