Where the food sounds good, and the music is pretty tasty too.
William Fitzsimmons is dependable, like the constant sun and the enduring moon. His is a sound uncontrived and without artifice or unnecessary embellishments. On his latest work, the album Pittsburgh leaves my soul ajar letting the beauty of its continual gifts to drift in. Continue reading “our sunday best: william fitzsimmons | pittsburgh”
Conor Oberst has been a favorite of mine for many a moon. Heck, who could resist his various incarnations. From the days of Bright Eyes and the intimately warm and fuzzy put him on the map video First Day Of My Life, which is still after all these years one of my favorite songs hands down. Continue reading “conor oberst | live on KEXP”
The Lowest Pair is Kendl Winter (Olympia, Washington) and Palmer T. Lee (Minnesota) and they’re a double banjo outfit fit to tie you up in dainty pickin’ and honey sweet lyrics laden with sunshine and the scent of wildflowers on the breeze.
Their debut release 36¢ is a thing of esteemed beauty, on it this charming duo swap lead vocals throughout the album’s 11-tracks, combining Kendl’s finely honed banjo skills with Palmer’s Midwestern smooth as good whiskey croon. The album is out now and will make an excellent accompaniment to whatever else you got going on. Promise. Peace. Continue reading “the lowest pair | living is dying”
The Head And The Heart‘s latest album Let’s Be Still is so many good things, and all of them good. Rarely will you find a more infectious band, with as much down home likeability and seemingly boundless talent. It is easy to think of each song as a kind and familiar face with a such lovely disposition. Check out a live performance shot back in August. And naturally, get your mitts on their latest album, Let’s Be Still out now via Sub Pop Records. Peace. Continue reading “the head and the heart // let’s be still lp”
It was a no-brainer really, signing Sophie Jamieson to Folkroom Records was as natural a thing as falling in love with her pristine and deceptively durable voice. On June 24th, her achingly melodic Where EP entered the world. And by subtle degrees life is noticeably better, or at least my ears think so. So, put her record on and waltz around the room with a loved one, or enjoy a spot of tea and rummage through some cherished memories. Peace.
Continue reading “sophie jamieson // where ep + video”
If you haven’t got The Senators on your bucolic folk music radar then I implore you to check out their debut album Harsher than Whiskey/Sweeter than Wine. The Senators are definitely in league with several of my favorites bands occupying the folk genre, i.e. Blind Pilot, Fleet Foxes, Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers and Horsefeathers (just to name a few). The song This Old War is taken from the three-song Cross of Gold EP in anticipation of The Senators’ (yet untitled) forthcoming sophomore release. So, draw nigh to their brand of luminescent rusticity. It’ll spill into your bloodstream like moonshine, and rise like sweet woodsmoke into the swaying boughs of your affection. Peace. Continue reading “the senators // this old war”
The Lost At Sea EP by the Swedish band With A Light Heart is a basket full of songs perfect for a walk along coastal environs or a languid drive without any specific destination in mind. Also, this release of four simple, yet beautiful songs feels bigger than the some of its parts. The songs have a sweeping and epic character which rolls like a cleansing and rising tide in the bowl of your eardrums. Here, in the endless diameter of sound is human intimacy radiating gloriously. Each song is imbued with the spectacular essence of the warming sunrise, and by the albums end the moon too is full to bursting with solemn thanks of gratitude. Word is the band recorded it’s new EP in a loft and in a church in Bua, a small quaint village on the west coast of Sweden. How fitting then or telling because these songs have the inner-workings of hymnals and a spirituality which touches your soul like the soothing hand of grace. You can get you own copy via the With a Light Heart’s bandcamp. Peace. Continue reading “with a light heart // lost at sea ep (our sunday best)”
Upstate New York peddlers of great music This Old Ghost, have gone fashioned another wonderful collection of songs filled with all the characteristic whimsical charm we’ve come to expect from this good-natured quintet. The new album ‘Family Room‘ is officially out today and is available via Bandcamp and iTunes. You can stream the whole kit and kaboodle after the jump. Peace. Continue reading “this old ghost // family room”
It is nigh impossible not to fall for The Milk Carton Kids. In terms of harmony, delivery, and overall songcraft the Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale duo are unsurpassed. I am inspired by artists who possess the ability to elevate a genre or in the case of TMCK, bust it to pieces. And although it is natural to try to place TMCK into a box and label it Folk, Bluegrass or Southern Rock Pop, etc. But The Milk Carton Kids won’t stay contained, not even close. Listen to their new track “Snake Eyes,” which premiered on Rolling Stone (1/08/13) and it is more than evident these guys far exceed the usefulness of their current band name. Or perhaps it is part of their wonderful duplicity, to put forth an almost juvenile designate, which at first glance conjures immaturity, but in the end offer listeners a thing wholly divergent reality. When you click play, what you get is a slow motion gut-check, a stave through your heart but without all the blood, yet still passion aplenty. These aren’t mere songs, they’re reservoirs of a revelatory depth of character, emotion and beauty. The track is taken from the band’s upcoming debut LP, ‘The Ash and Clay’, and it also serves double-duty as the soundtrack to Gus Van Sant’s latest film, Promised Land. The Milk Carton Kids are a namesake defied kind of deal, and an admonishment to not judge a band by its Saturday morning kids show name. Peace. Continue reading “the milk carton kids // snake eyes”
the song “When You’re Down (The Slackjaw’s Serenade)” is taken from the debut album Anthem’s For A Stateless Nation, this eerily creepy (The Heliograph Project-directed) video features Noah and bandmate Ms. Emily St Amand Poliakoff together on camera again. And although this is no Oscar-winning performance it gets the job done. peace. Continue reading “noah and the megafauna // when you’re down (the slackjaw’s serenade)”