Today's Quick Mention: So, which of you will
be tuning in for a brand spanking new episode of
Lost tonight? I know I'll watch.
However, I am hesitant that they'll follow-up their
harrowing season premiere with one of their classic
"we'll answer that question later" episodes.
Maybe not though. Guess we'll see.
It
seems like forever since the last time Josh Ritter
popped into my brain (I'll always love the song Wolves), so it was definitely a
bright point for me when I stumbled across a new
single from him last night. Hear it below and
then look for it on the
upcoming So Runs The World Away, which
actually isn't due out until the very far away day
of May 4. Oh well. Enjoy.
:Josh
Ritter - Change Of Time:
Wow. I figured I would be presented with a foot
tap-worthy folk tune when I clicked play, and instead I
ended up with four minutes of slow building perfection.
Get your headphones for this. Also, mark my words: if
the rest of the songs on the new LP are this well crafted
and inspired then Josh's name is going to be all over the
place in 2010.
Today's Quick Mention: Do me a favor
and give the comments section some attention this
week. Haloscan, the FREE service that I very
happily used to manage comments with, is now
an unknown PAID contraption called Echo, and I need
to know if it's worth sticking with before my trial
period expires. Thanks!
This is going
to be an insanely busy week for me, so today I'm
purposely starting it off with an upbeat number to
try and trick my brain into thinking everything's
going to be easy breezy. Or something.
In any case, the track below is from a boy/girl duo
who call themselves Slow Club., and you're probably
going to want Yeah, So when Moshi Moshi
releases the LP on March 3. Enjoy.
:Slow
Club - Giving Up On Love:
It's way too early to start thinking about what may or may
not make my year-end song list, but given how amazingly
attached I've become to this gem I have no choice but to at
least make a mental note. I mean, it just doesn't get
more infectious than this when you're talking retro-pop.
By the way, just so you know, this is pretty much the only
song on the album that sounds like this. The rest are
somewhat like She And Him ... if they weren't so concerned
with being cute.
:SOTO
- Episode 114:
This week has my latest favorite album and music from Sweet
Apple, Caribou, The Strange Boys, Or, The Whale, The Like,
Cars And Trains and Lali Puna. Enjoy.
If you would like to subscribe to this podcast in iTunes
then you can do so
here.
Today's Quick Mention: Need something to do
tonight? Then attend the
Prototype
Fashion Freakout at the Mohawk. Doors are at
8pm, funnyman
Matt Bearden
is hosting, the
Carrots are
playing and a very nice reader by the name of Zoe
will be working. That's called a complete
package,
right? I think so.
Why? didn't
exactly (in my eyes, anyway) continue their
incredible
album streak with last year's Eskimo Snow,
but it's impossible to remember that when the band
is chugging along and calling in artists like the brilliant Amp Live
to craft a
remix EP based on said full length. See below
for my favorite selection off the five-track
effort
titled One Dark Eskimo. Enjoy.
:Why?
- Blackest Purse (Amp Live Remix):
I tend to think of remixes as good songs turned into
something I'm not that interested in hearing, so this should
probably just be labeled as an alternate version.
Plus, it's not like Amp Live really does anything crazy to
this track, he just presents a very nifty shift from the
original's dark and moody sound to one that's much warmer
and accessible. Now if only I could decide if I like
his take more.
Today's Quick Mention: The Dead Weather
have let it slip that they're planning to release a
new album later this year. Honestly, I'm OK
with that (the debut was solid), but I'm beginning
to seriously feel the need to not have a Jack
White-lead project around for a long while.
You with me?
As if they knew I needed a
little help getting through the week, Sharon Jones
And The Dap-Kings are back with a new single!
Do yourself a favor and give it good listen (or 50).
Also, be sure to make a note that the upcoming I Learned The Hard Way
LP will be
released to the masses on April 6 via the one and only Daptone
Records. You'll definitely want to pick it up. Enjoy.
