iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 30th, 2006
Jeffrey & Jack Lewis - "The Singing Tree" from City & Eastern Songs
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New Material from The Earlies
The Earlies are set to return with The Enemy Chorus on January 27th. The record is said to have a much darker and less familiar sound than the one found on their last album, These Were The Earlies. The shift is partly due to a change in the listening habits of the band who have delved into the work of Faust, Gentle Giant, and Jean-Claude Vannier. You can hear a track off the album below:
- The Earlies - "No Love In Your Heart" from The Enemy Chorus
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 29th, 2006
Tokyo Police Club - "Shoulders & Arms" from A Lesson In Crime
New Richard Swift Song
Richard Swift's new album Dressed Up For The Letdown is due out Feb. 20th on Secretly Canadian. If you're like me you're a huge fan of The Richard Swift Collection, Vol. 1 and waiting until February for the album is going to be nearly impossible. To help tie you over until then, here is a new track from the record. Enjoy!
- Richard Swift - "Kisses For The Misses" from Dressed Up For The Letdown (mp3)
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 28th, 2006
Sam Roberts Band - "Bridge to Nowhere" from Chemical City
Memphis Readies Their Sophomore LP
Canadian duo Memphis, comprised of Stars singer Torquil Campbell and Chris Dumont, have enlisted the help of Metric’s James Shaw (bass, trumpet, drums, mix) and Josh Trager of the Sam Roberts Band (drums) for their upcoming sophomore album entitled A Little Place In The Wilderness.
The record was recorded in a Vancouver hotel room and at Studio Plateau in Montreal in the depths of winter, which would explain its many references to snow. You can hear a track off of the album, due out in the US in early 2007, below:
- Memphis - "I'll Do Whatever You Want" from A Little Place In The Wilderness (mp3)
Also, be sure to check out the video for the song which was directed by Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket.
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 27th, 2006
The Cassettes - "Muja Chi Larki Daydo" from 'Neath the Pale Moon
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 24th, 2006
Sunn O)))/Boris - "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)" from Altar
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 23rd, 2006
Swan Lake - "Are You Swimming In Her Pools?" from Beast Moans
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 22nd, 2006
David Vandervelde - "Jacket" from Jacket/Murder In Michigan - Single
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 21st, 2006
The Black Angels - "Young Men Dead" from Passover
Favorite New Release of the Week - Nov. 21st, 2006
Swan Lake - Beast Moans
From the very start of Swan Lake's Beast Moans you can hear three of indie music's most unique artists coming together to create a perfect storm of musical synergy on "Widow's Walk". I think it could be said that Dan Bejar, Spencer Krug, and Carey Mercer are all reaching for similar goals in their music but employ very different means of getting there. This album might be their attempt at building some Rube Goldberg-ian machine to carry them to that point together.
There are times on the record where you may feel like a certain song belongs more to a specific member and their respective day job but that's to be expected in a situation like this isn't it? A song like "Nubile Days" could easily have been found on Shut Up I Am Dreaming but it fits perfectly here as well. On the other hand, "The Partisan But He's Got To Know", sounds like it could have only been created by these three musicians coming together for this project. Other standout tracks include "The Freedom", the haunting "Petersburg, Liberty Theater, 1914", and the fragile sounds of "Are You Swimming In Her Pools?"
As I previously mentioned all the members of Swan Lake have contributed their share of ideas to acheive an album that, as the liner notes say, is "a testament to frienship, eternal and otherwise." I for one am glad they're friends and decided to make this album.
- Grant, November 21, 2006
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 20th, 2006
Chin Up Chin Up - "We've Got to Keep Running" from This Harness Can't Ride Anything
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 17th, 2006
Klaxons - "Atlantis to Universe" from Xan Valleys
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 16th, 2006
Catfish Haven - "Let It Go (Got to Grow)" from Tell Me
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 15th, 2006
Voxtrot - "Trouble" from Your Biggest Fan - EP
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 14th, 2006
Explosions in the Sky - "Remember Me As a Time of Day" from How Strange, Innocence
Favorite New Release of the Week - Nov. 14th, 2006
Joanna Newsom - Ys
It’s only very occasionally that I’ve come across an album that sounds so out of step with the times in which it’s created that it sounds startling, even shocking, like a smouldering asteroid that crashes through the ceiling of your house.
Often it’s something so odd, so next level that it seems like it can only have come from the future. But Ys, the second full-length album by prodigious folk musician Joanna Newsom, sounds like it has come from some dimly remembered past. Like old wives’ tales, these autobiographical myths are built from grains of truth and wisdom, a vivid, living, textured account of a memory glimpsed or forgotten, like a dream upon waking or a fable from a faraway place written a long time ago.
Joanna’s voice itself is very different from her first EPs, and has notably changed since debut album The Milk Eyed Mender. It’s deeper, with more resonance; less grating and wild, and incredibly affecting. The bold intelligence of the album opener 'Emily' is dizzying. Adrenalizing. Powerful enough to set your nerves on fire and make you forget where you are, who you are, for a while. It’s almost scary how seductive and pungent this intriguing mythology is - from sitting skimming stones at the riverside, to the raging sea, or the vastness of a comet soaring through the heavens, this song is magnificent in its lyrical scope. For anyone who ever stared into a bruised evening sky and felt at once terrified, amazed, exhilarated, moved... just alive... Joanna Newsom with Ys has written the wonder of being into labyrinthine tangles of words and set it to music.
