The blogs are buzzing with yesterday's announcement, via a terse yet sincere statement on their website , that Athens, GA hometown heroes R.E.M. are calling it quits after three decades on the road, the radio, and the cultural consciousness. We first covered the genre-defining band back in 2009, so rather than rehash their path from college radio to iconic mainstream success, we're taking the opportunity to revisit that older post today in memoriam - with a couple of bonus covers of Losing My Religion , from more recent CLD faves Amber Rubarth [...]
Vancouver's Redbird recently released an EP with the gloomy, fatalistic title We're All Friends and Lovers Until It Falls Apart . Bummed out? Don't be. "No Game" is a catchy pop rock tune, building from a quiet intro to a brisk, dance-y groove that's laced with chiming guitar licks. The slight overdrive on the guitars gives this tune just a hint of grit. Check out the EP over at Bandcamp .
They ran the last trucks through Paradise Lake Road last night, their claws clutching desperately at the piles of brush and branches which have covered the curbsides and yards since the month began. The high school seniors who worked so tirelessly to bring hope and helping hands to shellshocked neighborhoods the morning after their graduation did not happen begin to move on, visiting colleges, taking off for the summer. The church with the fallen clocktower posts daily on our facebook page, its requests sounding evermore desperate as it struggles to find enough volunteers to keep the momentum going. [...]
Sembra arrivare direttamente dalla trasognante America questo disco di Nico Greco and His Band , Blue Like Santa Cruz per la Redbirds Records. Un capitolo sospeso fra il blues e il folk cantautoriale che non disdegna leggere appartenenze al rock psichedelico della fine degli anni settanta, inizi anni ottanta. La formula di questo tuffo oltre l'oceano è volutamente ridotta all'osso con chitarre acustiche predominanti e l'immancabile armonica, che, assieme alla parte ritmica, racchiudono l'essenza di questo secondo lavoro in studio del musicista molisano e band. Lo start è da subito conferma di un songwriting appartenente al filone [...]
I've been looking rather hard these past few days for a song to fall in love with because it feels like it's been awhile even though I've been overwhelmed by mass amounts of music the past few weeks. In music blogger terms of time that means it's been about 12 days or since I posted that Monogrenade song I played twenty times in one day. I've been digging hard in the Seattle music scene but some of those bands out there are scared of the internet or something because [...]
![The Luyas' Red Bird Gallery show [Film]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3212293_lg.jpg)
Finally footage from The Luyas' Pop Montreal show at the Red Bird Gallery is up. I was lucky to attend that show during my time at Pop Montreal in 2010. Yamantaka // Sonic Titan was the opener that night. Review from the show are here . Check out the film.
Country, like jazz music, is a truly American art form born in the United States. Despite the recent glossy and insincere evolution of the "country" label and the occasional absurdly popular right wing propaganda-inspired song , the basic foundation of the genre is still intact. From old greats like Hank Williams and George Jones to contemporaries like Deer Tick and the Willie Nelson-loving Matthew Houck, this playlist is dedicated to those momentary visions of great country music conceived of and kept alive in song. The mixtape's title is inspired by the above photo of Gram Parsons, who was having [...]
It's a point of personal pride that in almost three years of existence, we've never missed a scheduled post here at Cover Lay Down. But tonight we're as close as we've ever come, thanks to the sudden, time-consuming duality of both long days in the classroom and long nights at rehearsals for our local community theater production - and the heat wave we're experiencing here in New England doesn't help. I had half a post written, but it looks like it's not going to make it out of draft form 'til Sunday. [...]
Redbird: You Are the Everything [ purchase ] I have been a fan of Kris Delmhorst since my friend Stephen/Mosh turned me on to her music in the fall of '98, and I had a chance to see her live at the February '99 Folk Alliance in Albuquerque, in a small hotel room with the mattresses pushed up again the walls, with about six other people - the following year she was one of the Top Twenty songwriter competition finalists for our South Florida Folk Festival and, but for [...]
Cruisin'-The Commission (Jay-Z, Snoop, Notorious B.I.G.) Mother's Little Regulator-Snoop, Rolling Stones, and Warren G I Gotta Get Drunk-Redbird (Willie Nelson cover) Smells Like Teen Spirit-Willie Nelson
Ah, Flower Communion Sunday. Traditionally the last Sunday service before a Universalist Unitarian parish moves to a lay-led summer, the Flower Communion celebrates both the contributory nature of the UU community and the natural world by bringing the blooming world into the church at its last, and then letting it go back out again as we ourselves turn to the world of social justice and peace-making. The beauty and diversity of life - of our own, and the bounty of the land - is present in the rich cornucopia of the green-stemmed bounty. [...]
