Tag Archives: music

The Lone Bellow

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I once told myself a tale…a grand tale, really…one in which I would stop writing posts on Americana music and my weird/undying/never-ending/verging-on-creepy obsession with it.

I swear it sounded real when I told it, but as it turns out, ’twas nothing more than a myth.

The Lone Bellow is my new band and they are Americana in the best and finest sense of the word — hazy, nostalgic, raw.

Screen Shot 2013-04-11 at 3.39.27 PMI admit, they’ve got a lot in common with their contemporaries: The Civil Wars [may they rest in peace], Mumford & Sons, Lady Antebellum, The Giving Tree Project and The Lumineers.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Because you listen, and while you get it — you get the southern, woodsy soul they’re laying on you — you’re acutely aware that something…something is different here…

So, like any burgeoning fan, you research. And here’s what you come up with:

…they’re from Brooklyn — I mean, no one saw that one coming. Brooklyn Country Music…is not even a thing. But positing northern roots in decidedly southern sounds is perhaps the secret sauce?

…there’s a banjo and a mandolin in this outfit — whoa! crafty! Is this the trick?

And you furrow your brow, scrunch your nose and try to make sense of it all — how it works, why it works, what about it keeps you craving more…but then you just sort of get lost in it — the banjos plinking, the voices rolling, the contemplative piano cords…cording?

Anyway, the lyrics wash over you, swell in your chest, and you give in.

That’s what makes them different, irresistible. They’re open and available and endearing in ways that are largely, and disappointingly, unfamiliar in today’s music landscape.

Like that song, that hurts. That’s tears in your craft beer, right there, and it makes as much sense in the depths of a Brooklyn winter as it does as a Music City soundtrack.

I love Zach Williams’ voice. I love mandolin player Kanene Pipkin’s smokey harmonies a bit more. And I love that guitarist Brian Elmquist so clearly understands the pluck of each song’s emotional center.

There’s not a whole lot more to say. It’s a simple outfit singing simple songs about simple emotions that all the simple people [namely, us] just get. 

Muchacho

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Do you know what feeling I love? Standing in the glow of a warm window, especially in the winter. The afternoon sun streams in, flooding your veins, warming your toes, the back of your neck, quite possibly even your soul – what perfect, unadulterated relaxation.

It’s the closest analogy I have for Phosphorescent‘s new album, Muchacho.

phosphorescent-muchacho

His sound is gloriously simple. It begs, and deserves, to be savored. To be heard, with head tipped back and eyes closed.

When Phosphorescent’s Matthew Houck came off the road after supporting his last album [2010's Here's to Taking it Easy -- not necessarily my favorite], there seemed the distinct possibility that he was finished.

Exhausted, he pulled out his country-drifter playbook [which seems to take up permanent residence in his back pocket] and took off for Tulum, Mexico. He took long walks. He swam in salty waters. He checked out, for a while, anyway — but slowly, the pieces of what would become Muchacho began taking shape.

A unique purity rings through all of Houck’s music — a result of recording everything alone. He brings in key players for individual parts, but the end product is always the result of meticulous work done in isolation.

Understandably, then, Houck’s voice sits at the majestic center of the album — but it’s an unreliable instrument. It hiccups. Cuts out. Catches.

But, boy, can you feel your heart catch in your throat when it does.

Regret-soaked, bar room heartbreak. Right there, that’s what that is. It feeds right into the overwhelming theme of redemption coating this album.

They’re simple sentiments. But the album cradles a simple space — a space where well-worn sounds are the most beloved; where ideas are settled into like old chairs.

I love it.

I hope you do too.

Local Natives

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Let’s think about the year 2010. I was 20 for nine months of it, 21 for the other three, and generally existed in a wonderfully boozy, typically collegiate, malaise.

And do you know who provided the perfect soundtrack for those lazy afternoons? Those slow summer nights and long car rides between the North Carolina hills and Missouri flatlands?

The Local Natives with their debut album, Gorilla Manor.

The Silver Lake quintet dressed for success in 2010, displaying similar influences as most of their indie contemporaries — rustic vocals, fully formed melodies, euphoric chanting [2010 seriously loved a good chant. Consider: every Foreign Born & Edward Sharpe song] and youthful scrappiness.

