Here we are on 1/1/11, a new year, a new mix. There are a handful of new tracks in here along with some classics and some favorites from my rotation. In response to John’s query last month about music sources, here are a few of my favorites: KEXP, Radio Paradise, Chances With Wolves, Indie Rock Cafe, ISO50, Hype Machine, and Pitchfork.
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Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit / The Blue
For some reason this song hooked me the minute I heard it. I love the little trill guitar variation he does mid-verse. Big fan of the guitar tone. He was once in the Drive-By Truckers.
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Alabama born songsmith and Southern rock solo artist also performs simply as Jason Isbell and is a former member of the Drive-By Truckers, who has since split with that band, ( and with his former wife and DBT bassist Shonna Tucker). Read more on Last.fm more...
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Shuggie Otis / Inspiration Information
DANCE PARTY. I stumbled on Shuggie when I was at Career Discovery for the summer. All sorts of music was floating around to get us through the long nights of studio but this record has stuck with me. This song has been covered by another artist on this mix, Sharon Jones.
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Shuggie Otis, born 1953, is the son of Johnny Otis, a rhythm and blues musician. He started performing in his youth and released his first record in 1970. He not only writes songs, but also plays guitar, piano, organ, and bass. He has recorded with Frank Zappa, Al Kooper, Etta James, and Eddie Vinson, and more recently Mos Def. The Brothers Johnson's version of his composition "Strawberry Letter 23" reached #1 in the Billboard rhythm and blues chart and #5 in the Billboard pop chart in 1977. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Girls / The Oh So Protective One
This is off their new EP: Broken Dreams Club. A disconcerting look inside the mind of a teenage girl. Gotta love those horns, damn.
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There are at least six artists which have used the name Girls: 1) an indie rock band from the US; 2) a girl group from Brazil; 3) a rock band from Japan; 4) a synthpop group from Sweden; 5) a punk band from the US; and 6) a four-woman krautrock group from Germany. 1) Girls was an American indie band formed in San Francisco in 2007. The band comprised two key members: Christopher Owens, songwriter and lead singer, and Chet "JR" White, who played bass and produced. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings / Better Things To Do
Dap-Kings, Sharon Jones. I want to see them live in the worst way. I would put her pipes up against the greats any day.
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Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings were a funk/soul band, founded in Brooklyn, NY, USA (1996). They were signed to Daptone Records, where the Dap-Kings are the house band. They are widely thought to be spearheads of a revivalist movement that aims to capture the essence of funk/soul music as it was at its height in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. Part of the way this is achieved is to shun modern digital recording methods in favour of using traditional analogue recording equipment. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Vetiver / Everyday
The close-up live recording sounds great here. These guys have some great songs, but this one wins for me. The song builds layers as it goes along and finally it gets rolling into a beautiful groove at the end: "Wait for me now..." It feels like the whole thing just takes flight and flies off into the sunset or something.
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Vetiver is an American folk band headed by songwriter Andy Cabic and often joined by Devendra Banhart, cellist Alissa Anderson, and violinist Jim Gaylord. They released their debut album Vetiver in 2004 on the small indie folk label DiCristina. Since the album's release Vetiver has toured extensively, opening for and collaborating with Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. Before moving to San Francisco Cabic was a member of the North Carolina indie rock band The Raymond Brake who released some records on the now-defunct Simple Machines label. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Sinéad O'Connor / Downpressor Man
YES! This album is a beast. I totally missed this when it came out in 2005, but Sin
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Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor (/ʃɪˈneɪd oʊˈkɒnər/; born 8 December 1966) is an Irish singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra. O'Connor achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a new arrangement of Prince's song "Nothing Compares 2 U". Since then, while maintaining her singing career, she has occasionally encountered controversy, partly due to her statements and gestures—such as Read more on Last.fm more...