I'm a bit under the weather, and so is the sky, dropping branches and rain on the newly-cleared lawn and wreaking havoc on our 'net connection. I've got some great new music to share, and it's burning me up not to be able to bring it out this evening...but under the circumstances, I'm thinking something a little less strenuous might be more apropos. Hope no one minds a repost, from the aftermath of a similar storm two summers ago, with a promise of something more substantive to follow later in the week... [...]
Like so many of our Covered in Folk feature subjects, I discovered country-folk singer-songwriter John Prine via coverage - through both his own "original" version of Roly Salley composition Killing the Blues , which Shawn Colvin attributed to Prine himself on her mid-nineties cover album Cover Girl , and Bonnie Raitt's ubiquitous version of Angel From Montgomery , a sentimental bluesfolk number familiar to anyone who has ever flipped the radio dial to a Contemporary station in the last few decades. It wasn't until much later, during a week in attendance at [...]
Nearly complete collection with some stereo bonuses With so many cheap Shangri-Las compilations arriving on digital download lately, you have to wonder if someone forgot to renew the copyrights. This set is a nearly complete accounting of the Shangri-Las official releases, including the tracks from their two albums ( Leader of the Pack and Shangri-Las '65 ), their pre- and post-Red Bird singles for Spokane, Scepter, Smash and Mercury, the well circulated alternate take of "Give Him a Great Big Kiss," two ads for Revlon, and Mary Weiss' period "good taste tip" [...]
I somehow managed to reach full-bore adulthood without hearing a lick of Tom Waits . Which is probably all for the better: as I've noted many times , my long-standing preference for melodic voices is only now giving way to a mature appreciation of the unique beauty that springs from powerful truths filtered through broken instruments. And anyway, the Tom Waits songbook is eminently adult, both in the way it looks at the world through bleary, jaded, ancient eyes and the way it rattles about with themes of alcoholics, lonesome trainwatchers, [...]
Who likey the R.E.M.? Me do! If you want a free copy of R.E.M.'s double live album, R.E.M. Live At The Olympia , all you gotta do is read this post and figure out the magic secret! The two-CD set, produced by Jacknife Lee , features 39 songs that capture the best moments from the band's 2007 working rehearsals at Dublin ¹s fabled Olympia club, where singer Michael Stipe , guitarist Peter Buck, and bassist Mike Mills tested out new songs for R.E.M.'s 2008 studio album Accelerate. [...]
As I've settled in to my new home in Bloomington , Indiana, I've been getting to know who the local artists are, going to shows, and sitting down with people involved in the local music scene. According to Andy Goheen ( Sticky and the Bees , E.P. Hall ) who organizes shows for The Bishop , Bloomington has over 500 bands. Shortly after moving here Nicole O'Neal ( Hipster Spinster ) asked me to co-host a radio show with her. We decided to call it [...]
I don't actively read obituaries, as I expect the passing of anyone of import will filter to me through regular news channels. Apparently not. Ellie Greenwich passed away a week ago , and I just happened upon the news today. Brian Wilson said, "She was the greatest melody writer of all time." Quite a compliment from anyone, but even more so from such a terrific melodicist in his own right. My affection for Greenwich isn't tied only to specific songs, but also to the craft that she helped define as part of the Brill Building stable. Several [...]
I've never particularly liked REM. Of course I respect them as an extremely talented group of musicians, but I've never once thought, "Hey, let's put on some REM!" Nope. But Redbird —a collective of American folk songwriters comprised of Jeffrey Foucault, Peter Mulvey and Kris Delmhorst—have made me a huge fan of one particular song: "You Are The Everything." Redbird covered a variety of artists on their 2005 debut (everyone from Willie Nelson to Benny Goodman), but it's this incredibly affective REM tune that puts the tightest grip on the listener. Michael Stipe's [...]
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![Niki & The Dove - The Fox [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/l2f6UbMnlq4_130.jpg)
Chromatics: “Into The Black”
Download: The Violet Lights - "Sex and Sound"
Sunday Means Eight Of The Best
Listen: Burial - Kindred [EP]
Introducing a Mix of New Irish Music #10 Vantastival Special
