Category: Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog

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Late Night Listening: Robbie Fulks, Gone Away Backwards

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Robbie Fulks - Photo credit: Dino Stamatopoulos

Robbie Fulks – Photo credit: Dino Stamatopoulos

I don’t know what it is about this record that encourages listening to it in the middle of the night, but that’s when I keep coming back to it: at the end of the day, and in the late/small hours.

I have a suspicion it might be the fiddle, though. I do like a fiddle late at night. (Actually I like a fiddle all the time.) And the lyrics, which have some bite, a little more so than country lyrics usually do.

And this is definitely a country record. Its roots are sunk deep, way past the current topsoil of pop-country, into the bedrock of the open fields and rocky hills of the genre.

It’s also a little bit of commentary on how the genre of country has changed, along with the culture, and, in the case of That’s Where I’m From and Sometimes The Grass Is Really Greener, how where you are from makes you who you really are.

Which, as I prepare to go back to the place where I grew up to visit with people I haven’t seen in 20 years, is probably the real reason I keep circling back to listen to these songs again and again.

It is, in summary, the kind of record that encourages both serious thinking and singing along.

Here are two tracks from the record, so you can hear what I mean:

Long I Ride is a meditative examination of bad decisions with fast-picking and harmonica:
 

 
When I Get to The Bottom is a post-break-up “screw you” song, and I love it:
 

Special memo to Cleveland: Mr. Fulks is doing a record release show at the Beachland Ballroom on September 29, 2013. Get on down there and see him.

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Dúo del Sol, hello Kaleidoscope

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Album art by Michele Mikesell

Album art by Michele Mikesell

Dúo del Sol is Tom Farrell (guitar/vocals) and Javier Orman (violin/vocals), and they are from Los Angeles, via Chicago and Uruguay.

hello Kaleidoscope is their first full length record, and features assistance from Oscar ‘Luminoso’ Rospide (accordion), Cameron Stone (cello), Derek Stein (cello) and Andrew Bush (percussion) on some tracks.

Their sound is an awesome intoxicating swirl of classical forms and world music (mostly Latin) rhythms, and is kind of like a fine red wine: you have to do the aural equivalent of letting it breathe, i.e. just sit back and listen to it. Allow yourself to be swept up and away.

These are a few of my favorite tracks:

Never The Same River Twice, in which the violin sings a song of longing and adventure, accompanied by a cello and guitar that sound like the steady movement of water.
 

 
Louie, which unfurls and expands slowly, like a delicate, complicated rose:
 

 
And finally Satoomba, in which the guitar and the violin are dancing a flashy, sexy tango:
 

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A Good Read, A Good Listen, and A Good Drink: Sloane Spencer, Countryfriedrock.org

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

If you’ve ever been sitting around listening to your favorite under-the-rader musicians play the tunes you love and thought, man, I wish I could listen to these people play this stuff on the radio, guess what, YOU CAN.

All you have to do is adjust your dials so that Country Fried Rock is coming in clear. Or you can download a podcast or several, if that works better for you. Your reward will be hot tunes and intelligent conversation.

But what I really want to draw your attention to today is the two compilation records they have put out in support of Nuci’s Space, a non-profit health and music resource center in Athens, GA.

The aim of the organization is to prevent suicide by providing obstacle free treatment for musicians suffering from depression and other such disorders as well as to assist in the emotional, physical and professional well-being of musicians.

Volume One was released in May 2012, and featured songs from a broad variety of artists, including The District Attorneys:
 

 
And Stephanie Fagan:
 

 
Volume Two, featuring never-released songs from Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy (former Drive-By Truckers), Centro-Matic, Drivin N Cryin, Hillbilly Frankenstein (Jeff Walls of the Woggles and Guadalcanal Diary’s 1990s band), Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, Belle Adair, Doc Dailey, Matt Hudgins, Adam Klein, Old Smokey, Norma Rae, Rebecca Morning, Burning Angels, & Jack Logan and Scott Baxendale, is due at the end September 2013.

Also included will be Skyline Dream by The Blue Dogs:
 

Blue Dogs SKYLINE DREAM Dock St Theater Charleston

 
And Don’t You Want To Love from MaryJaneDaniels
 
MJD - Don't You Want to Love

 

The proceeds from both of the records go entirely to Nuci’s Space.

