Archive for the 'New Album Alert' Category

Lindsay Mac - Stop Thinking

Published
by
Olivier
on August 20, 2008
in Alternative, Folk, Jazz, New Album Alert, Pop, Rock, Singer Songwriter, chamber pop and electro
. 1 Comment

Here’s the time for another exceptional cellist : Lindsay Mac. It Should be another summer effect, but I’m irremediably attracted by strings. I hope your screen his wide enough for displaying her picture, because I do not find a way to crop it !

With an amazing repertoire : from Rock to Jazz, from Jazz to Pop, and Pop to something dealing with modern country, and then through folk via electro-folk.. - let’s call it Alternative, Lindsay is a non-stop amazing artist. I’ve been listening all day long, before writing this post, to her first full length ‘Small Revolution‘, I was surprised each time the loop repeats !
No one makes me ‘fly’ with Peter Pan but Miss Lindsay Mac : an exceptional plucked insurgent cello player (she declined the classic way) ; gifted with a supreme (delicious, amazing and sometimes surprising) voice. Well, a complete performer who can count on a wide songwriting talent… add to these previous a (need to enlarge my dictionary) great ability for composing and dressing beautiful songs… (that’s enough !)
Well, you might have guess, Lindsay Mac is releasing her second solo album this coming september : Stop thinking, and except couple tracks I have no other information to share. So here are first song called Faith from this new opus and an ‘old’ favorite Lucy. Enjoy !

 
 Faith - Lindsay Mac [3:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
 Lucy - Lindsay Mac [4:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Low audio quality, but what an awesome track : Barbies & Broncos !

Artist : Lindsay Mac
Label : Taiga Records / Golden Rod Distribution
Where to buy : CdBaby.com, Golden Rod Distribution, Itunes
More Appetizers : sonicbids.com, myspace.com
If you love Suzanne Vega, Tory Amos (listening to Lindsay reminds me to Tory last hit of mine : Parasol), Sinead O’Connor ( for the electro-acoustic wise-range), Elvis Costello (for many songs but especially the parallels between Veronica and Lucy… ) (hum), Joe Jackson (undoubtly)…, Lindsay Mac should be your next favorite.
You should also enjoy : Mieka Pauley, Amber Rubarth (reminds me to bog about her), Me

Christian Kiefer / Jeff Pitcher / Matthew Gerken and their Presidents.

Published
by
smansmith
on August 15, 2008
in Acoustic, Americana, Folk, New Album Alert and Singer Songwriter
. 0 Comments

We all know that us Canadians love our Presidents, we are the true, north, strong and…er, hold on, I am Canadian, we don’t have Presidents! Now why would I betray my own country and support the push for Presidents this election year? Why for the September release of the 3 disc box set for the Compilation: “Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 Presidencies” from Standard Recording Company.

To get an idea of the magnitude of this release (I have been waiting over 2 years!!) - you can visit the actual blog page for the writers (whom are listed in this post title) that are the life blood of the compilation. Don’t let names like Mark Kozelek, Denison Witmer, Bill Callahan and even Jamie Stewart ( Xiu Xiu for those who are not aware) woo your ears from the true prize. The real talent for this release lies in the storytelling and writing of Kiefer, Pitcher and Gerken on each of the 43 presidential vignettes. For a little background on the trio you can do your homework here - Christian Kiefer / Jeff Pitcher / Matthew Gerken, there will be a test on this later, believe me.

This all started back in 2006, during the February Album Writing Month in which the FAWM organization brings together songwriters to write an entire album of new songs during the shortest month of the year. So get this, everyone has to write (and record) a minimum of a full album within the month and submit for judging!! Truly a feat if I ever heard of one (although I consider myself the furthest thing from a writer, it is altogether impressive no matter how you look at it). Now, we find ourselves 2 and a half years later and we are getting a 3 disc release with some amazing artists and I am absolutely foaming at the mouth to receive my pre-ordered copy.

So now that you are all heading over to pre-order your copy of the release [hint, hint], let me highlight for you the roots - nay, the heart of this entire project with original songwriting and delivery from Kiefer, Pitcher and Gerken. The three tracks below are the original recordings, so we will see in a few weeks when we get a chance to review a “Before and After” scenario;

  1. George Washington performed by Christian Kiefer. When released it will feature Vince DiFiore of Cake!
     

     Christian Kiefer - “George Washington” [2:58m]:Play Now | Play in Popup

  2. Calvin Coolidge performed by Jeff Pitcher. When released, Radar Bros. will provide the rendition.
     

      Jeff Pitcher - “Calvin Coolidge” [3:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

  3. John Adams performed by Matthew Gerken. This will feature These United States when released.
     

     Matthew Gerken - “John Adams” [3:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

There you have it, forget Obama and McCain, support some real talent in ‘08!

    ~Smansmith

Ray LaMontagne - Gossip in the Grain

Published
by
Trini
on August 1, 2008
in Folk, New Album Alert, On Tour and Singer Songwriter
. 4 Comments

Happy Birthday Crazy Dreamers! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since we started this little music blog. It’s been great getting to know my fellow bloggers throughout this year. As some of you may already know we all met and started this blog because of Ray LaMontagne. We are all anxiously awaiting the release of his new album “Gossip in the Grain” (even though it’s been delayed what seems like a million times) and looking forward to his upcoming tour. The place to be thus far is NYC, Radio City Music Hall - that’s were we’ll all be! This will be his second (correction ninth now since the release of the new dates) stop to the start of his fall tour, details listed above. Thanks to I AM Fuel, You Are Friends we have a better version of “Let It Be” for all our listening pleasure.

