This long-overdue post highlights the latest release from New York musician Sam Amidon. This Vermont native grew up the child of folk musicians with an affinity for the sounds of Appalachia.
Amidon began his musical career with indie-rock bands Doveman and Stars Like Fleas in New York City. Recently, though, he has branched out solo, releasing LP's under his own name. His latest release, All Is Well, was recorded in Reykjavik, Iceland, under the production of Valgeir Sigurðsson. It was released February 5, 2008 by Bedroom Community.
All Is Well is comprised of 10 renditions of folk standards that become uniquely Amidon.
This ablum is pure freedom. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but in an age when music has to be so complicated and hyper-analyzed, Fleet Foxes make criticism easy because they are so obviously good.
Fleet Foxes formed in 2006 in Seattle, WA. Since releasing a self-titled EP that year, they have toured extensively and written new material. In early 2008, they released Sun Giant [EP] in Seattle and via Sub Pop's web site. It will be released in stores nationwide tomorrow, April 8.
Their debut full-length is also self-titled and will be released by Sub Pop on June 3, 2008. Fleet Foxes is a beautiful summer album, with layered harmonies riding the wind like a wave.
Partly because I am a loss for words and partly because I just want the music to speak for itself, I won't try to describe it. I will, however, quote band memeber Robin Pecknold:
“We aim to be adventurous and true to ourselves and to enjoy our time together—the music we make is a reflection of our instincts. To me, the most enjoyable thing in the world is to sing harmony with people, so we do that a bunch. We love acoustic guitars, electric guitars, big rolling tom drums, mandolins, dulcimers, bass guitars, bass pedals, organs, pianos, kotos, and most of all harmony and melody. We’ve succeeded for ourselves if we’ve made a song where every instrument is doing something interesting and melodic. We try to draw from the traditions of folk music, pop, choral music and gospel, baroque psychedelic, sacred harp singing, West Coast music, traditional music from Ireland to Japan, and film scores, and are inspired by the music of our friends and contemporaries in the Seattle music family.”
The battle for the best music scene in Canada hasn't been completely fair so far. Montreal has all the big names - Arcade Fire, Islands (The Unicorns), The Dears, Wolf Parade (and their side projects Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs), The Besnard Lakes, and, of course, Leonard Cohen. But Toronto has gained some ground with the recent release of the full-length debut from Born Ruffians, Red Yellow & Blue, released March 4, 2008 on Warp Records.
This three-piece rock group creates an expansive sound with the standard guitar-bass-drums setup. Some tracks sound like a bar fight while others sound like a skip to the market, and even others sound like a collapsed lung struggling inside a dancing rib cage (in a good way). According to the Ruffians themselves, they use "plenty of 'hootin and hollerin' to create a sound [they] call: the best we could come up with!" And it's no wonder their album's namesake comes from a set of primary colors, Red Yellow & Blue - three hues of expression that can be used to paint any picture.
Watch their powers combine in their first video for "Hummingbird":
SO, I'll gladly add Born Ruffians to Toronto's "indie cred list" alongside Broken Social Scene, The Constantines, and the birthplace of Mr. Neil Young.
A sad song isn't easy to deliver. It can be painful for the listener, but most of all, it can wrench the heart of the singer. The Johnson City (but recently moved to Knoxville!), Tenn, duo of Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews, better known as the everybodyfields, deliver tunes that summon a raw emotion from the deep hills of Appalachia.
On the group's latest record, Nothing Is Okay, the heart isn't just worn on the sleeve - it's worn pumping away in an elevated fist. Their aching harmonies hit the canvas of their delicate sound-scape and tell their story.
The story is of a record that was almost compromised by personal issues between Quinn and Andrews. The two ended a dating relationship just before the release of their debut album in 2004. These issues resurfaced during the making of Nothing Is Okay - the songs were nothing short of painstaking to record.
In an interview with Paste Magazine this summer, Quinn said, "We recorded it three times. Every time we'd go through it, there'd be so much other shit going around, [I'd think], 'Whatever, I just don't even want to listen to this stuff. I don't know if we want to make this. You're out, you're out, I'm not so sure I'm in either.'"