Case in point:

Great chanting! Scrappy youthfulness! Ooo melody!

I loved it. The whole album; freely, openly and with tireless pressing of my ‘repeat’ button. It felt like all my favorite bands rolled into one [imagine the delight!].

Grizzy Bear is definitely in there somewhere…somewhere in the sway. Animal Collective probably more than anything. Ehh…a little of the National. And the way it rolls? Well there’s my Fleet Foxes and one happy, happy Madison.

But while loving it, you [read: I] had to wonder where they would go. How they would develop. Whether or not they would remain a collection of their influences or become influencers in their own right.

And so you [still I] waited and waited and then in January of this year, Hummingbird dropped, offering a tricky, at best, answer to those questions.

It’s a record of…lateral growth? Seemingly no new influences. Seemingly following the same path. Seemingly working to just further establish a definitive place among their contemporaries.

Aaron Dessner from the National [mentioned earlier] writes, performs and shares production credit on the album and while he doesn’t seem to provide his own unique twist, he sure does know how to make things sound good. Really good, actually.

It’s rich and it’s deep and it’s the perfect sum of all its perfect parts.

A lot of the boisterous optimism has been shed, replaced with ominous little bits — perhaps as a result of their heartbreaking [their word, not mine] split with bassist Andy Hamm and the death of lead singer Kelcey Ayer’s mother.

It’s subtle. But also direct? And thoughtful, definitely thoughtful. But, most of all, lovely.

Yep mostly, and most simply, it’s lovely.

And that either makes no sense or perfect sense. Respond accordingly.

We Meet Again, @ResonantPassage

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You know what happens every time [every freaking time] I go to write about a musician [I swear] I love the most or have  just [right this very minute] discovered?

I google them. Grab a few videos. Maybe an anecdote or two about their [inevitably] tortured childhoods…

And then…then, I skip over to Resonant Passage and realize he posted about them months ago [months!].

It’s maddening.

Does it stop me from posting? Not always. Does it edge me ever-closer to the tenuous verge of insanity? Yes, absolutely, thank you for asking.

Pearl Jam’s 20th Anniversary? I was a day late and a dollar short…so I skipped it [but not RP...no no, he was there with this post tossing around sentences like this about my man Eddie Vedder on the band's debut album: The frantic guitar riffs of Mike McCready on opening track “Once” signal the world’s proper introduction to Vedder, and the vocalist bursts through the sonic landscape with an acerbic, tormented yell that jars the listener to full attention....seriously?! acerbic? sonic landscape? unbelievable.]

pearl-jam-twenty011What about Ryan Adam‘s and his remarkable staying power in the increasingly flighty indie music genre? What a great post that would be, right? I know, totally.

artist_main_ryanadams

Too bad RP wrote “A Lesson in Staying Relevant: Ryan Adams” in…October…

Don’t you dare be happy for Resonant Passage, think of me! Think of the wind so continuously sucked right out of my sails! The slaps right across my face! The stalled fingers at my keyboard!

Today, well, today is no different. I wanted to talk about Shooter Jennings and his perfectly southern, boozy sound.

shooterwaltz(source)

Except RP already [unsurprisingly] did so here and he says cool things about his rugged twang and raw, uncensored emotions…damnit….

But I won’t be stopped. Nope, not today. I’ll still tell you how Shooter is the son of legendary country artist Waylon Jennings. And how this has given him a unique ability to blend between southern rock, country, even psychedelic rock, seamlessly.

Bonus? That very particular, barely concealed, cheesiness of country music videos reigns free and I cannot get enough.

In the Name of Bob

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Looking forward, it’s what we do. Living in anticipation, with bated breath, for what’s heading our way.

It’s an exciting frenzy, and one I engage in [and sometimes stir up...] regularly.

But every now and then, reveling in what has passed is wonderfully indulgent. For me, when I trudge home with tense shoulders and furrowed brow, spending a night steeped in Bob Dylan, a man who changed the way I listen to music many, many years ago, is pure remedy.

(source)

But how do I tell you that properly? How do I make the tracks sound the same for you? Do I start with the never-ending tour [beginning in 1988] or the decade that might as well be named after him [1960's]? Do we talk about his rock or jazz or folk phases?

