Turnpike Troubadours – Good Lord Lorrie Nashville has this backwards notion that if life hands you a lemon, you’ve gotta write a song about lemonade. “Key his truck, that’ll make you feel better.” But that’s bullshit because the great country songs were always about lemons. Modern country has lost that melancholy streak, which I guess is why the real country music still comes from Bakersfield & Austin. And so the Turnpike Troubadours are poised to resonate. They’re from just north in Oklahoma, but Goodbye Normal Street is red dirt Texas country through & through. It’s stories about the struggle. There’s…
4 CommentsCategory: audio
[bandcamp track=2861583533 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=grande] There once was a band called the Format. For a time they were my favorite band… they introduced me to Harry Nilsson, & I guess Cat Stevens, too. At some point, I guess Sam wanted to go back to Phoenix & raise a family, so he did. And so Nate started Fun. with some guys they had toured with. And while Fun. has been out scoring Grammy noms & playing halftime shows, Sam has been quietly recording singles & scoring indie flicks. Then last year he released his first solo EP, NONA. It’s all songs…
3 CommentsMando Diao – I ungdomen [I]n 2011, Mando Diao vocalist Gustaf Norén was asked to set a poem by Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding to music on occasion of his death centennial. Encouraged by this experience, the band chose 9 more poems to arrange as Infruset, their first native language record. Fröding is one of Sweden’s most celebrated poets, though most of his published poetry was written during or in approximation to stays at mental institutions. His alcoholism, believed schizophrenia, & relationship troubles are clearly byproducts of his extreme sensitivity, evidenced in his poetry. Recorded in a converted barn in just several days, Infruset is a gorgeous set…
3 Comments[I] want to describe this album for the initiated as one that wears it’s influences on it’s sleeves, but Chuck has been doing this so long I don’t want to suggest that he doesn’t have a “sound.” It’s just tough to describe because it sounds so familiar. It’s so tightly wound into the lexicon of rock & roll, & his musical vocabulary is so extensive, & his original contributions are of such quality that it’s easy to just assume that the Kinks or the Ramones or Tom Petty, or SOMEONE must’ve done that before, when in fact it may very…
1 Comment[bandcamp track=631111918 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti] [P]hil Campbell (not the Motörhead guitarist) could be likened to a Scotch Ryan Adams, rivaling the yankee as both a singer/songwriter & substance abuser, only Phil’s personal problems always kept him from ever really achieving Ryan’s level of success. But after more than a decade of VH1 Behind the Music drama (his bad behavior cost him the record deal he landed at 17), The Temperance Movement rises like a phoenix out of the ashes of his stalled solo career & reveals him to be one of Great Britain’s great rock & roll voices. Who knew? The…
3 Comments[H]ave you ever had a dream where you find yourself floating through the night sky, swirling around the clouds, lost somewhere between dread and repose? Linus Lutti evokes just that feeling throughout his latest Little Children EP titled In Hau, an extremely beautiful 5 song collection of haunting melody and delicate composition. In Hau opens with the track “Islands,” and immediately sets the tone for the listener’s journey through his or her own feelings of hope, or perhaps despair. Good music purposefully brings out different emotions from deep within one’s self, and sometimes you can be taken aback by what…
Leave a Comment
This is the second single from the forthcoming debut record from Guards, the NY trio lead by Richie Follin. It’s a polished, indie-pop gem that journeys on the the lonely side into a all out anthemic chorus that will have you singing along as soon as the guitars start whining and the gang chorals shimmer. Look for the single to appear on their upcoming record In Guards We Trust come February 5th.
2 CommentsReally really excited to hear Telekinesis will be releasing another record. Michael Benjamin Lerner has a way of building this guitar-pop tracks that are instant earworms. The first taste of this new record, Dormarion, which releases April 2nd, is “Ghosts and Creatures” a moody piano-pop based track with a heartbeat pulse and a ton of ghostly reverb. It’s a shift in aesthetic that feels like part of a maturation of Lerner himself, and possibly part of him working with Jim Eno on the recording. Dormarion, out April 2, 2013 on Merge Records.
2 Comments[H]ow do you celebrate your 20th anniversary and 10th album in grand fashion you ask? Well if you are Duluth, MN trio Low the answer is quite simple, you ask Jeff Tweedy of Wilco to produce and record the new record in his Chicago studio. The first single to come from this wonderful collaboration is the beautiful track “Just Make It Stop,” featuring drummer Mimi Parker on lead vocals while Alan Sparhawk and Steve Garrington paint the background with the perfect piano/guitar/bass tempo that has come to be the band’s signature sound. Take a listen to “Just Make It Stop”…
Leave a Comment