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Seamus O’Muineachain, Away With The Fairies

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This is Away With the Fairies, the first song from Seamus O’Muineachain‘s new self-titled record.

O’Muineachain’s tunes are music for the life’s liminal spaces, like the glimmer of tiny lights on trees brightening the place where the grey buildings meet the grey skies or moments spent walking slowly through swirls already-falling copper leaves while enjoying the rising wind of an oncoming late summer storm.

And if there were sidhe wandering the streets of Manhattan, this is what they would listen to as they walked between worlds.
 

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Friday Link Session

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Looks like an all-hip hop edition this week.

  • Animal has posted pages from an unreleased Wu-Tang Clan comic that tied into the Raekwon/Method Man/Ghostface Killah album Wu-Massacre, with art by Chris Bachalo.
  • Speaking of hip hop and comics, if you haven’t been reading the Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor over on Boing Boing, we have your afternoon all planned out for you.
  • And if you like some musical accompaniment for your reading, NPR Music has started “Microphone Check”, a hip hop stream curated by NPR music editor Frannie Kelley and A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad. It’s a great, eclectic mix, spanning styles and decades.
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August Video Challenge: Dan Keyes, Untitled

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While we’re on the subject of unGoogleable songs, here’s one more. The video doesn’t give a title, but I’d name it Find You Lost, Leave You Found essentially to distinguish it from all of the other songs that are called Who’s Going to Walk You Home?

The person singing is Dan Keyes, formerly of Young Love (dance-pop) and Recover (post-hardcore), now a songwriter/producer, and the performance is part 2 of a two part interview he did with Alexi Wasser from I’m Boy Crazy. I have watched both parts and all I’m going to say he is both extraordinarily patient and a very good sport about approximately everything.

I picked this video because I initially watched it out of morbid curiosity and then spent the half second between him hitting the last note and Wasser’s final comment feeling kind of stunned and lost. I don’t know what I was expecting but this song – this bright beautiful stiletto of a tune – was not it.

So I watched it again. And again. Every time I watch the video I have to watch it four times in a row. I am hoping someday it is actually released properly, just as it is, acoustic-style, because I think adding anything to it would ruin it.

I want to be able to take it to all of my favorite quiet, lonely places and spaces and times, like Coney Island when the air is cold and the beach is empty and the High Line in the snow.
 

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Big Black Delta: Betamax

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Remember how you dug Big Black Delta’s “IFUCKINGLOVEYOU” when we posted it back in June? (Don’t even pretend you didn’t. We saw you.) Here’s a new one called “Betamax”.

 

 

Both “IFUCKINGLOVEYOU” and “Betamax” are part of Big Black Delta’s tour EP which is streaming at Life + Times and can be purchased here.

Big Black Delta has also added dates to their tour schedule.

AUGUST
31st Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver BC w/Jane’s Addiction

SEPTEMBER
4th Keller Auditorium, Portland OR
5th Grand Sierra Resort & Casino, Reno NV
6th Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco CA
7th Bootleg Theater, Los Angeles CA

OCTOBER
19TH Hooga, Chelmsford UK
22ND Hoxton, London UK
26TH Soup Kitchen, Manchester UK
27TH The Asylum, Birmingham UK
28TH Haddow Fest, Edinburgh UK

 

Big Black Delta Official Website

 

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August Video Challenge: Oh Ginger, And So It Goes

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Oh Ginger is Lindsay Holler (Charleston SC) and Michael Hanf (New York NY), and together they sing sweet delicate beautiful songs. They have two EPs out so far, Oh! Ginger and [oh ginger] and a third one coming soon.

Here they are with And So It Goes, from Oh! Ginger:

 

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August Video Challenge: Didier Wampas, Eternellement

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Here is Didier Wampas singing Eternellement, one of my favorites from Taisez Moi, while dressed as a vampire and playing a very special guitar.
 

 

PS/ETA: If you listen very carefully to the chorus, you can also hear Ryan Ross (The Young Veins, Panic[!] at the Disco] singing back-up!!

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Icon of Coil: PerfectSex

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Hey y’all, guess who’s back?

ICON OF COIL.

They’ve come out of a nine-year hibernation with new music and a tour. There’s a sample track on bandcamp called PerfectSex. Check it:
 

 

Tour starts Washington, DC in early September! Be sure to check their listings and get out and see them if you can. It will definitely be a good show.

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A Good Read, a Good Listen, and a Good Drink: Blackwater Jukebox

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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.

 

We hold a special place in our hearts for Blackwater Jukebox around here. Partially because, while my co-blogger Jennifer and I are often at odds in our musical tastes, we are both enthusiastic about the synthesis of old and new, dance and hip hop churned up with folk and blues, produced by Blackwater Jukebox.

Check out an acoustic version of “Eastside Girls” recorded for this year’s CXCW:

 

“Eastside Girls” – Blackwater Jukebox feat. Sadie & the Blue Eyed Devils

 

Another reason we love Blackwater Jukebox is because mastermind Geordie McElroy is such a nice and interesting fellow. So, we’re pleased to have Geordie share a few fantastic recommendations with us.

 

“Mr. Vain” – Blackwater Jukebox feat. Sadie & the Blue Eyed Devils

 

Good Read:
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
John Kennedy Toole’s absurd tragicomedy about Ignatius J. Reilly: an obese, over-educated, and egomaniacal mama’s boy, forced to balance minimum wage drudgery with the calorie-intensive labors of penning an indictment of the 20th century. This book is for struggling artists, coffee shop philosophers, and anyone who has lashed out at dregs of pop culture. The “Crusade for Moorish Dignity” and The Sodomite Party political convention are high points among Ignatius’ rambling mis-adventures through 1960s New Orleans.

Good Listen:
Zulu Jive: Umbaqanga – various artists
A UK import from the early 80s featuring a handful of tracks from apartheid-era South Africa. This may be the most jubilant and effervescent music – ever. Frankly, it would be shocking if Paul Simon hadn’t pumped this prior to making Graceland. If you dig up-tempo, syncopated grooves with shimmering guitar, buoyant bass, and accordion – this album is for you. Good time music.

 

 

Good Drink:
Michelada
Mexican Bloody Mary made with beer, Clamato, and a fistful of flavor. Bursting with b-vitamins (and alcohol), the bright red concoction might be the ultimate hang-over cure, hunger neutralizer, and/or thirst quencher. Extra tasty with a salt and season rim. If you’re ever in LA, try Mario’s at the Silverlake Lounge. Liquid dynamite.

 

Blackwater Jukebox are planning a Dia de los Meurtos (November 1) release and west coasters can check out their upcoming gigs.

September 10 – Los Globos – Los Angeles, CA
October 1 – The Redwood Bar & Grill – Los Angeles, CA
November 8 – Sam Bond’s Garage – Eugene, OR

 

Blackwater Jukebox @ Bandcamp

Blackwater Jukebox @ Facebook

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August Video Challenge: Melody Gardot, Baby I’m A Fool

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Another one I found while looking for something else: Melody Gardot, with Baby I’m a Fool from My One and Only Thrill (2009).

While I am not usually into jazz, Gardot has a stunning voice and I always love handsome men dancing in top hats and tails. The internet informs me she has just put a new record out, so if you listen to this and like it, be sure to follow up on that news.