well, i guess this is it, huh? 2010 is just about done, and while i usually wait a little longer to do my end of the year list, i figured at this point it was pretty solidly impacted in my brain. so, there was really no point in waiting. oh, im sure ill hear something between now and the end of the year that will blow my mind, cause thats just the way shit goes. i am not going to talk to much re: the list, and just let the songs i have provided do the talking. why fuck up [...]
happy saturday, all! if it werent for majesty shredding , strand of oaks' pope killdragon would be my favorite record of the year. even with that said, its a very close second. here are some live performances on a dock that timothy did for the weekender . buy pope killdragon via emusic . Tags: best of 2010 , pope killdragon , [...]
Strand Of Oaks - Daniel's Blues
As a native Floridian for the first 31 years of my life, I never experienced Autumn. Yeah, it gets chilly down there in the winter and things die and stuff, but really winter is seen as more of just a break from the heat and humidity that permeates the state the other 10 months of the year. My point being... Weather-wise... I do not miss Florida in the slightest. Moving to Ohio over 6 1/2 years ago I discovered seasons. Genuine seasons. Bits of similar weather that last for about 3 months [...]
Zooey Deschanel, “God Bless America,” Phils At Giants NLCS Game 3, 10/19/10 "We felt conflicted about this in about five different ways." (Philebrity) Where Is My Mind?: Strand of Oaks’ Timothy Showalter "By now, you may have heard about the tragic story of Timothy Showalter a.k.a. Strand of Oaks losing all his belongings in a fire at the same time his fiancé had decided to leave him, which helped inspire Showalter to write songs for his last album Leave Ruin (La Société Expéditionnaire) with an acoustic guitar on a suburban Philly [...]
![Strand Of Oaks – Pope Killdragon [Album Review]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2907032_lg.jpg)
Strand Of Oaks (aka Timothy Showalter) faces the same dilemma that The Acorn faced in following up their debut Glory Hope Mountain . Both had released deeply personal albums where the back story carried as much weight as the actual songs. But much like The Acorn's follow up No Ghost , Strand Of Oaks' Pope Kildragon is a worthy successor and, at points, is considerably better than Leave Ruin . The standout track on Pope Killdragon is "Daniel's Blues," a tune Tim played for us during our [...]
A few weeks back we had the chance to see two outstanding bands up close and personal. Breathe Owl Breathe and Strand of Oaks made their way through Pittsburgh and stopped at Garfield Artworks to put on an amazing display for those lucky people there. We're big fans of both bands here at DUL, but we had never had a chance to see either band before this. Our in-house media man, Todd Kappelt was there to capture some beautiful photos of the bands. We love words, but this time I think [...]
Tim Showalter's first album under the Strand of Oaks moniker, Leave Ruin , became instantaneously synonymous with its cinematic back-story. Indie-legend has it that Showalter's fiancée broke up with him just after he had returned to his home one night to find it burned to the ground. He then spent the next few months writing the record's material on an acoustic guitar in between nights asleep on Philadelphia park benches. Since then, he's made it clear that he'd like to separate himself from that particularly remarkable anecdote. He's [...]
Philly based singer/songwriter Timothy Showalter records under the name of Strand Of Oaks and he's just released a haunting and gorgeous collection of songs called Pope Killdragon through eMusic. The Wilkes-Barre native is a fascinating story teller, creator of confessional acoustic based songs that are singular in voice and vision. According to eMusic, "in 2003, Showalter's house burned down, his fiancée broke up with him, and he resorted to writing songs on an acoustic guitar while living on park benches in suburban Philadelphia. Those events informed [...]
New Wax If you are familiar with Tim Showalter's backstory (a fire, a breakup, homelessness) and his solid 2009 debut under the Strand Of Oaks moniker, Leave Ruin , then you might expect a similarly personal yet well-crafted album in Pope Killdragon , but the new LP is much denser both thematically and musically. While the stripped acoustic vibe is still Showalter's specialty, songs on Pope Killdragon unexpectedly break out into Crazy Horse-esque rock-outs and the instrumental tracks swimmingly veer far beyond the folk [...]
