From Bill Mallonee – Here’s why this album is important: Something bright and affirming was taking place inside of me and in the band that was Vigilantes of Love.
It’s been 15 years since this version of VoL recorded these demos. How do they strike me now? In some ways this was the most important record I was to ever make. All the resources had been stripped away. All the “props” of label, management and radio had dissolved (remember it was 1996, kids.)
Well, it’s a funny thing: These songs, the “life blood” of a plucky “Lil’ band that could,” still sound fresh, full of wide-eyed vitality and conviction. 19 songs were demo-ed “LIVE” over 2 days. This is volume 1 of a 2 Volume set. (There are 2 previously unreleased songs here in this batch; 3 more in the next Archive Series instalment.)
Ed Note: Very cool song from this era of VOL. Take a listen to the full album at Bandcamp.
Hero Note: Go to the link and listen to the interview & 3 songs @NPR.ORG — Stunning and Warming. Drop to the bottom for some live songs from daytrotter.
Soft and wintry with a melancholic quality, Anar isn’t so morose as to be heavy, with Irglová’s vocals gliding gently over the piano-centric melodies. It doesn’t have the volume or intensity of her collaborations with Hansard: In tracks such as “Go Back” and “Crossroads,” Irglová demonstrates her songwriting sensibilities with subtle jazz riffs and quiet urgency.
In this World Cafe interview, Irglová discusses the symbolism she incorporated into Anar, as well as her thoughts on the Broadway production of Onceand the idea of another album from The Swell Season.
When Steven Patrick Morrissey was 13, he was watching The Old Grey Whistle Test, a BBC rock television show, when the New York Dolls came on. Later, he called it “my first real emotional experience.” It was hardly his last: Growing up awkward, tall and shy in suburban Manchester, he was the archetypal kid who didn’t fit in, writing poetry and letters to members of the British rock press, disagreeing articulately with their critics.
Years before, Manchester had lost out to Liverpool as Britain’s provincial rock capital, but with the arrival of punk, it snatched the crown back. Morrissey joined a punk band called the Nosebleeds briefly, but he had other ideas. In May 1982, he read that a writer for Record Mirror named Johnny Marr, a guitarist who had been in a couple of bands, was looking for a lyricist. The two met and hit it off immediately, and a year later, they’d put together a band, had a couple of gigs, signed to London’s Rough Trade Records and started releasing singles. It took a couple tries, but they eventually had a hit of sorts called “What Difference Does It Make?“
The Smiths were the definitive British indie rock band of the ’80s, marking the end of synth-driven new wave and the beginning of the guitar rock that dominated English rock into the ’90s. Sonically, the group was indebted to the British Invasion, crafting ringing, melodic three-minute pop singles, even for their album tracks. But their scope was far broader than that of a revivalist band. The group’s core members, vocalist Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr, were obsessive rock fans inspired by the D.I.Y. ethics of punk, but they also had a fondness for girl groups, pop, and rockabilly. Morrissey and Marr also represented one of the strangest teams of collaborators in rock history. Marr was the rock traditionalist, looking like an elegant version of Keith Richards during the Smiths’ heyday and meticulously layering his guitar tracks in the studio. Morrissey, on the other hand, broke from rock tradition by singing in a keening, self-absorbed croon, embracing the forlorn, romantic poetry of Oscar Wilde, publicly declaring his celibacy, performing with a pocketful of gladioli and a hearing aid, and making no secret of his disgust for most of his peers. While it eventually led to the Smiths’ early demise, the friction between Morrissey and Marr resulted in a flurry of singles and albums over the course of three years that provided the blueprint for British guitar rock in the following decade.
I like the way the songs build and envelop me in warm blankets of sonic protection and love. These artists go out of their way to quietly and calmly state their case, patiently look you in the eye, and while leaving the room, bid you to follow—if so inclined.
We were very lucky to win an amazing competition to celebrate Abbey Road Studio’s 80th birthday. It was a very humbling and overwhelming experience and we all feel very lucky to be part of such a wonderful project. All of the other competition winners were incredibly talented and I cant wait to hear all of the finished pieces. We had the chance to work with some wonderful musicians and groups such as LSO, Crouch End choir and Eric Whitacre and his singers. We also had the pleasure of being engineered by Jon Allen who made us feel comfortable at every moment. As well as this we had the great pleasure of working with Simon Hale, a very talented pianist, orchestrator and composer. He has arranged some beautiful string and choral pieces for our track ‘Made of Ghosts’.
