Beth Jeans Houghton has a promising sound. It feels like a marriage between folk-country and a little recent Natalie Merchant thrown into it. All quirk aside, she is a singer-songwriter from Newcastle upon Tyne who plays "sweet and gentle folk music." Beth Jeans Houghton has been described by The Guardian as looking like "Gwen Stefani with a touch of Brody Dalle", with a sound that "is Vashti Bunyan crossed with Nico and Laura Marling" In early 2011 Beth Jeans Houghton signed to Mute Records who announced that they will be releasing her debut long player in early 2012. The [...]
Listen to Me: A Tribute to Buddy Holly was released so shortly after the Rave On Buddy Holly that it got lost in the shuffle of my review folder last year. Even months later, Listen to Me still suffers by comparison to the other Buddy Holly tribute. This is at least in part due to [...]
The trouble with acoustic covers of popular songs is that some earnest singer armed with a guitar will slow down Jingle Bells and whisper the lyrics as if they have a deep meaning. I have no principles that compel me to disallow the notion of whispering songstresses, but on this Christmas mix I've tried to keep them to a respectful minimum. Still, we have the doses of yuletide angst which the acoustic genre prescribes to go with the upbeat welcome of the merry season. Don't be alarmed by the inclusion of three tracks called Christmas Song: they are [...]
We review the second Buddy Holly tribute of the summer...see how it stacks up against the first!
Filed under: Beats , Clip Tagged: kind , merchant , music , natalie , video
With such a massive, sweeping influence on the genesis of rock and roll, it's no surprise that Buddy Holly would be honored with the all-star tribute compilation Rave On Buddy Holly . And while acts from Paul McCartney to Fiona Apple already got their chance to pay homage, this September 6th sees a new set of musical superstars praise the bespectacled rock god with the release of Listen To Me: Buddy Holly . This second compilation will feature offerings from Zooey Deschanel, Brian Wilson, Patrick Stump, Jackson Browne, The Fray, [...]
A side from my best friend Lori, I can't think of anyone who knows me as well as my big brother Alexi. Over the years, he's made some interesting observations about me. He was the first one to call me a "recovering introvert," a phrase that stuck and one that I still use whenever anyone asks me to describe myself. One of his more interesting conclusions: That I spend way too much time dating outside of my league -- not up, down. Now Alexi hasn't met all of my exes, but he's met enough of my dates [...]
As in previous years, we're off today, cleaning house and burning the social calendar at both ends for the long weekend. So here's our traditional Memorial Day post, plus a growing set of bonus tracks for our regular readers. For most of my life, the military has been an abstraction. Though war itself lives everpresent in our newsdriven culture, and memorial statues and parades a recurring part of community, my concept of life in the armed forces, and the risks [...]
Though the minor hits "Wonder" and "Jealousy" bore a reasonable resemblance to Merchant's work with 10,000 Maniacs, most of Tigerlily clearly established her as a solo artist apart from her former... Download your favourite album at The Mood Indicator
Y ears ago, I interviewed Natalie Merchant shortly after she left 10,000 Maniacs, and I got a little bit carried away with the pleasantries. "Hi, Natalie," I said when she got on the line, practically beaming through the phone. "How are you?" Though I stopped short of breaking into a verse of "These Are Days" and was genuinely thrilled to be talking to one of my favorite singers, I knew I had gone over the top. Awkward silence followed. "Have we met?" Natalie asked, her voice faltering, suspicious. "Um, I don't think so," I [...]
Glen Hansard at his charity gig for Haiti I love those times when you randomly stumble across something for the first time that completely blows you away. This happened me tonight when I found the below video on YouTube while browsing music. I know what you're thinking; another bloody version of 'Hallelujah'. But this one's a little bit special, and I really can't believe it slipped under my radar. On January 10th 2010, Damien Rice and Natalie Merchant joined [...]
Five years ago I moved out of the San Francisco Bay Area for the snowy, crisp mountains of Colorado. I absolutely love my adopted home, our vibrant music scene, and the fresh air here, but no foolin' I do often long for my hometown hills. Over the holidays I went to San Francisco for a week to stay at the Noe Valley apartment of friends who were out of town and graciously let me "housesit." It was a part of town I had never stayed in before. When I first let myself into their empty place on [...]
Well this is it, the top 10 albums of the year. Based on a lot of lists I've seen around the web, mine will be quite a bit different than most, but hopefully that will expose more people to different music as well. Be sure to check back tomorrow for my songs of the year. 10. Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me [...]
KATIE WAISSEL . What? Oh. Just kidding . It's Matt Cardle . As I said in my wrap-up of the final performance night , I blame Christina Aguilera for Rebecca Ferguson 's loss. I like Matt, but you'd have to be a damn fool to believe he's going to push more albums than anyone else this season. For now I shall eagerly await Rebecca's Natalie Merchant -meets- Sade record full of icy boner jams, and what will surely be an era-defining, swagga-riffic, [...]
THIS IS IT, as one of the X Factor judges famously sang 17 years ago (oh my God, 17 years?!): The STAR-STUDDED X Factor final show is finally upon us! And thank God, because I'm totally over it. But first-A top 16 performance of "What A Feeling"! Yeah, sure-why not?! ( WATCH ) LOOK: IT'S AIDEN GRIMSHAW LOOKING SEXY! Katie Weasel looking ridiculous in [...]
The last I heard anything new from Natalie Merchant was Motherland and the song "This House Is On Fire", and before that I was only familiar with her radio hits. So, when I heard she had a new album of lullabies and nursery rhymes, it had me intrigued. The album is actually 2 discs and runs a little over and hour and a half, and it is one of the most unique albums of the year. Natalie uses poems from authors ranging from E.E. Cummings to Robert Louis Stevenson . Most of them are very [...]
Bad Braids is a very intimate project, clearly intended to showcase the beautiful talents of Megan Biscieglia. Her talents as a guitarist, vocalist, and lyricist are on full display throughout Arrow and Orb, a fascinating and ingenious release that mixes gypsy-folk, psychedelia, and country-rock with awe-inspiring results. Biscieglia's voice has a sort of twang often [...]
Filed under: The Hit List By the time they achieve stardom, most artists have plenty of people to thank -- which becomes painfully obvious during those long award acceptance speeches. But relatively few actually express gratitude through their music. Their thankful songs usually praise loved ones, deities or the "little people" -- those loyal fans whom the artists hope will express their loyalty one more time [...]
It's pretty quiet here, just after noon on a rare sickday at home. The kids are at school, as they should be; the wife is off with a friend, doing some last minute shopping for Friday's opening night. One of the cats - I can never tell them apart - curls up next to me on the couch; the dog rests on the chair opposite, her eyes closed, her breathing gentle in sleep. And though the phone rings occasionally, startling in the overwhelming silence, I've turned off the music, the better to hear the rare [...]
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