Where the food sounds good, and the music is pretty tasty too.
The band Howth sounds good. The music this five-piece band of friends create is warm and tasty to the ears like artisan fresh baked bread is to the palette. And like the aforementioned bread their music rises and transcends mere sustenance, the music is hymns for out souls. The song “Wind Blow Cold” is taken from the band’s Newkirk release. Peace. Continue reading “Howth // Wind Blows Cold”
Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, Adam Matta and multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins are the North Carolina–based Carolina Chocolate Drops and they are just as organic and original as they are talented and modest. The music they make is like hot buttered Cracklin’ Bread and red-eye gravy for your ears. And with their latest release Leaving Eden, follow-up to their critically lauded label debut—2010′s Grammy Award–winning Genuine Negro Jig, they’re in right fine form. The album is out now on Nonesuch Records, I highly recommend the vinyl format by the way. You can also cop their music HERE and on iTunes. Forgive me, I’m crushing so hard on their song, “Pretty Girl”. Peace. Continue reading “Carolina Chocolate Drops // Leaving Eden”
Today, and perhaps most days, could use a bit of what José González is putting out into the universe for our ears to digest like sugared-sorrow and humble pie. Yes, José González music is the epitome of sweetness and light, and with a voice like the spent ashes of embers wafting on the exhalations of tenebrous sullen mood, it’s easy to see, and hear why so folks warm themselves before his solar flame. With the song, “Cycling Trivialities” it is smoky folk fare with the soul of a dour canticle, but perhaps it always a call to break out of a rut and wake to the act letting go of the petty and spread the energy of love all around. Well, that’s my two-cents for all it is worth. I’ll shut my face now, enjoy the music. Peace. Continue reading “José González // Cycling Trivialities (Our Sunday Best)”
M. Ward is a busy man, but when he’s not making beautiful music with Zooey Deschanel as the duo She & Him, he has been slowly putting together his forthcoming 8th studio album A Wasteland Companion. The album is slated for a March 10th release, but until then check out the song, “Primitive Girl” and the Joel Trussell video for the song, “The First Time I Ran Away”. Both are excellent because that is how M. Ward rolls. To pre-order the Wasteland Companion head on over to Merge Records and do the damn thang. By the way, you can also get the single “Primitive Girl” on iTunes. Peace. Continue reading “M. Ward // The First Time I Ran Away (Video)”
I got this in my inbox about 8 hrs ago, and even after I read it I was a bit hesitant about writing a review. Don’t get me wrong, it’s for a good cause. I mean, aside from big business and world governments who can turn their backs on sick children? Well, not me. So, after a spell I sat down at my workstation (kitchen table) and clicked on the bandcamp link and listened. Now, even before I clicked play I scanned the bands listed and not one did I recognize, and for some reason that excited me to no end. Who doesn’t like discovering new music, right? I’ll say this, This Is A Popscene #1 is totally badass for all the right reasons. Sorry for the vulgar language, but badass is the first adjective that came to mind, and it’s an apt and formidable descriptor for the music on this compilation. You’d do well to remember the lot of featured bands here, culled from the UK, Ireland & US, and with a diversity of sounds, that not only compliment, but exemplifies a host of serious up & coming talent. Without a doubt this is a twofer, you buy the great music and you’re supporting a great cause too. As my Pa used to say, “You can’t beat that with a stick.” Peace. Continue reading “This Is A PopScene #1 // (Various Artist)”
You can’t get a lot more ethereal and folkishly organic than the music being born out the hearts and heads of the Bowerbirds. At the core, and I suspect it will always be, this band is Phil Moore and Beth Tacular. And although there has been a revolving door of line-up changes, it is the constant ebb and flow of shared human emotion played out between both Phil and Beth, that act as the catalyst for their songs and music. When you watch the mini documentary, you’ll see the surface of a relationship. But, you’ll also suspect, and come away with the sense that these two people; this man and woman, are not only making their way in the world, but keeping a journal and writing upon its brittle pages with the red ink of lovesong. You hear their love, their fear and every other crazy