My Best Friend's Arm

oops: i moved!

2010-11-12T10:56:00.000-08:00

So guess what?

I'm for real now.

My Best Friend's Arm now has a real home! http://www.mybestfriendsarm.com

Come on over!

nice, nice, very nice

2010-10-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

I have always had a love for our friends in the Great White North. From Rick Moranis to Neil Young to Alan Thicke, there is constantly positive influence flowing from Canada. And their Smarties are far and away better than American Smarties.

The most recent influx of goodness from Canada comes in the form of troubadour Dan Mangan, and his sophomore full length, Nice, Nice, Very Nice. The title comes out of Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, and the poem helps contextualize the raw, rooted album;

Oh, a sleeping drunkard

Up in Central Park,

And a lion-hunter

In the jungle dark,

And a Chinese dentist,

And a British queen-

All fit together

In the same machine.

Nice, nice, very nice;

Nice, nice, very nice;

Nice, nice, very nice-

So many different people

In the same device.

When I first heard Mangan's voice radiate out of my speakers with "Indie Queens are Waiting," I was taken away. Just like his literary inspiration, Mangan puts timeless concepts into poignant and stingingly close language.

The aforementioned song is what caused me to sink into his music more completely, what with its steady strum and shifting, swimming soundscapes radiating like deep breaths during a rushed day.

I'm sorry that I brought it up

It's not nice to piss you off

And I know, I know, I know

But I was poking and sort of prodding and kind of hoping

And always watching for a reaction, a reaction

Mangan evokes feelings of independent movement, of intuitive running and jumping and listening to instinct. His folk tinged music has an effortless grace about it, an impeccable rhythm and grasp of melody and timing. He grips and releases right when I need it, and his album accompanies everything from a drive through winding roads to a walk downtown with turning, golden leaves floating just like the ethereal harmonies he employs.

I am definitely not surprised he was picked up by the super hip Canadian label Arts and Crafts, and I definitely intend to stay immersed in this album for a good long while.

Dan Mangan- The Indie Queens are Waiting

laura marling: ghosts

2010-09-05T18:35:00.001-07:00

I love this song.

It's full of rich storytelling, unbelievably heart wrenching honesty, and absolutely knock out melodic beauty.

I like songs that aren't new that always sound it.

If you don't know the enormously talented, precocious young Laura Marling, please listen to her March release, I Speak Because I Can. One of my favorite albums of the year thus far. And she remains in my list of favorite songstresses, as highlighted by this song that is off her 2007 release, Alas I Cannot Swim. Now go enjoy your night!

I love the live video, and the recorded track. Maybe you should, too.

Laura Marling [feat. Marcus Mumford]- Ghosts

theFUNsun

2010-09-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

I woke up in a messy mood today. The day just called for me to not brush my hair, and to shake around with air drums and air guitar to music full of bare foot, grinning feeling.

I am very happy I was called back to Slow Animal, the New Jersey duo that pumps out spacious, echoing, grimy rock that conjures images of boys learning to play guitar for the first time and realizing all the cool noises they could make.

I'm very excited they have released their 7" of the following video's track, "theFUNsun", along with the equally jaggedly catching song "Saturday Mourning." Hurry up and get it, there are limited quantities. Meanwhile, let down your hair, open the blinds, and go wild. No one's watching...(except maybe your neighbor with all those Chia pets in the window).

Slow Animal - theFUNsun from JAXART Records on Vimeo.

theFUNsun- Slow Animal

i guess he's an xbox and i'm more atari

2010-08-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

I was told when I was a little girl, all done in pigtails and pink shorts, that I should be gracious.

That I should be nice.

Should be forgiving.

Should be kind.

But there are those times in life... the times when someone or something just spits in your face and punches you in the nose, and maybe breaks a couple ribs, and you're left laying in the dirt staring into the bleak infinity and thinking...

Well fuck this.

The new Cee-Lo single from the new album Ladykiller out October 4, is simply entitle "Fuck You."

And it needs the Fuck.

It's a song about reclaiming anger in a way that the quiet singer songwriters that I so love just can't do sometimes. Sometimes I want to let myself revel in the soulful injustice of it all. And Cee-Lo (as you would expect from the other half of Gnarls Barkley) does it in the catchiest way you could imagine. You know what this liberating, sunny, angry song tells me?

I don't have to want the right thing all the time!

We don't have to be so damn graceful about the things that just frankly suck.

It's OK to be a sore loser.

But most importantly; rejection doesn't always need to be so uncomfortably pathetic.

I love Cee-Lo's declarations in this song, so blunt, so often hilarious, and so in the moment:

And though there's pain in my chest

I still wish you the best

With a "Fuck you"

Ooo ooo ooo

This song does not break any musical barriers. It's not awash in sentimentality (on the surface at least), and it doesn't beg for me to overanalyze it. So I won't. I'll just be happy I relate to something so visceral and human. And I'll play it again. Right now.

Fuck You-Cee-Lo

so go play with your piano/ and write a mediocre song

2010-08-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

"A Dark Haired Girl Tries to Seduce a Piano Player"

by Ian Francis

Sometimes Damien Rice is too much for me.

To much digging, too much burrowing into the emotion steeped parts of me that I guard with flinching possessiveness, like day old yellowing bruises.

But I was caught today, thanks to the suggestion from the musically clairvoyant Heather, by a b-side off the 9 Crimes Single, "Rat Within the Grain."

Rice sings about this helpless, most likely hopeless, love that he circles around with building, repressed resentment and barely disguised brokenness.

What kills me is his blank honesty. But it's not a hopeful honesty, not like he's singing to someone on the verge of coming back. It's like he is singing to her back as she leaves, resigned to being forgotten, knowing something has died and he has no more power, and still almost tenderly reassuring the deaf ears;

I wouldn’t want you to want
to be wanted by me
I wouldn’t want you to worry
you’d be drowned within my sea

I only wanted to be wonderful,
in wonderful is true, in truth
I only really wanted to be wanted by you

The powerlessness is what gets me, and knocks the wind out of me with every turn of phrase that brings the lovely melody around to the disarmingly relatable conclusion that he can't do anything to keep things how he wants. And then his anger and self deprecation come careening through. He teeters on the edge of hating her and loathing himself for caring.

So go play with your piano
And write a mediocre song
About the shell of mediocrity
And pretend there’s nothing wrong

I never thought
You where a chicken shit
I never thought of you at all
Until you asked me to be part of it
And now you're showing me your wall

It's an all too human and real story of caring, of holding on, and of watching someone break your heart and walk away.

What I love and appreciate so often is that Rice seems to bring us to his stories at their close, leaving us to insert our own storylines and letting us join him on the dark stage watching the backs recede out of the theatre.

Tonight this song is on repeat, as though listening to the end of something can somehow push forward to the beginning of something else.

Rat Within the Grain- Damien Rice

new! from the bees

2010-07-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

July closes for me with a sense of wistful longing for summer to slow down. The dripping honey sunsets melt too quickly. The mornings dawn hot and sticky and full of promise. The promise of a work day. My work schedules come out too late to plan for any adventure bigger than riding my bicycle to the top of a big hill and breathing in the breeze.

However, good things are always all around. My July didn't end up being the rambling month of shenanigans I had hoped, but I experienced so many moments of greatness it's impossible to feel anything but a reflective peace and satisfaction.

The music that is closing July so very gently with me is some long awaited new material (what they call a "little summer breeze of a taster") from that properly stupendous British sextet, The Bees.

Laden with folk harmonies that lovingly embrace sunshine tinged finger picking, this single feels like one of the many walks I take in the early summer morning before blistering heat. Like I could walk by a tunnel and see and hear this band of bees banging so gently on some overturned trash barrels and singing, echoing and shivering around the diffused morning light.

I like this a lot. I very much hope more news comes out soon about their forthcoming release.

Silver Line- The Bees

(Hey...did you notice how I didn't make any jokes about the buzz The Bees are generating with this new track??)

(I think I'm more mature than I used to be.)

[live at WaxTrax!] the seedy seeds!

2010-07-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

[All photos by the ever gracious and talented Lee Runyan.]

Cincinnati band The Seedy Seeds caught my attention just a couple months ago with their 2008 Eurodorable release, Count the Days. And it is...adorable. All full of accordion and banjo and dancing beats and Mike Ingram and Margaret Darling's voices earnestly popping, soaring and "lala"ing about hearts and dirt and sunshine. When I saw they were coming to Denver to participate in the rich, satisfying cornucopia of music known as the UMS, I was all set to finally see these guys live.

Unfortunately I had to miss their Sunday set, which I heard was phenomenal. Luckily, this magnanimous trio decided to play a free show the very next day at local record shop, Wax Trax. So I trekked over despite having been told over the phone that they were not playing in the store. But I don't trust disembodied voices, and while I was browsing the CDs hoping against hope that what I had heard was wrong, I heard a banjo tuning.

With great excitement, I barreled over into the next room, and saw to my great delight The Seedy Seeds about to launch into their first song. Blame it on the sheer excitement of being proven right, or see it as a testament to how darn catchy this hard-to-pigeonhole (electronica? folk? who cares?) group is...but my feet started moving and barely stopped for the full 45 minute set.

Darling and Ingram make a great duo, full of energy and swapping guitar duty back and forth, with Ingram defaulting to his banjo to pluck out some of the most infectious melodies I have heard in a while, and Darling playing the accordion with an ease I would expect only from seasoned Oktoberfest musicians; certainly not from this pretty voiced woman with a kazoo. I couldn't help but be mesmerized by Brian Penick's light-up drum set. Every beat activated white Christmas lights, just like my beloved pink light up shoes of yore.

The Seedy Seeds played a great, engaging show with a surprisingly full sound and unbounded energy. Though there were not many of us there, I just could not stop smiling and dancing around. The music made me feel more unselfconcious than many bigger shows I've been to where I have often felt relegated to controlled toe tapping and apathetic arm-crossing.

The Ohio locals have a new 7" out called Roll Deep on Shake It Records that they released JUST for Record Store Day in April. Check it out, check them out. They're already slated for SXSW next year, and will be doing CMJ this year, along with releasing a full length album early next year, possibly around February or March.

We Are Missing- The Seedy Seeds

And I know your mama calls you good for nothin'/she says her baby's a failure and she don't want you callin'

2010-07-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

Paul Jacobsen and the Madison Arm are a band from Salt Lake City, UT that I had never heard of until today.

And yet they have been occupying my earspace (and heartspace) nonstop since I heard their soul stripping, bare bones cover of Kathleen Edwards' "Six O'Clock News" this afternoon.

There are some voices that sound like a good friend drawing the curtains closed and holding you while you break down. The voices that can soar through the tiny cracks we've allowed to form in our armor. I believe Paul Jacobsen has one of these voices. I think he'll be joining me for my day to day adventures much more now.

Six O'Clock News (Kathleen Edwards)- Paul Jacobsen and the Madison Arm

For a crack at the original:

Six O'Clock News- Kathleen Edwards

Their self-titled album, Paul Jacobsen and the Madison Arm, was released in 2008. However, this recording is from a Black Sessions EP recorded "live on a bleak winter day."

Thanks to my friend Heather's reaction to the eviscerating song, I learned that this marvelous band will be opening for Colin Hay in Salt Lake on July 31. Check it out if you can!

you're a layer of my clothes made of ivy and gold

2010-07-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

Way to beat the sophomore slump, Bombay Bicycle Club. The young British rockers politely demanded my attention with their 2009 release I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose, which is full of quirky, literate folk rock laced with xylophone and a maturity that defies their ages. I devoured their two EPs last year after I heard their first LP, eager for more of the rare, poignant songwriting and pitch perfect production that hails back to the honest recording of legends like Neil Young or Joan Baez.

I was finally rewarded with more from the quartet this month.

Their second full length, Flaws, officially released July 12 (so it is currently out across the sea), was recorded in Jack Steadman's bedroom, and then produced by the singer himself. It delivers the same unique sound they introduced, but not in a tired way. Take the single, Ivy&Gold. The plucky golden melody skips over percussion that sounds tapped out on tins on a front porch. Steadman's voice is so relaxed and natural it rolls along like a babbling brook, tumbling with sunny harmonies. It's just as wistful and satisfying as a song as could be, and the whole record plays on a certain feeling of deep nostalgia for suddenly remembered sepia toned days that passed so gently and so quickly.

Bombay Bicycle Club will be spinning round and round for me during this hot, slow July. Keep an eye (and both your ears) on these gents; I feel they're bound for bigger things, and soon.
Ivy&Gold- Bombay Bicycle Club

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

I'm so far around the bend

2010-07-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

Etching above by Grant Silverstein, an incredibly talented artist whose prints baffle me with their beauty.

So if you noticed...I've been gone for a while!

No, it's not because I'm mad at you. Though when I put up a new Facebook status especially for you and you didn't "like" it...it stung.

I've been starting a new job, and writing for other people (check out Reverb, Cause=Time, Donnybrook on that blog roll on the right), and spending a lot of time riding my new road bicycle (named Thurgood) on hot pavement. I've been so caught up in enjoying the world I forgot to do what connects me to it; write. So let's start that up again, shall we?

There have been a few things just absolutely pleasing me this summer. For one, the track The National put on the magnificent compilation; Dark Was the Night which benefited AIDS relief and awareness, "So Far Around the Bend." It's rare for Berninger's dark, smoky voice to bely hope, but in this bright track those brilliant boys make me want to roll down my car window and fly around blind corners looking for something new, and to speed away from the melancholy that the world lays down.

So Far Around the Bend- The National

For a totally different feel, I have to present Bill Callahan's recent work. I feel a deep appreciation for the lo-fi artists of yore, and Callahan's brainchild Smog was definitely one of those. It's Callahan's solo work that captures me right now, with his 2009 release Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle; a deeply textured, curious and beautiful creation. He describes the overdubbing process as four or five string players gathered around one microphone, which comes through with the close, velvet sound that lends such an accessibility and warmth to the album. It's perfect for those gray summer days when the heat turns to diffused haze and the sun never fully rises.

Jim Cain- Bill Callahan

Well guys, I'm glad we took a moment to catch up. Plenty more on the way. By the way, for all you local Denver-ites the UMS is coming up July 22-25! A multi-day, multi-stage extravaganza of local music and infinite amounts of fun. I'll be there helping out and dancing like a fool. I'll also be speaking on a music blogging panel with some good friends. Check that out right here, it'll be July 24 from 3 30 to 4 30.

Keep enjoying summer, put on that sunscreen, and shirk as many responsibilities as possible.

if you've got a boyfriend, well go kiss him

2010-05-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been a while since I've been so twitterpated with a pop album. Really. I feel a little giggly and blushing, and embarrassed to admit that I have been snapping along to The Drums' debut album, out June 7 on Moshi Moshi, for a good hour now.

The self titled record starts with the cheeky tune, "Saddest Summer," all full of Joy Division like reverb, and Jonathan Pierce's vocals sounding uncannily like Robert Smith's in its earnest tenor. The whole album skips along, shimmering and flitting and sounding deceptively lighthearted until you listen to the extremely melancholy messages right on the surface of the energizing melodies.

The Brooklyn band is currently gearing up for a pretty high profile summer, with UK dates supporting Kings of Leon with the likes of The Features and The Black Keys, not to mention coming off supporting Florence and the Machine and The Big Pink.

Saddest Summer- The Drums

In honor of The Drums' throwback style, I thought I'd share a picture of the bicycle I rode today, so lovingly named Don Johnson. Look at those Miami Vice colors. And he rides like a dream. Sadly lacking in feathered hair and white linen jackets...but still a trustworthy companion.

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! Find your jam, turn it up, and don't forget sunscreen.

you deserve applause for splitting me in two

2010-05-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

Delta Spirit definitely made a fan out of me in 2008 with Ode to Sunshine, with all its melodic racket, gritty embrace, and airtight songwriting. I remember listening to that album over and over, and finding new things it said that squeezed the air out of me...almost as though the infectious beats that kept the pace had to bring me along so I wouldn't be stopped in my tracks completely by the revelations that record caused.

And it's been too long without a follow up to sink into.

Which is why I'm so happy they're giving us the June 8 release of History from Below, an album that digs down even deeper with the rootsy gumption that Ode to Sunshine did.

This album doesn't polish up and shine. It's a faded, favorite tshirt that you just didn't know you had. It wears so comfortably that I'm frankly, albeit irrationally, surprised I haven't heard it before. The content of it is the accessible stuff of regret and aching loss and of big old pity parties with yourself, the bottle, and some biting honesty. It's familiar and new at the same time.

Take the song that keeps bringing me back, "Scarecrow." Neighbors chat in a distant reality as though the intro is heard through your closed eyelids and open ears. Birds chirp and you can hear wheels crunch over loose gravel like you're lying in golden sun hours with your eyes closed while Matthew Vasquez reclines against a worn and waving willow tree while he sings this heartbreaking tale of attachment and loss and the fading of people and love. And he does it with the baffling lightness of touch of the blues so you might want to be sipping lemonade with your feet in a cool brook during the whole thing. While weeping.

Oh scarecrow
You know why I'm asleep?
All the weight you bear you cannot carry me
You know you're just like your mother
And your bag all packed to go
And you hid your heart from everyone you know
You say you'd never love another
Unless they bore your own name
Oh your kin, they trample on you just the same

Oh I gave my love to a harlot I'm told
And the blackness of a scarecrow no one knows
Well I'm red in the blood that I have drained
That I wasted in a rain

Well your love that takes your picture
And your love that worships you
Well if you can't see it then soon you will
And you frequent the same stripclub
You love to watch the ladies dance
Well you always knew I don't do shit like that
While I was out in Scotland
You were out with him
And he took your shot and you threw up your limbs

Well I gave my love to a harlot I'm told
And the blackness of a scarecrow you cannot hold
Well I'm red in the blood that I have drained
That I wasted in a rain

Well you deserve applause for splitting me in two
Well I count you on the list of a mortal few
Well I hope that you were happy
I could only wish you the best
But your beauty vacant setting in the west
And this may just say redundant because you've chosen your own fate
Was I more to you than just a pretty face

Well I'll give my love to a harlot I will
And the blackness of a scarecrow you cannot kill
Well I'm red in the blood that I have drained
That I wasted waiting for rain

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

I'm really liking this so far, and am extremely excited for their supporting tour this summer.

