New Artist: Hayden Calnin

Due to things like life and school getting in the way, I haven't been able to post in a while. Fortunately, what I have been able to do is listen to lots of music. One of the highlights of that music listening has been the discovery of an Australian artist named Hayden Calnin.

Hayden Calnin released his debut EP, City, on July 20th. I stumbled upon it a couple weeks ago after reading a review on Listen Before You Buy. After hearing the EP, I immediately purchased it and I've been listening to it over and over and over again since then. The first comparison that his music draws to mind is Bon Iver (especially more recent Bon Iver). And really if you enjoy Bon Iver, you can probably quit reading this and just go listen to his music now because I think you'll love it. The comparison is due to the atmospheric nature of their music as well as the haunting falsetto that both can employ on top of that soundscape. However, Hayden Calnin is far from just a Bon Iver clone, and his music is outstanding on its own merits. Unlike Bon Iver, Calnin actually stays in the lower vocal registers for large portions of songs. He also doesn't have a rather large touring band like Justin Vernon does. His songs feature a lot of looping of vocals and instruments that can help build up the sound over the course of a song.

The EP clocks in at under 20 minutes, and unfortunately for those of us in the United States it's all we are going to hear for now. He is currently only touring around Australia, so we'll have to make due with the EP until new material is released. I've already listened to the whole EP about 15 times since I got it. I shudder to think how high that number will be by the time we're graced with new music, but I just... can't... stop... listening...

Below is the video for "For My Help," the first track on the album:



And if you want to check out more, here is the whole EP to stream:



And while we're on the topic of people fans of Bon Iver should enjoy, I recommend checking out James Vincent McMorrow. If you missed it, I wrote about him just over a year ago.


Interested in checking out Hayden Calnin?

Artist Website
Facebook
Twitter
Soundcloud
Album on Amazon ($4.45)

James Vincent McMorrow on Daytrotter

I ended up taking a lot more time off from this blog than intended, but I'm back with another great free release from Daytrotter. If you like free and legal music, Daytrotter.com should be a regular stop. I've linked to some of their stuff for previous posts, but they have a huge library of tracks that artists have recorded at the Daytrotter studio when they are passing through on tour. Usually artists will record 4 or 5 songs with most of them from previous releases but occasionally with a previously unreleased track or two mixed in.

One of the most recent sessions is by James Vincent McMorrow, an Irish folk singer/songwriter. Some of his music is reminiscent of Bon Iver if that's up your alley. Last year he released his first full-length album, Early in the Morning. He will be doing some touring around the U.S. and Canada in September if you're interested in catching him live. He is stopping at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis on Saturday, September 17, and tickets are only $12.

His Daytrotter session is here and features two tracks from his full length album along with two unreleased songs.

My two favorite songs from the album are We Don't Eat, which you can stream below, and If I Had a Boat, which you can download courtesy of Seattle radio station KEXP by clicking here.

05 We Don't Eat by jamesvmcmorrow

As always, enjoy!