4 Comments

White Arrows: Dry Land is Not A Myth

  By

This has been a fever-dream summer, in which I have been occasionally sleepless and sometimes adrift in a sea-fog of bleepy-bloopy fuzzy distorted electronic tones.

White Arrows are sometimes fuzzy and distorted too, but they also bring a certain amount of vibrant clarity to the proceedings – the sun burning off the fog, if you will.

They are the promises of wave-jumping, beach-lounging, Ferris Wheel riding, and eating terrible food on the boards at Coney Island that hover on my distant horizons.

A sampling of their sound, starting with Get Gone, from Dry Land is Not a Myth.

NOTE: This video uses strobe-y effects! Alternate visuals here.
 

White Arrows - Get Gone OFFICIAL VIDEO

 
Fireworks of the Sea, also strobe-y (alternate visuals: here):
White Arrows | Fireworks Of The Sea

 
And finally, not on the record but still pretty a great, a cover of Springsteen’s I’m on Fire:
 
http://youtu.be/r7zJHSQEKsU

No comments

Baby: Wanna Get Down

  By

 

Apparently, there was a disco craze in New York circa 2004. I’m glad I missed that. But I’m equally glad that Craig Wedren did not miss it. In the wake of the break-up of his band, the great Shudder to Think, Wedren was looking for something new to pour his considerable energy into, a fresh start. The new project, Baby – which also included Amy Myles, Alex Edinburough, Lee Mars (Nine Inch Nails), Brad Vander Ark (The Verve Pipe) and Charles Scott (Shudder to Think) – only lasted for one, self-titled album, but that one album remains a gem of exuberant, sexy dance euphoria.

 

Get Your Body by craigwedren

 

You may have missed out on Baby’s album the first time around, as it was released independently and without the fanfare it deserved, but you can rectify that now as the album has been re-released this month. It’s great timing as Baby’s vibrant tones and lusty energy are perfectly suited to summer.

 

Giddyup by craigwedren

 

And if you did get in on Baby at the start, the re-release includes un-released songs and demos that you’ll want to get your hands/ears on.

Spinner is streaming the album, sans extras. You can purchase the big, fat re-release through Amazon and iTunes.

 

Baby Official Website

Tagged   , , ,
7 Comments

Never Fake Desire: Bethany Weimers, Harpsichord Row

  By ,


Eagle and Girl painting © Annika Olesen

NTSIBers, please meet Bethany Weimers, of Oxford, England. Harpischord Row is her first record; on it, she balances folk and pop in interesting ways, and weaves complex stories through delicate melodies. Every time one of her songs floats up on shuffle I pause for a moment to greet her characters properly, as they are compelling people.

Here is a video for the title track:
 

 

And one for 30,000 Days, wherein the video picture is somewhat unusual – filmed by Improbable Blue, the YouTube notes indicate it was originally recorded both in silhouette and in darkness, so what you see here is a “salvage job” – but I like it, as an unintended special effect:
 

Bethany Weimers - 30000 Days

 
And two more I especially like. First, Silver Moon, which I love because the beat is dreamy and soothing, a slow Loreena McKennitt-style stomp and swirl, and the lyrics contain a bright ribbon of stubborn defiance: I will not be pushed around / I will not be sacrificed.
 

 
And second, To the Land, which is a beautiful, spare incantation of determination:
 

 

4 Comments

A Good Read, a Good Listen, and a Good Drink: Mudlow

  By ,

photo credit: Nhung Dang

 

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.

Much like my appreciation for Skip James, my interest in Mudlow was originally piqued not by their music, but by a photo of the band. The photo you see above, in fact – taken by Nhung Dang with a pinhole camera made from a biscuit tin. Anyone who has ever purchased a record by an artist they’ve never heard before based solely on the sleeve art knows that art/graphics/image can convey much about sound. When I saw this blurred, rough photo of a bunch of hard men, holding big knives and wearing spattered aprons, I knew they made music I had to hear.

And, well, not only can you sometimes judge a book by its cover, you can also occasionally judge a band by their press photo because I can now put a Mudlow album in the player and happily leave it there for days of repeated listening. The noir grit of their music sits perfectly in that spot where all my favorite music hits me, somewhere between the gut and the pelvis – music for fucking and fighting. All the Mudlow elements, from Trimble’s sinuous saxophone to Tobias’ one-more-whiskey vocals, combine to create a sound that nearly dislocates your jaw with a strong uppercut before confidently seducing you into bed… or vice versa.

The men of Mudlow have favored us with some great recommendations. If these aren’t men you’d like to raise a glass with… well then, I’ll just take your place at the bar.