:Sharon
Jones And The Dap-Kings - I Learned The Hard Way:
I've always thought of Sharon and Co. as having an
accessible sound, but this is actually a step up from that.
Will it net them an even bigger following? Maybe, as
it does have a more modern bent to it and it's not as if the
love that Amy Winehouse garnered has actually been followed
up by anything. Either way though, it's awesome to see
this force still racing along and being fantastic.
Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
If you live in Austin you’ve probably heard of Matador
Records new compilation album,Casual
Victim Pile - Austin 2010. You’re probably also
aware there’s a three day release party at Beerland starting
tomorrow night. But, mostly importantly, have you
actually listened to thealbum
yet? Well, if you haven’t, trust me when I say that
you’re missing out!
Before we delve into my favorite tracks though, let’s
explore the back story a bit, shall we?
The man behind the album
meant to celebrate the numerous unheralded
bands playing in Austin each night is Gerald Cosley, Austin
resident and co-owner of the great Matador Records.
Also, the record title, while having a having a menacing and
cool rock sound to it, is actually just an anagram of "Live
Music Capital".
Now, it's obvious that when a guy like Cosley, who has
signed and championed legendary bands such as Spoon,
Pavement, Liz Phair, Yo La Tengo, Mission of Burma, Sonic
Youth, and many more, picks seventeen Austin bands (and two
from Denton) for you to listen to - you listen and just
assume he got it right.
Still, even for a man of Cosley’s experience, compiling an
album which captures the Austin music scene is no easy task.
No matter what, talented bands deserving of recognition will
be omitted, and this album is no exception (personally, I
would’ve included a La Snacks tune). With that being
said, Cosley wasn’t necessarily looking to cast a wide net
and capture a variety of rock genres, so I do have to give
it up to him for the stellar job of highlighting some of the
best garage and punk tunes the city has to offer. We
both clearly love stuff that's drunken and distorted ... yet
oddly catchy.
It was tough to select just three songs since my favorites
change almost daily (a sign of a great mix tape), but here
are three I think everyone needs to hear:
:Follow
That Bird - The Ghosts That Wakes You:
The album kicks
off with this hard-driving tune featuring echoing guitars
and syncopated drums. I’ve been on a girl group kick
lately so I really dig the vocals on this burner.
Follow That Bird is one band I’m sure to
write about again very soon.
:Tre
Orsi - The Engineer: Tre
Orsi is one of two Denton
bands on the album (The Bad Sports being
the other). They distinguish themselves nicely with
this standout featuring big guitar and powerful
yet intricate drums. I have a very specific
reason why I find this song so appealing - it reminds me of
a not-too-successful band out of Illinois called The Poster
Children. Back in college I used to listened to their
Steve Albini produced albums, Flower Plower and Daisychain
Reaction almost daily. If you like The Engineer,
then do yourself a favor and check out
The Poster Children.
:Kingdom
Of Suicide Lovers - Hoboken Snow:
The alternating guy-girl vocals and obvious Sonic Youth (not
too surprising Cosley liked it, right?) influence was enough
for me to declare this a winner.
So there you go - three tracks off what’s sure to be
one of my top albums of 2010. Pick yourself up a copy
of the album and then stop by Beerland tomorrow, Friday, and
Saturday night to see the bands perform live.
Dan Corbin also writes for a blog called DC Rock
Club. If you would like to contact him in regards to his
writings here at Side One: Track One then please do
so
here.
Today's Quick Mention: Sorry for the suddenly wonky delivery of new
content. I thought I was having PC problems, but it actually turned
out to be a router issue. Or something. In any case, all should
be well now. I hope. Keep those fingers crossed.
Since today's post is going up so late I figured it would probably be best
if we just got weird. So, let's talk Frog Eyes. I've never been
much of a fan, but their next album is due out on Dead Oceans and that label
is on such an incredible roll that I almost have to support them.
Plus, the song below is bizarre in all the right ways. Paul's Tomb:
A Triumph is due April 27. Enjoy.