Have a listen to their gem of a single, "Bushwick Blues" while you're at it. It shows the more punchy, feedback laden, vast Delta Spirit that I know you have been craving. I just get killed by the line;

We were just two kids acting tough
Well then we grew up
For me not so much

Bushwick Blues-Delta Spirit

yeah we got the feelin' now!

2010-05-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

So it's been an idyllic spring rain sort of day. I decided to walk to my various engagements because of that hazy, humid sun, and was rewarded by getting caught in a couple rain showers. Not the kind of rain showers that make me run for cover, but the type when the sun still shines and every drop is big and warm and splashes merrily on my hands and feet.

Best music for that?

Why, another cover of an already great song remade funkier and more soulful by the ever exuberant Al Green.

When that intro starts up, and those sparkling horns start blasting, there is no better place for me to be than outdoors walking under dappled light, spinning and air-trumpeting and smiling like everything inside me is growing fresh. I'm sure I attracted some funny looks, but then again, I'd like to assume I inspired more smiles than anything else.

So the raindrops on my arms are dry now, but it's only a few more hours until I get to step back outside into the steadily brighter evening and be romanced once more by the the newness of the season.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (The Beatles)- Al Green

(Yes, those are my feet up top.)

Now get outside and don't be afraid of a little rain! It feels about as wonderful as that song.

please put down your hand/because i see you

2010-05-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

So I went on a wee road trip today. Just a little escape.

And as the house quiets my legs are folded together, and my eyes are starting to wind down from all they took in today. When everyone else went to sleep, and the electric lights succumbed to the night one by one, it became clear I needed a sensory cleansing after a whole day of being immersed in people and places and life.

The aural backdrop for this all encompassing, bone deep release ended up being a cover song by Clem Snide. On their 2004 (now defunct) spinART Records EP, Beautiful, the Boston trio chose one of my favorite Velvet Underground songs to apply their disarmingly close and accessible sound to.

"I'll Be Your Mirror" has some of the most embarrassingly affecting lyrics for me. Now I claim to be a logical woman, but something in me just shivers and melts when I hear:

I find it hard to believe you don't know

The beauty that you are

But if you don't let me be your eyes

A hand in your darkness, so you won't be afraid

Lou Reed and Nico owned that song for me, with their charming storybook British accents and dreamy tambourine. But when Clem Snide's hushed, cello laced version started, I felt the words sink into my stretched surface and bring me back. It was a new song for me, and it met me where I am. It felt like an old friend with new things to tell me. So I sank into it, and it sank into me, and the navy blue night didn't seem a thing to be distanced. Instead it transformed into a waking dreamworld to let my imagination create beautiful things while being encouraged by the unabashed and unafraid message of this song.

I'll Be Your Mirror (Velvet Underground)- Clem Snide

Clem Snide released a new album in February, The Meat of Life, and it's an intimate, up front record that continues to catch me in its wry wit and gentle observance. Give it a shot.

mayday, snowy mayday

2010-05-12T08:40:00.001-07:00

That is correct. It snowed here.

So you know what? I give up. I'm laying here with my feet elevated on the couch armrest facing the outdoors with a mug full of tea, and too many candles lit for daytime (in lieu of an actual cozy fire), and I'm listening to things that are glowing warm until I have to bundle for work.

Laura Gibson has a quiet thoughtfulness to her music that draws me in and turns the world into a gently breathing behemoth of a friend carrying me kindly on its back. She creates subtle, lovely images that grow out of subtle, lovely melodies with a rare and comfortable ease that brings me back to her for all the times I need a little break. Especially before I dive into the constant swarm and storm of the day.

Come By Storm- Laura Gibson

The above song is off her album Beasts of Seasons...which is well worth many listens.

music for my gray day

2010-05-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

So when it's gray outside and a scarf is around my neck though it is mid-May...I have to adjust my ears to seek out the album or song that's going to help me settle into or rise above what the sky is smothering my world in this morning.

The avenue I'm choosing (partly because I need to psych myself up for work) is to find some sonic sunshine today. To turn up the golden major keys and maybe allow for some hand claps and hi-hats to perk me up. For that, I turn to Brooklyn based Fang Island, whose self-titled release under Sargent House is described by the band as sounding like "everyone high-fiving everyone." And it does take on the feeling of being surrounded by positive energy, all wildly effusive electric guitar licks and exuberant chant-singing. Even the sun would want to burn off the clouds covering my city to get in on the drum and dance circle this album seems to promise.

Daisy- Fang Island

Excuse me while I go dance with the clouds now.

baby remember on the bus when my hand was on your knee

2010-05-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

Fruit Bats' 2009 release, Ruminant Band made my Top Ten list...but I realized that I hadn't thoroughly explored this energizing band's previous work.

On Dainon's recommendation, I turned to Mouthfuls, their 2003 release, and was instantly smitten.

Sometimes words and feelings get tangled up in the knots in my stomach, and nothing I write provides any clarity. It's then that I truly appreciate those artists who can take all the mess and extract truth from it cleanly. For someone who loves words as much as I do, I believe that when used sparingly they can penetrate deeper than if weighed down by excess and explanation.

Fruit Bats do this with charming deftness on Mouthfuls. Lyrically it's abstract, the narratives not fleshed out or delved into, and the few words sung are done so repeatedly, as if letting the chorus steep in itself. It's an unhurried album. It says what it wants to say, and doesn't seem to need to explain itself. It's deliberate, but sunny and inviting and playful.

It's the perfect complement to an evening like this one, where the orange sky is letting my skin soak up some of the last of this golden day, and the cyclone of words in my head is slowing down and exiting with every exhale. I think I'll let this album stay awhile.

When U Love Somebody- Fruit Bats

and none of you gonna stand so tall

2010-05-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

"A Very Blustery Day"/ Peter and Harrison Ellenshaw

It's a very windy day.

I woke up with the sunshine rolling up across the sky and through my eyelids, turning my black dreamworld into a glowing pink one. Upon waking up, I had decided I was going to go on a run. It was then I saw the branches fight to remain on their trunks against the stern and badgering wind. So instead I lay here, occasionally closing my eyes and letting the warm fuchsia remind me that a break from the windy chaos outside is necessary every now and then.

It's a breathing morning.

Pink Moon- Nick Drake

think of them as an immense invitation

2010-04-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Tango/Richard Zolan

So Gigbot and Fuel/Friends hosted a listening party for (my hero) Josh Ritter's new album So Runs the World Away, a few days ago. As we crowded around a dimly lit table at the Meadowlark, sharing pizza and jokes, the album that I had been listening to in my car just that day decided it wasn't done surprising me. And it played this song. I mean...more than played this song...it sucked the reality out of the room and threw me into the story Ritter was ornately illustrating.

It's a folk tale about a mummy who wakes up and falls in love with his curator. A woman who brings him from the depths of the red clay back to the world and causes his heart to resume beating. But their love is cursed, and the life she gave him, he takes from her until she fades into a shell.

What makes my eyes constantly well up when this song is played is the sense of loss from both sides. The mummy was cursed, and yet his love for her was so genuine he couldn't bring himself to believe that it couldn't win out over it all. And she had brought him back to life; how could something so miraculous be so destructive? How could their timeless, fathomless love be their undoing?

Musically, it's played as a waltz, which conjures up images of a spinning Ingenue in a white flowing dress being led by a smoothly stepping mummy, aged bandages like ribbons stirring up dust in a room lit by sunrise or sunset.

He opens his eyes
Falls in love at first sight
With the girl in the doorway
What beautiful lines
Heart full of life
After thousands of years, what a face to wake up to

He holds back a sigh
As she touches his arm
She dusts off the bed where til now he's been sleeping
Under mires of stone
The dry fig of his heart
Under scarab and bone
Starts back to its beating

She carries him home
In a beautiful boat
He watches the sea from a porthole in stowage
He can hear all she says
As she sits by his bed
And one day his lips answered her
In her own language
The days quickly pass
He loves making her laugh
The first time he moves it's her hair that he touches
She asks "Are you cursed?"
He says "I think that I'm cured."
Then he talks of the Nile and the girls in ?bull rushes?

In New York he is laid
In a glass covered case
He pretends he is dead
People crowd round to see him
But at night she comes round
And the two wander down the halls of the tomb
That she calls a museum
But he stops to rest
Then less and less
Then it's her that looks tired
Staying up asking questions
He learns how to read
From the papers that she is writing about him
Then he makes corrections
It's his face on her book
More come to look
Families from Iowa
Upper West-Siders
Then one day it's too much
He decides to get up
Then as chaos ensues he walks outside to find her
She is using a cane
And her face looks too pale
But she's happy to see him
As they walk he supports her
She asks "Are you cursed?"
But his answer is obscured
In a sandstorm of flashbulbs
Rowdy reporters

Such reanimation
The two tour the nation
He gets out of limos
Meets other women
He speaks of her fondly
Their nights in the museum
She's just one more rag now he's dragging behind him
She stops going out
She just lies there in bed
In hotels in whatever towns they are speaking
Then her face starts to set
And her hands start to fold
Then one day the dry fig of her heart stops its beating

Long ago on the ship
She asked why pyramids
He said "Think of them as an immense invitation."
She asks "Are you cursed?"
He says "I think that I'm cured."
Then he kissed her and hoped
That she'd forget that question

It's a tragic story, one that lays me down so completely because it is not in any way trite, contrived, or cheesy. Josh Ritter just wrote a song about an Egyptian mummy and awoke this deep sense of lovelorn grief in me. No part of this song, or this album, or this artist, ceases to amaze me. It's a record that so blatantly and breathlessly showcases the indelible mark Josh Ritter can put on music, and on people.

So the World Runs Away is out already in Ireland, but will be released here on May 4.

The Curse- Josh Ritter

i wanna do right/but not right now

2010-04-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

I have always had a crater in my heart that was first knocked out by this song. Originally by the sublime Gillian Welch, it's a pained, fitfully honest, fearless song about being young and reckless and choosing what might not be the predetermined road so you can let your hair stream out a rag-top on an unknown one.

While driving back from a BBQ a couple mornings ago I rolled down the windows in the early morning air and let the breeze bite through my dangling fingers the way this song's confessions do to my heart. If you happen to see a woman with her head tilted back, belting out this song at a traffic light, just know some serious soul satisfying is going on. Maybe offer me a high five if you can reach. Or just offer your own harmony.

Oh me oh my oh, look at Miss Ohio

She’s a-running around with her rag-top down

She says I wanna do right but not right now

Gonna drive to Atlanta and live out this fantasy

Running around with the rag-top down

Yeah I wanna do right but not right now

Had your arm around her shoulder, a regimental soldier

An’ mamma starts pushing that wedding gown

Yeah you wanna do right but not right now

Oh me oh my oh, would ya look at Miss Ohio

She’s a-runnin’ around with the rag-top down

She says I wanna do right but not right now

I know all about it, so you don’t have to shout it

I’m gonna straighten it out somehow

Yeah I wanna do right but not right now

Oh me oh my oh, look at Miss Ohio

She a-runnin’ around with her rag-top down

She says I wanna do right , but not right now

Oh I wanna do right but not right now

I think it's also worth mentioning that the few bands who have chosen this Gillian Welch song to cover have done so with utmost sweetness and aplomb. If you have the chance, head over to Fuel/Friends to check out Blind Pilot's. Israel's voice so perfectly captures the ache of this song.

high violet is streaming (so are my eyes)

2010-04-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

The new the National album, High Violet, is waiting for you...

First read fabulous article written by the New York Times and then stream the whole record for yourself on the article's page. It's a day stopper. It's a shifting, glowing soundscape bound together by Berninger's soul bruising baritone.

High Violet is officially released to the public on May 11.

("Sorrow" and "Conversation 16" have wrecked me in the best possible way.)

By the way, does it charm you like it does me that Bryan Devendorf described the band thusly:

"Basically the band is like this; Matt’s the dad. Scott’s the long-suffering wife. I’m the black-sheep uncle. Aaron and Bryce are the twin daughters who like to control their parents."

there is a love that sleeps inside/the canyons of our deepest dreaming lives

2010-04-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

Blitzen Trapper has always been somewhat of a conundrum for me. On one album they'll shift from rollicking alt-country to something resembling 90's anthem rock to reverb-laden and drifting shoegaze homages.

I like it, a lot of it. But it never came together, never gathered its strength and held me tight with an immediate sense of self or purpose.

Prepare to have your mind changed, if you thought like me.

Destroyer of the Void, out on June 8 through Sub Pop, is a completely awake and alive album. It is a working being, a string of pearls (which is how Roman Candle would describe a true album), and disarmingly sincere while not losing Blitzen Trapper's inherent grasp of how to make me have fun.

In their single release, "Heaven and Earth" Eric Earley's voice is earnest and naked with major piano chords introducing the melody. Blitzen Trapper has been so often compared to other artists, because they've been so scattered in their sound. From Wilco to Queen to the Beatles, Blitzen Trapper's identity has been footnoted below influences.

It's easy to hear a Beatles influence in this single and leave it at that.

But there's something else. I actually hear Earley's voice in this. It's patiently building a sound that I haven't heard already. And the words he says are new and real and make me feel a bit trembly when he sings close into my ears, "Heaven and Earth are mine says I."

The rest of the album varies, just like you expect from a Blitzen Trapper record, but it creates a story out of the many narratives. It's accessible, and absolutely a tremendous step forward in songwriting. I can't wait to see these guys at Lollapalooza, can you?

Heaven and earth are mine says I (x3)

Over the western world shadows fall
Under the kind and dying trees we call
Together still the feel the breeze
To shatter all these waking dreams we've told
Ourselves to keep us free and clean

Heaven and earth are mine says I (x3)


There is a love that sleeps inside
The canyons of our deepest dreaming lives
A shelter that cannot be lost
A name that is so deep and so far across
I know you that you know me
Your life is like a bolt of lightning seen
Across the sky, so high and clean

Heaven and earth are mine says I (x3)
Heaven and earth are mine

Over the western world shadows fall
Under the kind and dying trees we call
Together still the feel the breeze
To shatter all these waking dreams we've told
Ourselves yeah ourselves
Ourselves yeah ourselves

Heaven and earth are mine says I (x3)

Heaven and Earth- Blitzen Trapper

new electric president

2010-04-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you remember when I completely loved on Ben Cooper's, of Electric President, solo work Radical Face. Well now I have the opportunity to extol the talents of Cooper and his other musical half, Alex Kane, and Electric President's third and newest release, The Violent Blue.The album was released in February under Fake Four Inc., a switch from their previous German label Morr Music.

What astounds me about this young duo is their grasp of composition. On the single, "Safe and Sound," the song opens with nothing but echoing drum beats, and the occasional hint of piano. It builds with steady pace, adding layers of bass lines, vocal harmonies, and reeling in and out a piano melody that brightly contrasts the heavy distortion rumbling underneath it all. It's controlled, but in the same way a flock of birds seems to be; it flies with a purpose and a freedom.

I like it.

Safe and Sound- Electric President

Exciting news for those who were smitten with Radical Face! As of March 10, Cooper has finished recording the follow up album to Ghost. I will be waiting most impatiently, as is my pattern with wonderful things that I want immediately.

By the way! I was lucky enough to interview The Morning Benders for my friends over at Gigbot. Chris Chu gave eloquent and insightful responses, and Todd Roeth's photography is as stunning as ever.

Check it out.

gigbot wants you to make new friends...

2010-04-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

Free beer? Good music? No way! Is this some Utopian society I'm illustrating?

Not unless you see the Gigbot Garage as Utopia. Which, come Monday April 12 at 7:30 pm it will be in a manner of speaking.

If you're around Denver, make it a priority to kick off the week in style, with the rollicking, rambling, rowdy, boot-scootin' good time of a band, These United States. And all proceeds (the 10$ cover) go straight to their starving artist pockets. Now that's a good cause.

In my humble, public opinion these guys put on one of the best live shows you can see. I hope to see you there!

i want woodpigeon to remember me

2010-04-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

Woodpigeon's front man and primary song writer, Mark Hamilton, is a man with a lot of stories to tell. As a band that has experienced success on more subtle levels (though is opening for Broken Social Scene, Iron and Wine, and Grizzly Bear that subtle?) than many others, the creative gambit that Hamilton has been able to run has led to some profoundly beautiful music.

Take his explanation for the name, Woodpigeon.

"I've always been in love with the word Woodpigeon for as long as I can remember. When you write it in cursive, it looks like a rollercoaster"

The rollercoaster that is the Calgary based Woodpigeon has released a new album in 2010, Die Stadt Muzikanten, and it has enchanted me. Written mainly while Hamilton spent time in Berlin, it's dedicated and written to his German immigrant grandparents who inspired him to turn his life over to music in the first place. And it's rife with quiet dignity. From the crackling fuzz of a turntable, to the careful and empyrean guitar composition, Woodpigeon's 3rd studio release spins with dusty, gossamer, unashamed emotions.

Empty Hall Sing-a-Long- Woodpigeon

Oh...and Woodpigeon was saddened by the passing of Alex Chilton as well.

