This week in music (week of 2/5/2013)

It'll be a short post this week (Note: Now that I'm done, it did not end up being short. One day I'll learn how to just post quick and move on.) even though there was a bunch of great new music.

New release of the week - Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit

Frightened Rabbit is one of my five or so favorite artists, so there is little doubt that I would enjoy this album. However, just how much I've enjoyed it has caught me a bit off guard. Their 2008 album "Midnight Organ Fight" has an argument as my favorite album ever (along with M. Ward's "Post-War"). In 2010 I named "The Winter of Mixed Drinks" my second favorite album of the year, so you can see that expectations were sky high for me. Despite that, this album fits very well within those expectations.

For those that don't know, Frightened Rabbit is a Scottish indie rock band. I can't remember where I read it, but lead singer Scott Hutchison said he wrote "pedestrian verse" on the cover or a notebook that he used for the lyrics to this album. Seeing that motivated him to avoid trite lyrics. As he explained it, if you call your album "Pedestrian Verse" and the lyrics really are pedestrian, you'll be called out on it. The first line on the album is "I am that dickhead in the kitchen giving wine to your best girl's glass," so I'd say he has avoided regurgitating generic lyrics at the very least. The delivery of his lyrics in that wonderful Scottish accent mean he probably could spout pedestrian verses and I'd still enjoy it. Fortunately that's not the case.

The album is full of potential favorite songs (like both of their last two albums were). Early on, I'm really enjoying "The Woodpile," "The Oil Slick," "State Hospital," and "Holy." My favorite song on "The Midnight Organ Fight" has probably changed dozens of times, so I'm sure if you ask in a couple weeks I'd give you a different list of favorites. Here are three songs from the album if you want to sample it:



Runner-up of the week - Regions of Light and Sound of God by Jim James

This is the first full-length released by Jim James (lead singer of My Morning Jacket, member of Monsters of Folk) under his own name. While I've always enjoyed My Morning Jacket, it has never been a band that I got too into. This album may make me go back and spend some more time with those older albums though because it is just growing on me more and more with each listen.

Most importantly though, everyone should take a few minutes to watch this performance of "A New Life" by Jim James on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He is backed by The Roots along with a string section and perhaps some other additions as well. The steady build of the song and adding of more members along with the camera/light/whatever else work is amazing. I know Jimmy Fallon can rub some people the wrong way (I used to dislike him but have since been converted), but what he and The Roots are doing with music on their show is fantastic. They refuse to just do what everybody else is doing, and it's great for music / tv. I can't think of another show that would give you a performance like this.

Miscellaneous Links, News, and Notes

* Over the weekend I finally got around to watching Searching For Sugar Man, an Academy Award nominee for best documentary this year. I'll probably write a longer post about it later, but for now I highly recommend checking out the film and the soundtrack. As good as the movie was, the soundtrack is even be better (it's only $5 on Amazon right now). It's a shame Rodriguez never took off as an artist and that we are limited to only two of his albums.

* This weekend, I went to a local record store and saw Velvet Underground's classic album with Nico and the Andy Warhol banana on the front. However, in this version the banana was green, which caught me off guard. After some Googling on my phone, I found out that this version (called "Unripened") was what was originally presented to the studio and in turn rejected along with the note "You have got to be kidding me". I'm waiting for a record cleaner I ordered to arrive before listening, but it sounds like the tracks are re-ordered and several versions of the songs are a bit noisier / rougher around the edges. Regardless, I'm pretty excited to add this to my slowly growing vinyl collection and to get a chance to hear it soon.

* I agree with a lot of what was said in this post about the cheapening of the music industry. It is well worth a read. Don't worry, it's pretty short.

* Dawes is set to release a new album in April. A few days ago they gave us the first taste of the album:



* Sasquatch Music Festival announced their lineup a couple weeks ago, and it was something to behold (including The Postal Service, Sigur Ros, The xx, The Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and just a ton more great acts). Because of this, I expected tickets to sell a bit faster than the couple months it took last year. What I didn't expect was for them to sell out in just over an hour. Here's hoping I can still find a not too expensive ticket on Stub Hub or something and can make my second trip to George, Washington this summer.

