Their sound is as fresh and clean as the Washington State mountain air, constructed of lush and lilting musical beds onto which they construct rapturous multi-layered harmonies.
Their eponymous full-length debut, which is beautiful from its first gorgeously-woven song to its last, was released on June 3rd, and one week later I first posted here that it was the second best thing I had heard all year. On August 2nd I posted that it had overtaken an earlier favorite as my Album of the Year, and it remained there until this day.
Already loaded with chops, the group took Tillman on as their drummer. Also look for their show with The National. FOR EMMA is the result of a winter spent in isolation in the woods of northern Wisconsin by Justin Vernon, who was contemplating the break-up of his relationship, the demise of his band and his recovery from a lingering illness.
The music, recorded on lo-fi equipment with the intention that it be used as a demo for future recording with a full band, is melancholic and moving, and its gestalt of isolation is haunting and nearly overwhelming.
He wisely chose to release FOR EMMA virtually as he had recorded it in his cabin, with simple backing tracks and layers of vocals rendered in his trance-induced near-falsetto. This was the record that I had as No.
The Hold Steady — STAY POSITIVE The title says it all; this is perhaps the greatest exception of -- an outstanding American rock record that does champion the power of rock and roll, and extols its eternal truths — filled with stories about losers who just might win by keeping their faith, and outcasts who may even find redemption by staying true to their own ideals.
EP Frightened Rabbit are a Scottish quartet featuring singer-songwriter Scott Hutchison, who despite being half a world away from Bon Iver, was suffering the same fate and also crafting stunning songs from the painful shards of a broken relationship. This virtual masterpiece, made available for public consumption on his own website on a tip-jar basis pay what you want for download , and the thing went viral.
Shearwater — ROOK Co-founder Jonathan Meiburg left Okkervil River this year to turn his attention full-time to Shearwater, another naturalistic band, in this case literally, as Meiburg has a Masters in Geography as well as a preoccupation with ornithology.
He also has a killer voice and writes great songs. When it all locks in, it transcends. The last band that made records that were this picaresque and this much fun was the Meat Puppets. I prefer the songs where Benson takes the lead, his voice straining with color and emotion, but the best moments are those when he and White harmonize and play double guitar leads together; melding into one immense and exuberant kindred spirit in the service of rock and roll, over one of its most solid rhythm sections.
Over the course of the year, The Raconteurs re-imagined and performed alternate live acoustic and unplugged versions of several of the songs, which were even more appealing. Take It Easy Our Lady Of The Well Cocaine Doctor My Eyes 4. First Girl I Loved 6. Unloved With Jann Arden 7. Tender Is The Night 9.
Somebody's Baby El Salvador With Joan Baez Fiona With Lyle Lovett Before The Deluge The Fuse 2. Farther On 3. For Every Man 4. The Only Child 5. Late For The Sky 6. Fountain Of Sorrow 7. Something Fine 8. For A Dancer 9.
Rock Me On The Water Crystal Ball I Can't Sit Down I've Been The One 2. For Everyman with David Lindley 3. My Opening Farewell with Bonnie Raitt 4. Kisses Sweeter Than Wine 6. Barricades Of Heaven 9. Schmitt Barricades Of Heaven Next Voice You Hear I'm Alive The Pretender A Child In These Hills 3. Rock Me On The Water 4. Take It Easy 6. Our Lady Of The Well 7. For A Dancer 8.
Ready Or Not 9. Fountain Of Sorrow For Everyman Walking Slow Doctor My Eyes These Days The Road And The Sky Late For the Sky 2. Don't You Want to be There 3. Rock Me On the Water 4. These Days 5. Soldier of Plenty 6. Sky Blue and Black 7. Como Un Corazon with Los Secretos 8. Before the Deluge with Paul Brady 9. In Te Shape of a Heart Man of Consant Sorrow with Sharron Shannon Take This Rain Talk of the Sea with Mick Bird Fire in the Village Backing vocal for John Trudell This includes some early demo versions of several songs from Grave Dancers, as well as 4 songs that appear to be unreleased outtakes from these sessions.
The Grave Dancers demos material suffer from some tape issues that indicate these are several generation duplicates of the originals. However, the unreleased outtake tracks are clearly from a different source, and are in much better, and high quality sound.
So, although the demo versions of the tracks from Grave Dancers are interesting to hear, the real gems here are the previously unreleased outtake tracks 'Easy to Avoid', 'Some Obsession', 'Straight Up', and 'Thick and Thin' , which are very good, and a fine addition to the Soul Asylum repertoire from this period.
