“Here’s to all you crazy dreamers, dream your crazy dreams, don’t let them slip away, there’s more to life than living day to day.”
Wise Children is a musical project from the South Coast of England created by multi-instrumentist Robin Warren-Adamson. He released couple days ago (on April 7th) his second ep “Absence & Reunion” a stunning 6 tracks collection. Don’t miss his previous one available as a free download on his bandcamp site ; this guy is gold.
Band : Wise Children (myspace / facebook)
Where to Buy : bandcamp
Who else to enjoy : Hey Marseilles, Ravens & Chimes, Matt Kanelos
The first thing I look for in music regardless of genre or mainstream popularity, is honesty. If I feel that the music is coming from the heart and it’s sincere then I will respect it. I may not always like it but I will at least applaud it for it’s earnestness. This is why I like Elephant Micah, the alter-ego of Joe O’connell. I first wrote about him here where he was kind of enough to grant us an interview and a couple of mp3′s. Since that interview he still hasn’t created a myspace or facebook page and is still intent of getting his music heard by the old fashioned method of word of mouth. Well, this seems to be working as he has an abundance of live dates from now up until at least May.
His latest offerings really show his versatility as a songwriter but also his various musical styles.With Echoer’s intent we have an album which was recorded using more traditional recording methods and is eight tracks of sparse, intense beauty. During the interview Joe did with us I mentioned he reminded me of Low, early Smog and J.Tillman. Well out of those three this album has a definite J.Tillman ring to it although with a less whispery vocal style, especially on the stand out track for me, field notes, but there is definitely elements throughout the whole album, still life blues is another really beautifully written and composed song, you find yourself falling into it and then pressing the rewind button a few times. Personally, I think this is Joe’s best work yet mainly because I think each song flows into each other brilliantly, you hardley notice the gaps in between but you will have to decide for yourself because even at such a young age he has released umpteen albums.
Then we have The songs of bible birds which (and stick with me here) is, or at least was meant to be an album of bible bird covers, bible birds being a band that Joe himself invented when asked once if he had ever seen the bible bird man in Indiana. So in other words he’s covering his own songs, or at least that was the plan. Full story here. Eventually though what we do get though is an album that Joe in his own words says was produced using ‘weird recording methods’ originally back in 2006 but has only become avialable now after some tinkering which Joe is finally happy with. I perhaps should have listened to this album first and then Echoer’s Intent because the final products are very very different, especially in the sound which has some hissing in the background, sometimes distant vocals which are hard to pick out but after i played it first time I immediately played it again and then again and now I’m loving every pop, crackle and hiss. In fact, after a while you just hear the music, Joe with some female backing vocals (Beth Remis),odd sounds bellowing from a pump organ and although a very challenging album to listen to, it improves more and more with each hearing, I’m loving it. As I said, it’s honest to a fault but it’s also trying something different which I think is rather refreshing as well as challenging, both for the listener and the creator. I admit though, I would love to hear these songs live and get another take on them.
As both albums are only 8 tracks long I am only putting up the mp3′s that Joe himself offers on his website because if I was to put up a different one and then another blog does the same there could be half the album across the internet and for someone who is completely D.I.Y, this would be unfair. So please, if you like this then go and buy the album or if you buy both together you get them for cheaper. Please, enjoy and go see him play at any one of these shows. By doing so you will be supporting a totally independant artist and a really talented one at that.
March 2010.