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Dylan In The Movies / Josephine If You Only Knew
I had to include this one for Saunders (n
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Large hearted sounds. Poignant lyrics. Crashing crescendos. With their debut EP "Feel the Pull", Boston's Dylan In The Movies creates a subterranean landscape in which loss transcends the bounds of sorrow. The tracks on "Feel The Pull" ebb and flow from lofty heights to gloaming dips, giving way to simple revelatory beauty. Dylan In The Movies is an ever -changing group of players who orbit front-man Brian Sullivan's voice and guitar. Among those who appear on "Feel the Pull" Read more on Last.fm more...
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Laura Marling / Rambling Man
She's 20 years old. Incredible. Such a great comforting tone in this voice. She's got a Joni Mitchell thing going on.
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Laura Marling (born 1st February 1990) is a folk singer/songwriter/guitarist from Eversley, United Kingdom. She began playing the guitar at the age of five, first being taught the blues by her father in front of the family fire, and has been enthralled by the songs and lyrics of the likes of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and John Mayall ever since. It’s not just the “golden-oldies” that Laura admires; she also harbours a rather deep love for alt. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Belle and Sebastian / I Didn't See It Coming
This is the first track off the new B&S record. I'm not their biggest fan but I like this track. There is also a song on this record that is a duo with Norah Jones which is pretty wacky, but also great. I always anxiously await the end of the bridge as it goes back into the chorus.
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Belle and Sebastian is a band from Glasgow. Led by guitarist/vocalist Stuart Murdoch, the seven-piece band has an intimate, majestic sound that is equal parts folk-rock and '60s pop. Murdoch has a gift not only for whimsy and surrealism, but also for odd, unsettling lyrical detail which keeps the songs grounded in a tangible reality. Based in Glasgow, Scotland, Belle and Sebastian released their first two albums in 1996: Tigermilk, recorded over three days Read more on Last.fm more...
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Stornoway / Here Comes The Blackout
I heard these guys perform live in studio on KEXP and this was their first song. A quick one-off that just hits the spot.
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Stornoway was a British alternative indie folk band who formed in 2006 in the Cowley Road area of Oxford, UK. The band consisted of singer and guitarist Brian Briggs, multi-instrumentalists Jon Ouin and Oli Steadman, and the latter's brother Rob Steadman on drums. The band was often joined by trumpeter Adam Briggs and violinist Rahul Satija. In October 2016 the band announced that they would be splitting up after a farewell tour during spring 2017. They played their final show on 12 March 2017. Read more on Last.fm more...
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The War On Drugs / Comin' Through
I forget where I first heard these guys, but with a name like that, you know you're in for something interesting.
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The War on Drugs is an American indie rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Band member Adam Granduciel (born Adam Granofsky in Dover, Massachusetts) moved from Oakland, California to Philadelphia in 2003, where he met Kurt Vile and began playing music with him. They began playing as The War on Drugs in 2005, and self-released a demo EP. While Vile and Granduciel formed the backbone of the band, they had a number of accompanists early in the group's career Read more on Last.fm more...
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Animal Collective / What Would I Want? Sky
I am not the biggest AC fan in general, but I've been hooked on this song since I first heard it. There is actually a three minute intro which I sliced off in the interest of fitting everything. Grateful Dead sample, wacky lyrics, brilliant, absolutely love this song.
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Animal Collective is a musical group which formed in Baltimore, Maryland, United States in 1999. The band consists of Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Avey Tare (David Portner), Deakin (Josh Dibb) and Geologist (Brian Weitz). Records released under the name Animal Collective may include contributions from any or all of these members; the lineup is not uniform. The band has released eleven albums: "Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished" (2000), "Danse Manatee" (2001) Read more on Last.fm more...
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Deerhunter / Helicopter
This was a late addition. This new album is pretty solid, but for some reason this track sticks with me.
