Posted by JAMEZ on May 16, 2010 in Folk Rock, Punk | Comments Off
Andrew Jackson Jihad – People Who Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World
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Posted by JAMEZ on Nov 15, 2009 in Folk, Folk Rock, Indie | Comments Off
Last year Michelle DeRosa left Straylight Run to concentrate on a solo career. However that plan changed when DeRosa formed Destry, an indie folk group consisted of fellow Straylight Run member Shaun Cooper, Tyler Odesn of Northstar, Nicole Childrey and Sam Means from The Format.
‘It Goes On’ is a sweet, breezy collection of soft, gentle songs from start to finish. Tracks like ‘Don’t Forget Me’ and ‘So Far Away’ and easy-going and lack depth but they are still enjoyable. Throughout DeRosa’s soft voice manages to grab the listener’s attention and pull in closely (see ‘Leave the Light On’ and ‘Home Isn’t Home’). Add to this the ability to blend in vocal harmonies well (‘Big Mouths’) and you’re left with a nice, relaxing record.
Nonetheless it is a record that dosn’t stretch itself musically, as for the most part the band keep themselves on the indie-folk road, which is heavily acoustic-based. It must be noticed at this point that this album came together by DeRosa sending acoustic demos digitally to other members in various locations. I think this could be the reason some tracks don’t seem to leave an impression and come and go effortlessly. Perhaps if the band were able to work together in a studio properly, they could fulfill the hint of potential this record has.
However ‘It Goes On’ is worth listening to briefy, as Destry are capable of writing smooth, soft songs that are easy to listen to.
Artist: Destry
Album: It Goes On
Genre: Indie / Folk
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/destrymusic
– Tracklist -
01 – Don’t Forget Me
02 – So Far Away
03 – Leave the Light On
04 – Big Mouths
05 – Trouble
06 – It Goes On
07 – Home Isn’t Home
08 – I Made a Mistake
09 – Sing My Song
10 – Took the Money
11 – Tearing it Apart
T ry Album [Mediafire] | Destry – It Goes On
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Posted by JAMEZ on Nov 13, 2009 in Acoustic, Classical, Folk, Folk Rock | Comments Off
For the first time in four months, I am home. How I longed for my own bed, my own privacy, and home-cooked food. Ah, yes, the wants of a student. I am finally home, but something feels strange. Home has become vacation. School has become home. Where do I belong? Someone who might understand this dilemma more than others is Peter Broderick. After growing up in Portland, Oregon, the city of musical stars like Elliott Smith and M. Ward, he left everything behind and moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, to play in Efterklang’s live show as a violinist. While touring with the band, he also opened all of their shows as a solo act. Before Home, his previous works were largely orchestral, centered around his piano work and flourished with strings and vocals. His live solo act deviated much from these albums. Instead, he returned to the style of the aforementioned Elliott Smith and M. Ward, a sort of tribute to his home. With simply guitar and vocals, Broderick shocked all of his fans with his ability to play violin with Efterklang, record gorgeous piano and string compositions, and play great, simple folk music live.
After finishing his tour with Efterklang, Broderick went into the studio to record Home. He recorded in Copenhagen, but the album fits perfectly into the Portland music scene: a little Smith, a little Ward, and a little Decemberists. While clearly derived from his live performances, Home could only happen in a studio, as Broderick layers drums, bells, guitars, and voices to the point where he becomes the definition of a one-man-band. At times, it seems like he just took his piano and strings compositions and moved them to guitar and voice. In fact, said Broderick of the album, “There were so many times when I thought, ‘Oh, this song would sound so great with a nice little string section here,’ but instead I forced myself to fill that space with something else, often times layered vocals, and/or guitars and percussion.”