“The Holiday Crowd” has a sound that is so hard for me to pin down. It is unique yet at once fully accessible. I’ve heard flavours of their sound somewhere in my past, but where? It’s almost as if I’m remembering for someone else; yet I feel that I’ve come home somehow. Very strange and very beautiful.
One musical group that has a similar shimmering sound is “The Ocean Blue” from Hershey, PA. The songs of “Over The Bluffs” are more current sounding with the vocals somewhat in the background, along with a surging and pulsating summer-shine sound that lulls me to a warmer and better place. The music is equal parts rhythm guitar and a fine palate of colours: vibrant and mostly impressionistic.
The Holiday Crowd – Never Speak of it Again (click below to play)
Self described as minimal and stripped-down, The Holiday Crowd’s sound and lyrics arise from all manner of experience: summer afternoon camaraderie to introspective reveries.
The album title Over The Bluffs comes from a lyric in their song “Tiresome”, “I would have led you away from the alliance and over The Bluffs instead”, but in many ways it is an open love letter to Scarborough, Ontario, a notorious suburb of Toronto where lead singer Imran Haniff and guitar player Colin Bowers grew up. “The whole mood of the record has a Scarborough vibe to it and it only seemed fitting to name it with an honorary nod to our old stomping grounds. Scarborough has so much stacked against it; it almost seemed like The Holiday Crowd needed to stick up for it. There’s more material lyrically to write about a place that’s tangible and misunderstood than writing about Narnia or Mordor,” says Haniff.
Karandashi I Palochki (Crayons and Sticks) is a good representative track of the full LP from Auktyon. All these songs on Top (Yula) come from such different places, but the song K.I.P. has enough of the critical ingredients and textures of their unique sound to provide a flavor of this truly wicked stew from a world a bit chaotic, but glorious with new musical order/disorder. Each song is unique, with some slower paced and some very fast; with frequent tempo changes. Gypsy-Punk-Jazz? Not sure what to call it, but Auktyon will satisfy long after lesser bands have trotted out their best wares, gone home to put their feet up and drift gently back into Top-40 narcolepsy. The dudes of Auktyon are the real thing and I feel their very lives are artistically presented in this crazy, joyful and ultimately explosive music!
From the Band:
Russia’s Auktyon is a lost folklore ensemble darting behind an avant jazz collective, hidden inside a hugely popular rock band. It’s Animal Collective tangoing through the salon with The Art Ensemble of Chicago, nodding its Radiohead. A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
They rock a mean tuba. They have a dancer-declaimer who spouts sudden poetry, jerking and trembling like a holy madman.
But this is no under-the-radar cult group; it’s one of the biggest rock bands to burst from the Soviet collapse, with a defiant devil-may-care attitude and a keen sense for improvisation. This improv instinct led the band to Top a wild, catchy spin through Auktyon’s magical paces. Recorded live at breakneck speed and with sheer joy, the album draws together the eerie folklore, edgy urbanity, exuberant word, and well-honed musicianship of a group uninterested in laurels or resting.
This new album by “Our Orthodox” was inscrutable as to genre or music category on my first listen. However, the music did draw me in deep for further exploration. This is a unique blend of well-played indie-folk-rock with enough twists and turns and joyful diversions to keep me humming and hitting repeat with a wry smile. Step into “We Are Not The Only Ones” and search out the meaning of these tunes that are dying to reveal what lies just beneath their surface.
I hear beautiful and heart-wrenching reverb from Emmylou Harris in many of the vocals and tonal warmth in these songs. There is also some nice keyboard sounds of either a Moog or mellotron that reminds me of early Moody Blues. Not a loser in the bunch, but the first songs are all stand-outs to these ears. This album is pure yet reinterpreted country music that these two Swedes have made their own. Pure in that it has the basic elements, but primarily heart and soul. Reinterpreted in that it is not a copy of anything prior, but a unique gift and hopefully they will make country, folk and Americana more accessible to the jaded masses. Who would have thought Sweden could do so much for my love of music?
Swedish indie/folk duo consisting of the young sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg from Stockholm. The Emmylou Songfacts says that the teenage siblings began composing songs in 2007, taking their name at random from an English dictionary.
The debut EP “Drunken Trees” was released on the 9th of April 2008 in Sweden on the label Rabid Records, owned by the Swedish electronic duo The Knife. The EP was re-released through Wichita Recordings early 2009.
The debut album The Big Black & The Blue was released on January 25th, 2010. Their 2nd album The Lion’s Roar, produced by Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes, will be released on January 24th, 2012.
