Imagine if The Lassie Foundation covered a suite of Badly Drawn Boy songs, with 1996 James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) sitting in on guitar and vocals.
And then sprinkle in an Eno/Lanois influence. Among other awesomeness.
The new record from Teen Daze–whom I’d never heard from till last week–is stellar.
NPR’s First Listen has the forthcoming Morning World available to stream in its entirety. Listen and read more about the album here.
Caspian has been on heavy (and I mean: heavy) rotation ever since I saw a screening of their concert film Live at the Larcom.
They’ve got a new record coming out this fall, which I suspect will be excellent.
Here’s the track list, with names that portend some epic soundscapes:
01. Separation No. 2
02. Ríoseco
03. Arcs of Command
04. Echo and Abyss
05. Run Dry
06. Equal Night
07. Sad Heart of Mine
08. Darkfield
09. Aeternum Vale
10. Dust and Disquiet
I’ll report back as soon as I can. In the meantime, you can pre-order here or here, and listen to the first released track below (you’ll have to open the post if you’re reading on email or RSS):
Ah… so Wilco reveals the impetus behind offering their new album free. From a brilliant email blast today:
This message has arrived in your inbox because you downloaded Wilco’s new album Star Wars. Thanks for that and we hope you’re enjoying the new tunes.
Now a bit of background… We consider ourselves lucky to be in the position to give you this music free of charge, but we do so knowing not every band, label or studio can do the same. Much of the “music business” relies on physical sales to keep the lights on and the mics up. Without that support, well, it gets tougher and tougher to make it all work.
With that in mind, Wilco has put together a list of some of their favorite recent releases. We encourage you to explore it (and beyond) and yep, even march down to your neighborhood record shop and BUY. There’s a lot of great music out there, lets all try to support it. After all, it’s the years of support (and purchases) of Wilco’s music that allowed us to do what we did last week.
Here’s a list of folks Wilco thinks you should listen to:
Adron – OrganismoCibo Matto – Hotel ValentineEmpyrean Atlas – Inner CircleEleventh Dream Day – Works for TomorrowFull of Hell, Merzbow – Full of Hell & MerzbowGame Theory – RealNighttimeGirlpool – BeforetheWorldWasBigInvisible Familiars – Disturbing WildlifeLandlady – Upright BehaviorLuluc – PasserbyNed Doheny – Hard CandyParquet Courts – Content NauseaRichard Julian – Fleur de LisScott Walker + Sunn O))) – SousedSpeedy Ortiz – Foil DeerSteve Gunn – Way Out WeatherWilliam Tyler – Deseret Canyon
Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve only heard of three or four of those artists. Looks like I’ve got some new tunes to check out.
And kudos to Wilco for using their platform to highlight others!
Wilco unexpectedly released a new album and is giving it away for free. You just have to enter your email address at http://wilcoworld.net/, and you get a download link.
I’m a few songs in and looking forward to listening to more. It’s not as poppy as I thought it might be (the first track is a bit cacophonous), but I expect it may grow on me as I listen to the rest.
Last night I went to a screening of Caspian’s Live at the Larcom concert film. Here’s a short write-up from the hosting venue (The Cabot):
Live at the Larcom is a 2-hour concert film chronicling CASPIAN’s momentous 10-year anniversary performance on October 18, 2014 at the Larcom Theatre in Beverly, MA. Performed in chronological order spanning all 4 of their studio albums, the set features both well known and rarely played songs by the band, captured in sweepingly atmospheric, reverent fashion by director Ryan Mackfall (Mastodon, Defeater) of Crashburn Media from London, UK.
The sound was amazing, the lights perfect, and the music and performance were incredibly moving. (And the Cabot Theater is itself lovely.) Caspian does both heavy and beautiful well, and often both at the same time. Their dynamic range is truly impressive. I’ve never seen them live, but when I closed my eyes at this film screening, I could easily imagine myself in the room with them.