Thirteen (Big Star)- Woodpigeon

spring awakening

2010-03-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

Spring is here.

To celebrate the melting of what I will dub the LAST BIG SNOW STORM of the winter (please just come along with me on this one, Rocky Mountain Weather Systems), I took my dog on a trail run by a lovely creek.

Oh! When I say by a lovely creek...I mean in a lovely creek! The melting Colorado snow pooled on the well loved trail, creating big puddles and trickling brooks on what I was going to use as a dry foot path. While I was picking my way around the mess and missing all the emerging beauty of spring in the landscape around me, my dog lurched me back into reality by stomping firmly in a puddle in front of me and Pollock-ing my legs with sun soaked mud.

So you know what I did? I turned toward the shallow river of a trail, bent my knees, and jumped.

My dog and I puddle stomped up and down that trail, and by the time we returned to the car we were both coated in a festive layer of red clay and my shoes were squeaking and raining out the ventilated sides.

Sometimes it is perfect way to celebrate a messy, melting world by immersing yourself in it. Or at least splattering yourself a little.

Not to mention puddle stomping is mighty fun.

The Morning Benders released a delightful, shiny album, Big Echo, produced by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor (remember I like them) this month that has been making me feel all sunny and tingly like tilting my head up to the bright afternoon sky. I can't wait until their April 7th show. Depending on the weather that day I might be the dancing, swaying girl with mud coated shins and a big, goofy smile on her face.

Excuses- The Morning Benders

warpaint

2010-03-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

When I was talking with some folks who had experienced SXSW this past weekend, many band names were thrown my way. But when a friend mentioned he saw a band consisting of all women who absolutely and unapologetically destroyed...I put them at priority level one.

Warpaint has been carving out a place for themselves since last year when they released their debut EP, Exquisite Corpse (the origin of the title can be found here) under Manimal Vinyl. After a phenomenal showing at 2009's CMJ, Rough Trade Records picked them up just in time to get cracking on a 2010 debut LP. Now that I've listened to Exquisite Corpse I can say that I am thoroughly ready for these ladies to release more.

Equal parts psychadelic, gritty, and ethereal, Warpaint blends punchy beats with ragged textures and wildly intuitive melodies to make music that sounds like it's on the brink. Emily Kokal's and Theresa Wayman's vocals are as warm and tantalizingly raw as a desert breeze, seeming to scrape just under the swelling surface of liberated bass and drum lines.

It's a bracingly fantastic EP. It's full of fearless creative exploration, misty beauty, and melting, fluid homages to the sounds of girl groups of 60 years ago. Grrrrl power, right?

Exactly.

Billie Holiday- Warpaint

i choose all the wrong times to hike

2010-03-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

A delightful and lively performance by Elizabeth and the Catapult at one of my local trailheads, Mt. Sanitas.

Why don't more great Brooklyn bands serenade me with accordians and skip-inducing indie pop while I climb up to ridge trails?

island heart you've left/ i do not know why

2010-03-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

You could blame my deep love of fuzzed out Jan and Dean vibing beach rock for my instant addiction to Holiday Shores' debut album Columbus'd the Whim.

It might also be argued that it's just good.

To explain how exactly it is good, come along with me for an adventure...

So you know when you're bopping along a sunny sidewalk on a perfect summer day, and the ground is dancing with wildflowers, and a Bermuda shorts wearing neighbor waves and offers you beer, and the whole day goes by without even a hint of a sunburn....but then you notice something is a little odd? Like maybe the neighbor with the Bermuda shorts is watering a purple lawn. Or the wildflowers are plaid, and the honeybees all look like they're from a Tim Burton film with larger than life heads and wings made out of tie dye lace.

That's how this album sounds.

It's all sunny, poppy, noise rock...but then something is just off. In a way that I definitely get behind. It could be the dissonant harmonies bubbling below Nathan Pemberton's charming Stephen Malkmus-esque voice. Or the wandering, plucky guitar melodies that syncopate so curiously. Whatever it is, Pemberton and his band have found a place in the growing wave of lo-fi surfer rock that is sure to make this a sonically pleasing summer.

Holiday Shores is of course participating in the magical mayhem of SXSW this weekend, but they'll be continuing on the road after Austin, warming up the colder parts of the country while the last of the snow melts.

Phones Don't Feud- Holiday Shores

a new believer in the old believers

2010-03-18T07:17:00.001-07:00

I was lucky enough to see the graceful Laura Veirs play to a crowd in her hometown a couple weeks ago, (for my review, click yonder for my Reverb write up), and was of course swept away by her performance. But in the small venue in Manitou Springs, I was captured by another performance.

Opening for Laura Veirs were two groups, and their scattered members performing solo, Cataldo and Old Believers. I was settled into my chair, squirming about in anticipation for Veirs' set, when Nelson Kempf of Old Believers stepped on stage. He was so unassuming that for a moment I didn't notice his presence...until he started stomping and singing with his hands behind his back an acapella piece filled with so much soul that I forgot a human voice could hold that much melody.

My friend who accompanied me that evening looked over at me, and I looked over at her, and we both knew that this was something special.

Old Believers, when paired with instruments and other members, lay down groovy beats with infectious soul. Lyrics as profound as any American folk hero, and songs that are so much fun that Kempf pulled the whole audience into singing along for my favorite song of the evening (and perhaps my favorite new song), It's With You Now.

The recorded version of the song is incredibly different from the live version, which was beautiful in large part because of Kempf's earnest and stripped vocals, so for a listen at what Kempf's raw voice sounds like, please indulge in this video, where his guitar belies that inherent rhythmic genius this man has. He can create a beat out of nowhere, and I love it.

Old Believers have an album out, Eight Golden Greats, that was released in 2008 under the Brave Records label and it's been helping me sway through my days in such a light and lovely way.

That's All- Old Believers

and even if the morning never comes/ my hands are blessed to have touched the sun

2010-03-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the absence! I was on a much needed road trip to the warmer climes this nation has to offer, and left technology by the wayside as I remembered how to breathe.

On to the music.

Three part harmony oozing with cheeky lyrics over some popping guitar and cymbals seems to pull me in when done with great reserves of talent. But in the past few years the indie pop movement has become inundated with some unfortunately forgettable bands attempting to replicate the sounds of Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, Beach House, and other groups of that ilk. It should be noted that it requires some real skill and musical chops to push through the hyped up harmonic and jangly chaos and make great, original music. I'm often skeptical when I first hear that big explosion of shiny reverb laden vocals from a new group.

But guess what? Add another band to the aforementioned list of innovative stand outs to pull me into their orbit, because Local Natives has waded successfully through the possible mess of cliche hooks and faux-intellectual versing and chorusing.

This Southern California band caught my ear recently while I was lamenting my lack of presence at the fabulous riot of musical talent that is SXSW. (Their performance at last year's SXSW led to being signed to Frenchkiss [The Dodos, Freelance Whales, The Antlers, Passion Pit] and a bevy of glowing praise). Their debut release, Gorilla Manor, accompanied me on a sunny hike up Mt. Sanitas this morning, and it was a perfect fit. Their music evokes winding roads through dappled light on the Big Sur coastline and crashing turquoise waves.

Just the right level of oohing to float over pulsing kick drums, with frolicking melodies ringing in tandem with unhurried lyrics; Local Natives have released a gem of an album. I heartily recommend you check out the whole thing, and catching them live (as I plan to do on their extensive tour).

Also I am in full support of their cover decisions. As shown below.

Warning Sign (Talking Heads)- Local Natives

Sun Hands- Local Natives

why i am jealous of ireland

2010-03-03T13:42:00.001-08:00

Ireland will be receiving So Runs the World Away, the transcendent Josh Ritter's new album, a full week and change before the rest of the world. I may apply for citizenship.

To slake my ever growing appetite for Ritter's music, I've been playing video versions of his new songs. And they sound just as unbelievably monumental and true and pure as I could ever dream.

Look at his face while he plays perched on a picnic table, singing to the flickering candles, and giving off a joyful glow himself. He remains in my mind as one of the most significant songwriters around, and any time I see him perform I am reminded of his captivating ability to make a four minute song reveal more than multiple years of higher education. His music just swallows me right up, until my eyes dance and my heart forgets just how to be jaded.

"Orbital"- Backstage at Admiralspalast, Berlin

The picture used above was taken in the winter of 2009, and I just love how straightforward it is. You can see the gray in his stubble, the laugh lines around his mouth, and there is no attempt to airbrush all signs of life away. It's a portrait of a man who tells the truth, and those who have listened to him do it are itching to hear how it will sound next.

she and him: volume two

2010-03-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, known in your ears as She&Him, created an affably harmonious and symbiotic musical relationship with their 2008 release, Volume One. I still listen regularly to that album and am taken by Zooey's smooth and forlorn voice over M. Ward's most excellent vintage beach guitar aesthetic. I don't want the adjective "adorable" to take away from how good this duo has proven to be, but they are an incredibly lovable musical pairing. If you could hold an album by the hand and frolic with it down daisy lined, dusty paths, you would do so with Volume One.

From the freshly released single from March 23rd's Volume Two, I expect I will hold out my other hand for their new album as well.

Welcome March properly! It's going to be a glorious, sunny, clean linen sort of springtime.

Thieves- She&Him

this is not how i want to be forgotten/this is not how i want to leave remains

2010-02-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

So this post has a bit of a purpose.

It's the National Eating Disorder Association's awareness week this week. I was thinking about how to approach writing about this, because I hold it as something very important.

In full honesty, I started this blog as a way to help my own recovery from an eating disorder. Music is something that fills my body and my heart and my intangible essence with dizzy, beating life, and I used its power to wake me up and bring me back to myself.

While on a glorious blue sky hike with my new dog Oskar (yes, named for Oskar Blues in Lyons), I was listening to the new Matt Pond PA album, released this April, that my vivacious friend Heather introduced me to. It got me thinking about how best to explain why being in touch with music is integrally tied to my connection to my body...and how many people in the world have lost touch with their bodies and their souls to eating disorders.

It's a strange society we live in. Over processed food and over produced digitally enhanced pop stars are supposed to sustain us. Does anyone else find it totally unappetizing? I know I do. It's too easy to accept the packaging without checking the inside. And these days, most of what we're told to accept (diets, gym memberships, the Jonas Brothers) are completely void of substance.

I challenge everyone (including myself) to find what really moves you. What sustains you and nourishes and feeds all the interconnected parts of you. What drives out the other definitions and expectations and sends your guarded eyes flying open.

Matt Pond PA's soon to be released The Dark Leaves got me moving out of intuition and genuine happiness this morning, and that's the only way I want to ever experience life. I hope that everyone who struggles with remaining real and healthy in such a fun house world can find what works for them to reconnect the wires, whether it be music or something else.

But if you are sparked by music, check out this track that trapped me in its pensive richness and complex brightness.

Remains- Matt Pond PA

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

after all the trouble, after all of the commotion...i walked right through, the door was always open (joe pug interview)

2010-02-20T00:13:00.000-08:00

Joe Pug was gracious enough to let me sit down with him before his show yesterday evening to discuss, among other things, the release of his debut full length album Messenger, and the past couple years that have sent this Chicago based musician all over the world singing things that hold people's hearts in a vise grip.

So it seemed natural to ask if that decision to leave the University of North Carolina right before senior year for Chicago was driven by the desire to make music. Apparently it wasn't; at least, not at first. He claims he started playing guitar more than he had before for something to do other than the carpentry he had taken up (his father's trade, too).

MBFA: So carpentry isn't Plan B?

JP: Oh no. I'm a horrible carpenter.

Honesty like that is what carries Joe Pug's music. Especially in his lyrics, where his mark on me has been defined by his ability to take big, inexplicable feelings and put them into a couple lines that just dissolve me. No frills, no fluff.

JP: I had a professor in college who said that a writer needed to have an infallible bullshit detector. You need to be able to edit yourself really honestly.

He went on to describe his writing process (one he admits is slow and very purposeful), writing out lyrics in the air with his hands, and using an invisible red pen to cross out big sections and single words. I could practically see the trimmed excess float into the ether, leaving only the miraculously few words that do much more when unburdened.

JP: I like to take out whole parts of songs I thought it needed and say, "what is the song now?"

It was a new experience to hear one of my favorite artists talk about his song writing process like I would talk about my old college papers. But it brought up the fact that as the audience, we don't see that. Joe Pug puts out albums that roll with power in a way that feels so effortless and natural. Like he woke up one morning with truth in the front of his mouth and on his fingertips.

JP: Have you read a book by Annie Dillard on writing?

MBFA: I haven't

JP: She talks about the writing process and how the audience doesn't need to see it. They just need where you get to. [holds up his hands to show a mountain climb by fingers through the air, with one hand at the base, and one hand reaching a high point] so they just need it when what you're writing gets up here. They need to skim the cream off the top.

MBFA: So you edit yourself a lot then?

JP: There are a lot of Joe Pug songs that aren't powerful. They just don't leave the studio!

I was so tempted to ask him what Joe Pug song he felt like was the most powerful, but I couldn't impose a Sophie's Choice on the guy right before a show. So I settled into talking about the EP he released last year, Nation of Heat.

MBFA: At first I thought maybe you were going for something political with a title like that, but it's not an album that speaks to government politics. Did you have a message you wanted to get out there when you released the record?

JP: I think that a specific message...that's more you, the audience, than me. I think it's more my job to give a blank canvas to put yourself or what you want on it.

MBFA: That's not something I've thought about before; art as a blank canvas.

JP: Oh I think the best artists are able to do that. They're able to give people something to put themselves on. It's what I try to do, or hope to do.

MBFA: Do you have any artists you think do that very well?

JP: Well, all the artists that I would probably count as my biggest influences. Let me think...I think Lucinda Williams does a great job...Steve Earle, and of course Bob Dylan. He kind of invented it, or a way of doing it.

MBFA: You've been compared a lot to Dylan! Do you think that's accurate?

JP: Well sure! Similar styles...I don't think it's far off the mark. And it's definitely flattering, but I also think it's also an unimaginative comparison.

While the conversation turned back to his music and his new material that he is hoping to record during his 12 hour days in the summer, I remembered a quote I had heard and still can't quite pin down even now, about the writing process. How it is like walking around, eating and drinking life, and then the next morning is when you are able to throw it up into a song. Joe chuckled after I outlined the idea of it, and then expanded on it.

JP: I think that's a really good comparison, actually.

MBFA: Music as the morning after.

JP: Yeah. I'm just now getting to to the point of taking some really big, emotional things that happened a couple years ago and being able to write songs around them. Every time I've tried before...it's come off too overt and specific. But I think I'm getting to the morning after now.

From his boundless and fervid set opening for Justin Townes Earle, and the goosebumps that made the topography of my arms match everyone around me in the Bluebird, I would say that Joe Pug has only begun to make music that reflects the honest living of life. In fact his set and his music remind me very strongly of a favorite Annie Dillard quote:

"I would like to learn, or remember, how to live."

Check out his wonderful album, Messenger, that I have not stopped spinning since I got my ears on it.

Fun Fact: The full band version of Speak Plainly Diana is how he always envisioned the song during the writing process.

new the national news

2010-02-11T10:03:00.001-08:00

It's true. The National has recognized our impassioned, somewhat creepy and obsessed desire for them, and Boxer is finally going to have a follow up. And it is set to be released this May, with a tour backing it this spring and summer (no Colorado dates, sorry folks).

However, that doesn't quell my excitement at hearing these guys put out another album sure to send me into fits of joy. You know the kind. Where you are sitting there listening to something so unbelievably wonderful that all you can do is smile and maybe emit some sort of gleeful and wordless exclamations. Here's a preview:

England (Live)- The National

The Runaway(Live)- The National

Blood Buzz(Live)- The National

Thousand Black Cities(Live)- The National

The National tour 2010

MARCH

28 MARCH: KNOXVILLE, TN - BIG EARS FESTIVAL 2010 / TENNESSEE THEATRE @ 9PM // TICKETS

APRIL

22 APRIL: RICHMOND, VA - THE NATIONAL // TICKETS
23 APRIL: RICHMOND, VA - THE NATIONAL // TICKETS

MAY

06 MAY: LONDON, UK - ROYAL ALBERT HALL // SOLD OUT
07 MAY: PARIS, FRANCE - LE ZENITH w/ PAVEMENT // FNAC / Digitick
09 MAY: BERLIN, GERMANY - ASTRA // TICKETS
21 MAY: LOS ANGELES, CA - THE WILTERN // TICKETS ON-SALE FRI 12 FEB @ 10AM EST
22 MAY: LOS ANGELES, CA - THE WILTERN // TICKETS
23 MAY: SAN DIEGO, CA - SPRECKELS THEATRE // TICKETS
26 MAY: OAKLAND, CA - FOX THEATRE // TICKETS ON-SALE SUN 14 FEB @ 10AM PCT
27 MAY: OAKLAND, CA - FOX THEATRE // TICKETS

JUNE

02 JUNE: BOSTON, MA - HOUSE OF BLUES // TICKETS
03 JUNE: BOSTON, MA - HOUSE OF BLUES // TICKETS ON-SALE FRI 12 FEB @ 10AM EST
04 JUNE: PHILADELPHIA, PA - ELECTRIC FACTORY // TICKETS ON-SALE FRI 12 FEB @ 10AM EST
05 JUNE: PHILADELPHIA, PA - ELECTRIC FACTORY // TICKETS
06 JUNE: WASHINGTON, DC - DAR CONSTITUTION HALL // TICKETS
08 JUNE: TORONTO, CANADA - MASSEY HALL // TICKETS
09 JUNE: TORONTO, CANADA - MASSEY HALL // TICKETS ON-SALE FRI 12 FEB @ 10AM EST
11-13 JUNE: MANCHESTER, TN - BONNAROO // TICKETS
16 JUNE: NEW YORK, NY - RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL // TICKETS

JULY

27 JULY: BROOKLYN, NY - CELEBRATE BROOKLYN! w/ BEACH HOUSE // TICKETS

let’s call me a baptist/ call this the drowning of the past

2010-02-10T11:30:00.001-08:00

The Scottish band, Frightened Rabbit, ceaselessly knocks the wind out of me with their heart string tugging brand of folk rock. Their 2008 release, Midnight Organ Fight, has not stopped reminding me that the most powerful and strong steps a person can take often come right after getting knocked down. That album propelled me forward, challenging its audience to find the invigorating will to rewrite after everything you knew was erased.