 

“Zane Merite” – Mudlow

 

TOBIAS

Good Read:
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
Amid the staggering brutality and violence in this book I love the way ‘the kid’ keeps on surviving. The descriptive way in which McCarthy writes is epic beyond anything else I’ve read. Also it’s a western and who doesn’t love a western!

Good Listen:
Big Time – Tom Waits
This is like a ‘best-of’ from his most creative period. I think that the re-worked songs, recorded live with a full band (one hell of a band too) are better versions than most of the studio originals.

Good Drink:
Wild Turkey bourbon
It picks you up when you’re down and knocks you down when you’re up. Cheers!

 

MATT

Good Read:
Jolie Blon’s Bounce by James Lee Burke
I hadn’t read any James Lee Burke novels before this one, I picked it up at a second-hand store because I liked the cover. It’s the last book that I read more than once and it’s still my favourite of his.

Good Listen:
Burnside on Burnside – R.L. Burnside
For me, there’s two really great live albums that I listen to regularly (Tobias chose the other one) and R.L. Burnside tears me a new earhole every time I put this one on. Superb sound and a ferocious set from R.L., Kenny and Cedric. It begs to be played really LOUD every time.

Good Drink:
Brooklyn Lager
Ice cold and from the bottle, this is my new favourite lager, flavourful but not too sweet. (there may be a slight emotional bias…my girlfriend is from Brooklyn too!)

 

PAUL

Good Read:
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
This is my current read. A ‘true crime’ classic. Hmm… Seems like we choose books with rather dark themes, huh.

Good Listen:
The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground
I have way too many (ever-changing) musical ‘likes’ to choose just one but I re-visit this album more than most and it’s a good one to drink and read to.

Good Drink:
Metaxa
I regularly go on holiday to visit my Dad in Corfu and this sweet, Greek brandy is my drink of choice when I’m there.

 

TRIMBLE

Good Read:
The Life of Lee – Lee Evans (autobiography)
I tend to read factual stuff on the whole, so I don’t really have a favourite but this is what I’m reading at the minute and it’s pretty funny.

Good Listen:
Smell of Female – The Cramps
It’s EP length really but it’s the Cramps at their best, it always makes me want to go out for a good time, as a result this record has got me into a lot of trouble over the years!

Good Drink:
Tequila Sunrise
It’s a ‘boat drink’. The kind of drink that puts you somewhere better, somewhere with the sun on your face. I hardly ever drink it coz I never go on holiday and you wouldn’t ask for this in the kind of english pubs i go to.

 

“Evol” – Mudlow

 

Mudlow Official Website

Mudlow @ ReverbNation

Mudlow @ Google+

Mudlow @ Facebook

 

2 Comments

We See Lights: Hopeless at Maths

  By

Maths monsters! This explains everything.

Scottish trio We See Lights have returned to shoot sunshine into your earholes again. And your eyeholes! Here’s an enlightening video for us maths-challenged types, for the song “Hopeless at Maths” off We See Lights’ forthcoming album Bloody Twenties.

 

 

Want it? Get it.

 

Bloody Twenties is slated for release in the summer.

 

We See Lights Official Website

We See Lights @ Bandcamp

 

One Comment

A Tribe Called Red

  By

 

Got some worthy free music to start your weekend. A Tribe Called Red is a collective of Native DJs who mix samples, beats and pow wow music into something they have dubbed Pow Wow Step. When I first read about this, thanks to Rick Saunders, I wondered why I hadn’t heard about anyone doing this sooner.

I’ve been a fan of pow wow music since I first attended the Great Mohican Pow Wow (where they let white people in) in my early teens. The highlight of any day spent at the Pow Wow was going down to the ring to watch the dancers compete as the thumping drums and otherworldly vocals set their rhythm. Pow wow music is, essentially, dance music. It may be more ceremonial than the dancing you see in a club on a Saturday night… but, on the other hand, from a sociological viewpoint, maybe it’s all one in the same.

I was endeared to A Tribe Called Red as soon as I watched this video for “Electric Pow Wow Drum”, which includes clips from Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man.

 

 

How frigging wicked is that? And there’s a whole album, also titled Electric Pow Wow Drum, free to download below.

 

 

A Tribe Called Red Blog

A Tribe Called Red @ Soundcloud

A Tribe Called Red @ Facebook

 

No comments

The Wind-up Birds: Talking Back All the Time

  By

 

While we moan like owt then this good shop shuts
Well take the blame
No you don’t have the guts
While we moan like owt then a good shop shuts
We’d take the blame if we had the guts
For the money we never spent
The times we never went

This is how The Land, the first full-length album from Leeds, England-based band the Wind-up Birds, opens: with an indictment that blankets us all who have popped around to the nearest discount megastore in the name of convenience and saving a buck, then proceeded to moan about what a shame it is when a good locally-owned store is forced to close. You know right off that if The Land is going to leave you feeling anything, “comfortable” will not be among the emotional options.