My my; “Walk off the Earth” caught me off guard. I received my weekly StumbleUpon with my usual languor to randomly click on this video and then finding myself truly enjoying it. See what you think.
Walk off the Earth, is one of the only “Truly” Independent bands in the music Industry today. They have had no help from record labels. They’ve gain much of their success through word of mouth from their dedicated and loyal fans. Their passion to create Great Music, Entertaining Original Videos and Innovative Live Performances is all they will need to be recognized as the new face of Music!
Go to this indie music blog to download the complete concerts by these artists. This website is the loving work of a very kind blogger, who appreciates well crafted lyrics and mostly acoustic and well performed songs. I usually check in every other week for new discoveries.
From NPR.ORG: Real Estate doesn’t take long to set a tone of wistful, rose-colored nostalgia on Days, its second album of reverb-y beach-pop. Given that The Beach Boys made a virtually eternal career out of a similar formula — cheery romanticism that masks an undercurrent of alienated melancholy — it’s easy to get behind the band’s winsome charms, which are surprisingly well suited to the arrival of cool weather. The band’s music may cry out to be heard through a beachside boom box on the New Jersey shore, but singer-guitarist Martin Courtney’s words look back in bittersweet regret: “Our careless lifestyle / It was not so unwise,” he sings in the chorus of “Green Aisles.”
Real Estate performed songs from Days — calling to mind bucolic settings and confused, hopeful youth — at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on Friday. You can listen to the entire show right here.
Also in the creative mix, is emerging sculptor/designer Jenny Lee Maaswho helped create several of the characters, as well as play the role of the time-traveling grandma. Post War Years is currently recording the release of their second album, while Tobias Stretch is working several animated shorts for the much anticipated return of Liquid Television.
Beautiful, shimmering, winter-warming acoustic music (mostly) and mindful voice as the temps dip in the teens this January day. Use the Bandcamp player to stream the music as you do other tasks at hand. Then quickly fix your eyes in the upper right corner of your room and simply smile as you excercise your free-will to download Runnin’ by Galapaghost right now from their Bandcamp site.
Galapaghost’, a subtle twist on the Galapagos Islands, inadvertently provided us with our name. After going through various four-man variations, we settled on the trio-format, figuring that there are a substantial amount of successful trios (Right? Right??). As a band, we’ve found that the hardest thing to do isn’t really writing the songs or performing them, but more getting them out there to the ‘general public’, so if you hear anything you like or want to hear more of, let us know. We hopefully have a long road ahead of us . . .
This free album from 2006 is from a mellow, talented and gentle-souled folk-pop singer named Rosie Thomas. Hey, she worked with Sufjan Stevens on this one and while it is not cutting-edge; it’s just plain good. Have your non-indie music loved ones listen to this as a gateway to the more experimental offerings at Heroes of Indie Music. Use the NoiseTrade link below to download. She has a new album out next month and “Where Was I” will be on this 2012 release.
One night in suburban Detroit, a twelve-year-old Rosie Thomas lay sleepless in her bed, obsessively dwelling on what she perceived to be her lack of life purpose. Then, well after 2 AM, it suddenly hit her. She sprung out of bed and raced down the hall. “Daddy, Daddy, I know what my mission in life is,” Rosie exclaimed, poking her father. “I just want to entertain people.” After 3 albums on Sub Pop, These Friends of Mine was release through her own lable, Sing-A-Long Records. The album includes appearances by friends Sufjan Stevens, Damien Jurado, David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), and Denison Witmer. On February 14, 2012, Rosie will release her first full-length record in four years, With Love. Thomas makes her return to the studio with a band featuring David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), Blake Wescott (Damien Jurado), brother Brian Thomas, Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) and Jenn Wood (The Postal Service).
Amen Dunes, the solo project of Damon McMahon, began with recordings made in the fall of 2006 in upstate New York. Those tapes were initially put on the shelf as personal recordings he never intended for release, and the following summer, McMahon moved to China and all but stopped making music. He would live in Beijing for the next few years, writing and recording only occasionally. With the release of DIA on Locust Music in 2009, however, he decided to move back to the States and form a band around Amen Dunes.
After playing in New York and touring the US and Europe from 2009–2010, in the summer of 2010 McMahon released the Murder Dull MindEP, a collection of the apartment recordings made while in Beijing, on Sacred Bones. This past January, he began recording for his second full length, Through Donkey Jaw, his first proper recordings in almost five years. Where Murder Dull Mind was sparse, mostly acoustic and almost all first-take improvisation, this new work contains many more fully-realized sounds and songs; it is very much the winter to Murder Dull Mind’s summer.