The results may sound repetitive from that description, as the recording of Home was much more of an experiment for Broderick than anything. He deliberately avoided all piano and strings simply to prove to himself that he could write a full album without any of it. What resulted, however, was his most engaging and enjoyable album to date. Most songs begin with acoustic guitar patterns, growing organically with more and more layers adding in until it reaches a climax, often highlighting either polyphonic interplay (“And It’s Alright”) or beautiful homophonic harmonies (“Below It”). This style defines the longer songs on the album, but shorter vignettes offer the variety the album needs to stay alive. Opening song “Games” focuses much more on vocal harmony, with the acoustic guitar only adding in later to assist with the chordal structure. “Games Again” uses reverberated electric guitar and ambient tones to recall the melodies established in the opener, introducing new colors even at the end of the album. “There and Here” sounds as if a transcription from piano and strings to guitar and vocal ensemble – a sparse, wordless piece bridging the gap between two of the longer songs. Despite being shorter pieces, all of these vignettes stand out among the more standard songs on the album.
Given this is primarily a folk album, Broderick’s lyrics are more in the open than ever before. Here, his biggest faults come to light. The phrasing of his lyrics in “Below It” until the climax of “And with his fingers he will push…” sound awkward and forced, as if he took pre-written poetry and forced it into the song. Still, the beauty of the musical composition of the song overshadows the awkward lyrics. Often times, his lyrics feel arbitrary because of how well the composition overplays the lyricism. Hidden in one of the more forgettable musical songs, “Not at Home”, Broderick pens the lyrical center of the album. Here, he conjures the conflict inside of him between his home in Copenhagen and his home in Portland with the simple chorus “And when I’m home, I’m not at home.” Never are his lyrics complex, and for this reason, sometimes he pens the simplest, most meaningful lines that could pass over a listener without thorough analysis.
His third album in two years (on top of releasing two 7”s), Broderick shows his ability to compose well and often. As he grows as a person and experiences new things, he learns new colors to compose with and new experiences to write about. By the way, he’s only 21.
Artist: Peter Broderick
Album: Home
Genre: Acoustic / Folk / Classical
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/peterbroderick
- Track List -
01 Games [2:15]
02 And It’s Alright [5:20]
03 With The Notes In My Ears [2:40]
04 Esbern Snares Gade 11, 2tv [2:36]
05 Below It [4:02]
06 Sickness, Bury [6:06]
07 Not At Home [3:58]
08 There And Here [2:11]
09 Maps [6:16]
10 Games Again [4:44]
Try Album [Mediafire] – Peter Broderick – Home
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Posted by JAMEZ on Oct 25, 2009 in Folk, Folk Rock | Comments Off
What is Devendra Banhart?
I have a hard time trying to define him, his music, or his true intentions for being on this planet. It’s a stretch, I know, to start to question an artist’s sanity let alone existence, but Banhart and his brand of “naturalismo” — or freak folk to the rest of the unenlightened world — blur the boundaries of convention and genre so well and so much that his sound becomes his own distinction.
Yes, in a way, Banhart is his own genre label.
It’s hard to believe that What Will We Be is Banhart’s seventh full-length album and yet also his major label debut. If What Will We Be sounds as if it was recorded in a carefree, calming, and surrounded-by-friends environment, then Banhart and the band succeeded in recreating that lazy fun-filled experience during their getaway in a sleepy northern California town for the rest of us to enjoy.
From top to bottom, What Will We Be is consistent in mood, flow, and passion. The opening “Can’t Help But Smiling” says it all in establishing both the mindset and tone that Banhart wants to set. The Cat Stevens-esque “Angelika” then transports you to a sun-filled grassland where it’s nothing but tranquility as far as the eyes could see, before rituals of dance and ganga use arise when night falls during the song’s second half.
No, this isn’t your mother’s excursion to Woodstock — although that would be cool. And this isn’t the making of a tree-worshipping cult — although that would also be cool. Banhart’s music has a way of making you feel like everything’s all right without having to really say it.
From the pseudo-funk of “Baby” (similar to the earlier hit “Lover” but more mid-tempo), to the serenity of “Walilamdzi” (and no I can’t pronounce that either), to the drama-filled what-to-do-on-Saturday Night swinger “16th And Valencia, Roxy Music” (with the much sympathizing lyrics “Tonight we ain’t goin’ find our lovers”), to the Jim Morrison-oozing bluesy “Rats”, Banhart always brings the comfort and an ethereal atmosphere to give you the freedom to wander or join his own excursions.