The Wind-up Birds – named for Haruki Murakami’s novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – have been playing together for nearly a decade, and perhaps it’s best that they waited so long to get their first full album together because this is a strong showing. While the intense “There Won’t Always Be an England” is the immediate favorite for me, I’d hasten to point out the greatness of tracks like “Nostalgic for….”, “No People Just Cutouts”, the first single “Cross Country”, and so on.

 

 

Songs like “Good Shop Shuts” – quoted at the opening of this post – and “There Won’t Always Be an England” are written at a local level, they translate easily to American ears and can make you feel both better and worse that the problems in your backyard mirror problems in the backyards of people an ocean away, and that it’s not just you who is fed up to the back teeth with blind jingoism.

 

 

And behind the words, a musical frontline that many might mark as “post-punk” but the band have dubbed “noisy pop”, “cos in our heads we are making pop music, songs that people can sing and dance to, just a bit noisier.” But the emotional outcome is much closer to punk than ABBA, tattered and angry, and by no means mindless or bubblegum.

 

 

Everything about this album is compelling. Eat it up.

 

The Wind-up Birds Official Website

The Wind-up Birds @ Bandcamp

The Wind-up Birds @ Facebook

 

No comments

Receiver: Ian Curtis Wishlist

  By

Receiver is the debut album by Ian Curtis Wishlist, also known as Aaron Struble, of Springfield, Missouri. I found it while noodling around the internets looking for things to make my brain stop spinning while I made bar review flashcards (this will be a recurring theme in my life/posts until the end of July, just fyi) and I am here to tell you this is 1) deeply weird but also 2) really good.

I realize “he had me at hello” is a terrible cliche, but, well, he kind of did, or at least he had me at the first 30 seconds or so of Flutters, which you can watch the video for below. That beat is blunt. It’s arresting. It demands attention. I have sat through his record twice now, and the rest of it is equally compelling.

This video is less blunt, but I find that even though I’m kind of wondering what in the world is going on here, I don’t really need an explanation. I can enjoy it as a brief foray into WTAFville, which, much like Vitamin C, is something I feel one should have every day.
 

ian curtis wishlist - flutters

Video by Joshua Rogers of brokenmachinefilms.com
 

Another favorite from the record: emerald park i: awash in you
 

 
If you like it, Receiver is a free download at bandcamp, and there’s much more to be had at ICW’s Soundcloud. For example, this one which is called Flights, and is the work of both ICW and VΞRACOM:
 
VΞRACOM & ian curtis wishlist – FLIGHTS by ian curtis wishlist
 
And this one, which is called HWMY<3BHVS0.9 which I’m pretty sure translates to “How My Heart Behaves 0.9”:
 
HWMY<3BHVS0.9 by ian curtis wishlist

No comments

Feel Bad For You, June 2012

  By

 

The Feel Bad For You mix for June is here, babies. The FBFY corral of hard-working (just humor us) music bloggers, twitterers, avid listeners, and people pulled off the street have come together again to bring you aural pleasure. Pick it up. (For more information about the contributors – or to comment – check the FBFY site.)

 

 

Download.

 

1. Track: Blondie and Dagwood
Artist: Adam Carroll
Album: Lookin’ Out The Screen Door (2000)
Submitted by: toomuchcountry
Comments: This one is for all you June brides and grooms who want your new marriages to last. My suggestion is to put down that copy of 50 Shades of Gray and listen closely to Carroll’s lyrics of romance based on the couple from a comic strip legend.

2. Title: Clever & Quickness
Artist: River City Extension
Album: Nautical Sabbatical (2009)
Submitted By: @popa2unes
Comments: Formed in Asbury Park NJ in 2007. The band played an explosive showcase at last year’s SXSW; Newport Folk Festival producer Jay Sweet stumbled upon the gig, and later told Billboard, “This band, River City Extension, is ripping the paint off the wall.

3. Title: No Spare Parts
Artist: The Rolling Stones
Album (year): Some Girls re-issue (2011)
Submitted By: Bowood
Comments: Jagger in hillbilly mode for this great road trip song from last years deluxe reissue

4.Title: “45″
Artist: The Gaslight Anthem
Album (year): Handwritten (2012)
Submitted By: Gorrck
Comments: Single released in advance of the album. Thinking about actually getting the 45 on vinyl.

5. Title: PT Cruiser
Artist: O. Children
Album (year): Apnea (2012)
Submitted By: tincanman2010
Comments: Sunshine. Music. Cruising. I said cruisING not cruisER. Oh well, rockin’ driving song so I’ll keep it.