Get On Out 2. Runaway Train 3. Growing Into You 4. Easy To Avoid 5. Black Gold 7. Some Obsession 8. Straight Up 9. Thick And Thin Guitarist Dan Murphy was one of the founders of Golden Smog , and has been with all its incarnations, Dave Pirner was also involved with Golden Smog in its early days, but their main band was Soul Asylum. Soul Asylum was formed in the early eighties by Pirner and Murphy, where they played around the Minneapolis Area, becoming known for their loud, frenetic mix of punk, hardcore, mainstream rock, and country.
After featuring more of their acoustic side in shows in the early '90's, their big breakthrough came in , with the release of Grave Dancer's Union , which went triple-platinum and featured radio hits 'Runaway Train', 'Black Gold', and 'Somebody to Shove'.
Their follow-up album, Let Your Dim Light Shine was also very successful, and produced a top hit with 'Misery'. Although subsequent albums were much less successful, Soul Asylum continued on and off over the years most recent album, Delayed Reaction - and are still performing today.
Here is a radio show from them in their prime, their show at Glastonbury. Did My Best Runaway Train Eyes of a Child Get On Out Misery Just Like Anyone Closer to the Stars Shu Down Hopes Up Somebody to Shove Paul, MN.
The Jayhawks. This is a great quality soundboard recording from a New Year's Eve show from their hometown in support of their Sound of Lies album. So, this was after Mark Olson left, and Gary Louris with new guitarist Kraig Johnson took the band a bit more toward a rock-oriented direction and less country.
This is evident right from the start of this show, with a more hard-rock-edged performance of their biggest hit 'Waiting for the Sun' compare this with the performance from the previously posted show to hear the difference.
Overall, a very good show. Note: they were opening for fellow Minneapolis band and their good friends Soul Asylum here. However, I have not been able to find a recording of the Soul Asylum portion of this show, although it must exist somewhere. Anyone have or know where to get a recording of Soul Asylum 's set?
Waiting For The Sun Nothing Left To Borrow Man Who Loved Life Think About It Two Hearts Someone Will I'd Run Away Driving Wheel Blue Young Queer Expecting To Fly Trouble Ruby So, here's some from another Golden Smog contributor band, The Jayhawks.
I have to admit that I was really not familiar with much of their music previously, but I am making up for that now, and am really getting into their sound and style. They changed drummers a few times in their early years, until Tim O'Reagan joined in and stayed, and Karen Grotberg was added in on keyboards and backing vocals. They had a couple independent releases in the eighties The Jayhawks , Blue Earth , but made a big impact with their first major label release, Hollywood Town Hall in , and the single 'Waiting for the Sun'.
They followed that with another strong album, Tomorrow the Green Grass , in But just as they seemed to be hitting their stride, Olson left the band in late to spend more time with, and eventually form band with, soon-to-be wife, Victoria Williams. Apparently the management of John Cale has stated that there will be an official release of Life Along the Borderline: a tribute to Nico which was performed live at the Royal Festival Hall, London, October Since the concert was pro-filmed the most likely format should include footage on DVD.
Brooklyn Hassidic rap reggae man Matisyahu is busy recording a new album that will be released in His new 4 track EP Shattered serves as a taster for that album. He has just started a massive USA tour playing the new songs. Nobody sounds like Matisyahu, who mixes traditional Jewish music with a contemporary backbeat.
Shattered is released on Epic Records. Release date: October 21st. Californian noise poppers The Happy Hollows just love feedback. Add the over the top slightly out of tune vocals of lead singer Sarah Negahdari and you have another indie college rock band hoping for a place under the sun.
At that price you might want to check them out. They are a mash-up of the Breeders, Sleater-Kinney and Deerhoof. Part 01 , Thru Kill Ugly Radio. NYE shows in Seattle. Unlike most folk singer-songwriters Autumn Boukadakis main instrument is not the acoustic guitar. She prefers the piano and it show in her songs that are more melodic than rhythmic.
Her second album Velvet Sky was recorded in Nashville, but thankfully none of the current "cleaning things up" style of that city ended up on the album.
Autumn wrote seven of the songs for this album, most of the other songs including the title track, were composed by Walt Wilkins who co-produced with Tim Lorsch. She is getting ready for the next step, receiving more airplay every day in her native Texas. Coming up with all the songs for her next album one might be a good idea. Velvet Sky is a self-released album.
