New Laura Veirs!

New Laura Veirs is very welcome; Carbon Glacier and Year of Meteors are regulars on my rotation, and given her unusual voice and sense of phrase, I'm always curious to hear what she'll be doing next.

Saltbreakers comes out 10 April in North America; "Pink Light" is streamable on her Myspace, and Don't Lose Yourself (Saltbreaker) is floating around on several blogs. The sound is more polished, but still features her unique phrasing and tempo. It does raise the question, though: once Carbon Glacier, Year of Meteors and Saltbreakers are all equally familiar, which sound will win out?

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Myspace], [New music], [Laura Veirs], [Saltbreakers]

Sia - Little Black Sandals

I am puzzled by Sia. I enjoy Zero 7 for the most part, but seeing her live was a sore disappointment: the songs sounded pretty much the same as on the CD, and a bloody annoying stage manner meant that I should've just stayed home and listened to Healing Is Difficult. (Her website, unfortunately, is as annoying as her stage manner, with far too much space wasted on big graphics and tiny, tiny frames with frustrating scrolling mechanisms.)

So she's got a new live CD coming out, Lady Croissant, and the nice people over at Astralwerks have sent out a demo from the recording sessions, Little Black Sandals--and even after listening to it for an hour, I can't tell: do I like it? Her vocal style starts out in a creaky tone that's supposed to be heartfelt, I think, but is mostly just creaky. After that, though, it smooths out and takes on the a more familiar chillout flow, although there is the occasional excessive vocal flourish. So I like it, but not the beginning?

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Sia], [Zero 7]

A Jesuit Likes Tom Waits

Well now, this is interesting. Times Online has an article about a Catholic priest, Father Antonio Spadero, writing in a Jesuit journal that Tom Waits represents "the marginalised and misunderstood," and that rock music "has great expressive power which reaches peoples’ souls." Tom Waits's beliefs aren't public as far as I know--which makes the statement just that much more surprising--though he gets into God territory every now and then, such as in Road to Peace or God's Away on Business.

If I were a Catholic, I'd be very sad at how surprising a statement like that is--regardless of how self-evident it sounds to the rest of the world. Can we have this guy for pope next? A world with fewer public figures saying stupid things would be so nice. . .

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Catholicism], [Tom Waits]

Music Around the Web

Bradley's Almanac has posted a compilation celebrating seven years of the 'Nac; it includes Starlight Conspiracy, a new song from Charlene, the Madelines song that gave the site its name, Starlight Conspiracy, and so on. He's even put 'em all in a handy zip!

Hear Ya has a sampler of mp3s from SxSW bands.

Lala is streaming live performances from Noise Pop, including John Vanderslice, Damien Jurado, French Kicks, Snowden, and Midlake.

Grist has a playlist from Al Gore.

Raghav Gupta has an interesting article highlighting changes and predicting more in the music business on GigaOm.

Tripwire reports that Telefon Tel Aviv is releasing a CD of rare remixes.

I like Califone.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Music news], [SxSW], [Lala], [NoisePop], [Grist], [GigaOm], [Telefon Tel Aviv], [Califone]

The Never @ SXSW

Reverbnation.com is running an interesting SxSW contest: based on traffic, song plays, and registered fans, two bands will get slots to play at the Reverbnation SxSW party. My own pick is The Never, from the strength of last year's remarkable multimedia CD Antartica. It's a good opportunity to play with Reverbnation's various tools, too, which are intelligently designed.

So . . .register for Reverbnation.com, become The Never's fan, listen to The Never--and a deserving band will play at SxSW!

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Reverbnation], [SxSW], [The Never]

Video for Amy Millan's "Skinny Boy"

Honey from the Tombs was one of the great finds of 2006; besides just being a good listen, it established Amy as the more interesting independent artist out of Stars. Now there's a new video for Skinny Boy, as well as the original single Baby I; they're up on the Arts & Crafts video page. Sadly, though. . . it isn't very interesting. It takes quite an exceptional video to be more than marketing material--a reason to play the song on TV--and this isn't it.