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Deerhunter is a band which formed in 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The band consists of Bradford Cox (vocals, guitar, piano), Moses Archuleta (drums, synths), Lockett Pundt (guitar, organ, vocals), and Josh McKay (bass, vocals). The group began with the ambition of fusing the lulling hypnotic states induced by ambient and minimalist music with the klang and propulsion of garage rock. The band has weathered chaotic line-up changes and the death of a member. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Local Natives / Sun Hands
From the left coast. I don't know much about these guys. But they do have a fun cover video of "Cecilia"
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Local Natives (formerly cavil at rest) is an indie rock band based in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA, United States. After the three founding members originally met in high school, a bassist and a drummer were found, and they all moved to a house in Silver Lake in 2008 to record their album. Their debut album as Local Natives, "Gorilla Manor", was released in the UK on November 2nd, 2009, and saw a US release date of February 16th, 2010. The band's Read more on Last.fm more...
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Easy Star All-Stars / Getting Better
I disagree. It doesn't get better than this. I'm a sucker for the Beatles, but this reggae cover of Sergeant Pepper's really stands on its own. They have also put out covers of Dark Side of the Moon and OK Computer. Great stuff all around.
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The Easy Star All-Stars are a collective family of some of the finest reggae musicians in the New York area. The band features a rotating cast drawn from a talented pool of players, meaning that every show has its own nuances and its own life. The masterminds behind the All-Stars are Easy Star musical director Michael Goldwasser (a.k.a. Michael G), frequent production partner Victor Axelrod (a.k.a. Ticklah), and Easy Star execs Eric Smith and Lem Oppenheimer. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Elbow / Mirrorball
Pretty. I really dig the drum tone in this song. Loping, ambling, call it what you will, I feel like walking outside with my collar up against the cold. It's romantic and corny but "We kissed like we invented it" is a killer line.
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Elbow is an alternative rock band that got started in Bury, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom in 1990. Formed when its members were in sixth-form college, the group consists of Guy Garvey (vocals, guitar), Mark Potter (guitar, vocals), Pete Turner (bass), Craig Potter (keyboards) and Richard Jupp (drums). Over the band's twenty plus year career, it has released six studio albums and four EPs while also having over five top 40 singles in the U.K. alone. Read more on Last.fm more...
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John Martyn / Over The Hill
I'm not sure what it is about this song. I got introduced to it by way of the soundtrack from Scrapple which is great all around.
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John Martyn OBE, born Iain David McGeachy (11 September 1948 – 29 January 2009), was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a forty-year career he released twenty studio albums. He grew up in Glasgow and attended Shawlands Academy. John Martyn moved to London from Glasgow in the mid 1960s. He made his initial recorded impact in 1967, at the age of 19, with his debut album London Conversation. He then quickly became an integral part of the British music scene, incorporating Folk, Blues, and Jazz into his unique sound. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Morphine / Patience
I figure I first heard this as a Catie Curtis cover. At the time I didn't realize it was a Mark Sandman song, but now that i know I love it more than before. It's definitely a unique Morphine song.
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Morphine was formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States in 1990 by Mark Sandman (vocals, bass) and Dana Colley (saxophone). Jerome Dupree became the group's drummer in 1991 prior to the release of their debut album, Good. "Low Rock" is Morphine's unique combination of jazz, blues and pop/rock, sung with darkly comic and ironic lyrics. Their guitarless sound relied on an unusual combination of baritone/tenor sax, percussion and a two string slide bass. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Junip / Rope and Summit
I don't know much about them other than they were started by Jos
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Junip formed in 1998 in Gothenburg, Sweden, by José González (guitar, vocals), Elias Araya (drums) and Tobias Winterkorn (organ, moog). Their first 7-inch came out in 2000, but as José González's career began to take off, their first substantial release, the self-released Black Refuge EP, came only in 2006 and their first full album, Fields, in 2010. The band's second album, Junip, was released in April 2013. The band's sound may be familiar to those who have listened to José González’s critically acclaimed solo records Read more on Last.fm more...
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