:Frog
Eyes - A Flower In A Glove:
You probably won't believe it, but when this ends you'll be
left puzzled at the fact that nine minutes has seemingly
evaporated. That's right, nine whole minutes of your
life will be up and gone before you know what's happened.
And the best part? You won't be able to tell if it's
because this beast is legitimately enthralling or just too
crazy to not love. Let me know what you decide.
Today's Quick Mention: Tonight I'm joining up with some people from
work and heading down to the Austin Chronicle/Grounded In Music's first ever
Mind Over Music trivia competition. It'll probably be pretty
difficult, but my guess is that it will also be equally fun. Anyone
else out there have a team?
Sorry for no podcast this weekend. As I tweeted, my PC was having a
variety of issues (not even sure if it's fixed now) and I just couldn't get
it done. On the bright side, I picked the five best songs I had
planned on putting in it and posted them up today. Enjoy.
:The
Tallest Man On Earth - King Of Spain:
It's weird, I've definitely heard this folk-ish, alt-country
sound from acts like Deer Tick, Langhorne Slim and many
more, and yet somehow this, which isn't even close to being
groundbreaking, feels as fresh as ever. Is it the
voice? Maybe the songwriting? I'm not sure. But
I'm anxious to hear more so that I can figure it out.
Dead Oceans will release The Wild Hunt on April 13.
:Electric
President - Safe And Sound:
A number of years back this band's debut had me excited with
what was - to me anyway - an interesting take on the Postal
Service. These days though, Ben Cooper and Alex Kane
have shifted gears from their very electronic ways of the
past to something that feels a bit more organic. Thank
whoever it's still good. The Violet Blue
is due February 23 on Morr Music.
:Man/Miracle
- Hot Sprawl:
I wasn't too fond of this track the first couple of times I
checked it out, but after a while I noticed an incessant
need to revisit it as often as possible. There's just
something about its odd vocal delivery and bizarro-pop
arrangement that eventually wins you over, pulls you in and
doesn't let go. Third Culture Records will release The Shape Of Things on February 23.
:Best
Coast - When I'm With You:
While there's a part of me that does think noise pop reached
a point of over-saturation in 2009, there's still some great
songs out there, and this is definitely one of them.
Now if only everyone else would learn that it's not all
about seeing how much fuzz can be jammed into three minutes.
This single is out on 7" now, and on February 9 you'll be
able to get a new one titled Something In The Way.
:Joanna
Newsom - 81:
Despite not being an artist who releases a ton of albums, I
think I've gotten to the point of taking the lovely Joanna
Newsom for granted. Is this song beautiful? Yes.
Just as I knew it would be. And the next LP, will it
be as grand as anything she's ever done? Of course!
That can be the only reason for why it's three discs.
Way to spoil me, Joanna. Drag City will release Have One On Me on February 23.
Today's Quick Mention: If you don't have any plans tomorrow then I
highly recommend that you grab a cowbell and head to the Austin Convention
Center at 7pm to support the Rhinestone Cowgirls as they take on the Putas
Del Fuego in an epic roller derby battle. Go Dill Dozer!
Nick Krgovich is a busy man. Not only does he have a variety of duties
in No Kids and P:ano, but now he's joined up with producer/engineer Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Cave Singers)
and created Gigi, a glorious pop project that I've instantly become very
attached to. Maintenant is the name of the debut full length
and it's due out February 10 on Tomlab. Enjoy.
:Gigi
- No, My Heart Will Go On (With Chorus):
"With
a reverent eye on the past and a deep respect for the
airtight songsmithery of artists like Ellie Greenwich, Jeff
Barry and Shadow Morton (among countless others), the songs
aren't content to be throwback-y pastiches or polka-dotted
retro workouts but rather stand as attempts at working
within a specific and incredibly rich tradition of pop music
production." I'd normally scoff at such press release
tomfoolery and call it a lame attempt to justify the act
being retro, but this song is crafted in such a warm, old
school fashion that it actually makes me want to run out and
buy old pop LPs. Speaking of vinyl, I must own Maintenant
on it as soon as possible.
