Blog: Direct Current

RADAR: Lindsay Fuller

Feb 10, 1:42pm Direct Current
"One More Song" by Lindsay Fuller
Gothic southern literary imagery, tales of dying and despair, a haggard, mounful voice that hovers somewhere between Nick Cave and Gillian Welch -- yet the bleak, brutal music of Alabama-raised, Seattle-based songwriter Lindsay Fuller manages to find its own special intoxicating beauty. Newly signed to ATO, Fuller follows up her 2010 sophomore album The Last Light I See with You , Anniversary due March 27, another collection of darkly wondrous, powerful songs that both float in the ether and hit like a ton of bricks. Producer/bassist Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann, Grant [...]
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Artist:Lindsay Fuller
Title:Everything I Ever Had
Link Text:Lindsay Fuller - "Everything I Ever Had"
File Name:Lindsay Fuller - Everything I Ever Had.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps
Artist:Lindsay Fuller
Title:One More Song
Link Text:Lindsay Fuller - "One More Song"
File Name:Lindsay Fuller - One More Song.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

RADAR: Jay James Picton

Feb 9, 3:46pm Direct Current
Heads Vs Hearts (Part 2: LONG MAY THEY ROLL)
Brit songwriter and neo-soul singer Jay James Picton has a lot on his mind. Signed to Universal on the strength of a series of impressive, narative-driven music videos (watch below), Picton is well on his way to what promises to be a stunning debut with Play It By Heart due later this year. Comparisons to the sounds of Amy Winehouse are a given -- both share a love of gutsy old school soul, sharply etched and reedy vocal style and the ability to pen emotionally heartwrenching lyrics of loss and pain. Picton [...]
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Artist:Jay James Picton
Title:Heads vs. Hearts
Link Text:Jay James Picton - "Head vs. Hearts"
File Name:Jay James Picton - Heads vs. Hearts.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Artist:Jay James Picton
Title:Long May They Roll
Link Text:Jay James Picton - "Long May They Roll"
File Name:Jay James Picton - Long May They Roll.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Listen: Ingrid Olava - 'Tomorrow'

Feb 9, 3:43pm Direct Current
Norwegian songstress Ingrid Olava 's album The Guest was one of 2010's best kept secrets -- a deft, deeply moving and brilliantly creative album of piano-based (sm)art/pop that seemed to offer up new twists and undiscovered layers with each successive listen. Olava's working on the follow up, so we'll dig back for this special version of "Tomorrow" (from Broadway's Annie ) originally recorded and donated for an Amnesty International project in Europe. With basically just a piano and her own raw, dramatic singing, Olava turns the Broadway stage [...]
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Artist:Ingrid Olava
Title:Tomorrow
Link Text:Ingrid Olava - "Tomorrow"
File Name:Ingrid Olava - Tomorrow.mp3
Bitrate:128 kbps

Punch Brothers - Who's Feeling Young Now?

Feb 9, 12:56pm Direct Current
Applying labels is an easy and sometimes necessary thing -- we all do it. But to simply pigeonhole Punch Brothers as a bluegrass band -- even with the indie -friendly "progressi ve " attached -- is to miss the larger more interesting picture. We thnk we already know what "bluegrass" is...or do we? Assembled originally to support Nickel Creek frontman Chris Thile for a 2006 solo project, the collection of virtuoso acoustic players doesn't dwell in anything remotely "old timey [...]
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Artist:Punch Brothers
Title:Movement and Location
Link Text:Punch Brothers - "Movement and Location"
File Name:Punch Brothers - Movement and Location.mp3
Bitrate:160 kbps
Artist:Punch Brothers
Title:Who's Feeling Young Now? Sampler
Link Text:Punch Brothers - Who's Feeling Young Now? Sampler (Clara, No Concern of Yours, Patchwork Girlfriend, Soon or Never)
File Name:Punch Brothers - Who's Feeling Young Now Sampler.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Hannah Cohen - Child Bride

