The conceptual artist Sol LeWitt died at the beginning of April of this year. Sez his NYTimes obit : Sol LeWitt was born in Hartford, on Sept. 9 1928, the son of immigrants from Russia. His father, a doctor, died when he was 6, after which he moved with his mother, a nurse, to live with an aunt in New Britain, Conn. His mother took him to art classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. He would draw on wrapping paper from his aunt's supply store. At Syracuse University, [...]
Whenever he had himself gone there, all he felt was the excitement, the buildings, like any hick, he remembered. -Robert Creeley, The Island According to the morally superior Dalkey Archive Press , Excitability collects the best of Diane Williams's bold, often hilarious, stories of love, sex, child-rearing, death, and space aliens-stories that are (in the words of Bradford Morrow) "wry, sensuous, spiritual, wise, raunchy, familial . . . alive to the contradictory nuances which define our lives." With the [...]
We Know Our Target Audience And They Want More Knocked Up And They Want It Now by Molly Lambert " My way of dealing with the world has always been to make fun of it and observe it but not take part in it," Apatow told me when we first met in the fall of 2005. "That's how I became a writer. But when you have kids, suddenly you have to be part of things. It leads almost to a [...]
The Tossers - Never Enough . This is the opening track from the brand new Tossers' album, Agony . The Tossers have a knack for releasing albums full of songs that completely relate to the events and feelings of my life. This album is no exception. And this song, it's a bitter and sad number, but so rollicking you'll have a hard time not doing a jig to it. It's about the futility of trying to drown your sorrows in alcohol, but doing it anyway because you don't know any better way to live: [...]
It's the first of March. Saint David's Day for those unaware of all things Welsh. Anyway, time to cast my mind back over what I was liking in February. Album of the Month Alasdair Roberts – The Amber Gatherers No contest here. I waxed lyrical about it last week . But there hasn't been an album in ages that I've listened to so consistently and still loved it. I can't recommend this highly [...]
I've been away from blogging for a few days, as I've been in Scotland for a family funeral. So naturally, music has taken a bit of a back seat. However, the flight to Aberdeen and back was soundtracked for me by Alasdair Roberts ' new album The Amber Gatherers . It seemed appropriate both because of his nationality and the slightly downbeat nature of the music, which suited my mood. I had come across Roberts before, but in name only, and it wasn't until I saw him supporting Joanna Newsom at the Barbican last month [...]
Alasdair Roberts : 2003-05-07, Planet Claire [mp3] "Carousing" [mp3] other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype Calla : "Bronson" [mp3] from Strength in Numbers @myspace other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype Ching Chong Song : "Start Your Engines" [mp3] @myspace other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype [...]
Scottish singer-songwriter Alasdair Roberts has had a penchant for the folk tales of his homeland. Their themes of drinking, love and death have a timeless quality that he has effortlessly interpreted without making them seem dated. On his latest album The Amber Gathers Roberts has crafted 11 originals that weave the classic themes of these tales into his own compositions. They retain the same effortless feelings of wisdom and timelessness but the music has been updated a bit; and his past work with Will Oldham shines through in a feeling of worn immediacy that tugs at your emotions [...]
Alasdair Roberts, a wonderful Scottish singer/songwriter, is a man of many alternate tunings. On his forthcoming record, The Amber Gatherers (Drag City), Roberts provides the tuning for each song in the liner notes. This music conjures up a little bit of peat smoke, images of wind-swept vistas, bog people, animal-pelt/seaweed tang of funky single-malts, the dole, fierce Calvinism, lighthouse technology, David Hume, the Kaleyard School, all those good things. It's vaguely Celtic, but not in an oppressive public radio kind of way (one song is about something or someplace called "The Scabbard of Priapus" – for real.) [...]
Let's Go Sailing - "Icicles". Straight from Los Angeles comes a song with jingle-bells and icicle-talk, a warming tone that's equal parts Winter, Spring and Summer (but definitely not Fall). Shana Levy sings sweet over jangling guitars, and me I imagine her in red shoes and red gloves, posing beside snowmen while icicles fall from red tile roofs. [buy] Alasdair Roberts - "River Rhine". There are madrigals, rounds, quatrains, sonnets, all sorts of names for songs and poems. And I want to add another name to this list: "a kindness". I'm not sure I can put into words what a [...]
If you've been here a while you know my love for Alasdair Roberts . Well Drag City is releasing his latest, The Amber Gatherers , in January and from what I've heard already, it's going to be a must own. Scottish folk that has you thinking of a crowded cottage with it's guests partaking in a nice dark beer, warming their flesh from a potbellied stove, and their souls on Roberts' vocals. To me, he creates winter albums, always has. Cold dreary wet days; when the snow is out, a [...]
MP3: ALASDAIR ROBERTS "The Old Men Of The Shells" ( Drag City ) Scottish singer/songwriter keeps it traditional on this ballad from his forthcoming album The Amber Gatherers . See also: www.alasdairroberts.com tags: music | mp3 | folk | Scottish folk
I have no pictures to share, but I've caught three great shows in the last week or so. Donovan tonight somehow sounded just like the 60s and all the enthusiasm the "Mellow Yellow" encore provoked was geniune. Micah P. Hinson sounded like a cross between Vic Chesnutt and early, screamy Hayden. Centro-Matic (with Bobby Bare, Jr.) played their country drawl perfectly against power-pop exuberance.
Alasdair Roberts : "The Old Men of the Shells" [mp3] from The Amber Gatherers (not)@myspace @hype machine Asobi Seksu : "Then He Kissed Me" [mp3] from At the Echo, October 6, 2006 @myspace @hype machine Cracker : 1998-10-23, San Francisco [mp3,ogg,flac] "Rainy Days and Mondays (Carpenters cover)" [mp3] @myspace @hype machine [...]
Alasdair Roberts ' music comes from a long history of Scottish folk. He sings with a deep Scottish brough and fills his compositions with sounds that would not be far out of place on a Fairport Convention record. But I suspect it's how Alasdair writes his lyrics and the themes of his songs that have placed him on Chicago's avante-post-rock label Drag City (instead of some Celtic folk label). He's been embraced by the American freak folk revivalists like Will and Paul Oldham, Joanna Newsome, The Decemberists and Jason Molina. The new record is called [...]
This Recording
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