Blogcritics.org
Artist: Devendra Benhart
Album: What Will Be
Genre: Lo-fi / Folk
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/devendrabanhart
-Tracklist-
1. “Can’t Help But Smiling”
2. “Angelika”
3. “Baby”
4. “Goin’ Back”
5. “First Song For B”
6. “Last Song For B”
7. “Chin Chin & Muck Muck”
8. “16th & Valencia, Roxy Music”
9. “Rats”
10. “Maria Lionza”
11. “Brindo”
12. “Meet Me at the Lookout”
13. “Walilamdzi”
14. “Foolin’”
15. “Ultimate Warrior”
Try Album [Mediafire] | Devendra Banhart – What Will Be
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Posted by JAMEZ on Aug 13, 2009 in Alternative, Baroque Pop, Folk Rock, Indie Folk | Comments Off
Lots of songwriters have tried to define their vision of America, but Sufjan Stevens believes in taking a methodical approach. A couple of years ago, he set out on a fifty-record project to make a concept album about each state, starting with Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State. It’s a ludicrously ambitious project, one that you wish Randy Newman or Al Green would have tried in decades past. But that’s probably the only kind of project that would suit Stevens, one of the indie world’s most eccentric and personal songwriters. He’s a thirty-year-old Detroit native currently based in Brooklyn, whose most recent album was the acclaimed Christian-folkie meditation Seven Swans. He puts out his records on his own label, Asthmatic Kitty, and uses each one to explore a different obsession. On Illinois, he brings the religious feel of Seven Swans to his Fifty States Project, for a sprawling twenty-two-track tour of the Prairie State. It’s part Schoolhouse Rock history lesson, part hippie Bible study. It has songs about UFO sightings, prairie fires, the Civil War, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the poet Carl Sandburg and the Cubs. It also has a song called “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!”Stevens plays acoustic guitar, piano and banjo, but his speciality is over-the-top arrangements, so the musical variety here requires a few listens before it starts to sink in. He brings in his indie-rock comrades the Illinoise Makers to play extra instruments, including a string quartet. But he plays the oboe, flute, vibraphone, glockenspiel, accordion, sleigh bells, triangle and a Casiotone MT-70. The music draws from high school marching bands, show tunes and ambient electronics; we can suspect Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians is an oft-played record in the Stevens household, since he loves to echo it in his long instrumental passages. But he holds it all together with his breathy, gentle voice, reminiscent of Neil Young circa After the Gold Rush.
The characters include some of Illinois’ famous historical figures, from Superman (“The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts”) to Honest Abe (“Stephen A. Douglas was a great debater/But Abraham Lincoln was the Great Emancipator”). But Stevens’ most intense songs are his personal ones. “Chicago” follows two friends as they hit the road in a van, sleeping in parking lots, heading nowhere in particular but drifting apart. “Casimir Pulaski Day” is a monstrously sad acoustic ballad about a friend dying of cancer and leaving a lot of painful spiritual questions behind. The singer prays for his friend, but his friend dies anyway; the singer is too young and scared to ask God why, so the trumpet solo has to ask.
Illinois has some of the pitfalls you expect from literary singer-songwriter albums. Flute solos, for one thing. For another, there’s the inevitable song about the serial killer who dresses up as a clown, which symbolizes nothing about American life except the existence of creative-writing workshops. But for a musician like Stevens, going too far and trying too hard is the point, the way to get beyond where a more austere songwriter could get with a more naturalistic pose. So the most pleasurable music here is the most ambitious — especially “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!” It builds up repetitive Reich-style instrumental pulses, piano, horns, keyboards and layers of vocal overdubs into a gorgeous mess. “I can’t explain the state that I’m in/The state of my heart,” Stevens sings, and ultimately that’s the state Illinois is really about.
Review By Rob Shefield of The Rolling Stone
Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Album: Discography
Genre: Indie Folk / Baroque Pop / Folk Rock / Alternative
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sufjanstevens
-Album List-
New Album Out Eventually?
