The Lumineers - "Ho Hey" For the last year or so this had been at the top of my 'Songs I’ve Seen Awesome Videos Of But That Aren’t Yet Properly Released’ list. I'm pretty happy it's off that list. (website)
Wake Owl - "Gold" It's pretty simple: this is an absolutely great song. You need to hear it. (website)
Blind Pilot - "Half Moon" (for Yourstru.ly) I wish every band would go into a studio for a day, rework an already great song, and then film it, cause the finished product here is just phenomenal. (website)
John Heart Jackie - "Working Titles" (Damien Jurado cover) Jennie and Peter of John Heart Jackie were so moved by Damien Jurado 'Working Titles' on first listen that they quickly laid down this absolutely gorgeous, simple cover of it before it was properly released this week. It's fun to know bands you like are fans just like you. (website)
Here's a second look at M. Ward's upcoming album, A Wasteland Companion. Ward is a master of nuanced musical meditations, but can also kick out a pure, old-fashioned pop song with the best of them. "The First Time I Ran Away", the first track we heard off A Wasteland Companion is the former. "Primitive Girl" is decidedly the latter. An upbeat, piano-driven stomp and a great first single. It's great to hear new music from M. Ward...
M. Ward is at the House of Blues on May 8, which cruelly coincides with The Wooden Sky's show at Radio in Somerville - a fact that makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and cry.
River City Extension - There & Back Again We're just a couple weeks away from the announcement of the 2012 Newport Folk Festival lineup, and the most exciting part for me every year (after recovering from the shock of how damn good the lineup is) is to comb through and pick out the bands I'm not familiar with and start listening. River City Extension was one of those new discoveries for me from NFF 2011, and it didn't take me long to fall in love. Here's a first look at their upcoming LP "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Anger".
Father John Misty - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings J Tillman returns with a new project as Father John Misty. A driving beat and electric guitars give the song more punch than you might have expected if you're familiar with Tillman's previous solo work (or his work with Fleet Foxes for that matter) - a promising hint of what may be to come for Father John Misty/J Tillman.
The Pharmacy - Dig Your Grave One of my great loves is simple garage rock. The Pharmacy's new track "Dig Your Grave" checks all the boxes for me - loud guitars, 2 minutes or less, organ fills, 3 chords and a great melody. Turn it up.
Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls (The Bowery Presents Live) The ascent of Alabama Shakes has been staggaring - and it's not slowing down anytime soon. Their EP was my favorite of 2011, and I knew they deserved this kind of success...I just didn't expect it to be quite this meteoric. Sold out headlining tours, major festivals, an Austin City Limits episode(!), a new 7" out now and a highly anticipated debut album on the way. Catch them in Boston at the Paradise on April 15, I'm guessing it will be your last chance to see them at a venue that small. Jump on the bandwagon now or it's going to leave without you...you don't need no ticket, just get on board.
Damien Jurado - "Working Titles" You don't hear sad doo-wop very often nowadays. Or songs with lyrics that somehow improve with each passing, devastating line. (website)
Portage - "Souls" A little smoky, a little blues, a little soul- it's a recipe for goodness. (website)
Horse Feathers - "Fit Against the Country" I feel like this band could pump out a million songs like this without trying. I would love every single one. (website)
Sun Kil Moon - "Si, Paloma" Seems like everyone is a bit stressed (cabin fever? Valentines stress? work stress), so I think we should all just take a second and let this gorgeous piece of instrumental work calm everything in us down. (website)
Adam Arcuragi - "Port Song" (for Indie Ambassador TV) There's something about the resignation and longing in this song that kills me every time through, and it's that much more profound when he plays it live. It's easily my favorite song on Arcuragi's brilliant Like a fire that consumes all before it... (website)
It's all too rare that a record comes along without hype or expectations and completely knocks me on my ass, but that's exactly what happened with Adam Arcuragi's brilliant new album Like a fire that consumes all before it. Devoid of posturing, pretension and "flavor of the month" veneer, the album shines in its simplicity - it's about the heart, the soul and the songs. No more and no less. Timeless soul infused folk, delivered with a fire-and-brimstone gospel fervor. Quiet laments and calls to arms, both whispered and shouted for all to hear. The band refers to it as "Death Gospel", and that works for me. The best record I've heard so far this year.