Feb 8, 1:25pm Direct Current
Doveman w/ Hannah Cohen "Don't Say"
Hannah Cohen - New York songwriter, photographer and one-time model tip-toes quietly in the shadows of heartbreak and loneliness with her delicate, artful folk/pop, adding a healthy dollop of tear-stained melancholy to the sweet/tart confessional confections...who figured despair could sound quite so sultry? // Release : Child Bride (April 24, Bella Union) // Sounds like : Producer/ instrumentalist Thomas "Doveman" Barlett (Antony and the Johnsons, The National) keeps the tone ethereal and dreamlike, immersing Cohen's airy, cool and detached vocals in a warm bath of strings, plucked guitars and haunting piano chords and [...]
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Artist:Hannah Cohen
Title:Child Bride Sampler
Link Text:Hannah Cohen - Child Bride Album Sampler (Don't Say, California, The Simplest)
File Name:Hannah Cohen - Child Bride Album Sampler.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Artist:Hannah Cohen
Title:The Crying Game
Link Text:Hannah Cohen - "The Crying Game"
File Name:Hannah Cohen - The Crying Game.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Ben Howard - Every Kingdom

Feb 8, 11:41am Direct Current
Ben Howard - Released in the U.K. last fall to critical acclaim and strong sales -- and now pegged for a U.S. release -- the full length successor to the promising Old Pine debut EP delivers mesmerizing finger-picked modern folk from a 23-year-old Brit West Country singer/songwriter (and surfer)...ten track album was produced by Howard's bassist/ drummer Chris Bond in a converted barn studio in Devon // Release : Every Kingdom (March 13 CD, Out Now Digitally ) // Sounds like : Howard utilizes a knuckle-rapping percussive style for his playing, [...]
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Artist:Ben Howard
Title:Keep Your Head Up
Link Text:Ben Howard - "Keep Your Head Up"
File Name:Ben Howard - Keep Your Head Up.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Listen: Dead Flamingoes - "Hold Your Fire"

Feb 7, 5:44pm Direct Current
No sooner did we get our post on Kami Thompson's new solo album Love Lies up on DC did we discover her latest work with fellow Londoner and songwriter James Walbourne -- the delightfully monikered Dead Flamingoes . A tour with Josh Rouse in the U.K. has just wrapped, a debut EP Habit is imminent and skittery and shimmering lead track "Hold Your Fire" -- replete with a sinewy guitar break -- is now yours to weigh in on... [...]
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Artist:Dead Flamingoes
Title:Hold Your Fire
Link Text:Dead Flamingoes - "Hold Your Fire"
File Name:Dead Flamingoes - Hold Your Fire.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

DC February 7 New Release Recap

Feb 7, 5:09pm Direct Current
Something old -- something new. Something borrowed and, yes, something blue on this week's list of new releases. Covering the both old and borrowed, may we offer you the collection of 30's-era standards from the Macca man himself, Paul McCartney? Valentines Day, as his marketing folks at Hear Music will tell you, is right around the corner. For us -- we'll take the newest from that whip-smart songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs along with the second album from Feist guitarist (and songwriter) Afie Jurvanen ( aka Bahamas). We're also fond [...]
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Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou - Quality First, Last and Forever!

Feb 7, 2:56pm Direct Current
'MAKING IT COUNT' by Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou
Add us to the list of willing converts to the brightly spangled folk and retro-pop of London singer/songwriting husband and wife duo Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou . With a nod to the buskery strums of classic British folk, the pair have delivered Quality First, Last and Forever (February 7 Digital, Heavenly/Downtown) a mostly sunny, upbeat album of sing-song melodies that seem lifted from the soundtrack to some lost bell-bottomed Carnaby Street musical of the 60's or as NME put it, "Fairport Conventions's folk with Fleetwood Mac‟s pop sensibilities." Balancing the Shindig stylings of [...]
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Artist:Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou
Title:Feel At Ease
Link Text:Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou - "Feel At Ease"
File Name:Trevor Moss Hannah Lou - Feel At Ease.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Artist:Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou
Title:Big Water
Link Text:Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou - "Big Water"
File Name:Trevor Moss Hannah-Lou- Big Water.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Watch: The Shins - "September"

Feb 6, 2:08pm Direct Current
The Shins: "September" (b-side of "Simple Song" 7")
"I wanted it to be a diamond" Shin-master James Mercer tells Rolling Stone of this unabashed love song written for his wife and premiering today on the Record Store Day site . "The trouble is that I told Marisa 'This is going to be your song', so I knew the lyrics had to be right on." Taken from the forthcoming March 20 Shins album Port of Morrow -- and b-side to new 7" single "Simple Song" -- "September" is a swaying ode with sweetly laid-back vibe, enhanced [...]
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Artist:The Shins
Title:September
Link Text:The Shins - "September"
File Name:The Shins - September.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