6. Title: Head Above Water
Artist: Ryan Montbleau
Album (year): For Higher (2012)
Submitted By: Mando Lines
Comments: Ryan Montbleau’s new album was recorded in New Orleans with George Porter, Jr., Ivan Neville, Simon Lott and Anders Osborne. Ben Ellman (Galactic) produced. The majority of the songs (including this one) are Montbleau originals, but the record also has covers of Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers and Muscle Shoals great Eddie Hinton. Great record.

7. Title: I Just Want You To Go Away
Artist: The Lovely Bad Things
Album (year): New Ghost/Old Waves (2012)
Submitted By: annieTUFF
Comments: I just heard of this band a couple of months ago, so I’m still trying them on for size. But sometimes the best love song is an anti-love song.

8. Title: Yesterday (Circa Summer 80 Something)
Artist: Cory Branan
Album (year): 2012
Submitted By: TheOtherBrit
Comments: Cory finally got this album out and this ode to John Cougar is the perfect way to kick off summer.

9. Title: Chain Chain Chain
Artist: Red Red Meat
Album (year): Bunny Gets Paid (1995)
Submitted By: Ryan (Verbow @ Altcountrytab.ca)
Comments: I’m constantly surprised at the numbers of bands I missed out on in the 90′s. Red Red Meat were straight outta Chicago, even touring with Smashing Pumpkins – yet I’m only just now finding out about them thanks to Tim Rutili’s current band (Califone). This is off of their recently reissued Sub Pop masterpiece Bunny Gets Paid – damn fine song if you ask me. Crank it.

10. Title: The Messenger
Artist: Ray Wylie Hubbard
Album (year): Crusades of the Restless Knights (1999)
Submitted By: Rockstar Aimz
Comments: Killer song by RWH. This version features Patty Griffin on background vocals.

11. Title: Ready For The Axe To Drop
Artist: TV Smith
Album (year): Useless – The Very Best of TV Smith
Submitted By: Simon
Comments: The only redeeming feature of this weeks Jubilee celebrations for me has been the various media articles and TV programming on the BBC revisiting punk, not that it ever really went away – which brings me to this months song choice from a guy who’s continued to record solo and in various collaborations after the punk band he fronted split in 1979, prompted by one of the aforementioned BBC Rock-docs here’s a track from the The Adverts front man TV Smith http://www.tvsmith.com/

12. Title: Alone In Memphis
Artist: Austin Lucas w/Glossary
Album (year): none
Submitted By: Bryan Childs (ninebullets.net)
Comments: This, I assume, will be on Austin’s next album.

13. Title: Everything You Took
Artist: Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires
Album (year): There is a Bomb in Gilead (2012)
Submitted By: @philnorman

14. Title: Come Unto Me
Artist: The Mavericks
Album (year): Suited Up and Ready EP (2012)
Submitted By: Trailer
Comments: Bad ass song. Glad they’re back!

15. Title: Sippin’ Sorrow
Artist: Pearl Woods
Album (year): Eeny Meeny Moe!
Submitted By: BoogieStudio22
Comments: An old R&B tune, from a ripped LP that I recently acquired (quality’s not great). Just plain fun!

16. Title: Bring Flowers To My Grave
Artist: Jake Klar
Album (year): Jake Klar (2012)
Submitted By: Slowcoustic
Comments: Some great twangy singer songwriter “alt-country” from this new-to-me artist. The 7 track album is even a free download on his bandcamp page: http://jakeklar.bandcamp.com/ Highly Recommended.

17. Title: Creakin’ Ol’ Bones
Artist: Michael Dean Damron
Album (year): Nah Death, Im’a Comin’ For You (2012)
Submitted By: Romeo Sid Vicious
Comments: Mike D. has been getting me through a lot as of late and this track is the one I queue up the most at the moment.

18. Title:1922
Artist: Shooter Jennings & Last False Hope
Album (year): Outlaw Radio Compilation vol. 2
Submitted By: Adam Sheets
Comments: Based on a Stephen King novella.

19. Title: Loser Neck
Artist: The Riverboat Gamblers
Album (year): The Wold You Feed (2012)
Submitted By: erschen

20. Title: Set On Fire
Artist: Magnolia Mountain
Album: Town & Country (2012)
Submitted By: Corey Flegel (This Is American Music)

21. Title: Sweetness
Artist: Micah P Hinson
Album: … And The Pioneer Saboteurs (2010)
Submitted by: Lord Summerisle
Comments: I am baffled as to why this man is not huge. Probably my favourite artist of the last 10 years in terms of consistency. Every album is great.

22. Title: The Devil Ain’t Lazy
Artist: Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
Album: single (1948)
Submitted By: April @ Now This Sound Is Brave
Comments: I get a kick out of the fact that this song is essentially praising Satan’s work ethic. And, of course, since it’s Bob Wills, it swings. The mellow-voiced Tommy Duncan provides the vocals.