Fleet Foxes Return

Today, Fleet Foxes announced their follow-up to 2008's gorgeously successful self titled full length debut.  The new album, out on May 3rd in the U.S. is entitled Helplessness Blues.  Listen to the title track below and get all the info about the new album and tour dates, including a free download here. 

Daytrotter

If your hipper than me, you probably know about Daytrotter already and can stop reading now.

If, however, you're like me and have been unaware of the brilliant job done by a group of seemingly amiable, polite, Midwestern fellas with an ear for great new music, than continue on, cause your life is about to get a small bit better.

Daytrotter is dedicated to recording and presenting music from a lot of bands you know and a bunch more you probably don't, in a live unprocessed package and making it available for listening and download, a lot of times for free or at a reasonable price slightly higher than free.  The roster of artists that have sat down for a session at The Horseshack studio in Rock Island, Ill. since 2006 is impressive to say the least - see recent guests MGMT,  Stars, Chief, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Alejandro Escovedo and lots, lots more.  In addition to the recording, each session gets original artwork to accompany it. Also be sure to check out the videos and iPhone app.

Wow, not sure how this could get much better unless they actually brought these artists right to your living room to record. 

Listen to "Living in America" from today's guest, Massachusetts garage synth youngsters, Dom, below. 

freestyle

Download Sit Down, Man and Shut up, Dude here (for free).  

In the Headphones (This Week)

Iron and Wine - "Rabbit Will Run" (Live @ The Greene Space)

Tennis - "Marathon" 

The Wood Brothers - "Shoofly Pie" 

Smith Westerns - "Imagine Pt. 3"

The Decemberists - "January Hymn"

R.L. Burnside - "Someday Baby" (feat. Lyrics Born)

State of the Union

With President Obama's State of the Union address tomorrow, here's five political songs I get in my head anytime an elected official in a well pressed suit stands behind a podium and tells us how great our country is and how we're gonna make it that much better this year.

James McMurtry - "We Can't Make It Here Anymore"
     'Love thy country' sometimes means be honest about it.

Immortal Technique "The Poverty of Philosophy"
     Foreign policy is local to a lot of people.   

Old Crow Medicine Show - "Big Time in the Jungle" 

     Substitue the date and Iraq or Afghanistan for Vietnam and the story is pretty much the same.  

Black Star - "Thieves in the Night"
     "Not good but well behaved...."

Rage Against the Machine - "Know Your Enemy"
     "All of which are American dreams..."

Record Review: Cake - Showroom of Compassion

If I were ever in a bull fight, I'd like the music of Cake to be playing.

The aesthetics seem to complement each other - the monotone machismo, regal trumpet, cranked guitar and sly bass lines animate images of sweaty mustaches, greased leather and the absurd pageantry of man versus animal challenges.  Combine these elements with the slanted view and offbeat lyricism of John McCrea delivered in phrasing delayed like any good punch line, and now you're messing with the horns.

On Showroom of Compassion, Cake's sixth studio album and first since 2004, the matadors originating from Sacramento seemed well primed with seven years of material to provide us with a biting commentary on any number of subjects.  What happens in the ring, however, is a bit less flamboyant.   

The bass centric grooves and building energy of "Long Time" feel like it would have made a nice thematic opener, but instead "Federal Funding" kicks things off with a revving guitar lick as sleuth bloops and horn blows provide the undertow over which lead singer McCrea sings "Strategize this presentation / Make them see that you're the man".

The too obvious rhymes and vague direction of "Got To Move" and "What's Now is Now" get a little stale before a burst of fresh air hits with standout track "Mustache Man (Wasted)".  McCrea's uptempo lyrics, some well placed hand claps, and fast action horns breathe new life into the midpoint of the album. The meaty lick of Xan McCurdy and the rhythm of bassist Gabe Nelson and drummer Paulo Baldi driving above the crowd chatter as the song ends, gives you the feeling of drunkenly stumbling though a keg lubricated high school party, spilling warm beer on the basement carpet and interrupting your locker neighbors ever important conversation about her hardcore crush. 

