I posted the beautiful and somber "Pharaoh's Chariot" from Soulsaver's third album, Broken , in my Creepy Halloween Mix and liked it so much I decided to look up more songs. I ended up with all of it and a brand-new respect for this joint project of Rich Machin (above, right) and Mark Lanegan (left, of Screaming Trees), who wrote lyrics and provided vocals on most of the songs. Songs are primarily dark and reflective, powered by Lanegan's ominous growl, although "All the Way Down" provides some welcome uplift. The album includes two instrumentals, [...]
Will Oldham is a man of many monikers. His most successful has been as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, who has released critically acclaimed solo albums as well as collaborations and live albums. The most recent, being released by Drag City subsidiary Sea Note, is called Funtown Comedown , and is credited to Bonny Billy & The Picket Line. The album features bluegrass live versions of many songs from the Oldham catalog, including tracks from his early work under the names Palace Brothers and Palace Music. Take a listen to an unreleased track from the [...]
Bonny Billy & the Picket Line Funtown Comedown (Drag City) Releasing: 15 December Will Oldham continues to wreak havoc on iPods everywhere, releasing an album as Bonny-with-a-y Billy with Kentucky bluegrass band the Picket Line. "Death to Everyone" won't be on the album, but comes from the same live, in-studio session as everything else. SONG LIST 01 Ohio River Boat Song 02 May It Always Be 03 Hemlocks and Primroses 04 The Glory Goes /...
OK, so my victimhood of changiness shorted you a Vedge yesterday, so here's another double-stuff, from a fella who deserves a mega-stuff. I know all of you probably golf a lot, so I don't have to tell you about how there's always some player tagged as the BPNTWAM - the Best Player Never To Win A Major (tournament, smart guy). There's always someone who clearly has the talent and work ethic to beat the best, but it just hasn't come together for some reason. That's the sort of thing you read about Jeffrey Lewis, who is [...]
Filed under: News Chris Knox , the indie godfather of New Zealand indie music, suffered a debilitating stroke in June at his home in Auckland. His many friends in New Zealand's music scene -- and some from far further afield -- have rallied round by recording a tribute album 'Stroke -- Songs for Chris Knox,' which sees a string of covers of his material and was released in New Zealand on Monday (Nov. 16). Knox, 57, first found notoriety with his punk band the Enemy in [...]
Kirk Degiorgio's name is not synonymous with minimal techno. Over the course of his 18-year career you could count on your hands the number of releases that would even qualify as club-approved tackle. Degiorgio made his name with multi-hued Detroit-inspired techno and went on to produce soulful music in a variety of genres, but rarely touched on straightforward dance floor-ready tracks. Today we see Degiorgio taking a new path that embraces this side of techno, both in terms of production and DJing. Degiorgio rebooted his Applied Rhythm Technology (ART) label this year and is focused on creating full sounding techno [...]
Soulsavers' new album Broken seems to have fallen on quiet ears since its release in August. The band's redemptive gospel-goth-rock & soul seems to have gotten more cinematic and sonically expansive since their album of almost two years ago, It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land . Mark Lanegan continues to handle most of the vocals along with collaborators Ian Glover and Rich Machin. Helping out on vocals are Gibby Haynes, Richard Hawley, Jason Pierce and Mike Patton. On the album, Soulsavers' [...]
Good work from Molina and Johnson on their recently released album. Considering their separate output both of these guys are a real value to the American songwriter quilt. Each carry a distinct slightly off-kilter voice with a subsequent induced mood that puts a shade of particular pale on their material. There is often an isolated or lonely ambiance in the wake of Molina's voice which reminds me of a less frayed Will Oldham. Johnson brings a voice of pine tar and old ashtray; when his song is good he emits a feeling as rich in somber earth as [...]
Our fair city's music needs your help. As you may know, today's economy is not doing well. This is forcing the city to have to make budget cuts where ever possible, even if that means eliminating some of Chicago's free summer music festivals including Blues Fest, Jazz Fest, the World Music Festival, and Summer Dance. Even Millennium Park concerts such as Music Without Borders and the very cool Downtown Sound series , which only this past summer offered free performances from St. Vincent, Shellac, Dirty Projectors and the Feelies at the [...]
I've been writing often about the Providence-based band Brown Bird. From what we've seen and heard of them lately, David Lamb and company are going to drop a great album next week [ The Devil Dancing, out 11/10 on Peapod Recordings ]. From the tracks that they've made available to us, it's undeniable that the new album will be an event worth hearing. Any true music lover with a penchant for Sam Beam or Will Oldham will find a new respite in Brown Bird. The Devil Dancing gets it's release party this [...]