Still a good song, though.

tags: [Music], [Music videos], [Amy Millan]

Unwed Sailor Tour Dates

Unwed Sailor is one of those bands I keep meaning to catch up with, in fact I was just thinking about it the other day; turns out I might get a chance to do that live, since he's announced new tour dates. Johnathon Ford has a hell of a resume: Pedro the Lion, Damien Jurado, Roadside Monument, Rosie Thomas, Seldom, Early Day Miners, and Decahedron. Unwed Sailor has Mogwai's wandering, cyclical vibe without the epic sweep or the predilection for noise; sometimes it sounds more like typical guitar-driven rock, but those songs aren't its strongest, lacking the focal line of a voice part. It'd be interesting to see live, I think; that's where these wandering, instrumental things either come sharp or fall apart.

Ruby's Wishes from the Firecracker EP
Cuckoo Clock from The Marionette and the Music Box

16 November - O´leavers - Omaha NE
17 November - The Belmonte - Springfield MO
18 November - The Vaudeville Mews - Des Moines IA
19 November - Schuba's w/ Early Day Miners - Chicago IL
20 November - The Ballroom @ Ball State University - Muncie IN
21 November - The DAAC - Grand Rapids MI
22 November - The Nite Owl - Dayton OH
23 November - Southgate House - Newport KY
24 November - Jacob's Well - Traverse City MI
25 November - Brillobox - Pittsburgh PA
26 November - Champion Ship - Lemoyne PA
27 November - The Middle East - Cambridge MA
28 November - Johnny Brendas, w/ Parts & Labor - Philadelphia PA
29 November - Pianos - N.Y.C
01 December - Emmaus - Gettysburg PA
02 December - Relative Theory Records - Norfolk VA
03 December - The Flat Iron - Greensboro NC
04 December - New Brookland Tavern - West Columbia SC
05 December - Soapbox Laundro-Lounge - Wilmington, North Carolina
06 December - Gypsy G's Roadhouse, w/ The Dark Romantics - Greenville SC
07 December - The Backbooth, w/ The Dark Romantics - Orlando FL
08 December - Jackrabbits, w/ The Dark Romantics - Jacksonville FL
09 December - Transitions Art Gallery/Skatepark Of Tampa, w/ The Dark Romantics - Tampa FL
10 December - Lillian's, w/ The Dark Romantics - Lakeland FL
11 December - The Beta Bar, w/ The Dark Romantics - Tallahassee FL
12 December - Drunken Unicorn - Atlanta GA
13 December - The End - Nashville TN
14 December - Hi-Tone - Memphis TN
15 December - The Cavern, w/ Shapes & Sizes, Oh No! Oh My! - Dallas TX
16 Dec - The Conservatory - Oklahoma City OK


tags: [Music], [tour dates], [mp3], [Unwed Sailor]

G'bye, Rainer Maria

Well now, this is an unwelcome bit of news. It seems Rainer Maria has thrown in the towel, and although it is a shame to lose them, I guess they've had their innings, since they've been around for a decade and change.

We are grateful to our new listeners and especially our longtime fans for their endless support and attention. We feel incredibly fortunate to have come up during a unique time in rock music, in a community that grew with us from the Midwest to Brooklyn and beyond. Making records has always been a revelation, and walking onto stage together we found a vision we could share. For us, this transition can be nothing short of heartbreaking. But for reasons both musical and personal, the three of us have chosen this time to move on.

Alchemy, from their 2002 Ears Ring EP

tags: [Music], [mp3, [Rainer Maria]]

Scarlett Johansson sings Tom Waits

Now this is odd; Scarlett Johansson is apparently all ready to make a CD of Tom Waits covers, called (intuitively enough) Scarlett Sings Tom Waits; although I hear she can actually sing (unlike some other actresses with CDs that we all know of), I noticed when reading the article that the name of the CD makes me suspicious of its merit. Why should it? I think it's because, if the project had artistic merit, it'd have a more creative name, that seemed to capitalize less on name recognition. Funny how that kind of thing can bias you, though. I can only hope she does the Semi Suite, because a movie star covering a song about truckers would be just wonderfully bizarre and surreal.

tags: [Music], [Mp3][Music news], [Tom Waits], [Scarlett Johansson]

Bishop Allen's September out

Always makes my month brighter--although the critical part of me will be happy to see them take a different direction in a few months, the voracious-fan part is equally happy to get more.