And come March 1, they're going to do it again. Unapologetically, and you're going to like it (at least that's my 100% objective viewpoint). Swim Until You Can't See Land, also the name of the single, sounds just like what I need in the middle of a bleak, gray winter. It's full of jumping strings, scraping guitar, horizons full of blood red light from a cyclical sun, and Scott Hutchinson's vocals sounding as full and raw and hopeful as I could ever hope to handle. Frightened Rabbit has a way of making me feel renewed and expansive, both rooted inextricably in my past, and blowing blindly toward something that holds a world of promise.

Swim Until You Can't See Land- Frightened Rabbit

Frightened Rabbit - 2010 Tour Dates
Feb 02 - Metro Theatre Sydney, New South Wales %
Feb 03 - The Filth @ Beach Road Hotel Sydney
Feb 04 - The Palais Melbourne %
Mar 04 - Duchess York, UK
Mar 05 - Club Academy Manchester, Uk
Mar 06 - West End Centre Aldershot, UK
Mar 08 - Thekla Bristol, UK
Mar 09 - Academy 2 Oxford
Mar 10 - Koko London, UK
Mar 12 - Academy 2 Birmingham, UK
Mar 13 - Leadmill 2 Sheffield, UK
Mar 14 - Arts Centre Norwich, UK
Mar 17 - Austin, Texas @ SXSW
Mar 18 - Austin, Texas @ SXSW
Mar 19 - Austin, Texas @ SXSW
Mar 20 - Austin, Texas @ SXSW
Apr 17 - Indio, Calif. @ Coachella
Apr 19 - Tempe, Ariz. @ The Clubhouse
Apr 21 - Houston, Texas @ Walters
Apr 22 - Dallas, Texas @ Loft @ Palladium Ballroom
Apr 23 - Little Rock, Ark. @ Revolution
Apr 24 - Atlanta, Ga. @ The Masquerade
Apr 25 - Carrboro, N.C. @ Cat's Cradle
Apr 27 - Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat
Apr 28 - New York, N.Y. @ Webster Hall
Apr 29 - Boston, Mass. @ Paradise
Apr 30 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ First Unitarian Church
May 03 - Montreal, QC @ Petit Campus
May 04 - Toronto, ONT @ Opera House
May 06 - Newport, Ky. @ Southgate House
May 07 - St. Louis, Mo. @ The Old Rock House
May 08 - Chicago, Ill. @ Metro
May 09 - Milwaukee, Wisc. @ Pabst Theatre
May 10 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ Varsity Theater
May 12 - Denver, Colo. @ Bluebird Theatre
May 13 - Salt Lake City, Utah @ Urban Lounge
May 15 - Vancouver, B.C. @ Biltmore Cabaret
May 16 - Seattle, Wash. @ Neumo's Crystal Ball Reading Room
May 17 - Portland, Ore. @ Berbati's Pan
May 19 - San Francisco, Calif. @ The Fillmore
May 22 - San Diego, Calif. @ Casbah

see i'm stuck in this city but i belong in a field

2010-02-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

Maybe you had picked up by now that I am somewhat of a bluegrass fan. You know I appreciate a hot, fresh banjo roll, and fleet mandolin. Now it has its time and place for me, but when someone nails that genre, I pour myself another Jameson on the rocks and let my hair down. No one does this as well for me as Chris Thile, formerly of Nickel Creek, and currently of the dynamite group, The Punch Brothers. When I saw them in Telluride this past summer they covered Radiohead until two in the morning. And I met Ed Helms. I peaked that night. You're catching me on the way down.

Before Punch Brothers called themselves...Punch Brothers, they were known as "Chris Thile and the How to Grow a Band." Under that name they released a 2006 album How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, a concept album relying heavily on covers to tell a story of love lost and debauchery discovered. It's scotch soaked, gritty, and unabashedly rooted in bluegrass content and sound.

What I love about this mandolin wunderkind and his band of lovable and light fingered geniuses is that they connect bluegrass unapologetically to whatever other genre they damn well feel like. In fact, they expose somewhat brazenly the fact that many songs can be wailed on with a mandolin and sound completely natural. Like the song I'm going to highlight tonight, off the aforementioned 2006 album.

Heart in a Cage by The Strokes is a song that when listened to seems birthed in and raised by rock and roll. Noisy guitar, clashing hi hat, and incendiary riffs hold tight to searing lyrics about banging around with your imprisoned heart, and the genuine anger that gets worn down into sadness from the fight.

And it still manages to not be a downer. Now who could top that? No one.

But the Punch Brothers don't top it. They don't try. It's almost like watching a bunch of professors show how musical power doesn't come from the electricity in the amps, but in the electricity and pulse of the artists and what's behind it all. Oddly enough, both versions sort of make me want to get up and go run up the side of a mountain with all the adrenaline this song pumps into my limbs.

Listen to both. My heart knocks around with the experience of both versions; knowing what it's like to want to be heard and challenged and allowed to feel all those pounding, wild eyed things.

(I really like the music video for the original.)

Well I don't feel better
When I'm fucking around
And I don't write better
When I'm stuck in the ground
So don't teach me a lesson
Cause I've already learned
Yeah the sun will be shining
And my children will burn

Oh the heart beats in its cage

I don't want what you want
I don't feel what you feel
See I'm stuck in a city
But I belong in a field

Yeah we got left, left, left, left, left, left, left

Now it's three in the morning and you're eating alone

Oh the heart beats in its cage

All our friends, they're laughing at us
All of those you loved you mistrust
Help me I'm just not quite myself
Look around there's no one else left
I went to the concert and I fought through the crowd
Guess I got too excited when I thought you were around

Oh he gets left, left, left, left, left, left, left

I'm sorry you were thinking; I would steal your fire.
The heart beats in its cage
Yes the heart beats in its cage
Alright

And the heart beats in its cage

laura veirs was my january

2010-02-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

I didn't expect to find an album to clutch to my chest so early in the year. However. I also really enjoy being proven wrong.

Laura Veirs is no rookie to putting out an album. The Portland based singer/songwriter had sent out six albums before July Flame burst into hypnotic, shimmering life.

Her piano and string-centric (with some lovely synth thrown in appropriately) stories make me feel like I'm coasting serenely down a tree lined path, or sliding my bare feet very carefully across morning grass. There's a solitude to this music. The tracks seem to betray the summery name of the album until I listened closely and felt the wood smoke, the fireflies, and the setting of the summer sun. It's not "whooo"ing with your friends in the car music. It's a different side of a summer day. Somewhat reminiscent of:

Orange Sky- Alexi Murdoch

It's wide eyed and unwavering in its ambient folk wandering. It's nostalgic in its love laden imagery, but in such an honestly disarming way even the most stoic of hearts could shift a little to let this stuff in.

Don't Lose Yourself- Laura Veirs

Make Something Good- Laura Veirs (feat. Jim James)

Enjoy the darkness that Jim James' rumble infuses on Make Something Good.

we don't outsource our fun here

2010-01-31T07:39:00.002-08:00

There are few things in life that I love as thoroughly and completely as a song or album that gets its feelers through the chinks in my wall.

However...there is food...

I got into a discussion with a visiting friend about whether or not Denver has any good bands. I vehemently stuck up for my 'hood, and when I got home that night I typed as ferociously as possible a list of Denver bands that I adore. But why stop just at bands? Denver, and the whole Front Range sprawl, sometimes gets a reputation for outsourcing its entertainment if it's not involved with skiing.

But wow, we have some great places. So this post is going to pair some great Denver bands with some equally as addictive Denver eateries. I suggest you start taking my city seriously. Or I'll whack you with a ski pole. A sharpened one.

I can't think of anything as satisfying as the infinity that local band Houses creates both on stage and in the studio. Their energy channels so completely into relentless sparkling, swaying anthems for a late summer evening or early morning drive. Thoughtful, disarming, and unhurried in how they build songs into harmonic, crashing stories, Houses makes Denver proud.

We'll See the Sun- Houses

So what about those late summer nights when you are listening to golden songs like the one above? When the sun starts dropping, and your skin feels like it's holding the rest of the heat of the day, there is nothing that is quite as refreshing to me as good flavorful heat found in authentic Mexican food.

Oddly enough, Denver has a street just littered with authentic taco carts and dives just bursting with carne asada, smothered burritos, and salsa so fresh the tomatoes ripen as you douse.

I'm no expert on Federal Boulevard taco joints since there are so many, but one that I have returned to several times during the summer is Tacos Y Salsas. A hole in the wall with the best salsa bar I've ever seen (it's like Christmas for people who want salsa options), there is no way you can break the bank here, but you're guaranteed to leave extremely full and happy. I recommend turning on some good music and exploring as many taquerias as you can possibly stomach.

Tacos y Salsas
910 S Federal Blvd
Denver, CO 80219

At a Bon Iver show this summer, I was running out of oxygen in the crowded venue and crunching ice in a desperate attempt to lower my core temperature. All I really wanted was to get to the main event. But then Nathaniel Rateliff and Joseph Pope, known as The Wheel, took the stage and started sketching out their cooling, deeply affecting folk rock. There's a mysterious pulse to their music, with Rateliff's moody and dark voice releasing a potent spell on the audience. And just like The National, they didn't have to strum out bright chords to send someone's heart floating. I was caught up, and immobilized by the subtle, enchanting plucking and weaving The Wheel did.

I recommend it.

Hanging Surrender- The Wheel

With such soul satisfying music like that, you need a stick to your ribs meal. No better place than the Rocky Mountain Diner/ Castle Cafe. It's just like you would expect a Western diner to be like about 100 years ago. They have saddles instead of bar stools. Not to mention their extensive Bourbon collection and absolutely killer sandwiches. I haven't tried it (vegetarian), but I also have seen people go into genuine throes of ecstasy at trying their fried chicken.

Lastly (for now) I want to focus on the alt-country set up, The Hollyfelds. It's not just because they gave me a free CD when I correctly and audibly responded to an Arrested Development reference they made on stage at The Mercury Cafe.

It's because sometimes after a bunch of hipster toe tapping, it makes me feel good to hear some classic country inspired hooks (twang included), all tied together with actual intelligence and impassioned sincerity. Even for people not so comfortable with the country vibe, I haven't seen someone who sees The Hollyfelds live and doesn't break out smiling and get totally involved with their plucky, fun performance. No wonder they swept the Westword Alt-Country category to firmly plant themselves, spurs dug in firmly, in the Denver music scene as a genre busting force to be clapped and danced to.

Here's a video of theirs from Denver's huge, rad Underground Music Showcase.

Since I saw them at The Mercury Cafee first, I should write about this amazing little place. I started going here for their Lindy Hop nights in the upstairs dance area, but quickly began punctuating my evening dances with stops in their downstairs cafe (which does slam poetry every week, too). With extensive vegetarian and vegan options, some great beers, and extremely conscientious food service practices, I always feel satisfied in my belly and my brain after indulging in their treats.

Check out their website. Their comforting motto, "Local, organic food is your birth right" is backed up by their practices, especially since they openly list their suppliers for diners to see. Pretty refreshing to see a place back up their trendy "green" claims.

I personally recommend any of their shockingly delicious vegan desserts.

So go out and explore your city! There are always things to do, events to see, and delicious ways to fuel yourself on the journey. Colorado is my playground; where's yours?

roman candle makes me want to run away

2010-01-26T20:34:00.000-08:00

I know myself fairly well at this point. And I know that when I get this restless feeling in my heart, songs like One More Road from Roman Candle do nothing but make me want to throw all my money at gas and drive, drive, drive. This song got me on my walk home tonight, and put the scent of adventure in my nose.

Roman Candle is a band that made my end of the year compilation of splendor, and I guess I can safely recommend any track off their 2009 Oh Tall Tree in the Ear...but this one is my jam today.

What a perfect road song. It has just the right balance of reckless abandon and the sincere use of the big world outside of us to help us on the search of the infinite world inside of us.

One More Road- Roman Candle

Baby let's take a ride tonight,
just you and me and the dancehall light.
We'll ride out to Albuquerque and see
what's waiting there for you and me.

All of our friends have left this town
and there ain't no reason to stay around
unless you want to smoke weed and sit on the ground.
Honey it ain't for me.

Sometimes a whistling train will make me want to go.
Sometimes it's music playing on my radio.
Sometimes we gambled and the money never showed.
But everyplace we end up seems to lead to one more road

Let's ride on out to where the sand is white
and the moon is high on the windowlight
We'll watch while the nighttime sea is pearled
and walk outside and sleep on the world.

When the sun comes up on our car so brown
you'll look me up and I'll eye you down
and we'll be grateful to the bones we're not waking up
in the same old bed with the same old luck

Sometimes a whistling train is warning in advance
Sometimes it's music from another room by chance
Sometimes in spite of everything that we've endeared
The longer that we hang around the longer it gets weird.

Baby let's take a ride tonight
while the highway's got nobody in sight.
We'll pull off to the side if we get tired,
and we'll try to get fed or we'll try to get hired.

I've got no desire to run on forever
with a romanced hobo heart that tarries
but i'm going to take this slot machine by the lever
and hope that we pull down three big cherries.

I've walked the spanish steps across the streets of Rome.
We sat and listened while the old brown river flowed.
All trying to find connection looking for a home,
but every place we end up seems to lead to one more road.

Sometimes a whistling train will make me want to go,
Sometimes it's music playing on my radio.
Oh baby doll in spite of all that we've endeared,
the longer that we hang around the longer it gets weird.

i came about 2000 miles to play you this song

2010-01-23T09:55:00.000-08:00

So my vivacious friend Heather over at Fuel/Friends wrote about her recent renewed appreciation of the folk genius of Josh Ritter. I had a brief Twilight Zone moment because the songs she wrote about were the ones that I just can not stop listening to recently. Hello Starling has absolutely recaptured me these days, and I have been comfortably resting in its embrace.

But on a walk today through cold air that made my wrists go numb, I realized I had forgotten one Josh Ritter tune that has been ghosting around my mind. It's from Animal Years and it's the very first track, Girl in the War.

For all who have heard this soul splitting, yet gentle tune, you know how it grabs. It's how I imagine an embrace from a long gone lover or best friend would feel; strong, familiar, and also very fragile in its rarity and depth.

Josh Ritter is undoubtedly a folk legend in the making. He caresses songs to mean more than the sum of their parts, and totally invites his audience all the way in. His lyrics are laced with meaning that is fathoms deep and dizzy with unpretentious intelligence and sincerity.

In a discussion with a friend about whether or not really, truly talented artists could be anything but tortured, I thought about seeing Josh Ritter live. The man exudes electricity, bouncing on the balls of his feet, tilting his head back to relish the sound of his band and the sound of his fans colliding. He smiles so genuinely that I smile until my cheeks hurt right back.

Which is why to share Girl in the War, I thought I'd share a performance he did for Center for American Progress in 2006. His introduction to the song puts it in a context that is just as relevant now as it was then.

When he belts it out around the four minute mark, I wish I could transport myself right in front of that stage.

Also, the album version is worth listening to. Over and over. This song (and album) (and artist) heals me even as it's knocking me flat.

Girl in the War- Josh Ritter

Peter said to Paul you know all those words we wrote
Are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go
But now talking to God is Laurel begging Hardy for a gun
I got a girl in the war man I wonder what it is we done

Paul said to Peter you got to rock yourself a little harder
Pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire
But I got a girl in the war Paul the only thing I know to do
Is turn up the music and pray that she makes it through

Because the keys to the Kingdom got lost inside the Kingdom
And the angels fly around in there but we can't see them
I got a girl in the war Paul I know that they can here me yell
If they can't find a way to help her they can go to Hell
If they can't find a way to help her they can go to Hell

Paul said to Peter you got to rock yourself a little harder
Pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire
But I got a girl in the war Paul her eyes are like champagne
They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain
They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain
They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain

the soft pack and coachella line up (i called it!)

2010-01-20T08:40:00.000-08:00

San Diego's The Soft Pack did not always have such a damn cuddly name. In fact, somehow, the most press this stunning band has gotten was about their name change from The Muslims to The Soft Pack. From being called racist, to being called sell-outs, they managed to not only retain their musical capabilities, but their sense of humor. In their official statement about the change, the band remarked:

"I guess there was some confusion as to whether we are 'fucking gay, corporate sell outs. Don't fret! We are still broke as ever and paying for the band out of our own pockets. Just like back in the day!"

But what I really want to bring to your attention is the great music these newly named broke renegades are putting out under their fresh moniker.

Their sun streaked, post punk sound produces a tight debut album on Kemado Records, to be released on February 2, that snarls and drives through barely thirty minutes of tunes. I never listened to The Muslims, but maybe my unbiased ears are better for it. Right now The Soft Pack is whirling around the country supporting their new album, even stopping on David Letterman to promote it. Woahhh success!!

If you live in the Los Angeles area, the band is offering to play at someone's house. So if you have a venue attached to your kitchenette, let these guys know! And then invite me. And pay for my plane ticket.