Bonnie "Prince" Billy has announced a new live LP (with digital download) through Drag City with The Picket Line called Funtown Comedown . I could not be more excited for this album. The album comes out November 17th, but you can PRE-ORDER HERE . (Thanks to Dan Lubbers for the heads-up.) From Drag City: LIVE (in the studio) is the Bonny one with next-generation bluegrass band known as [...]
Former The Microphones frontman Phil Elverum, is coming to Louisville as Mount Eerie alongside the brilliant Tara Jane O'Neil and No Kids . We'd already mentioned that Mount Eerie was coming to Lexington's Red Mile on Oct. 22, the one year anniversary of their Louisville show at Skull Alley . Well, if an hour was to far for you to drive to see this show, you have another show Thursday, November 5th at [...]
What were we all doing in August? Well, I don't know about you, but I sure missed this one. L'ville's own dark-folky/Civil War reenacter, Will Oldham, put out another collab album. C'mon you didn't think he could go a whole 6 months without putting something out there, did you? Unlike his previous work with Tortoise and Matt Sweeny , Silent City features Mr. Billy with conceptual artist/field recorder Brian Harnetty. Well, frankly, it's mostly Harnetty's work with Mr. Prince Billy's collab, tho 3 songs feature Oldham centerstage on the mic. Here's what Harnetty says about [...]
Will Oldham, mejor conocido como Bonnie 'Prince' Billy es uno de los personajes más importantes dentro del folk en Estados Unidos, también es reconocido como actor. Brian Harnetty, es un artista conceptual, sus instalaciones y piezas muy a menudo tienen que ver con la música o con sampleos de sonidos de la naturaleza o de la vida cotidiana. La unión de estos 2 artistas resulta ser algo muy cercano lo que uno esperaría. Por un lado tenemos la maestría y sentimiento musical de Bonnie 'Prince' Billy y por el otro toda la carga intelectual y experimental [...]
Brian Harnetty is a British composer with a serious crush on American folk. His last record, American Winter sampled rare recordings from an Appalachian folk archive at Borea College in Kentucky. In many of those pieces, he added instrumentation on top or around these recordings. Bells, twinkling toy pianos, bowed metal, string drones, the tools of a new music composer's approach to folk. Some of it had a contemporary drone feel, some of it was like a disfigured, reoriented bluegrass, as if someone had forgotten how to play it but remembered the rhythmic [...]
Sorry I forgot to post this on Sunday! RULES for uninitiated noobs : With roughly 100MB of webspace, I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or Zunes or Kingklangs or whatever the industry is currently pushing on you. Sometimes there will be themes that link all the songs together, other times I'll just throw songs at a wall (not literally) and see what sticks. This week includes a couple live cuts (Will Oldham, Yndi Halda), and a bunch of randomly selected tunes. The final track was recorded by [...]
En su segunda película, Alicia Scherson deja la ciudad para internar a sus personajes en el parque nacional Las Siete Tazas. En este entorno, ella elige la música folk y electrónica de Icalma, el proyecto de Philippe Boisier. La cultura pop se inserta en Turistas como una radiación magnética subyacente e inevitable. Durante una conversación en medio del último Festival Internacional de Cine de Valdivia, la directora revela los detalles. La primera impresión tras salir de Turistas es la de sentir que Alicia Scherson ha sido un tanto cruel con [...]
Zaireeka 12th Anniversary Party ( Good Records ): This is an actual Halloween Party with a costume contest and everything, and I'm pretty sure I'll be more than sick of writing about Halloween-themed shows by the end of the week. This holiday has seriously gotten worse and worse over the years, making Fall even more seasonally bloated and drawn out than the original offender, Christmas; there are parties for about three weeks solid, exploiting Dia De Los Muertos into becoming some shitty Halloween Hangover Day (Parts One and Two), and to top it all off, some clubs have [...]
The upcoming and impending release from JLL "The Lion's Jaw" (previously mentioned here ) has been a touch delayed but it is on it's way! I have been waiting for this album to drop and it looks to make a digital appearance shortly with the physical pressing to hit around December 2009/January 2010. I very much have enjoyed his two previous efforts, so this one (and from what I have heard so far) should be right in line with some sad night of drinking whiskey and strumming a guitar! Jeffrey did tell me that in [...]
Irish songwriter Glen Hansard took the crowd outside Fingerprints by surprise last week, as they waited in line for his appearance inside with Marketa Irglova (of The Swell Season , and the movie Once): Doesn't that just give you the best kind of visceral reaction in your gut-parts? Sometimes I wish we could always live inside wonderful moments just like that, where people sing out what they mean, and mean the things they sing. Glen is an artist of [...]
WKND PLYLST!! This has nothing to do with NEW MOON!
new music from vampire weekend – cousins + music video
HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
The Beach House Theory of 2k10.
Friday Five: Surf Songs