But I gotta say the first track Begin to See on this EP is the weakest in a while; it sounds more like what one would expect of an EP-a-month deal--poorly recorded and uncertainly performed--and there's some harmony thing that isn't working right. The rest recovers, fortunately; and though their sample Like Castanets isn't my favorite track on the EP (that's either Fireflies or Cassandra), it's not disappointing like the first track.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Bishop Allen]

Swearing at Motorists, Singing in the Ubahn

Swearing at Motorists has been on my eMusic queue forever, just because of the name; but now I find out that Dave Doughman has been recording in Ubahnhof stations while making a different CD in studio, which should be enough to get anybody's attention.

The echoing Ubahn adds a nice kind of melancholy, which is saved from being lugubrious by the occasional odd echo that certainly wouldn't have been added in a studio. Maybe oddly, my favorite tracks are the ones that have the sounds of the passengers in them; Time Zones and Area Codes ends with the the rebounding flat-strike sound of heeled shoes, and Ten Dollars (False Start)is interruped by train passengers--I wish he'd kept singing and just let that be the backdrop; the German chatter is an appealing counterpoint, and the way it appears gradually couldn't have been better done in a studio. Maybe it wouldn't have ended as neatly as it began--it almost certainly wouldn't have--but it's an eerie break in the solitude of the rest.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Swearing At Motorists]

Joanna Newsom @ MFA's College Night, tomorrow!

Joanna Newsom is headlining the MFA's College Night--it's tomorrow and it's free with a college ID. (No word on how much without one.)

tags: [Music], [MFA], [Free Music], [Boston], [Joanna Newsom]

The Importance of Being Not Postal, But Growing Old Is

MTV News has got an article about how the purported Postal Service track The Importance of Being, er, isn't. Track first showed up at Good Weather For Airstrikes (whose title artwork is gorgeous), but it's not actually the work of Ben Gibbard, Jimmy Tamborello, or Jenny Lewis, and nobody seems to know whose work it is. Interesting.

It's good to know more than just me want another Postal Service LP. And it's also good to know that The Postal Service have done a cover of Lennon's "Grow Old With Me" as a fundraiser for Amnesty International's Make Some Noise project; you can listen to it and buy it here, although aggravatingly only with IE, and unfortunately using the annoying MSN music store. I'm curious to see how the files that come out of it will be limited, and already aggravated with Amnesty International: couldn't they have done a better, more spare setup that wouldn't be a deal with the devil?

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Postal Service], [Amnesty International], [Make Some Noise]

Interviews/Articles: Amy Millan, Sufjan Stevens, Owen Pallet

Some interesting bits out. . .

Amy Millan at Victoria News:

Honey From the Tomb, released earlier this year, takes a darker approach than her work with Broken Social Scene and Stars, delving into heartbreak and the end of life. "I don't necessarily see death as a negative thing. I just got finished doing a photoshoot in a graveyard where I was having a picnic. I think death is a part of all of our lives. And death of relationships, death between people."

Sufjan Stevens at Explorefaith.org:

As an Episcopalian who is a bit embarrassed by the institutionalization and commodification of most church culture, Stevens stands in line with artists like Dorothy Sayers and Flannery O’Conner, who considered excellence at their craft the primary discipline of a Christian. One gets the impression that Stevens doesn’t want to be a mouthpiece or a preacher, but rather that he wants to be someone who lives and looks for God in the doubts, the stories and the musical movements of the Spirit.

Since Sufjan has been very reticent about his faith (and good for him), this is a pretty speculative piece. Wonder what he thinks of it.

Owen Pallet at Gauntlet:

"I had the idea that I was going to make a string quartet album before I made [Final Fantasy's first album] Has a Good Home," Pallett explains. "It was just taking a lot of work, a lot of reading and research. I wanted the string quartet to be the basis of the album, not the superfluous earrings of the album. In order to do that, I had to make sure my writing was idiosyncratic with correct string writing."