I also want to say thank you to all of the other crazy dreamers and people who stop by to read, listen and find new music. We appreciate your feedback and the support you give to all the artist who are kind enough to allow us to share their music and a little bit of them with you all. Here’s to another year of dreaming!

Pre-Sale Tickets Here

JJ Grey & Mofro - Chicago 7-26-08

Published
by
Laura
on July 27, 2008
in Live Performance, New Album Alert, On Tour, Soul, Southern and blues
. 2 Comments

I went and saw JJ Grey & Mofro last night in Chicago at the “Taste of Lincoln Fest” to get a little taste of some bluesy southern soul. Best $10 I ever spent (for the fest admission fee.)

I can not say enough how much I love love love LOVE these guys and god damn do they put on an amazing show. Incredible. Stunning. Gave me chills at some points they were so pee-in-your-pants-good. I saw them last year at the House of Blues but this show far surpassed that one for me by miles. I was simply enthralled the whole night. You either had to be deaf or have no rhythm to not groove and dance to JJ. I know I was shakin’ my tail feather most of the night! *shake shake*

Their album “Country Ghetto” was one of my favorites albums of last year. Definately in my top 3 of 2007. If you do not have this CD, I highly recommend that you run right out and purchase it or download it! The whole album is just fantastic.

I’ve very excited for their new release “Orange Blossoms” due out August 26th. You can pre order it: here

One of the highlight of the night was getting to hear one of their new songs off the new album called “Everything Bad is Good”. Upbeat number….I just loved it. Here is a youtube video of the new song (although not from the Chicago performance)…oooh sing it JJ!

MySpace

mofro.net

 
 JJ Grey & Mofro - Sun Is Shining Down: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
 JJ Grey & Mofro - Tragic: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
 JJ Grey & Mofro - Lochloosa: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Frank Bell - Nothing Last Forever

Published
by
Trini
on July 24, 2008
in New Album Alert, On Youtube and On iTunes
. 0 Comments

Frank Bell releases ‘Passion and Reason’- EP

I know we have several Eskimo Friends that read our blog and everyone here at YCD wants to show our support to a fellow eskimo recently released his EP. If you head on over to his myspace page you’ll find other tracks and I’m confident you will soon become a fan. I love how diverse he can be in his music he adds a bit of a funky, jazzy, feel to his music.

Frank Bell on YouTube
Buy Here

Frank Bell doing a cover of “To Love Somebody”

 
 Nothing Last Forever - Frank Bell [3:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Avett Brothers - The Second Gleam EP

Published
by
Laura
on July 22, 2008
in Acoustic, Americana, Folk and New Album Alert
. 0 Comments

Oh Avett Brothers, how I love thee! Thank you for releasing this EP today while I patiently await your next album being produced by Rick Rubin (can’t wait!)

Buy it: here

I uploaded “The Greatest Sum” from the new EP for your listening pleasure.

“The Weight of Lies” can be found on the album Emotionalism.

 
 The Avett Brothers - The Greatest Sum: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
 The Avett Brothers - The Weight of Lies: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Kelley McRae - Highrises in Brooklyn

Published
by
Olivier
on July 2, 2008
in Acoustic, Alternative, Folk, New Album Alert and Singer Songwriter
. 0 Comments

This will be part of a short-post series, as most of my days have been filled with family, business, and wild life ! So I would like to beg my pardon to the artists for not taking time to probe my mind and writing longer posts. Be sure that I ‘ve taken time in months of listening ( with heart and soul) before suggesting any of the following artists and i’m quite sure most of you will be touched by those talented songwriters.

So the first of this series is the unqualified Kelley McRae ! First ; because, she will speak for me : both her portrait ( … )

and performance !

What else ? Kelley McRae released her first full length ‘Never Be’ - produced by J.D. Foster (Calexico, Laura Cantrell, Richard Buckner) in 2006 : a beautiful collection of honey-sweet harmonies including numerous treasures (Johnny Cash, Stone Cold Sober, Time, Never Be…).

That’s It ? No. Fasten your seatbelt : Kelley forthcoming album ‘Highrises in Brooklyn‘ will be released this August 19th and be produced by Brian Deck (Iron and Wine, Modest Mouse, Josh Ritter, Counting Crows). I didn’t get the privilege to hear more tracks than the ones already available on her myspace page but she’ll confirmed me that ‘Long Walk Home’, the song performed on the above video at the Forcastle Festival will be part of it. Forgive me for the low audio quality of this sample - audio track extracted from the video- but it’s a permanent loop for couple weeks !

 
 Long Walk Home - Kelley McRae at Forecastle Festival [3:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
 Time - Never Be - Kelley McRae [4:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Artist : Kelley McRae - be sure to visit Kelley’s official website as Never be is fully streamable.
Label : SonaBlast
Where to Buy : The Connection, CdBaby.com, Amazon