26 Louisville, KY at the Lounge w/ Joe Manning
27 Nashville, TN at Betty’s w/ Kelli Hix
28 Memphis, TN at the Buccaneer w/ the Warble
29 Oxford, MS at TBA
APRIL
1 New Orleans, LA at Sidearm Gallery w/ Hurray for the Riff Raff
3 Athens, GA at TBA w/ Bubbly Mommy Gun, Steven Trimmer
4 Chattanooga, TN at JJ’s
6 Somewhere, TN at Ida
7 Asheville, NC at Harvest Records
8 Knoxville, TN at the Pilot Light
9 Lexington, KY at the Hive
III. ROUGH ROUTING
All shows with Mark Trecka except where noted (*)
13 Grinnell, IA at Grinnell College
15 North Manchester, IN at the Firehouse
16 Buffalo, NY at Sugar City
17 Rochester, NY at Casa Del Awesome
18 Montague, MA at the Book Mill w/ Oweihops
19 Portland, ME at TBA
21 Boston, MA at TBA
22 New Paltz, NY at the Inn
23 Purchase, NY at SUNY Purchase
24 New York, NY at TBA
26 New York, NY at Bruar Falls w/ P.G. Six*
28 Philadelphia, PA at Robin’s w/ Strand of Oaks
29 Baltimore, MD at 2640 Space w/ Small Sur
30 Columbus, OH at TBA w/ Time & Temperature, Deadsea
MAY
1 Chicago, IL at TBA
Where: Art Theater of Long Beach
Who: Tadhg Cooke, Jay Buchanan, Shane Alexander and The Guggenheim Grotto
When: Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Fingerprints mailer:
“Our friend Trini, who first introduced us to the boys in Guggenheim Grotto, is stepping up to the “Make a beautiful racket – Long Beach” initiative (which I just invented, but in my mind it’s an umbrella of everyone who’s working to bring more music to our humble, but quiet, little town.) Anyway, Trini is hosting Nozzafest at the Art and it’s a night of fantastic music, great community, and well, it’s going to be a good party. The bands are Tadhg Cooke, Jay Buchanan, Shane Alexander, and The Guggenheim Grotto.
A bit about the bands:
Tadhg Cooke
The Irish Times said, “Tadhg Cooke’s solo debut crisscrosses so many terrains that your musical compass may quiver with the sheer magnetic challenge of Wax & Seal” and, giving it 4 stars, described the record as “eminently likeable, utterly enviable”.
Jay Buchanan
Jay is a local, who’s done a lot with SAM, and whose new album is an absolute killer (it’s not out yet, so you’ll have to trust me, but it’s great); think of the tempestuousness of Jeff Buckley, combined with the reflection of Ray Lamontagne, and the bare-boned soul of Marc Broussard and you’re in the right neighborhood.
Shane Alexander
Shane is an LA based songwriter who says he “strive(s) to have my music to connect on a spiritual level the way classic writers like Neil Young, Paul Simon, and Bruce Springsteen do. I don’t know I’ll get there, but I’m definitely getting closer.”
Guggenheim Grotto
The Guggenheim Grotto have twice filled the house at Fingerprints with their wonderful take on pop music with a folkish flair, so it’s no wonder that we’ve kept an eye on them, and over the past couple of years their star seems to have been on the rise. They’ve had songs feature prominently on KCRW and WXPN, they’ve had their songs play on the TV shows Brothers and Sisters and One Tree Hill, and StereoSubversion said “…if you are a fan of great harmonies, melodic arrangements, and intelligent folk rock sound then this album belongs in your collection”
Twitter
RSVP Facebook
Purchase Tickets Direct
Hope to see some new faces!
photo courtesy of Holly Thomas – see the full set
So Third Floor Sessions have done it again…a great live performance caught on video (and mp3) from Canadian indie icons Ohbijou!
There is something about Ohbijou, they are just a dreamy pop sound that is thick with lush melodies. They create moments instead of songs…I can very much see them sound-tracking moments in time. That perfect moment in time (or not so perfect moment) where through your mind’s eye it has sound. It is the kind of music that can create something deep within you while listening. The same way (for me) Sigur Rós create such deep emotion with music – the sounds can be epic, heart-warming and tragically beautiful.
Enjoy a couple of the tracks and a video: get the full 8 tracks over at Third Floor Sessions HERE.
“New Years” (mp3)
“Steep” (mp3)
Taken from Third Floor Sessions (Dec. 5th, 2009)
~Smansmith
Song o the day today is selected for two reasons (well three really) and comes from the lovely Kay Pettigrew.
The reasons go something like this: I listened to the Ohbijou live session yesterday via Third Floor Sessions (which was great by the way) and while there I took a look around, as I tend to, and noticed that Kay Pettigrew was the inaugural episode! I did a quick post with a cover Kay did for the theme song of Fresh Prince of Bel Air over on Slowcoustic (click to listen) a while back so I started thinking. The song generated a fair amount of airplay for Kay around the blogosphere and ended up being on the Hype Machine popular charts via myself and a couple other bloggers. So that is a reason isn’t it?