The superficial earrings of the album.

tags: [Music], [Music interviews], [Amy Millan], [Sufjan Stevens], [Final Fantasy]

Ooh!: Bishop Allen - August

Bishop Allen's August EP is out, and about triple the previous sizes, because it's the Middle East show recorded! One of the sample songs is The Flood, which I liked particularly during the show.

tags: [Music], [Bishop Allen], [new EP], [mp3]

Meltdown Reports: Chan Marshall & Nickel Creek

Well, so much for Chan Marshall's vaunted new stability--her show last night was a classic stage meltdown-cum-trainwreck where she obsessed over sound, the sound guy, and unsuccessfully tuning the guitar, broke off songs to go pee. . . damn. I'm sorry it happened, but glad I didn't go. Wonder if her stage issues will get in the way of her recording career? Seems like they'd have to, but she's been around for a few years and not gone away yet--no way of telling where she'd be now if she could reliably handle a live set, I guess.

Nickel Creek has officially melted down to its components; Billboard's running an interview with them in which we learn that song-writing feels less natural than it has for the group, and that Sean will focus on movie-scoring, Sara on collaboration, and Chris on a solo record. Chris' solo CD is called How to Grow a Woman from the Ground--the first time I read about it, it had been mis-written as "How to Grow a Woman from a Gourd." I might like the wrong title better. I liked them very well a few years ago, but lost track of them when I left the country. Too bad, though--even beside Chris' remarkable mandolin virtuosity, Sara's voice was the main draw for me at the time; now I suspect I might find it too sugary and twee. No new material to let me find out, anyway!

tags: [Music], [Music news], [Cat Power], [Nickel Creek], [Chris Thile]

Mutual Appreciation

Mutual Appreciation, starring Justin Rice of Bishop Allen, opens 13 September at the Brattle and 22 September at Coolidge Corner. Since it's about a band trying to make it in New York etc, there's a fair amount of music in it, and it's all Bishop Allen.

Bits and pieces (the trailer, the opening scene, a painful performance of Quarter to Three at a painfully under-attended show) are up on iFilm. I don't know if Justin is a good actor, but he seems to be playing himself, or at least his stage manner. I suspect the movie'll either be quite good, or horribly self-indulgent and pointless. I hope it's good, partially because I intend to go see it and partially because I am morally required to wish the writer of Penitentiary Bound success in all endeavors. (As I don't know if Penitentiary Bound is relevant to the movie, it's Quarter to Three streaming below.)



tags: [Music], [Music news], [Mutual Appreciation], [Bishop Allen], [Movie news], [Movie openings]

Myspace to Sell Music

Now this is interesting; MySpace is going to let unsigned bands sell their music without any DRM (SnoCap is doing the technical stuff). The agreement includes "performance-based warrants" for purchasing stock in SnoCap, although I don't know what that means. MySpace gets to buy stock in SnoCap if the deal works out?

Many, many questions about this. What'll happen to signed bands on Myspace? Will the interface be as damned ugly as MySpace's setup? Of course I hope it embiggens the snoball (hah) towards eMusic-style clean downloads, and it can only be a good thing for unsigned bands. Very curious to see what it looks like. . .

tags: [Music], [Music news], [MySpace], [SnoCap]

Bits & Pieces

Final Fantasy is playing at PA's Lounge in Somerville on Friday! I missed Owen when he came through the first time, and I'm not bloody missing out again.

Amy Millan is coming to the Paradise in November. Fancey (Tim Fancey from the New Pornographers) is coming to Bill's Bar in September. Rogue Wave is coming to the Middle East in September. Maybe I won't move to Seattle.

Peter Mulvey, whom I saw at Club Passim, is on All Things Considered. Good for him.

Now that Chan Marshall is dry maybe the MFA shows become a better bet?

tags: [Music], [Live music], [Boston], [Cambridge], [Somerville], [Final Fantasy], [Amy Millan], [Fancey], [Rogue Wave], [Peter Mulvey], [Cat Power]

Stephin Merritt @ Bumbershoot

Damn, I'm not even going to pretend not to be jealous. Stephin Merritt is playing a benefit show for 826 Seattle, a nonprofit writing & tutoring youth center, at Bumbershoot on Friday 1 September. It's part of People Talking and Singing, which was already featuring readings or live sets from Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Smoosh, Zach Rogue of Rogue Wave, and Colin Meloy. The only downside is they're selling tickets through the evil ticket overlords.

Do I need to move to Seattle?

tags: [Music], [Bumbershoot], [Seattle], [Magnetic Fields]