And now, without further ado, here is Sloane Spencer, host of Country Fried Rock, to share some of her favorite book(s), best-loved music and a most delicious non-alcoholic drink:

I love to read. When I was in elementary school, I decided that I would read every single book in my school’s library by the end of 5th grade, which I did. Sadly, as an adult, my reading is often limited to The Onion & Mental Floss, technical reading for work, and an unhealthy amount of celebrity gossip websites – the latter of which makes me feel much more normal every day than I probably am! That being said, I tend to re-read some of my favorite books.

A Good Read

I love Southern literature. I like the contrast of what the South really is and what it thinks it is, how we see ourselves and how others see us. I can appreciate my great-grandparents who were uneducated cotton sharecroppers in South Carolina who sent my granddad to The Citadel (the first and only one of that part of the family to finish college) as much as I can the other side of my family that has been Ivy League college-educated for 6 generations.

For some reason, this is why Ferrol Sams’ trilogy that begins with Run With The Horsemen and Whisper of the River really appealed to me. (Note: I don’t really like the third book in this series.)

Some of my own philosophy of “never let the truth get in the way of a good story” comes from these books, not so much in themselves, but in how Sams weaves a tale. The books on re-reading are a little (lot!) sentimental, but the appreciation for a sense of place, family, and how life will always continue to change, whether we are ready for it or not, shows a Southern world-view that I understand, even if I am not exactly like that.

A Good Listen

It’s funny – whenever I am asked about music I like, I always go for whatever is new-to-me and emerging. I’m not nostalgic or sentimental in general, but something about the books I just mentioned and the drink I like to make in the summer have me in a frame of mind that just oozes this album: the original Landslide Records issue of Space Wrangler by Widespread Panic, in its entirety, beginning to end.

I don’t “follow” Panic and never did, but this record is gorgeous – Southern, jangly, groove, lush, contradictory in its forward motion and reflective attitude. I just want to sit in the hammock, re-read one of those books, and drink my slushy.
 

Widespread Panic - Space Wrangler (Live From Austin TX)

 
A Good Drink

I don’t drink alcohol. I’m not Baptist, I’m not against it, and I’m not an alcoholic. Let’s just say that I have a large, extended network of friends and loved ones for whom Southern brown liquor has not been an asset to their lives. I was in college when I realized that most people don’t hide their liquor under the guest room sink and pretend they don’t drink it.

In solidarity for the struggles they have had, I just decided in my early 30s that it was not going to be part of my life any more. I have no problem with anybody else’s choice to enjoy good drinks. Besides, I’m hilarious without alcohol.

So, you really need to make my summertime watermelon slush.

Watermelon Slush

Large, ripe watermelon, seeds removed

Fresh key lime juice, if possible, or bottled if you can’t get key limes

Agave nectar or stevia to taste (not too much – it should be tart)

Ice

It’d probably be pretty good with some clear liquor in it, too, but not too much to make it sicky-sweet or take away from the tart taste of the key lime.

Chop watermelon into cubes and fill a blender. Whiz until slushy consistency. Add ½ C key lime juice and some sweetener to taste.

Whiz. You may want to add a few ice cubes and whiz for a slushier consistency.

Drink immediately. It will separate if you let it sit. You can just stir it back up w/ a spoon or re-whiz in the blender. If you have one of those slushy maker machines, it might work, too.

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Oum Shatt, Power to The Women of the Morning Shift

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Oum Shatt is: Jonas Poppe (Kissogram; guitar/vocals/keys), Philipp Bellinger (guitar), John Donald (bass) and Chris Imler (Driver and Driver, Die Türen; drummer), and they are from Berlin.

As for the name: “Oum” means “mother” in Arabic and in this case is also a homage to Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum, aka the Queen of Classical Arab music.

The music Oum Shatt makes combines delicate dark electronica with both surf guitar and traditional Arabic sounds, and the result is both unusual and lovely.

As an example, here is the titular song of the EP:
 

 
And also Hot Hot Cold Cold, which showcases some of the fancy guitar work:
 

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Video: Dead Professional, Downtown at Sundown

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It’s a three-day weekend in America, which for me means trying really hard not to become accidentally nocturnal.

If you, too, often find yourself on the wrong side of 3AM, here is Dead Professional, aka John Harouff (The Cinnamon Band, The Union of Man and a Woman, Man Forever) with a song you can groove to while you’re up: Downtown at Sundown.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

 

Dead Professional - Downtown at Sundown

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Video: Lindi Ortega, Murder of Crows

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Here is Lindi Ortega with a scorcher of a . . . well it isn’t a murder ballad, I guess, but that’s the vein in springs from. Plot twist, though: this time it isn’t a girl who’s dead.