RADAR: Ellen and the Escapades

Feb 6, 12:16pm Direct Current
Ellen and the Escapades - Coming Back Home
With a voice that rises from a slow-smoked, raspy whisper, frontwoman Ellen Smith leads this Leeds band of mellow folk/rockers on All The Crooked Scenes , the promising full-length debut from Ellen and the Escapades arriving April 16 in the U.K. Reminiscent at time of a more low-keyed K.T Tunstall , the melodies are graceful, the moods at turns pensive and briskly no-nonsense as track such as "Coming Back Home" glide by on a luxuriant bed of acoustic picking and dense keyboard layers, initially stripped [...]
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Artist:Ellen and the Escapades
Title:"This Ace I've Burned"
Link Text:Ellen and the Escapades - "This Ace I've Burned"
File Name:Ellen and the Escapades - This Ace I've Burned.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Artist:Ellen and the Escapades
Title:Coming Back Home
Link Text:Ellen and the Escapades - "Coming Back Home"
File Name:Ellen and the Escapades - Coming Back Home.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Anais Mitchell - Young Man In America

Feb 6, 12:01pm Direct Current
Anais Mitchell and Michael Chorney - Shepherd
Anais Mitchell - Any doubts that the creative smarts behind 2010's impressive folk "opera" Hadestown -- a mix of Greek mythology and dust-bowl Americana -- might have peaked are easily dispelled with this intelligent, thoughtfully personal new work of storytelling inspired, she says, "by American manhood, British ballads and my father"...producer/musician Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco, Andrew Bird) is once again at the studio helm // Release : Young Man In America (February 28) // Sounds like : Mitchell's distinctive, girlish voice serves as a counterpoint for her [...]
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Artist:Anais Mitchell
Title:Shepherd
Link Text:Anais Mitchell - "Shepherd"
File Name:Anais Michell - Shepherd.mp3
Bitrate:160 kbps
Genre:Indie Rock
Year:2012
Artist:Anais Mitchell
Title:Young Man In America Sampler
Link Text:Anais Mitchell - Young Man In America Sampler
File Name:Anais Mitchell - Young Man In America Sampler.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Paul McCartney - Kisses On The Bottom

Feb 3, 3:46pm Direct Current
Paul McCartney - 'Kisses On The Bottom'
Paul McCartney - Teamed with famed producer and record exec Tommy Lipuma and joined by Diana Krall and her band, Macca -- turning 70 this spring -- digs back to the pure, sugary sweet nostalgia of his parent's generation with this plush, lushly upholstered collection of a dozen mostly romantic standards -- and a couple of new originals, too...Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder make guest appearances // Release : Kisses On the Bottom (February 7, Hear Music) // Sounds like : for those looking for a syrupy but sincere take on these vintage [...]
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Artist:Paul McCartney
Title:Get Yourself Another Fool
Link Text:Paul McCartney - "Get Yourself Another Fool"
File Name:Paul McCartney - Get Yourself Another Fool.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Artist:Paul McCartney
Title:Only Our Hearts
Link Text:Paul McCartney - "Only Our Hearts"
File Name:Paul McCartney - Only Our Hearts.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Watch: M. Ward - "The First Time I Ran Away"

Feb 2, 6:52pm Direct Current
M. Ward - The First Time I Ran Away
Monster Folk-er as well as the Him of She and Him, M. Ward gets positively cuddly on this Nick Drake-ian song set to a One Eskimo-styled animated charm. For some reason we keep thinking of imbibing some hot chocolate on a cold day (with extra marshmallows) or that episode of Seinfeld when George explores his fantasy of wrapping himself in nothing but velvet. From his forthcoming album A Wasteland Companion , due April 10. More DC here .
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Sofia Talvik - The Owls Are Not What They Seem

Feb 2, 6:04pm Direct Current
After a moving to an increasingly larger production scope on her last two projects, Swedish songwriter Sofia Talvik says she went "back to basics" on her overtly pretty but modest and unpretentious fifth album The Owls Are Not What They Seem , self-released digitally in the U.S. this week. Recorded mostly at her home, Talvik's gentle acoustic songs make up for any loss of sonic power and rhythmic force with a focus on the sweetly nuanced basics: endearing melodies, tasteful arrangements around [...]
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Artist:Sofia Talvik
Title:Nothing Quite So Gentle
Link Text:Sofia Talvik - "Nothing Quite So Gentle"
File Name:Sofia Talvik - Nothing Quite So Gentle.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Artist:Sofia Talvik
Title:The Garden
Link Text:Sofia Talvik - "The Garden"
File Name:Sofia Talvik - The Garden.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Teitur - Let the Dog Drive Home