human emotion in-between. Maybe nowadays love is corny, or at least talking about is, but one cannot simply listen to their songs as something two people just created for the sake of creating. Yes, one purpose is to share and entertain, but in the end these are songs two people crafted out of necessity, as something tangible to hold onto to buoy them across time, and predicaments known and not known. Yes, it is a public journal, but with private and secret meaning. The forthcoming album, due to drop February 21st, is titled The Clearing. Perchance The Clearing is metaphor for the space two people need to clear, to rid a marked territory of everyone else, and all other aspects of the known world, in order to make room enough for two to grow miraculously as one. Peace. Continue reading “Bowerbirds // Watch The Mini Documentary // The Clearing (Video)”
The songs of Mirel Wagner are not for the faint of heart. No, this collection of songs are weighted with leaden lyrics. So much so, listeners may be rendered immobile in an attempt to closely examine their neutron star density. Music and lyrics aside, these songs are fashioned into greater meaning by the method of Mirel Wagner’s staid delivery more than anything else. Ms. Wagner’s almost still-life performances etch with charcoal and dark shades upon her vocal sketchbook. And her style isn’t one of mimicry. No, her delivery is lyrical shadows waltzing to the quiet inhalations of barely breathing song. And the effects are as beautiful and original, as they are chilling. But, these are standard issue for 23-year-old Mirel Wagner, and March 27th will see her songs available for public consumption. Just don’t choke on these fleshless femurs of songs, just nibble at the edges and take your time digesting each and every one. And when looking into this songstress’s musical eyes, which may appear motionless on the surface, make no mistake about it, their profound depth of meaning runs deep. Peace. Continue reading “Mirel Wagner // No Death (Video)”
23-year-old Al Spx from Etobicoke, Canada is Cold Specks. Recently, she and her songs have done a bit of traveling, as she spreads her river baptismal sound into ears and hearts the world over. Listen to her touching fare, “Holland” and “Old Stepstone.” Cold Specks’ sound is recognizable, they’re heavily steeped in the American deep south/folk gospel tradition, and they touch you the way a fire and brimstone sermon would. They make you both nervous and contrite, even for sins you’ve only dreamed about. Also, her songs are right where they should be, and really I can’t imagine a better medium for them than Spx’s wade-in-the-water voice. A voice which is beautifully haunting, and powerful like the thunderstorms of the lonesome plains. I am beyond giddy, so looking forward to hearing more Cold Specks debut release via Arts & Crafts. Peace. Continue reading “cold specks // holland // lay me down”
There are so many reasons why I so love the band Villagers, and I am so of the opinion they are on their of becoming one of the important voices of our age. So, it is with great pleasure that we present to you, the new video for ‘Cecelia & her Selfhood‘. A long-standing live favorite in Villagers shows, ‘Cecelia’ has finally been committed to film, and boy is it a treat both visually and musically. My hat off to animator magnifique Adrien Merigeau. And as I am often wont to say, nothing explains the music (in this case the film) better than the film itself. Nonetheless, the Villagers have provided a concise and vaguely pretentious synopsis:
“The film charts the development of a young man as he navigates his way through an impressionistic landscape in search of an elusive monster which is intent on destroying his childhood home. Lost and confused for the most part, he nonetheless uncovers the beast; a creature whose origins are both terrifying and liberating.” Continue reading “Villagers – Cecelia & Her Selfhood”
Time for planting and tending the crops is over. The season for harvesting is too long past. It is the dead of winter and the birds have south flown. Now, we must avail ourselves to live on what is at hand, nothing more. Tug on those long-johns, and upon those go the tweed trousers. Tuck in your thick flannel, pull on a weighty sweater too and don thine cap. Stoke the flames and have a bit of whiskey. Still, even then the cold gets in without a lover to love. Right now Dear Winesburg is my chosen bedmate, and their incredible EP Light & Deft is the howling wind and the falling snow of the season, but the beautiful music is also the antithesis of this barren season too. Beautiful and hopeful. Peace. Continue reading “Dear Winesburg – Light & Deft EP”