Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Adult Contemporary Essentials 27.12.09
Monday, 21 December 2009
2009 in Music
Friday, 18 December 2009
2010's biggest new artist
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Adult Contemporary Essentials 13.12.09
Friday, 11 December 2009
Vandaveer redux
Adult Contemporary Essentials 06.12.09
Monday, 30 November 2009
Adult Contemporary Essentials 29.11.09
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
These United States video
Adult Contemporary Essentials 22.11.09
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Adult Contemporary Essentials 02.11.09
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
The Walkmen - splurge
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Adult Contemporary Essentials 25.10.09
Monday, 12 October 2009
Califone
Califone describe themselves as experimental, which can be a byword for ‘pass on by’ to the listener. However, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is one of the most perfect ‘albums’ I have heard in an age. Full of subtlety, layered acoustic perfection, it is as if Beck had suddenly both rediscovered his musical genius and mixed it with Elbow’s more anthemic moments. Having spent 20 minutes pressing ‘repeat’ on Krill, you may well go back to Radiohead-like opener Giving Away The Bride, or the acoustic-Nirvana-like Polish Girls. All My Friends is the band’s sixth ‘song-based’ album, and it is, by some margin their best – topping even the underrated Roots and Crowns. It has more songs, more individual songs that could be taken out of the album and still work as single gems. It may seem overblown to describe an album as ‘art’ these days, but this is an album where time only deepens the nuances and the attractiveness – lead man Tim Rutili is an artist and this is his greatest work - a deserved 10...
ACE rating 10/10
Sunday, 27 September 2009
She Keeps Bees
Awesome show last night by She Keeps Bees, in MK. Crap venue (MK's SnoBar is truly a crap venue for live music), but that didn't matter as Jess Larrabee delivered a set that combined Black Keys-like rock with a voice that Cat Power's Chan Marshall wished she possessed...
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Eulogies - free EP
They have released a fantastic EP for free download
Get it, fall in love with them the way I did, buy more stuff... That's the way it's gonna work these days...
Friday, 13 March 2009
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Southeast Engine
Friday, 27 February 2009
J Tillman - video for First Born
Saturday, 7 February 2009
MP3 flood
Saturday, 31 January 2009
More Walkmen...
New mp3s...
Jason Isbell - Seven Mile Island
Youth Group - All This Will Pass
Von Bondies - Pale Bride
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
J Tillman
How many men with guitars does the world need? Well, the world seems to want more and more of them, if the success of albums by Bon Iver and James Morrison, among others, are anything to go by. J Tillman tends towards the former, in that lovely space occupied by artists such as Chris Bathgate, Will Johnson, Damien Jurado, Nick Drake, and maybe even Ryan Adams, where gently beautifully sad portraiture is the order of the day. Vacilando Territory Blues is a rather gorgeous take from someone attempting something more modern than rehash old blues forms - the stories come from the same place they always did, but Tillman gives them space to breathe and a non-pastiche treatment. His warm, affecting voice is like one of the acoustic instruments, with a lovely catch and gentle burr. Songs like Firstborn would fit happily on any of Ryan Adams' better albums - in an ideal world, J. Tillman would be held in the same reverence that the more variable Adams is today. If you need more reason, Tillman joined Fleet Foxes to help out just as they broke through in 2008...And here are a couple of mp3s from the record...
Friday, 23 January 2009
Royal Bangs on Daytrotter
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
New Springsteen album
Friday, 16 January 2009
Will Johnson and Christian Kiefer release Obama supplement to 43 Presidents project
Before the election of Barack Obama, a group of musicians recorded and released a collection of 43 original songs, one for each of the U.S. presidencies. Titled Of Great and Mortal Men, the three-CD set ended with George W. Bush. Now, just in time for the inauguration, the creators have completed their 44th song.Rather delightfully, Kiefer chose Will Johnson, of Centro-matic, to head up this one... It is also available for free download from NPR...
New Southeast Engine song
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Don't Be A Stranger
Saturday, 10 January 2009
The Walkmen
THE WALKMEN NEW SINGLE AND UK TOUR
‘IN THE NEW YEAR’ RELEASED 23rd FEBRUARY
(Fierce Panda Records)
www.myspace.com/thewalkmen | www.fiercepanda.co.uk
The Walkmen are from New York City. They consist of Hamilton Leithauser (vocals/guitar), Paul Maroon (guitar/piano), Walter Martin (organ/bass), Matt Barrick (drums) and Peter Bauer (bass/organ).
In September 2008 they released the frankly terrific 'You & Me' album on Fierce Panda which featured 51 minutes of fearsomely inventive classic alt.rock noises, scowled at the dark end of the street and garnered hearty plaudits across the board including four stars in Q and a whopping five stars from The Guardian.
Indeed, many other sage listeners joined drownedinsound.com in believing it to be "the best thing they've ever done". And as if proffering more evidence that they were a band reborn since parting company with Warner Brothers, to follow up the launch of 'You & Me' The Walkmen played a splendid sold out show at ULU on a beautifully snowy winter’s eve in London Town. Unsurprisingly they have unveiled plans to make a swift return to these shores
'In The New Year' is the second single to be lifted from 'You & Me', following the smouldering success of 'The Blue Route' and will be available on limited edition 7” and download on February 23rd. Like much of the rest of the album 'In The New Year' is a meticulously constructed whirl of The Walkmen's trademark clanging guitars and otherworldly keyboards which sounds like nothing else out there, and sounds all the better for it.
To celebrate the single's release The Walkmen will be back on UK shores for a 3-date tour in mid-February – including a London date headlining Fierce Panda’s 15th birthday show at The Scala.
The Walkmen on Tour:
February
18th Birmingham Barfly
19th Brighton Concorde 2
20th London Kings Cross Scala (Fierce Panda's fifteenth birthday party w/Hatcham Social + The Molotovs)