The entire endeavor is impossible.

In some ways that makes it all the more necessary.

600+ tracks have his name in the byline and there are as many that I love as I loathe and chances are ours aren’t the same.

So what I’ll do instead is give you my favorites…hope that they’re yours…or that you feel compelled to find some that are.

It all started here, really. With this world-weary, timeless, seemingly ancient hymn. It’s the anthem of the civil-rights era, perfectly and completely tapped into the zeitgeist.

It’s my personal favorite, this one.

Thinking back on the songs that stayed with me long after their tracks ended…the ones that nudged and dug and burrowed somewhere very deep inside…this is one of them. I’ve no clue why and at this point I’ve no clue when, but I’ll tell you this much, few things hit me like Lay, Lady, Lay.

This one…not actually a favorite [doesn't mean it won't be yours!]. But it is indisputably Dylan at his scorched-earth finest, and there’s more than just something to be said for that.

It’s a wide range, but undoubtedly there’s something for everyone. Find more here.

The 2nd Law

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You’re aware, right? The 2nd Law is out and I’m almost glad Muse took the last several years off (…almost…) because the result is complete madness.

I know I’ve discussed Muse before…so I won’t go into their history…but things are different now. This LP is, by far, their most expansive and varied collection to date. Don’t misunderstand, I love what they’ve done over the last decade–huge, drama-filled, unadulterated rock. It shook you, right down somehwere quite close to your soul.

But now? Well now there’s dubstep and metal and strings all mixing together in a magnificently painful way.

The majority of the tracks are stooped in dispair, anger, and anguish…wrapping you up in a storm of emotion.

Rumor has it that Madness was inspired by a fight with Bellamy‘s love Kate Hudson…

And Supremacy rages against the hubris of modern man (because…why not?)…

And while it’s all rather bad news, it sure makes for something wonderful.

Of Monsters and Men

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I feel like I used to do a cool little thing on here: talk about bands; about music and the many ways it calms/excites/soothes/speaks to me.

Then life got crazy and so did I and, alas, it’s been too long.

Apologies. Let’s talk about Of Monsters and Men.

(source)

Of Monsters and Men is a 6-piece indie-folk band that snuck up on me last year and, without even asking permission, stole my heart (they don’t appear to be returning it anytime soon).

There’s something foreign haunting their sound…after a bit of research you start wondering if it’s anything to do with their nordic roots…you swear you can hear the Icelandic scenery in their songs…then you get absolutely and irrevocably lost in the fantasies and, well, it all ceases to matter.

Hours, days, who even knows how long passes before you come to. And my favorite part? There’s more than just melodies to wrap yourself in.

Listening to the lyrics…you can’t help but think about the pure art of storytelling, about the unique ability to tell the same tale countless times and have it resonate differently with each go-around.

Like this one, “Six Weeks”, a completely and utterly bewitching fairy-tale.

Tolkein Imagery meets Motown Drums, and they both mingle deliciously with rough mountain sounds…all to tell a rather naive tale; a story wrought with blood and bones and wolves and woods that’s still, somehow, unashamedly joyous.

There’s two frontmen in this outfit: Nanna (an otherworldly beauty, herself) and Raggi (a portly, furry-faced, rosy-cheeked sort). Really, the only thing they’ve got in common is a shared acoustic guitar proficiency.

But he’s left-handed and she’s of the right side so, in live shows, they mirror each other–matching notes, running melodies, and weaving fantasies so perfect it’s a dare just to look away.

Good news for you, they’re got some U.S dates coming up. You can find them here, my ticket has long-since been purchased and I highly recommend you do something similar, should you find yourself nearby.

Foreign Born

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There’s not a whole lot to say about this band. But other than “their music is awesome!”, does anything really matter?

Alright fine, I care a little bit about their lives too.

(buy here!)

Foreign Born is an American indie rock outfit that got together forever ago (2003) in San Francisco but soon after moved to Los Angeles. They released their debut EP, In the Remote Woods under StarTime International Records. Two years later they self-released their first “proper” LP while touring with indie darlings Cold War Kids (I talked about them here) and Rogue Wave–when they signed with Dim Mak in 2007 it was re-released. Then in 2009 with their third label in as many albums we were all gifted with Person to Person.