Another reason is I felt I needed to post again as I wanted to make sure that people see her for more than just that cover track. Her Third Floor Session is full of folkish sing-a-longs, bluesy riffs and gritty Canadiana alongside an incredibly mature sound for this young Torontonian. So this is a reason as well isn’t it?
The last reason is simply because I am located in Calgary which is at the base of the Rocky Mountains and this weekend started our “adventure” into winter (see here for a twitted photo from this weekend in Calgary). So this is definitely a reason isn’t it?
Well if none of the above are not enough of a reason, then I don’t know what else is. You can download the entire session from her live session HERE…maybe that is the reason??
“Adventures In The Rocky Mountains” – Kay Pettigrew
Visit and purchase some Kay Pettigrew:
~Smansmith
I first came across Hush Arbors around a year ago when Uncut magazine put one of their tracks on a compilation cd they give away each month. Signed to the brilliant ecstatic peace label I was immediately struck by the sadness in Keith Woods voice, it reminded me a lot of the late Saint Thomas who I am a massive fan of and the second track (Lisbon) on the new album which just came out this week in the U.K yankee reality is uncannily similar. This is completely accidental as when I saw Keith play a solo set recently in London he said he’d never heard if him when I asked him.
Hush arbors earlier albums blends fuzzy lo-fi psych-folk with country but on the new one, which is produced by Dinosaur jr’s J Mascis there’s an added rockier edge to it, namely on fast asleep and the blistering final track Devil made you high but it still manages to maintain the default sound on so they say and one way ticket. If I had to pick out my favourite track from this album which quite frankly doesn’t have a bad one on it, i’d probably go for take it easy only because it’s completely different to any other they’ve done, more country sounding in the style of say The Byrds but you could ask me again tomorrow and I could plump for coming home with it’s chugging along riff and mellotron (played by J Mascis) with the first line ” I was thinking about the country, walking down these city roads, thinking about the space between, the silent and my soul” I love shit like this, it resonates with me.
When I was in London and I saw Keith play rue hollow I remember sitting completely transfixed by him and coming to the realisation that I was in the presence of a genius. He’s got that certain thing no one can name or put a finger on, the same as Elliott Smith had or Nick Drake, just that something. His songs seem to come from somewhere deep within him very few of us ever reach, the bit where the real honesty lays and he’s bearing his very soul. Very few songwriters do this in my opinion, it takes guts to lay it all out on the line for everyone to hear and that leaves a certain vulnerability, it’s risky because it seems so fragile and any criticism could easily break it, or at least try to. Criticism must be hard to take when you’ve just bared your soul.
Now based in London there’s a couple of dates in Italy and then London at the end of October. Info here
Kindly I have been allowed to put up a couple of mp3′s for you to download but please please please, if you like it go and buy it here, you will not be disappointed I promise you. Enjoy.
For your attention Keith is also part of Six organs of admittance and Current 93 and has just supported Sonic Youth on a London date.
So “Song o Day” today is a great cover. I say this as not all covers are great, some are simply imitation. It is nice to have a song that even though it is a cover, it can stand on it’s own. This is one of those tracks from Kyle Swartzwelder and his cover of the Kathleen Edwards track “Away”. Kyle sent these over to me the other day (along with a Neil Young cover of “Powderfinger”, nice), and I needed to share at least one of them. Man the slide guitar (or what I think of as the slide guitar) is just gorgeous, waning and waxing throughout!
“Away (Kathleen Edwards cover)”- Kyle Swartzwelder
~~
*BONUS ORIGINAL – “Away” – Kathleen Edwards*
Enjoy a bit of folky Americana for your Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving that is, and give thanks for talent such as Swartzwelder and Edwards. If you like this unreleased cover track – pick up Kyle’s album over at CD Baby HERE. If you wanted to hear more of Kathleen Edwards, visit her on her website HERE.
~Smansmith