Feb 2, 2:39pm Direct Current
Since his debut in 2003, Danish singer/songwriter Teitur Lassen has quietly made a name for himself throughout Europe, garnering strong reviews, awards and airplay. A tireless and engaging performer, the Faroe Islands native has shared the stage with the likes of Aimee Mann and John Mayer (who called his '03 debut album "one of the best albums to come around in the last five years") and developed a growing cult of American fans. Let the [...]
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Watch: Poliça - "Lay Your Cards Out"

Feb 2, 1:50pm Direct Current
POLICA - Lay Your Cards Out (Official Music Video)
We pretty much equate auto-tuned vocals with the black plague but somehow in the hands of Channy Leaneagh and Poliça we're thinking we might be able to take a break from the browbeating and handwringing -- kind of like getting a delightful if temporary sugar buzz from a Krispy Kreme donut, you know you feel guilty but it tastes so good. We liked the song and we love the video, simply shot and sensuous, the trip-hop beat and Leaneagh's elegant, fluid moves forming a rather hypnotic series of images and sounds. From the band's [...]
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Link Text:Poliça - "Lay Your Cards Out" (feat. Mike Noyce)
File Name:Polica - Lay Your Cards Out feat. Mike Noyce.mp3

WInterpills - All My Lovely Goners

Feb 1, 6:07pm Direct Current
Winterpills - After 2010's "bedroom affair" EP Tuxedo Ashes , New England's fine, woefully unheralded indie pop band returns with a more fully produced full length of finely crafted, lushly harmonied songs embellished with ambient seques and moods both deep and dark..."we were all pushing ourselves here to make something exciting, emotional, fresh and rocking," says guitarist Dennis Crommet // Release : All My Lovely Goners (February 14, Signature Sounds) // Sounds like: the trademark chamber pop melodies and resplendent, entwined vocals that have been Winterpills' hallmark since ' [...]
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Artist:Winterpills
Title:All My Lovely Goners Sampler
Link Text:Winterpills - All My Lovely Goners Sampler
File Name:Winterpills - All My Lovely Goners Sampler.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Artist:Winterpills
Title:Amazing Sky
Link Text:Winterpills - "Amazing Sky"
File Name:Winterpills - Amazing Sky.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

RADAR: Of Monsters and Men

Feb 1, 2:50pm Direct Current
Of Monsters and Men - Love Love Love (Live on KEXP)
Co-founders, songwriters and singers Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar " Raggi " Þórhallsson head up Of Monsters and Men , an Icelandic band has plied their bright, smart and tuneful art/pop into something both folksy and larger than life. Combining the solid folk/rock melodies of 10,000 Maniacs and the bright, tambourine-shaking gypsy-inspired choruses of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, the much-buzzed outfit follow up their well-received 2011 EP [...]
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Artist:Of Monsters and Men
Title:Little Talks
Link Text:Of Monsters and Men - "Little Talks"
File Name:Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Artist:Of Monsters and Men
Title:The King & Lionheart
Link Text:Of Monsters and Men - "King and Lionheart"
File Name:Of Monsters and Men - King Lionheart.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Listen: Bonnie Raitt - "Right Down the Line"

Jan 31, 5:46pm Direct Current
Forty years after her remarkable, groundbreaking debut album, Bonnie Raitt returns with her first new studio recordings in seven years with Slipstream , due April 10. With multiple Grammys under her belt -- most for her multi-platinum Nick of Tim e and Luck of the Draw success -- Raitt continues to skillfully fuse folk/blues and pop melodies with the greatest of ease. Lead track "Right Down the Line" is simply classic Raitt, a slinky, slightly funky track with a slippery reggae beat and fuzz-tinged slide guitar work. Like the best [...]
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Artist:Bonnie Raitt
Title:Right Down the Line
Link Text:Bonnie Raitt - "Right Down the Line"
File Name:Bonnie Raitt - Right Down the Line.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
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