Self-produced fourth full-length from Tyler, Texas' all-in-the-family band Eisley finds the four siblings (and a cousin) further refining and expanding their sound. A mix of off-kilter but melodic pop choruses and a dollop of arty indie rock, Currents (May 28, Equal Vision) is both smart, adventurous and, says the band's Sheree Dupree-Bemis, "honestly the first time we've had total and complete free reign over the making of one of our records and it felt so liberating." Referencing the album's title, she adds, "The current is constantly moving and flowing no matter [...]
L.A. singer/songwriter Cary Brothers teams up with the always wonderful Garrison Starr for "Disappear," a new song lifted from Brothers' recently released EP Let Me Be . The self-described "therapy record" following a painful breakup contains five new songs and is Brothers' first collection of new, original music since 2010's Under Control . [...]
Fifth full-length Trouble Will Find Me from The National finds the critically acclaimed Brooklyn band arriving at a new inner-peace mindset that probably owes more to sheer exhaustion -- tours, children -- than anything else. Not to mention the re-immersion into the deep pool of classic songwriting from the likes of Neil Young, Roy Orbison and Cat Stevens that has brought their songs a less mannered more direct focus. The creative tension that accompanied the recording of The National's two most recent albums -- 2007's Boxer , 2010's High Violet [...]
Piano-playing Sunday Lane and in-demand session and touring violinist Jessy Greene are the L.A.-based singer/songwriter duo who call themselves Fauntella Crow . Lane has released her own mostly sunny folk/pop recordings while Greene has graced the stage (and studio) with artists such as The Jayhawks, Wilco and Dave Grohl's recent "Sound City Players" project. Their promising new EP Lost Here combines strong melodies with an ethereal aural atmosphere, the combination of keys, strings and Lane and Greene's dual vocals making for an inviting chamber pop listen. Full bio and a stream (and video) [...]
The list of bands looking to channel the feel and sound of '70s Laurel Canyon folk/rock is long and growing longer but few can match The Parson Red Heads in their ability to sidestep soundalike retreads and bring their own songwriting -- and instrumental -- chops to the forefront. The follow up fall full-length to the Portland, OR, outfit's excellent 2011 Yearling is in the works and the new track "Times" is something of a preview arriving as part of a new six-song EP 6 due June 4. [...]
Over the course of their first three albums, London's The Boxer Rebellion have tweaked the sound of what their bio refers to as "grand ambition" to find critical acceptance while building upon their staunchly D.I.Y. indie strategy. This is, it should be noted, the first band to break into the U.S. Top 100 albums chart for their breakout album Union without a physical CD release. But after tapping high-cred producer Ethan Johns for their dark, more organic-based The Cold Still, The Boxers have pretty much embraced their inner arena-rock gloss for their new aptly [...]
Recreating the strobe-tastic, glittering energy of a 3am club scene would appear to be high on the to-do list of Dungeonesse , a dizzying, beat-heavy collaboration of Baltimore chums Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak) and John Ehrens (White Life). Marrying airy melodic hooks to some skittering drum-and-bass jolts and Wasner's headlong sprint into breathless, can-you-keep-up lyricism, Dungeonesse (word play on the oft-misspelled dungeness crab) keep things frisky and sugar-coated on their self-titled debut (May 14, Secretly Canadian). At first blush, "Drive You Crazy" (stream after the jump) is ultra-light to the point of empty calories. [...]
Whatever your mind conjures up when you hear the words "traditional folk songs" is about to get turned on its head with Songs For A Traveler , a genre-bending collection of vintage folk standards, 50's country gems and random lullaby and 19th-century logging song tossed in for good measure. The man behind the remarkable project is Todd Carter, a New York-based singer (phenomenal, actually) multi-instrumentalist and arranger who goes by the pseudonym The Looking . The concept of reinterpreting folk standards is nothing new but Carter's dramatic, occasionally operatic and densely orchestrated approach gives songs like [...]
The angular meets the angelic with Alpine , a Melbourne-based band of art-pop Aussies who have delivered one of the most original and eclectic albums of the year. Melding the dual-harmonied, pixie-ish vocals of frontwomen and longtime friends Lou James and Phoebe Baker with brisk, scattered beats and some ridiculously inventive guitar play, Alpine turn their A Is For Alpine (May 21, Voliv) into a collection of songs so imaginative and just plain different that the effect is as mindbending as it is mesmerizing. A 2010 EP Zürich and some quirky [...]
Joseph Arthur is a freak of nature, a throwback to a time when musicians released more music. Consider that in just the two and a half years since his Fistful Of Mercy release with Ben Harper and Dhani Harrison, Arthur has issued two full-length solo albums (one a double-disc collection) and a set as RNDM with Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament and Richard Stuverud. In 2008 alone Arthur released four EPs and a full-length album. And now Arthur is up to it again. On June 11 he'll submit The [...]