It’s a bit of an exhausting journey, but as the music shows, it was well worth it.

Telling you that the band writes “anthemic pop songs”…well it’s hardly a debatable claim. The album came out in 2009 and bloggers/magazines/reviewers have been touting that ever since. It’s not a knock. Really, it’s just addicting. Each song is so intentional:  dense and complex sounds fortified with catchy hooks, begging to stick in your head forever.

The whole collection is crafted with similar meticulousness. The ordering shows a determined progression. Repeated contrasts between punchy tracks like “Blood Oranges” and warm, catchy tunes like the one above is well-conceived and effective. It’s a constant shift from light to dark, tiny to epic, that just sort of locks you in.

The result? Well it feels like a conversation with the west coast and sounds like endless summer.

Aren’t we all clamoring for both?

“That Old Sun” and “Winter Games” are sweaty BBQ soundtracks, simple and undecorated, and lead singer Matt Popieluch’s raspy, aching vocals just sort of lull you into sunset all the way through.

So go on, kick back, relax and do enjoy!

The Civil Wars

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I’ve alluded to the genius that is The Civil Wars before (here), but upon further reflection, and a few incredible hours of exhausting the repeat button on their tracks, these two deserve a post all their own.

(source)

The Civil Wars is a duo composed of singer-songwriters Joy Williams and John Paul White. They met randomly during a songwriting session in Nashville in 2008 but their first full-length album, Barton Hollow, just came out last year. The painstaking effort is apparent and indisputably well worth it. The world (self-included) fell happily in love with their heartbreaking Americana quickly, with the duo winning Grammys for Best Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album this past February.

According to their website, the album namesake and thematic direction is summed up best with the lyrics of  Poison & Wine; meaning it’s about the good, the ohsogood, the bad, and the downright ugly of married life.

Of course, there is a bit of irony here…and it never ceases disappointing me. Despite their uncanny and intimate ability to trace each other’s melodies with close harmonies in ways that purr perfect romance…they aren’t actually a couple (how?! tell me!).

Anyway…

This song communicates in ways few have; their profound heartbreak over a relationship on the rocks seeps through and strokes your sweet, sweet soul in all the right ways. It’s an aching, painful tribute to a relationship we’ve all been in. It’s also noteworthy that this is one of the few tracks to include more than just an acoustic guitar.

The focus is forever on the vocals with these two. Which, in an era where those have seemingly ceased to matter, makes The Civil Wars a most welcome reprieve. But…if you aren’t into earthy sounds…you’re a bit up a creek (you know, without a paddle and shit) because this is a band that shows best when the pace slows, the lights dim, and the voices come together.

In the same way that my favorite Lana del Rey song is the first one I heard (as detailed here), Barton Hollow will probably always remain my go-to song with this band.

With swanky out-law lyrics and a smooth southern groove, I.am.sold.

(You too? Buy here!)

Au Revoir St. Louis

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I feel as though the most commonly mentioned event on this blog is me packing…eating is perhaps a close second…but packing certainly wins and now, I’ve done it again.

As you’re probably reading this, after an overwhelmingly wonderful 9 days at home, I’m lugging all my hopes, aspirations and far too many pairs of shoes to New York City.

Original plans had me leaving yesterday, and despite profound excitement for this adventure, there was an event here tonight I simply couldn’t refuse.

The (first) bridal shower for my best-friend-since-forever, Caroline.

I had pretty good-looking date and a decently good-looking dress, so I stayed and I couldn’t have made a better choice.

There’s plenty more bridal events and pictures to regal you with in the coming months as we toast my favorite couple so forgive me for posting them sparingly today.

I’ve neglected doing a playlist post for a short while and given that I’ll be rendered internet-less for a few flight hours, I thought I’d give you a peak into what I’ll be listening to beforehand.

An unwavering favorite obsession,

I first saw this band, The Civil Wars, on a peanutbutterrunner post (who has a great music selection) and I suppose it was love at first sight because I’ve been listening ever since.

And because few songs are as sure-fire a way to feel good, here’s this sorta-oldie but always-goodie,

I hope everyone has a great Saturday!!