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New Album: Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues

Published September 17, 2010 By Kyle Mitchell

Justin Townes Earle’s follow up to his fantastic album Midnight at the Movies released this week on tuesday. The eponymous single from the new album, Harlem River Blues, first single was released to much fanfare back in early August. As with Earle’s other releases, it’s an exercise in alt/country and folk elements.

Earle’s voice rings true on what is an interesting concept for an album. He writes songs as though he’s the common man in rural Tennessee, but in reality he’s writing these tracks from the Big Apple. Does this make you question the album’s credibility? I’d personally say no. I see no reason to not enjoy the ironic nature of country songs about New York City. Much like Woody Guthrie before him, Justin Townes Earle’s narrative of a country boy in the big city; feelings of being displaced and lonesome.

For me, a couple of clear winners on the album are the songs that are country tropes such as the railroad song, Working for the MTA, and the traveler song, Wanderin.’ A highlight for me on the album is the humorous Move Over Mama, a song about the hardships of dating a traveling musician.

In all, Earle has done a great job creating a solid entry in his body of work, and might give him what he needs to step out of his fathers shadow, and show that he’s got the goods to write great songs.

Buy Harlem River Blues

More on Justin Townes Earle
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Myspace

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New Music: Warpaint – Undertow

Published September 16, 2010 By Kyle Mitchell

Undertow The all female band, Warpaint, specializes in psychedelic 70’s vibed, dreamy pop music. The hypnotic siren-like vocals, and smooth sexy basslines seem to stand out big time here. Warpaint will released their debut album, The Fool, set for released October 26th via Rough Trade. The track to me sounds like an underwater / dream version of Stevie Nicks. What do you think? Warpaint | Myspace | Twitter | Facebook

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Free Track: Dr. Dog – Take Me Into Town

Published September 15, 2010 By Kyle Mitchell

Take Me Into Town Dr. Dog is offering up Take Me Into Town—a brand new song free via Facebook—It’s great to hear some new music from this band, especially one that seems like it would have been one of the best songs on their most recent album, Shame, Shame. It’s a rough, jam / blues number that will have you bobbing your head in no time. Click here and share the info via Facebook or Twitter to download this track. Buy Shame, Shame For more Dr. Dog: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Myspace |

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Stars – The Five Ghosts and a Giveaway!

Published September 15, 2010 By Kyle Mitchell

Wasted Daylight

Stars’ newest album, The Five Ghosts, brings the expected narrative of romantic tragedy as one would expect, with songs titled as ‘Dead Hearts’ and ‘I Died So I Could Haunt You,’ and their usual, down-tempo melodramatic new wave sound. The album is a bit more glum than some of the previous efforts, but tracks such as Wasted Daylight bring the album to a height that complements the more gloomy tracks on the album. Despite what might seem like a drawback to the album has some interesting moments and lyrically and vocally are really well done.

To top this off, I’m giving away a pair of tickets to see Stars with Wild Nothing and a meet-and-greet with the band here in Boston at the House of Blues on September 23rd. You can enter by leaving a comment, RT this tweet, or leaving a comment on the facebook page. I’ll pick a winner next monday

Buy Five Ghosts

For more information on Stars:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Myspace

Stars will be touring The Five Ghosts, this fall with Wild Nothing.

Upcoming Shows:

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The Vaccines – If You Wanna

Published September 15, 2010 By Kyle Mitchell

If You Wanna (Demo) Check out the Vaccines’ demo track If You Wanna, a foot stompin’ feel good track. Not really too much information on the band in general, but it doesn’t take long to realize how much you are going to like this track. via (wawstsf)

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Artist Watch: Patrick Park

Published September 14, 2010 By Kyle Mitchell

Blackbird through the Dark Singer Songwriter Patrick Park has been writing songs since he was a kid in Colorado. His most recent album, Come What Will is a haunting melancholy folk album with some beautiful moments in writing & vocals. Park’s voice is a melancholy, Elliott Smith-like heartbreaking sound, steered in a more traditional folk style. His album, Come What Will, released back in April 2010 was produced by Dave Trumfio (Built to Spill, Wilco.) Untethered to a label at the time, Park expressed an interesting and creative method of recording songs immediately after writing them, keeping them fresh, even a…

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Justin Townes Earle performs Slippin’ and Slidin’

Published September 14, 2010 By Kyle Mitchell

Justin Townes Earle performs “Slippin’ and Slidin’” from his new album Harlem River Blues. Directed by Tim Sutton.

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Check out: Fistful of Mercy

Published September 10, 2010 By Kyle Mitchell

Fistful of Mercy Fistful of Mercy (Joseph Arthur, Ben Harper, Dhani Harrison) will release their debut album As I Call You Down on October 5th on Harrison’s own Hot Records. The eponymous track, Fistful of Mercy, is a melancholy acoustic track sung with a deep emotionality, and complete with sweeping harmonies. Fistful of Mercy will offer their fans a free download of the self titled song, “Fistful of Mercy” from their website in exchange for an email sign up or tweet about the release of the album. See www.FistfulofMercy.com/download for details. The band will also be touring for this album, November 9 Seattle, WA Showbox November 11…

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Album Review: Jukebox the Ghost’s Everything Under the Sun

Published September 9, 2010 By Kyle Mitchell

Summer Sun
Empire
Hold it In

Jukebox the Ghost is a is a Washington, D.C.-born, Philadelphia-based three-piece The band consists of Ben Thornewill (vocals & piano), Tommy Siegel (vocals & guitar) and Jesse Kristin (drums) whom are purveyors of fine indie-rock / piano-pop. My first experience with their music came at the hands of a cover they did of Jenny Owen Youngs Last Person. From there, I was intrigued and bought their debut 2008 album, Let Live and Let Ghosts. The album was chock full of fun tracks, Hold it In being one that really jumped out at me. The lyrics were fun, and lighthearted; the music was catchy and poppy. It all seemed bubbly and fun, without going overboard.

Fast forward to this week, and Jukebox the Ghost’s sophomore album, Everything Under the Sun, was released. When I first listened to the album, I was skeptical because of how much I enjoyed Let Live and Let Ghosts. After a few listens (10) I can certainly say this album is full of goodness. Its high spirited, fun loving, and a whole bunch of other positive 2 word descriptors. If you’ve followed along, you’ve heard their first released track Empire, what I’d call one of the best pop songs out there right now, the vocals sparkle, the song is incredibly catchy, and I think it’d be hard to find a better pop song out there right now. The melancholy, Summer Sun is actually one of my favorite tracks on this album. It begins in a melancholy, near ballad-like mood; builds to near anthemic levels. Even with this epic sounding build, it still comes across sweet and shows a growth on a musical level; after extensive touring and 2 years between albums this band is showing they have what it takes to make intelligent, insightful, and catchy music.

Buy Everything Under the Sun

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