hello, i'm new in these parts and would like to share some of my favorite music, since i've just perused the thread and came out with some really interesting stuff.
i see mediafire is standard, but i uploaded these for a friend a while ago and thought i'd put em here too.
'2 foot yard' was founded by one of my favorite musicians - the versatile and prolific Carla Kihlstedt. She works with tom waits a lot, if you hear violin on anything of his from 'alice' on - it's her. She also founded 'tin hat trio' now a quintet that does jazz/tango/bossanova/avant garde stuff, mostly instrumental, she was in 'charming hostess' a group that did (in her time) funk/punk renditions of eastern-european traditional folk songs, she also founded 'sleepy-time gorilla museum' a metal band with really good music and way too much cheesy metal voice to be a mainstay in my library, oh well. These are some of her more major ongoing projects, and give a sense of her range but is by no means a complete list.
2 foot yard's first album is a mix of pop, folk, jazz, avant garde, classical with a definite punk touch even though it's all violin, cello and voice;
http://www.badongo.com/file/7406517
their second album picks up drummer and guitarist Shazad Ismally, and takes a slightly different direction than their first album. 'Borrowed Arms' has a lot more boy rock feel to it and more direct lyrics, but still manages to build on the previous album;
http://www.badongo.com/file/7406753
if any of you like this let me know, i've got a bunch of her other work - if you really like it and live in the california bay area 2 foot yard will play the sf jazz fest march 8th;
http://www.2footyard.com/html_site/tourpage.html