The provacatively titled instrumental "Teenage Pregnancy" draws a nice tension between the drawn out malaise and the low end weighted guitar parts.  "Sick of You", the first single off the album, picks the tempo back up with McCurdy's guitar lines traveling under McCrea's vocals before an olé worthy riff flexes persuasively to end the phrase.  Country textures accent the more acoustic, weary traveler tale of "Bound Away", highlighting the band's harmonic strengths and reflective life-passing-by-through-the-window observations.  

The lovers lament of "The Winter" and ironic classicism in "Italian Guy" tread similar territory as "Got To Move" and "What's Now is Now" and do more to subtract here than add.   

Overall, all of the elements that make Cake a band without equals are all present on Showroom of Compassion, but the lyrical dagger McCrea usually wields with such deft acuity comes across as blunted and the portions of musical sustenance don't quite make a full meal.  The filling fare of Cake's career is a tall plate to saddle up to, and while its great to eat Cake again, there's just not enough here to satifsy the hungry bulls.

140 Character Record Review: Gregg Allman - Low Country Blues

Gregg Allman - Low Country Blues:

Allman bro rides still strong, soulful voice and T-Bone production with covers worthy of blues heroes

140 Character Record Review: The Decemberists - The King is Dead

The Decemberists - The King is Dead:  

Tight and focused sunshine folk gems shimmer amid country roads

140 Character Record Review: Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde:

Riff waves triumphantly rock the dance party in harmonious froth of foamy goodness

A Song For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, here is one of my favorite covers of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" from Gavin DeGraw's Chariot (Stripped re-release).  This song reminds me that equality is something we all have to continue to strive for everyday.  For equality to exist, there must exist in each of us, a belief that our individual betterment is inexorably linked to one another, and only when all of our situations improve, will we make collective progress.

While it might offend some for a white man to sing a song so specifically written to express the black struggle for civil rights, remember that Sam Cooke was, in part, influenced to write the song after hearing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" which he felt (to paraphrase biographer Peter Guralnick) "was something he should of, as a black man, written".  Sam was also influenced by "conversations with sit-in demonstrators in North Carolina in the spring of 1963" and (most likely) an incident at a hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana a few weeks prior to writing the song, when he was refused lodging at a hotel because of his race.  

Check out a biography of Sam Cooke's life and music over at American Routes.

Middle Brother

Middle Brother is collaboration between Deer Tick's John McCauley, Dawes' Taylor Goldsmith, and Delta Spirit frontman Matt Vasquez which debuted as MG&V at the 2010 South by Southwest music gathering.  The groups self titled full length will be out on March 1st, but they've already given everyone a sneak peek at a couple of tracks which display the nice range of sounds we might expect from this record.

The between-the-sheets sweetness of "Daydreaming" nicely clashes with the slammed piano keys and dissonant guitar solo in "Me, Me, Me" .

While all of these players blend a mixture of American roots influences in their individual projects, it will be interesting to see how the Laurel Canyon folk pop influences of Goldsmith mix with the harder edges of McCauley and the foot stomping fun of Vasquez. 

 

Middle Brother - "Me, Me, Me" by crawdaddy

Check out the full tracklisting for the new album and the bands upcoming tour dates.

Twitter Record Reviews

Christopher Weingarten is a music critic who has worked for some of the heavy hitters of music journalism like Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and Revolver just to name a few.  In 2009, in a speech at the 140 Characters Conference (a gathering to "provide a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business") Weingarten discussed his new project.

For all of 2009, he would review 1,000 albums as twitter posts, i.e. in 140 characters or less which everyone can follow @1000TimesYes.  He then went on to bemoan the state of music criticism in this age of the internet and bloggers and leaked albums and lots of other things in a expletive laced rant which I don't really agree with as a whole, but he makes some good points.

The interesting part for me was the idea to say something meaningful, insightful and essential about a full album of music in just 140 characters (that includes punctuation, spaces, etc. and you've gotta get the band name and album in there).