But the two used the process to communicate with each other, and they still have the playful sense to quote Bottle Rocket in a Paste interview.
Quinn and Andrews take the stage tomorrow night at the Bijou Theater here in Knoxville to continue their support of Nothing Is Okay, which was released August 21, 2007 on Ramseur Records. Their sound is fuller than on their previous efforts as they have enlisted the talents of Josh Oliver on electric guitar and keys, and Knoxville's own instrumental Polymath, Tom Pryor on pedal steel.
WARNING: When seeing the everybodyfields live, it is very possible to crush on Jill Andrews - even if you're a girl. It is also possible to have a man-crush on Sam Quinn. Especially when he sound-checks with Neil Young's "Tell My Why."
Back in 1989, Kevin Shields took My Bloody Valentine on a journey through 2 years, 19 recording studios and a rumored £250,000 that almost sent their label into bankruptcy. At the end of the journey, they had Loveless - one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the 1990s. Since the release of Loveless in 1991, My Bloody Valentine have been largely inactive until very recently, going their separate ways to collaborate with other artists. During these years, however, Loveless has continued to receive praise for its influence over other artists of their generation. Artists like The Cure, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Phish, Guided by Voices and Radiohead have all claimed Loveless as a great influence and inspiration.
Last year, however, the album received the highest form of praise - imitation. Athens, Ga. instrumentalists Japancakes have covered the album in its entirety, replacing distortion with clarity, vocals with pedal steel and cello, ambient organ with rumbling piano, and shoegazing with shoegazing. The result is beautiful.
Japancakes' version of Loveless was released on November 13, 2007, quickly succeeding the release of their October 9 release, Giving Machines. Both albums were released by Darla Records.
My Bloody Valentine have also been busy recently, announcing a tour and an album release for 2008.
Much has been said about Ryan Adams' musical output. I don't really need to say a whole lot more, but I will. To start, his recorded songs from the past eight years would more than fill your sister's iPod shuffle. And he can write and record a song in the same time it takes me to shave. This is the same talent that has gained him so much of both criticism and praise.
Since 2000, Adams has released a record (or three) every year except 2006. But his body of unreleased work is even more staggering. Some criticize him of not being able to tell the difference between a forgettable track and a timeless track - and thus, his work becomes nothing more than a mixed bag. Others love the idea of unbridled art, and want Adams to be free to create what he wants.
Sure, the back story of his legendary output and his rocky relationship with Lost Highway Records and his insane struggle and subsequent defeat of drug addiction and depression all make his story much more compelling, but the music speaks for itself. It's just so good.
Most notable of his unreleased work are the sessions surrounding the release of Gold, his flirtation with popular success in 2001. These sessions, which, in essence, are full albums, make up the work that contributed hand-picked tracks to 2002's Demolition, instead of being released as a rumored 4-disc set that was ultimately shelved by Lost Highway.
--The Suicide Handbook was recorded in early 2001 --The Pinkheart Sessions (which are actually two different sessions) were recorded in December 2000 and July 2001, respectively --48 Hours was recorded immediately following the final mixing of Gold in September 2001 --The Stockholm Sessions were recorded (at Nord Studio AB in Stockholm, Sweden) in October 2001.
I can't say enough about the talent Ryan Adams has, but I just hope these gems aren't doomed to collect dust everywhere except P2P file-sharing networks.
the first track from The Stockholm Sessions - "You Will Always Be The Same" (sorry about the WORST video still EVER)
great b-side from Jacksonville City Nights - "What Sin Replaces Love"
1. You Will Always Be The Same 2. For Beth (Friends) 3. Dear Anne 4. Poor Jimmy 5. Madeline I 6. Madeline II 7. Oh, Charles (Prison Letter) 8. Come Monday 9. Not In Love 10. Friendly Fire 11. Baby, I'm A Fool For You
Going back a bit further this week, I want to take a look at Leonard Cohen's debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Released in the winter of 1968 by Columbia Records, this album helped carry the folk movement revival into the 1970s along with artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell (hmm, all Canadians....)