Here’s the trailer (you’ll have to click through if you’re reading this post via email or other feed):
Here’s the set list:
1.) Cigarette
2.) Quovis / Further Up / Further In
3.) Moksha
4.) The Dove / ASA
5.) Ghost of The Garden City
6.) Malacoda
7.) Concrescence
8.) Sycamore
9.) Gone In Bloom and Bough
10.) Halls of The Summer
11.) Fire Made Flesh
12.) Hymn For The Greatest Generation
Check out “Gone in Bloom and Bough” (yes, it’s 10 minutes–all of it awesome):
Find Live at the Larcom available for purchase here on Blu-Ray and here as a digital download.
Narrative discography, I’ll call it, for lack of a better phrase. Or maybe just sequential listening. At any rate, I just had a fun idea tonight, that I can’t believe I haven’t thought of before.
I’m going to pick a band and, over the course of a week, listen to every one of their recorded albums, from the earliest to the most recent. I know Radiohead’s early stuff so well that I could probably do some of this in my head. But the thought of listening to a band’s collective output from start to finish is intriguing to me.
I’ll let you know if it leads to any interesting observations. First up: The Appleseed Cast.
Bill Mallonee, whose Winnowing was perhaps his best work yet, has just released four tracks from his upcoming Spring 2015 record, Lands & Peoples.
You can listen here, and then pre-order the full album here.
My friend James Harris Moore is making a record, and it’s going to be awesome. He is a longtime friend and stellar musician and songwriter. I gave him a guitar lesson or two way back in the day, though shortly thereafter he eclipsed my ability both as a guitarist and writer. I’ve had the privilege of recording and playing with him a few times over the years.
Here is the Kickstarter page he’s using to fund the recording. He’s very close to his goal, but there are a few days left to get a pre-order in via a pledge.
Here’s a track, so you can get a taste of the goodness that will soon be ours to enjoy:
Read more about the album and order a copy for yourself here.
This review of a Bill Mallonee record transcends the genre of music review. Beautiful, compelling, moving. A more than fitting piece for my first time pushing that little “Reblog” button that WordPress offers.
…[T]he apt analogy of the declining year, with declining happiness, and the images of youth and hope, and spring, all gone together… Jane Austen, Persuasion
I have been listening to Bill Mallonee for a long time. He is one of the most challenging and rewarding songwriters alive. He has crafted song after song, each representing some portion of his steady, integrated-and-integrating vision of things. That vision is complicated, prismatic; it has been salted with fire over years, burning away everything self-indulgent or unrealizable in it. What remains now is a vision that demands comparison with the visions of great religious and literary work: the Wisdom books of the Old Testament, and James of the New; the essays of Montaigne; Samuel Johnson’s “The Vanity of Human Wishes” and Rasselas; Eliot’s Four Quartets. Mallonee’s themes are best captured by phrases borrowed from Johnson: the hunger of the imagination…
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It’s fitting that I drove the family minivan into Boston last night with a friend to see Mineral in concert. When I first listened to them in the mid-90s, I was driving a minivan, too.
What an outstanding show. Though they’re 20 years older than when they co-invented the emo rock scene, they still rocked out and drew listeners in to an experience of spiritual transcendence.
Here is the set list, with the few lyric snippets or reactions I tapped into my phone during the set:
1. Lovelettertypewriter
2. Palisade
(The above being tracks 1 and 2 from their second album, back-to-back)
3. Slower
“I’d really rather lay here and pretend…”
4. Unfinished
5. February
6. A Letter
7. Five, Eight, and Then
“The humble and righteous and meek
Are teaching me whose will to seek
But who really knows how to speak
About these things”
8. Gloria
One of the most awesome songs in the set.
9. For Ivadell
They had a little trouble playing this, but it was still great.
10. Sounds Like Sunday
11. If I Could
Wow.
12. &Serenading
Best song in the whole set.
“When I was a boy I saw things
That no one else could see
So why am I so blind at twenty-two
To the hope that is all around me
Filling up this room?”
ENCORE
13. Waking to Winter
“When I’m driving home at night….”
14. M.D.
15. Parking Lot
“And everything is grace.”
And here’s the man, Christopher Simpson:
Words on the Word 