C'Mon- The Soft Pack

Oh...Coachella line up totally announced. WHO CALLED PAVEMENT? Excuse me while I turn on the song above and do a victory head bang.

The line up looks fantastic. Check it. This is one festival that is going to save the world just based on the fall out from radioactive awesome.

and you know it's gonna be a good start

2010-01-14T18:20:00.000-08:00

I am a fan of small bands getting the ears they deserve through the infectious hyping that happens on this grand, floating interweb. So when I stumbled across a burgeoning band from Oxford, Mississippi through the delightful blog, i guess i'm floating, I just had to spread their talent so they can eventually come reciprocate with a live show up here.

Young Buffalo carries themselves with a reverberating, Fleet Foxes-like aesthetic. What caught me off guard was their expressiveness. There's a certain desperation in the vocals; a crazed freedom that is barely held together at the seams. Fast traveling Americana composition rounds it out to create a searing and all together wonderful thing.

Did I mention they've only been playing together since June?

Their MySpace page outlines their goals:

"Goal 1: Make good music Goal 2: Not be doosh-like."

New Beat- Young Buffalo

Catapilah- Young Buffalo

true love will find you in the end

2010-01-12T10:58:00.000-08:00

Daniel Johnston is an artist whose vulnerability and rawness is so palpable through the speakers that it feels like I'm in the room with a friend who needs me as much as I need him.

So to have someone like Jeff Tweedy, whose voice also crumbles all my walls, cover one of Johnston's most well-known and iconic songs was almost too much gorgeous honesty for this girl.

Somehow I dealt with it.

True Love Will Find You in the End (Daniel Johnston)- Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett

True love will find you in the end
You’ll find out just who was your friend
Don’t be sad, I know you will,
But don’t give up until
True love finds you in the end.

This is a promise with a catch
Only if you’re looking will it find you
‘Cause true love is searching too
But how can it recognize you
Unless you step out into the light?
But don’t give up until
True love finds you in the end.

If you want more Daniel Johnston covers by some rad musicians who have probably also wept oh so gently at the man's art, check out the stellar cover album, Discovered Covered.

honey i'm a prize and you're a catch/ and we're a perfect match (pavement's back!)

2010-01-11T07:26:00.000-08:00

Pavement has a powerful grip on my musical attention. And also my heart. In fact, they were my "rabbit hole" band. The band that I loved so instantly and so intensely that I knew my relationship with music just had to keep going deeper. So I followed the rabbit hole. What started with tweaked Jan and Dean guitar licks and infectious, bursting golden melodies, has led me here.

Now, I've enjoyed Stephen Malkmus' solo projects and his forays with the Jicks, but I can't stop being absolutely devoted to Pavement. I remember when I first bought Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain when I was visiting friends in Sacramento. We drove through the breezy California night while I lay in a state of newfound bliss in the back seat, ignoring my friends' complaints that this music was weird.

So you can imagine the breathtaking excitement that accompanied the fall announcement of a Pavement reunion tour to support the release of their definitive Greatest Hits collection, which is officially named Quarantine the Past:The Best of Pavement and will be released March 9. There's even a contest to see who can guess the 23 track listing. Gold Soundz has already been re-released as the first track, so that narrows it down...my several attempts at guessing since the contest began are no more confident the more time I spend on them. Maybe you will have better luck!

I know I've made this claim before, so please don't stop taking me seriously. But based on the tour schedule, some US summer festivals are bound to be included in the totally blank summer space. So once more...I will be selling all my belongings and following along. What? Am I the girl who cried vagabond? I will. You'll see.

Pavement Reunion Tour

03/01 Auckland, New Zealand @ Town Hall
03/04 Sydney, Australia @ Enmore Theatre
03/05 Sydney, Australia @ Enmore Theatre
03/06 Meredith, Australia @ Supernatural Amphitheatre (Golden Plains Festival)
03/07 Adelaide, Australia @ Thebarton Theatre
03/08 Perth, Australia @ Metro City
03/10 Brisbane, Australia @ Tivoli
03/12 Melbourne, Australia @ Palace Theatre
03/14 Melbourne, Australia @ Palace Theatre
04/07 Tokyo, Japan @ Studio Coast
04/08 Tokyo, Japan @ Studio Coast
04/10 Osaka, Japan @ Zepp Osaka
04/12 Nagoya, Japan @ Zepp Nagoya
05/04 Dublin, Ireland @ Tripod
05/05 Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowland
05/07 Paris, France @ Le Zénith
05/08 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
05/10 London, England @ Brixton Academy
05/11 London, England @ Brixton Academy
05/12 London, England @ Brixton Academy
05/13 London, England @ Brixton Academy
05/15 Minehead, England @ All Tomorrow's Parties
05/18 Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
05/19 Berlin, Germany @ Astra
05/20 Prague, Czech Republic @ Palac Akropolis
05/21 Vienna, Austria @ Arena
05/22 Munich, Germany @ Muffathalle
05/24 Rome, Italy @ Atlantico Live
05/25 Bologna, Italy @ Estragon
05/27 Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Festival
05/29-31 Quincy, Washington @ Sasquatch! Festival
07/01-04 Roskilde, Denmark @ Roskilde Festival
09/21 New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage
09/22 New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage
09/23 New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage
09/24 New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage

To get myself hyped (along with the millions of other fans who collectively passed out with me when this was announced this fall), I thought including a live recording of one of the Pavement songs that fills me up the most would be appropriate. Recorded in 1999 at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, these boys had a mighty good time. Can't wait to hear them do it again.

Spit on a Stranger (Live 10.14.99)- Pavement

Do so love the looping of that very distinctive opening.

However you feel,
whatever it takes,
whenever it's real,
whatever awaits,
whatever you need,
however so slight,
whenever it's real,
whenever it's right.

I've been thinking long and hard about the things you said to me,
like a bitter stranger,
and now I see the long, the short, the middle and what's in between,
I could spit on a stranger,
(pull me out)
you're a bitter stranger.
(pull me out)

Whatever you feel,
whatever it takes,
whenever it's real,
whatever awaits me,
whatever you need,
however so slight,
Wherever it leads,
whenever it's right

Honey I'm a prize and you're a catch
and we're a perfect match,
like two bitter strangers,
and now I see the long,
the short of it and I can make it last,
I could spit on a stranger,
(pull me out)
you're a bitter stranger,
(pull me out)
I could spit on a stranger,
(pull me out)
you're a bitter stranger.
(pull me out)
I could spit on a stranger,
(pull me out)
you're a bitter stranger.

I see the sunshine in your eyes,
I'll try the things you'll never try,
I'll be the one that leaves
you high...high...high

these united states petition MTV

2010-01-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

As if their crackling, unstoppably fun show in Avon didn't convince me enough...These United States posted a video circa 1993. And it's awesome.

I'm particularly fond of the giant pixelated fonts.

sheets are swaying on an old clothesline like a row of captured ghosts

2010-01-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

Radical Face is a band name that caught my eye. I listened expecting maybe a Ween sort of ridiculousness to stream out of the speakers (because really...Radical Face...hilarious). Instead, I was transported.

Ben Cooper is all of Radical Face (I wonder if he was describing his own face), and also one half of the electronic indie pop band Electric President. Radical Face's 2007 debut album Ghost, recorded mainly in a tool shed behind his house, was inspired by the idea that houses preserve the stories that take place within them. Or, in Cooper's words:

"It was written with the idea of houses having memories, and people leaving ghosts behind whenever they move from one place to the next. An idea that whatever we do in our homes is collected in the walls and might come out and haunt whoever moves in next. So the songs are all short stories, tied together with a theme."

What a gorgeous idea. It's the kind of album that caused me to pull up the blinds on this unforgiving cold day, and think about what this house would sigh about if it could, and if it would do so with splendid whistles, and cleansing waves of harmonies.

The production of Ghost features some extensive and well done layering, with the central focus coming back to Cooper and his acoustic guitar or piano, establishing the folk roots put down here. Accordion, banjo, even organ, sweetly build on each other to create an album that effortlessly moves from being disarmingly sincere and comfortable at one moment, to exploding into euphoric revival like choruses.

The subtle, swelling joy of this album just destroys me. It knocks down the walls, and shows me what it's like to be inhabited and filled and left and emptied.

I think I'll let it stay a while.

Welcome Home- Radical Face

Do you not totally love that he used wind chimes to open this number? Like the song was carried on a breeze through an open porch screen door.

you put a big bird in a small cage it'll sing you a song

2010-01-05T08:08:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of a much more active hike earlier this year in the same area. Taken by the ever talented Philip Neumann!

What began as a quick jaunt around the corner to grab an early cup of coffee ended up as an hour long stroll through Chautauqua open space in the cold clear air. It was so unplanned that I braved the slick ice covered trails in moccasins. I’m sure the squirrels were laughing at my slow, careful steps. But that tentative pace made me breathe with the sleepy world, and bring the fresh day to a manageable tempo.

It’s intoxicating how everything smells different at the sunrise, and how songs you’ve heard dozens of times before can become as new and refreshing as the familiar landscapes bathed in morning light.

I feel less confined. I’m ready, Tuesday. Bring it on.

Big Bird in a Small Cage- Patrick Watson

Patrick Watson's ethereal 2009 release, Wooden Arms, didn't make it on to my end of the year list...but it captivates me with its quiet, glowing beauty. It definitely helped release me this morning.

There was a house halfway round the world,
and I was invited in for a small taste of gin.
There was a hallway thousand birds long,
but the biggest one of all was in a-
cage too small.

I asked the caretaker cause he was the maker.
Looked at me and laughed,
took another sip from his glass and said:
“Open up your ears and heart.
“You put a big bird in a small cage it’ll sing you a song.”

That we all love to sing along,
to the sound of the bird that longs (mourns).

Well we rolled into town, into sweet New Orleans,
to the Apple Bell bar; it was a hole in the wall.
The ceilings weren’t tall, the floors were the ground,
but the sounds you were making just warm your hearts.

Well it was quarter to twelve when the boys walked in.
They put their black suits on and the songs would begin.
You open up your ears and hearts;
you put a big bird in a small cage it’ll sing you a song.

That we all love to sing along,
to the sound of the bird that longs (mourns).

i know the world is overcrowded/ but i want to make babies with you

2010-01-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

Via Audio released their debut, Say Something, back in 2007. And it made me silly with excitement. At the time I was living in Montana, and my friends were in a band (one of the members is still making some wonderful music) that opened for Via Audio while they passed through the frozen Northern tundra (a rare treat for Montana).

This Brooklyn group displayed from the start a surprising grasp of how to turn what could be forgettable indie pop into clever and determined, yet subtle, anthems. Jessica Martin's easy vocals are reminiscent of Feist as she slides from smokey harmonies to clear, high oohs above the fuzzed out guitars. I was very happy to know that this atmospherically cool band would be officially releasing a new album on March 9, 2010, Animalore. And that musical good fairy, Jim Eno, was going to be producing it. I was a little worried that Animalore would come out sounding like a Spoon release, which would be a shame since Via Audio had really hit a strong stride with their debut. So I was pleasantly surprised when I heard Animalore and realized Eno hadn't stuck Spoon's fingerprints all over the tracks.

In fact, Animalore seems to deliberately avoid being pinned down. Unlike the seamless cohesion of Say Something, each track digs into its own separate patch of earth, discovering a new quality in Via Audio's effortlessly playful aesthetic. No matter the tune, however, Via Audio has come even further in their talent for positively oozing confidence with every sparse rhythmic guitar stroke, or delicate turn of phrase. Animalore doesn't strike a lot of balance at first listen, with themes ranging from science fiction to romance, but in that there is a greater sense that Via Audio is coming into their own. They put down an infectious groove from the beginning, and never drop it.

There's a funk running through this, and it makes me want to shake out all the stiffness in my heart and clap my hands above my head. The stark synth pairs with sweet as molasses slide guitar in some places (Wanted [probably the song that leaves me the most exposed by the end of the album]), some French foggy cabaret vocals elsewhere, and yes...even a Devo style electronic tongue lashing of the music industry with Digital. They do these sorts of transitions without falling apart even a little bit. This kind of sophisticated pop is hard to come by, and I'm glad it's coming to me again.

And as the first single Babies shows, they don't have to be all serious about how good they are all the time.

But wow...they are seriously good.

Babies- Via Audio

good night, and good luck

2009-12-31T17:48:00.000-08:00

I normally attach an MP3 to my posts, but I decided on this, the last night of 2009, I would attach some honesty.

I'm in Costa Rica with my large and very present family, enjoying the surf, the sun, and the monkeys. I've taken long hikes, long horse back rides, long naps, and longer meals. I've cried (we'll get to that), I've laughed, and I even got a Swedish massage. It's been a welcome end to a very unwelcoming year.

2009 was not great. I just felt the need to put that in some sort of more concrete medium than my windy, cyclonic thoughts. 2009 was not wonderful. But I find it amazing that even in such an unwonderful year, I experienced some splendid times of buoyant hope, and almost painfully beautiful moments of true living.

So with the blue moon, a mysteriously gorgeous occurance, shining overhead I will dance on the beach with my family, the people who have seen me through better and worse times than these. And I'm actually getting excited to sweep up after 2009's rowdy upheaval, and see what appears on the surface of the new year.

two thousand and nine retrospective

2009-12-25T11:58:00.000-08:00

I hope you know how difficult this was for me.

But I'm sure you do.
For all the albums that tickled my fancy and my eardrums but aren't listed in the Top Ten below...I still love you.

Let's get ready for '010! The Binary Year.

Mumford and Sons- Sigh No More
There are no words that possess this album like this album has possessed me. The young Londoners released this debut album to extreme excitement in Europe, and due to that resounding, well earned success Sigh No More is slated to be released in the United States in 2010. And it should be well received here; at least by those with a deep yearning for wisdom set to deft banjo rolls and explosive, building choruses.
Sigh No More holds me on a knife's edge, steadying my wobbling knees until it releases its grip on me and sends me flying. I lose all control. I kick up dust, I shiver, I feel what they want me to feel. Mumford and Sons strip me to the bone and warm my marrow, refusing to accept a cool exterior for human experience. The confidence that is birthed from the soaring vocals, and galloping strings is built upon this strange and wonderful knowledge that they are wading through the shit show, and just need to tell it.
This is the kind of music to which hip head bobbing would be a disgrace, and an ironic tribute to exactly what the album shirks. Because it's talking about the big things, not the cosmetic problems, but all the gargantuan questions that envelop and consume. Grace? God? Risk? Love? Is it all right to just want to scream down the road and into the blank?
This album goes from being as cathartic and exhausting as weeping, to as exhilarating and jubilant as kissing someone who makes your insides wriggle with raw giddiness for the first time.

The Cave- Mumford and Sons

(If the breakaway end of this song doesn't move you to blindly dance and blow away in a fit of absolute lightness and ecstasy...just don't judge me for how I react.)

The XX- The XX
So I wrote about The XX and their self-titled debut a while back, featuring the sensual track VCR. I suppose what you should know about The XX is that they can create fullness using confined beats and only lush vocals. And with that, The XX has managed to put together an all-together remarkable and unflappable album.
Their sleek, new wave pop entrances me with its hypnotic whispers, and surreal landscapes spun as much out of silence as it is sound. Each track suggests long glances held with more meaning than words can give, backed by swirling electropop beats that cause my shoulders to sway embarrassingly of their own accord.
What really gets me is the classic blend of Romy and Oliver's voices; so unnervingly real and tangible in a mass of electronic influence. They tease, they play, and they swim their way behind my eyes. I swear to you...I've had dreams set to this album.
Bet you're excited they'll be rolling around with Hot Chip in April!

Heart Skipped a Beat- The XX

Gregory Alan Isakov- This Empty Northern Hemisphere

Gregory Alan Isakov knows just how to keep me. I had never heard of this Boulderite, despite my love of local music, until his album release party in May. I attended with a friend, and was stuck to the already sticky floor of the theater by the depth of the music coursing over me. I skittered out to the merchandise table during a quick break to buy an album, desperate to hold in my hands a small piece of plastic that could make my heart expand to capacity in a room full of strangers.
Isakov contains within his music the sounds for a hazy, thoughtful day. It's both lonely and close; a companion for hot pavement (Virginia May), or for when the only living things around you are the sky, the grass, and your thumping heart (Dandelion Wine). He makes characters that are relatable to the best and worst parts of me, and his bucolic voice sketches breathing, tangible pictures of lives full of meaning and all encompassing moments. It definitely doesn't hurt that on This Empty Northern Hemisphere Brandi Carlile lent her smoky vocals to counterbalance and dip below or soar above Gregory's own sauntering melodies.
I've noticed that Gregory Alan Isakov is inordinantly drawn to both the moon and the sea. Especially the cyclical relationship between the two. It's easy to find this to be the silver thread running through the vibrant tapestry of this album. His banjo, guitar, violin, and even his lyrics communicate a love for the tides; the coming and going of things and people and life. He does all this with such skill that this album has been played more than any other during 2009.

That Moon Song- Gregory Alan Isakov (feat. Brandi Carlile)

Woods- Songs of Shame
I was taken aback by the lo-fi wunderkinds lurking out in the musical oasis of 2009. Standing out from the crowd for this listener, though, was Woods' recent gift to us all, Songs of Shame. The stumbling, fuzzy guitars, and earnest drifting harmonies bring together some of Woods' greatest qualities into a surprisingly neat package.
Songs of Shame has some real shining moments, with at once carefree and substantial sensibilities.
Their psychedelic, bare bones '09 release left me feeling dazed in an absolutely welcome way. Woods is genius at taking such technicolor, hallucinatory folk and making it accessible for your average...well...your average Jane strolling down the street having to maintain a somewhat respectable air about her.
It's a patchwork quilt with impeccable stitching. It's sepia toned, whimsical, and made with curious perfection. By far one of the most unpretentious and imaginative albums I heard in the past year.