So inspired by his example, and giving credit to his idea, I'm gonna try a few of these out which will be posted and tweeted shortly.  I'm going to call them 140 Character Record Reviews so look out for that title.  Try out one of your own on a record you know well and see how satisfied you are with the results.

Check out Weingarten's full speech below.

Round-Up (Not the Weed Killer)

It seems like its been a busy year for music in 2011 already.

We've already seen the re-emergence of Lauryn Hill (to mixed reviews), a new Britney Spears track, and a the news of a full length Kanye West and Jay-Z collaboration.

As if that wasn't enough, here's a couple more stories that are making my radar this week.

- Check out a new song from Telekenesis - "You Turn Clear in The Sun" from new album 12 Desparate Straight Lines coming out on February 15th.

- The Black Keys dirtied up SNL this past Saturday, 1/8, to everyone's enjoyment.  Don't bother cleaning up.

- Okkervil River played a new song "Wake and Be Fine" (with A.C. Newman from The New Porographers) on Tuesday's Jimmy Fallon from what we now know is a new LP entitled I Am Very Far, due for release on May 10th.

- Iron & Wine debuted their new album at The Greene Space at WNYC by playing a live set that included most of the new songs off the album and the single they released for Black Friday Record Store Day.  Watch or listen to the full set over at NPR.

- Also, check out a full list of musical guests on this week's late night talk shows here.

I Taste Your Beer

Well, actually I don't taste your beer.  But Hagan Blount will.

I Taste Your Beer is a new site that just launched where Hagan tries out a beer a day, gives a complete rundown on the beer vitals, suggests food pairings, and posts some great photo and video - to help us all uncover the great craft brews out there.

Check in to find out about beers you might not know of and maybe learn more about some you do.

Cheers.

21 Records to Look Forward to in 2011

 21. Kid Sister - Kiss Kiss Kiss mixtape 
       Release Date:  1/11

20. Amos Lee - Mission Bell
      Release Date: 1/25 
      (Listen to "El Camino") 

19. Talib Kweli - Gutter Rainbows 
      Release Date: 1/25 
      (Listen to "Cold Rain")  

18. The Cave Singers - No Witch
      Release Date: 2/22
 
17. The Decemberists - The King is Dead
      Release Date: 1/18
      (Listen to the entire album via NPR First Listen until the release date.)

16. North Mississippi All-Stars - Keys to the Kingdom
      Release Date: 2/1
      (Listen to "Hear the Hills")

15. Ryan Adams - TBA
      Still a rumor, but we're all hopeful right after the new year.

14. Bon Iver - TBA
      Wishful thinking.

13. Drive-By-Truckers - Go-Go Boots 
      Release Date: 2/15 
      (Listen to "Used to be a Cop")

12. Umphrey's McGee - TBA 
      Release Date: TBA
      (Get "Wellwishers" here.) 

11. Jay Electonica - TBA
      Maybe...with help from Jay-Z and Roc Nation. 
      (Listen to "Shiny Suit Theory")

10. Flaming Lips - TBA 
      Release Date: TBA

9. Radiohead - TBA 
    Yes, it matters.  

8. Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi - TBA 
    Speculation at this point but with The Derek Trucks Band officially on hiatus, a website dedicated to the
    project, and tour dates together in 2010 and more in 2011 already on the schedule, don't be surprised to 
    see something from Derek & Susan out this year.

7. Cake - Showroom of Compassion
    Release Date:  1/11
    (Listen to the promo by the band here.) 

6. Smith Westerns - Dye it Blond
    Release Date:  1/18
    (Listen to "Weekend")

5. Fleet Foxes - TBA

4. Bright Eyes - The People's Key
    Release Date:  2/15
    (Listen to "Shell Games")  

3. Wye Oak - Civilian
    Release Date: 3/8 
    (Listen to "Civilian") 

2. Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean 
    Release Date: 1/25
    (Listen to "Walking Far From Home")

1. The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
    Release Date: 2/22
    (Listen to "Apothecary" ["Apothecary Love" on the new record])