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Posted by JAMEZ on Jul 9, 2009 in Folk, Folk Rock, Indie, Indie-Rock, Rock | Comments Off
Elliott Smith’s legacy is best spoken by his records. For all the emphasis placed on his unhappy backstory and the distressing nature of his death, Smith left behind a body of work that defies and exceeds any stereotyping. Sadness may be the easiest emotional current to pick up on in his songs, but Smith’s expressive range was as wide as it was subtle; his music could be angry, funny, hopeful, and despondent, often at the same time. New Moon collects two CDs’ worth of material recorded around the same time as 1995′s Elliott Smith and its 1997 follow-up Either/Or, and unlike typical posthumous releases (not to mention second ones), is a genuinely worthy addition to a stunningly consistent catalog.
Part of what makes both Either/Or and 1998′s XO so essential is Smith’s avoidance of “classic album” compartmentalization; you don ‘t get “the sad song,” followed by “the experimental song,” followed by “the upbeat song.” Smith didn’t record specifically towards any album, he just recorded– more or less constantly. At their inception, the songs compiled for New Moon were no less significant than those that wound up making the cut for Elliott Smith and Either/Or, and for the most part they’re no less developed.
Smith’s signature style is more musical than it is aesthetic; from the lo-fi folk of Roman Candle through the muscular chamber-pop of Figure 8, Smith’s songwriting tics remain completely recognizable. New Moon is overflowing with characteristic melodic turns and unexpected chord changes, yet still covers a good deal of ground stylistically. The chugging acoustic guitar of “Big Decision” conjures Johnny Cash, while “New Monkey” subtly nods to a similarly titled Beatles song. Each song seems fully realized in its own right; for a 2xCD posthumous compilation, it’s unbelievably refreshing to not pick up even the slightest whiff of exploitative barrel-scraping.
Like much of Smith’s material from this era, New Moon is by and large quiet, acoustic, and emotionally complicated. It’s easy to see why Smith’s music earned him a reputation as a “sad sack,” but such dismissals don’t really hold up to any scrutiny. When asked whether he considered himself a “lo-fi” artist, Smith once responded that he simply didn’t want the recording process to be “a drag.” Smith’s interest in the the expressive potential of recording comes through loud and clear on New Moon; even when the subject or tone of a song is depressing, it still carries an unmistakable note of joy.
Which is certainly not to say that New Moon finds him sounding “happy.” Many of the songs here are almost unbearably melancholy, but their weight is the product of expert craft, not wanton self-indulgence. The coda of “Talking to Mary”, in which Smith repeatedly intones “One day she’ll go/ I told you so,” would not be nearly as powerful without the subtle tension and movement in Smith’s guitar part. “All Cleaned Out”, which hints at the musical and lyrical concerns that Smith took up with XO, is made all the more affecting by a second vocal line that injects well-placed harmonies into an already memorable melody. Every musical decision on New Moon feels both intuitive and considered; never obtrusive or distracting, but thoroughly rewarding when examined in depth.
Nowhere is this clearer than on an early version of the career-making “Miss Misery”. This is the fourth, and earliest, version of this song that I’ve heard, and it speaks to the incredible care and refinement that went into Smith’s recordings. The melodic backbone of the song is definitely present on this version, as are formative fragments of the lyrics, harmonies, and arrangements. It’s fascinating to hear this track in such an early stage, but downright humbling to connect the dots to the song it eventually became. Smith had an uncanny and arguably unmatched talent for developing his music to suit his ever-evolving arrangement and production techniques, and every intermediate version of “Miss Misery” makes perfect sense the way it’s performed and recorded.
Phrases like “rare talent” are thrown around all the time these days, but this compilation makes painfully clear just how unique and valuable this music is. Smith’s visionary qualities were not terribly flashy or transgressive, and his great musical gifts were not those of innovation. Instead, he steadily and quietly wrote, honed, and recorded a body of beautifully executed, deeply moving records not quite like any others. Consider him the patron saint of hobbyists, a talented and dedicated craftsman with a tireless love of the creative process.
Review By Pitchfork
Album: Discography
Genre: Indie Rock / Folk Rock / Lo-Fi
-Album List-
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