Rain On- Woods

Roman Candle- Oh Tall Tree in the Ear

I have been waiting to write about this Chapel Hill based collective of brilliance. And while I mean brilliance in the technical sense, as in I am sure they are incredibly intelligent, what comes to mind more readily is the blinding brilliance that exudes from this album. It's a white hot star, and if you let it into your ears, you won't be able to see anything except through the light it provides.
And it's a truly fun time to let this album enter your life. From start to finish, this album (the name inspired by Rilke), delivers unabashed fist pumping rock coupled with fathoms-deep lyrics that require several spins to truly get. Try walking down a road and listening to this album. Eden Was a Garden will get you looking at the clouds as your previously socially acceptable steps turn into little hop/skips, and your fingers begin drumming in your pockets. It will only continue from there. Big Light is a serious contender for Most Wonderful, and A Heartbeat makes me desperately want to compose a silly, romantic mix for somebody now.
Roman Candle has managed to craft an album that I can not, no matter how hard (and it hasn't been very) I try, stop playing. It calls me back with the assurance that through steady rhythm guitar, some glockenspiel laced intros, and totally truthful poetry, I will feel the same delight every damn time.

Eden Was a Garden- Roman Candle

Fruit Bats- Ruminant Band

So, uh, we're all aware that The Shins and Vetiver are two pop collectives that don't fail to sparkle for us, yes? Good then, because Eric D. Johnson of both the aforementioned bands finally paid attention to his four year waylaid lovechild, Fruit Bats. And Ruminant Band was a great way to re-enter my heart. Interestingly enough, Johnson, now a full-time member of The Shins, admitted to really letting the Fruit Bats as a band take the reigns on Ruminant Band, rather than making it as much of a Johnson based project. The sound that the collaboration created is a frolicking, sometimes downright groovy, dance through some major keyed, majorly great tracks.
Fruit Bats has a gift for visual lyrics and visual musicianship. Every guitar lick draws out the bed of mustard seed, or the heart of the primitive man. Ruminant Band harkens back to chamber-pop through smooth vocal blends, with quiet observation like the best Americana, and with fearless electric guitar bubbling and boiling up from behind some key songs. Sometimes reminding me of Neil Young, sometimes making me want to ask Robin Pecknold flat out if he was a Fruit Bats fan...this album touches the soft part of my soul, tenderly strolling along with the little kid version of myself, helping me figure out what it means to be on my own, to lay in the sun, and to be a growing, wacky human being in this shaky, vibrant world.

The Ruminant Band- Fruit Bats

The Very Best- Warm Heart of Africa
Are you thinking...Kathleen...a Malawian singer and a DJ really teamed up to create a musical fusion so profoundly good that it makes your head go all dizzy and light like the tracks they laid down?

Yes.

What I loved about the initial collaboration between Esau Mmamwaya and European DJ and producer, Radioclit, is that many thought the mixtape they released last year would the the end. But come on everyone! They call themselves THE VERY BEST. And what could The Very Best do but release an even more amazing LP the next year?? We should not underestimate them. For Warm Heart of Africa, The Very Best welcomed M.I.A and Vampire Weekend's lead singer Ezra Koenig for some guest vocals. The result is a sunny hello, a warm embrace, and the sort of genuinely freeing sound that is so unnerving to buttoned-up, "mature" people. This fusion of African language and music with the electronic movements stirring in the West is so original, and so unmistakably significant, that even if it wasn't brimming with golden talent I would stick it on some sort of list. However, because many of the songs have been spinning in my head of their own accord, Warm Heart of Africa gets a place in the Very Top. For being the Very Best.

Julia- The Very Best

Fanfarlo- Reservoir

I saw this band in November, and was blown away by the sheer electricity they exude live. Even if I hadn't fallen in mad, obsessive, restraining order inducing love with their debut album before the show, I know I would have been just as surprised as I was when they leaped fearlessly into I'm a Pilot, unapologetically flooding the small Denver BBQ/bowling joint with shining, shimmering music.
Fanfarlo descended on my ears like so many welcome raindrops on a blazing afternoon. Refreshing, propulsive, muscle tightening rock that releases the animal instinct to yell along to lines with the strong voice of Simon Balthazar. I mean, you try to watch this video for Harold T. Wilkins without pushing yourself from your chair and punching the air in rhythm. If you are able to refuse that possibility with absolutely no problem...I would schedule an autopsy promptly.
The album is a complete package from first to last track. The diving, twisting vocals of Balthazar coupled with extremely well thought-out mandolin, horns, and deeply affecting percussive thumps creates an atmosphere of instinctive joy. It's an ever shifting collection of highly intelligent music, and I am so excited to see what they have in store for 2010.

Harold T. Wilkins (Or How to Wait for a Very Long Time)- Fanfarlo

The Low Anthem- Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

When you first start listening to this exquisite album by the Rhode Island band, The Low Anthem, you might be tempted to think of it as merely a lovely, delicate thing. Much like a Southern belle contemplating the gently blowing breeze.
This is not me discounting the first couple tracks. In fact, Ben Knox Miller's ability to create a truly haunting falsetto is only matched by his thought provoking words
Who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin?
Fighting for a system built to fail
Spooning water from their broken vessels
As far as I can see there is no land

But then The Low Anthem hits the ground running, and with The Horizon is a Beltway they pound out a Tom Waits inspired, gravel throated floor stomping number that brings the album into perspective. The whole album fits in its wild, unabashed strangeness. Vascillating from chillingly subtle and sweet melodies to raucous and celebratory maelstroms of sound, it all creates a beautiful piece of work that demonstrates a band's ability to be unafraid in having fun with what they do.
The obvious truth to me is that The Low Anthem has more than earned their 2009 success, with a tour with Josh Ritter, and an upcoming stint opening for my most beloved Avett Brothers. I can't wait to catch these guys live, and let them take my clumsily dancing feet wherever their imaginations please.

Charlie Darwin- The Low Anthem

Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest

You're telling me that this is only Grizzly Bear's third full album? Oh. So the fact that it's a tight-knit, dynamic, unstoppable showcase of talent, vision and cohesiveness shouldn't deter me from remembering that this band has only begun to creatively evolve.
Granted, Grizzly Bear has had its fair share of experience without studio time. From touring with Radiohead, Feist, and TV On the Radio, I would say this band is anything but novice. And it shows. Veckatimest covers a wide spectrum of musical range, and displays a genuine enthusiasm for bringing people from psychedelic tie dye swirls all the way to great big breaths of resounding beauty (perhaps inspired by the album's namesake), all with baffling complexity coming from both composition and execution.
Even with the obvious jump in musical skill, Grizzly Bear doesn't lose sight of creating a beautiful procession of coherent songs that creates a complete experience. The richness of this album leaves me feeling sated, and at the same time...craving more sounds that fill and rejuvenate.

Two Weeks- Grizzly Bear

flowers forever

2009-12-19T18:09:00.000-08:00

It's tempting to look at someone going a little crazy and claiming they can see the future as a detrimental thing...

However, when Tilly and the Wall's Derek Pressnall was whipped into a frenzy by the conviction that he could see the future, his outlet for it turned into an intense musical exploration called Flowers Forever.

At times abrasive and demanding in execution, there is still a delicious wrongness to this collection of songs that calls for them to be listened to over and over...as if one more pass at the jangly, early Conor Oberst cacophony could yield some more concrete understanding. One thing I'm taking away from Flowers Forever is that there might be something to Pressnall's claim to be prescient in an intriguingly lyrical and fluid way. Take the stand out anthem for disillusionment, American Dream:

Beauty it will bloom
And truth it will raise through
Oh the river it will start to bloom
Yeah the river it will swallow you

Pressnall and his two new bandmates don't totally abandon Tilly and the Wall's addictive adorable-ness. The striding piano laden track Beach Bum is one that harkens to Pressnall's roots in huggable, danceable indie rock. However, being the Pavement fan I am, I can't help but love bursting, brief, acid rock tunes like Beautiful Tornado or Wet Diamonds.

Sure, I love the warmth of Tilly and the Wall, but if Derek Pressnall wants to convince me that he's turned into a full on prophet of the modern age, throw some wayward horns in, and complement them with dischordant vocals drifting off and drizzling into confusion and ringing. Be dramatic. Send me spinning into the outer reaches of musical wilderness. Build me some tension, scrape against the limits of what counts as pissed off righteousness versus hyped up whining...and then I'll listen again and again. Which is what Flowers Forever did. I can't exactly tell you why I'm repeatedly drinking the Kool-Aid, but feel free to join in.

Beach Bum- Flowers Forever

Wet Diamonds- Flowers Forever

the point

2009-12-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

So I don't know if you have seen this movie...but if you haven't...you clearly need to rethink your cinematic choices.

The Point! is a 1970's fable created by the brilliant Harry Nilsson (you put the lime in the coconut...), and narrated with the playful English lilt of Ringo Starr. It's about a world full of points, and a little boy named Oblio (who has a band named after him...they wrote a song called Kathleen) who is born without a point. It's painted with whimsy, and talks to both the child in us, and the grown up activist.

When asked what his inspiration was for the film, Nilsson very honestly admitted;

"I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to point. I thought, 'Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn't, then there's a point to it."

If you understood that...then you'll absolutely adore the movie.

The songs from the movie help with the psychedelic aesthetic, and are poignant in their catchy, touching composition. The story is so transcendent. It plays to equality and love without relying on any cliches. The imagination that went into the conception is absolutely joyous, and timeless. There have been three remakes of The Point! since its release in 1971, so it clearly isn't going to lose its touch anytime soon.

But the tribute to The Point! that I shrieked in joy over was the recently released cover album of all Nilsson's songs...by some incredible artists. Artists like Nathaniel Rateliff and the Wheel, Martha Wainwright, Nada Surf, Andrew Bird and DeVotchka relive their childhood introduction to political allegory and dreamy jazz riffs by making these songs their own.

I knew that there had to be a common element between me and the artists I adore. That common element is The Point!

Think About Your Troubles (Harry Nilsson)- Andrew Bird

Think About Your Troubles- Harry Nilsson

you have been warned/i was born to be contrary

2009-12-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

I had written up a little blog entry about how Cloud Cult is re-releasing their past two albums in a totally earth hugging manner...

But then I came home tonight in one of those funks. The kind of inexplicable funk that made me want to trudge around in the gray sludge slowly coursing down the gutter in the pitch black of my street. I didn't want to post anything about hip, body snatching music that makes me want to throw my head back and dance like I'm graceful.

Not tonight.

Tonight I wanted to throw my hands up to no particular beat, and admit that I do not feel like a sparkling and wonderful personality at this moment. I just wanted to listen to something that validated my uncomfortable mood.

Stuart Murdoch was ready for me.

The former(?) Belle and Sebastian frontman has released a soundtrack to a film yet to be made. 2010 is the tentative shoot time, but as of now...there is music for this so-called "musical film."

Late in the spring, Murdoch released two albums for God Help the Girl, an LP of the same name and the Stills EP, featuring the brand new Catherine Ireton as the main narrative female vocalist (though other talented voices are present). And the narrative that she spins with her cheeky, effortless, smooth voice is one that I can't help but smile at despite my cloudy mood.

Stuart and Friends reminds me that it's almost a necessary survival technique to grin through my grumpiest and most confusing moments in time. They do so with a French pop meets 60's girl group atmosphere. Merrily skipping bass punctuates all the witty observations about being a real person mired in the strange muck of emotion, and a full orchestral sound plays with the idea of a real Broadway number...without the unbearable cheesiness.

It's an amazing and lovely thing that the right music can find me when I need it.

Just a side note; the title track (the YouTube video) will make you want to wink at strangers. So practice your wink before you go out with your headphones on. You don't want your eyebrow to crinkle funny, or your other eye to twitch. It takes away from the effect that I am sure you want.

I'm In Love With the City- God Help the Girl

oh, she's a messenger tonight

2009-12-07T08:06:00.001-08:00

My email account suddenly leapt a whole number this morning. I was sort of convinced that at the early hour, it had to be Amazon.com trying to get me to buy things I can't afford for the holidays. Instead it was an email from the man who sets my veins on fire with his unfathomable honesty. Obviously I'm talking about Joe Pug, who I wrote about way back when. He has this ability to make me trust music to say what I have a hard time saying. That the industry hasn't permeated and mucked up every beautiful thing happening with strings, voices, and other magical things.

And guess what??

He is finally releasing a debut album! After a stint with some incredible EPs, Joe is giving us a full length album, Messenger, out on February 16. There's also a tour along with that LP, one that includes Colorado so many times I'm seriously considering throwing dignity to the wind and following the shows so I can twist and stomp along to the powerful music he puts out in person.

Instead of giving some tunes from the album for free, like his generous heart has before, Joe made a handy little player that I will embed for you. It will tittilate your senses.

No I tried to trust the stranger
It got hard
Now I see things like a soldier
And I'm jealous of the dark
If my eyes had only gotten colder
I still have an unsophisticated heart

The two new tunes are not what I expected. There's less of the stripped, unpolished, ragged urgency of his past two EPs. After several listens in a row, though, I just can't help but immerse myself in what Joe Pug tells me. His words are absolutely intoxicating, as usual. I was taken aback at first by the more polished production of the two songs given to the public, but it also doesn't take away from the honest eagerness that Joe Pug conveys with every strum.

Yes, I will admit the title track, Messenger, is not my favorite Joe Pug song. It just has a touch too much twang for my personal tastes. But surprisingly I've been listening to it non-stop, and I still get that same warm feeling that I get when I listen to most Joe Pug songs. What a guy; he even makes me love twang in the end. So take a listen; I guarantee you'll want to quit your job and come along with me this spring.

We can even rent a bus if you want.

I can't wait until February.

Joe Pug Tour Dates

1/23 Winnipeg, Manitoba--The Park Theater
2/5 Breckenridge, CO--Colorado Mountain College
2/9 San Diego, CA--The Loft at UCSD*
2/11 Los Angeles, CA--The Echo*
2/12 Santa Cruz, CA--The Crepe Place*
2/13 San Francisco, CA--Great American Music Hall*
2/14 Portland, OR--The Doug Fir*
2/15 Seattle, WA--The Tractor Tavern*
2/16 Vancouver, BC--The Biltmore*
2/18 Salt Lake City, UT--The State Room*
2/19 Denver, CO--The Bluebird*
2/20 Telluride, CO--The Sheridan Opera House*
2/23 Iowa City, IA--The Mill*
2/25 St. Paul, MN--The Turf Club*
2/26 Madison, WI--High Noon Saloon*
2/27 Chicago, IL--Lincoln Hall*
2/28 Detroit, MI--The Magic Stick*
3/1 Toronto, CAN--The Horseshoe*
3/2 Buffalo, NY--The Mohawk*
3/4 Alston, MA--Great Scott*
3/5 New York, NY--Bowery Ballroom*
3/6 Philadelphia, PA--Johnny Brenda's *
3/7 Alexandria, VA--The Birchmere *

* with Justin Townes Earle

a cover for a snow covered world

2009-12-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

Were you aware that Eddie Vedder could make you want to squeal by dedicating a lovely Tom Waits song to his wife in Italian? I was not. But apparently, without my knowledge, he did just that in 2006 at a show in Milan.

Eddie's familiar voice does Tom Waits justice as he warms the whole atmosphere with tangible sincerity, telling us that he'll love her until the wheels fall off. The perfect way that Waits has of telling the world his most raw thoughts in unapologetic language, and without any cliches, has never failed to capture me. I'm glad to hear Pearl Jam take his work to heart, and give it back to a whole room full of warm and waiting pulses.

Since my car and life are blanketed in snow, I thought a different sort of a cover would bring the blood back to my fingers and toes. I was right.

emily neveu just broke my heart

2009-12-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to another frozen, but deceptively sunny, day. And all I wanted to do was lay on my back, close my tired eyes, and listen to something that would warm me. Emily Neveu was ready to help me with that.

Now if you're a fan at all of Calico Horse or Indian Moon, you've heard Emily's swinging, lullaby like voice seep into all your cracks before.

What I can't get enough of is how her sound is so patient, and knowing. Her voice tests the temperature of the air holding the notes, and pushes just gently enough so they carry right to the part of you that needs a little understanding. The sliding harmonies building on The Sun sound just like what a sun burst in slow motion would want to sound like. Big, fiery arcs emitting more than you want to handle, but everything you want to bask in.

It's warm, it's heart achingly paced; she doesn't rush through the most clearly haunting tones. Instead, Emily Neveu draws them out, so they keep slipping through you even when there's no more fresh input.

Stay warm.

The Sun- Emily Neveu

And...just for another reference on how Calico Horse can make a great version of an already great song.

Idioteque (Radiohead)- Calico Horse

still waiting for your wayward kiss

2009-12-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

David Wingo was originally known as a film composer, for such little films as The Guatemalan Handshake. But a few years he ago he stepped out and decided to clear out a little spot for himself in the world of...well...really really good music. Need a little more to get a feel for it? Well, OK. I guess.

Ola Podrida's self-titled debut album from 2007 was met with thunderous applause, and lots of flattering descriptors. And now it's my turn to jump on that bandwagon, stick out my thumb, and roll away to wherever Ola Podrida wants to take me. From what I can tell, they want to take me to the very core of myself, and make me stay until I'm comfortable enough to crack out of my insecure candy coating and move along to their totally electrifying music.

Ola Podrida takes a genre that can be loosely called "alt-folk" (think Fleet Foxes or Beach House) and slaps it in the face to wake it up. To them, quiet doesn't mean losing complexity. There is no such thing as a "quiet" song, or an "intense" song. They are magnificent, questioning novellas; weaving stories out of every string and word that take a place in the arrangement. And no word or chord is misplaced.