Today's Quick Mention: It could probably wait until the news update,
but I'd like to go ahead and note the death of Zelda Rubinstein. The
actress did some super great character work in movies like Teen Witch,
Sixteen Candles and Poltergeist, and she seemed like an
all-around awesome person. R.I.P. Zelda.
As you probably don't recall, way back in August I mentioned a buzz band by
the name of The Splinters. Well, all these months later the lady
quartet is still generating some excitement, and I'm still very much on the
bandwagon. Look for their debut Kick to be released by Double
Negative Records on March 9, which is conveniently right before they storm
Austin for SXSW. Enjoy.
:The
Splinters - Mysterious:
"Oh you're so mysterious/Should make me furious/Instead I
just get curious" With a furious pace and a runtime
that comes in at just a smudge under two minutes, you'll
probably listen to this garage pop gem about 40 times in a
row before you realize what's happened. That's
certainly not a terrible thing. I just want you to
know it's coming for you.
And just like
that it’s 2010, huh? I hope everyone had an enjoyable
New Year’s. I myself rang in the new year holed up in
a bar in Shanghai with a DJ spinning 80s-ish jams (read: New
Order, Blondie and The Go-Gos) and made a few resolutions.
The ones I still have faith in accomplishing include:
- Listen to more local music.
- Listen to more jazz music.
- Eat less P. Terrys and run a marathon.
I’m shooting for two out of three. So, naturally, this
will be a year of more posts on local music, and possibly
some adventures into both the jazz scene and good records I
pick up.
Asia impressed me in the jazz department; dark jazz clubs
catering to Shanghainese and foreigners ("Laowai" to the
Shanghainese) were one of the highlights of that city to me,
and jazz shops in Seoul’s Hongdae and Tokyo’s Shinjuku not
only carried enormous numbers of both popular and harder to
find albums (crammed into tiny retail spaces, mind you), but
organized them all by instrument. What a relief from
Waterloo’s "We’ll just throw it in the Rock, R&B, and Hip
Hop" scheme!
But alas, I digress. Let’s start with some two great
new releases (well, one of them is old news, and one is due
on in February, but they’re both new to me).
The first is
Thief and Rescue, the first solo album
by Lee Barber. Loosely based on the destruction wrath on New
Orleans, the material combines both direct and metaphorical
references to the storm itself, with a darker sense of
personal loss and bewilderment categorical of the human mind
in general. We see the characters interact with the
storm both literally, as in The Broken Cup ("In the
morning there’ll be signal flags / chrome yellow, red and
blue / but tonight we’re down at the broken cup / and we’re
waiting here for you."), and within the scope of the storm
as a more emotional turbulence, as in, well, the entire
album.
The imagery throughout is stunning, both in its ability to
trace the effects of the physical world on human emotion
(see "It smells like Sherman’s ghost down here / someone’s
poisoned the squirrels," in 1000 Miles, which
contains a wealth of other excellent lines) and a general
sense of the variety of emotional turbulence. Take the
nostalgic lines "My sister's laugh, my brother's grin / my
mother's hands are good to me / my father weeps, I cup my
hands for water," which both convey your classic longing for
the past, but hint at a deeper turmoil.
That deeper turmoil is difficult to define, though the sum
of about 150 excellent images throughout the album do a
fairly effective job of approximating it. Where the
lyrics leave off though, the music fills in the gaps with a
warm breath of guitars, horns and woodwinds, all used just
sparingly enough to accent each push through the shallow
darkness that lingers in the foreground. The
arrangements are subtle, but oddly, the more you follow the
lyrics the more you realize the music is the perfect
accompaniment to the depths of their despair and flittering
of hope.
Needless to say, I think this album is excellent and would
highly recommend it. (Hell, Darla, the duet with Will
Scheff, even has a little jazz to it: "The trombone comes in
late / he leans hard on the eight while he’s draining the
spit from his horn.") Although it came out last year
and seemed to top a few Best of 2009 lists, I never really
listened to it until 2010. I even missed that Will
Scheff was on it until I ran into his voice on Darla.