Adam Arcuragi and his excellent band The Lupine Chorale Society stopped at PA's Lounge in Somerville last weekend as part of their nation-wide tour in support of Like a fire.... Arcuragi and band took the stage with little fanfare, quickly launching into folk rave-up "President's Song", but it didn't take long to overcome an unattentive crowd and awful sound system. Arcuragi's voice filled the room and silenced conversations mid-sentence as he and his band worked through a 45 minute set that drew heavily from Like a fire... and included a brilliant cover of The Ronettes "Be My Baby". The live show took on the same characteristics as the album - no bullshit, just great, passionate music. The songs were fleshed out by The Lupine Chorale Society, a crack band consisting of drums, bass, keys and banjo/pedal steel that showed the power to carry the songs and the restraint to let Arcuragi's soulful vocals steal the show.
A fantastic show from one of my favorite up-and-coming artists - I was enthralled from the first note to the last. I guarantee that they'll be playing a bigger venue next time they come through Boston and that it will be a show you don't want to miss. Until then, get the record (on vinyl preferably...it sounds goood) and tell your friends.
I recorded the entire show, but thanks to a talkative crowd and weak sound system the end result isn't great. Here's "Here Comes Everyone", one of the tracks that ended up being listenable.
New thing here that I'll try to keep going for at least 2 weeks. You tweeters might recognize #ff as the hash tag for "friday follow"...or basically "it's friday, follow these people". That's kind of the idea here too. Cool stuff that's new or old, but I'm digging it and want to share.
Wooden Dinosaur - "Good Winter" These Vermonters are one of my favorite New England bands. Songwriter Michael Roberts writes literate, heartfelt folk songs that are perfectly suited for summer dusk porchlight or winter's coldest nights. On their brand new (and excellent) album Spaces, the sound expands a bit from 2010's Nearly Lost Stars - expect more electric guitar and more yodeling (both good things). Roberts is a master of wringing pure emotion from the strings of an electric guitar - listen to his work on David Wax Museum's excllent Everything Is Saved and on "Good Winter" off Spaces. This song will singlehandedly propel me through the dreary final days of winter still to come and usher me into spring's embrace. Absolutely love it.
The Oh Hellos - "Hello My Old Heart" When Jay Sweet, Newport Folk Festival producer and musical tastemaker, tweets about a new band he's digging, you listen. That's how you discover bands like The Oh Hellos. The band cites Mumford & Sons as an influence, and I believe it after hearing how "Hello My Old Heart" builds from a beautifully simple folk tune into a majestic anthem complete with layered vocals, handclaps and strings. Grab their excellent 4-song EP right here (pay what you want!).
Josh Netsky - "The Spirits" Reverby vocals give "The Spirits" a dream-like quality, but a military march propels the song forward - alternately staggering through a hazy psych-folk fog and bouncing along on plucked banjo notes. Rochester NY's Josh Netsky is brand new to me, but I can't get enough of this song. Grab "The Spirits" for free on his bandcamp page, or get the whole album for just $5 (recommended).
I was fortunate enough to be in New York City for Joe Henry's two concerts at City Winery recently. To add to my great luck, my favorite guitarist, Marc Ribot, was the opening act both nights, and he sat in with the band on a few songs during the main set as well. The band consisted of the same set of musicians that were on Joe Henry's recent studio album, "Reverie," plus his son, Levon Henry, as a guest saxophonist on a few songs. (Unlike other acts of on-stage nepotism I've witnessed over the years, Levon actually did an excellent job!)
Ribot's opening sets were a little on the tame side, compared to some of the wild concerts I've seen him do, but the audience really loved him. It didn't hurt that he was introduced with phrases like "one of the great guitar players in the world" and "there isn't a musician in the world I admire more than Marc Ribot"... you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a more glowing recommendation than that, really.
About half of what Ribot played was from his most recent album, "Silent Movies," and about half was covers - including some standards that he'd played on Allen Toussaint's fantastic "The Bright Mississippi," a couple of John Coltrane pieces, and a Lounge Lizards song ("Blow Job"). For someone like me who follows his career closely, the covers all made perfect sense: "The Bright Mississippi" was produced by Joe Henry, so of course he'd pull out some of those for this night's concert; one of Ribot's more recent bands is "Sunship," which focuses on double-electric-guitar interpretations of Coltrane, so naturally he's been working on some of those pieces lately; and way back in the 80s, he was the guitar player for the Lounge Lizards.