Murder of Crows is from her last record, Cigarettes & Truckstops, but she has a new one coming soon: Tin Star, on October 8th.
 

Lindi Ortega - Murder Of Crows (Official Video)

 

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Field Assembly: Narco

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FieldAssembly_640x640

Narco is the second record from Field Assembly, aka L. Adam Fox (Ten Year Drought), with assistance from Dean Drouillard (Sarah Harmer, Royal Wood, Matt Barber) Colin Huebert (Siskiyou), Joshua Van Tassel (David Myles, Selena Martin), and Bryden Baird (Feist).

It is a fever dream of a record, written by and for the sleep deprived. It is delicate, lush and sweeping and also embodies the quasi-hallucinatory quasi-permanent state of what day is today and what am I doing? common to the overstimulated and overtired.

And it is glorious.

This is Receiver, the first song. Here are the lyrics – which arrive first over minimalist strumming and then repeat as the song swells and expands – that caused me to say, “okay, I’m in”: Throw your arms around the obscenity / slip your tongue into the lions mouth / pray he don’t taste your blood / pray he taste wine.

I thought it was pray he taste mine for quite some time, which might have made it twice as weird, I guess, but anyway, maybe I also need a nap, because all I had was yes, exactly, exactly.
 

 
Storm and Stress is one of the more uptempo numbers, and is mainly about the very strange things that sometimes live in the silence of the night:
 

 
And finally, Lions Versus Christians, which I have picked to share because, among many other things, of the deft deployment of a harmonica at the beginning and end of the song:
 

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Late Night Listening: High Lonesome Ark, Sloppy Gospel

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When I created the Late Night Listening category, it was intended to be – for lack of a better metaphor – my own personal 120 Minutes file: a home for things that might be fleeting, might be soothing, might be weird, might be soothing and weird. The blogging equivalent of sitting in the garage twiddling radio knobs just to see what might be out there.

The latest entry into this file is Sloppy Gospel, from High Lonesome Ark, a band which popped into existence last week and is the latest project of Martin Bemberg (Memphis Pencils), along with Dick Darden (drums), Sean Johnson (rockin’ rhythm) and Cody Troglin (dreamy lead, pizza)

Or as they further expanded on it: Nasty Marty Bemberg is bass and baritone, Cody Pizzaboy Trogdog the reverie on strings, while SeanJohn Hard Like A Johnson just rocks all six real hard, and Slick Dick Darden straight up brings it on the pounders.

At present they have turned six songs loose upon the world. I am going to share two:

First, the title track, Sloppy Gospel, because it was not at all what I was expecting, but I wasn’t mad about that, and, also, it persuaded me to jump the rest of the way down the rabbit hole and see what was at the bottom.
 

 

And second, Take You Home, which is more of a mellow groove.
 

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A Good Read, A Good Listen, and A Good Drink: Astro Zu

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Astro_zu
 
It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

Astro Zu, also called Ronnie, spent his formative years with his parents, an astrologist and a yoga teacher, in a hippy/New Age commune in Staffordshire, England, but has since moved to East London. Ma Body Sayin’ is on of two songs he recently released as a follow-up to his first EP.

It is both trippy and chill; calming, but possessed of a subtle, otherworldly spark.

 

 

His selections for us this evening are a similar mixture of the practical and the fantastical:

Good Read:
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy [by Douglas Adams] is one of the first books I read. It’s got a mad, eccentric energy, weird, very English and drags you into such a fantastical world. I also got the Stephen Fry narrated audio book about a year ago too and is so good. His voice suits so perfectly. I’m not usually a sci-fi book fan, but this is just genius.

Good Listen:
Flying Lotus – Los Angeles – The first Fly Lo album I heard and was instantly obsessed by him. The subtleties are what make it special. The disjointed beats and lush string samples and the beautiful and often simple melodies. Then you get spikes of cosmic darkness from ‘Riot’. Such a perfect album for me. To be honest I could be describing any of his albums, as they’re all amazing and he keeps pushing forward his artistry.
 

 

Good Drink:
A Cuba Libre is a classic and it is almost impossible to make a bad one. So the further you go into the night and your measuring skills are failing you badly, you can rest assured. Its all gonna be OK :)