When I listen to this EP by Jonathan DePaso I find that it’s framework is about mood, texture and careful craftmanship. But look at the picture and notice something deeper and inherently organic in this recording. This is the stuff of earth, heart, soul and blood that each of us is part of, and never really shed in this life.
The acoustic guitar intro to “I’ve been in Love Before,” brings to mind the equally profound intro to the classic “Space Oddity” by David Bowie. Check it out at the Bandcamp.com link.
Jonathan DePaso is a solo artist based out of NYC who has been greatly influenced by the melodic vocals of Thom Yorke and Sigur Ros. ”After I heard Radiohead‘s OK Computer I knew I had to become a musician.”
This particular album comes from a place of personal apocalypse as he’s been through a lot of difficult and painful life experiences. He explains, “I’ve come to realize over the years of listening and pursuing music that it’s not so much a genre of music that matters, but if the person is being emotionally vulnerable when they are playing.” We the listeners are the beneficiaries of Mr. DePaso’s honesty expressed so well through his art.
“Road songs” have become “Life songs” for me. Travel from “A” to “B” seems to have a way of unlocking deeper parts of my spirit. Muriah loves to drive (or hates mine, one or the other), so she handles 75% of the drives on our tours. (What a girl!) It’s a good arrangement: She has control and me? Well, i get to discuss, journal, and write.
Having lost touch with things of Spirit, we tend to devalue that hallowed-ness in the world, in our neighbor and sadly, even in ourselves. We miss Spirit, ignore it and (often,) ruin it, by our own devices. Though outwardly we appear to “have it made,” we are often become living beings, lacking a pulse…running on empty.
Read the full text, listen to more and throw some coinage down the wishing well:
“The White Album” have a somewhat solemn neofolk vibe that is both thoughtful and restful. They play their many traditionally American instruments very well and know and achieve their goal in each song on this album. While some of the songs have a dour environment, others know how to break out in a crystal clear joy—a benefit of having fully experience the depths. The band was one of the top sellers on Bandcamp for 2011 and this “Name Your Price” release must not be missed.
The White Album is a danish band from Copenhagen consisting of 3 very good friends with big beards and very big hearts. Rooted in folk and indie-rock they make music that transcends structural boundaries of both practical and musical nature. Everybody is a front-man in this band as each distinct voice and composition finds it’s place in a soulful conglomerate of well-seasoned musical spirits. Just as the original white album, there’s no right or wrong. Just ideas. Mostly wonderful ones.
“Said The Whale” make the kind of mid to slow tempo indie music that many other bands on the extremes should consider drawing closer to; minus being outright mimics. They carry some of the gentleness and cunning craftmanship of both Sufjan Stevens and Conor Oberst: two of my favorite artists. These tunes will not change the world, cure cancer nor feed the hungry. They do however, offer a restful season of reflection and quiet thoughtfulness to those with enough hope for better times and an awareness that this is not the whole story—it just can’t be. Have you ever felt you were on the verge of a breakthrough in some form—sensing that the knock on your door or that phone call might come any second? Maybe it will come—with all the ensuing consequences—tomorrow. The road and waiting are alternately unsure and interminable, but please know that he who seeks, finds.
Said The Whale formed in 2007 as a collaboration between songwriters Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft. The pair’s debut EP, Taking Abalonia, featured sunny west coast indie pop, with breezy harmonies, shimmering guitars, and lyrical tributes to their home city of Vancouver. In 2008, the album was rereleased as Howe Sounds/Talking Abalonia, featuring seven additional tracks that stretched the band’s stylistic palate to include bubblegum folk (“The Light Is You”), thundering hard rock (“Last Tree Standing”) and gentle ukulele ballads (“The Real of It”). After several personnel changes, the group settled upon a five-piece lineup that includes bassist Nathan Shaw, drummer Spencer Schoening, and keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown. The quintet embarked upon a rigorous touring schedule, crossing Canada numerous times and landing high profile gigs at V-Fest 2008 in Calgary and the nationally televised Canada Day celebration on Parliament Hill.
From Bill Mallonee – Here’s why this album is important: Something bright and affirming was taking place inside of me and in the band that was Vigilantes of Love. It’s been 15 years since this version of VoL recorded these demos. How do they strike me now? In some ways this was the most important [...]