The stories continue throughout the five extended pieces that form Ys, weaving a gentle web around you, cocooning you in sweet chiming harp and wriggling flutes, groaning cello, layers of warmth and harmony, never settling but eddying and constantly evolving, deepening, unravelling around your ears. The string arrangements are sometimes genuinely surprising, even jaw-dropping. They swoop, stab and swoon around the harp and the wandering storytelling, guided, intelligent and precise; sometimes wistful, sometimes playful, lifting you vertically or falling away unexpectedly beneath your feet. The sensitivity of the composer with respect to how the strings fit around the music is apparent: a huge amount of care has been put into arrangement of the songs. Rather than being an embellishment thrown on to lend borrowed grandiosity to the proceedings, the instrumentation flits marvellously, clinging, hovering and breaking free from the thrust of the song, changing tack and tone as if blown by a sentient breeze.
Ys is a truly special album that takes you gently by the hand and leads you through a distinctive magical landscape. Drift into it and you'll find your imagination dancing through wistful showers of falling leaves and kicking through tangles of knee-deep poppies, counting stars and wandering vast landscapes, lamenting a broken heart through abstract and taciturn poetry, or sinking back through the centuries to land gently back on your feet some time later.
It’s a vivid and beautiful painting that you can walk into; a magic window into another world that I'd be happy to get lost in, and never come back.
- John Brainlove, November 6, 2006 via Drowned in Sound
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 13th, 2006
Destroyer - "European Oils" from Destroyer's Rubies
Daytrotter Sessions - SOUND team
SOUND team is the band of the week on Daytrotter so be sure to check out the band's story and free songs.
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 10th, 2006
Gang Gang Dance - "Before My Voice Fails" from God's Money
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 9th, 2006
White Flight - "Obsidian" from White Flight
Danielson: a Family Movie
If you're in any of the following cities during the dates listed you should definitely see what is sure to be an excellent music documentary, Danielson: a Family Movie. The filmmakers followed Daniel Smith, along with his four siblings and best friend, as he lead them to indie-rock stardom as the Danielson Famile as well as his own struggles to find the same success as a solo artist. The previously mentioned dates of this limited theatrical release, as well as the film's trailer, can be found below:
- New York, NY - Dec 15-21 - Cinema Village
- Chicago, IL - Dec 10, 14 - Siskel Center
- Austin, TX - Dec 11, 20, 28, Jan 2 - Alamo Downtown
- Seattle, WA - Dec 15-21 - NW Film Forum
- Bloomington, IN - Dec (1st 2 Weeks) - The Cinemat
- San Francisco, CA - Jan 25-27 - Red Vic
- Portland, OR
- Jan (3rd week) - NW Film Center
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 8th, 2006
Brian Eno - "Golden Hours" from Another Green World
Capitol Signs Babyshambles
Capitol Records has announced the upcoming release of The Blinding which will serve as the label debut for the newly-signed Babyshambles. The five-song EP is set to be released on December 5th.
The Blinding will feature five new songs, the band’s first original material since last year’s acclaimed debut album, Down In Albion. All of the songs were recorded this summer at London’s Turnmills Studios, and were produced by the band.
Among the highlights of The Blinding EP is the title track, which bassist Drew McConnell said was “about the vacuous nature of tabloid newspaper attention. No matter how intelligent and strong you think you are, it still affects you.”
Wait, there's tabloid newspaper attention given to a member of Babyshambles? Does anyone know which member he's talking about? I'm confused.
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 7th, 2006
The Blow - "Babay (Eat a Critter, Feel Its Wrath)" from Paper Television
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 6th, 2006
Grizzly Bear - "Don't Ask" from Horn of Plenty
Midlake - Roscoe
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 3rd, 2006
They Shoot Horses Don't They? - "Emptyhead" from Boo Hoo Hoo Boo
Sergeant
I received a demo from the L.A. based band Sergeant last week and was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. The band puts their own gritty spin on influences ranging from The Rolling Stones and The Clash to more modern fare like Oasis. You can check out a couple of my favorite tracks from the band below:
- Sergeant - "Shine A Light On Me" from Sgt. Demo (mp3)
- Sergeant - "60's and Baby Blue" from Sgt. Demo (mp3)
Also, for all you Los Angelenos looking for something to do tonight, Sergeant is playing an acoustic set tonight at the Hotel Cafe at 9 o'clock. A list of the band's upcoming shows are as follows:
- Fri Nov. 3: Hollywood, CA - Hotel Cafe
- Tue Nov. 7: Silverlake, CA - Silverlake Lounge
- Wed Nov. 22: Silverlake, CA - Silverlake Lounge
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 2nd, 2006
Thom Yorke - "A Rat's Nest" from Analyse - EP
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Nov. 1st, 2006
The Doors - "Peace Frog" from Morrison Hotel
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