Belly of the Lion, their month old release, sprawls over the twisting roads that connect all the feeling parts of us, so we feel the adrenaline pumping to our toes like when we see the person who sends us racing out of our bodies. And it doesn't chastise for those pulsing daydreams. It embraces all of our running and leaping thoughts, holds our hands, and tells us that those hopeful horizons make us who we are.

And it does that with rich, passionate vocals, and the music to match. There is no drone, no wall of noise, with Ola Podrida. They are not filling space on this album. The "la"s help the banjo roll on to its next destination, and the words tell us in a language we understand with our minds what the guitar is telling us in a language we instinctively feel.

Let yourself be swept away.

Donkey- Ola Podrida

nate ruess is good clean holiday fun.

2009-12-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

I just thought since it's Tuesday...a day so buried in insignificance...we could all use something to dance around to. The kind of dancing where you're glad it's only the mirror and your dog that witness it. You need a special kind of bubbly beat to accomplish that kind of wiggle. And why not use the Brad Pitt-esque (from River Runs Through It time period) Nate Ruess' newest project, Fun.? Fun. was formed back in 2008, but their album Aim and Ignite wasn't released until this past August. The former The Format frontman clearly isn't done supplying the world with some well constructed pop albums.

Fun. is exactly what it sounds like. Nate Ruess took where The Format left off, and ran with it, honing his love for clever songs that are engaging and energetic without feeling too false in their bopiness. Take the bit:

You're all that I need/Please don't make me face my generation alone

Exactly.

Also for your listening FUN, they've released a holiday single just for you. And me. Mainly me. I mean...the holidays are mainly about me. Please start thinking about what gifts you'll get me. And no, I do not think that cash is a bad gift. Because I have excellent taste.

Believe in Me- Fun.

Dance along, weekday folks! Only a few more days until you can let loose and go chase down the dreams you're still holding onto in that bouncing, singing heart of yours!

if i can find you, you'll be the very best thing i've found

2009-11-30T11:55:00.001-08:00

While I was running around preparing to enter into the non-cartoon equivalent of the Cave of Wonders...also known as the Portland airport...I finally stumbled upon an album that would have been of great use to me while wandering the gray and drizzly streets of Oregon. And I found it approximately five minutes before I heaved my suitcase into my aunt's car and dove carry-on first into the doomed pit of despair headed by the TSA. Luckily my iPod was able to cram it in before I had to unplug quite unceremoniously.

When I made it past security, I got out my approved electronic device, turned to Doveman's October released album, The Conformist, and kept walking...up and down concourse C...back down to concourse A...back around the free standing magazine jungles, past the mini-Starbucks whose baristas have to deal with the crankiest of all people, and around and around. I actually set an alarm on my phone to make sure I wouldn't miss my flight. I couldn't stop moving. I felt that if I stopped moving, the music thrumming in my chest and head would make me melt into the oddly mesmerizing turquoise carpet and claim me as its own.

So I kept walking...and kept breathing very slowly...trying intently not to let it show on my face that I had found the exact music that I wanted.

Thomas Barlett's voice never raises above a misty whisper. Matt Berninger's comforting and familiar vocals appear on some choice tracks, along with some other The National players, who owe him after he played keyboards for them so nicely. Norah Jones' contributions took me by surprise, but then again...apparently there was definitely a notable cast of characters on this album. Nico Muhly (who has been a wonderful contributor for both Philip Glass and, on a different note, Grizzly Bear), Sam Amidon, almost all of The National, Glen Hansard, and Martha Wainwright contributed in one way or another.

I love this collage of ringing and quietly capturing music. I love it so much I'm sitting during a layover in Sacramento playing it over and over...feeling like a butterfly with blue skies overhead. I'd recommend listening to the whole darn thing, but to whet your ears...(whet willy?), here are the first two tracks of the album that propelled my legs all over PDX this morning. As Anne Lamott wrote, "How come you can hear one chord, and then another chord, and then your heart breaks open?"

Breathing Out- Doveman

The Best Thing-Doveman

Another stand out track for when you get the WHOLE THING, is Hurricane.

P.S: Doveman recently opened for The Swell Season. Who Josh Ritter is opening for very soon. Maybe I should just start relying on that terribly clever duo for musical recommendations.

hey rosetta! is awfully swell

2009-11-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to see The Swell Season tonight in Denver...but my family decided to make the return trip tomorrow. Instead, I am left to dig around for some mind blowing rock all on my own. So I listened to The Frames... because I wanted to hear Glen Hansard's voice tell me about what he's lost and gained and loved so deeply that even his guitar strains to give meaning to it all. And then...I listened to a band called Hey Rosetta!, that I heard about briefly but never sat down and listened to properly. A friend of mine likened them to The Frames, and I was hesitant to believe that a Canadian rock group could even compare!

(Kidding. I have no anti-Canadian vendetta. I, in fact, love moose. And Dudley Doright. Though you have to admit Snidley Whiplash's mustache qualifies him for Most Dapper and Pointy Bad Guy Ever.)

Hey Rosetta!'s most recent album was put out about a year ago, and when I gave Into Your Lungs a real chance, I was almost sad I missed them instead of Marketa and Glen (who I am still very sad to be missing...don't worry, guys...I'll see you someday).

Tim Baker's raw voice yearns to make us feel what he feels; and he often succeeds. The heavy guitar more often than expected gives way to sweet string breaks, and right when you're lulled into the quiet, a searing riff opens back up into an electrically charged maelstrom of honest to goodness ROCK AND ROLL. And that's just some of what they can do with pure genius. Truly, this album of theirs left me baffled, and happy, and energized, and a little tired. It's exhausting to be taken to a million new places, whizzing through highs and drifting in silence through lows, through sadness and exhilaration...all in under an hour.

So if you're loving Glen Hansard's total musical honesty and presence, I would urge you to give Hey Rosetta! a try. You can't help but love a man who will lay it all out there, show you the callouses burned on his fingers, and tell you that he has rough edges.

(Warning...I have had this song stuck in my head for nigh on two days now. Proceed with caution and well developed air guitar skills.)

I've Been Asleep for a Long, Long Time- Hey, Rosetta!

i'm a bluebird free of my cage...thanks to the avett brothers

2009-11-27T16:31:00.000-08:00

There are songs that I wish were written about me.

The obvious one is Kathleen, by the forever brilliant Josh Ritter. But today I am drawn in by my favorite Southern gentlemen...The Avett Brothers. Now their recent release, I and Love and You, totally captured me this fall. Especially Head Full of Doubt. Oh it does slay me. But the song that I wish I inspired is actually from their 2006 album, Four Thieves Gone.

Famous Flower of Manhattan... about a Southern country boy moving to the city and finding a girl so beautiful growing from the sharp edges and right angles of the city. And she softens things. And she makes him feel at home, and real, and she fills him with light. I'm sure he's nice for her, too. But when he thinks of taking her back with him, he realizes that part of her beauty lies with where she chooses to live her life. That urge we all have to bottle up wonder and take it on the airplane almost destroys what we want to have in the first place.

I find this song so gorgeous. It's a true love song. The realization that a person never fits just like your Saturday jeans. Part of love is seeing a person for all they are...including how their indescribable beauty comes from parts of life that you may never understand. And to love someone is to let those sides contribute to the whole person...and to let the whole person never have to compromise what makes them truly radiate in a world of weeping, flickering lights.

Crap, I love The Avett Brothers. Will they never cease to make me stare out a foggy window and feel companionable with the voices swimming into the coves in my heart that hold all the endangered feelings of my being? No. They will never cease. I refuse to let them.

And I found a flower in a field
A field of cars and people; rows of concrete, paint, and steel
Manhattan is where it grew

And I thought to cut it from its stem
And take it from the cracks between bricks that it lay in
And save it from city strife
Away from the city life

Then someone they whispered in my ear
A county girl can't be made out of anybody here
Don't touch it, it loves you not
Don’t touch it, it loves you not

Cause blue birds don't fly without their wings
And when we put them in a cage the world can't hear them sing
So selfish when greed sets in
Possession, the king of sin

And people don't ever let you down
Forever find a way to kill whatever life they've found
A heart beat and I want it too
Manhattan is where she grew

So I left and I let the flower be
And yesterday saw the flower on cable TV
Much prettier than here with me
For all of the world to see
Much prettier than here with me

Though I have never lived in Manhattan, I like to think of myself as a flower stretching toward the sunshine in a place maybe only precious to me. And the fact that some things are only lovely to me makes them even more sacred to my publicized thought patterns.

We're all blossoming exactly where we need to blossom. I refuse to be sold for 10.99 at Safeway. Unless it's to the Avett Brothers. Ten minutes in a vase while they practice might be worth it...if not hypocritical.

Famous Flower of Manhattan- The Avett Brothersk

up to my neck in whiskey/ up to my neck in wine

2009-11-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you could tell by reading this blog, but I am a huge hair metal fan. You know. Poison. RATT. Quiet Riot. Scorpions. And...of course. AC/DC. They cornered the Catholic uniform market far before Britney decided to tie her shirts up in ways that I tried to imitate for most of my pre-pubescent years.

Hair metal and glam rock have actually never really been my bag, baby. So when I heard that Mark Kozelek released an EP last December of mostly covers, I didn't expect the Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon frontman to shock me with his cover choices. I had to see who the delightful songwriter that smoothed over many an abrasive day would choose, though. He chose Bon Scott. A B-Side AC/DC song, no less. But he did what I had hoped he would do. He took the painfully unsubtle tone of the original, and abandoned it to dig deep. What he made turns Up to My Neck in You into a poignant, dreamy, lyric focused song about the things that we think can save us and end up overtaking us.

Well I've been up to my neck in trouble
Up to my neck in strife
Up to my neck in misery
For most of my life
I've been a fool
And you know what a fool can do
I'm telling you
You came along when I needed you
Now I'm up, I'm up to my neck in you
And I've been up to my neck in pleasure
Up to my neck in pain
I've been up to my neck on the railroad track
Waitin' for the train
To cruise on through
Well baby my time is due
Oh it's way overdue
You came along and you pulled me through
Now I'm up, up to my neck in you
Well I've been up to my neck in whiskey
I've been up to my neck in wine
I've been up to my neck in wishing
That this neck wasn't mine
I was a loser
You weren't lost
Baby you were too good, too good to be true
What you've got no one else could do
Now I'm up, I'm up to my neck in you
Yeah you came along when I needed you
Oh I'm up to my neck in you

Up to My Neck in You (AC/DC)- Mark Kozelek

So what am I thankful for today, this great AMERICAN holiday?

I'm not going to tell you. That's not what this post is about. Come on. I'm nothing if not unpredictable.

I'm thankful for new things being built out of old things. For not throwing away the past, but building something real and wonderful and sad and strange and relatable from it.

Also my mom's stuffing.

he scraped against time/ and time scraped back

2009-11-21T15:25:00.000-08:00

Photo by Christopher Rebo Photography.

There are those days when I just can’t bring myself to get off the front porch steps and into the constant swirl of people and ideas. I’m over stimulated. I’m stretched too thin. The kind of day where I need to remember exactly how to breathe.

It’s lucky that I have a friend who knows how to supply me with instructions on how to do just that. Ryan Rebo, a Seattle native, Montana raised gem of a musician, recently recorded a second EP, Lonely Scientist. When I got to hear it the first time, I felt those braided muscles in my shoulders shiver and release, ending tension that was so on going I had forgotten it was there.

That’s what Lonely Scientist is like. It’s like the outward sigh after a long day. The pint of beer with a buddy who doesn’t mind you being a little run down. And yet, it’s a pat on the back. It makes me feel all right being too tired to dance around, but leaves me more optimistic than ever.

As for the sound; it’s a layered, reaching, subtle thing. Everything reverberates without a cheese factor. Guitar saunters and wanders through melodies that bring you along ever so gently, and occasionally the unexpected sound of a buttery cello will swim above it all. Rebo’s voice stretches over a thoughtful and honest narrative, saying things that are the hardest to say.

Lonely Scientist hasn't been released yet, and I can't wait until it hits the general public. So keep an ear out, and check out his EP Dizzy American, released this summer, in the meantime.

I know we are all approaching the holiday season. It’s a time where we’re bombarded by sparkling lights, and the same eighty songs begging to be appreciated like they are saying something new. And sometimes it’s just too damn hard to be in a toothpaste commercial all the time. If you’re in the sort of mood to be happy without having to try to impress anyone, I invite you to indulge in Ryan Rebo’s music. And also maybe some pumpkin pie.

Now listen to the title track off his unreleased EP, Lonely Scientist.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

and the sweat will roll down our backs

2009-11-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

I have no voice. Probably from me yelling at the Broken Lizard show that I was so lucky to see this past week. No matter the reason, I am now at the mercy of my favorite artists to supply what I am feeling with noise and substance and banjo rolls.

Luckily there is no shortage of beautiful surrogates for my static laden vocal chords.

Mountain Man is a band from Vermont... which is actually a state I would have pegged for incubating homespun, apple-pie-with-a-kick-of-whiskey sort of folk rock. I did not think it would come in the form of three women called Mountain Man, but I stand corrected. While I'm standing corrected, you can press play on the song Animal Tracks, listen to the floating and thoroughly potent harmonies, and knock me over with a feather.

Their honesty and rapture with music comes through with each deliberate melodic phrase. They are more than welcome to stay in my ears, and I hope to see them on a porch soon underneath a starry sky so they can hum sweetness into the firefly heavy air once summer mercifully arrives.

Animal Tracks- Mountain Man

freelance whales are better than prozac

2009-11-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

I braved the random Colorado snow storm to go see one of my new favorite musical delights, Fanfarlo. And, of course, they were incredible. For more on their penchant for awesome, please see I am Fuel, You are Friends. Worth it.

Normally I am so impatient for the main act I want to help with the set break and get the show on the road, but I was stopped in my nervous energy by a burst of sparkling energy from Fanfarlo's supporting band, Freelance Whales.

From Brooklyn, this multi-instrumental troupe displays a gleeful abandon tempered by some genuine talent. With such a crowded stage (I counted several instruments, each one being played by a different person every song) I was surprised that they didn't A) fall off, or B) suffocate the small venue with a black cloud of noise.

Instead Freelance Whales delivers indie pop with a touch of synthesized goodness, while still providing real, flesh and blood people playing some truly captivating and joyful music. And so, as this band spreads its lovely exuberance before every Fanfarlo dance party, I would implore you to find a show near you to lift some winter sadness, or to dance away a turkey coma you'll find yourself in very soon.

This track, from their positively wonderful new album, Weathervanes, reminds me of Sufjan's playful rhythms and rhyme patterns. Them New York kids know how to make me smile.

Hannah- Freelance Whales

Oh! They totally crocheted their band symbol onto a pin; a tulip. It will grace my cardigan forever. Or until I have to wash it.

some pre-friday preferred listens

2009-11-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

I've been sitting on my black hole of a couch with my headphones on for the past couple hours since the dog and cat so rudely decided to wage a battle on top of my head. It's been a few hours of watching the cloudy continents pass across the picture window, and the light throw shadows through the skeleton trees on my block. The right music is key for these cold toe hours.

The XX is a London band that first released their debut this past summer. They stir me. They do things with tension, kick drum and whisper-singing that I can't help but get drawn into. The world seems to slow to the pace of their songs when I stare at the scenes outside.

We live half at night/Watch things on the VCR with me/ And talk about big love

VCR- The XX

DM Stith's seasonal track, Thanksgiving Moon, is a nice relaxing layered casserole of ambient folk.

Thanksgiving Moon- DM Stith

Take it easy today everyone, I certainly will. No reason to get worked up on a Pre-Friday.

land of enchantment

2009-11-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

You know what music I don't blog about enough?

Mariachi.

Bottom line: I'm in New Mexico for another go 'round at this wonderful, quirky, siesta-inducing state until Tuesday.

I lost my iPod for the flight down so I brought my Discman instead (woahretrocool), and I'll tell you the albums I brought.

Fanfarlo- Reservoir
Elizabeth and the Catapult- Taller Children
A. Ballad Nightly- All in Good Time
Via Audio- Say Something

Good stuff!

I'm going to go shake to the maracas.

your spoon is leaking

2009-11-04T09:47:00.000-08:00

Last night I was listening to Taller Children by Elizabeth and the Catapult, a band I've become quite fond of recently. Jim Eno helped produce the title track, and it (of course) turned out like a technicolor dreamworld. I was thinking about how Jim Eno has been quite the helper when it comes to other bands, and I wondered how his main squeeze Spoon was doing. I have been missing Britt's buttery voice slipping from my speakers in unexpected melodies.

Three cheers for this, friends: Transference, their newest album, is set to be released January 26 (just three days before my birthday...awww thanks, Spoon), and a wee sample of the new album has been leaked into the swirling depths of the musical interweb. It starts late and cuts out early, so I wouldn't recommend it for getting a real feel of what Transference is all about (which should undoubtably be awesomeness), but a few live tracks reveal a little more of a hope for Spoon's newest endeavor.

It sounds like the new tracks have continued with persistant, thrumming beats and super-rhythm guitar. I'm pretty excited with just the few things I've heard from it so far, and am having a blast constructing imagined albums from the snippets floating around. My imagination predicts wonderment.

Geez, guys, it's been long enough.

Thanks to Stereogum for the live tracks.

Mystery Zone- Spoon

Is Love Forever? (Live)- Spoon

Writing to You in Reverse (Live)- Spoon

megafaun is megafun

2009-11-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

Bwahahaha! No, please don't laugh at the title of this blog. Also don't judge the content based upon my horrifying sense of humor that I clearly genetically inherited from my dad. If I start telling long, drawn out stories about something the neighbor was doing in the backyard feel free to give me a stern talking to.