"When Jo sings, something thaws that I didnʼt even realise was frozen," says Sweet Billy Pilgrim's Tim Elsenburg of Jo Hamilton , the gifted British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose 2009 album Gown is one of the best albums of the last decade. So why are we telling you (and retelling you) this now? No reason except that we're anxiously awaiting Hamilton's new album which is currently getting wrapped up in the studio now. And word that Prince has been playing an instrumental version of Jo's "Liathach" [...]
Piano-playing singer/songwriter Anna Krantz divides her time between New York and her U.K. home, playing the clubs of the Lower East Side and then to her native stomping ground in London. An in-demand session keyboardist, Krantz has also found success as a songwriter, both solo and as a collaborative co-writer with the likes of Ed Sheeran and Steve Booker (Duffy). "Anna was one of the first ever people I collaborated with," says Sheeran, "and I'm still playing the songs we wrote together today. She's an amazing songwriter and performer and it's [...]
With his seventh full-length Letters From The Lost (May 14), singer/songwriter Jay Nash , we're sorry to say, just keeps making it that much harder for all those budding newbie troubadours out there. Rather than fade into repetition and rote predictability Nash keeps raising the bar on his own fine music while broadening the boundaries. Recorded at his Vermont home, Letters , as the title implies, is more of a collection disparate moods and approaches than a single-themed concept and the varied styles -- what Nash calls "new sonic directions" -- [...]
The "grey" in Cheyenne Mize 's Among The Grey (June 25, Yep Roc) is what the Louisville songstress calls "the good stuff in the middle," the "in-between" places that actually form the bulk of our experiences. We may think that life is about a beginning and a destination , the transition of child to adult, of black and white choices of stark contrast. But it's the fuzzy, unpredictable events along the way that provide the real narrative. Mize's own personal journey from the bedroom folk of her 2010 debut album Before [...]
Outside of Scrabble, we don't like the word plethora but what can you say about the plethora (!) of great new albums arriving this week? There's Patty Griffin 's American Kid and Natalie Maines ' Mother (which features a Griffin song) -- both making exceptional albums after an exceptionally long wait. DC faves Noah and the Whale aren't getting much of a roll-out here in the states but the band's new Heart [...]
Natalie Maines , best known as the vocal centerpiece of the Dixie Chicks, makes her long-awaited musical return with Mother (May 7, Columbia), her decidedly non-country solo debut produced by Ben Harper. The rootsy, no-twang album is Maines' first full-length studio recording project since the last Chicks album in '06 and is a daring, dramatic change from her country and new-acoustic past. But this is, after all, the woman who once remarked, "Growing up, when people asked, 'What kind of music do you listen to?,' I'd say, 'Anything but country'. A collection of mostly [...]
We've been admirers of James Maddock since his wonderful debut album Songs From Stamford Hill (under the moniker Wood) and a few years later when we heard his raspy singing drifting into the night outside a Lower East Side club. Born in Britain and living in New York for the past decade, Maddock has developed a well-deserved reputation as one of the city's best kept songwriting secrets though he made some commercial inroads with his 2009 album Sunrise on Avenue C (winner of a NY Music Award for Best Americana [...]
Brooklyn trio The Lone Bellow tap into the same fine-spun Americana and acoustic country songwriting that has propelled The Lumineers and The Civil Wars. Zach Williams, Kanine Pipkin and Brian Elmquist, we opined, are "alt-folk, country and roots music aficionados who just can't quit a memorable melody saturated with sweetly and exuberantly rendered three-part harmony" and their self-titled January debut has been one of our favorite re-play releases of the year. Ready to head out on tour this summer as headliners and openers for Brandi Carlile and Robert Plant, The [...]
It's been nearly a couple of years since we first tugged on your sleeve about Treetop Flyers , a British "country soul" band whose sunny, strummy folk/rock sounds more late 60's Southern California than the West London club n' pub scene. Since becoming an early signing of the influential Communion Music group (co-founded by Mumford Son Ben Lovett), the band has gigged incessantly and eventually landed in -- where else? -- sun-drenched Malibu to record their debut album The Mountain Moves (June 25, Partisan). Released last month in the U.K., the album has [...]
Philly native Liz Longley ended up in Nashville by way of a stopover in Boston (and The Berklee School of Music) where she joined the thousands of would-be songwriter sensations in a town known for nurturing the craft's best and brightest. In a short time, Longley has gone from outsider to respected and in-demand writer and performer, staking out her own territory in the crowded field of folk, pop and country-tinged tunesmiths and co-writing dozens of songs with some of the Nashville's most respected musical bylines. Things have been falling into place: a new [...]
Direct Current
MP3: Daft Punk – “Horizons” (RAM Japanese Bonus Track)
Akabu feat. Alex Mills – Everybody Wants Something (Joey Negro Strip Mix) [New Release]
Giorgio Moroder's first-ever DJ Set
Seven Lions: Fevers (Feat. Minnesota and Mimi Page)
M.I.A. – Boyz (gLAdiator Remix).