This week in music (week of 1/29/13)

The first couple weeks of the year are usually pretty slow in terms of new releases. Outside of the Wooden Wand album that I wrote about a couple weeks ago, not too much has caught my ear. That is until recently when things have really started to pick up.

Album of the week - Hummingbird by Local Natives

I mentioned this album in my last "This week in music" post. At the time, the band had just released the song "Heavy Feet." I still can't get enough of that song in particular, but the rest of the album is wonderful as well. If you're familiar with the band's excellent debut "Gorilla Manor," you're in for a bit of a sonic change. While their last album was full of catchy sing-a-long songs (like "Wide Eyes," "Sun Hands," "Camera Talk," and "Cubism Dream"), this album feels a bit more cohesive as just that, an album. It reminds me more of someone like Grizzly Bear (who I actually haven't gotten that into, but that's beside the point). "Gorilla Manor" had numerous songs that would make me perk up whenever I heard them, but as a whole, the album wasn't one that I really found myself listening to repeatedly. With "Hummingbird," Local Natives seem to have found a way to make an album greater than the sum of its parts. That's not to say there aren't standouts here too, it just takes a little while to find them. Part of it may be that "Heavy Feet" lodged itself in my ears and wouldn't allow me to move on to other songs for a while, but "You & I" and "Breakers" are other standout tracks. The album has been well received pretty universally, and it is for good reason. I've already listened to this album more than any other album this year, and I plan on listening to it quite a bit more in the coming weeks/months.

For the next week plus, you can stream the album here if you want to hear it. Since I already posted "Heavy Feet" a couple weeks ago, here's a taste of the album with the lead track "You & I".



Other albums of interest...

* Amor de Dias had two things going for them that made me check out their new album, "The House At Sea." The first is that one of the members is from the British dream pop group The Clientele. The second, more important, reason is that they released this album on Merge Records, a label that rarely lets me down. Shades of The Clientele are definitely still present (like in that unmistakeable voice), but the album spans all sorts of other genres and styles too. There are folk, . I'll have to listen to it a few more times, but initially, I'm really enjoying it. You can sample a song here, and download it if you enjoy it.



* I just stumbled upon this one today, but the debut EP by Wake Owl is on repeat for me right now. I can't quite put my finger on who it reminds me of (maybe Blind Pilot?), but the mix of country/folk/pop is carried out excellently regardless. You can stream the whole EP from Soundcloud just below.




Misc news, notes, and whatnot...

* A couple days ago, M. Ward / Zooey Deschanel project She & Him announced the release of their third (non-Christmas) album, "Volume 3" due out in May. They also announced a slew of tour dates to accompany the release. In even more exciting (albeit less official) news, the world will be getting a second Monsters of Folk album (M. Ward, Conor Oberst, Jim James, and Mike Mogis supergroup)! 2013 is shaping up to be a good one.

* Pre-release album streams seem to be the new hip thing. It's probably a way to discourage people from illegally downloading leaks. Whatever, the motivation, it's a very welcome trend. Just this past week or so Frightened Rabbit, Jim James (of My Morning Jacket and Monsters of Folk), Eels, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Thao & The Get Down Stay Down all made their albums available for streaming (click the band name to head to the streams).

* Joe Pug posted a live video of his slowed down version of "The Great Despiser." When I saw him perform a couple months ago he told the audience that they wrote the song this way, but when they got into the studio they thought they were Tom Petty and ended up with a more rockin' version. Joe Pug is one of my favorite artists around, so I think both versions are pretty great. Here's the new one:



* Morrissey is currently touring and had to cancel some dates due to what was deemed band member illness at the time. Minneapolis record store The Electric Fetus had the best reaction to the show cancelations on their Twitter and Facebook pages: "Heaven knows Morrissey fans are miserable now." It turns out it was actually pretty serious and Morrissey himself was hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer. Here's wishing him a speedy recovery.

