Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments! Richard Thompson’s solo debut, Henry the Human Fly, began with a song that contained the line, "Don't expect the words to ring too sweetly on the ear." This would become his songwriting credo, as he penned lyrics that were incisive, emotive, and not the least bit sentimental, bringing them home with an equally biting guitar. His wife Linda sang with a powerful clarity, her voice full of aching, mischief, mourning, celebration, or whatever else the song [...]
It rained all day yesterday, sometimes heavily. Gracie didn't go out until early in the evening when it was just sprinkling. Today is cloudy and humid, and I feel closed in by the humidity which sucks in all the air making it difficult to breathe. A leaf bounces in the air every now and then but there is no breeze. Even the birds are quiet, their songs dulled by the thick air. I have no ambition whatsoever. I stayed up late and watched the Sox-Yankees game and was rewarded with a Sox win in the 10th. It amazes [...]
Bird Of Youth has no business being this good. Really. If writing and recording a really beautiful album was as easy as Beth Wawerna and her crew made it look, wouldn’t everyone do it? That’s sort of the story here. For most of her decade in New York, Wawerna was, in the words of her pal [...]
Various Artists Album: Misra Legacy Compilation Volume I (Free Download) Label: Misra Records The Mendoza Line - Catch A Collapsing Star Bears - How To Live Tweet
If it’s December at You Ain’t No Picasso then it’s time for Mixmas. Every year I use the holiday season as an excuse to get some of my favorite musicians to contribute a mix centered around a theme of their choosing. They share some of their favorites and we get a little peak into their [...]
If it’s December at You Ain’t No Picasso then it’s time for Mixmas. Every year I use the holiday season as an excuse to get some of my favorite musicians to contribute a mix centered around a theme of their choosing. They share some of their favorites and we get a little peak into their [...]
It s Our Limitations That Make Us What We Are. Dear New Orleans is a benefit album that will release next week to commemorate the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and continue to support organizations that have a direct impact on the city, it s ...
"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?" - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [...]
Here in Brooklyn we've got nearly 2 feet of snow and it's still coming down a bit. It was a "work from home" day that ended at 11am. I trekked out once to check on my roommates car and then back in the house. I'd gladly have a snowball fight or build a snowperson with someone or go sledding before the snow turns black and yellow and other assorted unnatural colors. In the meantime I will sit here and share some snowy music with you on this Friday afternoon. The Mendoza Line [...]
heavy trash in my heart elliott brood oh, alberta nathan lawr we go down mike o'neill stay with me royal city is this it (strokes cover) stars your ex-lover is dead iron and wine rattling bone mendoza line mysterious in black thomas dybdahl pale green eyes paul duncan oil in the fields the waterboys a man is in love paul weller [...]
This list could go hundreds, thousands deep and it would still only touch the surface, so you know how much a struggle it was for me to cut it down to just 50. Ranking art is always a bit of a silly process, and it’s even more here, when every single song is brilliant. So don’t take the order too seriously. The real point of this is to give people a chance to hear the things that I simply couldn’t live without, the songs that make my whole world go around – and to hopefully [...]
The span of years roughly book-ended by the launches of Napster and Spotify -- a decade during which many perpetually proclaimed the album format dead -- was crammed with crates and crates and crates and crates of compelling music. And why wouldn't it be? Ones and zeroes do not obviate humanity's innate need to rock . But that is a subject for another day. Today, as part of Deckfight 's ongoing Albums Of The Decade Blog Tour , we force ourselves to choose the 10 best of the last 10 years. For weeks we've debated how to [...]
So now that Pitchfork has gone ahead and informed the musical community what we should consider the best music of the past 10 years ( Pitchfork’s Top 500 Songs of the Decade ), it’s time to reflect on their choices and respond. I’ll admit it…I like Pitchfork a lot (they’ve gone a long way in recent years to rehab their image as snarky, self-important elitists into simply elitists who know they’re important). I also love lists, so I enjoyed hearing/seeing/reading what they had to say. It’s a very interesting list to either peruse or to study, and there are a [...]
All of Friday night clicked together very neatly for us when Iran fronter Aaron Aites mentioned that he had written the song "I Already Know You're Wrong," a highlight of the Brooklyn-based quartet's supporting set, with Peter Hoffman. This name might not mean that much to you unless, like us, you are a very big fan of the late, lamented The Mendoza Line , which in its heyday was fronted by Mr. Hoffman, Timothy Bracy and Shannon McArdle. According to Wikipedia , which we all know to be completely infallible, apparently Hoffman was once a full-fledged [...]
Strap on your Pucci best. We're rifling through our treasure trove of interviews to fish out a vintage gem–the better to explore the strange vortex in which fashion and musicians meet. Today, we’re giving Shannon McArdle the once-over to see if she’s a must-buy or a throwback. Ms. McArdle went solo when her band Mendoza Line–and her marriage to lead singer Timothy Bracy–broke up. She emerged from the double devastation with Summer of the Whore , a semi-autobiographical album that manages to mix humor, vengeful bitterness, dour acceptance, regret and masochism with “dignity and [...]
Helvetia Hometown: Seattle, Washington Album: The Acrobats (Buy) Year: 2008 Label: The Static Cult Label MP3: Helvetia - Old New Bicycle Notes: New Album 'Junk Shop' coming out September 15th Studio Hometown: Gothenburg, Sweden Album: West Coast (Buy) Year: 2007 Label: Information MP3: [...]
Wand Genre: Folk / Experimental / Psychedelic From: Tennessee United States Former Wooden Wand leader James Jackson Toth (first seen on the Devil's blog in June 2007 Jane Air & Wooden Wand ) has dropped the Wooden and announced the release of not one, but two releases under his new [...]
Iran Dissolver Narnack Records Release Date: 02.17.09 A rare gem from one of New York’s first most eclectic groups, Dissolver has been an awfully long time coming. Originally scheduled for release three years ago and tweaked, re-tweaked, renamed, and finally landing this past month via Narnack , Iran ’s third album is their most straightforward yet. Dissolver works in layers. Iran’s recording members - singer/songwriter Aaron Aites, along with Kyp Malone ( TV on the Radio ), Pete Hoffman ( [...]
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars It has been seven years since the last release from Iran , which makes the forthcoming record Dissolver one of the more curious and anticipated albums of 2009. Especially after the song "Buddy" was found all over blogs in October of 2008, we heard the new direction that the sound was heading in - Hi-fi (ve) and thank-you for doing so boys. Fresh off of living in Norway for two years to make a successful documentary about the black metal movement, "Until the Light Takes Us," Aaron [...]
>> Timothy Bracy's Collection Agency , the vehicle of the eponymous former Mendoza Line co-fronter, now apparently goes by the more succinct moniker Collection Agency . The outfit tends a MySpace dojo right here , where you can stream one folksy, rough demo titled "Doug Yule" along with a cross-section of various standout Mendoza Line cuts. Collection Agency purports to count among its number various of the Mendoza Line cohort including Clint Newman, John Troutman, Elizabeth Nelson and mustachioed fan-favorite Paul Deppler, as well as the heretofore unknown-to-us Beth Wawerna -- who fronts [...]
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