The Walkmen - splurge

We like this band so much that the idea of collecting a whole bunch of session videos in one place had some appeal... Hope you think so too...

The Walkmen - On The Water from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

Adult Contemporary Essentials 25.10.09

Steve Earle

Townes

New West

Fifteen songs by Steve Earle’s inspiration, friend and mentor, Townes Van Zandt, self-recorded and produced, may sound like a labour of love that could go lots of different ways. While every song is handled respectfully, and none diverges too far from its original (bar perhaps Lungs, where Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello guests), Earle reveals that he is a great interpreter too. The album varies from Train A Comin’ indie folk to The Mountain bluegrass to classic Earle. As a whole, the album is not his strongest, but it does arrest the slight decline shown in his last two studio albums, where easy politics have replaced songwriting. Not a single song sounds out of place in 2009, and there is a strong sense that Earle’s own path to this record echoes Townes Van Zandt’s own personal journey – Townes isn’t the sound of hollow retread, but of some kind of spiritual renewal.

ACE rating 8/10

Eulogies

Here Anonymous

Dangerbird

LA-based band Eulogies make the kind of music that isn’t immediately apparently great. On this second album, there are two perfect songs – This Fine Progression (like Grizzly Bear but

better) and Two Can Play (with Nikki from Silversun Pickups) – that are both improved when

played live and acoustic. Elsewhere, the songs progress nicely enough, but without stirring either passion or interest. However, there is the slightly uncomfortable thought that this is because you’re not listening well enough. If all you had heard was those two songs, you might have been of the view that the best new band of the year had arrived – the voice is vulnerably lovely, the playing tightly right and the feel is comfortably laid back. Unfortunately for the

album, it pads them out. If Peter Walker can manage to write more great tunes, you should keep tabs on Eulogies.

ACE rating 6/10

Port O’Brien

Threadbare

City Slang

Port O’Brien’s All We Could Do Was Sing was a lovely, sea shanty-ish piece of hippy folk that celebrated something, some spiritual thing… Here, on Threadbare, the a

lbum has two parts – a continuation of that celebratory something, and a deeply sombre part, affected by the death of a loved one. There is a lot of spiritual vocal music around in folk these days, and we have, in musicians Van Pierszalowski and Cambria Goodwin, two proper, authentic folkies – he works on his father’s salmon boat every summer, and she works in a cannery, and then they get back together to make sea-inspired music. Where it works really well, such as on Sour Milk/ Salt Water, Love Me Through, or single My Will Is Good,

Threadbare is a lovely way to spend time – like a folkier Delta Spirit. Where it gets more downbeat, you’ll either need more patience or access to the Skip button.

ACE rating 7/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials rating

9-10 Essential purchase

7-8 Good, definite buy if you've liked this artist in the past

5-6 OK only, don't say I didn't warn you

3-4 Poor, even for this artist

1-2 Awful

Califone

Hard to describe how elemental my reaction to Califone's new album, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, has been... The first album this year to get a 10, in my book...

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

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...

And, real bonus, Jess and Andy were just great people...

Seriously, if you ever get the chance to catch She Keeps Bees, do it.

Silversun Pickups on WXPN

Eulogies - free EP

I love the sound of Eulogies...
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...

The Thermals

I love this band. They can make an old man jump up and down like a teenager...

Southeast Engine

Looking forward to catching these guys on an enforced NYC weekend stay... A video from their fantastic new album, premiered at Stereogum:

J Tillman - video for First Born

Fell in love with this video for First Born... Something so beautiful...

New Sufjan...

MP3 flood

They're coming quick and fast...

More Jason Isbell: Good

More Port O'Brien: Is This Really What It's Come To

More Walkmen...

A great idea... Acoustic sessions recorded in the back of a van... Blogotheque extends its cool run...

The Walkmen - On the Water from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.