I was given a link to a new band, Megafaun, a couple weeks ago, and told to listen to a little ditty called Kaufman's Ballad. By "little" I mean "epic," and by "ditty" I mean "sound party." Starting with a banjo roll that took my folk loving breath away, it swept into dreamy vocals that remind me of Simon and Garfunkel having a freaky jam session, or Robin Pecknold and that band of feisty Fleet Foxes.

From North Carolina, this band o' three were first involved with another delightful musical gentleman (read on for more) before they went on and formed this folk explosion. They're gathering speed and an enthustiastic fan base (that now includes me!) with their second album, Gather, Form, and Fly.

Here are some beautiful Megafaun tracks. Including a wonderful, golden, shimmering song from the former band they were in with...Bon Iver (and we all know how he can polish up a sorrowful day into something you can see yourself in) back when they released one EP before splitting up. That one group was called DeYarmon Edison, and though Justin Vernon and the now-Megafaun members went different directions ...they left us some wonderful music, and are still making even more on their own.

This is an age of some rocking electronica, and I accept that. I even love a lot of it. But I maintain that nothing is as good as someone taking instruments that still smell of the ground they grew from, and making a tribute to what came, what is, and what we all hope can be.

Kaufman's Ballad- Megafaun

The Fade- Megafaun

Love Long Gone- DeYarmond Edison

happy halloween you hooligans

2009-10-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

Night two of the epic Halloweekend is upon us!! To keep it simple and graceful like we all want to be during our Halloween celebrations, here's one of my favorite seasonal jams...covered by the rollicking fun time of a band Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers.

(If you listen closely, you can here a possibly inebriated and very enthusiastic man shout out, "AND HIS HAIR WAS PERFECT" just a beat or two off. Ha.)

you were famous, your heart was a legend (josh ritter news)

2009-10-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

I remember a time...a couple years ago...when my world was rocked by a collection of trembling, vast, buzzing music called the Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. Even though he wrote his song about me on Hello Starling, the newest album tickled my fancy with each consecutive spin. And now after two years in the desert (and only a couple live performances to tide me over) Ritter is not only going to RELEASE a new album, but he is touring with The Swell Season. Glen Hansard (of the Frames) and Marketa Irglova make up one powerful duo. I especially love when Glen pounds that guitar like his very heartbeat is contained in the melody that he creates. Needless to say I'm very close to making some major travel plans to see this combo live before they jet off to Europe.

The album remains unnamed, but that isn't all that Josh is cooking up for us. Apparently, according to his September blog, he is working on a second draft of his novel. He describes it as a "saucy little number." This makes me envision Josh Ritter doing the mambo with clauses and dangling prepositions in stylistic little twirls. Can't wait. After reading Mark Oliver Everett's stark and effecting autobiography, Things the Grandchildren Should Know, I've come to trust my favorite lyricists for literary brilliance.

Glad I could share this exciting news with you.

In the spirit of continuing my love of Leonard Cohen covers, here is Josh Ritter's cover of Chelsea Hotel No. 2. Gotta love Leonard's unapologetic lyrics in Ritter's wistful narrative voice.
Chelsea Hotel No. 2 (Leonard Cohen)- Josh Ritter

everybody's talking to their pockets

2009-10-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling melancholy today for no real reason, and I'm struggling to know whether or not to allow myself some good cry into my whiskey time...or to rally. Instead I'm going to slowly lift myself by being gentle and kind to my quietly sighing mood. I believe it's all right to look outside at a marshmallow world and feel completely lost, tiny, and stuck. On a hike today the few feet of snow felt like wet cement. I was staring at the weighted trees and realized they knew what it was like to have branches broken by the piling up of small, feathery things.

But moments that make me feel better involve listening to music that takes the arrow in my heart and points it toward other people with the same barb. First artist to make me feel in solidarity with the senseless ache of taking the next breath...is Bon Iver.

Blood Bank- Bon Iver

I can't seem to stop playing this Bob Schneider song I recently rediscovered due to the genius of my delightful iTunes shuffle. His voice rumbles about true things that I feel but don't know how to express.

I wish my shoes were empty/and I was still in bed/ with you there beside me with your dreams inside your head/ Oh I wish the world would do what I want it to/And I wish the wind would blow me/Blow me back to you

Sometimes it's nice to just lay back and hear someone else confess what my voice wants to say aloud. It doesn't seem so whimsical or far away anymore; that romantic idealism is shared, and it's comforting.
Blow Me Back to You (Live)- Bob Schneider

So the Paste sampler had a positively delightful song called Taller Children by a Brooklyn based indie-pop trio, Elizabeth and The Catapult(I assume Pete Lalish and Dan Molad are the collective catapult. Must be strapping young gentlemen).

Imagine my surprise and happiness that came when I found a soul rousing stomping cover of Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows. Some might say Ryan Adam's Everybody Knows (same title, but not the same song) would be more apropos for the sad and contemplative mood I've found myself in, but Elizabeth and The Catapult take this frank look at the world and add some determined beats and matter of fact perspective on the world that sometimes gets me so damn down.

Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen)- Elizabeth and The Catapult

Taller Children is another song (also the name of their album) that explores the absolute ridiculous nature of growing up. Namely how it just doesn't happen.

So the day may not be full of shiny smiles and laughing with abandon, but there is comfort in the slowness of being a little sad. It never lasts forever, just like the music that doesn't ask me to explain a thing.

love begins in winter

2009-10-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

So the winter is going to rear its frosty and pissed off head this evening by starting the First Great Dump of the season. I already went grocery shopping and got the essentials (Raisinets, coffee, bananas, jam) so I can hunker down and enjoy the frozen tundra that was once my front lawn. But besides the eating necessities I listed, there are a few other helpful things for weathering a storm. Besides an igloo…which I will be constructing in the aforementioned tundra as soon as there is an impressive layer of snow to use.

I recently finished reading a beautiful book called Love Begins in Winter by Simon VanBooy. It’s a collection of five short stories written from the perspectives of people whose lives are turned completely around by love. And not the kind of love found in The Notebook or Monster-In-Law, so cloyingly sweet it tickles the gag reflex.. The stories are about the kind that works because the people were crying out on the same wavelength, and didn’t have to pretend to be perfect once their cries were heard. It’s a book that dampens noise around you, and makes patterns in the couch seem like universes to be contemplated. People on the street soften, and strangers’ eyes reflect less of my jaded expectations. Love isn’t polished up, or put in a display window, but it isn’t made into desperate tragedy. It’s just…there. As much as the crack in the front step that I stub my toe on every day…it makes love seem so painfully obvious it made me cry. As though I had been waiting for fireworks in a sea of candles.

"Children are the closest we are to wisdom, and they become adults the moment that final drop of everything mysterious is strained from them. I think it happens quietly to every one of us -- like crossing a state line when you're asleep."
-Tiger Tiger (Love Begins in Winter)

A comforting new voice warmed my chilly eardrums a while ago. Her name is Laura Groves, and she hails from Yorkshire. But her stage name is Blue Roses, and she is wonderful. I know that singer/songwriters can become a tedious middle of the road journey into half hearted “ooh”s and empty “aah”s, but Blue Roses clings to the real spirit of a woman and her music, much like a Joni Mitchell. Or in the track I've linked to; Feist. She hasn’t reached her apex as a musician, clearly, which makes listening to the journey even more exciting. She emulates a gray day on a dim stage with her ambling, sun tinged folk tunes, showing her best with her shining melodies that sound like old favorites played by someone finding her voice. I like her. Maybe you will, too.

Check out her self-titled debut that popped onto the market this summer.

Doubtful Comforts- Blue Roses

So bundle up everyone! Snow can be wonderful when you want to create your own world and its own rules. The rules of my Snow World will include hot beverages, blankets, and some wild dance parties with the dog and cat! Bipeds have an advantage, though.

artfully said

2009-10-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

Check out Kevin Tolman here

I went to Santa Fe yesterday, and walked up and down the famous Canyon St while trying vainly to reach my lovely friend, Isabella, who works on that street. Word to the wise: do NOT lose your phone. Anyway, despite our failed attempts to find each other without modern satellite technology, I happened upon some beautifully talented visual artists who make me want to pick up my paints again and not throw away my own trying hand in self contempt. One such man was an abstract artist who works in stunning autumn shades, Kevin Tolman.

At first glance I was unimpressed, but his works just suck you in with the endless layers and texture. He scratches into dried paint to reveal a long covered layer of orange underneath the top coat of deep blue. Swirls and pencil outlines of perfect boxes sneak in and say hello when you least expect.He reminds me of my favorite darker children's book illustrations put into a more abstract setting. My favorite works of his were the odes to the night sky.

Final thought: I want to live in an adobe that blends in with the Sangre de Cristos and has a bright turquoise door.

i am everything absent or distorted

2009-10-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in Anna’s place of work for six hours because she, unlike some people (me), earns money. That’s fine with me! I’ve been swaying inconspicuously in a corner comfy chair. It's fun to watch university students filter in and out as they study on thick wooden tables and as they cast sexual glances to every fellow young figure that strolls by in search of complicated coffee drinks. I have a bottomless mug of coffee, my headphones, and a few projects to do. One project is to not get super depressed about my lack of attendance at the BIG FINAL LAST LIVE JOY FEST of Everything Absent or Distorted in Denver this evening, and the pre-party that I would attend dressed all in white.

EAOD has been my friend this morning (along with a couple other wonders), keeping me company as I squirm to find a comfortable position to settle in to. They’re a band that could border on being a wall of noise with no fewer than eight people contributing on stage. But…instead it’s the most tangible, drinkable, electric musical output I’ve had to joy of experiencing in a while. Ever since they released their album in 2008, The Great Collapse, I have yet to stop spinning it in my headphones or just plain in my head. Everything Absent or Distorted doesn’t quit just at bouncing melodies or painfully relatable lyrics, but pushes it to where it goes beyond what any amount of band practice could do; and leaps into the wilderness of playing out of joy and the need to let feeling linger far after the last spark has faded from the speaker. I am feeling sentimental to the point of a public weeping fit as I write about it.

This collective of Colorado human beings has helped me reach deep into my own dancing heart and encourage myself to think about what it means to swim in the deep end of existence, and to like it. Even when I get tired.

So I’ll be listening to The Great Collapse several times today, feeling more real and more nostalgic at every turn. If you can even FATHOM driving into the city tonight…do it. Please.

Gospel of Slight Rust- Everything Absent or Distorted

In regards to Sufjan Stevens’ new release BQE, a commentary on the horrifying social project that ripped Brooklyn apart, I’m hesitant to talk about it. I can say that it’s not my favorite Sufjan release, but that the scope and intent of the project begs for putting it into context. I’d love to see the film put up on a big screen, so I can shut out the world and see what a beloved artist has given to me to ponder. I’ll explore further. I don’t want to link any particular interlude or movement, because I think it might be best to go and listen for yourself; though I will say Movement III is what stands out to me the most.

brand new mexican morning

2009-10-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

So I'm on an adventure for a few days, with one of my greatest pals. We're going to ramshackle all over this New Mexican frontier, and listen to some rad tunes to top it all off. My contribution to our first listen in the car was Gregory Alan Isakov. I think I consider it some sort of cosmic obligation to put on his albums when my iPod is the Chosen One. I had to play one of my favorite driving tunes; a song that makes the yellow blurring lines seem like friendly percussion for the tripping guitar line. As we watch the Sandias rise in front of our tiny popcan car, they hold all the soaring fantasy that Gregory weaves, and welcome us to make it come true. We packed lunch, so we'll have time to do that.

I'm saving all my sleep for another life.

Virginia May- Gregory Alan Isakov feat. Brandi Carlile

Gregory Alan Isakov recently spent time in Colorado for some incredible shows. If you weren't lucky enough to snag a live listen, I implore you to find out when you can see and hear him for yourself. His most recent album, which the aforelinked song is from, This Empty Northern Hemisphere, features the haunting voice of Brandi Carlile, but I have yet to see her sing with him...one day.

coffee's on

2009-10-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

So I am not normally a YouTube fanatic. I'm just not. I've tried to be hip and find videos of sleepwalking dogs but I always get bored. But when music surfaces on YouTube, I will take time to let that little red bar do battle with my computer's perpetual nap time in order to see what happens. And based on a recommendation, I did indeed find things to make me a YouTuber for the day.

First a video of a 2007 performance by Ryan Adams and Neal Casal in County Kerry, Ireland. I'm putting up Two, but the whole set is beautiful. Ryan Adams' pained lyrics in Two are made even clearer by his honest body language; his foot moving in rhythm but sticking at an awkward angle, pointing directly up with rigidity, giving away his authenticity. Ahhh...and it just sounds real pretty.

My attention was drawn to this music video by Israeli theatre director, Oren Lavie, by a friend of mine who is way more versed in YouTube than I. It's a stop motion music video for a captivating folk tune called Her Morning Elegance. The video is just brilliant. Oren Lavie chases a dreaming girl across pillow and blanket landscapes, as she sleepwalks through terrifying and beautiful adventures; running on clouds, swimming in the deep blue seas with sock fish going through her fingers, and gray sky days with only a scarf for protection.

The album was released on iTunes in January (on my birthday), but the physical copy came out in March, and I'm dismayed that I haven't heard it until now. Lavie has a voice that makes me think of sanddollars whispering under low tide, and barefoot callouses sliding along rocky coastlines. Though the rest of the album isn't exactly what I would normally put on, I just can't get enough of Her Morning Elegance. Oren Lavie gets my respect unconditionally for posting the bad reviews of his album on his website, which causes me to pause and consider when I would put on his Nick Drake-y voice and jazzy melodies. Because I think he has a place in my ears. What a way to start off the morning, with a song that takes my heart rate down from the pace my coffee pot determined.

the sun set forever, and we lay together

2009-10-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

So there comes a time when I feel like that spoiled kid with tons of toys, and nothing to play with. I was staring at my music library the past couple days and stamping my mental feet. I had nothing to LISTEN TO!! I started hounding friends for suggestions. Luckily, I have some very tolerant friends with very good musical taste. And after spending a lot of time on LaLa listening to some delightful albums, it occurred to me to check up on the bands I had left by the wayside since their last releases. What kind of person am I to forget about those wonderful tickling artists who delighted me just a few months ago? So I buried myself in familiar newness. And here are a few gems.

The Spinto Band enchanted me, like it did many people, with their 2008 release Moonwink. The track Summer Grof was filling me with ear fireworks made of crescendos and carefully calculated bursts of bright energy all summer long. I eagerly awaited more to spin to, and was pleased with the EP that they gave birth to all by themselves, Slim and Slender. It has the same tablespoon by tablespoon dosage of starry eyed staccato beats, and sweeping fits of swimming guitar with controlled, reaching vocals wailing into the setting sun. The opening number, Jackhammer, leaves me feeling like an LP from The Spinto Band will make me even smilier, with its coasting, driven, jangly melodies. Regrettably, the rest of the EP does not make me shimmer with whimsy as much as I hoped, but the succinct taste of things to come does whet my appetite.

This song convinces me that I will never live in a city for very long.

something says she wants you/wont you ever learn?

Jackhammer-The Spinto Band

If I could tackle Liam Finn and thank his Kiwi brain for coming up with such brilliant new music, I would. I’ve been harboring deep love for him ever since his 2007 I’ll Be Lightning sent me whirling with layers and layers of goodness. The man can deliver a powerful, yet subtle, punch of dream-like strangeness that makes sense to people who dream of “oceans of pink lemonade.” He speaks of the things I want to see in my own head. And that is exactly what this son of Crowded House’s lead man Neil Finn (who I do love so) has done again. His recent EP release, Champagne in Seashells with backing vocals by Eliza Jane, shows me that his ability to make me want to jump into tornados and find the pulsating rhythm in the eye of the storm has only increased. Here is the opening track, Plane Crash.

Plane Crash- Liam Finn + Eliza Jane

November is approaching. And I’m depressed about it. Luckily, my friend suggested I finally listen to the Seattle name changers Say Hi (previously Say Hi to Your Mom). Eric Elbogen and friends have undergone some pretty intense aesthetic changes since the formation in 2002, and I’m pleased to have listened to them as they’ve arrived with their March, 2009 release Oohs and Aahs. The album has good beats, and even better lyrics. Elbogen has a talent for fanciful and clever lyrics that make me think about simple things in different ways. With Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder weighing heavily on this cloudy day, I recommend their first real slow track on the album.

I think I will feel better when the winter is gone. And I'll have to repeat it as much as Elbogen does to make myself believe it, too.

November was White, December was Gray- Say Hi

simply...joe pug

2009-10-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

Simplicity has been left by the wayside. In one of my all time favorite movies, Almost Famous, Philip Seymour Hoffman says that rock could become an “industry of cool.”

Has it? I don’t know. On my bad days I’m almost convinced there is nowhere for a person who doesn’t know how to have a good haircut to go. No music to listen to. On most days, though, I find my heart carried away by the words and sounds of people who write from a part of themselves that I ache to find on my own.

And so it begins. The quest to find music, friends. Music that doesn’t need someone else’s opinion to validate it for you. Music that when you listen to it, you find a friend without any awkward small talk, or small white lies about the crazy stuff you did in college. Music that does what it feels, says what it wants, and sounds like honesty and beauty just backhanded you across the dance floor.

So to begin. I’d like to share an artist that knocked me flat with absolute power this past week by ripping out his plug from his Guild, standing on the speakers, and pushing his music right into my blood. Joe Pug, everyone.

Hymn 101- Joe Pug