Hero Note: Go to the link and listen to the interview & 3 songs @NPR.ORG — Stunning and Warming. Drop to the bottom for some live songs from daytrotter. Soft and wintry with a melancholic quality, Anar isn’t so morose as to be heavy, with Irglová’s vocals gliding gently over the piano-centric melodies. It doesn’t [...]
When Steven Patrick Morrissey was 13, he was watching The Old Grey Whistle Test, a BBC rock television show, when the New York Dolls came on. Later, he called it “my first real emotional experience.” It was hardly his last: Growing up awkward, tall and shy in suburban Manchester, he was the archetypal kid who [...]
I like the way the songs build and envelop me in warm blankets of sonic protection and love. These artists go out of their way to quietly and calmly state their case, patiently look you in the eye, and while leaving the room, bid you to follow—if so inclined. Yes we are, thank you very [...]
“The Holiday Crowd” has a sound that is so hard for me to pin down. It is unique yet at once fully accessible. I’ve heard flavours of their sound somewhere in my past, but where? It’s almost as if I’m remembering for someone else; yet I feel that I’ve come home somehow. Very strange and [...]
Auktyon – Karandashi I Palochki (Crayons and Sticks) Karandashi I Palochki (Crayons and Sticks) is a good representative track of the full LP from Auktyon. All these songs on Top (Yula) come from such different places, but the song K.I.P. has enough of the critical ingredients and textures of their unique sound to provide a [...]
Just two new discoveries that I believe worthy of your consideration. http://label.glitterhouse.com/artists.php?show=16 LM&FOF – Lost in the Sound http://laurenmannmusic.bigcartel.com/ Filed under: Music
This new album by “Our Orthodox” was inscrutable as to genre or music category on my first listen. However, the music did draw me in deep for further exploration. This is a unique blend of well-played indie-folk-rock with enough twists and turns and joyful diversions to keep me humming and hitting repeat with a wry [...]
I hear beautiful and heart-wrenching reverb from Emmylou Harris in many of the vocals and tonal warmth in these songs. There is also some nice keyboard sounds of either a Moog or mellotron that reminds me of early Moody Blues. Not a loser in the bunch, but the first songs are all stand-outs to these [...]
My my; “Walk off the Earth” caught me off guard. I received my weekly StumbleUpon with my usual languor to randomly click on this video and then finding myself truly enjoying it. See what you think. Walk off the Earth – Little Sin Walk off the Earth – Somebody that I Used to Know Walk [...]
Bryan John Appleby – Glory The Lumineers - Big Parade Go to this indie music blog to download the complete concerts by these artists. This website is the loving work of a very kind blogger, who appreciates well crafted lyrics and mostly acoustic and well performed songs. I usually check in every other week for new discoveries. http://www.fuelfriendsblo […]
Nice concert. A good listen. Enjoy! http://www.npr.org/event/music/144737168/world-cafe-live-real-estate-in-concert From NPR.ORG: Real Estate doesn’t take long to set a tone of wistful, rose-colored nostalgia on Days, its second album of reverb-y beach-pop. Given that The Beach Boys made a virtually eternal career out of a similar formula — cheery roma […]
London based indie rock band Post War Years teamed up with Tobias Stretch, Philadelphia area director best know for winning the Aniboom Animation Contest for his video for “Weird Fishes” by Radiohead, to bring to life the video for their new single “All Eyes”. Also in the creative mix, is emerging sculptor/designer Jenny Lee Maaswho [ […]
Beautiful, shimmering, winter-warming acoustic music (mostly) and mindful voice as the temps dip in the teens this January day. Use the Bandcamp player to stream the music as you do other tasks at hand. Then quickly fix your eyes in the upper right corner of your room and simply smile as you excercise your free-will [...]
This free album from 2006 is from a mellow, talented and gentle-souled folk-pop singer named Rosie Thomas. Hey, she worked with Sufjan Stevens on this one and while it is not cutting-edge; it’s just plain good. Have your non-indie music loved ones listen to this as a gateway to the more experimental offerings at Heroes [...]
While carefully and passionately crafted art is highly sought after by this reviewer and music lover, there has to be more, much more to make it special. Music to be lasting and to truly take root must have something deeper. The music by itself or the music with vocals must speak to a longing or a need within me, acknowledged or suppressed.
The music that touches me the deepest is that which speaks of longing, seeking and most important: the revealing and unraveling of one broken life to another.
Hey, we're all a mess and need help from each other and from God. We can't go through this alone; we need the light cast dimly from one another to see the path before us and guide us to the true light.