Free (and wonderful) music alert

First up is an artist named Ed Riman, who records under the name Hilang Child. He released his debut EP First Writings (which you can stream or download in the widget below) in November. I just stumbled upon it now after a review on Everybody Taste, but since then I've been returning to it almost daily. The first track "Chaturanga" reminds me a bit of Fleet Foxes. The second track, "At Rhossili," is equally as gorgeous as the first but more sparsely textured outside his voice. As Everybody Taste mentions, its a great winter record, so start listening now while the weather remains chilly and dark. The Hilang Child Facebook page (which somehow has fewer than 100 "likes") mentions a possible second EP in the works. I can't wait to hear it because I will have almost certainly played the heck out of the first one by then. Check it out below.



If you want to check out Hilang Child...

Facebook
Twitter
Bandcamp

When I haven't been obsessively listening to Hilang Child, I've been obsessively listening to a new song by The Postelles featuring Alex Winston. This track was a discovery from the blog All Things Go. The band apparently released their first album in 2011, but this is the first I've heard them. The below track, "Pretend It's Love," is from their upcoming second album "...And It Shook Me," which will be out in April. The Postelles are a garage rock group from New York whose first album was by a member of The Strokes, but what really makes "Pretend It's Love" work  is the back and forth between lead singer Daniel Balk and guest Alex Winston. I don't know what to expect from the rest of the album when it comes out, but I'm certainly intrigued and will be checking it out as well as looking for previous music by both of these artists. At the very least, they've created an absolute gem of a song in "Pretend It's Love" that is already looking like it could be one of my favorites of 2013. You can stream the track below or download it below.



If you want to check out The Postelles...

Artist website
Facebook
Twitter
Tumbler
Soundcloud

If you want to check out Alex Winston

Artist website
Facebook
Twitter
Soundcloud

This week in music (week of 1/8/2013)

I haven't done one of these posts in a while, and this week's is a bit late, but there was a new album and several other things I wanted to mention, so better late than never.

New release of the week - Blood Oaths of the New Blues by Wooden Wand

I took a couple weeks off from listening to new music after burning myself out at the end of last year. The first album of 2013 that I listened to was "Blood Oaths of the New Blues" by Wooden Wand (aka James Jackson Toth), and it was a great way to get back into things. A ton of stuff I loved came out last year and if Wooden Wand is an omen for whats to come, 2013 should be a treat as well.

I'm not familiar with any of Wooden Wand's previous material (and apparently there is a lot of it), but this album mixes americana, folk, and country with rock and blues elements. Right away you know this isn't your typical record. The album opener, "No Bed for Beatle Wand / Days This Long" kicks off at almost 12 minutes long and plays for more than three minutes before the vocals join. In this day and age of short attention spans and instant gratification it takes a lot of confidence in what you're doing to start an album like that. Once the lyrics do come in, he sings "Nothing's for certain, but I know a girl who's perfectly worth waiting for," summing up the wait for his vocals at the same time. The second track, "Outsider Blues" chronicles a trip to a blues festival with a woman named Christie and is a true lyrical treat. "Jhonn Balance," the second to last on the album is another favorite, but the album isn't really meant to be listened to in single form. Here's a track to get a taste of the album, but I highly recommend just playing the whole thing on Spotify (or whatever your preferred method is) and then repeating that process over and over until 2013 gives us our next gem of a release.



If you want to check out Wooden Wand further, here are some links:

Band website
Facebook
Twitter
Album on Amazon

Miscellaneous Links, News, and Notes

* Local Natives released another new track, and based on that and the strength of their last album, I'm really looking forward to their next album.



* Telekinesis (aka Michael Benjamin Lerner) also released a new track this past week. Like Local Natives, I'm really excited for his album Dormarion to come out (due 4/2).

* Father John Misty, who released one of my favorite albums of last year, may have already been part of one of my favorite live performances of 2013. This (NSFW) version of R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" is just wonderful.