Regardless, here’s to Lee Barber for starting my year off on
the right foot. If you haven’t already heard the album, I
suggest it as a good starting point for 2010.
Our second album is from one of Austin’s staple-crops, Bill
Baird, aka "Sunset" (formerly aka "{{{Sunset}}}", but what
do I know). A number of questions always come to mind when I
listen to Sunset albums. More specifically:
-
Are Bill Baird
& Co. insane?
- Are Bill Baird & Co. geniuses?
-
And are the two
mutually exclusive?
Now, if you follow anything I write, you’ll know I talk
about Sunset a lot. But that’s because of those
questions above. Sunset is one of a few bands in
Austin able to distinguish themselves with a unique sound -
that is, when you hear Sunset, you know it’s Sunset.
Leaving aside the many singer-songwriters don’t
differentiate themselves on lyrics, there are far too few
bands which, like Sunset, not only define that sound, and
continue to explore new developments for it.
So sure, the band in some sense are geniuses, locking in
that one unique sound, but insane in the sense that you
never know what new direction the band might try (some good
and some bad, granted). But that’s the glory of
Sunset: they’re beyond the point of "refining their sound"
and well into the real challenge of managing the sound and
exploring the range of new possibilities.
One of those new possibilities is
Gold Dissolves to Grey.
Much more compact than the sprawling Golden City, but
more concise than the meandering jams of Bright Blue
Dream, the new album is a perfect introduction to Sunset
for new listeners, and an interesting addition for us avid
fans. In some sense, there are a lot of similarities, such
as the multi-instrumental melodies that range from zany to
downright catchy, whether they mean to be or not. And of
course, Baird’s unique voice is as much an instrument as any
of the hundreds that show up all over the album.
But to a large extent the album is much more accessible than
were the two big Sunset albums of last year. Take Civil
War or Garden of Eden which in Baird’s own unique
way channel a much more precise instrumentation, the former
a country-western flavor, and the latter a ragtime-esque
clarinet. Each sees Baird bringing his signature
off-the-wall lyrics to the table: "Once upon a time, mankind
was all a bunch of apes / we all had furs and we all ate
steaks!" is typical of the kind of demented children’s book
attitude towards evolution/creationism that Garden of
Eden takes, and "Oh the Mason-Dixon line, well I guess
that’d be my spine," should give you an idea of Civil War’s
metaphor between the American Civil War and Bill Baird’s
body and soul.
Our Dreams Did Weave A Shade which features a duet with
a female vocal part and a much more straightforward
arrangement adds to the surface trend toward accessibility.
There are moments where it seems the arrangements will
fester off into long instrumental pieces, but typically the
album features Baird’s vocal parts much more prominently,
hence the accessibility, if you want to call it that.
Behind the scenes, though, it’s still very much the odd
interworkings of Bill Baird, unpredictable as always,
dependable as ever.
And those are the two albums that have kicked off 2010 for
me. I hope the albums you've picked up this year are
deserving of the potential associated with the new year, and
I certainly hope these new suggestions add to that
potential!
To round off the post, I’ve got a quick jazz number for
those who are interested. A year or two ago, one of my
favorite authors, Haruki Murakami, writing in The
Believer, spoke highly of this Thelonious Monk album, 5 by Monk by 5. I saw a copy of Monk live in Tokyo
in a store in Seoul, but resisted buying it because it was
$40. Needless to say, I went back home and bought 5
by Monk by 5 to try to make myself feel better. I
hadn’t heard it before, and I can say it was a good
recommendation on Murakami’s part. So I’m
passing it along to you. (By the way, that’s Thad Jones, who
spent his early days with the Count Basie Orchestra, soloing
on cornet in the back half.)
John Michael Cassetta keeps his own blog, Big
Diction, and writes for the local website Austin
Sound. Comments, complaints, and solicitations
may be directed
here.
- John Michael
Cassetta -
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
Creative Commons License.