Joe Henry played very similar sets both nights - he played the entirety of "Reverie," in order; plus a couple of covers in the encore. This was both good and bad... on the one hand, I absolutely adore "Reverie" and I loved having a chance to hear every song on it performed live; on the other hand, I would also have loved to hear some gems from the back catalog, too, since his last few albums are unfailingly brilliant. (I had fangirl fantasies of him getting Marc Ribot to break out his coronet so he could play that solo on "Bellwether" from his 2009 release "Blood from Stars," but I suppose that is asking a lot! Still, one or two of the songs from "Civilians" thrown into a second encore would have been a huge crowd-pleaser.)
Joe Henry did an excellent job bringing the album to a live setting; the musicians he had on stage are all top notch, and they added some beautiful flourishes to the music. He brought Marc Ribot back on stage for all of the songs he'd played on the album - "Dark Tears," "Tomorrow Is October," and "Deathbed Version." One change that I particularly loved was giving Ribot an electric guitar instead of an acoustic guitar on "Tomorrow Is October," which transformed it from a spare and haunting ballad to something downright bluesy. The new arrangement was a real highlight of the night for me. Another highlight was Joe Henry's solo acoustic guitar version of "Room at Arles," which is one of my very favorites from the album - a moving tribute to the late Vic Chesnutt.
The last song of the first night's show was a surprise - Loudon Wainwright came out and sang "Motel Blues" with Joe Henry and his band. The audience really ate that one up, and for five minutes it felt like we were transported to an entirely different concert with a much more rowdy and raucous atmosphere. On the second night we had high hopes that Elvis Costello might be a surprise guest, because the guy sitting next to me ran into him coming out of the men's room between sets - but I guess he was just there to see the show since he didn't turn up on stage. The second show's encore - which turned out to be entirely free of surprise guests - included a cover of the old Crosby/Sinatra/etc. standard, "I Don't Stand a Ghost of A Chance With You," as well as Woody Guthrie's "Ramblin' Round" to close the night.
Joe Henry unfortunately doesn't tour very often, but when he does, I'd highly recommend catching his show - especially if you are a fan of things like great songwriting and finely honed musicianship. I'm already looking forward to the next time he comes around!
M.Ward - "The First Time I Ran Away" If this smokey, perfect little number is any indication of what A Wasteland Companion, the new M.Ward album, is going to be like, we're all in for a treat. (website)
Bahamas - "Lost in the Light" Equal parts campfire sing/clap along, hymn, and love song, this is the best song I've heard so far this young year. (website)
The Strange Boys - "Doueh" This song has all the requirements of a nice, smooth little rock song - some grit, a little jangle, and a bit of wailing. (website)
Megafaun - "Hope You Know" (from the Moog Sound Lab) You probably heard this during a Super Bowl ad. You didn't hear this version, believe me. (website)
Hoots and Hellmouth - "I Don't Mind Your Cussin" This is just a whole lot of comforting goodness. It's that simple. (website)
Yellow Ostrich - "Marathon Runner" Well, kids, looks like we have 2012's first certified jam right here. It's got an odd rhythm, angular guitars and by far the catchiest chorus I've heard through the first month of the year. (website)
Bhi Bhiman - "Guttersnipe" It's rare that a young songwriter can take an almost 7 minute long song about a wandering, lonely street urchin and turn it into an enjoyable, engaging listen, but that's exactly what Bhi Bhiman, and that magnificent, rich voice, has done. (website)
Alabama Shakes - "Heavy Chevy" (Live at Stubbs) At this point I don't even know what to say about Alabama Shakes. They are just too damn good at rock & roll. Keep this in mind: 'Heavy Chevy,' which is a blistering little number, doesn't even appear on their forthcoming debut album. (website)
Wilco - "Cars Can't Escape" You know those perfect songs that hide in the depths and clutter of your iTunes library? This was one of those for me. Hopefully that doesn't happen again. (website)
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 6:45AM 