Buy from CD Baby. Download from iTunes. What's on at the Tivoli in Utrecht, The Netherlands? First of all the second edition Le Guess Who , the music and more festival. More interesting acts:. While rooted in the foot-stomping influences of bluegrass and blues, the Festival will transport the concertgoer through the genre-defying evolution of music today. The one-day event, held on Saturday, November 22nd from noon to midnight, will serve as a tribute to two schools of music that continue to shape and inspire contemporary rock, jamband, funk, folk, roots, Americana, and indie cultures.
Escape from MySpace The Yelling. Labels: Escape from MySpace. Levellers: Letters From The Underground. Labels: Album reviews , New releases. I stood there on the ramp with a few hundred dudes all looking like video game characters in black full body wetsuits and neon green swim caps.
The announcer asked if anyone was doing their first triathlon and I was one of a very small number of folks to raise their hand. I got lots of good high fives and shout outs from the other green heads….
You are crazy! This is, like, the hardest tri in cali bro! This is your first?! Then the horn went off and we all ran into the water like penguins in the IMAX movies. The lake temperature was nice, 68 or so, and with the wetsuit it was not cold at all. I let all the hardcore types zoom out and just eased myself in and picked a nice line on the side of the pack and began to swim out towards the first buoy.
But for some reason I could not catch my breath. I tried breathing with each stroke and still my heart raced and I could not get enough air. I typically take a breath every 4 to 6 strokes, and here I was unable to keep my breath at one per stroke. It sucked, badly.
I would not say that I had a full on panic attack as that is too severe, but it was certainly in that category — I just could not get my breath and it really freaked me out.
My mind raced and I truly thought my race may be over right there in the first seconds. I then had the thought that I just could not let this be the outcome after all the training and hard work, not to mention all the friends and family supporting me, so I took a few deep breaths and just started swimming, hoping for the best.
After very bumpy minutes with super-forced breathing, I finally eased into my stroke and began to feel I was getting enough oxygen. It was a huge relief. I have no idea what happened or why, but it totally sucked…and luckily passed quickly. I have since heard that this is a common experience for folks who are not properly warmed up cardio wise before the swim, which I was not as I had always been fine in training from a cold start, but race day was very different, probably due to all the adrenaline and nerves…live and learn….
The rest of the swim went really well and I actually quite enjoyed it. The weather was great and the water was not cold at all. It all worked out fine and I only got kicked in the face a few times, which I now assume is a rite of passage for triathletes.
By the end of the swim I was feeling good and really not tired at all. It was pleasant and went by pretty quickly, like 45 min or so in the water the pros do it in minutes, which is unreal.
When I came out of the water Heather, Max and Skye were right there cheering for me, it was amazing to see them because I was not expecting it. Our plan was that they would see me on the run which went right by our campsite as it was too much hassle to drag the kids all the way down to the swim area. But there they were, it was awesome — very touching and motivating to see them. So with the swim behind me I hopped on the bike and started the ride.
It was a beautiful day and the course was full of supporters cheering and ringing cowbells etc. Sounded like an Olympic ski event. The ride was really fun — which I did not fully expect as I am not a super experienced road cyclist. In fact I have never owned a road bike, always been more of a mountain bike guy. In fact I only really went on long road rides before the tri, so I knew this would be a challenging part of the race. I was not pushing it and killing myself for the first miles, my plan was to save my energy knowing of the huge hills after mile 40 on the course.
I must have been passed by of the really amazing elite female athletes as their swim started after mine. There were a few notable moments on the bike including a helicopter evac of a rider who had a bad crash. The helicopter was one of the largest I have ever seen and looked sort of spaceship-like. It took off just as I was approaching it and hovered right over me, which was really intense. The conditions for the ride seemed OK to me, a bit windy, but not too bad.
But when I spoke to the veterans we were camping with later they said it was one of the windiest years ever, and that their times on the bike portion reflected the tough conditions. This, of course, struck me as good news as I did not find it too bad…or perhaps being new I just did not have anything to compare it to.
I saw multiple people gasping for air, stopped on the side of the road, their energy sapped. It freaked me out big time. Biking a steep uphill for a mile or two is one thing, is another altogether, particularly after swimming 1.
So as I hit mile 35 I began to get anxious and mentally prepared. Then all of a sudden I looked down and saw a huge ass rattlesnake. No joke. Inches from my right foot. It was massive. I nearly jumped off my bike. It took a second to realize it was dead and being eaten by ants, but by then I was past it. I actually think this was a big plus as my body released a bunch of adrenaline.
As I hit Nasty Grade I felt strong like ox.
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