Dry the River : "If it's dark outside / you light the fire yourself"
It's one of those bruise-knuckle, sink-stomach kind of weeks. For reasons heard and rocked and put to rest. Sometimes it is best to let the echos drift until the voices no longer sound raised , take a deep breath and move forward. Sometimes, though, in a lonely moment, you might listen for that echo. Hear how low and soft. You might, just for a minute, tap your foot to it. If you are lucky you might find a song to suit that rhythm. You might then gratefully permit yourself a few moments of the kind of healing calm that only grows from sudden, welcome quiet. You might let the warmth from your mug fill your hands, and you might bob your head.
"and I'll be on your side"
(http://www.drytheriver.com/)
(thank you Juan and Only)
Guys guys guys! Are you J Tillman fans? Now you can be Son Tillman fans, too!
So Joshua [ J. ] Tillman has made quite the name for himself as a folk singer even outside of his role as the drummer for Seattle-based Fleet Foxes who are *so hot right now*. If you didn't catch it I put up a brief post for the beautiful "First Born" video a while back. Anyway there is really no information about this - supposedly there is an LP coming soon? You'll have to ask the folks at Aquarium Drunkard about that because they seem to be privy to information no one else has. Wherever it's going, I like it. It's J. Tillman with an uptempo, new approach to a familiar voice ( and maybe a full band? ) and I like it.
If you don't believe me, go listen to the tracks on his myspace. Also listen to this sneak peak provided by Aquarium Drunkard:
Also according to his blog he is writing a novel in installments? Here is a sample:
"Settling down at the head of the table, I got the rare privilege of looking into the eyes of my kids and saying, "Today your Daddy stood on top of one of the most dangerous mountains in the world. A mountain so big, it straddles two countries."
Hallucinating with awe, they managed, "What two countries, Daddy?"
"France and Italy." I said, before eating the goddamn best-tasting dinner of my life and then sleeping like a rock.
I swear to God."
Read more here. P.S. if you know more about this than I do please fill me in!
Christopher Dean Hayes : Fireside pt. II
I've decided to try something new today and include the latest project of a musician who happens to be a friend of mine. You may be familiar with Christopher Dean Hayes through The New Suffer Jets, a previous band Mike Swanberg, Steve Minogue, and Vincent Elliott. I am just getting to know Chris but I do know that this latest edition of an ongoing series of recordings (think Learning Music Monthly, the album-a-month project founded by John Clement Wood) called Fireside is a really exciting one. What I like about Fireside II is that Chris took a completely new course from his usual acoustic recordings and didn't hold back. He plays with making beats, layering harmonies, and blending sounds from both old work, new work, field recordings and even the work of other musicians (you'll hear a Joanna Newsom melody paired with 'Amazing Grace' in the last track). Chris describes it as an experiment and I guess he would probably want you to listen to it that way. I want you to listen to it however you feel inclined, so long as you listen to it.
Watch Hayes perform the track "Sleeves" (you may recognize parts of it from Fireside #2) and check out his Myspace for more music and info!
Toro y Moi : New Beat
I have to thank GorrillaVsBear for this. For letting me end my very long, very exhausting work day yesterday with the kind of groove hard to find outside of a 70's porno (and/or Boogie Nights), and then letting me start my morning that way, too.
So if you are getting ready for work, and if any part of you would really rather be asleep right now, and if you live in the Midwest and you're wishing the stupid blizzard would come already so you could just stay home, this will set you right. At the very least, it will make you glad you're awake.
More information can be found here and here!
Underneath the Pine is due out Feb. 22nd!
Kim Hiorthøy
You may know Kim Hiorthøy from this remix of the Mice Parade song "Milton Road":
You may know him as a Graphic designer, illustrator, musician (with 8 albums!), Norwegian, handsome fellow, and otherwise talented and interesting person.
You can find more information at the Smalltown Supersound label, this MilkFactory Interview and his gallery.
Cults, or, Beardo Wins Again
Another glorious recommendation from the very bearded Ben Clark. My best guess about how Ben heard about Cults is that somewhere deep in Nebraska, while touring through farmland performing his poetry to stalks of wheat and corn who swayed and bobbed enthusiastically, Ben was approached by a man with the garb of a Quaker and the gait of Patrick Bateman. Attracted to both the beard and body, Ben exchanged information and the promise of a later meeting with this man and promptly returned home to read up about Cults and how to get in for the ceremonial sex but out before the sacrifices. I imagine that since the whole world fell in love with the three tracks of two very surprised and unprepared musicians after they put them on their Bandcamp, Ben saw this link and missed his meeting with the man for passing along the link to everyone he knew. So here they are, everyone! Don't forget to read the interview with Pitchfork and groan with irritation when they remind that they interviewed the band mere weeks after the tracks were posted. Please don't hold it against the musicians, as we have every reason to believe that their forthcoming album is going to be nothing short of fantastic.