Cohen, a Canadian poet and novelist as well as musician, received most of his acclaim in the UK and Europe, but his affect on American music is unmistakable. The simple beauty of the songs on his debut peel away the weeds that shroud the poetry of our language.
And, apparently, Cohen will be touring the U.S. and Canada in May, shortly after his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March. Come to Alaska Leonard!
Highlighting a different album every weekend isn't very easy to do - I come across several problems. For instance, I would love to highlight the new Evangelicals release that came out Tuesday, but I just haven't heard it yet. And I don't spend all my time listening to brand new music, anyway - I love to pull out an old album that I haven't listened to in a while, or ones that I've had but I'm not well acquainted with yet.
So, with that disclaimer, I want to showcase my 7th favorite record of 2007, and Beirut's latest, The Flying Club Cup, released by Brooklyn label Ba Da Bing! on Oct. 9, 2007. Beirut is 22-year-old Zach Condon, a native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who dropped out of high school at 16 to travel Europe. There he encountered the Balkan Gypsy music that he has blended with folk to create the sounds heard on his first record, Gulag Orkestar.
The Flying Club Cup still has those sounds intact, but shows a great influence from French music as well. Condon lives in Brooklyn, but spent much of the past year living in Paris. On the sound of The Flying Club Cup, Condon says, "I was listening to a lot of Jacques Brel and French chanson music--pop songs shrouded in big, glorious, over-the-top arrangements and all this drama--and that was in some sense unfamiliar territory to me. So I started buying new instruments and relying on things I wasn't necessarily comfortable with, like French horns and euphoniums, carrying these big, epic big brass parts that I used to do all on trumpets, and working with accordion and organ instead of all ukulele--very much throwing myself in the world of classical pop music, I guess you could say."
All that to say, it is a magnificent record.
Here is a video MTV produced about Beirut and his experience with La Blogothèque, a French web site well-known for their Concerts à emporter (take away shows). The take away shows are very raw live footage shot by Vincent Moon (Mathieu Saura) often in the streets of France.
Condon and Moon worked together to shoot The Flying Club Cup in its entirety in the streets of Brooklyn. To watch them, click here.
To listen to tracks by The Real People (Condon's moniker in high school, before becoming Beirut) -- click here.
Bon Iver is the solo project of Justin Vernon, the once front man for Mount Vernon and DeYarmound Edison. His debut, For Emma, Forver Ago, created quite a buzz after its self-release, but will have an official release through Jagjaguwar on February 19, 2008.
This is one of the most beautiful winter records I've heard in a while. Pretty convenient, right? Especially with a name like Bon Iver ("good winter" in French - don't worry, it's misspelled on "purpose"). Personally, it couldn't be better timing to get an album like this - very whispery, seeping through cracks and gliding across the grain.
Justin Vernon lives in northwestern Wisconsin. For Emma was written and recorded in a snowy cabin on his father's property. He is now working on building his own studio space there, and he kills and butchers his own meat. Maybe that's the skinny love that needs to last the year? Yea, probably not.
--To hear a radio interview with Minnesota Public Radio and stunning performances of "Flume," "Lump Sum" and "For Emma" - click here.
UPDATE: pre-order the album now off itunes and get the bonus track, "Wisconsin" with your order. ORpre-order from Jagjaguwar and get this poster for free with your order:
I've decided that I want to begin a new tradition. Every weekend I'm gonna highlight an album that I either a) look forward to being released, b) recently bought, or c) just pulled off the shelf for reacquaintance.
This week's album highlight is the upcoming release by Sun Kil Moon. Mark Kozelek and company are set to release their second proper full-length, April, on April 1st via Kozelek's own label, Caldo Verde Records.
Following the beautiful work by Red House Painters from the late '80s through the '90s, and work as a solo artist, Kozelek formed Sun Kil Moon. Their debut, Ghosts of the Great Highway, was released in 2003, followed by an entire album of Modest Mouse covers, Tiny Cities. (It must be noted that Ghosts of the Great Highway was one of my favorite albums of 2003.)
April sounds like a much needed dose of Kozelek to me. Find out for yourself, though - listen to track 6, Moorsetown, here.