Head over to Pitchfork and read the glowing review they gave Strand of Oaks ' Pope Killdragon , calling it "an astoundingly original twist on the loner-folk template" and giving it an 8.1. The album is only available via the eMusic Selects program, go here to pick it up. MP3: Strand of Oaks - "Bonfire" ++ Video: Strand of Oaks – “Sterling” (Milwaukee House Show) Interview: Muzzle of [...]
Frequent Columbus gigger and Black Swans buddy Tim Showalter aka Strand of Oaks released intimate sophomore album Pope Killdragon on emusic recently, and the more spins I give it the more it's transfixing me. Fans of Bon Iver, Will Oldham and maybe early Neil Young should find some common ground here. Showalter is the rare singer/songwriter who can be emotive without overly emoting. If you're not ready to pull the trigger on Killdragon , you can download Strand of Oaks' Live in Chicago 2008 EP for free [...]
"Record Store Application" by Toothpastefordinner.com So just a recap and a a couple of things I noticed on the webs that I thought I would translate into my own post of sorts. Yeah... Strand of Oaks has a bootleg out from a Chicago show back in 2008 (it has a couple of tracks from both albums "Leave Ruin" and the new one "Pope Killdragon"). Speaking of Pope Killdragon - this album is fighting with the next artist in this post for my favourite album of the year so far....just [...]
firstly, i gotta thank mr duquette johnston for tipping me off to these guys. well, he didnt directly say "hey greg check these guys out", it was a general tweet . secondly, about 15 seconds into the first song, "good times, they disappear," off the choosy beggars' self titled record, i knew i was in love. sadly, i cant find any good information on these guys other than the fact that they tagged "seattle" on their bandcamp site. so, i can only assume they reside from said city. the other tag on their badcamp site [...]
songs for dreary sunday. dreams - step 1 the electronic anthology project - what if you're dull? strand of oaks - walking dean and britta - it don't rain in beverly hills
Okay, this "Song of the Day" could also be "Album of the Half Year" practically. Strand of Oaks has created such a wall of sound in the form of an album that it is ridiculous. Tim Showalter has graced the pages of this blog many times and I am glad to have more of this guy around with his new album "Pope Killdragon". The song featured is "Bonfire", but know that there are at least 4 other songs that could be contenders for best new music themselves. The previous album from SoO was "Leave Ruin" and that was [...]
De nieuwste verzamelaar van Yer Bird heet Folk Music For What Lies Ahead . Met eerder verzamelaars heeft Yer Bird al aangetoond over ene fijne neus te bezitten voor interessante nieuwe acts. Zo bevatte Folk Music For the End of the World een mooie selectie van niet eerder uitgebrachte tracks van Hayden, J. Tillman en Oweihops. Voor heet Folk Music For What Lies Ahead is de aanpak hetzelfde. Het album bevat een sfeervolle selectie van niet eerder uitgebracht werk van onder andere Sharon Van Etten , Matthew Ryan en Hezekiah Jones . Ik [...]
SIDE A 1. J. Tillman - Three Sisters 2. Black Mountain - The Hair Song 3. Lissie - Bully 4. Ra Ra Riot - Boy 5. The Walkmen - Stranded 6. Colour Revolt - Our Names 7. The Black Angels - Telephone SIDE B 1. Peter Wolf Crier - Crutch And Crane [...]
Just what is folk music? Is it soft-spoken, intimate confessions poured out over an acoustic guitar? Is it "We Shall Overcome," sung on the National Mall? Is it ever playful? Joyful? Does it do something other than teach? Can it be "pop?" Clearly, the answers to these questions are subjective, but at their core is a common notion: "Folk" music is "apart" from other music. There is something different about the folk singer - that mythic figure of storytelling and poetic wisdom. But is that really true? [...]
strand of oaks' leave ruin is a record that for some reason i didnt put on my best of list last year, and thats criminal. some of the other ones, looking back, could and do take a back to seat to said record. its not an immediate "hey this is the greatest thing ever" kind of record, but damn does it catch fire once its fully digested. well, timothy showalter and his strand of oaks are back with a new, equally excellent record called pope killdragon . pope killdragon "suffers" from the same immediacy issues as [...]
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