I’ve got to admit, it took me a while to take to Tallest Man on Earth after my friend Clare introduced me to his music two years ago.

Folk singer/songwriter Kristian Matsson’s moniker is likely meant to be ironic, considering the dude’s only 5’7, but that was the least of my complaints.

No, my main gripe is that Matsson’s vocals sound like a spastic goblin channeling Bob Dylan. It’s incredibly weird and jarring and would probably make you feel uncomfortable in all the wrong places.

But after repeated listens, his heart-wrenching, love-torn tales won me over and I soon began to actually enjoy his unusual voice.

This 2008 Take Away Show clip was shot in New York the day before Matsson was supposed to open for Bon Iver. But unfortunately for them, Matsson’s guitars were locked inside the show’s venue, Town Hall.

That’s when they approached the proprietor of the Music Inn on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village to both shoot the video in the shop, but more importantly, to use the shop’s instruments.

He performed a beautiful impromptu cover of Jackson Browne’s “These Days”, which of course, was made popular by Nico.

Things will come full circle on September 24th when Bon Iver’s S. Carey opens for Tallest Man on Earth at Lee’s Palace in Toronto.

And speaking of Bon Iver, Kanye’s “Monster” leaked over the Interweb last week. The song features vocals from Jay Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross and… Justin Vernon. How do I feel about the song? Ask me in about 10 years when I’m able to fully process the very idea of such a collaboration.

In other collaboration news, Kanye and Raekwon did a remix for Justin Bieb…

…I’m sorry, my head exploded before I was able to finish that sentence.

Black XS and La Blogotheque’s Take Away Shows recently teamed up to find the best new bands in nine different countries, which they fittingly called Live Sound Take Away Shows. When the tour stopped in Japan, they didn’t need to look any further than Shugo Tokumaru. 

With his avante-garde (which is usually French for unlistenable, but not in this case) brand of pop, electronic and folk, he has often been called Japan’s answer to Animal Collective.

North Americans really started to take notice in the fall of 2008 with the international release of Shugo’s third album, Exit. Now he’s back for his highly anticipated fourth record, Port Entropy.

In this beautifully-shot Take Away Show clip, Shugo and his bandmates walk aimlessly through a tranquil residential neighbourhood in Tokyo and never once miss a beat on the whimsical “Linne”.

La Blogtheque recounts the experience:

We hadn’t planned it (and how could we have?), but the streets were full of music. No orchestras, no songs drifting pleasantly out of nearby windows—just some insistent refrain coming out of little speakers every fifty meters. We had convinced Shugo and his band, and not without difficulty, to play for us out in the street, but now the total absence of silence made this nearly impossible. Ramen restaurants, bike shops and little old boutiques spewed forth the same annoying melodies.

Shugo walked alongside us, guitar in hand, keeping his silence as we became more and more disoriented. We were lost who knows where, and the whole time he kept a melancholy, somewhat adolescent look on his face. He continued to follow us and, courtesy of the language barrier, we didn’t know if was completely resigned, losing his patience, or still optimistic.

We turned through a covered market, passed by an old man avoiding trouble from the Yakuzas on the corner, retraced our steps, went down a passage and then back out again, then made three or four more turns before finding ourselves in a residential neighborhood straight out of a manga comic. And then, finally, we were able to start playing, with only three kids and an old lady to give us trouble. It took us hours, but at long last we were ready to go.

And then, everything was at peace. The afternoon was coming to an end, everything was suddenly calm, as if the whole town had stopped to let Shugo sing. He was slowly awakening, but that’s another story…