Hidden Words : The Bab According to The Unicorns
Remember The Unicorns? According to the most absurd interview I've ever read, they were once called "The Best Band in the World" by Vice Magazine. The Montreal-based "three-headed beast", was made up of Alden Penner (Clues), Jamie Thompson (Islands), and Nicholas Thorburn (Islands). They sounded a lot like this:
After the 2004 break up and eventual success of their side projects, the band that brought you such spiritually moving songs "Do the Knife Fight" ('blood type a, blood type b / doesn't matter cause his bloods on me') has (2/3) returned with a new project: Hidden Words.
"In the interim years, Alden had experienced a spiritual reawakening as a member of the Bahá'í Faith. Upon immersing himself in its scriptural tradition, he recognized an implicit musicality to the Writings and began composing melodies that would elucidate this lyricism. It seemed only natural to include his friend and collaborator Jamie in this experiment."
The songs are adapted from the original text of the holy Bahá'í text, the Báb, which, as Sean of Said the Gramophone cleverly pointed out, kind of makes them a Báb cover-band. Here's the best part - the result is not only beautiful, its actually kind of fun. It's still a little hard for me to take the Tallest Band In The World (see ^ linked interview) seriously, but the more I hear the more it grows on me and I am certainly looking forward to the release of their first album due out this Spring. In addition to Alden and Penner and Thompson (Thorburn is not involved), Hidden Words includes Eric and James Farr (Honeyman and the Brothers Farr), Neah Kelly, and Marie-Claire Saindon.
"Free Thyself from the Fetters of This World"
See the Hidden Words Facebook Page and Blog for translations of lyrics, original text, and more information. I also highly recommend this great write up in Jeune Street.
Oh God! The Vulnerability!
The "I swear, baby, I've changed, I've just been so busy lately, I'll post something better soon, please don't stop reading, baby!" Playlist
The "I swear, baby, I've changed, I've just been so busy lately, I'll post something better soon, please don't stop reading, baby!" Playlist
"The O's - Tryin' to Have a Good Time" from Between The Two (out February 8th)
"The Booze - Kick Me Where it Hurts" from At Maximum Volume (out February 22nd)
"Darlings - If This Is Love" from Yeah I Know
Lake : You Are Alone
We're all familiar with K Records by now, Right? The first time I heard of Olympia, WA, all I knew about it was that it had produced Phil Elverum, front man of The Microphones (now Mount Eerie). At the momentary age of still believing it is possible to plan a whole "life", this meant something to me. Maybe here was the place that people would like my voice because it was off key. Maybe I could also make a record wrapped in a hand painted sleeve that sent people crawling across it touch every leaf and letter as it unfolded over their floor. This curiosity of mine was only further peeked by discovering Mirah, Beat Happening, The Blow, Little Wings and on and on.Its easy to think that music is more made by some intangible energy in a place than by the artists who just happen to live there. That's the kind of logic that leads you to decide that to escape the memory of one person you have to leave the geographic region. When you finally sit still long enough you realize that there is a lesson to be learned from the emotional, short-sited conclusions you came to when you were young. You were right. Maybe Olympia wasn't reveling in its own weirdness until one weirdie moved there and called his/her friends to say "this is the place!". But music does have this remarkable way of acting as a summons. And when it really speaks to us it doesn't have to invite us in because we've already invited ourselves. We want to introduce it to our friends, to know everyone involved, and to be a part of it. If you are like me, this is why breakups with partners often lead to breakups with bands; the music is too tied to a memory and you have to let it go. Fortunately for the world, K Records shows no signs of closing its arms to the weirdies who follow it's bleating all the way up to the Northwest. And if you, like me, are still filling the void left by bands you had to say goodbye to long ago, try to find comfort in Lake's latest 7", You Are Alone, (purchase here) while you eagerly await the April 12th release of their newest record Giving and Receiving. You will find Eli Moore's simple solution on Side A: "You are alone", and there's nothing wrong with that.
[Image: "No Title (yellow grass)" by Phil Elverum, print available here.]
[Image: "No Title (yellow grass)" by Phil Elverum, print available here.]
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